Oct. 8
TEXAS:
Jury deliberates penalty for man convicted of killing 3 people at car wash in
2013
The crime
On Sept. 29, 2013, 3 men were murdered at the Royal Wash Mobile Detailing and
Car Wash Service at 393 Ave E in Stafford. The manager, Harvey Simmons, 34; his
uncle, Johnny Simmons, 59; and another employee, Donntay Borom, 18 were all
killed.
LaMelvin Dewayne Johnson, 41, was charged with capital murder in the killings.
Evidence at his trial showed that Harvey Simmons fired Johnson and that Johnson
became angry, went to his car and came back with a pistol that he used to kill
the 3 men. Witnesses said that, after shooting all 3, Johnson went back to
where Harvey Simmons was lying on the ground, stood over him and fired several
more shots into his body.
The trial
Johnson's trial began on Sept. 18, 2019. After about two weeks of testimony and
two hours of deliberation, jurors found Johnson guilty of capital murder, and
the trial moved into the punishment phase.
Jurors had 2 choices: sentence Johnson to death by injection or life in prison
with no possibility of parole.
The punishment phase
During the punishment phase of the trial, prosecutors argued that Johnson would
continue to be a threat to society if allowed to live, even if he were confined
in prison, and deserved the death penalty.
They introduced his past criminal record, which included arrests for assault,
evading arrest and illegal possession of a gun. They also presented Johnson's
record during his detention awaiting trial. Johnson was written up for various
violations, including fighting with other inmates seven times. The jury was
shown a security video of Johnson knocking another inmate to the floor in one
of those incidents.
The defense argued that mitigating circumstances called for giving Johnson life
without parole. Those circumstances, it said, included a childhood spent in
poverty and chaos during which he often saw his father beat his mother and was
beaten himself when he tried to protect his mother. Johnson also had a history
of suffering from depression that went untreated until he was jailed awaiting
trial, the defense said.
The sentence
After about a week of hearing testimony in the punishment phase, juror retired
for about six hours and returned a sentence of life without parole. They found
that Johnson would be a continuing threat to society but that the mitigating
circumstances called for the more lenient sentence.
(source: click2houston.com)
******************
Suspect in Trooper Sanchez’s shooting pleads not guilty
Victor Alejandro Godinez pleaded not guilty to 3 charges during a formal
arraignment hearing Monday.
Before the hearing got underway Monday, 389th state District Court Judge Letty
Lopez appointed Edinburg-based criminal defense attorney O. Rene Flores to
represent Godinez. The appointment was made to avoid having to delay the
hearing once again after Godinez appeared without an attorney for a 2nd
straight week.
During the Sept. 30 arraignment hearing, the court questioned Godinez’s ability
to retain an attorney, after Godinez told the court he would speak with his
mother about retaining one, and the case was reset for Monday morning.
Godinez, after briefly conferring with Flores, pleaded not guilty to 1 count of
capital murder and 2 counts of attempted capital murder.
A Hidalgo County grand jury handed down a capital murder indictment last month
shortly after Sanchez died Aug. 24 as a result of complications during surgery
to treat injuries he suffered during the April shooting.
As is common with capital murder cases, the death penalty remains on the table
up to the time of the trial, at which time the state would have to announce to
the court how they would proceed.
Godinez is accused of shooting Sanchez, 48, on April 6 after the suspect fled a
car crash the trooper responded to on North 10th Street and Freddy Gonzalez
Drive in McAllen.
The 24-year-old man is accused of running away after shooting Sanchez once in
the head and once in the shoulder.
Sanchez went through intense rehabilitation and multiple surgeries after the
shooting.
However, he succumbed to his injuries on Aug. 24, following a surgery in
Houston.
2 Edinburg police officers caught up with Godinez in the 1500 block of South
Maltese in Edinburg.
He’s also accused of shooting at those officers, who eventually apprehended him
east of Mon Mack Road and State Highway 107.
The officers were not hit and police say they recovered a .357 revolver
authorities say Godinez used in the shooting.
Godinez was indicted earlier this year on separate attempted capital murder
charges related to shooting at the officers, and was represented by Sergio
Muñoz. However, after the hearing Monday, the state is expected to ask the
court to consolidate those charges into the capital murder case.
Godinez remains jailed on $3 million in bonds and is expected back before the
court Dec. 5, for his 1st pre-trial hearing.
