[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., ARK., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 10



TEXAS:

Coryell County district attorney to seek death penalty in child's death


A Gatesville man with a disturbing history of arrests for sexually abusing 
children was indicted June 1 by a Coryell County grand jury on a charge of 
capital murder in the death of a 2-year old boy in January.

Chet Shelton, 17, was arrested and booked into the Coryell County Jail. Coryell 
County District Attorney Dusty Boyd confirmed his office would seek the death 
penalty in any upcoming trial.

On the date of the incident, Shelton was tasked with baby-sitting Gatesville 
toddler Makai Brooks Lamar for most of the day while the child's mother worked 
a double shift at a local restaurant, according to an arrest affidavit.

The affidavit also said the child's mother came home during a break from work 
and the child was fine at that time. After the mother returned to work, Shelton 
said he found the boy not breathing and took the child to a neighbor's home 
where a Coryell County sheriff's deputy lived.

According to the affidavit, the child died a few hours later at Coryell 
Memorial Hospital in Gatesville.

Police immediately began treating the 34th Street home in Gatesville as a crime 
scene, beginning in the child's bedroom, where they found bloody bedding and 
pillows.

In the arrest affidavit, police highlight several inconsistencies with 
Shelton's story regarding the events in the hours before the child's death, one 
of which was that Lamar always slept clothed and in a diaper.

According to the affidavit, "when Shelton took the infant child to the 
neighbor's house for medical assistance, the infant was wearing no clothing, 
not even a diaper."

Serious injuries were confirmed during an autopsy conducted in Dallas. The 
preliminary cause of death was labeled as blunt force trauma, as the child has 
numerous injuries to his head and internal organs.

The affidavit also said the child had been sodomized, causing "severe, distinct 
trauma" to the child.

Shelton's criminal history includes 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a 
child in May 2007, 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in December 
2007, 2 counts of assault causing serious bodily injury in October 2010 and 4 
counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in May 2007.

According to Boyd, in exchange for his guilty plea in the earlier cases, many 
of the most serious charges against Shelton were downgraded to injury to a 
child, which does not carry a sex offender registration requirement. It was not 
clear in which jurisdiction Shelton's previous convictions were filed.

Online jail records show Shelton remains in the Coryell County Jail on several 
bonds totaling more than $500,000.

Boyd said Shelton's case is Coryell County's only death penalty case.

It appears to me that a failure of the judicial system allowed Shelton to skirt 
the sex offender registration requirement, and avoid lengthy prison terms for 
the most serious of his previous crimes. That failure also allowed Shelton to 
be free to reoffend at the level of this charge.

Shelton gets his day in court. He will have the opportunity to mount a defense 
to the charges. Shelton also will be faced by his accusers.

If found guilty, Shelton deserves the punishment he receives, be it the death 
penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. His tiny victim 
has no life at all.

(source: John Werff, Cove Herald)





***********

Double shooting charge upgraded to capital murder


Charges for a suspect in a double shooting were upgraded to capital murder 
Thursday after prosecutors said his 2nd victim died in the hospital.

Darrell P. Mitchell, 28, is accused of gunning down his ex-girlfriend and her 
boyfriend earlier this week at the woman's apartment in northeast Houston.

Lakiesha Lewis, 23, died at the scene and 24-year-old Johnel Francis died late 
Tuesday after being taken to the hospital.

In an orange jail uniform, Mitchell made his initial court appearance Thursday 
in front of state District Judge Ryan Patrick who ruled that the suspect would 
be held without bail, a common condition in capital cases. He had been charged 
with murder.

Court records show that Mitchell said he knocked on the door at his 
ex-gilrfriend's home at 6603 Hirsch about 3 a.m.

When her boyfriend answered, Mitchell said "his mind went blank and he shot and 
killed them," according to the documents.

Mitchell surrendered to police Tuesday night after investigators released 
information about the shooting.

In court, prosecutor Keri Fuller said a woman who was Lewis' best friend and 
knows Mitchell as Lewis' ex-boyfriend told police that Mitchell told her she 
would have to raise his children because he had killed Lewis and her new 
boyfriend.

Police have said Mitchell and Lewis had an on-again-off-again relationship and 
had recently broken up. Lewis was the mother of his 3 children, ages 5, 3, and 
1. The children were not at the apartment at the time of the shooting.

