June 10
TEXAS:
Coryell County district attorney to seek death penalty in child's death
A Gatesville man with a disturbing history of arrests for sexually abusing
children was indicted June 1 by a Coryell County grand jury on a charge of
capital murder in the death of a 2-year old boy in January.
Chet Shelton, 17, was arrested and booked into the Coryell County Jail. Coryell
County District Attorney Dusty Boyd confirmed his office would seek the death
penalty in any upcoming trial.
On the date of the incident, Shelton was tasked with baby-sitting Gatesville
toddler Makai Brooks Lamar for most of the day while the child's mother worked
a double shift at a local restaurant, according to an arrest affidavit.
The affidavit also said the child's mother came home during a break from work
and the child was fine at that time. After the mother returned to work, Shelton
said he found the boy not breathing and took the child to a neighbor's home
where a Coryell County sheriff's deputy lived.
According to the affidavit, the child died a few hours later at Coryell
Memorial Hospital in Gatesville.
Police immediately began treating the 34th Street home in Gatesville as a crime
scene, beginning in the child's bedroom, where they found bloody bedding and
pillows.
In the arrest affidavit, police highlight several inconsistencies with
Shelton's story regarding the events in the hours before the child's death, one
of which was that Lamar always slept clothed and in a diaper.
According to the affidavit, "when Shelton took the infant child to the
neighbor's house for medical assistance, the infant was wearing no clothing,
not even a diaper."
Serious injuries were confirmed during an autopsy conducted in Dallas. The
preliminary cause of death was labeled as blunt force trauma, as the child has
numerous injuries to his head and internal organs.
The affidavit also said the child had been sodomized, causing "severe, distinct
trauma" to the child.
Shelton's criminal history includes 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a
child in May 2007, 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in December
2007, 2 counts of assault causing serious bodily injury in October 2010 and 4
counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in May 2007.
According to Boyd, in exchange for his guilty plea in the earlier cases, many
of the most serious charges against Shelton were downgraded to injury to a
child, which does not carry a sex offender registration requirement. It was not
clear in which jurisdiction Shelton's previous convictions were filed.
Online jail records show Shelton remains in the Coryell County Jail on several
bonds totaling more than $500,000.
Boyd said Shelton's case is Coryell County's only death penalty case.
It appears to me that a failure of the judicial system allowed Shelton to skirt
the sex offender registration requirement, and avoid lengthy prison terms for
the most serious of his previous crimes. That failure also allowed Shelton to
be free to reoffend at the level of this charge.
Shelton gets his day in court. He will have the opportunity to mount a defense
to the charges. Shelton also will be faced by his accusers.
If found guilty, Shelton deserves the punishment he receives, be it the death
penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. His tiny victim
has no life at all.
(source: John Werff, Cove Herald)
***********
Double shooting charge upgraded to capital murder
Charges for a suspect in a double shooting were upgraded to capital murder
Thursday after prosecutors said his 2nd victim died in the hospital.
Darrell P. Mitchell, 28, is accused of gunning down his ex-girlfriend and her
boyfriend earlier this week at the woman's apartment in northeast Houston.
Lakiesha Lewis, 23, died at the scene and 24-year-old Johnel Francis died late
Tuesday after being taken to the hospital.
In an orange jail uniform, Mitchell made his initial court appearance Thursday
in front of state District Judge Ryan Patrick who ruled that the suspect would
be held without bail, a common condition in capital cases. He had been charged
with murder.
Court records show that Mitchell said he knocked on the door at his
ex-gilrfriend's home at 6603 Hirsch about 3 a.m.
When her boyfriend answered, Mitchell said "his mind went blank and he shot and
killed them," according to the documents.
Mitchell surrendered to police Tuesday night after investigators released
information about the shooting.
In court, prosecutor Keri Fuller said a woman who was Lewis' best friend and
knows Mitchell as Lewis' ex-boyfriend told police that Mitchell told her she
would have to raise his children because he had killed Lewis and her new
boyfriend.
Police have said Mitchell and Lewis had an on-again-off-again relationship and
had recently broken up. Lewis was the mother of his 3 children, ages 5, 3, and
1. The children were not at the apartment at the time of the shooting.
Court records show Mitchell pleaded guilty to assault-family member after he
hit Lewis in 2012. He later was put on probation, which he successfully
completed.
