[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----S. DAK., NEV., OHIO, IND., ALA., OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

August 22


SOUTH DAKOTA----impending execution

Page's sister says death row inmate is remorseful


The sister of South Dakota death row inmate Elijah Page says her brother
is genuinely remorseful for a 2000 fatal beating and torture.

Page, who's from Athens, Texas, was convicted in the slaying of
19-year-old Chester Allan Poage (POHG) of Spearfish, South Dakota.

Desiree Page says her brother told her he sees Poage's face every day and
dreams about him each night.

Prosecutors say Page and two others killed Poage in a robbery. The
24-year-old Texan faces lethal injection sometime next week.

His sister told the Rapid City Journal that Page feels he deserves to die
for the crime.

Desiree Page says her brother's refusal to appeal his execution is his way
of "stepping up to the plate."

She also says the man who killed Poage is not the same Elijah Page she
grew up with.

(source: Associated Press)






NEVADA:

Utah man given death penalty for Mesquite murder


A Las Vegas jury has condemned a 22-year-old man from Utah for stabbing a
3-year-old girl to death and seriously injuring her 10-year-old sister
during an attack in a trailer parked in a Mesquite casino parking lot on
Jan. 22, 2003.

Beau Santino Maestas pleaded guilty to charges of murder and attempted
murder in the attack that killed Kristyanna Cowan, 3, and paralyzed her
half-sister, Brittney Bergeron, 10, from the waist down.

Investigators say the attack by Maestas, then 19, and his sister Monique,
who was 16 at the time, was spurred by a drug deal gone bad. Police say
the stabbing was provoked when the girls' mother, Tamara Bergeron, and her
then-boyfriend, Robert Schmidt, sold them salt instead of methamphetamine.

(source: St. George Daily Spectrum)






OHIO:

Suspect In Boy's Beating Death Faces Death Penalty


A West End man will face the death penalty in connection with the brutal
beating of a 7-year-old boy.

Fred Johnson, 35, was indicted Tuesday morning on charges of murder, child
endangering, and felonious assault in connection with the death of Milton
Baker.

Prosecutors said Johnson was helping Baker with his homework in a bedroom
when he beat the child.

He died the next day of massive head injuries.

Johnson was the live-in boyfriend of Baker's mother, Latina Stallworth.

She was also indicted for child endangering.

(source: WCPO News)

****************

Accused Child Killer Could Face Death Penalty


A man accused of killing his girlfriend's 7-year-old son will face the
death penalty if convicted.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Fred Johnson, 35, has been
indicted on 1 count of aggravated murder with death specification, 2
counts of murder, 3 counts of child endangerment and 1 count of felonious
assault.

"If you purposely kill a child in this city, we will seek to have you
executed," he said.

Deters said Johnson was helping Milton Baker with school work in an
upstairs bedroom when the beating took place on Aug 10.

Milton was taken to Children's Hospital, where he died the next day due to
massive head injuries.

"We have evidence that (Johnson) had beaten this child severely prior to
the date the child was killed," Deters said.

Deters said Latina Stallworth, Milton's mother, was in the home at the
time of the incident. She has also been indicted on 1 count of child
endangering.

(source: ChannelCincinnati)






INDIANA:

Prosecutor seeking death penalty in triple homicide


In Petersburg, prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty against
a man accused of killing 3 people and injuring another during a rampage in
a southern Indiana cornfield.

Nicholas Harbison, 23, faces 3 counts of murder for the July 17 attack
during which authorities say he beat, shot and stabbed 2 teenage girls and
2 of his male friends.

Harbison and his 21-year-old girlfriend eluded a police manhunt for more
than 2 weeks before they were caught just miles from the murder scene on
Aug. 1.

Pike County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Darrin McDonald said Tuesday the death
penalty was justified because multiple people were killed and the attack
was so brutal.

"All 3 families feel, as does the prosecutor's office, that this is
particularly a crime that is deserving of whatever type of penalty is the
ultimate punishment that Indiana has and that's the death sentence,"
McDonald said. "The families here are the true victims."

Those killed in the attack were Daniel White, 21, of Francisco, Keela
Lynch, 18, of Princeton, and Rebekah Acorn, 17, of Evansville. Harbison
also faces a count of attempted murder for the shooting of White's
18-year-old brother, Cameron White, who placed cell phone calls that
guided emergency workers to the isolated attack scene about 35 miles north
of Evansville.

(source: Associated Press)



ALABAMA----new death sentence

Jury recommends death sentence for Dothan man


A Houston County jury recommended a death sentence for a Dothan man
convicted of capital murder in a 2-year-old robbery-slaying case.

Ray Grace Junior was found guilty Friday for his role in the April 2004
murder of Prakash Shah. Prosecutors said the victim was visiting his
son-in-law at a convenience store on Cottonwood Highway when he was gunned
down during a robbery.

Yesterday, jurors voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty.

Houston County District Attorney Doug Valeska said 2 other defendants --
Tarris Turner and Dechawn Turner -- are also charged with capital murder
and await trial.

Circuit Judge Larry Anderson did not immediately schedule a sentencing
hearing for Grace.

(source: Associated Press)



OKLAHOMA:

Killer to be 1st to get new execution method


A death row inmate from Oklahoma County will apparently be the 1st to be
executed using a new procedure in Oklahoma.

Eric Allen Patton is to be executed next Tuesday at the State Penitentiary
in McAlester for the 1994 death of Charlene Kauer in Oklahoma City.

The state recently announced a change in the way the lethal drugs are
administered based on information from an expert witness. The expert had
testified when Patton unsuccessfully challenged the execution process.

The state will continue using 3 drugs in the execution process but all 3
will now be put into both the left and right arm instead of rotating
between the 2 arms.

The 1st drug leaves the condemned inmate unconscious, the 2nd stops
respiration and the third stops the heart.

**************************

Death penalty sought for cannibalism murder


In Pucell, a judge ruled Tuesday that a man accused of killing a
10-year-old girl in what authorities said was a cannibalistic plot that
also involved raping the child's corpse can be tried on 1st-degree murder
charges.

Authorities say they will seek the death penalty against Kevin Ray
Underwood, 26, who is accused of strangling Jamie Rose Bolin.

The girl lived with her father in the same apartment complex as Underwood,
and was reported missing on April 12 after failing to return home from a
trip to the library. Her body was found nearly decapitated inside a
plastic tub in Underwood's bedroom closet.

'My fantasies are just getting weirder and weirder'

Underwood confessed to killing the girl, telling FBI agents: "Go ahead and
arrest me. She is in there. I chopped her up," authorities said.

Judge Gary D Barger set September 20 as the formal arraignment date for
Underwood, during which he will be formally charged and enter his plea.
His ruling followed a preliminary hearing to determine if there is
sufficient evidence to bind Underwood over for trial on the murder charge.

Following his arrest, police and prosecutors revealed grisly details of
the crime, saying Underwood raped the girl's corpse and planned to eat her
flesh. A medical examiner's report released later indicated there were
signs of sexual assault, but could not determine if they were inflicted
after her death.

A judge later granted Underwood's defence attorney's request for a gag
order that prohibited attorneys and law enforcement from discussing the
case publicly.

For years, Underwood documented his thoughts and musings in an online
journal, joking in it about cannibalism and writing about feeling
isolated, depressed and even homicidal.

"My fantasies are just getting weirder and weirder. Dangerously weird,"
Underwood wrote in September 2004. "If people knew the kinds of things I
think about anymore, I'd probably be locked away. No probably about it, I
know I would be."

(source for both: Associated Press)