Feb. 18 TEXAS: Taped confession thrown out of trial In Fort Worth, the videotaped confession that police got from a man accused of killing a pregnant woman and her 7-year-old son was obtained improperly and will be inadmissible in his capital-murder trial, a state district judge has ruled. Jurors will, however, be allowed to hear about incriminating statements that Stephen Barbee made to a homicide detective in the bathroom of the Tyler Police Department 2 days after Lisa and Jayden Underwood were reported missing. Judge Bob Gill ruled during a suppression hearing Thursday, 5 days before trial testimony is expected to begin in Barbee's trial. Barbee, 38, is accused of suffocating Lisa Underwood, whom he once dated, and her son early Feb. 19, 2005, then burying them together in a shallow grave in rural Denton County. After the Underwoods disappeared from their north Fort Worth home, police traveled to Tyler, where, according to testimony at the suppression hearing, Barbee and his friend Ron Dodd agreed to meet with Fort Worth detectives Feb. 21, 2005, at the Tyler Police Department. Homicide Detective Mike Carroll said he had been interviewing Barbee separately for some time when Barbee told him he needed to use the restroom. There, Carroll said, Barbee admitted to the killings. During the 45-minute conversation, Barbee said he and Dodd came up with the plan to kill Lisa Underwood because she was threatening to break up Barbee's marriage, Carroll testified. Barbee said that Dodd dropped him off at Lisa Underwood's house early Feb. 19, 2005, but that Barbee couldn't go through with it and left. Barbee said that later, after he declined Dodd's offer to hire a "hit man," Barbee returned to Lisa Underwood's home and picked a fight with her, Carroll testified. Barbee he said punched her in the nose and held her on the ground until she stopped breathing, Carroll testified. Barbee said that when Jayden entered the room crying, Barbee suffocated him too, Carroll testified. After the bathroom confession, Barbee, using a mapping program on a computer, showed Carroll the remote area in Denton County where he buried the bodies, Carroll said. Carroll said Barbee then returned to an interview room, where he gave a video-recorded statement, but said he would not discuss Dodd's involvement. Before Barbee talked about the crime, Carroll asked whether he wanted an attorney. Barbee said he thought he would like to get one and asked Carroll whether that would be bad, according to testimony. Carroll said he couldn't give legal advice, and the interview continued. The next morning, Barbee, in a vehicle with Carroll and a police officer, directed Carroll to the bodies. During two suppression hearings this month, defense attorneys Bill Ray and Tim Moore asked the judge to throw out all of Barbee's statements to police: the one in the bathroom, the one where Barbee mapped out the location of the bodies, the videotaped statement in the interview room and the statements he made the next day while directing police to the bodies. The defense said that except for the videotaped confession there was no record that the other statements existed or were true. Carroll did not document them, and the defense attorneys said they first heard about them during the suppression hearing. Also, defense attorneys said, Carroll violated Barbee's constitutional rights when he kept interrogating Barbee after Barbee said he might want an attorney. But prosecutor Kevin Rousseau, who is working with Dixie Bersano, said Barbee never made a "clear and unequivocal" request for an attorney during his videotaped statement, as required by law. Rousseau said the other statements were also admissible because they were found to be true. Rousseau pointed out that Barbee later led police to where he had told them the bodies would be. Gill threw out the videotaped statement, which would have been powerful evidence in front of the jury -- a setback for the prosecution. But Gill is allowing the jury to hear about the other incriminating statements that Barbee made to Carroll, which are undocumented, a decision that will make the defense attorneys' job more challenging. Before testimony begins, Gill is also expected to decide whether jurors will be allowed to see an incriminating videotaped conversation between Barbee and his wife in the interview room in Tyler before his arrest. If convicted of capital murder, Barbee would face the death penalty. Ron Dodd, who in a hearing this month exercised his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, has been charged with two counts of tampering with physical evidence in Denton County on allegations that he helped Barbee conceal the bodies. Dodd, 34, remains free on bail, awaiting trial. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) ******************* Cobb trial could be delayed The office of District Attorney Gary Young was scrambling today to avoid a delay in next week's scheduled jury selection in the capital murder trial of Christopher Cobb. Four hundred potential jurors have been summoned to be at Love Civic Center on Tuesday morning to begin a jury selection process that is expected to take 3 weeks, but the timing was jeopardized by an order issued in midweek by a state appeals court. The 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana issued an order Wednesday to stay the proceedings while it studies an application by defense attorney Steven Miears of Bonham for a writ of mandamus to prevent Young and his staff from prosecuting the case. "Everyone who received a summons to appear for jury selection at the Civic Center on Tuesday needs to plan on being there. We don't want anyone to think they're not supposed to come," Young said this morning. "We have asked the court to expedite this, and they have said they will look at it today. We will be hand-delivering a copy of our response to Texarkana, and we're hoping for a ruling on the writ today. If not today, then sometime before Tuesday," the district attorney said. "At the minimum, we have requested that they lift the stay and let us go through the qualifying process with jurors on Tuesday. All that is scheduled to happen on Tuesday is for the prospective jurors to fill out questionnaires and allow us to go over the qualifications. A number of jurors would undoubtedly be excused. Then, we could call back jurors in subsequent days as we need them, in groups of 75. That way, the delay would only be 2 or 3 days, instead of 60 or more." Allowing 3 weeks for jury selection, testimony in the trial itself was projected to get under way March 20, the week after local schools observe Spring Break. The state seeks the death penalty for Cobb, 23, who is accused of killing his great-grandparents, Charley Smith, 89, and Ruth Smith, 88, on Aug. 29, 2004, in their residence inside the Reno city limits in the 3700 block of Smallwood Road, north of Elk Hollow Golf Club. Young should disqualify himself from prosecuting Cobb because he represented him in mid-2002 in a divorce proceeding and again in October 2003 against a felony forgery charge, Miears said in a 20-page document submitted to the court Monday. If Young doesn't recuse himself, as he has so far refused to do, state District Judge Jim Dick Lovett should himself issue an order disqualifying Young from prosecuting Cobb, Miears asked. Should Cobb elect to testify in his own behalf during the trial, he faces the possibility of being cross-examined by the very person to whom he formerly communicated in confidence with the attorney-client privilege. After being elected district attorney in 2004, Young voluntarily recused himself and sought the appointment of a special prosecutor on numerous other cases involving defendants with whom he had a prior attorney-client relationship, Miears noted in his application for a writ of mandamus. Miears argues that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has previously held that a post-trial appeal is not an adequate remedy and thus granted defense attorneys the ability to file mandamus petitions in pre-trial settings that involve the attorney-client relationship. If jury selection were to begin next week as scheduled, Miears argued, the harm his client will suffer from Youngs involvement in the case "will become irreparable." (source : Paris News) *************** Man charged with capital murder Capital murder charges have been filed against a man who police say shot a man early Thursday during a robbery at an apartment complex at 9445 Concourse. Terrance Jones, 20, was charged in the death of Clarence Cheatham, 18. When detectives arrived to investigate reports of gunshots, they discovered Cheatham's body in the courtyard, and Jones in the custody of a security guard at the complex. The investigators said robbery was the motive for the shooting. (source: Houston Chronicle) ************** Lawyers want inmate's recant excluded First, Tommy Lynn Sells confessed to killing 2 Kanawha County women. Last week, he changed his story. Lawyers for Dana December Smith, who was convicted of the murders, want Sells' 1st statement to be part of the record, but not the 2nd. On Friday, they asked Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey Walker to exclude Sells recent revelation from the record, and to move forward on Smith's motion for a new trial. Smith, serving a life sentence for the 1991 murders of Margaret McClain and her daughter Pamela Castoneda, has maintained his innocence. His efforts appeared to suffer a setback last week when Sells, on death row in Texas for an unrelated murder, recanted his 2000 confession to the Leewood killings in a sworn statement to the Val Verde, Texas, Sheriff's Department. "I've got an execution date and I want to set the record straight," Sells stated. "I did not kill these women." On Friday, Smith's attorneys vehemently opposed admitting Sells' latest statement into evidence, arguing that it was not part of an official court proceeding, and therefore not subject to cross-examination. Defense attorney Tim Koontz suggested that Sells was trying to remove any barriers, such as involvement in murder cases in which other people had been convicted, to his scheduled execution in May. "He wants to go ahead and be executed," said Koontz. "He has not recanted any other crimes in the United States except for the 2 that will keep him alive right now." Assistant Kanawha County Prosecutor Don Morris asked Walker to let prosecutors depose Sells so that the new information can be included in