Nov. 7 TEXAS: Questions remain after 25 years Somewhere, there is a family missing a daughter, a young, attractive girl in her mid-teens. She has been gone now 25 years this week, and Walker County law enforcement officials are still trying to fit together pieces of a horrific puzzle they started working on after her body was discovered on Interstate 45 near Huntsville. Ted Pearce and Dale Myers were young sheriff's deputies in 1980. They were first to respond after long-haul truck driver James Rhoades of Friendswood reported what looked like the nude body of a young girl a half mile south of the FM 1696 exit on Nov. 1 of that year. "I remember it was around Halloween," said Pearce, now an investigator with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office. "I remember a drive-by citizen thought they saw something, and it was, in fact, a young girl. And our first thought then, as it is now, is to find out who she was." The victim was first thought to be around 14 years old, but new forensic information available in recent years has established her age between 14 and 16. She had been beaten and sexually assaulted before being murdered by strangulation. There was a human bite mark on her back. A thin, gold chain with a pendant was the only jewelry she was wearing, and a pair of high-heeled sandals were located with the body. She was found with part of her pantyhose and panties forced into her vagina. "For a long time, we kept some of the details private, because there were some things only the killer would know," Pearce said. "We had a reconstruction expert take pictures of her, and we distributed them in a 5-state area." The murder shocked people in Huntsville, and slowly, citizens reported having seen the girl. "We were a small department then," said Myers, who years later would be sheriff. "There were only 6 or 7 of us at the time, and we worked it the best we could. There was never a lot to go on. We got tips once in a while, but you never knew if they really saw this girl or just wanted to help, and thought they did." Bobby Roach, who managed the South End Gulf Station which no longer exists, positively identified the girl who had been in the station Halloween night about 6:30, asking for directions to the Texas Department of Corrections Ellis Unit. She was wearing blue jeans, a yellow pullover sweater and carrying sandals. Roach reported that to the best of his recollection, she had been dropped off by a white man driving an early 1970s model blue Chevrolet with a lighter colored top. She looked as if she had been traveling. She left the station and walked north on Sam Houston Avenue. Later that evening, a waitress at the Hitchin' Post Truck Stop on the opposite end of town, said the same girl came into the restaurant and again asked for directions to Ellis, saying she had a friend there. A map was drawn for her, and she departed. "We took pictures of her to the Ellis Unit," Myers said. "We had a sketch done and showed them to every inmate on the unit, and no one came forward to identify her." On Jan. 16, 1981, the unidentified girl was buried in the Adickes Addition at Oakwood Cemetery. Former Huntsville Funeral Home director Jack King remembers the tragedy well. "Huntsville Funeral Home buried her, and Morris Memorials provided her tombstone," King said. "The Oakwood Cemetery Association reserved her plot. She was a very beautiful young lady, and she had been cared for. She was clean and had been well fed, and her teeth were in good shape. We knew right away she wasn't a transient. "I promise you, somebody knows this gal. She just didn't fall out of the sky." The case would eventually be an open file on a desk somewhere, as leads withered and regular duties of local law enforcement required attention. "We continued working the case with no real leads until Williamson County had custody of Henry Lee Lucas, I guess around 1984 or '85," Pearce said. Lucas was a serial killer known for murders along several South Texas corridors in the early 1980s. One case in particular connected Lucas to the Walker County murder. "He had been arrested for killing Orange Socks,' and I knew," Pearce said. "We had the bite mark on her left shoulder, and when I went to interview him, he told me he had dental reconstruction done. I was devastated. We had photos of him before, and his teeth looked like they would have matched the bite mark, but we just couldn't make that match. I still believe Henry Lee Lucas killed this girl." Lucas admitted to killing other women after confessing to two murders for which he was facing trial in 1983. According to Crime Magazine, after the trial, Lucas began confessing to other murders all over the country. He originally offered a list of 77 women from 19 different states. He wrote detailed descriptions of the women and drew sketches next to some of their names. As he confessed to more and more murders, the details became increasingly more bizarre. Some included dismemberment, necrophilia, even cannibalism. Law enforcement officers from all across the country were requesting samples of Lucas' saliva, fingerprints and hair. Lucas said he picked up most of his victims along the interstates, offering a ride and sometimes dinner or a drink. Then, he admitted to killing them. "Orange Socks" was one of those cases in which an unidentified female was found in a culvert wearing only her red-orange socks. She was killed Halloween night 1979. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, but Lucas had confessed and was charged for capital murder and was held in Williamson County. He was given the death penalty in 1984 for the crime. There was no other evidence positively identifying Lucas as the killer of the young girl found in Walker County. No semen was found on or in the victim's body, and no other forensic evidence was recorded. "As far as the killer, a million things go through your mind. I gave up a long time ago trying to find that person who killed her, but I would give anything to know who this girl was," Myers said. "I would be ecstatic to find out who she is, to get her back to her family, but what we know is practically nothing, and we know much more now than we did." Texas Ranger Bryant Wells and WCSO Lt. Charlie Perkins have inherited the case after more than two decades, and both agree the girl's identity is the main objective to solve the cold case murder. "It got a lot of attention when it was a new case," Perkins said. "We did an exhumation in 1999 on this girl and had her examined by a forensic anthropologist, as far as better measurements for her age and height. "We have her dentals, which were actually taken at the time the body was discovered, but we've done updates on her physical characteristics using new technologies which have generated a number of hits." Wells said the Internet has allowed details of the case and the unidentified teen to be disseminated nationwide, and every once in a while, cross-referencing will make a match, but so far, never the right one. "New materials have allowed mitochondrial DNA results we've also put on a database," Wells said. "The possibility always exists that we'll find out who she is, and technology generally enhances that chance, so we'll keep working." As of today, Perkins said there are a total of six hits being investigated, and elimination of a few of those has already become quite certain. "This case is open, and we work on it when we can and when we do get new information," Perkins said. "If something were to develop, you bet we would drop everything and make some sort of assessment as to how to handle it." Wells added, "The older a case gets, the harder it gets to solve. And in this case, we just want to know who she is. It's possible her killer is already dead. Our drive is to identify this girl, no matter if there's a criminal case or not." Although original investigators have moved on to other areas or retired, the case of the unidentified girl haunts them all. "If that Texas Ranger ever gets any real information, I would greatly love to come back and work on the case," Pearce said. "If Henry Lee Lucas wasn't her killer, then that person could still be out there or dead. I would have liked the opportunity for our team to find out. "What I never understood is why no parents ever came forward and said, My daughter is missing.' The most important thing to me is to find out who she was and why she was where she was. It was one of those that really stuck in my heart." (source: Hunstville Item) ********************** Escaped death-row inmate caught in La. waives extradition, will return to Texas A death row inmate who brazenly walked out of a county jail and avoided capture for 3 days will have constant guards and reduced privileges when he is returned to Texas, authorities said Monday. Charles Victor Thompson was captured Sunday night outside a liquor store in Shreveport, La. Authorities still don't know how he slipped out of a prison jumpsuit and handcuffs, broke out of a visiting room and flashed a fake ID before walking out of the Harris County Jail on Thursday. Thompson waived his extradition hearing in Caddo Parish, La., where he participated via video from the jail. "I don't want to waste the taxpayers' money in Louisiana," Thompson told state District Judge Ramona Emanuel. Harris County officials picked up Thompson around 4:30 p.m., Louisiana officials said. Harris County sheriff's Lt. John Martin would not say when the death row inmate would return or discuss any additional security measures for his transfer. "Anytime he's out of his cell block, we will have a deputy with him at all times," Martin said. "At no time will he be unattended outside his cell block." Thompson faces escape charges, but it's unlikely the state would bother trying him because he's already condemned. Once back on death row in Livingston, about 75 miles northeast of Houston, Thompson faces reduced privileges. "Most inmates with an escape under their belt are housed under our highest level of security," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Those security measures include a reduction of recreation time from one hour a day to one hour a week. Thompson also will be banned from access to such personal items as a radio or typewriter. Thompson, 35, was convicted in 1999 for the shooting deaths a year earlier of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, of nearby Spring. He had been brought to the county jail in Houston from death row to be resentenced on the orders of an appeals court. He was resentenced to death on Oct. 28 and was awaiting transfer back to death row when he escaped. After meeting with an attorney in a jail visiting room, Thompson managed to slip out of his handcuffs and into civilian clothes that authorities believe he wore during his sentencing and somehow