March 6 PENNSYLVANIA: Prosecutors seeking death penalty Luzerne County prosecutors say they will try to put a Hazleton man to death for killing a 2-year-old boy. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Alexander Garcia, 20, of West Diamond Avenue, because of the age of the victim and because Garcia killed the boy "by means of torture." Police say Garcia beat his girlfriend's son, Emanuel Gonzalez, to death in December. An autopsy showed the boy suffered multiple beatings. Garcia is charged with homicide, while the boy's mother, Lillian Torres, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of children in the case. The 2 are currently set to be tried together. The case has been assigned to Court of Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta. Garcia was charged after Hazleton police were called to Hazleton General Hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead Dec. 9. Torres told police she moved to Hazleton with her son and Garcia from Rochester, N.Y., police said. After the move, Garcia became angry and started hitting the boy for his inability to be toilet trained, police said. Police claim Garcia violently spanked the boy in the days before the death but didn't immediately take the boy to the hospital because the couple had no money and Garcia feared hospital officials would suspect the couple was abusing the boy. They later took the boy to the hospital, where he died. District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll and two assistant prosecutors, Mary Hanlon Mirabito and Jenny Roberts, filed the court papers outlining the 2 reasons they will seek the penalty. The 2 reasons, age and torture, are part of a list of 18 factors, called aggravating circumstances, which allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors first need to secure a 1st-degree murder conviction for Garcia at trial. If they do, the case will move to the penalty phase where prosecutors will present evidence to prove the 2 aggravating circumstances to a jury. Defense attorneys will also present factors, called mitigating circumstances, to try and show the jury why life in prison, rather than death, would be an appropriate sentence. The jury would then deliberate. The jury must be unanimous in its decision; otherwise, the judge must impose a life sentence. (source: Times Leader) CALIFORNIA: Closing Arguments Scheduled for Trial Testimony ended Wednesday in the 1st so-called "Dead Presidents" trial. Closing arguments in the trial for defendant John Adrian Ramirez are scheduled for Monday morning, Judge Michael A. Smith told jurors. The trial opened with arguments and testimony on Jan. 28 in San Bernardino Superior Court. Ramirez, 34, is one of four men charged in a quadruple homicide outside of a West Vine Street duplex in San Bernardino in July 2000. He is charged with 4 counts of murder, 2 counts of attempted murder and special circumstances for multiple murders. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Emergency personnel arriving at the scene after the shootings found the bodies of Johnny Agudo, 33, his brother Gilbert Agudo, 27, Anthony Daniel Luna, 23, and Luna's half-brother, Marselino Gregory Luna, 19. Authorities arrested 3 men in the case - Ramirez, Luis Alonzo Mendoza and Lorenzo Inez Arias. A fourth man, Froylan Chiprez, is a fugitive prosecutors believe is hiding in Mexico. Ramirez is the first of the defendants to go to trial. Trials for Mendoza and Arias are set for April. Prosecutors said Johnny Agudo was targeted because he provided information to police about other gang members. Court testimony revealed at least one of the shooters may not have wanted to leave any witnesses. The defense team has said that Ramirez was at the shooting scene but he wasn't armed and didn't participate in plans to target Agudo. 2 of the victims were presidents of street gangs, prompting some in the law-enforcement community to dub the case "Dead Presidents." ******************** 2 men take life terms in deals on slaying spree 2 men who went on a murder spree in 2004 avoided facing the death penalty Wednesday when prosecutors accepted their offers to plead guilty. Christopher Richard Lanteigne and Christopher Weaver pleaded guilty to 3 counts of murder and special circumstances, under the terms of their plea bargains. The move allows Lanteigne, 28, and Weaver, 31, to live the rest of their lives in state prison without the possibility of parole, according to prosecutors. The pleas ended weeks of jury selection and years of preparation for a jury trial in San Bernardino Superior Court. Testimony was set to begin later this month. Nearly a dozen family members of one of the victims in the case - Ramona resident Clayton McCobb - appeared in court Wednesday. One of McCobb's daughters, 24-year-old Melissa McCobb, exited the courtroom after reading a statement and said she was disappointed the defendants won't be facing the death penalty. "I'll