[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----ILLINOIS

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 27



ILLINOIS:

Damm's defense targets 'inconsistencies'----Attorney challenges testimony
of 'hit man'


In Galena, the man who said he was hired as a "hit man" by David Damm
finished his testimony Thursday.

Bruce Burt, 59, of Waterloo, Iowa, took the stand for the 2nd straight day
to tell how his longtime acquaintance and sometime-boss offered him $5,000
to kill 13-year-old Donnisha Hill.

Burt appeared in the courtroom in the same checkered shirt and dress
slacks he wore the day before, and he offered the same story as the
previous day, a story Damm's defense countered was bound together by lies.
But the "inconsistencies" in Burt's account of the events, it could be
argued, boiled down to some legal hair-splitting.

Damm, 60, faces execution if found guilty of hiring Burt to kill the girl
who presented "life-changing problems" for Damm. Burt said Damm was
worried about DNA evidence that could prove he sexually molested his
neighbor girl and that Damm wanted her to "disappear" even though he
didn't believe Donnisha -- who the defense says had a crush on Damm --
would testify against him.

During opening arguments, the defense said Damm hired Burt to help
Donnisha run away, and that Burt must have been motivated to kill her
sometime during the three-hour ride from Waterloo to rural Hanover, where
her body was discovered on Oct. 28, 2006 -- the day after Burt said he hit
her on the head with a hammer and slit her throat.

Defense attorney Allan Sincox attempted to point out inconsistencies
between Burt's original statement on Nov. 11, 2006, and his current
testimony.

Sincox played several video clips of Burt. One had him mentioning a
$10,000 price for the murder. Sincox also suggested that Burt might have
received some information and language from officers while being
questioned about his involvement in the case.

Sincox said that Burt did not agree to implicate Damm until Burt learned
how much evidence the police had against him and after discovering that
Illinois had the death penalty.

Sincox eventually asked Burt whether he was lying about "pretty much
everything" prior to admitting his involvement in the girl's death?

"Yes," Burt said.

"And you had no problem lying, did you?" Sincox asked.

"No," Burt said.

The rest of the 4th day of testimony included six prosecution witnesses to
help establish the crime's time line.

The manager of a Casey's gas station in Waterloo provided video showing
Burt purchasing $30 of gasoline, a can of Pringles and 2 Old Milwaukee
beers the day of the murder.

A Waterloo police officer testified that he saw Burt there at 4:44 p.m.,
and that he thought it was "suspicious" that Burt did not acknowledge his
presence, as they usually said hello when they met.

An Independence, Iowa, police officer said he saw Burt at Wal-Mart about
9:30 that evening. Surveillance footage was shown of Burt driving into the
parking lot in the white Cadillac he borrowed from a friend to drive
Donnisha to her death.

A U.S. Cellular store manager went over phone records with the
prosecution, pointing out that a number owned by Damm made or received 7
phone calls to or from Burt the day of the murder. The calls were as short
as 25 to 83 seconds.

Finally, two Waterloo Wal-Mart employees testified that Burt purchased a
Polaroid camera from their store. Video showed Damm exiting the passenger
side of a white van parked in a handicapped space. Burt previously
testified that Damm drove Burt to Wal-Mart in a white van with a
handicapped sticker. Damm allegedly gave Burt cash to buy the camera so
Burt could prove he had killed the girl.

The trial continues at 9 a.m. Monday.

(source: TH Online)

***************

A killer speaks----Bruce Burt testifies in Damm case


Bruce Burt, the man who says he drove 13-year-old Donnisha Hill from
Waterloo to rural Hanover and murdered her in October of 2006, told his
story to the jury on Sept. 24 and 25.

Burt says he was hired to kill Hill by David Damm, 60, who is on trial for
1st-degree murder.

Burt has been friends with Damm since 1988, when he was out on parole and
looking for a job. He went to Damm's used car lot, East Side Motors in
Waterloo, and asked for work. Damm said he'd pay Burt if he could tell him
what was wrong with a car he was working on, and Burt did the job.