smuggled back to his cell. Thompson left the locked prisoner's booth in the visiting room and waved a fake ID badge as he passed at least four jail employees. Thompson, described by his victims' families and his lawyer as a charmer, was let into the jail's visitor's lobby. From there, he walked out the door and into the street. Martin said authorities still are trying to determine how Thompson got to Shreveport, about 200 miles northeast of Houston. Authorities arrested Thompson while he talked on a pay phone outside a liquor store. The internal investigation into how Thompson escaped continues. While investigators have not ruled out the possibility Thompson got help from a jail employee, there is no direct evidence to support that, Martin said. (source: Associated Press) *********************** Anti-execution group cleared in Texas killer's escape Members of a German anti-death penalty group were not involved in the escape of a condemned killer one day after they visited him, federal authorities said on Monday. Officials still are trying to determine if someone helped Charles Victor Thompson, 35, who was captured on Sunday after 3 days at large, slip out of handcuffs and sneak out of a Houston jail in civilian clothes. In a hearing before a Louisiana judge on Monday, Thompson declined to fight extradition back to death row in Texas. Shortly after Thompson was captured 200 miles away in Shreveport, Louisiana, authorities said they considered members of an unnamed German group "persons of interest." On Monday, Petra E. Herrmann, chairwoman of Alive e.V., said her anti-death penalty organization was the group the police had referred to but she denied any involvement in the escape. She described Thompson, 35, as a friend and said she had visited him in prison last Wednesday and was interviewed by police after his breakout the next day. Later on Monday, U.S. Marshals Service spokeswoman Marianne Matus said Herrmann and all other visitors Thompson saw while in the Houston jail have been cleared. However, Matus said it is "very likely" Thompson had outside help and the investigation of his escape is continuing. Thompson escaped the Houston jail when he shed his handcuffs and orange inmate overalls, donned civilian clothes and bluffed his way to freedom by pretending to be a law enforcement official. Shreveport police and U.S. marshals, acting on a tip, arrested him on Sunday night with little resistance outside a liquor store. A week before his escape, a Houston jury had sentenced Thompson to death for the 1998 murders of his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend. It was Thompson's second death sentence. An earlier one was thrown out by the courts on a legal technicality. Thompson was being held in the Houston jail awaiting transfer back to death row in Livingston, Texas. When Herrmann visited Thompson on Wednesday they had a 30-minute conversation, she said. She was preparing to return to the jail on Thursday when she learned of the escape, which she said came as a shock to her. (source: Reuters) OHIO: Taft delays execution of condemned killer professing innocence Gov. Bob Taft agreed Monday to delay next week's scheduled execution of an inmate who claims innocence so that DNA testing can be conducted. Taft granted John Spirko a two-month reprieve at the request of Attorney General Jim Petro, the second time Taft has agreed to delay Spirko's execution over questions about information leading to his conviction. Petro informed Taft and Spirko's attorneys in letters Monday about his willingness to conduct the testing and his request for the 60-day reprieve. "I am a proponent of DNA technology," Petro said in the 2-page letter to Thomas Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing Spirko. "It is important to accommodate the use of DNA testing where practical and feasible." Petro, a Republican running for governor next year, said he does not believe the testing will be able to prove either Spirko's innocence or his guilt. "Notwithstanding, I believe that to the extent possible, all information should be made available for the parties, courts, and the Gov. to use for what purpose they feel necessary," Petro said. Spirko was scheduled to die by injection Nov. 15 for the 1982 killing of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, the postmistress in Elgin in northwest Ohio. She was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a field. Her body was found 3 weeks later. Spirko, 59, was convicted on the basis of witness' statements and his own comments to investigators. No physical evidence linked him to the crime. (source: Associated Press) ******************* State Rehires Guard Fired After Death Row Suicide The state has rehired a prison guard fired over the handling of a death row inmate's suicide in May after a mediator found no evidence the guard had done anything wrong. James Clark, a corrections officer at Mansfield Correctional Institution, was dismissed in August for writing in a logbook that another guard, Jeffrey Whitaker, had made the required nightly rounds. Whitaker was fired for not doing the checks. He also is appealing. Clark's firing came after an internal investigation by the prison system found that convicted killer Martin Koliser likely was dead more than 3 hours before his body was found. Prison rules call for a check of inmates' cells twice an hour. Clark, sitting at a desk