Oct. 21
GEORGIA:
Sentenced to death, inmate now faces new penalties
The Georgia Supreme Court says that the death penalty is not enough punishment
for a Walker County killer.
In an opinion released Monday morning, the justices unanimously ruled that the
sentence was "favorable to the defendant" in the case of Donnie Allen Hulett.
In April 2004, a jury convicted Hulett of murdering 2 brothers, and Superior
Court Judge Jon "Bo" Wood sentenced him to death.
The top court's decision could delay Hulett's execution in a case that has
dragged on for 10 years. A month after his conviction in 2004, attorneys for
Hulett asked for a new trial, as often happens after a guilty verdict in a
criminal case.
But the appeal lingered for 9 years. Wood did not deny Hulett's request for a
new trial until 2013. And because Wood did not deny the motion until last year,
Hulett's attorney did not appeal it further up the judicial chain until this
year.
Now, because of an error 10 years ago, Hulett is due to return to Walker County
Superior Court for a new sentencing hearing. The Supreme Court said Wood was
too soft.
In all, the jury convicted Hulett in 2004 of 17 different crimes. Those crimes
included 2 counts of malice murder.
When Wood sentenced Hulett, he gave him the death penalty for malice murder and
"merged" all the other charges. But the Supreme Court justices say Wood should
not have done that. They ruled that Wood should have punished Hulett separately
for a couple of his crimes: robbery and possession of a firearm by a convicted
felon.
The Supreme Court says that those crimes were committed separately from the
murder.
The court's reasoning? If Hulett had not been found guilty of murder, he would
have still been guilty of robbery. And if Hulett had not been found guilty of
robbery or murder, he would have still been found guilty of carrying a firearm
when he was not allowed to have one.
The Supreme Court found that Wood was unfair to prosecutors, though prosecutors
asked Wood to "merge" the charges when he sentenced Hulett. No prosecutor has
objected to that since the sentencing.
Supreme Court Justice Carol Hunstein wrote, "if we notice a merger issue in a
direct appeal, as we have here, we regularly resolve that issue, even where
(it) was not raised in the trial court and is not enumerated as error on the
appeal."
Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin
said the Supreme Court's ruling surprised him. 10 years ago, he asked Wood to
"merge" the charges because he thought that would reduce Hulett's chances of
winning an appeal down the line.
"We try to err on the side of caution," he said.
(source: TimesFreePress)
FLORIDA:
Parents face death penalty in toddler's death
2 Pensacola parents who failed to seek treatment for their severely burned
toddler have been charged with murder and are facing the death penalty,
according to the State Attorney's Office.
Christopher Redd, 39 and Jennifer Gail Perry, 29, were both charged with
1st-degree felony murder in the death of their 2-year-old son Bryson.
According to the couple's July arrest report, Perry told the Pensacola police
that boiling water from the stove fell onto the child. According to the PPD, he
had second and third degree burns over 35 % of his body.
The report said the family waited approximately 2 weeks before calling 911
because they had been previously investigated by the Department of Children and
Families and didn't know how what to say about Bryson's injuries.
Both are being held in Escambia County Jail without bond, and their next
scheduled court date is Dec. 16.
(source: Pensacola News Journal)
*****************
Florida quadruple-murder suspect faces death penalty after leaving bodies to
rot on hill ---- Adam Matos, 28, allegedly lived with the bodies for a week as
the decomposed in a field a short distance from the Hudson, Fla., home. He's
accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Megan Brown, her new boyfriend and her
parents, then fleeing the scene with his 4-year-old autistic son.
A callous Florida killer who cops say lived beside the rotting bodies of his
ex-girlfriend and her 3 family members for a week after killing them now faces
the death penalty in the heinous quadruple murder.
Adam Matos, 28, was busted the day after authorities found the four bodies
stacked up on a hill Sept. 4 in Hudson, a waterfront town 45 miles north of
Tampa.
Matos shot dead ex Megan Brown, 27, bludgeoned her new boyfriend, 37-year-old
Nicholas Leonard, to death, before shooting and beating the woman's parents,
Gregory and Margaret Brown, both 52, to death.