If convicted of capital murder, Mitchell could face the death penalty for
intentionally killing 2 people. Whether to seek death is a decision made by the
elected district attorney Devon Anderson, generally after months of
consultation.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
CONNECTICUT:
Cheshire Killers Could Be Resentenced To Life In Prison Next Week
The death sentences of the Cheshire home invasion killers could be changed to
consecutive life sentences at 2 separate hearings next week, the 1st
proceedings to be held since last month's Supreme Court ruling that spared the
lives of Connecticut's 11 formerly condemned murderers.
Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue has scheduled arguments on pending motions by
Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky that say the killers' prison sentences
should be corrected now that the state's highest court has said the death
penalty is unconstitutional for all in Connecticut. Hayes' hearing is scheduled
for Wednesday. Komisarjevsky's case will be heard June 17.
The motions to correct the death sentences were filed in November following the
Supreme Court's initial August 2015 ruling outlawing capital punishment for all
in the state. When that ruling was appealed, Blue stayed the motions until
after the justices ruled again on the death penalty.
Following the May 26 decision, prosecutors in the Hayes case filed a motion
June 3 saying that Blue should impose consecutive life sentences without the
possibility of parole for Hayes. Prosecutors' response in Komisarjevsky's case
could not be obtained Thursday.
Connecticut abolished the death penalty in April 2012 but made the law
prospective, meaning it applied only to new cases and kept in place the death
sentences already imposed before the bill was passed. The provision was added
after the high-profile trials of Hayes and Komisarjevsky, who were sent to
death row for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and
Michaela, 11, during a July 2007 home invasion.
The men tied up and tortured the family as they ransacked the Petit home for
cash and valuables. Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela, and Hayes raped
and strangled Hawke-Petit. The house was doused with gasoline and set on fire.
Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation. The daughters' father and
Hawke-Petit's husband, William Petit Jr., survived but was severely injured.
After the 2012 repeal of the death penalty, attorneys representing those on
death row challenged the law, saying it violated the condemned inmates'
constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court agreed to take up the
prospective issue during a hearing in April 2013.
In August 2015, the justices ruled 4-3 to ban capital punishment for all
defendants, saying in the majority decision that Connecticut's death penalty no
longer fit with societal values and served no valid purpose as punishment, a
ruling they echoed in a decision last month that essentially ended prosecutors'
fight to keep execution possible for those already on death row.
After last month's ruling, Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane said
prosecutors would "move forward" and seek resentencing for the 11 death-row
prisoners. His office is currently working with defense attorneys on how to
handle the remaining - and older - cases of Robert Breton, Sedrick "Ricky"
Cobb, Daniel Webb, Richard Reynolds, Todd Rizzo, Jessie Campbell III, Russell
Peeler Jr., Lazale Ashby and Richard Roszkowski.
Once the inmates are resentenced, state officials will have to determine
whether the inmates should remain or be transferred out of Northern
Correctional Institution in Somers, the state's highest security prison.
While on death row, inmates were subjected to solitary confinement and more
restrictions than inmates sentenced to life without parole. They were housed in
single cells and received fewer recreation hours and less access to prison
programs and visitors.
(source: Hartford Courant)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Death penalty case against man charged in Ardmore killing set for trial in
September
A Winston-Salem man is going to trial in September on allegations he shot an
Ardmore woman to death during a botched robbery nearly 3 years ago.
Anthony Vinh Nguyen, 24, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of
Shelia Pace Gooden, 43, in 2013. If convicted, Nguyen could face the death
penalty.
Judge Edwin Wilson of Forsyth Superior Court held a brief hearing Thursday in
the case, which is set for trial starting the week of Sept. 6. Attorneys on
both sides will return to court on July 5 to argue several pre-trial motions.
Gooden was killed Oct. 11, 2013. Authorities say Nguyen and 2 other men -
Daniel Aaron Benson, 25, and Steve George Assimos, 24 - broke into Gooden's
house at 700 Magnolia St., held her against her will and stole a flat-screen
television valued at $200.