Since then, Damm hired Burt for odd jobs, including repossessing cars.
Burt says Damm had also paid him to commit crimes before, though he did
not specify what.

Burt says that Damm picked him up on Oct. 26, 2006, to repossess a
suburban. As they drove around in Damm's van looking for the vehicle, Damm
began to talk about the problems he was having.

"He said they were life-changing for him. Life-changing problems.
Something about some DNA coming back in December," said Burt. Damm
allegedly added that if he were found guilty, he would no longer be
allowed around children, including his grandson.

Damm had been accused of sexually assaulting Hill, and Hill had provided
her mother with a napkin that had Damm's semen on it. The DNA test on the
semen was expected to be complete in December. Burt said that he had heard
from other sources that Damm was facing some kind of sexual assault
charge.

Burt said he at first believed that Damm simply wanted to "air his
problems," so he listened while Damm talked for about half an hour. Damm
then asked if Burt could do anything to help him.

"He needed to do something about it," Burt said. "She needed to
disappear."

Burt thought he knew what that meant. "To disappear you'd have to be
dead," he said.

Burt testified that Damm even suggested the method, a "hot shot," or
intravenous drug overdose, and mentioned that if she were dumped in rural
Nebraska, no one would find the body.

According to Burt, Damm said that money was no object, because if his
problem continued, he'd be broke anyway. He mentioned the sum of $5,000.
Burt offered to find someone to do the job, and considered some people he
knew from New Orleans.

Burt kept his appointment with Damm at East Side Motors the next morning,
and says that they drove around while they negotiated. Burt suggested that
they forget about finding a hit man, since each new person involved was
another liability. Damm said he'd been thinking the same thing, and Burt
offered to do the job himself.

Burt said that Damm wanted a picture to prove that the crime was finished,
and drove him to stores looking for a polaroid camera. They finally found
one at the Waterloo Wal-Mart, and security cameras recorded a white van
resembling Damm's pulling up in the parking lot and waiting while Burt
purchased the camera and film.

They made arrangements to meet that afternoon, but when Damm dropped Burt
off at his house, Burt said he made no effort to prepare, and took large
amounts of crack cocaine, to which he was addicted.

"I didn't think anything like this was going to happen," he explained.

Then, around 4:30 p.m., Burt received a call from Damm.

When he picked up the phone, Burt said Damm told him, "You're not where
you're supposed to be."

"He told me he was ready," Burt said.

"I said 'Oh, OK."

Burt's preparations were hasty. He went three doors down to borrow a white
cadillac from Mike Biggles, then phoned his own house and asked the person
who answered to find him a hammer and a knife. The woman who delivered the
knife wrapped it in a newspaper for him. Burt testified that he let his
housemates, all of whom were crack users, believe he was going to get
drugs.

While Burt made last-minute arrangements, Biggles cleaned out the back
seat of the car. In the process, he removed the camera. Burt didn't notice
at the time.

"I didn't know what I was going to do now," he said. "I was in a rush."

Burt met Damm at McDonalds, and then followed his van to a nearby Budget
motel, stopping at Casey's on the way for gas, Pringles Cheez-Ums, and two
cans of Old Milwaukee beer to take the edge off his crack high. Security
footage from the gas station and copies of receipts confirm the stop. At
the motel, Hill got out of Damm's van and into the cadillac. At first, she
got into the back seat, and Burt said Damm "hollered" at her to move to
the front.

Damm then allegedly told Burt that Hill believed she was headed for
Chicago, where Damm would meet her later. He also told Burt that Hill had
money with her.

Burt said he couldn't tell how young Hill was, and didn't even know her
name.

He explained that he drove north at first, away from the route to Chicago,
because he was reluctant to drive through town with Hill where people
could see them together. Instead, he passed through Denver, Iowa, before
turning south and getting on U. S. 20. He continued driving until the sky
grew dark.

During the car ride, Burt says that he received numerous phone calls,
including a few from Damm. In Independence, he pulled over by the side of
the road while having a phone conversation, and Hill made no attempt to
flee. Burt said that if she had, he would not have tried to stop her,
since he has bad knees.

