Murder

Update June/July – Luka Rocco Magnotta

July 18, 2012 Associed Press

MONTREAL — An envelope addressed to Luka Rocco Magnotta which was later found to contain a suspicious powder prompted authorities Tuesday to shut down one of Canada’s biggest postal centres.

The incident began after an employee at the Montreal plant spotted Magnotta’s name as the addressee and brought the letter to a manager, said Alain Duguay, the president of the facility’s union local.

Police were called to the distribution centre, which handles much of the mail for Eastern Canada. Duguay said an officer unsealed the envelope to find a white powdery substance inside.

“That’s when they set up a security perimeter and quarantined some people,” he said of the police reaction, which involved about 15 employees and brought operations to a halt for two hours.

Police determined the substance was not dangerous, but four people — two workers and two managers — were treated for what Duguay described as adverse psychological reactions.

Magnotta is facing multiple charges, including first-degree murder, in the death and dismemberment of Montreal student Jun Lin. He has also been charged with shipping some of Lin’s body parts through the mail.

In May, workers at an Ottawa postal warehouse found a parcel containing Lin’s severed hand — addressed to the Liberal party.

The 29-year-old porn actor has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Canada Post does not have a protocol to intercept letters addressed to Magnotta, so Duguay praised the employee’s decision to alert management.

“We know that there are investigations on Mr. Magnotta — I think it was legitimate,” said Duguay, who couldn’t say whether the envelope was addressed to the Montreal detention centre where Magnotta is locked up pending trial.

“I don’t think one can ever take too many precautions.”

Neither Canada Post nor Montreal police would confirm whether the letter was addressed to Magnotta.

But Const. Anie Lemieux, a police spokeswoman, said the force has launched an investigation.

“It’s something that they will look into,” Lemieux said of the possible Magnotta connection.

“Our investigators are looking to see where this envelope came from, what the content was exactly, who it was (addressed) to.”

A few hours after the envelope was discovered, a Canada Post letter-carrier depot in the Montreal-area community of Ste-Julie was also evacuated when staffers there found a suspicious powder. The substance was in a mail bin that came from the Montreal sorting centre.

The Ste-Julie warehouse was shut down for several hours and officials later determined that the substance was not hazardous, a spokeswoman for Canada Post said.

Anick Losier did say, however, that five employees in Ste-Julie were taken to hospital as a precaution because they were feeling ill following the incident.

Due to the incident, Canada Post cancelled mail delivery Tuesday in Ste-Julie and the nearby community of St-Amable.

At the Montreal centre, Losier said one employee reported redness on her skin after she came into contact with the substance found in the letter.

She said she doesn’t expect the shutdown of the Montreal distribution centre, a plant of nearly one million square feet, to cause a major slowdown for operations.

“Tomorrow, (it) should be back to normal.”

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July 17, 2012

The grieving mother of murdered Chinese university student Jun Lin says her son’s brutal slaying in Montreal has changed her perception of Canada.

“We still believe that most people here are very kind, but this heinous crime happened in Canada. It’s made me reconsider what kind of place this is,” Zhigui Du said in an interview aired on CBC’s The National Monday night.

Du, who arrived in Montreal last month, says she lives in fear and sometimes feels as though everyone she passes on the street might be her son’s killer.

Lin’s torso was found in a suitcase behind a Montreal apartment building in late May, while his hands and feet were mailed to political offices and schools across the country. His head was only found earlier this month.

Lin’s mother says he left her with an idealistic view of Canada — the 33-year-old had studied the country extensively before choosing to move to study computer science at Montreal’s Concordia University — but her perception has changed since his murder.

Lin told her Canada was “a peaceful place with great respect for multiculturalism,” she said.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, an occasional porn actor with an extensive and bizarre online history, was arrested in Berlin in early June after an international manhunt. He faces five charges including first-degree murder and posting obscene material to the web.

Police say a video of Lin’s murder and dismemberment was posted to the Internet.

“What a disaster and huge pain for our family,” Du said.

“The most unbearable pain for me is that the video got posted on the internet. People watched it over and over. It’s like my son is being murdered again and again.”

Magnotta’s trial is due to begin next March.

Lin’s father, Diran Lin, said he hopes Canada can deliver justice in court.

LIN REMEMBERED

Since Lin’s death shrines filled with messages in multiple languages have been built near Concordia and the convenience store where he worked. There was also a fund set up to help his family pay for the trip to Canada from China. Du said her family received ample support from Montreal residents and the federal government of Canada. She also said that she learned of her son’s death in a television report. Lin’s parents have not decided whether to bury their son in Montreal or in China.