(source: The Monitor)
****************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----47
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----565
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
48---------Oct. 30----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------566
49---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall-------------567
50---------Nov. 13----------------Patrick Murphy----------568
51---------Nov. 20----------------Rodney Reed-------------569
52---------Dec. 11----------------Travis Runnels----------570
53---------Jan. 15----------------John Gardner------------571
54---------Feb. 6-----------------Abel Ochoa--------------572
55---------Mar. 11----------------Carlos Trevino----------573
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
PENNSYLVANIA:
U.S. Supreme Court won't hear Jordan Clemons' death penalty case
“Petition denied.”
In a 2-word order issued on the first Monday in October, the United States
Supreme Court declined to review Jordan Clemons’ conviction and death penalty
for the 2012 murder of Karissa Kunco.
Clemons, now 30, was found guilty of 1st-degree murder by a Washington County
jury, which chose to impose the death penalty after hearing trial testimony in
2015. Kunco’s body was found in Mt. Pleasant Township.
District Attorney Gene Vittone was notified by the nation’s highest court via
email, but he said the Supreme Court’s decision opens another avenue for the
defendant.
“It ends his direct appeal,” Vittone said. “I’m sure he’ll be filing other
things, and we’ll address it.”
Clemons’ next attempt to have his conviction overturned is likely to be a
petition through the Post-Conviction Relief Act. His attorney, Marc A. Bookman,
did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Vittone relayed information about the Supreme Court’s decision to the victim’s
father.
“He treated this case like it was his own daughter,” said Paul Kunco of
Baldwin, a suburb in Pittsburgh’s South Hills.
“We were warned very well about this whole process. I get a heads-up every time
they do some sort of appeal.”
Of the latest development, Kunco said, “We’re not surprised. His case is very
weak, but you never know. It does give you a little stress.”
His, daughter, Karissa Kunco, would have been 29.
“She’s still with us, just not physically,” Kunco said, noting that a room to
accommodate a mother and up to four children at the Women’s Shelter of Greater
Pittsburgh has been named after his daughter thanks to a benefactor.
“Many women and children sleep safer and a lot more peacefully,” he said.
Kunco, 21, Clemons’ former girlfriend, was last seen alive on Jan. 11, 2012.
One of the issues before the nation’s highest court dealt with whether Clemons
waived his right to have a lawyer present during his initial contact with
police in January 2012 after he had consumed alcohol.
As to Clemons’ right to have a lawyer present when his mother drove him to the
state police barracks so he could turn himself in, Vittone wrote, “Miranda
warnings were properly given to” Clemons, who “then immediately provided a
statement which placed him with the victim the evening that she disappeared.
This statement was admitted at trial.”
Vittone’s position was that these issues were put to rest when the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court upheld Clemons’ conviction and death penalty.
In his attempt to have the U.S. Supreme Court intervene on his behalf, Clemons
claimed postings on a Facebook page known as “Karissa’s Army” and other
pre-trial publicity precluded a fair trial in Washington County, violating his
constitutional rights. Clemons sought an out-of-county jury to weigh testimony
in his case.
Bookman cited the large number of followers writing comments, some of which
were racially charged, on the Facebook pages and signing a petition to change
domestic violence laws as reasons to prejudice a Washington County jury.
Karissa Kunco had filed a protection-from-abuse petition against Clemons in
Allegheny County for which he failed to appear in court.
In his brief, Vittone wrote that although Public Defender Brian Gorman raised
the publicity issue at a pretrial hearing, the defense attorney did not bring
it up again at jury selection before Washington County Judge Gary Gilman.
Clemons, an inmate in the State Correctional Institution at Greene County,
asked the U.S. Supreme Court last May for permission to proceed as a pauper.
Bookman is an attorney from the nonprofit Atlantic Center for Capital
Representation in Philadelphia.
Other than the 2-word denial, the only additional information appearing on the
U.S. Supreme Court’s docket in Clemons’ case is that documents related to the
case were “distributed for conference” on Oct. 1.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania,
the last of which occurred in 1999.
(source: Observer-Reporter)
*******************
Man Found Guilty Of 1st-Degree Murder In Beating Death Of 74-Year-Old Man In
McKees Rock
A man has been found guilty of beating a 74-year-old man to death in McKees
Rock.
