[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 21



KANSAS:

DA seeks death-penalty option for another defendant in Valley Center killings


Prosecutors on Thursday filed a court document that would allow them to seek 
the death penalty against Andrew Ellington if he is convicted of capital murder 
in the shooting deaths of Valley Center couple Roger and Melissa Bluml.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said by e-mail that he had filed 
a Notice of Intent to Request Separate Sentencing Proceeding following 
Ellington's arraignment Thursday morning in Sedgwick County District Court. The 
document preserves prosecutors' option to request that Ellington be executed 
and must be filed within five days of a defendant's arraignment hearing.

Bennett said in Thursday's e-mail that he had not yet decided whether to ask 
for the death penalty against Ellington. In a previous interview, Bennett said 
he can make the final decision at any point up to jurors reaching a verdict at 
trial.

The other possible sentence a capital murder conviction carries is life in 
prison without parole.

Ellington is scheduled for jury trial Dec. 15, although the proceeding could be 
postponed. The court has entered a not-guilty plea to the charges on 
Ellington's behalf, Bennett said.

Ellington, 19, is 1 of 4 people charged with capital murder, aggravated 
robbery, burglary and theft in the Nov. 15, 2013, shootings of the Blumls as 
they sat in a car outside their rural Valley Center home.

Melissa Bluml, 53, died at a Wichita hospital the following day. Her husband, 
Roger, died from his injuries about 5 weeks later. He was 48.

The couple are the adoptive parents of 19-year-old Anthony Bluml, with whom 
Ellington is friends. Anthony Bluml, his biological mother, 36-year-old Kisha 
Schaberg, and another friend, 19-year-old Braden Smith, also are implicated in 
the slayings.

At a hearing in July, Smith testified that the couple were killed over life 
insurance money and resentment. He also testified that Schaberg pulled the 
trigger.

If convicted of capital murder, Schaberg and Bluml also could face the death 
penalty. Smith, however, is expected to receive a lighter sentence. This summer 
he struck a plea deal with prosecutors that would reduce his capital murder 
charge to 2 counts of 2nd-degree murder in exchange for his testimony against 
the other 3 defendants.

Prosecutors plan to ask a judge to sentence Smith to 24.5 years in prison. The 
judge, however, does not have to adhere to the terms of the plea agreement.

(source: kansas.com)






OKLAHOMA:

DA to seek death penalty for pair who allegedly beat elderly man and left him 
for dead


The Pontotoc County District Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty 
against 2 people charged with murdering Ada resident Garry Gray.

On Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Jim Tillison filed a bill of 
particulars on each of the two defendants, 46-year-old Bryan Keith Ross and 
32-year-old Kendra Renee LeFors. The documents must be filed in order for a 
jury to consider the death penalty, should the case go to trial. Ross and 
LeFors were in court Thursday. They are due back in court April 3, 2015, for a 
preliminary hearing.

In the documents, Tillison said Ross and LeFors "...should be punished by 
death, due to and as a result of the aggravating circumstances..."

Tillison said Ross met 3 of those circumstances and LeFors met 2. For both, he 
said, "the murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel" and there is a 
probability that both Ross and LeFors would commit additional violent crimes 
and be a "continuing threat to society."

Tillison also listed that Ross was previously convicted of a felony involving 
violence or the threat of violence to a person.

According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Ross served 20 years of a 
30-year sentence - from 1988 to 2008 - for larceny of an automobile, 
feloniously pointing a firearm, attempted 1st-degree burglary and assault and 
battery with a dangerous weapon.

Both Ross and LeFors are charged with 1st-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a 
felony, 1st-degree robbery and larceny of an automobile.

Gray, 67, was found in his apartment Aug. 31, with severe head trauma from 
being beaten and had his throat cut in several places. He died at an Oklahoma 
City Hospital several days later. He had been on life support since he was 
hospitalized.

Ada Police Detective Kathi Johnston said both Ross and LeFors took part in the 
murder. According to a court affidavit filed by Tillison, the 2 caused Gray's 
death "by then and there beating and stomping the face and head of ... Gray and 
slashing his throat with a knife, with the deliberate intent to unlawfully take 
(his life)."

Although Gray wasn't found until Aug. 31, Ross and LeFors were arrested by a 
park ranger in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur Friday, Aug. 
29. They had Gray???s 2001 Cadillac, credit and debit cards and checkbooks with 
them.