Smith's case. Appearing at the hearing via teleconference from Mount Olive Correctional Center, Smith sat quietly at a table surrounded by papers through most of the proceeding, becoming vocal only towards the end. When prosecutors said that they'd like to depose Sells before his May execution date, Smith spoke up. "Objection," he said. "We'd like to delay." Relatives of the victims said that they hoped Smith would remain in prison. "That man is dangerous as a cocked pistol," said Myra Maxine Biller, McClain's sister. "It's a nightmare, and it's one that don't go away." "It's going to go on forever and ever," said McClains brother, Phillip McComas, shaking his head. "He's already had a trial. They found him guilty." Smith's mother, Pearl A. Shanklin, said that Sells' latest statement had not altered her belief in her son's innocence. "We're not discouraged at all by this new development," she said. Walker said that she would rule on the request within the next couple weeks. (source: Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette) MISSOURI: Considering what's cruel and unusual "6 degrees of separation" is the theory that anyone on Earth can be connected to any other person through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. It's an intriguing enough idea - so much so that Hollywood even made a movie out of it in 1990. My connection to the idea is somewhat more personal, and depends upon how one defines "acquaintance." After all the hysteria on both sides over Samuel Alito's nomination and confirmation to the Supreme Court, his first case on the Supreme Court bench involved a death row appeal from Missouri, wherein Alito split from the court's recognized conservatives to side with a prison inmate by voting with the majority to grant a stay of execution. The inmate's argument - used successfully by two other death row inmates from Florida the previous week - is that death by lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The inmate in question is Michael Taylor. He and I met for a few minutes, more or less, on a February morning eight years ago in a circuit courtroom outside downtown St. Louis, where I testified in a murder trial. In late January 1995, a student at the high school in suburban St. Louis where I taught for 25 years was murdered during the last period of the school day. Her body wasn't discovered until after school, and I was the first adult on the scene. How to deal with the murder of a student you knew is not something generally taught in university teacher-preparation classes or in-service training. (I empathize with the faculty at Columbine High School in ways the general population cannot imagine.) The victim in this case was a 15-year-old freshman. Christine Smetzer had pitched for the school's junior varsity softball team the preceding fall, and as the longtime head coach of the school's softball program, I knew her relatively well, talked with her frequently, and had just spoken to her earlier in the week, asking about her adjustment to high school, her first-semester classes, and in general trying to be supportive. Christine's assailant, new to the school, skipped his last-period class and waited in a girls' bathroom on the 3rd floor for someone - anyone - to come in. According to court testimony from the police investigation, Christine's nose and cheekbone were broken in the initial attack. She was then sexually assaulted and drowned by her assailant in the toilet. Her killer was Michael Taylor. Nothing like Christine's murder had ever happened at this bastion of suburbia before. There was a media frenzy after the event, with plenty of uninformed speculation by reporters and the public - and by school district officials. Taylor's arrest the next day was followed by three years of legal maneuvering and delays, but he was eventually tried in St. Louis County for 1st-degree murder, and convicted. Early in his trial, I went back to my old home from Colorado to testify for perhaps 10 minutes. Because he was a couple of weeks shy of his 16th birthday when he murdered Christine, Taylor could not be given the death penalty under Missouri law, and was sentenced to life in the Missouri State Penitentiary. 18 months later, he beat his prison cellmate to death. At that point, I'd moved to Colorado, so I don't know the details of that 2nd murder and subsequent trial, but he was well past his 16th birthday when it occurred, and was sentenced to death. I'm not a death penalty enthusiast. Taking Michael Taylor's life will not bring back either his cellmate or the 95-pound little girl whose life he snuffed out. That said, however, it's difficult for me to accept an argument that dying by lethal injection comes close to matching the degree of brutality Taylor demonstrated against his victims. I don't believe the state has to match the level of savagery of the criminals it's about to dispatch, either, but lethal injection seems neither especially cruel nor unusual, as long as the legal validity of a death penalty of some kind is being accepted by state courts. ource: Denver Post -- Ray Schoch is chairman of the Loveland Planning Commission, Feb. 17) TENNESSEE: Job Corps Killer Seeks New Trial It's been 11 years since Colleen Slemmer, a 19 year old from Orange Park, moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, to be a student at Job Corps. On January 12, 1995, Slemmer's body was found in woods near the University of Tennessee's campus. "They basically cut her over 300 times of the alphabet and carved a pentagram on her chest," says Slemmer's mother, May Martinez. Christa Pike, a student at Job Corps, was convicted and sentenced to death for killer her Job Corps classmate. 