Allegheny County announced Monday that Branden Frazier was found guilty of
1st-degree murder, robbery, burglary, theft and receiving stolen property.
Frazier, of Stowe Township, was charged with killing Benito Nicoletti.
Nicoletti was found dead in his home on June 1, 2016. Officers were called to
his home after family members said they had been unable to get in touch with
Nicoletti for a couple of days.
The cause of death was blunt force trauma.
According to a criminal complaint, neighbors said they saw Frazier in the area
in the days before Nicoletti was found dead.
He reportedly asked where he could buy a gun and was seen with Nicoletti’s car,
which was found less than a mile away from his house on June 2.
The Allegheny County District Attorney is seeking the death penalty.
A sentencing hearing has been set for Jan. 3, 2020.
He faces a mandatory life sentence.
(source: KDKA news)
********************
Unlikely supporters of ending the death penalty in Pa. and beyond? Prosecutors.
From Dred Scott v. Sanford to Brown v. Board of Education, our courts have
stood as an impediment to progress or pushed our country forward, bringing us
closer to the ideals of our nation. Last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
acted as the former when they allowed the death penalty to remain in place in
Pennsylvania.
During oral arguments last month, visitors in the packed Philadelphia courtroom
witnessed an incongruous sight — a prosecutor arguing the death penalty was
unconstitutional as applied in all cases in the state. The court
disappointingly rejected that position even in light of a new study looking at
Pennsylvania’s death penalty cases between 1978 and 2017 finding that: 72% of
cases were overturned, the death penalty hasn’t reduced crime and it costs
taxpayers far more than a life sentence in prison. This aligns with national
research and a growing consensus that the death penalty simply doesn’t work — a
conclusion many other countries have embraced in rejecting this ultimate
sanction.
So why does the U.S. still have a death penalty? Perhaps the answer lies not in
why we kill, but who we kill.
A group of prosecutors came together last month in Alabama to grapple with this
issue, among others, exploring the connections between racialized terror of the
Jim Crow South and today’s modern death penalty.
In Philadelphia these concerns are disturbingly evident. 82 % of defendants on
death row are black yet less than 45% of Philadelphia’s population is black.
Similar racial disparities play out across the country with black people making
up 13% of the population but 42% of individuals on death row. The race of
victims also plays a significant role: in North Carolina, the likelihood of a
death sentence is 3 1/2 times higher if the victim is white rather than black.
As Philadelphia DA’s brief noted, many black defendants are more likely to
receive the death penalty because of poverty. Policies like redlining,
underfunded public schools and historic discrimination have resulted in
concentrated poverty in black communities. Poor defendants, assigned a
court-appointed lawyer, often fail to receive the same zealous representation
as others due to their counsel’s paltry pay and heavy caseloads. In
Philadelphia this is especially clear, where 66% of overturned death sentences
were reversed based on ineffective assistance of counsel. But that’s not the
entire story.
The Equal Justice Initiative aptly described the death penalty as the “direct
descendant of lynching.” Research in some states shows that lynching only
declined when white supremacists were given a legal replacement — accelerated
trials by white juries handing down the death penalty. Today, the race of the
victim of a crime often is the strongest predictor of whether the accused will
receive a death sentence.
The United States is the only Western democracy to still embrace capital
punishment. With the seventh highest rate of execution, we are aligned with
countries known for abysmal human rights records like China, Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Iraq, and Iran, while much of Europe lost its appetite for
state-sanctioned death after the horrors of World War II.
The enduring hold of the death penalty in the United States is a symptom of
having never reckoned with our history. From slavery to mass incarceration,
racial oppression never ended here, it just changed form. There was no
reparation for enslaved people and no accountability for slave owners. Attempts
to protect newly freed people from white supremacist mobs were quickly
abandoned during the First Reconstruction. The civil rights movement pushed the
United States into fully embracing the principles of a true democracy for the
first time in its history, but there was no transitional justice process — no
efforts to repair what has been intentionally broken, no truth telling and
reconciliation and insufficient legal guarantees of non-recurrence.
Against this backdrop, elected prosecutors are increasingly speaking out
against the death penalty — from State Attorney Aramis Ayala in Orlando to
District Attorney Dan Satterberg in Seattle to Larry Krasner in Philadelphia.