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July 16, 2012

MONTREAL — A lawyer who heard Luka Rocco Magnotta make allegations about being repeatedly abused and forced to have sex with animals says he could be called as a witness at his murder trial.

Romeo Salta, who says he met with Magnotta several times at his Manhattan office in the winter of 2010-11, told The Canadian Press he was informed of the possibility by the defence team last week.

Magnotta, 29, is now facing multiple charges, including first-degree murder, in the May slaying and dismemberment of Montreal university student Jun Lin. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and is due back in court next March.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT MAY DISTURB SOME READERS

A day before Salta was told he might be called to testify, the attorney spoke to a reporter about Magnotta’s assertions that he was frequently abused — physically, emotionally and sexually — by a mysterious acquaintance known as “Manny.”

Salta insisted that Magnotta gave him his blessing to go public with the disturbing details of the alleged attacks, if he were ever arrested or killed. The lawyer said Magnotta wanted people to know his side of the story.

But two days after discussing his exchanges with Magnotta, Salta indicated he’s been told to say no more.

He declined to answer follow-up questions because of a conversation he said he had with Magnotta’s lead defence counsel, Luc Leclair.

“Consequently, I have been advised not to disseminate any further information than what has already been said, especially when it comes to ’Manny,’ ” Salta wrote in an email.

Leclair did not immediately return a message asking about Manny and whether Salta could be a witness.

Salta recalled that a frightened Magnotta first contacted him in December 2010 or early January 2011 over concerns police were closing in on him amid a swirl of animal-cruelty accusations.

At the time, animal-rights activists were already publicly accusing Magnotta of killing kittens in videos posted on the Internet — allegations he denied in a newspaper interview.

The Canadian Press obtained several emails Salta said he received from Magnotta over the weeks that followed their first meeting. All are dated from January 2011, more than a year before Lin’s death.

In one email, Magnotta said Manny forced him “to have sex with his puppy and numerous cats.”

But Salta said he didn’t remember if Magnotta told him whether he had ever killed kittens.

“I believe he denied intentionally harming any animal,” said Salta, who also met Magnotta in person three or four times.

“He just kept saying, ’I like animals, I like animals, I like animals — I wouldn’t intentionally do anything to hurt an animal.’

“I guess, if anything, he was implying — possibly, I don’t know — that he was forced to do it.”
But when it came to accusations against Manny, Salta says Magnotta was categorical.

In one email dated Jan. 6, 2011, Magnotta listed 42 abuses allegedly administered by Manny — many in graphic detail. He said he was subjected to bondage and torture.

The porn actor originally from Scarborough, Ont., wrote that Manny “cut me with a knife because I wouldn’t kiss his feet” and made him “eat animal parts.”

He also alleged in the same email that Manny threatened to have private detectives hunt him down and kill him if he ever disappeared.

Salta did not provide much information about Manny, except that he believed he was giving money to Magnotta, who apparently lived in New York City at the time.

The lawyer wasn’t even convinced that Manny existed, though he said he had the feeling Magnotta truly believed the abuses had occurred.

“Whether or not they actually happened is another story,” he said, noting how at one point Magnotta had discolouration near one eye that he blamed on Manny.

Magnotta also sent Salta a photo that purportedly shows marks and bruises on his face.

Salta, who has 30 years experience, said Magnotta turned down his offers to help him file a complaint against Manny.

Magnotta wrote in another email that he was considering turning himself in after the animal-cruelty allegations surfaced on the Internet.

He wrote how he would want “protective custody” if he were ever sent to a detention facility, such as New York City’s Rikers Island. He even provided Salta with his mother’s phone number, just in case he was arrested.

Police did not have any arrest warrants at the time for Magnotta. There have been no reports of him being charged with animal abuse. The Toronto police force, however, has confirmed it began investigating Magnotta in February 2011 after it received animal-cruelty complaints.

Salta said Magnotta asked him to go public with his accusations against Manny if something ever happened to him.

“He wanted the story of his abuse made known if it’s at all relevant to anybody,” said Salta, who described Magnotta as very friendly but someone who showed little emotion.

“He told me that he wanted the authorities, he wanted people, to see what he suffered.”

Asked if he thought Magnotta could come back at him for revealing confidential client information, Salta said he never technically represented him.

