April 21 INDIANA----impending execution Man to be executed pleads for clemency----He tells Parole Board he didn't intend to kill. A man scheduled to be executed in two weeks for the murder of a 77-year-old neighbor asked Friday that he be spared, saying he was trying to retrieve his mother's belongings and did not intend to kill the man. David Leon Woods tried to place some of the blame for his problems on his mother and his friend during a 50-minute clemency hearing at the Indiana State Prison. He said he had a tumultuous relationship with his mother and was constantly trying to gain her approval. "I was always trying to seek her love that I never really experienced growing up," Woods said. He said his mother, Mary Pilkington, accused him of doing things he didnt do and setting him up for police. Woods said he went to Juan Placencias home in Garrett with 2 friends in April 1984 to break in and retrieve some items his mother had left at her former boyfriend's house. He said his mother told him nobody would be home and no one answered when he knocked on the door. When Woods broke in, though, suddenly Placencia was there. Woods said he didn't recognize him at first even though Placencia was a friend. "I was startled. Nobody was supposed to be there," Woods said. "It was just a reaction." Woods said he had been drinking and using drugs before going to Placencia's house. He said he stabbed Placencia once in the stomach and then went to the telephone to call for help. But he said Placencia made a threatening motion with a baseball bat, warning him not to call anyone. Woods said Placencia then said to him: "Why are you doing this?" Woods said when Placencia started to make noises, his friend told him to shut Placencia up, so he stabbed him some more. "All of a sudden I just started seeing red. I seen a picture of my mother's face. There she is, lying at me again. It's repeating. Every time I do something for my mother it seems like I end up getting in trouble for something," he said. "I wasn't seeing Juans face. I was seeing my mother." When Parole Board member Valerie Parker asked Woods why he didn't just call Placencia to get the belongings, he said he never gave it a thought. When she asked why he listened to his friend, Woods said: "It was total chaos. It was just a mess. I was confused." Woods told the Parole Board that he found religion while in prison and was at peace with what he had done. "The hardest part was forgiving myself. But Im doing this through Jesus Christ, my personal savior," he said. "I never thought I would be able to forgive myself in a million years. Only through Jesus Christ I was able to do this." He finished the hearing by apologizing to his family and friends and Placencia's family. (source: Associated Press) **************** Mother pleased with life sentence for girl's killer The mother of a 12-year-old girl who was abducted and killed in 2004 said she's satisfied that a judge sentenced her daughter's killer to life in prison. Jeffrey Voss, 42, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Indianapolis man had struck a plea deal in February to avoid the death penalty. He declined to speak during his sentencing hearing for the death of Christina Tedder, who was last seen on Christmas Eve 2004 at a gas station near her apartment complex on the city's east side. Her body was found days later in a creek near McCordsville in Hancock County. "I think (he will) suffer a lot more having life in prison," the girl's mother, Michelle Tedder, said after the hearing. "I'm happy with the decision everybody made and feel confident that justice has been served." Christina's 16-year-old brother, William Mendoza, testified that he dearly loved his sister. "I know God says I should forgive you. But I can't," Mendoza said. "I hate you with all my heart. I hate you for what you did to my sister." (sources: Niwitimes.com & Associated Press) ***************************** Garrett slayer seeking clemency from board A Garrett native facing execution next month asked for mercy Friday but told the Parole Board to grant the wishes of his victim's family - most of whom want him put to death. David Leon Woods, 42, faces execution May 4. He has been on death row since 1985 for the stabbing death of 77-year-old Garrett resident Juan Placencia. Woods, wearing a red jumpsuit with his hands shackled, sat facing the parole board during a hearing at the Indiana State Prison. Woods told the board that if the family of Placencia - a father of 13 - doesn't feel he shows remorse, he should be put to death. Friday's hearing was held so parole board members could explore the nature of Woods' crime, his prior criminal record and his conduct while incarcerated and make a recommendation for the governor. A public hearing where friends and family of Woods and his victim can testify is scheduled for Monday in Indianapolis. Woods will not be in attendance. At 2:30 p.m. Monday, the board will give its recommendation regarding clemency. Several of Placencia's surviving family members plan to testify, and most still seek the death penalty for Woods, daughter Mary Ann Petre said Friday. Friday, Woods told the parole board that he and 2 other men, Patrick Sweet and Gregory Slone, went to Placencia's apartment April 7, 1984, after a night of drinking and smoking marijuana. Woods, who was 19, intended to retrieve items belonging to his mother, who'd had a brief relationship with Placencia. Woods' mother told him Placencia would not be home, he said. But Placencia, still recovering from knee surgery, was home. After