never be satisfied," McCobb said with her mother, sister and other family members nearby. McCobb said she has a lot of unanswered questions but is glad the defendants will at least go away for the rest of their lives. Eve McCobb described her husband, a backhoe operator for many years, as a great man who always found the best in situations. There was no one who met Clayton McCobb that did not like him, his wife said. "He needs to have justice," she said. Clayton McCobb was 1 of 2 men who authorities say were robbed and killed by Lanteigne and Weaver in September 2004. Kareem Mohammed Radwan, 26, of Loma Linda was the other man. But the killing spree began with Scott Fisher, 42, who was found dead on Aug. 25, 2004, in his Mountain Avenue apartment near San Bernardino. Fisher had dated a cousin of Lanteigne and Weaver. The 2 were upset about how Fisher had disciplined their cousin's daughter, according to sheriff's officials. Deputy District Attorney Lewis Cope said defense lawyers approached him with the plea bargains. His office approved the deals after speaking with victims' families, said Cope. "The people who committed the murders are being sentenced to the most serious penalty except for death," Cope said. "And under the circumstances, that's appropriate." The defense had worked hard to prepare for the case, H. Charles Smith said, who represented Weaver. "This was in the best interest of everybody to come to a resolution that took care of all the charges," Smith said in a later telephone interview. Weaver was also sentenced Wednesday. A third defendant in the case, Camille Vredenburg, 26, pleaded guilty to 2 counts of voluntary manslaughter and will be sentenced to 6 years in state prison. The remaining defendants are set to return to court March 26. In addition to the murder counts, Lanteigne and Weaver pleaded guilty to special circumstances for multiple murders, robbery during the commission of a murder and carjacking during the commission of a murder. Beaumont police found the body of the 44-year-old McCobb on Sept. 8, 2004, along the 10 Freeway at Oak Valley Parkway. 2 days later, a Redlands police officer found Radwan's body in an orange grove near Pioneer and California avenues. (source for both: San Bernardino Sun) OKLAHOMA: Doc: Okla. Killer Has Deviant Disorders A man convicted of killing a 10-year-old girl as part of a cannibalistic fantasy ''gave up on being normal'' and was driven by deviant sexual disorders and a downward spiral of depression, a psychiatrist testified Wednesday. Dr. Martin Kafka, a clinical associate at Harvard Medical School, testified for the defense in the penalty phase of the trial of Kevin Underwood, 28, who has been convicted of 1st-degree murder for killing Jamie Rose Bolin. A jury will decide whether Underwood should be sentenced to death or life in prison, with or without the possibility of parole. The girl's body was found in a plastic tub in Underwood's apartment with her head nearly cut off. Underwood said in a videotaped confession that he fantasized about torturing and killing a person and cannibalizing the body. No evidence has been presented that any cannibalism took place. Underwood's defense team rested its case Wednesday afternoon after hearing from the convicted killer's mother, Connie Underwood, who tearfully asked the jury to spare her son's life. Connie Underwood said her son was a normal child who started to become socially withdrawn after beginning school in Purcell. She and other witnesses have testified Kevin Underwood was routinely bullied. ''He was a very loving child, especially when he was younger,'' Connie Underwood said, at times fighting back tears. ''The older he got, the less affectionate he got. He really didn't like to be hugged ... or touched at all.'' Earlier in the day, Kafka said Underwood suffers from a socially isolating personality disorder, a bipolar disorder and several sexual disorders. The psychiatrist spent several hours with Underwood in jail, reviewed interviews with friends and relatives and read his diaries and online journal. ''What came across in evaluating Kevin Underwood is his lifelong struggle to be normal and his complete inability to do that,'' Kafka said. ''He just gave up on being normal.'' Defense attorneys, arguing against the death penalty, say their client is mentally disturbed and out of touch with reality. Prosecutors have argued for the death penalty, citing the heinous nature of the crime and saying Underwood poses a continuing threat. Under cross examination by district attorney Greg Mashburn, Kafka conceded: ''If he walked out of here today, yeah, he'd be a danger. But we all know he's not walking out of here today.'' Underwood's psychological disorders are treatable with medication, Kafka said. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., CALIF., OKLA.
Rick Halperin Thu, 6 Mar 2008 20:03:02 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