Johnston said Ross and LeFors used Gray's credit cards at various ATMs in the 
area to get cash.

Ross had a bloody knife, which has since been sent to the Oklahoma State Bureau 
of Investigation crime lab to determine if it is Gray's blood on the knife. 
Officials are still waiting on the results.

Johnston said LeFors had been living with Gray for approximately 2 months 
before the murder, but he had asked her to leave because she was causing 
problems for him at his apartment. Detectives said during interviews, Ross (who 
said he was LeFors' boyfriend) and LeFors (whose husband is currently serving 
time in prison) claimed they believed Gray wasn't treating LeFors right, and 
that was their explanation for why they killed him.

Ada police detectives believe robbery for money and possessions was the motive. 
LeFors had been out on bail after being charged Aug. 4 with felony possession 
of methamphetamine and, Tillison said, she has criminal histories in 3 other 
states.

The arrest and discovery

National Park Ranger Heather Hamilton was patrolling in the Chickasaw National 
Recreation Area when she saw Ross and LeFors arguing near Gray's vehicle. She 
radioed for backup, confronted the 2 and separated them.

Ross said they had "just been playing with each other," Hamilton said in a 
report. "As I spoke with Ross, I could smell the strong odor of what smelled 
like cat urine. This odor is consistent with methamphetamine."

Hamilton detained Ross and during a search, found he had "many knives," she 
said. "I took several knives off Ross' person. One of the knives was a hunting 
knife in a sheath. I later examined the knife and observed it was covered in 
dried blood."

Ross also had a black bag with a glass pipe containing methamphetamine residue 
and a red, plastic straw containing methamphetamine residue, Hamilton said.

During a search of the vehicle, rangers found a black box containing syringe 
needles, scissors and a spoon containing methamphetamine residue. Rangers also 
found LeFors' purse which contained four credit/debit cards with the name 
"Garry Gray," Hamilton said. "(We also) located 2 checkbooks with Gray's name 
on them. (LeFors') purse contained $658 in cash and several more syringe 
needles."

Rangers noticed Ross had blood on his shoes. Ross told officers he had been 
rabbit hunting to explain the blood on his shoes and the knife. He said they 
were going down by a river to smoke some meth, according to the report. 
Hamilton said Ross was cooperative during the arrest, but LeFors fought with 
rangers, claiming she had defecated herself and needed to use the bathroom.

"Ranger Henderson observed LeFors reach down her underwear in between her 
buttocks and remove several plastic baggies and clench them in her fist," 
Hamilton said. "LeFors began to kick us and head butt us away while clenching 
her fist. Ranger Seitz was able to peel each finger back until I was able to 
retrieve the baggies."

Hamilton said the baggies contained substances that field-tested positive for 
codeine and methamphetamine. Rangers ran a check for warrants.

"They confirmed LeFors had a warrant out of Arkansas for possession of 
methamphetamine, but (Arkansas) would not extradite. Also found in the vehicle 
was a double-barreled shotgun and 2 rifles.

Ross was then arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm while committing 
a felony, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Lefors was arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine, possession 
of drug paraphernalia, obstruction of justice, assault on a police officer and 
possession of a firearm while committing a felony.

Both were taken to the Murray County jail. Hamilton continued to try and get in 
contact with Gray until Aug. 31. When she could not reach him by that date, she 
phoned Ada police, who conducted a welfare check at Gray's apartment in the 
2500 block of Oakhurst Drive.

Gray was found lying on the floor of his apartment with labored breathing. 
Police called for medical help and secured the area as a crime scene. They said 
most of the trauma was to the back of his head.

(source: The Ada News)






ARIZONA:

Jodi Arias trial: Debate over deleted porn heats up


The debate over who deleted pornography from murder victim Travis Alexander's 
computer - if there was any porn on the computer - took another turn Thursday 
as Jodi Arias' defense lawyers filed a response motion to the prosecutor's 
counter claims made earlier this week. Attorney Jennifer Willmott answered 
prosecutor Juan Martinez' assertion that he had been given a copy, not of 
Alexander's computer hard drive, but a hard drive from "an individual named 
Tony (who) has nothing to do with this case."

The wrong drive was apparently sent by the technician or his company. The 
proper one was sent after Martinez filed his motion.

According to Willmott, "Tony" was a technician charged with making the copy of 
the original hard drive onto a different brand computer for the prosecution.

Martinez also claimed that the defense had damaged the computer; Willmott said 
that the damage was already done.