Margaret Brown had a plastic bag pulled over her head, while Gregory Brown had
been shot in the chest.
Between the killings and his arrest, Matos cared for his autistic son, Ismael
"Tristan" Santisteban while covering up his crimes, police said. According to
court documents, he told neighbors the family was on vacation and used Margaret
Brown's debit card to buy pizza for the 4-year-old and a shovel for the
burials.
Matos, 28, has been in police custody since Sept. 5, when a SWAT team cornered
him in a downtown Tampa hotel. Ismael was with him, unharmed.
The arrest ended a frantic 12-hour Amber Alert search for the boy. Police began
hunting for the father-son duo on Sept. 4 when they found the 4 bodies and no
trace of Matos and Tristan.
Police believe Matos killed the 4 on Aug. 28 and then lived at the home with
the bodies nearby for a week, the Tampa Tribune reported.
That was the last day anyone saw the family alive, and was the same day Megan
Brown called police to report Matos had held a knife to her throat and
threatened to kill her, the Tribune reported.
He fled before cops arrived, but neighbors spotted Matos at the house later
that afternoon, sweaty and out of breath, according to police records.
Matos had lived in the home with the Browns since July, when he moved with them
from Pennsylvania to Florida - and stayed even after Megan Brown broke up with
him. Days later, when the Browns' next-door neighbors, Ryan McCann, asked where
Megan and her parents were, Matos told him the three had taken a trip to West
Virginia.
Meanwhile, Matos sold 6 of the family's dogs through Craigslist.com listings,
earning $50 for each pup the family had bred. He used Margaret Brown's debit
card to buy a shovel from Walmart - which he likely used to bury his victim's
bodies near the house, police said. He also used the card to order Papa John's.
Police visited the house on Sept. 4 after a worried friend couldn't get in
touch with any of the Browns. When officers saw birds circling the air, they
discovered the maggot-covered, decomposing bodies.
Inside the home, cops found weapons, as well as blood-soaked sheets and rugs
and blood and maggots inside a minivan in the home's garage, the Tampa Bay
Times reported.
Matos faces 4 1st-degree murder charges and pleaded not guilty. He is next due
in court Dec. 9. During a jailhouse interview last month, the accused killer
proclaimed his innocence - though he admitted the evidence pointed at him.
(source: New York Daily News)
OHIO:
Alleged Ohio highway shooter faces death penalty
A man accused of kidnapping his estranged girlfriend from her Kentucky home and
fatally shooting her on Interstate 75 in Ohio faces 5 charges and the death
penalty.
A Warren County, Ohio, grand jury indicted Terry Froman on Monday on 2 counts
of aggravated murder, 2 counts of kidnapping and 1 charge of discharging a
firearm on I-75 in the Sept. 12 death of Kim Thomas, of Mayfield, Ky.
Froman, 41, of Illinois, is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Wednesday
in Warren County Common Pleas Court.
He also faces capital charges in Kentucky in the shooting death of Thomas'
17-year-old son, Michael "Eli" Mohney. Authorities say Froman executed Mohney
as he tried to defend his mother from the kidnapping at their home.
Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said Warren County will prosecute
Froman first before he is transferred to Kentucky.
Thomas was found dead, shot multiple times, across the back seat of Froman's
white 2004 GMC Yukon after Froman, with police on his tail, stopped the SUV on
the berm of I-75 in Turtlecreek Township. He allegedly shot Thomas, then shot
himself in the chest. A spokesman for the Ohio State Highway Patrol had said
Froman tried to commit suicide, but his injuries were not life-threatening.
The incident shut down I-75 for about6 hours.
"There is evil in the world and I think what we believe happened in this
particular case is evidence of that."
A multistate search for Froman began early Sept. 12 after Thomas' co-workers at
a Mayfield, Ky., nursing home went to her nearby residence to check on her when
Thomas did not show up for work.
Authorities in Graves County, Ky., said Froman is accused of fatally shooting
Mohney, in the residence before abducting Thomas. A bloodied Thomas tried to
flee at a Food Mart in Paducah, Ky., on the morning of Sept. 12, but Froman
caught her, put her in the vehicle and took off.
