[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---ALA., LA., COLO., ARIZ., ID., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 21




ALABAMA----impending execution

Governors almost never stop executions----For decades Alabama death row inmates 
died in the state's electric chair and it was rare for a governor to commute a 
sentence then or now


As he prepared himself for death in his final years, Alabama Gov. George 
Wallace worried that he might be kept from heaven by 2 actions in his life:

One was his military service aboard a U.S. bomber during World War II tasked 
with bombing Japanese cities -- an action that Wallace knew killed thousands of 
civilians.

The other was his final decisions to allow executions by electric chair of 
death row inmates when he had the power to stop it.

Gov. Fob James was known to almost always be in a foul mood on days when a 
state execution was scheduled during his time as governor.

James always allowed the death sentence to be carried out until his very last 
day in office in mid-January of 1999. It was then, as his final act as 
governor, he commuted the death sentence of Judith Ann Neelley to life in 
prison for the sexual assault and murder of a 13-year-old girl.

Even though Neelley was not facing execution soon, an aide said James did not 
want to awake one day to read that a woman had been put to death, one he had 
the power to save.

Gov. Don Siegelman, a former Alabama attorney general and strong pro-death 
penalty advocate, required his staff to go through a rigorous review of each 
death row inmate's case as they approached their execution. An aide said 
Siegelman's central question was always "Is there anything that points to the 
conclusion that the person didn't do it?"

Gov. Bob Riley, not long in office in 2003, became the 1st governor to walk the 
hallway between cells along death row and visit the death chamber where he 
watched a mocked execution. During that mock execution Riley kept looking at 
the ceiling in the chamber. Later he said he wanted to burn into his mind the 
last view that inmates brought there would have as they died.

During his walk along death row, inmates called out to Riley to have mercy on 
them and commute their sentences.

He never did.

By the time his 2 terms were over in 2011, 25 inmates had been put to death but 
friends and associates say that experience has weighed on him till this day.

Today, Gov. Robert Bentley is dealing with another execution in Alabama, the 
state's 1st since 2013.

Barring intervention by the governor or even a more unlikely intervention by 
the courts, inmate Christopher Brooks will be executed at Holman Prison at 6 
p.m. Brooks was convicted in 1992 for the rape and beating death of Jo Deann 
Campbell in Jefferson County.

In 2011 Bentley was about to start his first term and said he would not have a 
problem carrying out the death penalty. As it turns out, all 6 executions 
during his 5 years in office have been difficult, Bentley said.

"Have they weighed on me?" Bentley asked. "Yes they have. Very much so. And 
they should. We are talking about a human life in each case."

In 1 case Bentley was so unsure about his decision to commute or allow the 
execution to proceed that he cried as he wrestled with it. Then he prayed.

Then he allowed the execution to proceed.

Wallace, James, Siegelman, Riley, Bentley -- all pro death penalty governors 
who have struggled to come to terms with the greatest power their office gave 
them: the power over life and death.

In the 40 years since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the moratorium on the death 
penalty only James has commuted the death sentence of an inmate on Alabama's 
death row. And he did it, an aide said, because he deeply believed the state 
should not use its ultimate power to execute women.

An aide to Wallace in his later years said the former segregationist governor 
was not troubled about the afterlife as it related to the role he played in 
inciting racial turmoil.

"The governor had apologized for what he did when it came to all the bad 
segregationist days and actions. He had sought forgiveness from those he had 
hurt and felt he had been forgiven," an aide said.

Bentley, who before he became governor was a physician, said he will approach 
today's pending execution the way he has approached all 6 previous executions.

"My people look at the trial, the evidence. They go over the crime looking for 
any evidence the person didn't do it and to make sure the process was carried 
out correctly" said Bentley. "Then they come to me, and we review it."

Bentley said the process is always a serious one because a life hangs in the 
balance.

"I took an oath to uphold the law of the state and the law allows the death 
penalty in certain cases," said Bentley. "Ultimately a jury makes a decision to 
impose the death sentence and my duty is to carry out that sentence barring a 
case of extraordinary circumstances."

