August 17
TEXAS:
Woman Pleads Innocent In Murder For Hire Case
A 19-year-old New Chapel Hill woman waived arraignment Monday and entered
a plea of innocent for her alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire scheme
that left a New Chapel Hill man dead.
Stefany Campos is charged with capital murder for the death of Shaune
Pickens, who was shot in the head and left inside a vehicle off County
Road 2209.
Ms. Campos, along with Cornet "Pokey" Meekins, 25, and Bryson Carey, 22,
allegedly belong to a street gang called the Chapel Hill Hoover Five Duce
Crips.
Jamarcus Warren, 27, suspected of being the ringleader of the
murder-for-hire plot carried out Jan. 15, is wanted on suspicion of
capital murder. Federal and local investigators have been searching for
the man, who is described as black, about 5-10 and 170 pounds. Officials
said he has been traveling between East Texas and the Dallas area.
Meekins admitted to shooting Pickens, according to an arrest affidavit.
Officials have implicated the others in organizing or hiding evidence in
the killing.
The slaying was discovered when a Smith County homeowner spotted an
unfamiliar vehicle in the driveway. Lawmen responding to the call
discovered a sport utility vehicle damaged by gunfire and Pickens' body
slumped inside.
Pickens was last seen with a man and woman, later identified in a photo
lineup as Meekins and Ms. Campos.
Both were found in possession of 3 pounds of marijuana, investigators
said, and authorities suspect the drugs were partial payment for murder.
The Chapel Hill gang was previously linked to an unrelated 1996 murder
that resulted in five convictions.
Smith County sheriff's investigators have said Meekins was a hired hand
paid to carry out murders for other top-ranking gang members.
Carey was arraigned on capital murder charges in May, and the Smith County
District Attorney's Office filed notice in June of its intent to seek the
death penalty against Meekins.
(source: Tyler Morning Telegraph)
******************
Man fit to stand trial in deaths -- Mental clinic patient deemed competent
A man who has claimed to be God and Elvis Presley was recently deemed
competent to stand trial for capital murder in connection with the 1992
stabbing deaths of 2 elderly women who were patients at a Calallen
hospital.
Carlos Lopez, 48, of Corpus Christi, is charged in the July 1, 1992,
stabbing deaths of Mary Kocurek, 89, and Estefana Munoz, 80, who were
patients at the former Riverside Hospital. The hospital at the
intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 624 and Riverside Boulevard, once
called Riverside Hospital, was later Columbia Northwest Hospital and is
now Corpus Christi Medical Center-Northwest.
Before being deemed competent to stand trial, Lopez had 11 years of
treatment and medication in the state system for the criminally insane,
authorities said.
Jury selection for Lopez's trial is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 18 in
28th District Court, according to Gail Gleimer, chief prosecutor at the
Nueces County District Attorney's Office. It's possible jury selection
could be postponed until Nov. 15 if the court decides to hear another
murder case before Lopez's.
"This is the 1st time he has been evaluated competent for trial," Gleimer
said.
Lopez faces one count of capital murder - killing one or more people in a
single incident, Gleimer said. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Gleimer said the District Attorney's Office has not discussed whether the
death penalty was a possibility.
While standing trial and being held in the Nueces County Jail in late 1992
and early 1993, Lopez talked about being hexed, hearing echoes and voices
in his jail cell and reading minds through television sets, according to
court testimony.
Lopez also claimed during competency hearings that he was a U.S.
president, God and Elvis Presley. He also spoke of a career as a Civil War
soldier.
In August 1993, Lopez was found incompetent to stand trial and ordered to
stay at Vernon State Hospital for treatment. Lopez has been committed to
the state mental hospital system for the criminally insane since that
time.
If he should ramble incoherently again, or show obvious signs of mental
illness, the murder trial will be put on hold and another trial will take
place to determine if Lopez should be put back into the state mental
health system, Gleimer said.
Lopez was arrested by security guards shortly after the stabbing on July
1, and was carrying a bloody pocketknife in the hospital lobby, according
to court records. When security guards approached him, he said, "Estoy
embrujado" - I'm bewitched - before dropping the knife.
According to witnesses who testified in the original trial in 1992, Lopez
was seen pacing outside room 109 of the hospital, where the women were
patients, and was mumbling about witchcraft. A nurse in the room told the
court that Lopez entered the room, pulled out a knife and began stabbing a
pillow. Another witness said she saw Lopez stab both women. Lopez then
walked out of the room and said, "If you want to see witchcraft, go in,"
and pointed at room 109, according to police reports.
In late 1995, a Nueces County jury decided Riverside Hospital was
negligent in the stabbing, and awarded Kocurek's family $600,000. The
family had sought $4.5 million in damages.
The jurors awarded $50,000 to each of Kocurek's 6 children and $300,000 to
Kocurek's family for the "pain and mental anguish" the woman suffered as
she was being stabbed to death, according to court records.