Froman then stopped at his mother's home in Paducah covered in blood. His
mother called police after he left, Graves County Commonwealth Attorney David
Hargrove said earlier.
"This is a case that has rocked that community of Graves County, Ky.,"
Fornshell said.
Froman and Thomas had lived together but broke up in late August or early
September, Fornshell said.
Fornshell said he called Thomas' family and spoke with her father Monday
morning before holding a news conference to announce the indictment.
"I could tell he was choked up about the fact that at least the 1st step of
justice had started," Fornshell said. "There is evil in the world and I think
what we believe happened in this particular case is evidence of that."
(source: USA Today)
COLORADO:
Dunlap death row decision by Gov. John Hickenlooper haunts victim's father but
not other family members
The father of slain 17-year-old talks about Gov. John Hickenlooper's decision
to grant the killer an indefinite reprieve.
A heartbroken father whose daughter was killed during a rampage at a suburban
Chuck E. Cheese blistered Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper for granting an
indefinite reprieve to death row inmate Nathan Dunlap.
Dennis O'Connor called Hickenlooper a "coward" in a tough-to-watch 13-minute
video released Monday by A Better Colorado Future, a political 527 overseen by
Republican political operatives Andy George and Kelly Maher. His daughter,
Colleen, was 17.
"He took the coward's way out at the expense of my daughter," O'Connor said.
"He's a coward who doesn't deserve to be in office. If you can do anything,
Coloradans, get this guy out of here before he screws everything up."
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, faces a challenge from former Congressman Bob
Beauprez, a Republican.
O'Connor's former wife, Jodie McNally-Damore, has a different opinion of
Hickenlooper's decision. Dunlap, she told CNN, "deserves to stay exactly in the
hole that he's in -- let him rot."
And Colleen's cousin, Gillian McNally, told Colorado Public Radio that she
"fully supports" Gov. Hickenlooper's decision. "I actually thought it was very
brave," McNally said.
Maher said her organization has cut a 30-second and a one-minute campaign ad
from the video, but still is making a decision on how to proceed.
Colleen was shot at the Aurora pizzeria where Dunlap he used to work at before
being fired. He killed four people and severely injured a 5th. Dunlap was
scheduled to be executed last year and some thought the Democratic governor
might commute the killer's sentence to life in prison, instead, but the
governor chose an indefinite reprieve. Hickenlooper said 3 jurors have said if
they knew Dunlap was bi-polar they wouldn't have voted to give him the death
penalty.
"This is an awful tragedy and Nathan Dunlap will die in prison," the governor's
campaign manager, Brad Komar, said when asked about the video. "The governor's
decision was based in his opposition to the death penalty while respecting that
others disagree. It is a legitimate question whether the state should take a
life."
(source: Denver Post)
ARIZONA:
Arizona jury to consider death penalty for murderer Jodi Arias
An Arizona jury will be sworn in on Tuesday to decide whether 34-year-old
convicted murderer Jodi Arias will be executed for the 2008 slaying of Travis
Alexander, court officials said.
After months of delays, a 12-member jury is set to be impaneled in Maricopa
County Superior Court in downtown Phoenix in the penalty phase retrial of the
former California waitress.
Arias was found guilty of 1st-degree murder in May 2013 for killing Alexander,
30, in his Mesa, Arizona, home. Alexander was found slumped in his shower after
being stabbed 27 times, having his throat slashed and being shot in the face.
Arias testified for 18 days, claiming she acted in self-defense, while
prosecutors said she murdered Alexander in a jealous rage.
The jury found her guilty and quickly decided that she was eligible for the
death penalty. But they deadlocked on what her punishment should be, prompting
Judge Sherry Stephens to declare a mistrial.
The 5-month trial featured lurid testimony and grim crime-scene photographs,
drawing many U.S. television and Internet viewers with the aid of live-streamed
broadcasts. The penalty phase retrial, however, will not be broadcast live.
It took roughly 3 weeks to seat the new jury, from a pool of roughly 400
people. If that jury deadlocks, the death penalty will be off the table, and
Stephens will decide if Arias gets life in prison, or life without the
possibility of parole for 25 years.
(source: Reuters)
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