“If he does, he does,” he said, before highlighting Magnotta’s prolific presence on the Internet.

“It seems like he’s posted enough things that would indicate that he’s waiving any kind of confidentiality.”

Salta said he even returned $300 given to him by Magnotta at their first meeting because he hadn’t done any official work for him.

The criminal lawyer, however, wanted to stay in touch with Magnotta based on the possibility of landing a new, high-profile client.

“I wasn’t doing it just for the sake of listening to somebody tell tales,” Salta said.

“In this particular situation, he showed me enough stuff that would possibly make one conclude that there may be an animal-abuse charge coming down the road, in which case he would need a lawyer.”

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Lawyer: Zimmerman Is No Threat, Should Be Released

June 25, 2012  Source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com

ORLANDO, Fla. — The jailed neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing Trayvon Martin poses no threat to the community and should be released a second time on bail, his attorney said in a court motion released Monday

George Zimmerman’s attorney asked that Zimmerman be granted bond for a second time as he awaits a second-degree murder charge in the 17-year-old Martin’s shooting death during a confrontation in February in a gated community in Sanford, Fla. His attorney says Zimmerman isn’t a flight risk and stayed in touch with law enforcement during his initial release on bail.

A judge will consider the request at a second bond hearing Friday.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense.

The neighborhood watch volunteer was granted a $150,000 bond last April but it was revoked earlier this month after prosecutors accused Zimmerman and his wife of misleading the court about how much money they had raised from donations to a website. Prosecutors say they had raised at least $135,000 from the website created by Zimmerman.

During the hearing, Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, testified that the couple had limited funds to use for bail since she was a fulltime nursing student and he wasn’t working. Zimmerman did nothing to correct her as she testified by telephone due to safety concerns. Prosecutors say jailhouse calls between Zimmerman and his wife a few days before the hearing show the neighborhood watch volunteer instructing his wife on how to transfer funds raised by the website to her account.

Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, was later charged with making a false statement.

“Mr. Zimmerman’s failure to advise the court of the existence of the donated funds at the initial bail hearing was wrong and Mr. Zimmerman accepts responsibility for his part in allowing the court to be misled as to his true financial circumstances,” Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara wrote in the motion.

O’Mara also will ask Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester to reconsider his decision to make public all of Zimmerman’s jailhouse calls and the statement of an unnamed witness. O’Mara said most of the calls aren’t subject to the state’s public records laws and the witness statement is irrelevant and could prejudice a potential jury.

Attorneys for two sets of media groups filed motions Monday arguing there was no need for the judge to reconsider his decision.

“There should be no further delay in the public’s access to these public records,” attorney Scott Ponce wrote in a motion for one media group that includes The Associated Press.

New York Law School professor Robert Blecker says life on death row is TOO COMFORTABLE

June 21, 2012  Source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Most people expect life on death row to be harsh and isolated but a prison expert claims many convicted murderers are living the life of Riley behind bars.

Killer Danny Robbie Hembree Jr sparked a public uproar in January when he wrote to his local newspaper, the Gaston Gazette, gloating about how cushy his life was at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.

‘Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the A.C., reading, taking naps at will, eating three, well-balanced, hot meals a day,’ Mr Hembree wrote in the letter, which he concluded with ‘Kill me if you can, suckers. Ha! Ha! Ha!’

Gloating: Convicted killer Danny Robbie Hembree Jr, pictured, bragged about how cushy life was in prison Danny Robbie Hembree Jr

But New York Law School professor Robert Blecker believes this level of comfort is the norm for prisoners inside America’s maximum-security prisons.

He said life can be undeservedly pleasant for many of the country’s most dangerous rapists and murderers.

They’re playing on softball fields with lined base paths and umpires in uniforms, while other guys are hanging out, getting a suntan,’ he told ABC News. 

‘Those who committed the worst crimes, who deserve to suffer the most, generally suffer the least.’

Mr Blecker said some inmates even claimed to have killed purely to get put behind bars.

‘I can play pool or basketball,’ said Robert Pitts of Woodbury, Tennessee, who told Mr Blecker he bludgeoned to death a 63-year-old grandmother so he could go to jail.

‘Softball when it’s softball season. Run, you can go out and jog, lift weights, play cards.’

But the murder victim’s families are struggling with the revelation that prison is something of a paradise for their loved ones’ killers.