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

Death row inmates in Alabama spend an average of 14 years awaiting execution


In 2011, Christopher Thomas Johnson was executed by the state of Alabama for 
the murder of his 6-month old son.

Johnson's death came 6 years after the Atmore man was convicted of suffocating 
the infant in an act meant to spite his wife. The short period of time from 
Johnson's conviction to execution is not the norm, however. Statistics show 
most inmates on Alabama's death row spend more than a decade awaiting 
execution.

Data from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows the average death row 
inmate in the state has been awaiting execution for 14 years. Alabama's average 
is within the national norm. For prisoners who are put to death, the average 
wait time in the U.S. is 16.5 years, up from 6r45 years in the mid-1980s.

By their nature, death penalty cases move slowly through the trial phase and 
then trigger multiple appeals that can grind the process to a halt. In 
Johnson's case, time on death row was short because he pleaded guilty to 
capital murder, waived all appeals and requested to be put to death.

In most death row cases, the emphasis is on delaying or preventing the 
execution and not speeding it up. Of the 187 inmates on Alabama's death row, 27 
have been there for more than 20 years; 132 of them have been there more than 
10 years.

Alabama inmate Arthur Lee Giles went to Alabama's death row in 1979 for the 
murders of Wilene and Carl Nelson in Blount County. Another inmate, William 
Bush, has been on death row since 1982 for the shooting death of Montgomery 
convenience store clerk Larry Dominguez.

Death row inmate Christopher Brooks, who is scheduled to be executed Thursday 
night at Holman Prison, was convicted in December 1992 for the rape and beating 
death of Jo Deann Campbell in Jefferson County. He was 21 when he was sentenced 
to death row. He is now 43.

His execution would be Alabama's 1st since 2013 and the 1st to use the state's 
new 3-drug combination for lethal injections.

Nationally, 49.8 % of inmates executed since 2010 served more than 20 years; 17 
% served more than 25 years; 5 inmates were killed after delays of more than 35 
years. The vast majority of those sentenced to death are never executed.

Even death row inmates who are exonerated spend years awaiting execution before 
they are cleared, according to the Innocence Project, which estimates the 
average exoneration takes places after 14 years on death row.

The delay between conviction and execution has been questioned by courts 
before. Last summer, a federal appeals court found that delays in California - 
where more prisoners have died on death row than have been executed - did not 
constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

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

Vigils held statewide ahead of Christopher Brooks execution----Christopher 
Brooks scheduled to be executed for the 1992 rape and murder of Jo Deann 
Campbell


A number of vigils are set throughout the state on Thursday in connection with 
the Alabama's 1st execution in 2 years.

Barring any last minute stays, death row inmate Christopher Eugene Brooks is 
set to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. in the execution chamber at 
the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Brooks, now 43, was convicted in 
the December 1992 rape and murder of a Homewood woman, 23-year-old Jo Deann 
Campbell.

Investigators linked Brooks to the crime through DNA, fingerprints, and 
Campbell's car and other items taken from her Homewood apartment, including a 
credit card he had used. Her partially clothed body had been found under her 
bed and she had been beaten with a barbell.

Brooks would be the 57th death row inmate executed in Alabama since executions 
resumed in 1983 after an unofficial more than decade-long nationwide moratorium 
ended.

Officials with Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, an Alabama advocacy 
group, say that there will be a number of Alabama vigils held throughout the 
day:

In Mobile, there will be a prayer vigil from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in front of the 
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at Dauphin Street at Claiborne Street.

In Montgomery, there will be a vigil on the steps of the state capitol at 5:30 
p.m.

There are 2 vigils scheduled in Birmingham. The 1st will be held from 11:30 
a.m. to 1 p.m. at the corner of Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard and 8th Avenue 
North across from the Jefferson County Court Building.

A 2nd prayer vigil will be held at 5:45 p.m. opposite the Martin Luther King 
Jr. statue at Kelly Ingram Park, off 16th Street North and 6th Avenue North. 
This vigil will take place whether there is a stay or not.

