January 17
NORTH CAROLINA:
Closing arguments begin in trial for man facing death penalty
Closing arguments began Tuesday afternoon in the trial of a man facing the
death penalty in connection with a 2014 double homicide in Fuquay-Varina.
Donovan Richardson was 1 of 3 men charged in connection with the shooting and
killing Arthur Lee Brown, 78, and David Eugene McKoy, 66, on July 19, 2014.
Authorities said robbery appeared to be a motive in the shooting.
On Tuesday morning, the state rested its case after putting on evidence that a
man was asked to call 1 of the witnesses in the trial last week and to tell her
not to take the stand. He was permitted to testify without his face on camera
per the judge's order.
Damieon Levon Jacobs, 21, of 107 W. Maple Ave. in Holly Springs, told the jury
that a man called him and asked him to contact a woman named Jamila Gilliam and
ask her to not to testify against Richardson. Jacobs testified the following
day he received a call from Richardson in jail making sure he had made the
call.
Jacobs is charged with intimidating a witness and is being held without bond.
Gilliam did testify and admitted to receiving the call, but said she was not
threatened by it in any way.
After this testimony, the jurors got a chance to look at the state's physical
evidence displayed in the courtroom.
The last person to face the death penalty in Wake County was Nathan Holden, who
was convicted of the 2014 murder of his ex-wife's parents and sentenced to life
in prison without parole in March 2017.
A Wake County jury has not sentenced anyone to death since 2007, and a decision
to do so requires a unanimous decision by all 12 jurors.
(soruce: WRAL news)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
SC Bill Would Shield Execution-Drug Companies From Public----South Carolina is
proposing protecting the identities of companies that provide the state with
execution drugs.
The identities of companies that sell execution drugs to South Carolina would
be protected under a bill proposed by a state lawmaker on Tuesday.
Spartanburg Rep. Eddie Tallon told The Associated Press that the bill he's
filing will make drug suppliers part of the execution team, so that just like
employees in the death chamber who carry out the sentence, the companies'
identities will be shielded by state law.
Public pressure has made pharmaceutical companies reluctant to sell drugs
knowing they'll be used to end lives, not save them. Nearly a dozen states have
passed laws providing secrecy for suppliers in response.
"If South Carolina is going to have the death penalty, then we need to have a
way to carry it out," Tallon told the AP.
Lawmakers have been looking for ways to carry out executions since the state's
supply of lethal injection drugs expired in 2013. The state has not conducted
any executions since 2011, in part because the drugs have not been available.
Another possibility is empowering the state to electrocute inmates when the
drugs aren't available. Currently, inmates can only be electrocuted if they
request that method. South Carolina last used electrocution in 2008, to put
James Earl Reed to death for the 1996 killing of his ex-girlfriend's parents.
Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has warned repeatedly in legislative
testimony that the state can't obtain the drugs it needs without such secrecy.
Gov. Henry McMaster made the same point last year after the state Supreme Court
scheduled a Dec. 1 execution for 52-year-old Bobby Wayne Stone, who is on death
row for killing a Sumter County sheriff's deputy in 1996. McMaster said the
state couldn't carry it out due to a lack of lethal injection drugs, and called
on lawmakers to shield their identities so that executions could resume.
"It's their decision on whether or not we have the death penalty," Stirling
told the AP. "It's just my job to make sure we have ways to carry it out."
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Lawmaker wants State Attorney Aramis Ayala stripped of Osceola County
murder-for-hire case
Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson holds a news conference in reference to the
alleged kidnapping and murder of a Kissimmee woman
State Rep. Bob Cortes, R- Altamonte Springs, wants Orange-Osceola State
Attorney Aramis Ayala removed from a murder-for-hire case that left Janice
Zengotita Torres dead and her body dumped in Ormond Beach.
In a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, Cortes requested that the case be reassigned
because he said he does not trust Ayala's office will seek the death penalty,
after a legal battle over Ayala's stance on the death penalty. Ayala has since
created a review board to decide in which cases death penalty will be sought.
"She has proven that she has a lack of objectivity in the search for justice in
cases of death penalty," Cortes wrote.