Woods forced his way into the apartment, he was startled to see Placencia and stabbed him, he said. An injured Placencia started crying out for help, and Slone told Woods to "shut him up," Woods said. Woods told the parole board he felt anger at his mother at that moment for not telling him Placencia would be home, and he began stabbing Placencia again - 21 times total. It was not the first time his mother had lied to him, and the 2 had always had an unhealthy relationship, Woods said. "All of a sudden, I just started seeing red," Woods said. "I wasn't seeing Juan's face. I was seeing my mother's." Woods told the board he'd only brought a knife to break into the apartment, not to hurt Placencia, but became confused when Slone yelled at him. "It was the moment," he said. "It was total chaos." Woods apologized to Placencia's family, as well as his own. He told the board he's become a Christian and feels peace with himself - a sentiment his longtime pastor, Wanda Callahan, believes wholeheartedly. "His heart was so apparent," a tearful Callahan said after the hearing. Callahan has attended several executions over the years, but Woods' would be the hardest because of his deep faith and his remorse, she said. Woods feels if the only thing that comes from the clemency hearings is that Placencia family members get to vent their anger, the hearings will have served their purpose, said Linda Wagoner, his attorney. 2 of Placencia's daughters, Petre and Catherine Placencia, attended Friday's hearing, fighting tears as Woods testified. To them, Woods' words Friday were lies, Petre said. "I just can't get over it," she said after the hearing. "He's blaming everybody but himself." The women contend Woods knew Placencia would be home at the time of the crime, and they don't believe his story that he came to retrieve his mother's items because he took only a television and cash. The thought of their father, an avid gardener whom many called "Jolly John," begging for his life will never leave them, the women said. Woods was last scheduled to die in 1999, but his execution was postponed while he appealed his case on the federal level. After so many years of waiting, Juan Placencia's family hesitates to believe Woods will really be executed in a few weeks. But if it comes to pass, Catherine Placencia, Petre and several other family members plan to watch Woods die. "If he's at peace, let us have our peace," Catherine Placencia said. (source: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette) CALIFORNIA: Gov. halts work on new death chamber Officials admit the project exceeded costs requiring the Legislature's OK, but say they will still send an overhaul plan to a judge by May 15. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday halted construction of a new death chamber at San Quentin State Prison, the latest setback for California's beleaguered capital punishment program. James E. Tilton, who heads the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told reporters in a conference call, "The governor has asked me to stop the project." The construction had raised alarm among legislators, who protested that they should have been consulted before the work began . Tilton said the governor "is very concerned about good communications with the Legislature. We should have done a better job of it." The halt will push the project back until at least July, further delaying executions, which have been at a standstill since February 2006, when a federal judge halted the execution of Michael Morales. "This is a 1st-class fiasco," said John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. California has 660 inmates on death row, making it the largest in the U.S. But faced with an active lobby against the death penalty and enhanced judicial scrutiny, the state has performed only 13 executions since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. In the latest complication, Morales, who was condemned to death for the 1981 murder of a Lodi teenager, filed a legal challenge to California's lethal injection executions. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose ruled in December that the state's procedures violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. California's protocol, like that of three dozen other states, calls for a three-drug cocktail. The first drug, sodium thiopental, is a fast-acting barbiturate that is supposed to render the condemned inmate unconscious before the other drugs - pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the body, and potassium chloride, which causes painful cardiac arrest - are administered. The judge ruled that the way the state administered the drugs subjected death row inmates to a risk of excruciating pain. Legal challenges to lethal injection have halted executions in several other states. Among numerous criticisms, the judge said the existing execution room - originally the gas chamber - was too dimly lighted, crowded and poorly designed to allow the execution team to effectively monitor whether inmates received enough barbiturate to deaden the pain. He also said the state failed to provide meaningful training, supervision and oversight of the execution team, allowed the improper preparation and mixing of drugs and had not reliably documented amounts of sodium thiopental taken from the prison pharmacy. The judge left open the possibility that executions could be resumed if procedures were improved. In response, corrections officials pledged to submit a plan to the court by May 15. In the meantime, corrections personnel quietly began