> Inside the prison, the inmates will show their respect and solidarity by 
refraining from sports and wearing their dress whites in the yard when they 
observe moments of silence and prayer on Wednesday and Thursday.

In France, Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture and the Death 
Penalty will be praying ahead of the execution.

And, the Birmingham Friends Meeting building, 4413 5th Avenue South, hangs a 
black flag from an upstairs window facing the street on all execution dates in 
the U.S. stating: TODAY WE MOURN THE DEATH OF A FELLOW HUMAN BEING.

(source for all al.com)

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

"I forgive him": Family of Jo Deann Campbell opens up before her killer's 
execution


Brooks was convicted of raping, robbing and murdering Jo Deann Campbell in her 
Homewood apartment in 1992. She was 23 years old.

Days before the scheduled execution, Jo Deann's older sister, Corinne Campbell, 
received a Facebook message from a close friend of Jo Deann's.

The message contained an audio recording of Jo Deann's outgoing message on her 
answering machine.

"Hi! It's that time of year again. I want to wish you and all a merry 
Christmas, a happy Hanukkah and a happy new year," the cheerful voice chimes.

"It brings 2 feelings," Corinne Campbell said. "It brings one of just like - 
chilling, and one of just, wow! That's really her. And that was 23 years ago

. "It's difficult to describe. She's just full of life and loved people, and 
people loved her."

The message would eventually become one piece of what Campbell calls 
"overwhelming" evidence that Brooks killed her sister.

It happened on Dec. 30, 1992.

Brooks, who'd met Jo Deann Campbell when they worked at nearby summer camps, 
paid her a visit, unannounced.

Corinne Campbell said Jo Deann and Brooks never had a romantic relationship, 
and that Jo Deann was known for staying in touch with her friends from camp.

Jo Deann was working as a training manager at Chili's on Highway 280, when 
Brooks and a friend, Robert Leeper, dropped in.

Campbell said Jo Deann agreed to let Brooks and Leeper spend the night at her 
apartment in Homewood.

The next day, Jo Deann did not show up for work.

Campbell remembers the moment when police found her sister's body, bludgeoned, 
naked from the waist down, and shoved under her bed.

"You just lose every ounce of everything, when policemen saw the body under the 
bed and said, 'Everyone out,' Campbell said.

It took investigators a few days to find their suspects.

"Anyone that came in the house, I just - I just remember thinking, 'My gosh! 
Did you do this? Do you know anything about this?' Campbell said. "I just kind 
of remember just being real suspicious of everyone that came around, even 
though they loved her and had nothing to do with it. It just was a kind of edgy 
time."

Campbell said police used a credit card that Leeper and Brooks had taken from 
Jo Deann to catch them in Columbus, GA, where they lived.

Campbell said Leeper and Brooks stole Jo Deann's car and several objects from 
her apartment, including her answering machine. She said the 2 men had recorded 
their own outgoing message, but when police flipped the tape over, they heard 
Jo Deann's cheerful greeting.

Leeper was sentenced to time served in jail, and was released after pleading 
guilty to using Campbell's credit card.

He was cleared of his murder charge, as investigators found no DNA evidence 
linking him to Jo Deann's rape or killing.

While Brooks awaits his execution, his lawyers have sought multiple appeals and 
stays, but none have been granted.

On Wednesday, Brooks's attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, while the 
Diocese of Birmingham asked Governor Robert Bentley to stay the execution.

"He has a right to do that, and if it's granted, it's granted. We'll live 
through it," Campbell said. "We've lived through 23 years of missing (Jo 
Deann), so we'll live through another however many years it is of whatever it 
takes to end this."

When asked if she felt justice was being done, Campbell said she was not sure.

"I have to say that I've never been a big proponent of the death penalty. I 
don't know that I ever will be, but it is what it is, and it's fair," Campbell 
said.