11 years later, Slemmer has never been laid to rest and Pike is still on death row but now has a new hope of getting her conviction overturned. "I just dropped the phone. I was very, very upset," says Martinez. Upset at the news of having to relive the pain of her daughter's death all over again. According to court records obtained by First Coast News, Pike wants a new trial because she says her lawyer was incompetent during the original trial. "I think it's a game to be honest. It's just another ploy for her to get her attention that she wants and what she can do to try and get off of it. Anybody that can get off death row for a week and be out in the public, of course she's gonna do it," says Martinez. She's a mother who says she has waited the last 11 years to bury her daughter. She can't because the state of Tennessee still has parts of Colleen's body, including her skull. Martinez one hope is someday soon she can finally lay her daugther to rest. "Why, why not just put her to life without parole and let this story end and let my daughter rest in peace." Prosecutors had no comment about the upcoming trial. Pike's attorney, Donald Dawson, released a statement about Pike's original attorney saying, "He didn't do it(his job), because he couldn't do it (his job), because he was too busy protecting himself." Pike heads to court on Monday, February 28, 2006. (source: First Coast News) **************** Court upholds death sentence The state's highest court yesterday upheld the death sentence of a Montgomery County man convicted of raping and killing a 9-year-old girl. William Glenn Rogers was sentenced to die in the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Jackie Beard, who was abducted while picking blackberries near her house. Rogers had a long criminal history, including alleged sexual assaults on children, before being convicted of murder and rape. Beard's remains were found four months later at the Land Between the Lakes natural area almost 50 miles away. Rogers, who originally denied involvement and then said he accidentally ran over the girl, argued that the evidence presented at his trial was insufficient to support his convictions. "Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, we conclude that the proof points the finger of guilt unerringly at Rogers and Rogers alone," Justice Janice M. Holder wrote for the 4-1 Supreme Court majority. Justice Adolpho A. Birch Jr. affirmed the conviction but dissented on the death sentence because the state doesn't have a process to ensure the penalty is applied uniformly and fairly. Jackie's killing inspired John Carney, district attorney general for Montgomery and Robertson counties, to present a bill to state legislators that called for the revamping of the state's sexual offender registry. Carney carried a photo of Jackie inside his notebook when he advocated for the bill, which went into law Aug. 1, 2004. (source: Associated Press) UTAH: Judge opens the door for death penalty----Elderly woman slain: Sexual assault during the crime could lead to a verdict of capital murder The beating death of a 75-year-old woman at her Salt Lake City home 2 years ago included a component of sexual assault, a 3rd District Court judge determined Friday. That means a jury could find Floyd Eugene Maestas guilty of capital murder, punishable by death, for the slaying of Donna Lou Bott. Judge Sheila McCleve ruled the crime may have occurred under any or all of 3 theories: - In an especially heinous, atrocious, cruel or exceptionally depraved manner. - In the commission of an aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. - In the commission of a forcible sexual abuse. McCleve also found that Maestas, 49, allegedly committed forcible sexual abuse during a second break-in at the home of an 83-year-old woman who survived the experience. Bott's underwear was torn and her genital area was exposed during the attack on Sept. 28, 2004. The other woman's T-shirt was pulled up over her head, exposing her breasts. Defense attorney Michael Sikora had argued there was no evidence Maestas touched the women sexually or sought sexual gratification. But Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Kent Morgan claimed Maestas' intent could have been to humiliate the women. The judge agreed with prosecutors, saying the defendant could have ripped or removed the clothing to "cause substantial emotional or bodily pain," which is an alternative interpretation of Utah's forcible sexual abuse statute. Maestas allegedly committed the burglaries with two 19-year-old men who testified against him at a November preliminary hearing. William Hugh Irish and Rodney Roy Renzo - who are charged with 1st-degree felony murder - claim Maestas said he knew of a house where they could get money. After they entered Bott's home