building a new death chamber. When news of the project trickled out last week, some politicians complained vociferously that the administration was engaged in an end run around the Legislature. At the time, corrections officials said they had not consulted with the Legislature because the cost of the project would be $399,000. State law requires legislative approval of any project that costs $400,000 or more. State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) scheduled a hearing in Sacramento. On Friday, Tilton and his chief assistant Steve Kessler acknowledged that the project had already cost $725,000. In addition to the $399,000 that had been budgeted, Kessler said the state had spent $78,000 for a new roof, $26,000 on medical equipment and $168,000 on costs associated with relocating staff, electrical wiring and other changes "needed to get the building ready for the new project." In addition, Kessler said, "We found out last week that the state fire marshal had ordered an alarm and sprinkler system that cost $55,000. "Whatever way you slice it, we are over the $400,000 limit," Kessler said. Tilton said one corrections employee would be disciplined for failing to follow proper procedures. He declined to say who the person was or what the punishment would be. Tilton said that the individual did not intend to do anything wrong but that "there had to be consequences." Tilton said that until last week, he had not been aware the construction project had begun. But state corrections officials sent documents to the California Department of Finance about the matter March 7, and other related documents signed by department representatives are dated Jan. 23. One Jan. 23 document states that "the court directed the creation of a separate lethal injection chamber." In fact, Fogel, while critical of the current death chamber, did not say that in his December ruling or at any other time. Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Cal State Sacramento, said the controversy "adds to the perception that this is a rudderless department that doesn't follow the rules." Romero said she remained outraged about how corrections officials had acted. "They set out intending to evade public scrutiny and government oversight," she said. Romero added that she had rescheduled her hearing, initially set for next week, to May 8 and would be seeking more details on what occurred in recent months. Schwarzenegger issued a formal statement Friday saying that his staff "will work cooperatively" with the Legislature on the issue. His legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said the state still plans to meet the May 15 date for submitting an overhaul plan to Fogel, which will include "design plans for a dedicated lethal injection facility." Hoch said she was "confident that the state's revised lethal injection protocol and implementation procedures will satisfy the court and be upheld as constitutional." Laird said the state's plan would be subjected to heightened scrutiny because of the construction controversy. (source: Los Angeles Times) ************ Uproar stalls opening of California's new death chamber: Accusations began to fly as legislators learned of the project for the first time when it ran over budget. With Democratic legislative leaders fuming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shut down construction on a new death-penalty chamber at San Quentin Prison. The order came a little more than a week after lawmakers were first informed at a legislative hearing that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had embarked on its own to build the new quarters where it ultimately hopes to administer lethal injections to condemned inmates. California executions had been carried out in San Quentin's 69-year-old gas chamber. At the April 12 hearing, corrections officials said they figured that the new death chamber would cost less than $400,000 and thereby not require legislative approval. Cost overruns, however, pushed the price tag above the $400,000 "minimum capital outlay" threshold, Corrections Secretary Jim Tilton told reporters in a conference call. As a result, it now requires approval by the Legislature. Added costs for special repairs related to the roof, electrical wiring, medical equipment and a new fire alarm system elevated the project's total to $725,000, making it a "major capital outlay."As soon as we figured this out, the governor ordered that the project be stopped," Corrections Undersecretary Stephen Kessler said on the conference call. "We will submit a complete funding request to the Legislature as part of the May revision budget process." U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose halted the state's lethal injection process Dec. 15, declaring it unconstitutional in part because of the dim lighting and crowded conditions in the San Quentin gas chamber. 