Court records show Mitchell pleaded guilty to assault-family member after he 
hit Lewis in 2012. He later was put on probation, which he successfully 
completed.

If convicted of capital murder, Mitchell could face the death penalty for 
intentionally killing 2 people. Whether to seek death is a decision made by the 
elected district attorney Devon Anderson, generally after months of 
consultation.

(source: Houston Chronicle)






CONNECTICUT:

Cheshire Killers Could Be Resentenced To Life In Prison Next Week


The death sentences of the Cheshire home invasion killers could be changed to 
consecutive life sentences at 2 separate hearings next week, the 1st 
proceedings to be held since last month's Supreme Court ruling that spared the 
lives of Connecticut's 11 formerly condemned murderers.

Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue has scheduled arguments on pending motions by 
Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky that say the killers' prison sentences 
should be corrected now that the state's highest court has said the death 
penalty is unconstitutional for all in Connecticut. Hayes' hearing is scheduled 
for Wednesday. Komisarjevsky's case will be heard June 17.

The motions to correct the death sentences were filed in November following the 
Supreme Court's initial August 2015 ruling outlawing capital punishment for all 
in the state. When that ruling was appealed, Blue stayed the motions until 
after the justices ruled again on the death penalty.

Following the May 26 decision, prosecutors in the Hayes case filed a motion 
June 3 saying that Blue should impose consecutive life sentences without the 
possibility of parole for Hayes. Prosecutors' response in Komisarjevsky's case 
could not be obtained Thursday.

Connecticut abolished the death penalty in April 2012 but made the law 
prospective, meaning it applied only to new cases and kept in place the death 
sentences already imposed before the bill was passed. The provision was added 
after the high-profile trials of Hayes and Komisarjevsky, who were sent to 
death row for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and 
Michaela, 11, during a July 2007 home invasion.

The men tied up and tortured the family as they ransacked the Petit home for 
cash and valuables. Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela, and Hayes raped 
and strangled Hawke-Petit. The house was doused with gasoline and set on fire. 
Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation. The daughters' father and 
Hawke-Petit's husband, William Petit Jr., survived but was severely injured.

After the 2012 repeal of the death penalty, attorneys representing those on 
death row challenged the law, saying it violated the condemned inmates' 
constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court agreed to take up the 
prospective issue during a hearing in April 2013.

In August 2015, the justices ruled 4-3 to ban capital punishment for all 
defendants, saying in the majority decision that Connecticut's death penalty no 
longer fit with societal values and served no valid purpose as punishment, a 
ruling they echoed in a decision last month that essentially ended prosecutors' 
fight to keep execution possible for those already on death row.

After last month's ruling, Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane said 
prosecutors would "move forward" and seek resentencing for the 11 death-row 
prisoners. His office is currently working with defense attorneys on how to 
handle the remaining - and older - cases of Robert Breton, Sedrick "Ricky" 
Cobb, Daniel Webb, Richard Reynolds, Todd Rizzo, Jessie Campbell III, Russell 
Peeler Jr., Lazale Ashby and Richard Roszkowski.

Once the inmates are resentenced, state officials will have to determine 
whether the inmates should remain or be transferred out of Northern 
Correctional Institution in Somers, the state's highest security prison.

While on death row, inmates were subjected to solitary confinement and more 
restrictions than inmates sentenced to life without parole. They were housed in 
single cells and received fewer recreation hours and less access to prison 
programs and visitors.

(source: Hartford Courant)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty case against man charged in Ardmore killing set for trial in 
September


A Winston-Salem man is going to trial in September on allegations he shot an 
Ardmore woman to death during a botched robbery nearly 3 years ago.

Anthony Vinh Nguyen, 24, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of 
Shelia Pace Gooden, 43, in 2013. If convicted, Nguyen could face the death 
penalty.

Judge Edwin Wilson of Forsyth Superior Court held a brief hearing Thursday in 
the case, which is set for trial starting the week of Sept. 6. Attorneys on 
both sides will return to court on July 5 to argue several pre-trial motions.

Gooden was killed Oct. 11, 2013. Authorities say Nguyen and 2 other men - 
Daniel Aaron Benson, 25, and Steve George Assimos, 24 - broke into Gooden's 
house at 700 Magnolia St., held her against her will and stole a flat-screen 
television valued at $200.