outside of the death row unit that included Koliser's cell, relied on the word of a fellow guard who was supposed to make the checks, said Dwight Washington, a mediator hired by the state and the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association to handle Clark's appeal. "The person who was sitting at the desk relies on the range officer who actually made the physical and visual observation of the inmates," Washington said Monday. "I have to assume if you come back out the range and indicate everything's OK, then that's what occurred.' In the case of Clark, "there were no facts to suggest he did anything differently, or anything to alert him that this inmate in his cell was in any kind of peril," Washington said. Clark, 63, is getting his job back and will be repaid almost $9,000 in lost wages. He will also receive lost vacation, sick days and personal time, said Brian Niceswanger, a spokesman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Clark has an unlisted number and could not be reached. Messages were left through the state employee union seeking comment. The prison system's report concluded that Koliser committed suicide between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. on May 7, contradicting the report of the Richland County coroner, who concluded Koliser died at 5:30 a.m. The prison system investigation also found numerous other problems with the handling of the suicide, including inadequate documentation of guards' activities at night, broken first aid kits and a failure to regularly carry out drills to prevent and respond to suicides. In addition, the investigation found that the cells of Koliser and other inmates were so filthy that the view into them was blocked, indicating that officers were not requiring inmates to keep their living areas clean. All the problems identified in the report have been fixed, Niceswanger said. The state is moving death row from Mansfield to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown to save money. 40 inmates remain following the move Thursday of an additional 42 prisoners. (source: WCOP News) COLORADO: State Sup. Court Refuses To Hear Death Row Appeal In Denver, Colorado's Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal filed by a death row inmate in an unrelated robbery case that prosecutors used to help make their argument for a death sentence. Nathan Dunlap was convicted in 1996 of robbing a Burger King restaurant three years earlier. He was also convicted in 1996 of killing 4 people at a Chuck E Cheese restaurant in Aurora. The Chuck E Cheese slayings were one month after the Burger King robbery. A jury in the Burger King case found him guilty of 2 counts of kidnapping, 1 count of aggravated robbery and 1 count of theft, and he was sentenced to 75 years. A judge threw out the kidnapping sentences, reducing Dunlap's sentence to 40 years. The Court of Appeals reinstated the original sentences, saying there was no doubt of Dunlap's guilt. Prosecutors in the Chuck E Cheese case have said that if the Burger King conviction were overturned, it could jeopardize the death sentence, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court on other grounds. The Supreme Court did not explain why it would not hear Dunlap's appeal. (source: Associated Press) DELAWARE: Woman facing death penalty seeks new trial A lawyer for the 1st woman to face the death penalty in Delaware in nearly 70 years took her appeal to the state Supreme Court today. Craig Karsnitz, who is representing Linda Lou Charbonneau, is trying to get a new trial for his client. He also argued that it was inappropriate to sentence her to death when two other defendants in the case received lighter sentences. "We are hopeful that the court will see it our way and grant her a new trial," Karsnitz said after oral arguments. The court could issue a ruling within 90 days. Charbonneau was convicted of arranging the killings of her husband 45-year-old William Sproates III, and her ex-husband John Charbonneau, 62, in 2001. Superior Court Judge Richard Stokes ordered her to die by lethal injection in June 2004. Willie Brown, who carried out the murders, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders. His wife, Mellisa Rucinski - Linda Lou Charbonneaus daughter, has been sentenced to 25 years for her role in the killings. She could be eligible for early release but must spend a minimum of 10 years in prison. Prosecutors said Charbonneau orchestrated the killing of John Charbonneau, with whom she was living despite being married to Sproates, after a stormy relationship that included frequent fights over possessions. Charbonneau then had Sproates killed to cover up the murder of her ex-husband, prosecutors said. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Lead defense attorney steps aside in death penalty trial One of Fulton County's most grisly murder cases hit a snag once again in the middle of the death penalty trial. Lead defense attorney Brian Steel asked to be removed from the Fulton County case Monday after spending seven years on the case. Steel's reason: a conversation he had with accused killer Michael LeJeune over the weekend. Jurors were kept out of the courtroom as Steel told the judge and prosecutors that his conversation with LeJeune, who is on trial for a 1997 murder and decapitation, at the Fulton County Jail prevented him from continuing on the case. Steel did not elaborate because conversations between clients and their attorneys are supposed to be kept confidential unless both agree otherwise. Superior Court Judge Constance Russell allowed Steel to withdraw from the case. Steel's co-counsel, Bud Siemon, will take over as lead attorney, but he'll have to find another attorney with experience on death cases to help him. The 8-year-old case has been delayed while attorneys fought over the admissibility of blood evidence during two different trips to the state Supreme Court. It's unclear how long the swap of defense attorneys will delay this trial. This is the 2nd jury for LeJeune. His first trial was under way at the time of the unrelated March 11 courthouse shootings. The killings rattled some jurors, and LeJeune successfully urged Russell to grant a mistrial. LeJeune, an accused drug dealer, is charged with shooting Dunwoody resident Ronnie Davis, 39, and dismembering him. The state's key witness, LeJeune's former girlfriend Kelly Anand, has testified that LeJeune kept the victim's head in a bucket of cement for days and took it back and forth from their Roswell apartment to his parents' lakeside home in Buford. The head has never been found. Anand, 27, who was freed after serving more than 5 years behind bars, was expected to continue testifying Monday, but jurors were sent back to their hotel. Russell plans to have a hearing today to determine how to proceed with the case following Steel's request to step aside. ********************** Death row case dismissal upheld The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday denounced the concealment of a $500 payoff to a key state witness in a death penalty case and agreed that a Burke County man on death row deserves a new trial. "We cannot countenance the deliberate suppression by the state of a payment to a key witness, and its attendant corruption of the truth-seeking process, in any case, and especially in a death-penalty case," Justice Hugh Thompson wrote for the court. For this reason, the state Supreme Court unanimously upheld a trial judge's ruling that threw out Willie Palmer's murder convictions. In a 1997 trial, Palmer was sentenced to die for killing his wife, Brenda Palmer, and her 15-year-old daughter, Christine Jenkins. Thompson wrote that there "is a considerable amount of evidence incriminating Palmer in the murders." But the concealment of the payoff, Thompson said, violates the primary tenet of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brady v. Maryland, which stated, "Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair." In a decision handed down this spring, Superior Court Judge John Lee Parrott of the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit found that the state hid the payoff from Palmer's defense team "in defiance of its legal and ethical duties." Palmer's appellate lawyer, Tom Dunn, applauded the Supreme Court's decision. "This opinion sends a loud and clear message to our criminal justice system that the rule of law is alive and well in Georgia and that respect for constitutional rights is paramount to our system of justice," he said. GBI spokesman John Bankhead said payoffs to informants in drug cases are routine to help investigators gain cooperation and information. In Palmer's case, the paid informant in a drug investigation "volunteered" information about the homicides, Bankhead said. Since Parrott's ruling, the GBI changed its procedures. It now writes down on case files whether confidential informants were used and paid so prosecutors will know about it, Bankhead said. District Attorney Danny Craig said in a prior interview he did not know about the payoff and, if he had, he would have revealed it to Palmer's lawyers. Through a spokeswoman, Craig said Monday he plans to retry Palmer for the murders. During the 1997 trial, prosecutors called upon Palmer's nephew, Frederico Palmer, to testify that his uncle enlisted him in a scheme to kill Brenda Palmer and her daughter. Frederico Palmer said he and his uncle drove to Vidette, where Brenda Palmer was living, and briefly parked on the side of the road near a laundromat to finalize their plan. Frederico Palmer said he dropped off his uncle near Brenda Palmer's house where Willie Palmer kicked in the door and committed the killings. But two days later, Frederico Palmer confessed and led police to a rifle he said his uncle used. Willie Palmer's trial attorneys tried to pin the killings on Palmer's nephew. But prosecutors presented witness Randy Waltower, who corroborated Frederico Palmer's testimony by saying he saw Willie Palmer's car parked near the Vidette laundromat around the time of the killings. Palmer's lawyers had asked prosecutors to disclose any deals with state witnesses and were only told about Frederico Palmer's plea bargain. After Willie Palmer's conviction was upheld on direct appeal, Palmer's new lawyers again sought details of any other deals or payoffs made in the case. But the state resisted all efforts by Palmer's lawyers to see confidential informant files in Palmer's case, the state Supreme Court noted. Ultimately, Parrott ordered the file to be presented to him. In it, the judge found four documents that showed about 5 days after Palmer's arrest, the GBI paid Waltower $500 for providing information implicating Palmer in the murders. (source for both: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