Nicholas Catterton and Stella Holland’s 17-year-old daughter Heather Catterton was strangled to death by Mr Hembree, 50, in 2009, and then he dumped her body in a ravine.

Ms Holland told ABC that hearing her daughter’s murderer was so content with his living arrangements was like Mr Hembree ‘sticking a knife in there and just turning it all over again’.

‘We can’t even take care of our own poor people, but we can take care of him sitting on death row. Come on,’ Mr Catterton told the station.

‘You might be able to read a few books. But sit there and watch color TV and watch your favorite Jerry Springer Show? When you start caring and giving more rights to the criminals than you do the victims there’s something wrong with America.’

Such privileges are routine and help create a safe environment, prison officials told ABC, while advocates for the rights of prisoners said being deprived of freedom was punishment enough and that most inmates were not ladies or ‘gentleman of leisure’ as Mr Hembree claimed to be.

‘These prisons are just absolutely horrific places to be, there is violence throughout them, absolute overcrowding, the noise is deafening, no one would voluntarily choose to be there,’ Jon Gould, a criminal justice professor at American University said.

‘We are fooling ourselves if we allow ourselves to believe that one picture of a domino’s game suggests this is a something other than a horrific life to live.’

But Blecker said the public needed to be aware of some of these conditions and while prisoners shouldn’t be stripped of their rights the punishment should better fit the crime.

‘For the worst of the worst of the worst, the ones who are raping and murdering children, there should be punishment,’ Mr Blecker told ABC.

‘That quality of life that they experience day to day should be a direct reflection on the heinousness and seriousness of the crime.’

Luka Magnotta Pleads Not Guilty To Dismembering Lover On Video

Update June 20, 2012 Source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Magnotta

Luka Rocco Magnotta, the Canadian porn actor accused of dismembering his Chinese lover, having sex with and eating his corpse on video, and then mailing his body parts to schools, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to five charges, including first-degree murder.

In his first court appearance since his extradition from Germany to Montreal, the 29-year-old Magnotta entered a plea by videoconference from a Montreal detention center, CBS News reported.

Magnotta’s lawyer, Pierre Panaccio, asked that Magnotta undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he’s criminally responsible for the killing. The court will consider the request on Thursday.

The porn actor allegedly killed his lover and roommate, 33-year-old Jun Lin, and sent his hands and feet to Canada’s political parties and two schools. Cops are still looking for Lin’s head.

Investigators say that a video recorded by Magnotta shows him having sex with Lin’s corpse and eating part of it.

The videos and body parts started a worldwide manhunt for Magnotta. He was arrested this month in Germany.

FLORIDA – George Zimmerman’s Jailhouse Calls To Wife Reveal Couple’s Alleged Plan To Hide Funds (AUDIO)

June 18,  2012 Source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com

The special prosecutor in the case of George Zimmerman, the Florida man accused of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, released a half-dozen recorded jailhouse phone conversations between Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, which prosecutors say reveal the couple’s plans to conceal more than $130,000 of donated money via transfers between their personal bank accounts.

The release of the recordings comes just a week after Shellie Zimmerman was arrested and charged with perjury for lying under oath about the family’s financial status during an April hearing in which her husband was granted bond.

Prosecutors say that while George and Shellie Zimmerman told the judge under oath that they were broke, and their lawyer requested a low bond because of the couple’s dire financial situation, they were instead paying off credit card bills and transferring funds into his wife’s personal bank account from a Paypal account linked to a website to raise defense funds.

In a call on April 12 Zimmerman tells his wife how happy he is about all of the money pouring in from website.

“Oh, man, that feels good… that there are people in America that care,” George Zimmerman tells Shellie. “Yeah they do,” she responds.

Shellie Zimmerman then tells George how so many people had gone to the website that it crashed several times.

“It makes me feel happy and to lay here and um be okay,” George Zimmerman tells his wife during that phone conversation.

“I’m so happy to know that you’re gonna be okay,” Shellie Zimmerman says. “After this… you’re gonna be able to just, have a great life.”

“We will,” Zimmerman said.

The call was made the day after Zimmerman was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

LISTEN PHONE CALLS : CLICK HERE 

On Friday, State Attorney Angela Corey’s office said that it would be releasing a trove of evidence in the case, including 151 audio recordings of phone calls that Zimmerman made from the Seminole County Jail. But not long after the announcement, Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s attorney, argued that only a fraction of those calls — which prosecutors used to have Zimmerman’s bond revoked and charges levied against his wife — should be released.