Campbell said while she and her family will be in Atmore, near the Holman 
Correctional Facility, where Brooks will be put to death, she is unsure whether 
or not the family will witness the execution.

But Campbell knows what her last words to Brooks would be: "I forgive you."

"I think all of us would love to hear him say, 'I did this. I'm sorry.' But 
that may not ever come, and that's probably reality," Campbell said. "So I 
forgive him. I did that a long time ago. It's the only way I can live, to get 
through every day, is just to forgive him."

(source: WIAT news)






LOUISIANA:

Louisiana serial killer connected to 7 murders dies while awaiting execution


A Louisiana serial killer linked to the gruesome murders of 7 women died 
Thursday as he awaited execution, officials said.

Derrick Todd Lee's cause of death was not immediately released. The 47-year-old 
was moved from the Louisiana State Penitentiary's death row to a hospital 
Saturday for unknown medical reasons.

An autopsy will be performed by the West Feliciana coroner's office, Pam 
Laborde, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, 
told the Advocate.

Lee - who was connected to 7 murders between 1998 and 2003 in the Baton Rouge 
and Lafayette - appealed his death sentence earlier this year. The Louisiana 
Supreme Court rejected his bid in September, putting him 1 step closer to 
execution.

A date had not been set for the execution.

Lee was sentenced to death in 2004 for killing and mutilating LSU graduate 
student Charlotte Murray Pace in her Baton Rouge home in 2002. The 22-year-old 
was raped, bludgeoned and stabbed more than 80 times, officials said.

He received a separate life sentence for the 2002 killing of 21-year-old 
Geralyn Barr DeSoto, of Addis.

"I've been prosecuting for over 40 years in the state of Louisiana, and some of 
the most horrible things I've ever viewed ... were committed by Derrick Todd 
Lee," said attorney John Sinquefield, who handled the death penalty phase in 
the Pace case.

Authorities suspect Lee killed 5 other women - Trineisha Dene Colomb, Randi 
Mebruer, Pam Kinamore, Carrie Lynn Yoder and Gina Wilson Green - between 1998 
and 2003, but he was never tried in those cases.

The 6-year killing spree petrified Southern Louisiana, Sinquefield said.

"For a period of time, you had 600,000 people in South Louisiana that were 
terrified. People afraid to go out of their homes, taking extra security 
precautions," he told the newspaper.

(source: New York Daily News)







COLORADO:

Proposed legislation would reduce the number of jurors needed to vote in favor 
of the death penalty


A tweak to Colorado's law could make it easier for juries to sentence a 
defendant to death.

Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, wants to change the standard for a jury from a 
unanimous decision to just nine out of 12 jurors voting for the death penalty.

"I'm calling for a super majority," said Lundberg. "I believe that the standard 
should be high, but it shouldn't be unattainably high."

Last year, 2 separate juries considered the death penalty and did not sentence 
the defendant to death.

In August, a Denver jury found Dexter Lewis guilty of stabbing 5 to death at 
Fero's Bar. That jury stopped the sentencing process during the 2nd of 3 
phases, determining that what Lewis experienced in his life outweighed the 
crime, resulting in a life sentence.

In July, an Arapahoe County jury of 12 found the Aurora theater shooter guilty 
of multiple murder counts, but could not agree on sentencing the shooter to 
death.

"I think it was 9 'firm,' 2 'on the fence' and 1 'absolute no,'" said one of 
the Aurora theater jurors who was in favor of the death penalty.

That juror spoke with Denver7 reporter Marshall Zelinger on the condition that 
her identity remained unknown.

"You get those 1 or 2 stubborn people and then everything just stops. For 1 
person to be able to decide for everyone, it's kind of ridiculous," said the 
juror. "That's the way it was. It wasn't a unanimous decision. It was, 'Hey, 
we've been here for 4 months now, I kind of want to get my life back.' (Another 
juror was) that way. (They were) stubborn in (their) vote, so let's end it and 
go home."

Colorado law requires a unanimous decision from all 12 deliberating jurors to 
sentence a defendant to death. This bill would change it so that the final vote 
on life or death would only need nine in favor of death.