All 3 are charged with 1st-degree murder as well as kidnapping, burglary and 
robbery charges, but Nguyen is the only one facing the death penalty because 
prosecutors say he fatally shot Gooden. She was shot once in the head.

According to a search warrant, Benson and Assimos told police that Nguyen shot 
Gooden.

Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Martin and Ben White are prosecuting the 
case. Because this is a death penalty case, Nguyen has 2 attorneys representing 
him - David Botchin and John Bryson.

Botchin and Bryson filed several motions last month. One motion asks a judge to 
tell prosecutors that they must turn over any remaining evidence in the case 2 
weeks before the start of trial.

Since Nguyen was indicted in 2014, his attorneys have had disputes with 
prosecutors over delays in getting evidence. The delays were largely due to 
protocols that the State Crime Lab put into place to deal with backlogs. The 
Crime Lab places limits on the amount of evidence law-enforcement agencies can 
submit for analysis.

In one of the motions filed last month, Botchin and Bryson said it isn't 
uncommon for prosecutors to provide discovery right up to the start of the 
trial.

"Given that this is a capital case, the need for diligent preparation, and 
effective assistance of counsel, the Defendant should not be receiving 
discovery in a 'helter skelter' last minute fashion," they write in the motion.

The other motions asks prosecutors to provide information about any meetings 
that may have taken place between prosecutors and Nguyen's co-defendants and 
other witnesses and any communication between prosecutors and the 
co-defendants' attorneys. Assimos and Benson will likely testify, Botchin and 
Bryson said.

Proecutors have not responded yet to the motions, which will likely be heard on 
July 5. Previously, Martin has said in court that prosecutors have turned over 
evidence as soon as they receive it. Martin has declined to comment because the 
case is pending.

Martin said in court Thursday that the trial will last at least 6 weeks. 
Botchin said the trial could last between 6 weeks and 10 weeks.

Nugyen, Assimos and Benson are all in the Forsyth County Jail with no bond 
allowed.

(source: Winston-Salem Journal)

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

Judge Ammons volunteers to remove himself from hearing four racial bias cases


A Cumberland County judge on Thursday removed himself from presiding over the 
cases of four people who in 2012 used a racial bias law to get off North 
Carolina's death row.

During a hearing at the Cumberland County Courthouse, Senior Resident Superior 
Court Judge Jim Ammons said he was stepping aside to prevent any allegations 
about his ability to be fair from clouding the cases.

The N.C. Supreme Court in December overturned the 4 inmates' reprieves and sent 
their cases to Ammons for new hearings under the state's controversial Racial 
Justice Act.

Convicted murderers Marcus Reymond Robinson, Quintel Augustine, Tilmon Golphin 
and Christina Walters in 2012 were the first and only prisoners in the state to 
use the Racial Justice Act to get their death sentences commuted to life in 
prison without parole. The law, which was repealed in 2013, allowed death row 
inmates to attempt to prove racism was a factor in their cases and, based on 
the racism, overturn their death sentences.

The 4 defendants persuaded now-retired Senior Resident Superior Court Judge 
Greg Weeks there was racial bias on the part of prosecutors in the selection of 
the juries that convicted the defendants and sentenced them to death.

The defendants' lawyers since January filed many hundreds of pages of documents 
to argue that Ammons has conflicts of interest and biases that preclude him 
from presiding over these cases. They said he has professional and personal 
relationships with law enforcement and former colleagues in the Cumberland 
County District Attorney's Office that would keep him from fairly deciding 
whether Augustine, Walters, Robinson and Golphin should again be removed from 
death row.

The lawyers accuse some of Ammons' former colleagues of racial bias and have 
noted that his brother-in-law used to be head of the N.C. Highway Patrol. One 
of Golphin's victims was a Highway Patrol trooper.

In the court papers and again at Thursday morning's hearing, the lawyers 
alleged that Ammons showed racial bias when he was a prosecutor in the 1980s 
and used peremptory challenges to prevent several blacks from serving on a jury 
in a death penalty trial.

Ammons, his voice raised sometimes in apparent anger, said he could fairly 
decide the cases.

"I have sworn to administer judgment without favoritism to anyone or to the 
state. I will not violate those oaths for anyone or anything," he said.

Later, he formally denied the defense lawyers' requests to recuse himself.

But moments after that Ammons announced he would step aside.