And while the Pennsylvania Supreme Court failed to embrace this reform, the 28
other states where this penalty remains in place can choose to begin the work
of healing their communities by ending one of our nation’s ugliest legacies.
(source: Opinion; Miriam Aroni Krinsky is a former federal prosecutor and the
executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, a national network of elected
prosecutors working towards commonsense, compassionate criminal justice
reforms. Jody E. Owens II is the district attorney-elect for Hinds County
(Jackson), Miss., and the former chief policy counsel for the Southern Poverty
Law Center----Philadelphia Inquirer)
*********************
Let’s shore up Pennsylvania’s death penalty and start executing people
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court made the right call recently when it upheld the
constitutionality of the death penalty.
The justices shouldn’t be dictating policy. That’s the Legislature’s job.
The court should review death-row appeals case-by-case, but otherwise needs to
stay in its lane. It already crossed the line last year when it redrew the
state’s congressional districts.
Now it’s time for the Legislature to do its job. That means clearing the way
for executions to resume by ensuring capital cases are heard fairly.
Gov. Tom Wolf halted executions shortly after he took office in 2015, citing
flaws and unfairness in the system. He said he would await the findings of a
pending investigation by the Joint State Government Commission.
The commission’s task force issued its report in June 2018.
It didn’t offer an opinion on whether the death penalty should be used, but
raised questions including whether it is applied equitably across race and
geography; if there are safeguards to assure that intellectually disabled
people aren’t sentenced to death; if there are adequate procedures to identify
errors; and if there is adequate defense counsel.
Those are some significant concerns.
Yet more than a year later, the Legislature hasn’t implemented any of the task
force’s recommendations.
The task force suggested creating a state-funded capital defender’s office to
handle all death penalty trials and appeals statewide. That would save counties
money and improve representation.
The task force suggested creating a “guilty but mentally ill” classification
for defendants who would be treated the same as “legally insane” and not face
capital punishment. It suggested determining a defendant’s intellectual
disabilities before trial instead of afterward, so the death penalty wouldn’t
be pursued inappropriately, reducing the length of trials and saving money.
The task force suggested data should be collected to make sure capital
punishment is applied consistently to the same types of crimes and without
regard for the defendant’s or victim’s race.
Pennsylvania's death penalty system should be strengthened, not abolished, amid
newly raised concerns
If Pennsylvania is going to have a death penalty — and it should — then it
should use it. And to use it fairly, changes must be made.
Wolf’s moratorium isn’t an excuse to do nothing.
His time as governor is running out. A new governor will be elected in 3 years.
If he or she flips the switch on executions again — and I hope that happens —
the system needs to be ready to go.
Not every murderer should be put to death. But some should, if there is an
airtight case.
That means they were caught on video killing people. Or there were eyewitnesses
with corroborating physical evidence. A confession would be icing on the cake.
I’ll use the example I’ve used before, the slaying of Philadelphia police
Officer Robert Wilson III in 2015. He was gunned down during a robbery at a
GameStop store, where he had stopped to do a security check and buy his son a
birthday present.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the evidence in the case included
video, with Wilson’s final moments captured in extraordinary clarity by the
store’s cameras.
It’s hard to argue innocence under such circumstances. Wilson was killed just
because he was a cop. His killers should have paid the ultimate price.
But prosecutors offered a plea deal, despite objections by some of Wilson’s
relatives and the police union. So his killers, brothers Carlton Hipps, 32, and
Ramone Williams, 28, will spend the rest of their days behind bars.
Even if they had been sentenced to die, it’s unlikely their sentence would have
been carried out. Only three people have been executed in Pennsylvania since
that penalty was reinstated in 1978. The last execution was in 1999, well
before Wolf’s moratorium.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court considered last month whether to outlaw the
death penalty amid arguments that it’s used cruelly and arbitrarily on poor and
black defendants.
The issue was brought before the justices through petitions by death row
inmates Jermont Cox of Philadelphia and Kevin Marinelli of Northumberland
County. They were sentenced to death in the 1990s after being convicted of
murder.
Cox’s petition extensively cited the report from the Joint State Government
Commission.
“The commonwealth’s attempts to apply the death penalty in a fair and reliable
manner have failed,” it contends.
Federal defender Timothy Kane testified at a hearing on Sept. 11 that more than
half of the 441 death sentences imposed since that penalty was reinstated in
the late 1970s were ruled to be flawed and were thrown out.