O’Mara has said that he plans on filing a motion to ask the judge in the case only to allow the release of phone calls that are directly related to Zimmerman’s bond. Otherwise, he wrote in a web posting, the privacy of family and friends of his clients could be compromised.

“Our motion will contend that the majority of the phone calls are personal and irrelevant to the charges against Mr. Zimmerman or issues surrounding the next bond hearing,” O’Mara wrote on gzlegalcase.com. “Moreover, the public release of these phone calls could jeopardize the privacy of friends and family of Mr. Zimmerman who are unrelated to the case. We will not be objecting to the release of phone calls that include conversations relevant to the the bond hearing or the charges Mr. Zimmerman faces.

Shortly after George Zimmerman’s initial bond hearing in May, it was revealed that he had raised as much as $200,000 via a website to collect funds for his defense. At a June 1 hearing, his bond was revoked after prosecutors presented recorded jailhouse conversations in which the Zimmermans seem to collude to keep the funds hidden. Zimmerman told his wife to “pay off all the bills,” which included those for American Express and Sam’s Club credit cards.

“This court was led to believe they didn’t have a single penny,” prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda said at the hearing. “It was misleading, and I don’t know what words to use other than it was a blatant lie.”

According to court documents filed last week, prosecutors also obtained bank records showing that between April 16 and April 19, just days before Zimmerman’s first bond hearing, Shellie Zimmerman transferred more than $74,000 from her husband’s account to her own.

There were a total of eight transfers, according to the documents — four transfers in the amount of $9,990, two for $9,999, and two others for $7,500. Even after Zimmerman’s release, the large transfers of cash continued. On April 24, Shellie Zimmerman transferred more than $85,000 from her husband’s account to her own.

Shellie Zimmerman was arrested and charged last week but that same day posted a $1,000 bond and was released.

George Zimmerman, who has plead not guilty to second-degree murder charges in the February 26 shooting death of Martin, has a new bond hearing scheduled for June 29.

read the full article : click here 

OKLAHOMA – Execution date set for Okla. death row inmate – Michael Edward Hooper

June 17, 2012 Source : http://mcalesternews.com

Hooper,-Michael.jpg

McALESTER — An execution date has been set for a death row inmate at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Michael Edward Hooper, 39, is set to be executed Aug. 14 for the 1993 shooting murders of his ex-girlfriend, Cynthia Lynn Jarman, age 23, and her two children, Tanya Kay Jarman, age 5, and Timmy Glen Jarman, age 3.

“Hooper shot each victim in the head twice and buried their bodies in a shallow grave in a secluded field,” stated Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt in a press release. “The victims had been missing for several days before being discovered.

“The truck that Cynthia had been driving also was found abandoned and burned. Police records, including domestic violence reports, show that Hooper and Jarman had previously been in a physically violent relationship.”

According to court records, Hooper was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for the Dec. 7, 1993, shootings and was sentenced to death on each count.

Hooper met Cynthia Jarman in early 1992 and the pair dated through the summer of 1993, according to court records. The nature of their relationship was a physically violent one and Hooper threatened to kill his girlfriend on numerous occasions, court records state.

In July of 1993, Cynthia Jarman began dating Hooper’s friend, Bill Stremlow, and in November of 1993, she moved in with her new boyfriend. “Before moving in with Stremlow, (Cynthia) Jarman confided in a friend that (Hooper) had previously threatened to kill her if she ever lived with another man,” court documents state.

On Dec. 6, 1993, Cynthia Jarman told a friend that she wanted to see Hooper one last time. The next day, she dropped Stremlow off at work and borrowed his truck for the rest of the day, according to court records.

“Jarman picked up her daughter, Tonya, at school that afternoon,” court records state. “At that time, Tonya’s teacher saw Tonya get into Stremlow’s truck next to a white man who was not Stremlow. Jarman failed to pick up Stremlow from work that evening as planned. Later that night, Stremlow’s truck was found burning in a field. The truck’s windows were broken out. An accelerant had been used to set the truck on fire.

“On December 10, a farmer and police officers discovered the bodies of Jarman and her two children buried in a shallow grave in another field. … Each victim had suffered two gunshot wounds to the face or head.”

Police arrested Hooper and collected evidence from his parent’s home, including a gun, that matched the evidence at the crime scene.