"As I looked out into this courtroom this morning, 2 things became very clear 
to me," he said.

"No. 1: The enormous time, effort and expense these 9 defense counsel have 
devoted to the sole issue of replacing me with another judge.

"No. 2: The continued burden of uncertainty and the toll of time that has 
happened over the last 25 years in some incidences, on all parties.

"For these reasons, I will not allow my properly presiding over any of these 
cases to continue to be an issue when the court's true task should be 
determining the merits of these claims."

Ammons said he would assign another judge or judges to take over the case. 
Defense lawyer Jay Ferguson and the others said Ammons should not be involved 
in the selection of any replacement judge "because of conflict and biases 
alleged in our motion to recuse."

At that, Ammons said he would leave it up to the state Administrative Office of 
the Courts to pick the judge.

A replacement judge will be appointed by the chief justice of the state Supreme 
Court, spokeswoman Sharon Gladwell said. "No timeline is established; however, 
appointments usually are made expeditiously," she said.

Robinson, Augustine and Walters were in the courtroom Thursday and sat in 
shackles next to their lawyers. Golphin elected not to attend, but his lawyers 
were there on his behalf.

About 50 spectators attended, including relatives of the defendants' victims.

Robinson and an accomplice kidnapped, robbed and murdered teenager Erik 
Tornblom in 1991.

Golphin and his brother, Kevin Golphin, killed Cumberland County Deputy David 
Hathcock and N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Ed Lowry during a traffic stop on 
Interstate 95 in 1997.

In 1998, Christina Walters led a gang that kidnapped 3 women, drove them to 
remote areas and shot them execution-style. Tracy Lambert and Susan Moore died, 
and the 3rd victim barely survived.

Quintel Augustine was convicted of shooting Fayetteville police Officer Roy 
Turner Jr. to death in 2001. Augustine maintains his innocence.

Afterward, Al Lowry, who was Ed Lowry's brother, criticized the proceedings.

"They keep crying foul. The decision's been made for the death penalty. And 
we've been 19 years and counting. Nothing ought to take this long," he said.

"No matter what judge they select, it's always going to be an excuse on their 
side."

----

The inmates

Marcus Reymond Robinson and an accomplice kidnapped, robbed and murdered 
teenager Erik Tornblom in 1991. 16 years later, Robinson was hours from being 
put to death before a judge halted all executions in North Carolina over legal 
questions about North Carolina's execution method.

Tilmon Golphin and his brother Kevin killed Cumberland County Deputy David 
Hathcock and state Highway Patrol Trooper Ed Lowry during a traffic stop on 
Interstate 95 in 1997.

In 1998, Christina Walters led a gang that kidnapped 3 women, drove them to 
remote areas and shot them execution-style. Tracy Lambert and Susan Moore died; 
the 3rd victim barely survived.

Quintel Augustine was convicted of shooting Fayetteville police Officer Roy 
Turner Jr. to death in 2001. He maintains that he is innocent.

HISTORY OF THE RACIAL JUSTICE ACT

August 2009: North Carolina passes the Racial Justice Act. It allows death row 
inmates to seek review of racial influence in their cases. If discriminatory 
practices are found, the inmates' sentences can be converted to life in prison 
without parole.

April 2012: Out of about 150 claims filed by death row inmates, Marcus Robinson 
of Cumberland County was the 1st defendant to present evidence alleging racial 
bias in his trial. Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks rules that racism affected 
Robinson's trial and converts his sentence to life in prison without parole.

July 2012: Lawmakers amend the Racial Justice Act to make it more difficult for 
defendants to prove allegations of racism.

October 2012: Quintel Augustine, Christina Walters and Tilmon Golphin - all 
convicted for Cumberland County homicides - present their Racial Justice Act 
cases.

December 2012: Weeks rules that racism influenced their trials. He converts 
their sentences to life in prison without parole.

June 2013: The legislature repeals the Racial Justice Act.

December 2015: The state Supreme Court overturns Weeks' rulings in the 
Robinson, Augustine, Walters and Golphin cases and sends them back to 
Cumberland County Superior Court to be done again.

(source: Fayetteville Observer)






ARKANSAS:

Death sentence voided by court ---- Justices remand case; jurors didn't have 
full set of forms


Failure by prosecutors to supply jurors with the required number of sentencing 
forms prompted the Arkansas Supreme Court to void a prisoner's death sentence 
in a double murder from New Year's Eve 3 decades ago.