'Caught with their pants down' Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, had scheduled an informational hearing to get to the bottom of how the death chamber conversion plan was able to proceed without being brought to the attention of the Legislature. The hearing has now been rescheduled for May 8, she said. "They got caught with their pants down," Romero said of corrections officials. "This is what's so frustrating with that department -- this is not only misinformation, but it was an outright and deliberate lie to the Legislature and the people of California." Romero suggested that corrections officials were going to "pretend" that the project would come in under $400,000, only to "come back as they have tried to do year after year after year with one of those so-called deficiency bills, so the Legislature gets stuck having to pay for this secret action by the department."It's sad when you have to say about an agency [that] you can't trust them coming in the door," Romero said. Republican Assemblyman Todd Spitzer theorized that the administration backed off the project out of fear that the Democrats would hold up Schwarzenegger's $10.9 billion prison and jail construction package. The governor had hoped to have a deal on the prison plan 2 weeks ago. "They caved to political pressure," Spitzer said. "No wonder they can't get anything done." Spitzer said that the corrections agency "needed to do" the new death chamber and that it was "completely within the scope" of its authority to complete. Governor called the halt Tilton said Schwarzenegger personally asked him to stop the project because "he's very concerned about maintaining good communications with the Legislature, and we should have done a much better job with that." Tilton and Kessler said the death chamber construction team at San Quentin was trying to get the project done by May 15 to try to get the facility into constitutional compliance. The judge's decision came in the death penalty case of Michael Morales, whose execution in the 1981 Lodi slaying of Terri Winchell had been imminent. "There was no intention on their part to not be public," Tilton said of the San Quentin team. "They were just moving very fast. The sensitivity of making sure everybody in the Legislature knew about this wasn't done. It wasn't intentional." The secretary said that he wasn't informed of the project, either, and that the department is planning on taking "appropriate personnel action" against one employee as a result of the communications breakdown. He did not identify the employee. Romero said the employee should be fired. "One thing we shouldn't accept is manipulation, and that's what happened here," she said. Fogel ruled that California's lethal injection process violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment in five key areas: He found that the corrections department fell short in screening execution team members, training and monitoring them, keeping proper records, mixing and administering the lethal injection cocktail of drugs and maintaining the old death chamber. "The gas chamber was built in 1938 and it had very poor lighting," said corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo. "It's cramped. You can't access it." Within a week of the judge's ruling, Schwarzenegger proposed a 5-point lethal injection protocol that included asking for recommendations on upgrading the death room. Hidalgo said prison staff at San Quentin had been converting what had been visiting space in the same building that housed the gas chamber into the new execution facility. He said the project was 80 % complete when it was halted this week. (source: McClatchy--Minneapolis Star Tribune) ******************************* DNA match leads to charges in '01 killing at Fontana bakery Sylvia Galindo was ending her shift at a Fontana bakery when, for no reason that detectives could find, a man stormed in to beat, rape, rob and strangle her. The killing at Maria's Panaderia that October night almost 6 years ago was so horrific that it stuck with San Bernardino County sheriff's Sgt. Richard Ells, then a homicide detective. That the 30-year-old victim did nothing to provoke it was more reason for him to hope a suspect would one day be charged. On Friday -- after an unexpected DNA match -- that day came. "You work so many cases where a drug dealer shoots a drug dealer, or a gang member shoots a gang member, but this was an innocent person working 2 jobs trying to make ends meet," Ells said as prosecutors filed eight counts, including murder, against a man serving a 10-year prison sentence for an unrelated crime. "This was a bad, disturbing case." Gilbert Bernard Sanchez, who lived blocks from the bakery at the time of the slaying, will soon be brought from Centinela State Prison in Imperial County to face charges of murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy, torture, false imprisonment, robbery and burglary. The 45-year-old suspect was first identified late last year, long after the October 2001 slaying had gone cold. Sanchez was convicted in 2005 of assault with a firearm on a police officer in Los Angeles County, prison records show, and his DNA was entered into a federal database. When it was finally processed, it matched DNA preserved from the scene of Galindo's killing, Ells said. That set investigators back to work, and after an interview with Sanchez and a subsequent blood sample, they presented Sanchez's photo to the bakery's owners. He was immediately recognized as a customer, but with no known relationship to Galindo. "Everybody hopes he can say why he did it," Olga Luevano, the owner's daughter, said Friday, "so we can finally rest." Prosecutors have added several special circumstances to the complaint against Sanchez, making him eligible for the death penalty. Galindo, a family friend to the bakery's owners, supported her mother in Mexico with the money she earned there and at a market in San Bernardino, Luevano said. She was remembered as a quiet, slight woman, barely 5 feet tall. "We can just imagine how much she suffered," Luevano said of the attack, during which she was tied up, hit in the head and strangled, investigators said. The body was discovered that night when Galindo's live-in