Ayala's office issued a statement Tuesday in response to the letter.
"The author of the letter may not be aware this issue has been resolved," her
statement said, referring to the review panel. "State Attorney Ayala will
continue to seek justice, fight for victims and follow the law."
Zengotita Torres, a native of Ponce, Puerto Rico, lived in Osceola County with
her husband and son.
"God knows how much I love you and will love you. Fly high my love. Someday
we're going to see (sic)," her husband posted on his Facebook account.
Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said Ishnar Marie Lopez, upset that a "man
she loved" was in a relationship with another woman, hired Alexis Ramos and his
girlfriend, Glorianmarie Quinones Montes, to kill the woman.
Ramos and Montes accepted the job but targeted the wrong woman, Gibson said.
They realized their mistake after kidnapping Zengotita Torres but killed her
anyway, the sheriff said.
The suspects - as well as Zengotita Torres and her family - recently moved to
Central Florida from Puerto Rico.
In a telephone interview, Cortes, whose parents are from Puerto Rico, said he
wants the message to be clear: "Those who come in search of the American dream,
who come to work and fight to get their family forward, they are more than
welcome. Now, those who come with the bad tricks, who know that in Florida the
laws are stronger than in Puerto Rico, here there is the death penalty and it
will be implemented."
Cortes' district includes parts of Orange and Seminole counties, but does not
extend to Osceola County.
Ayala, who took office in January 2017, announced in March that she would not
seek the death penalty in any case. The governor removed 29 first-degree murder
cases assigned to Ayala's office and handed them over to Ocala-based State
Attorney Brad King.
In August, the Florida Supreme Court sided with Scott in a 5-2 decision. Ayala
responded by establishing a panel of prosecutors to review potential
death-penalty cases.
Cortes said that's not enough.
"I want this case to be a death sentence," he said. "This is a shame that such
a crime happens in our jurisdiction, and there should be no doubt that whoever
commits a vile act of this magnitude should be prosecuted with all the force of
the law."
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
***********
2 death penalty trials begin in Palm Beach County
Trials in 2 separate cases where Palm Beach County prosecutors are seeking the
death penalty are likely to begin this week, with 2 sets of prospective jurors
now in jury selection.
Jury selection began Thursday in the case of John Eugene Chapman, the
28-year-old Miami man who is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death before
he dumped her body in a Delray Beach ditch.
Chapman, who fathered a child with Bristol, was arrested on unrelated charges
less than 2 weeks after Vanessa Carmen Williams Bristol's body was found in a
shallow ditch at 14930 Smith Sundy Road in unincorporated Delray Beach. The day
after that arrest, he told investigators he punched Bristol several times in
the head outside a suburban Boca Raton housing development, then "snapped" and
"went into robotic mode," stabbing her repeatedly when he saw her reach for a
knife.
Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott and Assistant Public Defender Scott Pribble
continued jury selection Tuesday after narrowing down 2 initial pools of
prospective jurors last week. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath is presiding over
the trial, which is expected to begin later this week.
Another pool of prospective jurors arrived at Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes'
courtroom Tuesday, where jury selection has begun in the trial of Jefty Joseph,
1 of 3 people arrested in the December 2013 shooting death of 31-year-old
Gustavo Mora Falsetti Cabral.
Joseph and another man, Ilmart Christophe, were arrested almost immediately
after Cabral, of Coconut Creek, was shot in an abandoned building at 5973
Ithaca Circle West, east of Jog Road.
Both men blamed the crime on each other, each saying the other took Cabral
inside the building and shot him after a night of drinking and gambling and
emerged after the gunshot. But it was in Joseph's pockets that detectives said
they found the victim's license, credit cards, watch and a bank receipt.
Joseph told investigators he was at the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek on
Saturday and was with the victim, who he's known since they were children. He
told investigators he had Cabral's property because Cabral had gotten drunk and
didn't want to spend anymore money, so he asked Joseph to keep his
identification cards and credit cards.
Detectives arrested a third person, Koral Ben Shimon, weeks after Joseph and
Christophe when they identified her in surveillance video at a Pompano Beach
Super 8 Motel linked to a room card key also found in Joseph's pocket.
