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

[Rick Halperin]

March 28



TEXAS----impending execution

Former US Marine who gunned down daughters as mother listened on phone to be 
executed tomorrow


A 60-year-old former US Marine is set to die by lethal injection tomorrow for 
gunning down his 2 young daughters as their mum listened on the phone.

John Battaglia sprayed Faith, 9, and Liberty, 6, with bullets from his .45 
caliber pistol in his home's loft in the town of Livingston, Texas, on May 2, 
2001.

He had picked them up for a regular custody visit on the day he learned there 
was a warrant out for his arrest for violating probation, which he was serving 
after being convicted of assaulting his ex-wife.

She called police because he had left an abusive message on her phone.

"Mommy, why do you want Daddy to have to go to jail?" Faith asked her mother 
Mary Jean Pearle before she died.

Then Ms Pearle heard Faith say: "No, Daddy, please don't do it."

The horrified mother heard gunshots, followed by Battaglia screaming: "Merry 
f*****g Christmas".

More gunshots followed.

Battaglia then went to a nearby tattoo parlour and had 2 roses - representing 
the 2 daughters he had just gunned down - inked on his arm.

It was there he was arrested by police.

In a chilling death row interview with the Dallas Morning News , he said: "I 
don't feel like I killed them."

He spoke fondly of his daughters, calling them "your best little friends, 
nicest little kids."

But, chillingly, when asked what he feels about their death, he said: "Why 
would I worry about where they are now?

"We're all here; we're all gone at the same time. I'm not worried about it."

Battaglia will be the 6th Texan executed this year, and the 537th since the 
state reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

(source: The Mirror)






KANSAS:

Prosecutor recommends death penalty for Kyle Flack's 'wicked, shockingly evil 
and vile' murders----Jurors will decide between death penalty or life in prison


A Franklin County jury learned Monday morning it would hear testimony on 
whether to sentence Kyle T. Flack to life in prison or to impose the death 
penalty.

Flack was convicted last week of capital murder, 2 counts of murder, and 
criminal possession of a firearm, all related to the shooting deaths of 4 
people, including an 18-month-old toddler.

Senior assistant attorney general Vic Braden told jurors the prosecution would 
present three aggravating circumstances to justify the death penalty:

-- Flack was convicted of attempted 2nd-degree murder in the May 2, 2005, 
shooting of another man.

-- Flack killed more than 1 person: Kaylie Bailey, 21, and her 18-month-old 
daughter, Lana.

-- The killings of mother and daughter were done in an "especially heinous, 
atrocious or cruel manner," Braden said, and what Flack did was "extremely 
wicked, shockingly evil and vile."

Later Monday morning, the defense was set to recommend jurors choose life in 
prison.

(source: Topeka Capital-Journal)






OKLAHOMA:

Former Gov. Henry To Lead Expert Panel Examining Death Penalty Procedures


A dozen Oklahoma attorneys and business leaders are donating their time to 
independently review Oklahoma's capital punishment practices. Former Oklahoma 
Gov. Brad Henry is co-chairing the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission.

"Oklahoma has an opportunity to lead the nation by being the 1st state to 
conduct extensive research on its entire death penalty process, beginning with 
an arrest that could lead to an execution," Henry said in a press release.

Former Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and Assistant District Attorney of 
Canadian County Reta Strubhar and Andy Lester, a former U.S. Magistrate Judge 
for the Western District of Oklahoma, chair the commission with Henry.

"Our goal is to provide a resource for Oklahomans to allow them to make 
informed judgments about our state's capital punishment system that, we hope, 
will benefit both Oklahoma and the country as a whole," Henry said.

Local leaders like former House Speaker Kris Steele and Dean Emeritus of the 
University of Oklahoma's College of Law Andrew Coats are also part of the 
Commission. The findings will be part of the 1st-ever bipartisan and 
independent review of the state's capital punishment system.

A comprehensive report is expected in early 2017.

(source: KGOU news)






CALIFORNIA:

Cop describes Motel 6 shoot-out that killed Sacramento deputy ---- A 
preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, March 28, 2016, for Luis 
Monroy Bracamontes, who is accused of killing 2 Sacramento-area deputies in 
October 2014. The defendant's odd behavior, off-kilter pronouncements and 
blurted admission of guilt at an earlier court appearance have created a 
strange air around the case.


With the defense continuing to insist their client is too mentally ill to stand 
trial, a prosecutor began presenting evidence Monday on why Luis Enriquez 
Bracamontes should face a death penalty trial for the slayings of 2 deputies in 
October 2014 in Sacramento and Auburn.

The 1st witness in Monday's preliminary hearing described the dramatic shootout 
that killed Sacramento Deputy Danny Oliver and set off a daylong orgy of 
violence.

Sacramento Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Swisher testified that he interviewed Oliver's 
partner, Deputy Scott Brown, after the shooting that began in a Motel 6 parking 
lot near Arden Fair Mall.

"Scott Brown was extremely upset," Swisher testified under questioning by 
Sacramento prosecutor Rod Norgaard. "He was crying, sobbing."

Swisher, the 1st of 17 witnesses scheduled to testify in a hearing expected to 
last through Friday, said Brown described that Friday shift as starting off in 
a routine fashion.

The 2 deputies delivered a parolee to the Main Jail downtown and stopped by the 
District Attorney's office to drop off a warrant request.