boyfriend, Angel Benitez, went to the bakery on Merrill Avenue after she didn't arrive at their Colton home at a normal hour. He and the owner opened the business and found Galindo in a back room. Sheriff's detectives at the time said a motive appeared to be simply violence for violence's sake. Some of Galindo's property was stolen, making the crime a robbery as well. Months of investigation and fliers passed around the neighborhood yielded no good leads. The lack of suspects frustrated one of Ells' partners on the homicide detail. "I knew I didn't want to retire with this case still open," said Detective Mike Gilliam. With charges filed, investigators would still like to locate people who can confirm Sanchez's presence in Fontana in October 2001. They also would like to find Benitez again. Anyone with information is asked to call Gilliam at 909-387-3589. (source: Press Enterprise) VIRGINIA: Court upholds death sentence in Harrisonburg killing The Virginia Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the capital murder conviction and death sentence of a man who ordered the slaying of his ex-girlfriend because he was angry about child-support payments. Ivan Teleguz was convicted and sentenced to death last year for arranging the knife slaying of Stephanie Sipe in 2001. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected Teleguz's claim that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's finding of vileness -- an aggravating factor that allows a jury to impose the death penalty. The 20-year-old victim's mother found her dead in her Harrisonburg apartment in July 2001. Sipe's throat had been cut with a fillet knife. Her 2-year-old son was in the bathroom unharmed. Michael Hetrick of Warren, Pa., testified that Teleguz paid him $2,500 to kill Sipe. His alleged accomplice, Edward L. Gilkes Jr., 27, of Altoona, Pa., also testified against Teleguz. Hetrick was sentenced to life in prison and Gilkes to 15 years. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Long Legislation Session The 2007 legislative session, one of the longest in the state's history, could well be remembered for what state lawmakers did not do. Republicans, who are now firmly in control of state government after decades of Democratic rule, struggle to unite behind any cohesive agenda. A bill that would have allowed local communities to permit alcohol sales on Sunday was bottled up. Another that would have made it easier to impose the death penalty was scuttled. An effort to revive payday lending in Georgia fell flat. There was no promised apology for slavery. And Republican effort to revamp PeachCare became ensnared in House-Senate bickering. And then there was the handling-grabbling meltdown over the budget. GOP discord over the 2007 midyear spending plan, with its $142 million one-time property tax, led to a rare vote from Governor Perdue. Than means lawmakers will have to return to Atlanta for a special session, deeply embarrassing for a party that last year prided itself on being so efficient they could finish the session early. Perdue's agenda, in particular, was hit hard by his GOP colleagues in the Legislature this season. The governor got the $19 million he wanted for his "Go Fish" tourism program and more than $42 of the $50 million he had sought for land conservation money. The money was in the fiscal year 2008 budget lawmakers approved late Friday night. But his retirement tax cut was tabled in the House. His constitutional amendment to protect lottery funds for the HOPE scholarship and pre-kindergarten never made it to a vote in the House. His proposal to slap super speeders with steep fines to fund trauma centers ran out of gas and his blprint to reshape the regulatory system for health care went nowhere, despite being one of the most heavily lobbied issues of the year. The Associated Press contributed to this story (source: 13wmaz) FLORIDA: Crime prodigy reaches end of the road It might be 2 years. It will more likely be 10 or even 20. But Robert Bailey, unless he can find some extremely gullible judges to overturn his recent conviction in Florida, will be put to death. He is a Milwaukee guy who drove south during spring break in 2005 and killed a police officer who - during a routine traffic stop - was probably about to find out Bailey was wanted on a warrant stemming from an Ozaukee County burglary case. One that seemed barely worth mentioning at the time. Bailey was one of five teenagers, it was noted in a 3-paragraph story back in June of 2000, charged with burglarizing a house in the Town of Saukville. He also ripped off a car that spring that, he told police, "he needed to get home to Milwaukee." "He needed it, he took it," remarked Ozaukee County prosecutor Adam Gerol at sentencing. Just like he would, later and with about as much thought, take a life. Just like, according to court records, he allegedly has been taking things since he was 12 years old. A majority of Wisconsinites voted in an advisory referendum last year to reinstate the death penalty. I was not among them, but would never cite Bailey as a reason for disagreeing. Where crime was concerned, Bailey was a child prodigy. When he and a group of Port Washington teenagers took more than $3,000 in cash and a number of guns from the home in Saukville, he was still only 17. Bailey's attorney asked for one to two years in prison. Gerol, citing his record, asked for 3. The author of a presentencing report recommended 3 to 5. He did have a defender - the only one you'd expect. His mom, Debra Hammes, tried to