"A disturbing pattern of damaged and missing evidence is emerging after a 
recent review of multiple items that have been held in state custody over the 
past 6 years," she said in her motion.

Martinez also asserted that it would have been impossible for there to be any 
pornography on the computer, claiming that anti-virus programs installed by 
Alexander would have blocked access to the sites in the first place. Martinez 
said that any porn would have come from the viruses found on the computer.

Willmott responded that the anti-virus program was something downloaded free 
from the Internet, and that the computer owner, presumably Alexander, used it 
to clean up afterward, without the desired results.

"There were thousands of pornography site hits found on Mr. Alexander's 
computer," Willmott wrote in her response. "Some were caused by viruses and 
some were accessed prior to viruses being downloaded onto his computer," she 
wrote.

"The type of viruses found on Mr. Alexander's computer are severe, and 
typically associated with the computer user visiting pornography sites."

Arias is on trial in Maricopa County Superior Court to determine whether she 
should go to death row or spend life in prison for Alexander's 2008 murder.

During her tumultuous 2013 guilt-or-innocence trial and during the present 
sentencing trial, Martinez repeatedly asked Mesa Police officers under oath if 
there was any pornography on Alexander's computers. They repeatedly said no.

Arias had alleged, among other things, that she walked in on Alexander, her 
sometime, secret lover, while he was masturbating to photographs of young boys. 
Martinez ridiculed the allegation.

On Nov. 10, Willmott and her co-counsel Kirk Nurmi filed a motion to dismiss 
the death penalty or even Arias' conviction because of prosecutorial 
misconduct. After re-examining the computer, they alleged that thousands of 
pornographic images had been deleted from its hard drive on June 19, 2009, 
while it was in police possession.

Martinez quickly countered that the time of deletion was when Arias' original 
legal team, Maria Schaffer and Greg Parzych, were examining the evidence. He 
posited that if there was any porn on the computer, it had been deposited there 
by computer virus, and if it had been deleted, it must have been deleted by 
Schaffer and Parzych.

Schaffer immediately and angrily denied the accusation, saying they had only 
gone to get an overview of the evidence, that they were watched the whole time 
by Martinez and Mesa Police Det. Esteban Flores, the case agent on the Arias 
case. Schaffer said that Flores plugged in the computer and turned it on, not 
them.

Martinez also demanded that the defense send him a copy of the contested hard 
drive so he could verify the results, and one was provided to him. The wrong 
one at first.

Computer forensics are not performed on the actual computer in evidence, 
because it would alter the content just by powering it up.

Instead a device called a "Write-blocker" is supposed to be installed 1st to 
keep the machine from making its usual operating changes, and a mirror image is 
created that can be worked on without changing the hard-drive contents.

In his motion for sanctions, Martinez accused Nurmi and Willmott of stalling in 
turning over evidence, demanded he be given the correct computer, and asked 
that the motion to dismiss the death penalty be thrown out.

Martinez also said that Alexander had a computer virus-protection software 
program that would not have allowed Alexander to access the porn sites in 
question.

Willmott stuck by the assertion that Alexander's hard drive was full of porn. 
She referred to the testimony in the 2013 trial in which a Mesa Police forensic 
expert testified he looked for viruses and didn't find them.

"Moreover, the state has now admitted that many viruses were found on Mr. 
Alexander's computer," she wrote. "... Besides mishandling, tampering and 
destroying evidence on June 19, 2009, the state now admits that it proffered 
false testimony when (the forensics expert) testified to looking for viruses 
and finding none.

"This testimony was solicited knowing that Ms. Arias asserted that Mr. 
Alexander's computer was infected with a virus," Willmott continued. "The state 
used (the) false testimony to argue that Ms. Arias was lying."

Neither the prosecution nor the defense is allowed to discuss the trial beyond 
the motions they filed.

The Arias trial has been slowed in recent weeks, first by a Court of Appeals 
stay order forbidding the defense and judge from allowing witness testimony in 
secret until it can be argued before a panel of judges. That hearing is 
scheduled for Nov. 25.

The trial went on with testimony from a psychologist who was willing to testify 
in public about the highly sexed relationship between Alexander and Arias. But 
on Tuesday afternoon, the trial halted abruptly because of a personal emergency 
among the lawyers that is unrelated to the trial.

Testimony resumed Thursday morning.

The pornography issues will be argued in a hearing outside of the presence of 
the jury on Friday.