By a 5-2 margin, the high court recalled its mandate to execute Steven Wertz, 
66, reversed the death sentence handed out by jurors after a 2007 trial and 
remanded the case to circuit court for resentencing.

Justice Robin Wynne noted that jurors filled out 1 set of forms indicating 
Wertz's guilt in the 1986 slaying of an Ash Flat couple -- Terry and Kathy 
Watts -- but did not fill out the requisite 2nd set that detailed aggravating 
and mitigating circumstances.

The Sharp County oversight constituted a "defect in the appellate process," 
which receives heightened scrutiny from the Supreme Court in capital cases.

"The submission of a single set of [sentencing] forms makes it impossible to 
determine whether the jury applied the aggravator to Terry's murder, Kathy's 
murder, or both murders," Wynne wrote. "The submission of a single set of forms 
was an error that impacts the validity of the death sentence imposed by the 
jury, as, under our law, it is necessary for an aggravating factor to be found 
to exist before a death sentence can be imposed, and we cannot say from this 
record to which count or counts of capital murder the aggravators were 
applied."

Justice Rhonda Wood dissented, arguing that there was no breakdown in the 
appellate process.

Dissenting in a separate opinion, Justice Paul Danielson wrote that if any 
error occurred, it was during the guilt phase and not the penalty-sentencing 
phase.

Danielson wrote that the older version of the state's capital murder statute 
used in Wertz's prosecution required two or more deaths to qualify as a single 
capital murder offense.

"My review of our cases ... reveals that a person charged under that statute 
with causing 2 or more deaths was historically charged with, tried for, and 
convicted of only 1 count," Danielson wrote. "Rather than [recall the mandate] 
... I would order supplemental briefing ... of whether a double-jeopardy 
violation occurred."

Double jeopardy is a defense that prevents someone from being tried twice for 
the same crime.

Terry Watts was blasted with a shotgun through a window early on Dec. 31, 1986. 
He was shot again at close range, and his throat was slashed.

Prosecutors said Wertz then pried open a bedroom door where Kathy Watts was 
hiding and shot her at close range. The couple's 1-year-old child was unharmed 
and was found on Terry Watts' corpse.

Wertz, who lived in Oklahoma at the time, told investigators that he and Jamie 
Snyder Jr. spent Dec. 30, 1986, at his home. Investigators verified his alibi 
that the next day he went to a clinic.

In 2001, a detective reopened the cold case and over the course of five years, 
found enough cause to have Wertz and Snyder arrested and charged in the 
slayings.

Snyder testified against Wertz, whose motive was that Wertz's wife was in a 
child custody dispute with Terry Watts.

Wertz was convicted and sentenced in July 2007. The high court later ruled 
against him on appeal on other issues.

But during oral arguments in February of this year, the question of whether 
Wertz was properly convicted of 1 or 2 capital murder charges caught the 
justices' attention. They ordered further briefs, leading to Thursday's ruling.

State attorneys argued that the couple's murder was a single incident and that 
though charged with 2 counts of capital murder, the single set of forms was 
sufficient for a single conviction and sentence of the crime.

Wertz's attorney argued that Wertz's rights to due process were violated by not 
having jurors spell out the aggravating and mitigating factors in both of the 
Wattses' killings.

Wertz remains imprisoned at the state's maximum-security lockup in Gould.

(source: arkanksasonline.com)






USA:

Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof waives right to jury trial


Dylann Roof, the suspect charged with fatally shooting 9 people at a historic 
black church in Charleston, S.C., last June, is seeking to waive his right to a 
jury trial, according to court papers.

Lawyers for Roof, 22, of Columbia, S.C., indicated the suspect's intent in a 
notice they filed Thursday in U.S. District Court. The move would leave Roof's 
future up to a judge.

"Pursuant to this order, the defendant hereby states that he is willing to 
waive jury, and to be tried and sentenced by the court," read the notice filed 
by Roof lawyers David Bruck, based in Lexington, Va., and Michael O'Connell, 
based in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

The notice also indicated, though, that a lawyer for the federal government has 
informed Roof's lawyers that that "the government will not consent to waive 
jury at either stage of this case."

Roof's trial is set to begin Nov. 7. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

(source: USA Today)