Oct. 21 CALIFORNIA: Prosecutor urges death penalty for rape, murder of teen girl In San Diego, a man "crossed the line" and deserves the death penalty for kidnapping, raping and killing a 14-year-old girl in 1986, a prosecutor said Thursday, but a defense attorney said life in prison was the right sentence. George Williams Jr., 49, was convicted Sept. 28 of 1st-degree murder, rape, kidnapping and special circumstance allegations that the murder of Rickie Blake happened during a rape and kidnapping. Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek said in the guilt phase of trial that a person identifying himself as "George" called the Blake home in Chula Vista and asked for Rickie about 11 p.m. on April 10, 1986, the night she disappeared. Rickie's older sister, Alicia, knew only 2 "Georges," and the voice on the phone didn't belong to either, Dusek said. When the victim's parents awoke at 5 a.m. to go to work, their younger daughter was nowhere to be found, the prosecutor said, noting that there was no forced entry into the home and that Rickie's bed was still made. Her body was found the next day, along the side of the road near a Barrio Logan freeway offramp. The same jury that returned the guilty verdicts must now recommend to a judge either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Today, in his closing argument of the penalty phase, Dusek said that the rules of society prohibit a father from entering another father's home and taking his child away. "He has crossed that line, way too far," the prosecutor said of the defendant. "He is so far beyond the line, we can't see where he is." Dusek urged jurors to dispense justice by meting out the most severe punishment under California law. "Does he get what he wants, or does he get what he deserves?" the prosecutor asked. "Will he be punished or will you send him home (to prison)?" Defense attorney Steve Wadler bristled at Dusek's contention that Williams' home was a prison cell. "That is not his home," Wadler told the jury in his closing argument. "He will die in prison no matter what you decide." The attorney said Williams committed all of his crimes while intoxicated, but Dusek said alcohol wasn't a factor in Blake's murder. Wadler also took exception to Dusek's characterization of the defense case, in which Wadler and co-counsel Jeff Reichert presented evidence of Williams' tough upbringing in Gary, Ind. Dusek said the defense, in accordance with the law, put on witnesses to talk about the good things in the defendant's life, kind of a "This is Your Life" tale. "This man's life is not a game," Wadler told the jury. Dusek said the aggravating factors in Williams' case outweighed any mitigating circumstances, clearing the way for a death verdict. "He has had a fair trial," the prosecutor said. "We are dealing with a guilty man who's had a fair shot." Williams had a tough childhood, but had family members, teachers and counselors who cared for him and tried to give him a chance to make it in life, Dusek told the jury. The defendant made a good decision to join the Army but quit, the prosecutor said. Williams later enlisted in the Navy but was fired, Dusek said. A defense contention that Williams suffered a brain injury when he got in a 1981 car accident and flew through a windshield "didn't happen," Dusek said. "He is simply a pedophile," Dusek told the jury. "That's the way he's wired. Because he likes kids. He likes sex with little kids. That's what he enjoys." The prosecutor compared a photo of a teenage Williams at an ROTC dance with a photo of the victim. "Her life stopped at 14," Dusek said. "His went on. When they ask for mercy and sympathy, ask yourself, 'What mercy did he show others?"' Dusek told the jurors they could consider past criminal conduct by Williams, including the 1981 rape of a 15-year-old girl which the defendant got away with; the 1984 molestation of his 6-year-old daughter to which he pleaded guilty; the 1985 rape of a 20-year-old woman in Oakland that he got away with; the rape of a 24-year-old woman and the rape of her 6-year-old daughter one week after he killed Blake; and the sodomizing of a 13-year-old male family member after the defendant got out of prison in 1998. "This is evil, and this is scary that he continues to do it," Dusek told the jury. The kidnapping, rape, and murder of Blake by itself qualifies Williams for the death penalty, the prosecutor said. "This is the ultimate crime. He deserves the ultimate punishment," Dusek said. Wadler said his client was responsible for his violent acts, but didn't deserve the death penalty, calling it a "last resort" for criminals with a callous disregard for human life. As the hearing neared an end, Wadler told the 12 jurors and four alternates that they were "16 gods" with the power to determine whether Williams lives or dies. (source: North County Times) TEXAS: Suspected serial killer guilty of capital murder----Shore says he was 'paranoid' when he strangled woman in 1992 A man accused of strangling four females over a nine-year span was convicted of capital murder today, clearing the way for