(source; USA Today)






CALIFORNIA:

Deliberations begin in death-penalty case----Jurors heard closing arguments in 
the penalty phase of a trial where an ex-boyfriend was convicted of murdering a 
Moreno Valley mother of 6


Tyrone L. Harts chose a gun to kill and lighter fluid to set afire his 
ex-girlfriend's body in the middle of the night so her children would discover 
her, facts that show "the depth of his evil," a prosecutor told jurors 
Thursday, Nov. 20.

For the pain and suffering those survivors must live with, Deputy District 
Attorney Jared Haringsma said Harts "deserves to die," and asked Riverside 
County Superior Court jurors to recommend the death penalty.

Deputy Public Defender Aimee Vierra asked jurors to consider mitigating factors 
of his upbringing in an extended South Los Angeles dysfunctional family. "The 
crime is terrible, but it's an aberration from the rest of his life," she said, 
and he is not beyond redemption.

The trial is in its 5th week as jurors deliberate after hearing closing 
arguments from both sides. In the courtroom of Judge Christian Thierbach, 
sniffles and muffled sobs among family and friends of victim Brandi 
Morales-Rael punctuated the prosecutor's presentation.

Harts, 41, of Riverside, was convicted last month of murdering his 
ex-girlfriend and burning her body, attempting to kill her eldest son, and 
endangering 5 of her 6 children in the Feb. 22, 2011, Moreno Valley incident.

The younger children in testimony described their mother's assailant as a 
"robber," but her eldest son recognized Harts by his clothing. Her 6 children, 
ages 6 to 15 at the time, accepted him as a father figure although he was not 
their biological dad.

Harts had moved out about two months earlier but kept in touch with the 
children, including a phone call hours before the incident where he asked one 
of the boys to leave a sliding door unlocked, telling the child there would be 
a surprise for them, according to testimony.

"He sentenced Izzy to a life of guilt and remorse," said the prosecutor, and 
for that, the agony, terror and pain he inflicted, Harts doesn't deserve 
leniency.

As for remorse, Haringsma reminded jurors there was testimony that Harts had 
sex with another woman in a motel room within hours of the murder.

Vierra reminded jurors in the penalty phase they are allowed to consider 
compassion and whether Harts has value as a person. "Yes he committed a 
terrible crime, absolutely," she said, but "killing Tyrone won't bring Brandi 
back."

She reminded jurors how Harts' upbringing put him "at risk" - an abusive home 
environment, surrounded by crack-addicted adults, prostitution and hitting the 
streets to hustle for food. In foster care, he excelled in football at Norco 
High School and was known as an adult for his caring ways and helping others 
get jobs.

"He wanted to be this guy," she said, showing a family portrait of Harts 
surrounded by Morales-Rael and her children. But the split with Morales-Rael, 
"was the breakup of the dream that caused him to unravel."

Harts had a misdemeanor battery involving an ex-girlfriend and served 7 years 
in prison for a Riverside carjacking about 20 years ago.

There are 82 inmates sentenced to death from Riverside County as of earlier 
this month, according to statistics kept by the California Department of 
Corrections.

(source: Press-Enterprise)

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

Man charged in random California shooting deaths could face death penalty


A man accused of going on a 5-day shooting rampage that killed 4 people was 
charged with new counts Thursday that could bring him the death penalty.

The district attorney's office said the amended complaint charges 34-year-old 
Alexander Hernandez with 4 counts of capital murder, 7 counts of attempted 
murder and 11 other related crimes. The new allegations bring the total number 
of charges against him to 22.

Most of the charges against Hernandez involved the random attacks on people in 
cars in the San Feranando Valley area of Los Angeles.

The 1st complaint listed 1 murder, 2 attempted murders and three counts of 
animal cruelty, but the additional charges had been expected. He also is 
accused of shooting 3 dogs.

Prosecutors added an attempted murder charge on Aug. 20, the 1st known day of 
the rampage in which a 42-year-old woman was shot in her car while driving to 
work. She survived.

Hernandez appeared in court but his arraignment was postponed to Jan. 14 
because of the new charges.

The 22 charges include attempted murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle, 
animal cruelty, possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon and discharge 
of a firearm with gross negligence.

Authorities have not been able to find any link between the victims nor a 
motive by Hernandez. They have called him a serial killer.

Hernandez has served prison time and has 4 prior convictions, including 
possession for sale of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance 
with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.

(source: Associated Press)