All 3 are charged with 1st-degree murder as well as kidnapping, burglary and
robbery charges, but Nguyen is the only one facing the death penalty because
prosecutors say he fatally shot Gooden. She was shot once in the head.
According to a search warrant, Benson and Assimos told police that Nguyen shot
Gooden.
Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Martin and Ben White are prosecuting the
case. Because this is a death penalty case, Nguyen has 2 attorneys representing
him - David Botchin and John Bryson.
Botchin and Bryson filed several motions last month. One motion asks a judge to
tell prosecutors that they must turn over any remaining evidence in the case 2
weeks before the start of trial.
Since Nguyen was indicted in 2014, his attorneys have had disputes with
prosecutors over delays in getting evidence. The delays were largely due to
protocols that the State Crime Lab put into place to deal with backlogs. The
Crime Lab places limits on the amount of evidence law-enforcement agencies can
submit for analysis.
In one of the motions filed last month, Botchin and Bryson said it isn't
uncommon for prosecutors to provide discovery right up to the start of the
trial.
"Given that this is a capital case, the need for diligent preparation, and
effective assistance of counsel, the Defendant should not be receiving
discovery in a 'helter skelter' last minute fashion," they write in the motion.
The other motions asks prosecutors to provide information about any meetings
that may have taken place between prosecutors and Nguyen's co-defendants and
other witnesses and any communication between prosecutors and the
co-defendants' attorneys. Assimos and Benson will likely testify, Botchin and
Bryson said.
Proecutors have not responded yet to the motions, which will likely be heard on
July 5. Previously, Martin has said in court that prosecutors have turned over
evidence as soon as they receive it. Martin has declined to comment because the
case is pending.
Martin said in court Thursday that the trial will last at least 6 weeks.
Botchin said the trial could last between 6 weeks and 10 weeks.
Nugyen, Assimos and Benson are all in the Forsyth County Jail with no bond
allowed.
(source: Winston-Salem Journal)
*********************
Judge Ammons volunteers to remove himself from hearing four racial bias cases
A Cumberland County judge on Thursday removed himself from presiding over the
cases of four people who in 2012 used a racial bias law to get off North
Carolina's death row.
During a hearing at the Cumberland County Courthouse, Senior Resident Superior
Court Judge Jim Ammons said he was stepping aside to prevent any allegations
about his ability to be fair from clouding the cases.
The N.C. Supreme Court in December overturned the 4 inmates' reprieves and sent
their cases to Ammons for new hearings under the state's controversial Racial
Justice Act.
Convicted murderers Marcus Reymond Robinson, Quintel Augustine, Tilmon Golphin
and Christina Walters in 2012 were the first and only prisoners in the state to
use the Racial Justice Act to get their death sentences commuted to life in
prison without parole. The law, which was repealed in 2013, allowed death row
inmates to attempt to prove racism was a factor in their cases and, based on
the racism, overturn their death sentences.
The 4 defendants persuaded now-retired Senior Resident Superior Court Judge
Greg Weeks there was racial bias on the part of prosecutors in the selection of
the juries that convicted the defendants and sentenced them to death.
The defendants' lawyers since January filed many hundreds of pages of documents
to argue that Ammons has conflicts of interest and biases that preclude him
from presiding over these cases. They said he has professional and personal
relationships with law enforcement and former colleagues in the Cumberland
County District Attorney's Office that would keep him from fairly deciding
whether Augustine, Walters, Robinson and Golphin should again be removed from
death row.
The lawyers accuse some of Ammons' former colleagues of racial bias and have
noted that his brother-in-law used to be head of the N.C. Highway Patrol. One
of Golphin's victims was a Highway Patrol trooper.
In the court papers and again at Thursday morning's hearing, the lawyers
alleged that Ammons showed racial bias when he was a prosecutor in the 1980s
and used peremptory challenges to prevent several blacks from serving on a jury
in a death penalty trial.
Ammons, his voice raised sometimes in apparent anger, said he could fairly
decide the cases.
"I have sworn to administer judgment without favoritism to anyone or to the
state. I will not violate those oaths for anyone or anything," he said.
Later, he formally denied the defense lawyers' requests to recuse himself.
But moments after that Ammons announced he would step aside.
"As I looked out into this courtroom this morning, 2 things became very clear
to me," he said.