The state attorney general’s office defended the death penalty, and the Supreme
Court rejected the petitions without explanation on Sept. 26.
That doesn’t mean the status quo is acceptable. The death penalty will continue
to be challenged. State officials must address the weaknesses so it will stand
up to those challenges and can be used with confidence. (source: Paul Muschick,
Morning Call)
DELAWARE:
Hearing Set in Appeal by Former Delaware Death Row Inmate
A Delaware judge is holding an evidentiary hearing in an appeal by a former
death row inmate who is now serving life in prison.
Tuesday's hearing involves a motion for post-conviction relief filed by Ralph
Swan.
Swan and an accomplice, Adam Norcross, both were sentenced to death for the
1996 murder of Kenneth Warren of Kenton. Warren was shot 4 times in a home
invasion robbery.
Swan was resentenced in 2017 to 3 life terms behind bars after Delaware's
Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty law unconstitutional in 2016.
Norcross also has been resentenced to life without probation or parole.
(source: Associated Press)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Jury selection expected to take a week in Pasquotank prison riot trial
Mikel Brady walked into a Dare County courtroom on Monday with his life hanging
in the balance.
Brady is one of four men charged in connection to the deadly failed prison
break at Pasquotank County Correctional Institution, and Brady is accused of
playing a key role.
All are facing the death penalty.
4 prison employees died as a result of the attempted prison escape back in
October 2017. The Medical Examiner’s autopsy report revealed the victims died
from being hit or stabbed.
Prosecutors say Brady along with 3 other inmates started a fire and attacked
several prison guards.
Brady’s attorneys asked the judge to take the death penalty off the table, but
the judge denied that motion back in June.
Monday was jury selection.
Prosecutors asked jurors if they’ve heard about this case and nearly all raised
their hands. Many of them said it would be a struggle to be impartial in this
case.
600 potential jurors were brought in to find a fair jury. Jury selection could
take a week, and the trial is expected to last 3 weeks.
Prosecutors are trying Brady’s case in Dare County, nearly 2 years to the day
after the attack. His attorney requested the move over the summer, saying too
many people in Pasquotank were familiar with the case.
(source: WAVY news)
FLORIDA:
The Death Penalty is Barbaric and Ineffective
October 10 is World Day Against the Death Penalty. That the U.S. continues to
use this broken and antiquated system of (in)justice is reprehensive in so many
ways, but among the most important is the issue of sentencing people to death
row wrongfully and executing people who did not commit the offenses that
resulted in those sentences. As a Floridian, I am highlighting here the case of
James Daily. Not because Florida is the only state in which the system is
frequently wrong, but in the hopes that his very legitimate claims of innocence
may be heard by others who can help save a life.
James Dailey is a Vietnam War veteran who served 3 tours there and 1 in Korea.
If the state goes forward with his execution, currently scheduled for November
7, he would be Florida’s 100th executed person since executions restarted in
the 1970s. Dailey has spent more than 30 years on death row for a murder he did
not commit, and despite there being no eyewitnesses or physical evidence tying
him to the murder. In fact, the physical evidence, a hair found in the victim’s
hand, already excludes Mr. Dailey from having committed the offense. The true
killer, co-defendant Jack Pearcy, has signed an affidavit swearing that he
actually committed the murder. Pearcy failed a polygraph pre-trial and told
inmates and several correctional institutional officers that he did it. He has
a history of violence, particularly against women. Further, police reports from
the 1985 crime show that Mr. Pearcy left his home with the victim shortly
before the murder and James Dailey was not with them, yet this information was
withheld from jurors.
As is too often the case, the prosecutors used an unreliable and uncorroborated
snitch/informant to build the case against Dailey. After the state initially
failed to secure a death sentence against Pearcy, law enforcement went to the
jail, pulled every man from Dailey’s pod, showed them coverage of the case and
offered them leniency in their cases if they could “help.” Only then did
someone say Dailey did it. Paul Skalnik was a known child sexual offender but
charges in his pending case were dropped due to his testimony against Dailey.
He was released and went on to commit another sexual offense against a child in
Texas, where he is currently incarcerated. The prosecutor in the case has since
said she would never use Skalnik again because she had no evidence that his
testimony was truthful.