An attorney for the family had argued that Riverside Hospital had decided
to cut costs by asking its security staff to also work as janitors, and
had that not been the case, security may have been able to prevent the
stabbing, according to reports.
(source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
******************
Decade after stabbings, mental patient faces trial
After 11 years of treatment at Vernon State Hospital, a man accused of
stabbing to death two women at a Calallen hospital in 1992 has been deemed
competent to stand trial, the Nueces County District Attorney's Office
said today.
Carlos Lopez, 48, of Corpus Christi, is accused of one count of capital
murder in the deaths of Mary Kocurek, 89, and Estefana Munoz, 80. The two
were patients at the former Riverside Hospital when they were stabbed to
death.
Both victims were stabbed in the chest and face with a large,
bone-handled, lock-blade pocket knife, according to a police report. Munoz
was stabbed 13 times and Kocurek 8 times.
Munoz was in the hospital recovering from a broken hip, while Kocurek was
there for broken ribs.
Lopez claimed during competency hearings in 1993 to be God, Elvis Presley
and U.S. president. He also has said he was a Civil War soldier.
"This is the first time he has been evaluated competent for trial," chief
prosecutor Gail Gleimer said in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Jury selection is tentatively set to begin Oct. 18.
In August 1993, Lopez was found incompetent to stand trial and sent to the
Vernon State Hospital for treatment. He has been there ever since.
(source: Associated Press)
*********************
Libel case on Lake Waco murders still has life
A libel case focusing on the 1982 Lake Waco murders may end up going to
trial after an appeals court reversed itself and an earlier ruling that
appeared to dispose of the lawsuit.
Waco's 10th Court of Appeals late last month issued the latest opinion in
the case, which has dragged on for 6 years. In the ruling the court
dismissed part of the lawsuit but left one of the claims.
The lawsuit was brought by 4 men who either investigated or prosecuted the
Lake Waco murders against David Wayne Spence, executed in 1997. The case
revolves around the murders of 3 local teens.
Plaintiffs are former McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell;
former Assistant District Attorney Ned Butler; former McLennan County
Sheriff's Deputy Truman Simons; and forensic dental expert Homer Campbell.
The men sued Brian Pardo, a local businessman who tried to stop Spence's
execution, and one of his former employees, John McLemore. The suit
centers on statements they made about the murder case, including that
Spence was innocent and had been framed by law enforcement officials.
The suit was filed in 1998 and has gone through many stages since. One of
the most significant actions came in July 2002 when a visiting district
judge denied 4 motions for summary judgement filed by Pardo and McLemore.
A summary judgment, if granted, throws out all or part of the claims in a
lawsuit before trial.
The motions revolved around the defense's contention that neither of the
documents central to the case libeled the plaintiffs. They are an article
McLemore wrote for the March 1997 issue of Pardo's self-funded newsletter,
Capitol Watch , and a March 31, 1997, letter Pardo wrote to 54th State
District Judge George Allen seeking a stay of execution for Spence.
While the visiting judge denied the motions for summary judgement, he did
grant an interlocutory appeal so the defendants could contest 3 of the
denials. An interlocutory appeal prevents a case from moving forward until
an appeals court makes a ruling.
All three of the denials that were appealed dealt with the Capitol Watch
article. The fourth appeal, which concerned the letter, was not appealed.
The maneuver sent the case to the 10th Court, where it sat without an
opinion until May of this year. That was when the justices issued a ruling
that reversed the denial of the motions for summary judgment and rendered
judgment, saying the plaintiffs should get "nothing by their suit."
Waco attorney David Deaconson, who is representing all of the plaintiffs
but Feazell, filed a motion for rehearing in the case because he believed
the court had gone too far in its ruling. Since the letter issue was never
before the appeals panel, he said, it had no authority to rule on that
matter.
The justices apparently agreed because on July 28 the court issued another
ruling in which it only threw out that part of the case involving the
Capitol Watch article. That means the issue of the letter is still before
the trial court.
"The original opinion mistakenly attempted to address everything even
though the letter was not before the court," Deaconson said.
Deaconson said the next step in the case should be for the issue of
whether the letter was defamatory to go to trial in Waco's 74th State
District Court. Even without the article, plaintiffs still have a strong
libel case, he said.
In the letter, Pardo wrote that "Truman Simons, Vic Feazell, Ned Butler
and Dr. Homer Campbell conspired to, and in fact did, frame all of the
defendants for the Lake Waco murders. In connection with this crime, the
co-conspirators, mainly Feazell, Simons and Butler, fabricated evidence,
suppressed evidence and intimidated witnesses."
"The letter is more defamatory than the Capitol Watch article," Deaconson
said.
Dallas attorney Armando De Diego, who is representing Pardo in the
lawsuit, said he agrees with the 10th Court issuing another opinion, since
the letter issue was not before the justices. However, he said he may file
a new motion for summary judgment regarding the letter, because the
opinion issued in May makes it clear how the court feels about the letter.
(source: Waco Tribune-Herald)