"No. 1: The enormous time, effort and expense these 9 defense counsel have
devoted to the sole issue of replacing me with another judge.
"No. 2: The continued burden of uncertainty and the toll of time that has
happened over the last 25 years in some incidences, on all parties.
"For these reasons, I will not allow my properly presiding over any of these
cases to continue to be an issue when the court's true task should be
determining the merits of these claims."
Ammons said he would assign another judge or judges to take over the case.
Defense lawyer Jay Ferguson and the others said Ammons should not be involved
in the selection of any replacement judge "because of conflict and biases
alleged in our motion to recuse."
At that, Ammons said he would leave it up to the state Administrative Office of
the Courts to pick the judge.
A replacement judge will be appointed by the chief justice of the state Supreme
Court, spokeswoman Sharon Gladwell said. "No timeline is established; however,
appointments usually are made expeditiously," she said.
Robinson, Augustine and Walters were in the courtroom Thursday and sat in
shackles next to their lawyers. Golphin elected not to attend, but his lawyers
were there on his behalf.
About 50 spectators attended, including relatives of the defendants' victims.
Robinson and an accomplice kidnapped, robbed and murdered teenager Erik
Tornblom in 1991.
Golphin and his brother, Kevin Golphin, killed Cumberland County Deputy David
Hathcock and N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Ed Lowry during a traffic stop on
Interstate 95 in 1997.
In 1998, Christina Walters led a gang that kidnapped 3 women, drove them to
remote areas and shot them execution-style. Tracy Lambert and Susan Moore died,
and the 3rd victim barely survived.
Quintel Augustine was convicted of shooting Fayetteville police Officer Roy
Turner Jr. to death in 2001. Augustine maintains his innocence.
Afterward, Al Lowry, who was Ed Lowry's brother, criticized the proceedings.
"They keep crying foul. The decision's been made for the death penalty. And
we've been 19 years and counting. Nothing ought to take this long," he said.
"No matter what judge they select, it's always going to be an excuse on their
side."
----
The inmates
Marcus Reymond Robinson and an accomplice kidnapped, robbed and murdered
teenager Erik Tornblom in 1991. 16 years later, Robinson was hours from being
put to death before a judge halted all executions in North Carolina over legal
questions about North Carolina's execution method.
Tilmon Golphin and his brother Kevin killed Cumberland County Deputy David
Hathcock and state Highway Patrol Trooper Ed Lowry during a traffic stop on
Interstate 95 in 1997.
In 1998, Christina Walters led a gang that kidnapped 3 women, drove them to
remote areas and shot them execution-style. Tracy Lambert and Susan Moore died;
the 3rd victim barely survived.
Quintel Augustine was convicted of shooting Fayetteville police Officer Roy
Turner Jr. to death in 2001. He maintains that he is innocent.
HISTORY OF THE RACIAL JUSTICE ACT
August 2009: North Carolina passes the Racial Justice Act. It allows death row
inmates to seek review of racial influence in their cases. If discriminatory
practices are found, the inmates' sentences can be converted to life in prison
without parole.
April 2012: Out of about 150 claims filed by death row inmates, Marcus Robinson
of Cumberland County was the 1st defendant to present evidence alleging racial
bias in his trial. Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks rules that racism affected
Robinson's trial and converts his sentence to life in prison without parole.
July 2012: Lawmakers amend the Racial Justice Act to make it more difficult for
defendants to prove allegations of racism.
October 2012: Quintel Augustine, Christina Walters and Tilmon Golphin - all
convicted for Cumberland County homicides - present their Racial Justice Act
cases.
December 2012: Weeks rules that racism influenced their trials. He converts
their sentences to life in prison without parole.
June 2013: The legislature repeals the Racial Justice Act.
December 2015: The state Supreme Court overturns Weeks' rulings in the
Robinson, Augustine, Walters and Golphin cases and sends them back to
Cumberland County Superior Court to be done again.
(source: Fayetteville Observer)
ARKANSAS:
Death sentence voided by court ---- Justices remand case; jurors didn't have
full set of forms
Failure by prosecutors to supply jurors with the required number of sentencing
forms prompted the Arkansas Supreme Court to void a prisoner's death sentence
in a double murder from New Year's Eve 3 decades ago.