through a window, Maestas accosted the sleeping woman in her bedroom. Maestas kicked, punched, stomped and strangled the woman, and also cut and stabbed her with a knife, according to testimony. Bott's ribs were broken and blows to her chest caused her aorta to rupture. The judge noted in a written ruling that a cut to Bott's cheek was accompanied by a threat and demand for money. "These actions by Mr. Maestas are torture," McCleve said. Getting only a handful of change and a cell phone from Bott's home, the 3 defendants then went to a 2nd home, which they entered by breaking a window with a brick. Maestas and Renzo allegedly entered and Maestas pulled the elderly woman's shirt up over her head and demanded valuables while punching and slapping her. They left with her purse and wallet, which contained a small amount of money. Police tied the trio to the crimes through Bott's cell phone. The other woman's purse was later found in Maestas' car, which was towed when he abandoned it after running out of gas. Maestas is to appear in court March 6 for a scheduling hearing before Judge Paul Maughan. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecution will seek death penalty in murder case----Judge also orders search warrants to be unsealed. Jerry Anderson is officially on trial for his life. The district attorneys office announced Friday it will seek the death penalty in the murder trial of the Caldwell County dairy farmer. Anderson, 46, is accused of killing his wife, Emily, 49. Emily went missing Dec. 19. On Jan. 7, Emilys Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck was found in Duncan, S.C. Caldwell County sheriffs deputies found her body in the toolbox after transporting the vehicle back to Lenoir. Emily had been shot multiple times. Anderson, sitting in his white and gray jail jumpsuit, showed no emotion when the state made its announcement. His attorney, Lisa Dubs, said after the conference hearing Anderson is upset by the charge against him. "It's fair to say he is devastated by the allegation," Dubs said. "He looks forward to his day in court." Since Anderson's case is a capital murder trial, he is entitled to two attorneys. During the hearing, Superior Court Judge Beverly Beal also ordered search warrant results be unsealed. Due to the late timing of the hearing, the Caldwell County Clerk of Court's Office was unable to have those records available Friday afternoon. The results will be ready for public use Monday. The final item on the agenda was a request by the state for Anderson's insurance companies to turn over insurance records concerning Anderson and Emily. Beal decided the records would be turned over to his chambers, and hed review them before a decision is reached. He said if the records are released, they would only be available to himself, the defense and prosecution. The next judicial step in the Anderson trial will be administrative court. At that point, prosecution and defense will continue to discuss matters of the case. That date will be set in the next several weeks. It could still be another 12 to 18 months before Anderson goes on trial. The Caldwell County Sheriffs Office continues its investigation. Dubs also said she would launch an investigation into the case. Anderson remains jailed without bond in the Caldwell County Detention Center, where he has been since his Jan. 27 arrest. (source: Hickory Daily Record) ************************ Hearing delayed on pursuit of death penaltyCabarrus County----Hearing delayed on pursuit of death penalty in fire deaths A hearing to determine whether prosecutors can seek the death penalty against murder suspect Lisa Louise Greene of Midland was postponed Friday. Prosecutors with the Cabarrus County District Attorney's Office had been expected to announce plans in Friday's hearing. Greene, 40, is accused of setting the house fire that killed her 2 children on Jan. 10.The hearing was postponed because Greene's attorney had a scheduling conflict with an unrelated case in Boone, court officials said. No new date was set Friday. Greene is charged with two counts of 1st-degree murder and 1 count of 1st-degree arson in the fire at 10925 Candilara Lane in Midland. The fire started outside a bedroom where the children, Addison Macemore, 8, and her brother, Daniel, 10, had been sleeping. Greene told investigators she tried but couldn't save them. She said she ran out of the house in Midland to get help from a neighbor but fell, twisting her ankle. ******************** State will seek death penaltyFinancial gain may have been part of motive, say prosecutors State prosecutors said Friday they will seek the death penalty against Jerry Anderson, a Caldwell County man charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife -- and they said that at least part of the motive in the case was financial gain. Assistant District Attorney Eric Bellas, the lead prosecutor, announced the state's decision to Superior Court Judge Beverly Beal during a hearing Friday. Bellas said prosecutors believe enough "aggravating circumstances" -- those that increase the seriousness of a crime and therefore the potential punishment -- exist to warrant the death penalty. Anderson's attorney, Lisa Dubs of Hickory, asked the court to have