Before Hooper was found guilty by jury of these three murders and then sentenced to death, the prosecutor said the following in a portion of his closing statement at trial:

“At some point, Tonya managed to get away and flee into the woods. The moment Tonya stepped from that truck and headed for the woods, everyone’s worst nightmare came true for her. If you think back, many of us children had the nightmare that I’m referring to, the nightmare of running from something that you cannot get away from. As children, many of us in those dreams in those nightmares were being chased by an evil monster. Tonya Jarman, on that night, had this nightmare become a reality for her. She was being chased through the woods by an evil monster bent on killing her, which he did, this Defendant did. I want you to imagine with me for a moment what that little girl went through as she moved from the car and ran through the woods with the Defendant after her. It was obvious from the evidence that she did not get very far before, at some point, she was fired at, and that bullet went whizzing through her coat, through the hood of her coat and into a tree branch. Now, we don’t know how long a time passed between the time she was shot and the time she was caught, but it must have seemed like a terribly, terribly, terribly long time. Imagine the horror that Tonya felt when, as she ran from the Defendant, she was caught and turned around and he once again looked that little girl in the face and shot her just below her left eye. After that, he then executes her as well with the second shot and then left that little girl to die alone in the woods with her blood spilling onto the ground.”

FLORIDA – Man gets death penalty for double murder – Terence Tabius Oliver

June 15, source : http://www.floridatoday.com

Terence Tabius Oliver was given two death sentences in a Viera courtoom Friday for a 2009 double murder.

Oliver, 36, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder following a jury trial in March. Oliver shot and killed Andrea Richardson, 36, and Krystal Pinson, 25, at Richardson’s Titusville home.

Oliver, 36, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder following a jury trial in March. Oliver shot and killed Andrea Richardson, 36, left, and Krystal Pinson, 25, right, at Richardson’s Titusville home.

Oliver suspected Pinson, a former girlfriend, was informing police about his whereabouts following other crimes he had committed in Volusia County. According to court documents, he was seen the day before the murders driving about a mile from the scene of the crime, and he was wearing a dreadlock wig to disguise his appearance.

Oliver parked outside the neighborhood and walked to Richardson’s house after dark, carrying a semi-automatic pistol with a full magazine and one round loaded in the chamber. He went through the front door of the house at about 2 a.m. and walked to the back. He shot Pinson as she was laying in bed. Richardson tried to flee toward the rear door of the house.

One of Oliver’s shots went through Richardson’s wrist and grazed his forehead, evidence that he had raised his arms in a defensive way, knowing he was about to be shot, according to police. Oliver fired two more times into Richardson, who was found lying in a fetal position, with his pants around his knees, as he was apparently trying to clothe himself.

Oliver shot Pinson eight times. He also tried to cover up the scene by making it look as if it were a robbery gone wrong.

The cold, calculated and premeditated nature of the murders led to stiffer penalties.

During the trial, Oliver’s defense attempted to show positive sides of his character by pointing out that he finished high school and attended Le Cordon Blue Culinary Academy, planning to be a chef. Oliver’s younger brother, Tyrell, testified that they grew up going to church and Oliver sang gospel songs. Tyrell said he looked up to his older brother.

Judge Robert Wohn sentenced Oliver in agreement with the jury’s 12-0 recommendation for the death penalty. Wohn also sentenced Oliver to life in prison for armed burglary of a dwelling with discharge of a firearm causing death, and five years for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Oliver previously was convicted of other felonies, including a robbery with a deadly weapon in 1995 and resisting arrest in 2002.

Oliver said he was sorry for the losses of the victims, but proclaimed his innocence and quoted from the Bible. He said he loved Pinson and they had been to church together several times.

“If I had a dollar, Krystal got 75 cents,” he said.

“I have a God who sits up high and looks down low,” Oliver said. “You call me a murderer and an animal, which I’m not.”

He admitted to doing things in the past, but said every child makes mistakes. Oliver said he and Richardson were friends who went to school together and had no ill feelings.

Oliver addressed his parents, telling them he loved them and they raised him right. Oliver’s mother ran crying from the courtroom after the sentencing, which took 30 minutes.

“Justice was served today, and it will be served again when he is put to death,” said Sandra Pinson, Krystal’s mother.

FLORIDA – Jury: Death for Timothy Wayne Fletcher

June 13, 2012 Source : http://www.palatkadailynews.com

ST. AUGUSTINE – Convicted killer Timothy Wayne Fletcher should be executed for choking his step-grandmother after a jailbreak, a jury says.