The video also showed Ben Shimon meeting the victim in the motel's parking lot
Dec. 1, 2013. Ben Shimon went into the hotel room first and Cabral followed.
The 4 are then seen leaving the motel and Joseph has what appears to be a
handgun in his pocket.
Detectives also connected Ben Shimon to the victim after finding phone calls
between the 2 and her phone number as a contact for a Backpage.com escort ad.
She told detectives the 3 were planning to rob Cabral, but she said she didn't
know they were going to kill him.
In a plea deal with prosecutors, Ben Shimon pleaded guilty to robbery and
kidnapping charges in exchange for a sentence of 10 years in prison and 5
years' probation. Prosecutors' case against Christophe is still open. His next
hearing is set for Jan. 31.
(source: Palm Beach Post)
OHIO:
Uncle set to testify against nephew who faces death penalty in Cleveland double
slaying
An uncle is expected to testify against his nephew, who faces the death penalty
if convicted of the execution-style killing of his longtime friend and the
friend's roommate during a 2016 robbery at an apartment in Cleveland's
warehouse district.
James Johnson and an unknown assailant burst into the 8th-floor apartment of
Johnson's longtime friend Rashaad Bandy in search of money and drugs,
prosecutors said.
Johnson shot Bandy's roommate Brandon James in the back as James tried to run
away, then made Bandy, whom Johnson had known since he was a child, get down on
his knees and fired a single bullet into the back of Bandy's head, prosecutors
said.
Johnson's uncle is expected to help prosecutors connect him to the slayings.
The uncle, who is an arson investigator for the Cleveland fire department, is
expected to testify that he saw Johnson pull into a gas station the morning
after the slayings and dump a bag that investigators say contained the same
pair of Timberland boots that the shooter wore during the attack.
Johnson, whose trial began last week with jury selection, is the first
defendant facing the death penalty to go to trial under Cuyahoga County
Prosecutor Michael O'Malley.
Two other witnesses who were in the apartment at the time are also expected to
testify.
Defense attorney Kevin Cafferkey declared in his opening statements that
Johnson is not guilty of the charges he faces.
Bandy and James were known drug dealers and worked out of their eighth-floor
apartment, Cafferkey said. The attack that ended with their deaths was actually
retribution, because Jones and Bandy had robbed someone else of money and drugs
in the weeks prior, Cafferkey said.
The assailants burst into the apartment and immediately asked for the "stuff"
and money, Cafferkey said.
It wasn't until James ran away that shots were fired, Cafferkey said. A bullet
struck James, and the shooter stood over him and said, "you're not dead,"
Cafferkey said.
The attackers then went directly for 2 duffel bags, and left, Cafferkey said.
They did not ransack the apartment, and left large amounts of marijuana and a
loaded pistol in the back bedroom where the duffel bags were stashed.
"In this case, there was no evidence of intent to kill," he said.
Cafferkey acknowledged that Johnson's DNA would be in the apartment, because
Bandy and Johnson were related and Johnson had been to the apartment several
times before.
Defense lawyers are also expected to prod the eyewitnesses who picked out
Johnson's photograph from a lineup given by police detectives. Johnson has a
lazy eye, and his lawyers say his was the only photograph included in the
lineup that had a lazy eye.
(source: cleveland.com)
OKLAHOMA:
Texas man on trial in fatal Oklahoma interstate shootings
A Texas man accused of killing 2 people as he drunkenly shot at vehicles while
driving along a freeway in Oklahoma is in court to face murder charges.
Trial began Tuesday for 38-year-old Jeremy Doss Hardy of Pasadena. He faces 2
counts of 1st-degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and other
offenses. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Investigators say Hardy
fired randomly at vehicles along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma on Dec. 16,
2015. The attack killed 45-year-old Kent Powell of Arapaho, Oklahoma, and
63-year-old Billie Jean West of Lone Wolf, Oklahoma.
Prosecutors allege Hardy identified with a group that believes the federal
government is plotting to remove American citizens' rights. They plan to use
evidence about his political beliefs to show a possible motive for the
shootings.
(source: Associated Press)
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