Bellas list the aggravating circumstances. With the judge's permission, he named only one: that the crime "was committed for pecuniary gain." He did not elaborate. Anderson, 46, a Sawmills dairy farmer, was indicted Monday on a charge of 1st-degree murder. On Dec. 29, he reported his 49-year-old wife, Emily, missing; her body, shot more than once, was discovered in the tool compartment of her Chevrolet pickup after the truck was found Jan. 7 in Duncan, S.C. The Caldwell County Sheriff's Office arrested Jerry Anderson on Jan. 27 and continues to investigate the case; investigators have not ruled out the possibility of other arrests. Also Friday, Beal ordered unsealed copies of search warrants and inventories of the Andersons' home and farm -- documents he had ordered sealed a week before Jerry Anderson's arrest. The judge, in granting a motion by the Observer and The Associated Press, ruled that there was no longer a specific, compelling reason to keep the usually public records sealed. But the documents will not be available to the public until Monday; the hearing concluded just before 5 p.m. Friday, and Clerk of Court Sandie Cannon said her staff needs time to organize them. Beal also ordered two local insurance agents to provide him with records of Emily Anderson's life insurance policies. The judge said he would review the records and provide them to the prosecution and defense, but that he would also order them sealed. (source for both: Charlotte Observer) ******************** Murrell gets death for the killing of Harding----This 'is a day to remember the life of Matthew,' prosecutor says Jeremy Dushane Murrell was sentenced to death yesterday in Forsyth Superior Court for killing Lawrence Matthew Harding, a cook at a Winston-Salem restaurant. Murrell, 26, stared straight ahead and rarely looked at jurors as they announced their recommendation that Judge William Z. Wood Jr. impose the death penalty. Last week, jurors found Murrell guilty of kidnapping Harding from the parking lot of the South by Southwest restaurant, robbing him and shooting him to death in August 2003. After deliberating for about an hour Thursday, jurors started deliberating again yesterday about 10 a.m. They made their decision about 4 p.m. Several jurors dabbed their eyes with tissues and tried to fight back tears as they walked into court to announce their decision. Pebbles Farrar, Murrell's sister who testified on his behalf, sat on the edge of her seat two rows behind Harding's stepmother, father and grandmother. Harding's stepmother, Judy Harding, had her arm around Harding's father, Larry Harding, as they waited for the announcement. "You've returned in open court the following verdict: ... We the jury unanimously recommend that the defendant Jeremy Dushane Murrell be sentenced to death," Wood said. "Is this your verdict?" "Yes," the jurors said in unison. "May God have mercy on your soul," Wood said to Murrell after imposing the death sentence. Murrell showed little emotion as sheriff's deputies escorted him out of the courtroom. Wood also sentenced Murrell to a minimum of 77 months and a maximum 102 months for kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Harding was shot on Aug. 21, 2003, in his Mitsubishi Lancer after he got off work from South by Southwest, which is on South Marshall Street. Murrell robbed Harding of more than $100, shot him twice and drove his body to Richmond, according to testimony. Eight days after Harding was shot, Richmond detectives found the remains of his body in the trunk of the Lancer. Murrell initially said in a statement to police that he killed Harding after a drug deal turned sour. One of his attorneys, Kevin Mauney, said in court this week that drugs were not involved in the killing. Jurors found aggravating factors in the crime that they said supported the death penalty. They found that it was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel; it was committed for financial gain; and it was committed while Murrell robbed and kidnapped Harding. Those factors outweighed several mitigating factors that jury members also found. Murrell's attorneys, Mauney and Lisa Costner, submitted about 40 mitigating factors, which could have been used to recommend against the death penalty. Many of those factors centered on Jeremy's unstable upbringing, which his attorneys and a psychologist say affected his behavior. A psychologist testified this week that Murrell has a mood disorder and was suffering from a mental disturbance at the time of the killing. According to testimony, Murrell's mother and father have a history of mental disorders, which contributed to domestic abuse. As a result, Murrell was often bounced from house to house among relatives who cared for him. "We're obviously disappointed by the sentence and the verdict," Costner said after the trial. "We felt like we presented a strong case." Murrell was considering joining the military before the crime, according to testimony. Harding, who enjoyed cooking, was planning to enroll in culinary school. "This is not a cause for celebration, but it is a day to remember the life of Matthew Harding," said Jim O'Neill, who prosecuted the case with Jennifer Martin. "Justice was done." (source: Winston-Salem Journal)