"If anything was deserving of the death penalty, I'd say that's it the Aurora 
(theater) shooting," said Lundberg. "I think we need to come to terms with; are 
we going to have a death penalty that functions in Colorado or are we just 
going to put it in name only and not really have the death penalty?"

The Public Defender's Office, anti-death penalty attorneys and the Better 
Priorities Initiative are all against the idea of reducing the number of jurors 
needed to secure a death penalty verdict.

"If you need a unanimous jury to get a DUI conviction or for convicting someone 
for stealing a candy bar, the bar should be absolutely just as high, if not 
higher, for executing someone," Colorado's Public Defender Doug Wilson told 
Denver7.

"Colorado law seems to have such a high standard, that it's unattainable," said 
Lundberg.

Of the 31 states that have the death penalty, only 3 -- Alabama, Delaware and 
Florida -- are the only states that do not require a unanimous jury decision.

In December, State Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Douglas County, told Denver7 that she was 
going to propose a bill to allow district attorneys the opportunity to seat a 
2nd jury for sentencing purposes only, if the 1st jury is hung when it comes to 
determining life or death.

"When you're asking to seat a 2nd jury, without seeing all the evidence and 
listening to all the testimonies, I don't think I would agree," said the Aurora 
theater trial juror.

(source: thedenverchannel.com)






ARIZONA:

Death penalty sought for man accused of killing, burying Maricopa couple


The Pinal County Attorney's Office filed a death penalty notice Wednesday 
against the man accused of killing a Maricopa couple and burying them on his 
property in June 2015.

Jose Valenzuela, 36, was arrested after authorities located the bodies of 
Micheal and Tina Careccia buried in a 6-foot grave on his property near Ralston 
and Papago roads in Maricopa, not far from where their vehicle had been 
previously found.

The couple had been missing for more than a week.

They allegedly left their home at 5 a.m. on June 22.

They told family members the night before that they had an appointment in the 
East Valley and Tina Careccia was running an errand for her boss.

But they never made it.

Police received the 911 call at 7:16 p.m. that evening, from Michael's 
17-year-old son.

The Associated Press reported in June that authorities served a search warrant 
at Valenzuela's home, after he made some suspicious statements.

Valenzuela allegedly told investigators he and the couple had been acquainted 
for the past 2 years and used methamphetamine together.

Authorities told the AP Valenzuela brought meth to the couple's home the day 
before they went missing, Father's Day.

The couple went to Valenzuela's home later that day, and Valenzuela brandished 
a weapon during a fight.

Babeu said authorities believe Valenzuela was high on meth at the time.

He was also found with a .22 caliber revolver.

According to a news release, County Attorney Lando Voyles filed a notice of 
intent to seek the death penalty on Friday, Jan. 15, citing multiple 
aggravating factors.

Among those factors is that Valenzuela allegedly committed the offense in an 
"especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner."

"I extend my deepest condolences to the Careccia family. I feel a personal 
responsibility to keep violent offenders off of our streets and out of our 
Pinal communities," Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles said in the release.

(source: tucsonnewsnow.com)


IDAHO:

Prosecution set to seek death penalty


An Emmett man accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death in Nampa could face 
the death penalty if convicted.

Canyon County prosecutors have filed a notice of their intent to seek the death 
penalty against 23-year-old Brandon J. Shaw. He is accused of stabbing his 
girlfriend to death in the street outside her home in November.

Shaw is accused of stabbing Chelsey Rae Malone on Nov. 18 with kitchen knives 
at the home that the pair had shared in the 2700 block of Berlin Place in 
Nampa.

Prosecutors filed the notice Jan. 7, citing aggravating circumstances that made 
the alleged crime eligible for a sentence of death.

The notice stated the "murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, 
manifesting exceptional depravity" and "by the murder, or circumstances 
surrounding its commission, the defendant exhibited utter disregard for human 
life."