This case highlights so much of what goes wrong in capital cases. Use of
problematic witnesses, police and prosecutorial misconduct and jailhouse
snitches are frequently factors in exonerations. At this point, Florida leads
the nation in getting it wrong—for every three executions, one person is
exonerated.
It is way past time that Florida, and the remaining death penalty retentionist
states, discontinue this barbaric and ineffective practice.
(source: Laura Finley, counterpunch.org)
*******************
Why do death penalty trials take so long?
Let's take a closer look at what would happen if Jimmy Rodgers is convicted and
given the death penalty in the murder of Teresa Sievers in Bonita Springs.
Defense Attorney Spencer Cordell talked to Fox 4 on Monday morning about the
challenges of taking a death penalty case to trial.
He says the first challenge is to find "death qualified" jurors to sit on the
case. Those are jurors that are willing to consider the death penalty as a
possible punishment, and it takes a lot of scrutiny in the jury selection
process to find these qualified jurors.
Then, if the suspect is found to be guilty, then the jurors must return for the
sentencing phase of the trial, which can take some time as well.
He says that while the jury selection in the Jimmy Rodgers trial is taking a
long time, it is not taking longer than expected. However, this trial could
exceeded the expected 5-weeks allotted for the trial.
(source: Fox News)
******************
How rare is the death penalty in Southwest Florida?
Part of the reason jury selection is taking so long in the Teresa Sievers
murder case is because it is a death penalty case.
The prosecution and defense are asking a lot of very thorough questions about
this.
So we dug a little deeper into how rare the death penalty is within our state.
Taking a look back on records, it turns out getting sentenced to death is quite
rare in Southwest Florida.
The last person to be sentenced to death in Southwest Florida was Mesac Damas
in Collier County in October of 2017. He actually got 6 death penalty sentences
for murdering his wife and 5 children.
He is 1 of 3 people sentenced to death in Collier County in recent years. That
includes Brandy Jennings (1996), and Thomas Gudinas (1995).
But before Damas, the last person to be sentenced to death in the area was
James Robertson in December of 2012 in Charlotte County. While in prison
serving a life sentenced, he strangled his cell mate to death with a pair of
socks, saying he did it because he wanted to be on death row an die.
Including Robertson, 6 inmates have been sentenced to death in Charlotte County
in recent years.
-James Robertson (2012)
-Dwight Eaglin (2006)
-Stephen Smith (2006)
-Daniel Conahan (1999)
-James Ford (1999)
-Jack Sliney (1994)
And in Lee County, 4 inmates have gotten the death penalty.
-Kevin Foster (1998)
-Harold Lucas (1997)
-Joshua Nelson (1996)
-Anton Krawczuk (1992)
Getting the death penalty will be even more rare in the future, now that the
law says the jury has to unanimously vote to give the death penalty. The
state's legislature passed a statute making this a requirement in March of
2017.
The rule also says if there's a hung jury, there would be no retrial. Instead,
there would be a life sentence for defendant.
(source: Fox News)
*************************
State will seek death penalty against man in deaths of woman, 4 kids----Michael
W. Jones Jr., 38, is accused of killing the victims and bringing their bodies
to Georgia.
A grand jury on Monday indicted Michael W. Jones Jr. on a 2nd-degree murder
charge for the slaying of his wife, Casei, and 4 counts of 1st-degree murder
for her children, ages 1 to 10. The State Attorney’s Office has said it will
seek the death penalty.
These were important steps in the legal process, but they do virtually nothing
to comfort Casei’s mother, Nikki Jones, who sobbed over the phone while talking
about the unfathomable loss.
“We’re not coping,” she said during an interview. “I don’t even have my babies
back from Georgia.”
Michael Jones, 38, was arrested in south Georgia last month with Casei’s
decomposing body in the van. He led police to a place near Folkston, where he
had stashed the children’s bodies. He is being held without bail at the Marion
County Jail.
Friends and family contacted Marion County law enforcement when they had not
heard from the family in a month. The family had lived in Leesburg but moved to
a home in the Sunset Harbor area of Summerfield recently.
Nikki Jones said she had no idea that her “baby girl” and her grandchildren
would end up being murder victims.
“I would’ve stopped it,” she declared.
She said the couple had “marital spats,” and there was once a two-week period
when Michael left the family and Nikki moved in with Casei in Leesburg from her
home in Tampa. She described Casei during that time as “deeply depressed.”