convince Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Joseph McCormack that he was "a good person" and someone who had a "habit of getting in with the wrong people." McCormack, who's been around for a while, didn't buy it. "It's so easy to point at somebody else and say it's their fault; it's my stepfather's fault; it's my mother's fault; its my friend's fault," said McCormack. The judge acknowledged that "events" can affect people's lives but said, "Ultimately, it comes down to you. That's the only person who can be called to account for their behavior." He then noted that Bailey was still "pretty young," 19 at the time of sentencing, and still had "a chance to turn it around." Not one, to be sure, he ever took seriously. McCormack sentenced him to 40 months in prison and 5 years of extended supervision - which seemed reasonable to one of the burglary victims. And still does. "It seemed proper, I guess," said Roxanne Grotelueschen. Restitution is "slowly trickling in" from one of the defendants, she told me - although not from Bailey. He, now, has a different sort of restitution to worry about. Bailey was released from a Wisconsin prison and placed on extended supervision in October of 2004, but by the following spring had failed to report to his community corrections agent. He absconded in early March of that year and a warrant was issued, according to the Department of Corrections. It was at the end of that month that he turned up - and was pulled over - in Panama City Beach. Bailey, who is invariably identified as a Wisconsin man or a Milwaukee man in the Florida media, has been big news in the resort town along the Panhandle. He told the paper there, the News Herald of Panama City, that he and two friends went down on a spring break drinking binge - although police reportedly believed at one point that he intended to deal drugs. It was also reported that he was a member of the Simon City Royals, a faction of the Latin Kings, who had the nickname "Saint" tattooed on his back. His attorney, at his trial, basically argued that he is an idiot. But, it seems, he is smart enough to understand irony. For the rest of us, there can be no understanding. When Sgt. Kevin Kight pulled him over on Easter Sunday night it was, originally, just a routine traffic stop. According to an arrest affidavit, the News Herald also reported, he told a passenger, "I'm not going back to prison, even if I have to pop this cop." So he did. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder in February. Earlier this month, Judge Michael Overstreet sentenced him to death. It's hard to know exactly what Bailey thinks of it - and even harder to care. At one point, he reportedly wrote to a judge asking if he "could just plead guilty to the death sentence." At another point he was caught musing about acting crazy as a defense strategy. He also said he wanted to see his family. To which one can only say, so would Kevin Kight. (source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) ********** Jury selected to hear Steele's murder trial 5 rigorous days of jury selection ended Friday afternoon with attorneys agreeing on a panel of 10 women and 2 men to hear the murder trial of Alfredie Steele Jr. Steele, 23, of Lacoochee, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of Pasco County sheriff's Capt. Charles "Bo" Harrison. Steele faces the death penalty if convicted. The attorneys also agreed on three alternate jurors - two men and one woman. Alternates listen to testimony but deliberate only if one of the initial 12 can't finish the trial. None of the jurors is black; in fact, few of the pool of 140 prospective jurors were. "That's surprised me," Assistant Public Defender Bob Focht said. "I would have preferred to see more black Americans at least be more clearly in the mix." Steele is black, as was Harrison. For the past week, Focht and State Attorney Bernie McCabe questioned potential panelists on a bevy of subjects - political and religious beliefs, opinions on the drinking age, experience with firearms, views on capital punishment. The questioning is done so attorneys can learn about potential jurors' biases and predispositions. Some were excused because they said they couldn't recommend the death penalty, others because they had close relationships with law enforcement officers. Harrison, 57, spent 31 years with the sheriff's office. He was shot dead in his patrol car on June 1, 2003, while conducting surveillance on a Lacoochee nightclub. The trial is scheduled to resume Monday with opening statements and testimony. (source: Tampa Tribune) **************************************** 2 face death penalty in kidnapping, murder For the six months Pallis Paulk's body lay buried in a shallow grave in the woods on Williamson Boulevard, none of the people who saw her abducted and tied up in a bathtub came forward. Some were wanted by police; others afraid. But one after the other, a group that included felons, drug users and a suspect's former girlfriend testified to what they saw on Paulk's last day alive, after Ray Jackson, 31, and Michael Wooten, 32, kidnapped the mother of a young girl. A jury of 12 on Friday found the two drug dealers guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in Circuit Judge R. Michael Hutcheson's courtroom. Jurors reached the verdict in an hour-and-a-half, even though Paulk's cause of death and the method of her murder remains a mystery. Jackson and Wooten could get the death penalty. The motive: Paulk had stolen cocaine, marijuana and $800 from Jackson. The key testimony, Paulk's family