By a 5-2 margin, the high court recalled its mandate to execute Steven Wertz,
66, reversed the death sentence handed out by jurors after a 2007 trial and
remanded the case to circuit court for resentencing.
Justice Robin Wynne noted that jurors filled out 1 set of forms indicating
Wertz's guilt in the 1986 slaying of an Ash Flat couple -- Terry and Kathy
Watts -- but did not fill out the requisite 2nd set that detailed aggravating
and mitigating circumstances.
The Sharp County oversight constituted a "defect in the appellate process,"
which receives heightened scrutiny from the Supreme Court in capital cases.
"The submission of a single set of [sentencing] forms makes it impossible to
determine whether the jury applied the aggravator to Terry's murder, Kathy's
murder, or both murders," Wynne wrote. "The submission of a single set of forms
was an error that impacts the validity of the death sentence imposed by the
jury, as, under our law, it is necessary for an aggravating factor to be found
to exist before a death sentence can be imposed, and we cannot say from this
record to which count or counts of capital murder the aggravators were
applied."
Justice Rhonda Wood dissented, arguing that there was no breakdown in the
appellate process.
Dissenting in a separate opinion, Justice Paul Danielson wrote that if any
error occurred, it was during the guilt phase and not the penalty-sentencing
phase.
Danielson wrote that the older version of the state's capital murder statute
used in Wertz's prosecution required two or more deaths to qualify as a single
capital murder offense.
"My review of our cases ... reveals that a person charged under that statute
with causing 2 or more deaths was historically charged with, tried for, and
convicted of only 1 count," Danielson wrote. "Rather than [recall the mandate]
... I would order supplemental briefing ... of whether a double-jeopardy
violation occurred."
Double jeopardy is a defense that prevents someone from being tried twice for
the same crime.
Terry Watts was blasted with a shotgun through a window early on Dec. 31, 1986.
He was shot again at close range, and his throat was slashed.
Prosecutors said Wertz then pried open a bedroom door where Kathy Watts was
hiding and shot her at close range. The couple's 1-year-old child was unharmed
and was found on Terry Watts' corpse.
Wertz, who lived in Oklahoma at the time, told investigators that he and Jamie
Snyder Jr. spent Dec. 30, 1986, at his home. Investigators verified his alibi
that the next day he went to a clinic.
In 2001, a detective reopened the cold case and over the course of five years,
found enough cause to have Wertz and Snyder arrested and charged in the
slayings.
Snyder testified against Wertz, whose motive was that Wertz's wife was in a
child custody dispute with Terry Watts.
Wertz was convicted and sentenced in July 2007. The high court later ruled
against him on appeal on other issues.
But during oral arguments in February of this year, the question of whether
Wertz was properly convicted of 1 or 2 capital murder charges caught the
justices' attention. They ordered further briefs, leading to Thursday's ruling.
State attorneys argued that the couple's murder was a single incident and that
though charged with 2 counts of capital murder, the single set of forms was
sufficient for a single conviction and sentence of the crime.
Wertz's attorney argued that Wertz's rights to due process were violated by not
having jurors spell out the aggravating and mitigating factors in both of the
Wattses' killings.
Wertz remains imprisoned at the state's maximum-security lockup in Gould.
(source: arkanksasonline.com)
USA:
Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof waives right to jury trial
Dylann Roof, the suspect charged with fatally shooting 9 people at a historic
black church in Charleston, S.C., last June, is seeking to waive his right to a
jury trial, according to court papers.
Lawyers for Roof, 22, of Columbia, S.C., indicated the suspect's intent in a
notice they filed Thursday in U.S. District Court. The move would leave Roof's
future up to a judge.
"Pursuant to this order, the defendant hereby states that he is willing to
waive jury, and to be tried and sentenced by the court," read the notice filed
by Roof lawyers David Bruck, based in Lexington, Va., and Michael O'Connell,
based in Mount Pleasant, S.C.
The notice also indicated, though, that a lawyer for the federal government has
informed Roof's lawyers that that "the government will not consent to waive
jury at either stage of this case."
Roof's trial is set to begin Nov. 7. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
(source: USA Today)
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