Nikki was upset with Michael because he wasn’t working. “They didn’t have much,
but she owned everything they had. But she couldn’t see it. She loved him.”
“She was so pretty; she was such a hard worker.”
Nikki has been wounded by the tragedy even more because she tried to start a
GoFundMe to raise money for funeral expenses but had to take it down because
people were making hurtful comments.
“They said I was just trying to get money off my daughter’s death,” she said.
“If they knew me, they wouldn’t say that.”
Casei was born 2 days before Christmas. “I always said that was my Christmas
present.”
Fortunately, someone in Marion County has agreed to cremate the bodies, she
said.
“We don’t have much. I’m a coal miner’s daughter, the daughter of a World War
II hero, but we loved each other,” she said.
If possible, the deaths of the children may be even harder to take.
Cameron Bowers was 10, Preston Bowers, 5, Mercalli Jones, 2, and Aiyana Jones,
1. Cameron watched over his brothers and sisters, Nikki said.
“Pressy, I called him Pressy, was scheduled to start kindergarten. He was
learning to walk. He was crippled and they received a disability check for him.
He had a muscle issue,” Nikki said.
“Mercalli was my soulmate. She went everywhere with me,” she said of the bubbly
little blonde girl.
Aiyana was crawling, she said.
The younger children attended Morrison United Methodist Church preschool until
they moved to Marion County. They had lived in a home on Vine Street in
Leesburg.
Nikki, who lives in DeLand, said the only thing she needs now is either repairs
to her 2004 “junk car” or a different vehicle, “so I can drive to the trial.
I’ll walk if I have to.”
Court dockets are backed up for 2 years or longer for murder trials.
“Unfortunately, true evil poked its head up here in Marion County,” Sheriff
Billy Woods said in a press conference in September.
(source: dailycommercial.com)
**************************
Accused family murderer Shelby Nealy set for trial in Pinellas----The trial,
set for November 2020, is scheduled for four months after he stands trial for
murder in Pasco County.
Shelby Nealy is set to stand trial in Pinellas County on Nov. 10, 2020 in the
killing of his ex-wife’s family.
That date, set at a Monday hearing, is four months after his trial date in
Pasco County in the killing of his ex-wife, Jamie Ivancic.
Nealy, now 26, is accused of killing Ivancic, 21, in January 2018, burying her
in the yard of the Port Richey home they once shared. Nealy then tried to cover
it up, investigators said, by posing as her in text messages to her family.
Until Ivancic’s family began to see through the scheme.
Prosecutors say Nealy drove to her parents’ home in Tarpon Springs on Dec. 15
and bludgeoned her father, Richard Ivancic, 71; mother Laura Ivancic, 59; and
25-year-old brother, Nicholas Ivancic, with a hammer.
Nealy is standing trial for each incident separately. His trial in Pasco, where
he faces 1 count of 1st-degree murder, is set for July 20, 2020. He does not
face the death penalty in that case.
He does face the death penalty in Pinellas, where he is charged with 3 counts
of 1st-degree murder.
Defense attorney Allison Miller reiterated to Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge
Joseph Bulone on Monday that Nealy has offered to plead guilty to all four
murder in exchange for four life sentences. Prosecutors have not taken that
deal.
At Monday’s hearing, Assistant State Attorney Elizabeth Zuroweste asked Bulone
if he had read a letter Nealy wrote Aug. 5 in which he seemed to say
disparaging things about Miller.
“Do you want to file a motion to dismiss counsel?” Bulone asked Nealy.
“No your honor," he said.
(source: tampabay.com)
*********************
On and Off Death Row for 17 Years, Palm Coast Double-Murderer David Snelgrove
Loses 1 More Motion
19 years ago in Palm Coast’s B Section, David Snelgrove murdered Glyn Fowler,
84, and his wife, Vivian, 79. He was twice sentenced to die–in 2002 and 2008.
The verdict was not unanimous either times.
As Snelgrove awaited execution on death row, the law changed. Florida had been
among the few states that allowed death-penalty recommendations not to be
unanimous. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional in 2016. Florida
changed its law accordingly. A unanimous verdict is now required. Snelgrove’s
conviction for the 2 murders is not contested: he’s not getting a new trial on
that. But he’s scheduled for his 3rd sentencing trial in Flagler in January.