members said, came from Frederick "Buck" Hunt. "I saw Ms. Paulk in the tub," Hunt, 26, a former Jackson friend and convicted burglar, testified. "Whatever she was doing, she shouldn't have let him catch her." The killers tried using threats and intimidation to keep their secret buried with Paulk, 23, whose badly decomposed remains were found April 17, 2005. Even in the courtroom, Wooten of Jacksonville used hand signals to threaten one of the witnesses, according to testimony. "They thought they were going to get away with it," Paulk's grandmother, Margie Paulk, 74, of Daytona Beach said Friday. "It was a just verdict," prosecutor Ed Davis said. "And we're satisfied." Jackson used what Davis referred to as "his minions" -- a group of younger drug-using men -- to track Paulk down after she'd spent the night and left with his drugs, money, jewelry and cell phone. "Where's my stuff?" he'd demanded. Jackson planned the killing, and Wooten's participation in the kidnapping led to his murder conviction. Peyton Quarles, Wooten's attorney, had asked jurors to consider both men's roles separately and pointed to what he called a lack of evidence against his client. Later, Quarles said he felt the state's combination of the cases against both men hurt Wooten. "The joint trial made it unfair," he said. Because of her body's decay over the six months, investigators were never able to determine exactly how Paulk was murdered, which proved a challenge. During closing arguments, prosecutor Davis asked jurors not to reward the men for taking steps to avoid being caught. Jackson had posted a missing poster of Paulk on his apartment wall and bragged: "No body, no case," Davis said. Thursday, members of Paulk's large family said they hoped the truth would come when Wooten took the stand. But instead, Wooten claimed he wasn't there. But a handful of key witnesses, including Hunt, pointed to Wooten's involvement. Wooten tried to make handcuffs to bind Paulk using tie-wraps, said Hunt, who admitted he hit the struggling woman in the legs to help force her into the car. He remains in the Volusia County Branch Jail with a pending kidnapping charge. Hunt provided key details: Wooten was there when Jackson carried the struggling woman outside. He was in the passenger seat when Jackson drove off with Paulk in the trunk. Both men face a death penalty recommendation by the same jury in a separate penalty phase next month. If the men are not sentenced to death, they will get mandatory life in prison without parole. After the jury had spoken, Paulk's family who had gathered in the courtroom said they found Jackson's glance -- and words of sympathy for them -- hollow. Still proclaiming his innocence, he requested to be sentenced right away. The judge denied the request. The family was upset by defense lawyers' portrayal of Paulk during the trial as a prostitute, which they said wasn't true. "Her lifestyle didn't have anything to do with what he did," Paulk's cousin, Tyshoan Wilcox, said, referring to Jackson. Later, the family was unified in saying the death penalty would be the right punishment. "They took something very precious from us," said Paulk's cousin, Fayonnia Paulk. "They didn't show her any mercy." Paulk's daughter, Faith, now 7, says her "momma is in heaven," adding she needs counseling for her feelings of loss without her mother. Paulk's uncle, Larry Paulk, is raising the child with his wife. He said the loss still hurts and the killing ended a life that still had promise. "It's like taking a light bulb that's still burning," he said. "And smashing it." What's Next? May 7: Ray Jackson and Michael Wooten start a penalty phase hearing, expected to last a few days. They will be sentenced to either death or life without parole for the kidnapping and murder of Pallis Paulk. (source: Daytona Beach News-Journal) ********************************* Convicted girlfriend is key to murder defense She loved. She plotted, and the day she was arrested for murder, Courtney Schulhoff, then 16, blamed the crime on her lover. Now, as jurors are about to decide whether to convict her sweetheart, Schulhoff is trying to save his life. She's expected to testify next week that she -- not Michael Morin Jr. -- picked up an aluminum baseball bat and bludgeoned her father to death while he slept in their Altamonte Springs apartment 3 years ago. Her father, according to authorities, was trying to break them up. Testimony began Friday at Morin's 1st-degree murder trial. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. In September, a different jury concluded that Schulhoff, now 19, was guilty of the murder -- not because she landed the blows but because she helped plan the attack. Back then, prosecutors played for jurors a recording of her statement to Altamonte Springs police. They heard her say that, yes, she and Morin had planned to kill her father, Steven Schulhoff, but that they had called the whole thing off. But Morin, she said, went through with it on his own while she was outside walking the dog. Now, she has flipped things around. In a sworn statement in November, she told attorneys that Morin had no part in the slaying. She said she killed her father because he had sexually abused her. Steven Schulhoff was found beaten to death, his body wrapped in bedding and stuffed inside a large plastic container near the foot of his bed Feb. 10, 2004. Prosecutors on Friday put on a rat-a-tat-tat succession of witnesses: the victim's girlfriend, who became suspicious and called 911 when Steven Schulhoff didn't show up for work or answer the