Then, Brown told Swisher, the pair drove off on Highway 160, exited onto Arden 
Way and headed for the motel, where the veteran deputies frequently patrolled 
what was known as a high-crime area and where Brown had patrolled at least 100 
times before.

Oliver was driving and pulled into the lot as the deputies ran license plates 
to check for violations. As they pulled around to the rear of the motel on the 
south side of the lot, they spotted a blue, 4-door Mercury parked in a stall 
with the trunk lid up.

"2 in a car," Oliver said to his partner as a warning.

Both men got out, with Brown approaching the passenger side until a woman 
emerged from the car and shut the trunk lid.

Brown ordered her back into the car and suddenly heard a gunshot from the front 
of the car.

Brown said he didn't see his partner but realized a man in the car was firing 
at him repeatedly with a handgun, and he returned fire with his Glock 9 mm 
pistol, Swisher testified.

"He said he fired 7 or 8 times," Swisher said, adding that detectives later 
determined Brown had fired 13 times. Such errors are common when officers are 
questioned about the number of times they fire when being shot at, Swisher 
said.

Brown radioed for help 5 or 6 times, and during the shootout he saw the gunman 
switch weapons and begin firing at him with an AK-47-style rifle, Swisher said.

"When he saw the front sight of that rifle, he knew he was outgunned," Swisher 
said.

The pair in the vehicle fled, leaving Brown with his dead partner, who never 
unholstered his weapon, Brown told Swisher.

As the testimony continued and photos of Oliver were shown on the screen - as 
well as a photo of the blood-stained parking lot where Oliver died - 
Bracamontes sat at the defense table grinning and smiling at times.

His lawyers, who have argued that a Bracamontes is too mentally ill to face 
trial, Monday asked for a continuance as they appeal to the state Supreme 
Court.

"The situation has not improved, and in our opinion it has declined," defense 
attorney Jeffrey Barbour argued.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White rejected that request, saying the 
high court could order a stay if justices wanted to postpone the case.

A 2nd witness, sheriff's Detective Cathy Crowley, testified that a witness she 
interviewed called 911 after hearing gunshots at the motel.

Crowley said she interviewed a Cal Expo worker, Jose Urena, who had stopped at 
a nearby Chevron station to gas up his box truck.

Urena told Crowley that he was driving past a cinder-block wall in the parking 
lot separating the motel from a nearby domed movie theater when he heard loud 
sounds.

"He heard 3 loud pops," Crowley said of Urena. "He wasn't sure if it was 
gunfire or fireworks."

Urena told Crowley he could see over the cinder block wall into the parking lot 
and saw a gunman.

"He saw the gunman standing outside a vehicle and he saw an officer lying on 
the ground," Crowley said under questioning from Sacramento prosecutor Rod 
Norgaard.

Urena also told Crowley that he saw the gunman "firing nonstop" at another 
officer in the parking lot, and that he sped away and called 911.

Later, Crowley said, Urena picked 2 people out of a photo lineup as possibly 
being the gunman: one was a "filler" used in the lineup who was not related to 
the crime, the other was Bracamontes.

A 3rd witness, sheriff's Sgt. Michelle Hendricks, told Norgaard that she later 
interviewed a witness who called 911 after seeing a man with a gun in a car 
near Cal Expo.

The woman told Hendricks she was in a Honda Pilot when she saw a man in a car 
next to her preparing to make a left turn from Ethan Way onto Exposition 
Boulevard, heading away from the motel to Business 80.

Looking down, the woman saw an assault-style rifle in the front seat that the 
man was trying to hide under the a towel, the witness told Hendricks, and after 
the man made eye contact with her, he threw his car into reverse and instead 
turned right onto Arden Way headed toward Howe Avenue.

A 4th witness on Monday afternoon described the injuries suffered by Anthony 
Holmes, a Sacramento man who was gravely hurt when Bracamontes allegedly tried 
to commandeer his car after Deputy Oliver was killed.

Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Prizmich, who interviewed Holmes several times after the 
shootings, said he first visited the victim at UC Davis Medical Center, where 
Holmes was in critical condition with a bullet wound through his face and 
others through his wrists.

A photo of Holmes - in his hospital bed with a series of medical staples 
holding his neck together and stitches along his jawline - was broadcast on the 
wall of White's courtroom as Prizmich testified.

Holmes told the sergeant that he was on his way to a 10:45 a.m. doctor's 
appointment on Spanos Court near the Motel 6.

He pulled into the doctor's office parking lot, choosing a shady spot, Prizmich 
said, when a light blue car that he thought was a police vehicle pulled up 
diagonally to his vehicle.

Holmes initially thought he was being pulled over by police, Prizmich said, but 
then a man got out of the vehicle and demanded his car.

"I don't know you," Holmes replied, according to Prizmich.

"The suspect smiled at him, grinned at him, and then shot him," Prizmich said.

Holmes told Prizmich the gunman shot at him 6 or 7 times.

He identified Bacamontes from a photo lineup presented to him in the hospital 
by Prizmich, who showed him 6 photos from a Manila envelope with Bracamontes' 
photo last.

Holmes still could not speak because of his injuries, but when Prizmich showed 
him the final photo Holmes recognized his assailant, Prizmich said.

"Mr. Holmes tapped on the picture," Prizmich said. "He mouthed the words, 
'That's him,' and I repeated it."

(source: Sacramento Bee)