He was in court in Bunnell again today in his lawyers’ latest attempt to not
get that far: they were arguing, as his lawyers have before, that Snelgrove’s
mental capacities make him ineligible for the death penalty. His IQ hovers
around 70, the cut-off below which the Supreme Court ruled individuals may not
be eligible for the death penalty. But at several steps in the process,
including 2 decisions by the Florida Supreme Court, Snelgrove has lost the
argument that he is intellectually disabled.
He lost again today. Circuit Judge Kathryn Weston–the fourth judge on the case
going back to the late Kim C. Hammond–denied a renewed attempt to argue
intellectual disability. But the hearing points to one of the strategies
Snelgrove’s defense attorneys will apply at trial in hopes of winning
commutation from the death penalty when a jury of 12 will decide the issue.
Michael Nielsen, one of Snelgrove’s attorneys, had filed a motion to prohibit
the imposition of a death sentence following an IQ test finding Snelgrove
“likely mentally retarded” according to state law, a finding “based on test
scores and collateral information gathered about” him. The examining physician,
Stephen Bloomfield, is expected to testify at trial.
Arguing before Weston this morning, Michael Stone, who is also defending
Snelgrove, said the defense recognizes that the Florida Supreme Court has twice
ruled against Snelgrove. But Stone pointed the judge to a dissent in one of the
Supreme Court’s decisions to argue that relying on IQ scores isn’t enough. The
court’s test is three-pronged: a defendant must have “significantly subaverage
general intellectual functioning,” must have “concurrent deficits in adaptive
behavior,” and must have “manifestation of the condition before age eighteen.”
“You have to consider all three factors, and they have to be considered in
tandem,” Stone said.
Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Dunton, who is prosecuting this phase of the
case, said the Supreme Court did just that–twice, while the defense hasn’t come
up with new evidence regarding Snelgrove’s past. (That has been one of the
defense’s obstacles: there’s a dearth of school records it can rely on.)
“I think that the state has the right argument. I don’t think that there’s any
new evidence that’s been presented,” Weston said as she denied the motion.
That’s not the end of pre-trial motions. The defense, to Snelgrove’s
exasperation, said it still wanted to return to court possibly in November to
argue further motions. Snelgrove shook his head and sighed. He had in late
August written Weston to talk about his dental appointments, which keep getting
cancelled because of court hearings. He is tired of making the trip from state
prison to the Flagler jail whenever hearings are scheduled. “In the 19 years
I’ve caused no trouble for anyone, I’ve done what has been asked of me, and
have never asked for anything,” he wrote the judge on Aug. 25, this is the one
time I’m asking for something.”
He was asking for today’s hearing to be held in November. He didn’t get his
wish. His dental appointment was cancelled. He addressed the judge in person
today. “I was going to ask if you can just give me 60 days” without a hearing,
he told Weston. “If you can leave me alone for 60 days to get this done and
over with, I’d be happy.”
The judge told him he did not have to be brought back for the November hearing,
tentatively scheduled for Nov. 12. It was a minor victory in an otherwise
larger loss.
The sentencing trial is scheduled to start on Jan. 6. The judge is asking for 3
panels of 50 potential jurors each–150 potential jurors in all, for a
jury-selection schedule that may stretch over 3 days. The reason: 12 jurors
must be picked, and no juror who is against the death penalty is eligible, nor,
generally, are jurors who are too rabidly for the death penalty, either.
Inevitably, a huge number of potential jurors are thus disqualified. For
Flagler County, it’ll be the first such re-sentencing trial since the nation’s
and the state’s highest courts overturned Florida’s death penalty scheme.
(source: flaglerlive.com)
ALABAMA:
Supreme Court won't review death sentence of Alabama inmate
The Supreme Court says it won't review the case of an Alabama death row inmate
who argued his sentence is unconstitutional because a judge imposed it over the
will of a jury.
The high court said Monday it won't hear Mario Dion Woodward's case. Woodward
was convicted of fatally shooting Montgomery police officer Keith Houts during
a 2006 traffic stop. A jury voted 8-4 to sentence him to life in prison, but a
judge overrode the jury and imposed the death penalty.
In 2017, Alabama passed a law ending the practice of judicial overrides going
forward. Woodward argued Alabama's abandonment of the practice was an
acknowledgment that his sentence is unconstitutional.
(source: Associated Press)
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