phone; police officers who discovered the body, face hidden, feet pointing toward the ceiling; a fingerprint analyst who tried four ways to lift prints from the bat, none of them successful. The drama, though, likely will come Tuesday, when Courtney Schulhoff is expected to take the witness stand. She is serving a life prison sentence. "Ms. Schulhoff will come in here and tell the jury that she killed her father," defense attorney Mike Nielsen said in his opening statement. "She will tell you how she did it. She will tell you why she did it." Morin, 23, "did not participate in any way in this crime," Nielsen said. That's not true, according to prosecutors. On Monday, jurors will likely hear the recording of a phone call Morin made to his father from Seminole County Jail shortly after his arrest. "What'd you do?" asks Morin's father, Michael Morin Sr. "You don't want to know. . . . Basically, you need to know your son's not getting out of this alive," Morin Jr. said. "I took somebody's life, Dad." "Who?" his father asks. "Steve Schulhoff." Assistant state attorneys Jim Carter and Jerry Jones also will likely play for jurors a recording of Morin Jr.'s statement to police. He told them that Courtney set the baseball bat outside her father's bedroom door, that he picked it up, then blacked out and the next thing he remembered was being covered in blood and trying to wash it off, according to police records. "Mr. Morin was deeply, deeply in love with Courtney," Nielsen said. "The evidence will show he was saying these things to protect her." (source: Orlando Sentinel) ******************************* Letters cited as evidence of guilty conscience Blaine Ross, jailed on charges he killed his parents, vowed in a letter to his girlfriend that he could change everything bad about himself before he surrendered his life to her. Believing his girlfriend was pregnant, Ross said in another letter that even though he'd taken a life, he was prepared to return one. Ross also declared a sense of dread in one of the letters, using an obscenity to describe his situation. "My only defense is the insanity plea," he wrote. "I wish this never happened." Prosecutors want jurors to see and hear Ross's apparent guilty conscience in the letters, which were introduced in court Friday during the 2nd day of Ross's trial on charges of robbery and two counts of murder. The state is seeking the death penalty against Ross, 24. Ross has been jailed since his arrest in January 2004, just days after his parents, Richard and Kathleen Ross, were killed in their home in the Lionshead subdivision. Carolyn Schlemmer, one of three assistant public defenders representing Ross, downplayed the significance of the letters. Ross, she pointed out, wrote at length about a number of other topics. Erin Dodds, 19, said Friday in court she once loved Ross, her boyfriend for a month, the guy with whom she smoked marijuana, watched videos and shared a bed. With tears in her eyes, she recalled her relatives discussing Ross around Christmas 2003 -- how he could be the right match for Dodds, then 16. Maybe he didn't have money, but at least he was tall. The next day, Ross showed his girlfriend a bank statement showing a balance of more than $100,000. John Scotese, an assistant public defender, said Ross bragged about having money. He wanted to impress his girlfriend. He often exaggerated to pump himself up. Authorities say Ross killed his parents in a scheme in which he thought he would benefit financially. Ross tried to use his mother's ATM card after killing his parents, prosecutors say. Dodds was hanging out with Ross when the two of them dropped by the Ross family home the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2004. Ross found his parents dead in their bedroom, which appeared to be ransacked. He called 911. As Dodds wept, Ross showed no emotion, police said. Ross, his attorneys say, was still under the effect of mind-altering drugs. Dodds initially told detectives that Ross went to bed with her the night before the double-murder. She later changed her story, telling the attorneys in the case that Ross did not slip into her bed until the early morning hours of Jan. 7. Explaining the discrepancy, Dodds said she wanted early on to protect Ross -- the love of her life. She also said she thought the police were bullying him. Prosecutor Art Brown said Ross staged a home-invasion robbery to confuse detectives. But there is no evidence that anyone forcibly broke into the Ross home, Brown said. A Manatee County sheriff's crime scene technician, Jason Smith, said Friday that neatly stacked clothes on the floor in the Ross bedroom did not match a typical burglary. In most cases, Smith said, the burglar throws clothes around, tossing drawers. Manatee County sheriff's Detective Bill Waldron, who interrogated Ross, said Ross had too much respect for his parents' stuff to toss it around. Jurors on Friday were shown grisly pictures depicting Richard and Kathleen Ross laying in bed underneath a blood-stained wall. Blood evidence found on a pair of Ross's pants is expected to be a key part of the state's case. Ross's attorneys say it isn't clear how the blood got on the pants. And the state will also play for jurors Ross' confession, during which he tells a detective that he doesn't know why he killed his parents. (source: Sarasota Herald Tribune)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., CALIF., VA., GA., FLA.
Rick Halperin Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:16:39 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