jurors to consider giving him the death penalty. Anthony Allen Shore, 42, showed no emotion as jurors found him guilty in the death of 21-year-old Maria Del Carmen Estrada, who was sexually assaulted, strangled with a nylon cord and left in a fast-food drive-through lane in April 1992. While the trials 4-day guilt phase was limited to Estrada's death, jurors during the punishment phase that starts Friday will begin hearing about the three other females Shore is accused of killing, including two teenagers and a 9-year-old girl. "It's ugly," defense lawyer Gerald Bourque said of the evidence that will come out as jurors consider whether to sentence Shore to life in prison or a lethal injection. On Wednesday, jurors heard Shore say on tape that he was "paranoid" and "freaked out" when he used a nylon cord to strangle a young woman in his car. "I opened her blouse and she resisted. ... There were voices in my head that I was going to have her, regardless, to possess her in some way," Shore said, describing to police the night he killed Maria Del Carmen Estrada more than 12 years ago. Jurors in Shore's capital murder trial heard his admission Wednesday, a taped conversation he gave to police after he was arrested in October 2003. "I didn't set out to kill her," Shore told a detective. "That was not my intent. But it got out of hand." Shore, a former telephone repairman and wrecker driver, said Estrada got into his car after he offered her a ride to work. He then parked behind a Dairy Queen on Westview near Wirt Road. "She was amenable to a kiss, and then it got out of hand. I got a little paranoid," he said. "She became real violent. I locked the door so she couldn't get out. I didn't have sex with her, but I tried to." "I had a serious panic. I freaked out and I left the scene," he told police. Several jurors looked at Shore across the courtroom as they listened to the 9-minute tape. Prosecutors Kelly Siegler and Therese Buess say Shore was lurking around the residential side streets of the northwest Houston neighborhood when he kidnapped 21-year-old Estrada and sexually assaulted her before leaving her in the restaurant's drive-through lane. Estrada's clothing, including her bra and panty hose, had been cut with shears. He used the cord from a Venetian blind to strangle her, and a wooden stick to twist the cord and cinch it tightly around her neck. Shore's attorneys admitted to jurors from the trial's outset that he killed Estrada. But they said he is guilty of murder, not capital murder, saying Shore did not kidnap or sexually assault her. Shore was arrested last year after previously untested scrapings from underneath Estrada's fingernails matched his DNA. He was logged into the state's DNA database because he pleaded guilty in 1998 to sexually abusing two girls in his family. He got eight years' probation. After his arrest in the Estrada case, his demeanor in the Houston police homicide interrogation room was unusual, police said. "He was looking me right in the eye. He showed no signs of deception. That's very rare," Sgt. John Swaim testified Wednesday. Swaim said in his 22 years as a homicide detective, no murder suspect had called him by his 1st name. "He called me John," the detective told jurors. "In my opinion, he was seeing if he could control me. It was going to be a mind game between us." Shore was "calm and cool" after being told police linked his DNA to Estrada. After several hours of interrogation, Shore agreed to make a recorded statement. That's when he told police he killed Estrada and three girls, authorities said. Now that Shore is convicted and his capital murder trial will proceed to a penalty phase, jurors may hear evidence of those deaths. Shore has admitted killing Laurie Lee Tremblay, 15, who was found dead in September 1986; Dana Sanchez, 16, found dead in July 1995; and Diana Rebollar, 9, found dead in April 1994. All 4 were strangled, and 3 were sexually assaulted, prosecutors said. Also on Wednesday, Katherine Long, a DNA analyst with Orchid Cellmark, an independent, Dallas-based forensic lab, told jurors that tests showed Shore's DNA was found under Estrada's fingernails. (source: Houston Chronicle) OKLAHOMA----new death sentence Rogers County Jury Sentences Child Killer To Death Jury Convicts Man Of Killing His Daughter----Rogers County Jury Could Soon Begin Deliberations In Death Penalty Case A Claremore man convicted of killing his 9 month old child 2 years ago has been sentenced to die for the crime. It took jurors only 10 minutes to convict Benjamin Cole of 1st degree murder on Wednesday. It took them less time Thursday to sentence him to death for the murder of Brianna Cole, who died after she was abused by her father on December 20th, 2002. Prosecutors said Cole was playing video games when Brianna's crying interrupted his game. Cole paused the game and went into the girl's room, grabbed her by the feet and pulled them toward her head, fracturing her spine. The injury caused a tear in her aorta and she bled to death. Cole had been previously convicted of child abuse in California. (source: KTUL News)