It took the jury an hour to reach the decision Tuesday afternoon, faster than the 98 minutes it took them to find Fletcher guilty of murder and other crimes during a 2009 spree.
The jury voted 8-4 in favor of the death penalty.

“We’re very happy that the jury saw it the way we saw it and that is that the death penalty is appropriate for this case,” Assistant State Attorney Mark Johnson said. 

Fletcher was convicted May 25 of killing Helen Key Googe, 66.

The jury’s recommendation of the death penalty concluded a two-day penalty hearing at the St. Johns County courthouse, where the trial was moved because of publicity.

Fletcher, dressed in a white shirt, tie and dark slacks, showed little reaction to the decision.

Several relatives of Googe quietly cried as the stressful first-degree murder trial inched to a close.

Security was heightened for the announcement. Nine deputy sheriffs took up positions near Fletcher before the jury returned to Berger’s courtroom.

As he stood, Fletcher appeared tense. He looked around at the small crowd seated in the courtroom.

Googe, 66, was slain in her home in Bardin, where Fletcher told investigators later he believed she kept several thousand dollars. During video-taped questoning after his capture, Fletcher blamed Googe for her murder, saying she would have left alive had she not fought.

“She was fighting and kicking the whole time,” he said. “She never did quit fighting.”

Authorities say Fletcher stole a jack from a jail transport van and smuggled it into the jail, which he and cellmate Doni Ray Brown used to move a plumbing fixture from the wall.

The pair used the utility corridor behind the wall to reach an inadequately secured door and fled the jail about 2 a.m. on April 15, 2009.

Once outside the jail, they broke into and tried to steal a pickup and van before finding a pickup with keys in it at a tire shop, then drove to Googe’s house.

Fletcher was convicted of escape, first-degree murder, home invasion robbery, grand theft of a motor vehicle and burglary of motor vehicles.

Murder and other charges are pending against Brown.

Fletcher and Brown’s escape highlighted massive problems in the county jail, including security failures, overcrowding and shoddy maintenance.

An investigation cited personnel issues at the jail and resulted in several disciplinary actions after the escape. Paula Carter, the major in charge of the jail, retired. One corrections deputy was fired and seven others were disciplined.

Fletcher consumed methamphetamine inside the jail in the days leading to the jailbreak, according to testimony.

Fletcher and Brown were apprehended at Pomona Park after a massive manhunt three days after their escape.

A majority of the jurors rejected arguments by defense attorney Garry Wood that Fletcher should be spared and sentenced to life in prison. Wood said Fletcher suffered from mental illness and had a history of drug and alcohol abuse dating to adolescence.

Fletcher had a troubled childhood marked by domestic violence, Wood said.

“All of these things together matter,” he said.

Wood described Fletcher as “a mentally ill, abused person.”

Johnson, however, said Fletcher’s actions deserved the ultimate punishment.

“He wrapped his fingers around her neck and squeezed harder and harder,” Johnson said. “Justice cries out that he be sentenced to death.”

The jury’s recommendation of the death penalty triggers another pre-sentence hearing, this time without the jury, likely to be held in July.

Tennesse – Memphis man released after 27 years in prison

June 12, 2012  Source : http://www.commercialappeal.com

A former death row inmate who won a new trial in the 1983 murder of a Memphis grocer has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to time he already has served.

Erskine Leroy Johnson, 54, was released Friday morning after serving 26 years, 11 months and five days for the shooting death of Joe Belenchia during a holdup on Oct. 2, 1983, at the Food Rite Grocery at 2803 Lamar.

“He is overjoyed at being out,” said Gerald Skahan, chief capital-case attorney in the Public Defenders Office. “He is looking forward to enjoying the rest of his life and spending it helping others.”

He said Johnson has always maintained his innocence, but entered an Alford plea, also called a best-interests plea, so he could get out of prison and avoid putting his family through a trial.

He was released Friday morning from the Shelby County Jail after entering his plea this week in Criminal Court.

Johnson was on death row from Jan. 26, 1995, to Nov. 15, 2004, but was re-sentenced to life in prison after the state Supreme Court ruled prosecutors did not give the defense a police report showing the defendant could not have fired a shot that wounded a customer in the store.

Then last December the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals awarded Johnson a new trial, ruling that newly discovered evidence raised by the defense may have caused the jury to reach a different verdict.

The court found that new evidence indicating close relationships among several of the state’s witnesses, if true, could have been viewed as a motive to protect other possible suspects and could have weakened the witnesses’ credibility before the jury.