According to court documents, police say Shaw admitted to stabbing Malone after 
he went to the house and used a credit card to open the door. He had a rifle in 
hand, according to court documents.

Shaw told police in an interview that he attempted to shoot Malone while she 
tried to call 911, but the gun didn't fire, according to court documents. 
Instead, he said he chased her with the knives when she fled the house, 
stabbing her multiple times.

Canyon County public defenders are representing Shaw, and his next court 
appearance is set for 9 a.m. Friday. Shaw remains in custody at the Canyon 
County jail.

Shaw is charged with 1st-degree murder with an enhancement for the use of a 
deadly weapon, assault with the intent to commit a serious felony and another 
enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon, and burglary.

Malone was a single mother of three children.

Of the 9 people currently sitting on Idaho's death row, 1 is from Canyon 
County. David Card, 56, has been on death row since September 1989 after he was 
convicted of murdering a Nampa couple in 1988.

Only 3 Idaho inmates have been executed since the state enacted a new death 
penalty statute in 1977, according to the Idaho Department of Correction.

(source: Idaho Press-Tribune)






CALIFORNIA:

On Lethal Injections, What is the CDCR hiding?


In the latest chapter that is California's broken death penalty saga, the 
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is poised to 
repeat its mistakes of the past. Courts have already invalidated the CDCR's 
execution protocols as constitutionally inadequate or otherwise illegal 4 
times.

We are now in the midst of a public comment period on the CDCR's latest attempt 
at creating a lawful lethal injection protocol. The comment period was 
originally set to end this Friday, Jan. 22 at 5pm, culminating with a public 
hearing in Sacramento where members of the public could provide oral testimony.

Last Friday, however, the CDCR extended the comment period to Feb. 22 in order 
to comply with a Court order in an ACLU lawsuit to turn over or properly 
justify withholding 79,000 documents related to lethal injection. Why did we 
sue the CDCR? Because we believe it is in violation of the California Public 
Records Act by failing to release to the public documents related to lethal 
injection - documents that could help us and the general public evaluate the 
proposed regulations.

My response: What is the CDCR hiding?

To make matters worse, what the CDCR has shared during this public comment 
period has left us with more questions than answers and a deep-seated concern 
that its plan is tantamount to human experimentation. Yes, it's as bad as it 
sounds: 2 of the 4 drugs the CDCR wants to use to carry out lethal injections 
are currently unavailable and the other 2 (amobartial and secobarbital) have 
never been used in an execution. When it comes to something as serious as the 
death penalty, CDCR should not be charting untested waters.

But it doesn't end there. We're still left to wonder how the CDCR will legally 
obtain these drugs and why, out of all the drugs in the world, it chose these 
2. In the end, the regulations are not based on sound medical and scientific 
research.

Moreover, there is no evidence that the CDCR studied and learned from the 
gruesome botched executions last year in states like Arizona and Oklahoma. So 
it looks like the CDCR is setting us up to repeat the mistakes made in these 
states and to do so under a veil of secrecy.

? And once again California is left with proposed regulations that are 
fundamentally flawed and replete with legal, ethical, constitutional, and 
logistical problems.

Take action

Join us in asking the state of California to hold itself to a higher standard 
and put an end to this wasteful system that is broken from start to finish. 
We've been down this path before, but together we can make sure this nightmare 
doesn't become a reality.

(source: Ana Zamora is the Criminal Justice Policy Director at the ACLU of 
Northern California----aclunc.org)

. ***********************

Man convicted in muder rape case; faces death penalty


A Bakersfield man on trial for murder and serial rape was convicted by a jury 
Wednesday.

The jury found Michael Charles Brown guilty on a 1st degree murder charge and 
enough of the sex crime charges to make Brown eligible for the death penalty.

Michael Charles Brown was arrested in 2009 in connection with the murder of 
Ruby Lee Jackson-Merryweather in Bakersfield in 2000.

Police said he's also a serial rapist.

Brown was tried 24 felony charges in connection with alleged assaults on 4 
different women.

He already served time for manslaughter for running over a man on Union Avenue 
in 2003.