The last call he received, Burt said Damm advised him to shut off his
phone because the signal could be traced using cell phone tower locations.
Damm also allegedly told Burt to "mess her face up."

As they approached their destination, Burt asked Hill to find the camera.
When she couldn't locate it, Burt realized it had been left behind.

When night fell, Burt turned off of U. S. 20 onto South Rodden Road near
Hanover, drove down the road a ways, then started to drive back.

"I'm going through in my mind now about this. Do I want to do this?" Burt
remembered thinking.

He told the jury he decided he did.

When he stopped the car, Burt says he looked out the passenger side
window, and Hill's gaze followed, so she didn't see him pull the hammer
from beneath the seat. He said she didn't struggle.

"She's just looking like, 'What are we doing here?'" he said.

Burt kept the hammer out of sight in his left hand while he went around
the car, opened the door, and took Hill's hand to help her get out. She
was still standing in the doorway when he hit her the 1st time.

Hill staggered, but didn't fall.

"She turned to look at me and asked, where was Dave?" Burt said. "That
scared the shit out of me."

Burt hit her twice more before she fell to her knees. She then told Burt
she had money in her pocket. Burt took the money from her jacket, then hit
her a 4th time. Hill slumped over, and Burt reached into the car and found
the knife. He said he started to saw at her neck, but the knife got caught
on something, and Burt started to panic. He dragged the body into the
weeds a few feet and retrieved the hammer, but couldn't find the knife.

"I'm trying to get out," he remembered. "I'm panicking. Want to get away
from there."

He got back on the road and began the trip back to Waterloo. On the way he
stopped at a Wal-Mart in Independence to buy a chicken dinner, but the
deli was closed.

At home, he took more crack cocaine, then went to sleep. He said that Damm
delivered $2,000 the next day, explaining that it was all he could come up
with at the moment without arousing suspicion. After paying him, Damm
allegedly asked if the body would be found. Burt said it would.

The defense set about poking holes in Burt's account of events,
continually reminding the jury that his life depended on giving testimony
that the prosecution found satisfactorily "truthful."

Attorney Allan Sincox reminded Burt of a previous interview in which he
had compared the crack house he ran to the Kalahari desert, and his
housemates to jackals and hyenas who try to impress the lion when he
returns from the kill.

During opening arguments, the defense argued that Damm hired Burt to take
Hill away, but not to kill her. They postulated that Burt killed Hill
spontaneously for reasons he may never disclose.

Sincox asked Burt whether Hill's jacket, shirt and bra were still on when
he left her. Burt insisted they were, but photographs of the body show
Hill's shirt pulled up around her shoulder, and her jacket lying crumpled
near her legs. He asked if Burt had ever "made a pass" at Hill, which Burt
denied.

Sincox pointed to apparent inconsistencies in Burt's testimony. Burt told
police interviewers he had agreed to commit the crime for $10,000, though
he later explained that they had never named a final price.

He also suggested that the officer who originally interrogated Burt, had
used the phrase "make her disappear" before Burt implicated Damm in the
murder. Sincox implied that many of the facts Burt says he received from
Damm, including information about the semen-stained napkin, could have
come from investigators and attorneys after his arrest.

Burt remembered being interrogated by officer Mark Meyer, and admitted
that Meyer pushed him to save himself by selling out on Damm, whom the
police already suspected was involved in the murder.

"Part way down the conversation, (Meyer) told me about 'when you go home,'
and I laughed at him," Burt recalled.

Attorneys lay roadmap for case

Beyond the question of David Damm's guilt or innocence, there lies the
undisputed fact that a 13-year-old girl, Donnisha Hill, was murdered on a
dark autumn night in 2006.

Hill's parents, Adonnis Hill and Leneaka Johnson, sat in the courtroom on
Monday, Sept. 22, as the defense and prosecution both gave their opening
arguments. Adonnis carried a thick white towel.

The couple had three children before they parted ways. Donnisha is the
second that they've lost. Their son, Adonnis Jr., passed away when he was
5 months old.