Johnson said that around the time of the murder he was in St. Louis at a birthday party for his mother.

Prosecutors said Johnson’s palm print was found on the getaway car and that one witness told the jury that Johnson had confessed to “a cold-blooded” shooting in Memphis.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Campbell said the state offered the settlement because the case was nearly 30 years old and Johnson already had served nearly 27 years in prison. A life sentence under laws in effect at the time of the murder was at least 25 years.

Campbell said prison officials had called Johnson “an exemplary prisoner” and that the state parole board had granted his release scheduled for June 11.

 

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CALIFORNIA – S.C. Upholds Death Sentence for Man Who Burned Woman to Death

june 8, 2012 Source : http://www.metnews.com/

The state Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld the death sentence for a man who killed his son’s mother by setting her afire in a Fontana pizza parlor parking lot.

The justices rejected claims by Howard Larcell Streeter that the trial judge abused his discretion by admitting evidence that may have had a significant emotional impact on the jury, including a tape of the victim screaming in pain for 20 minutes on her way to the hospital where she died.

San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Bob Krug sentenced Streeter to death in 1999 for the 1997 murder of Yolanda Buttler, 39.  Witnesses testified that Streeter sat in the parking lot waiting for Buttler, who was bringing their son to visit with him in the pizza parlor; her two older children were with her as well.

The two had recently ended a five-year relationship, which members of Buttler’s family said was violent. Buttler had recently obtained a restraining order against Streeter, who had been unsuccessfully seeking reconciliation.

After Buttler emerged from her car, witnesses said, Streeter poured gasoline over her from a can and dragged her back toward his car, from which he obtained a lighter and set the victim ablaze. Bystanders doused the fire with water and blankets, but the burns were so severe that paramedics could not locate a vein to administer pain medication.

Died in Hospital

Buttler succumbed to her wounds after 10 days in the hospital. Streeter, who was pursued by a bystander as he tried to leave the scene and was eventually arrested, was charged with first degree murder with special circumstances of lying in wait and torture.

Streeter admitted killed Buttler. But he denied that he planned the murder, saying he acted because he was distraught over the breakup and losing the opportunity to be with his son, and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

A jury found him guilty and found both special-circumstance allegations to be true, but deadlocked as to penalty. A new jury was empaneled and voted to impose the death penalty.

On appeal, the defense argued that Krug should not have allowed the jury to hear the 20-minute tape. Given its offer to stipulate to the cause and manner of death, the defense contended, the admission of the tape was more prejudicial than probative.

Highly Probative

Justice Ming Chin, however, wrote for the high court that the tape was highly probative of whether Streeter intentionally caused the victim extreme pain, an element of the torture special circumstance to which the defense did not stipulate.

“In any event, the prosecution may not be compelled to accept a stipulation where the effect would be to deprive the state’s case of its persuasiveness and forcefulness,” Chin wrote, concluding that the evidence was no more sensational than was necessary to demonstrate what had occurred.

Chin went on to say that there was sufficient evidence for a jury to find that Buttler’s murder arose from a premeditated plan to cause her extreme pain and not from an“an unplanned, impulsive explosion of violence resulting from a fight that spun out of control” as the defense contended.

“Given defendant’s prior physical abuse of Yolanda, his attempts to control her by preventing communication with her family, his anger with Yolanda for leaving him and taking his child, and concealing her whereabouts, and the repeated threats against Yolanda’s family, the jury could have reasonably concluded that when defendant intentionally set Yolanda on fire as he had planned, he intended to cause Yolanda extreme pain and suffering as punishment or for revenge,” Chin wrote.

Flight Considered

Jurors could also consider the fact that he fled the scene, rather than attempting to help put the flames out, conduct more consistent with murderous intent than sudden rage, Chin said.

The justice agreed with the defense that Krug committed error when he instructed the jury that it could consider the defendant’s prior misdemeanor conviction for shooting into an occupied dwelling as an aggravating factor under Penal Code Sec. 190.3(c). But the error was certainly harmless, he said.

While Sec. 190.3(c) only applies to felony convictions, the jury was entitled to consider the underlying violent criminal conduct as an aggravating factor under Sec. 190.3(b), Chin explained. “The danger that the jury would assign significant additional aggravating weight to the fact of conviction was minimal,” the jurist said.

The case is People v. Streeter, 12 S.O.S. 2772.