The penalty phase for his current rape and murder case starts next Wednesday 
Jan. 27.

(source: kerngoldenempire.com)

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

Suspected Downey home-invasion killers could get death penalty


2 men and a 17-year-old boy were charged Wednesday with murder and other counts 
for allegedly killing a Downey man during a weekend home-invasion robbery.

Paul Darvis Misikei, 18, Henry Willie Sao, 27, and Sakaopo Atanasio Folau, who 
is 17 and charged as an adult, are scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 10 on 1 count 
each of murder, home-invasion robbery and 1st-degree burglary with a person 
present.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation that the victim, 
59-year-old Jim Rudometkin, was killed during the crime of robbery and 
residential burglary.

Prosecutors are expected to decide later whether to seek the death penalty 
against Misikei and Sao. Folau cannot face the death penalty because of his 
age, and faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged.

An autopsy determined that Rudometkin died from blunt trauma - he had been 
struck multiple times on the head and been "bound by ligature" - with heart 
disease also a factor, according to Los Angeles County coroner's Assistant 
Chief Ed Winter.

Authorities allege Misikei and Folau forced their way into the home, with Sao 
entering shortly afterward.

A neighbor called police, who arrived at the home in the 10300 block of 
Lesterford Avenue about 11:15 a.m. Sunday and were told that men were seen 
running from the area, according to Downey police Sgt. Terry Goeckner.

A witness had seen 2 suspects contact the homeowner near the side door and 
force him back inside, then observed a 3rd person enter the home.

The officers gave chase after arriving and apprehended Sao, a Long Beach 
resident, and Misikei, an Anaheim resident, but the teenage suspect got away 
and wasn't apprehended until Tuesday.

"Further information gathered during this investigation points to the victim 
being specifically targeted by the suspects," Downey police Lt. Alex Irizabal 
said. "We do not believe this was a random crime."

Neighbors said Rudometkin was a well-liked local Realtor who had lived alone 
since his father's death.

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

Prosecutors may seek death penalty in Marina del Rey teen killing


A San Diego man was charged Wednesday with capital murder for allegedly gunning 
down a teenage girl in the parking lot of a Marina del Rey shopping center in 
what may have been a botched robbery involving marijuana.

Cameron Anthony Frazier, 21, was ordered to be held without bail while awaiting 
arraignment Feb. 3 at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles in 
connection with the Jan. 6 death of 17-year-old Kristine Carman.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during 
the commission of a robbery, along with an allegation that Frazier personally 
and intentionally discharged a handgun.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty against 
Frazier, who was arrested Monday by members of the FBI Fugitive Task Force 
outside his residence in Vista.

Along with the murder count, Frazier is charged with 2 counts of attempted 
2nd-degree robbery involving 2 other alleged victims.

The victim lived in Houston, Texas, and was visiting relatives in the Southland 
at the time of the shooting, according to authorities.

The teen was shot to death during a robbery attempt while she sat in an SUV 
with 2 other people at the Villa Marina Marketplace mall, according to Deputy 
District Attorney Keri Modder.

Following the shooting, the person behind the wheel drove across the parking 
lot, stopping in a parking space outside a Panda Express, where the girl was 
ultimately found dead.

The suspect fled the location in a dark-colored SUV, possibly heading toward 
the Marina (90) Freeway, police said.

Lacey Carman of Marina del Rey wrote on Facebook that Kristine was her sister. 
She said she was the one driving the vehicle her sister was in, and that "my 
sister was just murdered in front of me in a robbery gone wrong." Her sibling, 
she wrote, was "beautiful smart and undeserving" of the fate that befell her.

"I pray that God is real and holding my sisters hand right now. I pray that you 
never have to feel this pain or this self loathing," she said.

Police have repeatedly declined to comment on a CBS2 report that the shooting 
may have been prompted by an alleged attempt by Lacey Carman's boyfriend to 
sell 2 pounds of marijuana.

(source for both: mynewsla.com)