Jo Daviess County State's Attorney Terry Kurt told the jury the story of
what they believe led up to Hill's death. Kurt claimed that Damm, 60, had
sexual relations with Hill, and was afraid that she would testify against
him.

"The defendent, David Damm, had a problem," Kurt said. "He hired Bruce
Burt to make that problem go away."

Kurt described how Darlyne Ballard discovered Hill's body while driving
down Rodden Road to visit her son, and initially thought that it was a
fallen hunter, until she and her neighbor noticed a serrated knife and
stocking cap by the roadside. At the scene, investigators found a Waterloo
Courier newspaper and a ripped-up parent-teacher conference paper in her
pocket.

Police initially focused on Bruce Burt as a suspect because he gave a
bloody 3-pound sledgehammer to a friend and told him to throw it in the
river. The friend threw it in a vacant lot instead, and police recovered
the instrument. They then learned that Burt had been in Damm's shop, East
Side Motors, the morning that Hill disappeared. Phone records show that
the 2 also exchanged calls.

Burt agreed to testify against Damm, and in exchange, prosecutors said
they would not seek the death penalty for Burt.

"You don't have to like Bruce Burt," Kurt told the jury. "He's going to
testify in this court. You don't have to like him. He murdered Donnisha
Hill. But you have to ask yourself why he did it. And he's going to tell
you why he did it. He did it because David Damm asked him to do it. They
are both responsible for this murder."

Kurt asked that at the end of the trial, the jury find Damm guilty of
murder and aggravated kidnapping.

"If you do that, this pathway to justice will be complete," he said.

But the defense promised to convince the jury otherwise.

"The prosecution has just told you a dramatic and very coherent story
about what happened," said attorney Allan Sincox.

But, he said, "That is not how the evidence comes in...the bits and pieces
may not all fit together all that well, and there may be large gaps about
the connections between this piece and that piece and the credibility of
this or that piece...The coherent story you have just heard is just that.
It's a story."

According to the defense, Damm did hire Burt to take Hill away, but not to
kill her. They say he never assaulted her, and that his best shot at
getting the false allegations dropped was to talk her out of testifying.

"It was never intended to be a murder plot," said Sincox. "It was
something that wasn't right, wasn't smart. It was something that neither
one of them should have been doing, interfering with a witness, but it
certainly wasn't murder."

Sincox pointed out that the planning of the crime was poor. As an example
he used the choice of vehicle, a conspicuous white cadillac with a vanity
license plate that said "Biggles," the last name of the owner who lent it
to Burt.

He ran over the description that Burt gave to the police of Hill's last
few hours. During the entire car ride, Burt says that Hill was almost
silent, even when he turned down a dark country road with no explanation.
Hill made no attempt to struggle or run away when the car came to a halt
by the roadside, or when Burt pulled a 3 pound sledgehammer out from
underneath his seat.

At this point in Sincox's retelling, Johnson stumbled into the hall,
crying.

Burt says he then stepped from the vehicle, went around the back, opened
Hill's door, and helped her get out. He had the hammer in his left hand,
and, Sincox said, "bashed this girl's skull in."

Adonnis buried his face in the towel to muffle his sobs.

"When all the evidence is in," Sincox said, "we're going to suggest to you
that Burt's story doesn't make any sense."

Instead, they believe Burt made the decision to kill Hill on his own, and
later claimed that Damm had ordered the murder so that he could escape the
death penalty.

"Why on early would Bruce Burt kill her? I would simply suggest to you
that something happened during the course of this ride. We'll never know
exactly what, because Bruce Burt isn't going to tell us. He's simply
selling what he's selling."

Wednesday, Sept. 24 was the 3rd day of testimony in the trial.

That afternoon, the girl's mother testified. On Sept. 23, the girl's
father testified, and testimony was heard from forensics investigators. On
Sept. 24, Burt took the stand. His testimony is expected to continue on
Sept. 25

Officials estimate the trial could last 4 to 6 weeks.

(source: Galena Gazette, Sept. 25)