[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, ARK., OKLA., ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 11




OHIO:

Arson deaths case



Stanley Ford, 58, of Akron, was indicted on 29 charges. 22 are aggravated 
murder counts for 9 fire victims, with Ford charged under different parts of 
the law. He faces the death penalty.

Investigators say Ford set 3 fires in his neighborhood, with 2 people killed in 
1 fire and seven perishing in the other, including 5 children. The 3rd was a 
car fire with no injuries.

Joe Gorman and Don Malarcik, Ford's attorneys, have asked that Judge Christine 
Croce remove the death penalty specification against Ford - who is 
African-American - because of the role race played in the decision to seek 
capital punishment.

The attorneys cite research that shows the race of defendants and victims and 
where crimes are committed in Ohio play a key role in deciding whether 
defendants face the death penalty. They also point to former Akron Police Chief 
James Nice's use of racial slurs, including the N-word, which was among the 
reasons the chief was forced to abruptly resign Aug. 27. Nice was the chief 
when Ford's case was investigated and was among those who spoke at a July 27 
news conference to announce Ford's indictment.

Croce has ordered the prosecutor's office to hand over emails on the Ford case 
in response to Ford's attorney's claims of racism.

Ford will have a pretrial at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Croce's court.

(source: AkronBeacon Journal)

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

Man accused of abducting, killing Sierra Joughin to appear in court on Monday



The man accused of kidnapping and killing University of Toledo Student Sierra 
Joughin is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on Monday.

James Worley, of Delta, is facing the death penalty for the abduction and death 
of 20-year-old Joughin in 2016.

He is scheduled to appear in the Fulton County Court of Common Pleas in front 
of Judge Jeffrey Robinson.

Earlier this year, Worley's trial was postponed until January, 2018.

(source: WTOL news)








ARKANSAS:

Trial set for suspect accused of killing Arkansas man with ax handle; state 
seeks death penalty



A Crawford County man is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in a capital-murder 
case, and the state is seeking the death penalty.

Randall Jordan, 36, is accused of beating Larry Eugene Jones, 59, with an ax 
handle as he slept in his bed in June 2016. Jones died shortly after in a Fort 
Smith hospital.

The jury trial before Circuit Judge Mike Medlock is scheduled to last most of 
the week. Court records show Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune has subpoenaed 
more than 25 witnesses to testify.

Jordan has been held in custody in lieu of $500,000 bond since his arrest June 
10, 2016.

According to reports by Crawford County sheriff's deputies, Jordan had been 
living with Jones but Jones kicked him out of his house at 5305 Grand Juniper 
Road in rural Van Buren. Jordan still had a key to the home and used it to get 
inside early June 10, 2016.

Reports said a guest, Melissa Qualls, who had been staying at Jones' house for 
5 days, told deputies she was awakened about 5 a.m. to the whining of one of 
her dogs. Qualls said she also could hear someone gasping for air.

When she looked into Jones' room, she said she saw the shadow of someone 
striking down with a large object. Jones made a loud, grunting noise with each 
strike, Qualls told deputies.

Qualls gathered her dogs, ran next door and banged on the door of Jones' uncle, 
Walter Young, and told him someone was being hurt, according to reports. Young 
ran to the nearby home of Jones' son, Riley, and told him there was trouble and 
to get his gun.

Riley Jones told deputies he fired his gun into the air as he ran to his 
father's house because he didn't know what was going on inside, according to 
reports. He confronted Jordan, who was still holding the ax handle, in the dark 
standing in the doorway to his father's bedroom.

According to reports, Qualls told deputies that Riley Jones asked Jordan where 
his father was and Jordan replied that Larry Jones was fine and that he had run 
out the back door. Qualls told deputies that she could see Larry Jones' legs in 
the bedroom and called Jordan a liar.

Riley Jones gave his gun to Young and told him to watch Jordan until deputies 
arrived, then picked up his father and drove him to Sparks Regional Medical 
Center in Fort Smith, according to the reports.

An autopsy report from the Arkansas medical examiner's office concluded that 
Larry Jones died from head and brain injuries.

Riley Jones later told deputies that his father kicked Jordan out of his house 
because Jordan wouldn't do anything around the house, wouldn't help pay bills 
or try to get a job, reports said.

Another report said Larry Jones' daughter-in-law, Cara Jones, told deputies 
that Jordan was depressed. He had lost his mother and his job and his wife had 
divorced him.

(source: arkansasonline.com)








OKLAHOMA:

Nolen set to appear in court for sentencing hearing



In October, the Cleveland County jury that heard the 1st-degree murder case 
filed against Alton Nolen recommended he be sentenced to death. On Friday, 
Judge Lori Walkley will decide whether she will take that recommendation.

The jury convicted Nolen, 33, Sept. 29 for the 1st-degree murder of former 
Vaughan Foods employee Colleen Hufford, as well as 5 charges connected to 
assaults on other coworkers.

According to a Moore Police affidavit, Nolen had been fired from his production 
line job prior to the Sept. 25, 2014 incident due to a complaint at the 
business. He entered the front office with a knife, stabbing coworkers and 
beheading Hufford, before he was shot by company executive and Oklahoma County 
Sheriff's reserve deputy Mark Vaughan.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections records reveal, if Walkley decides to take 
the jury's recommendation, Nolen will join 48 other convicted murderers who are 
on Oklahoma's death row.

The last person to receive the death penalty for a Cleveland County crime was 
William Eugene Davis, who was convicted in 2010 for the murders of 2 sisters 
and 1 of the women's mother-in-law. He was found dead in his Oklahoma state 
penitentiary cell in 2012.

(source: The Norman Transcript)








ARIZONA:

Needles man indicted in county jail slaying



A Needles man, already in custody for his alleged role in a Bullhead City 
opioid ring, was indicted Thursday in the assault and eventual death of his 
cellmate.

A Mohave County grand jury indicted Gaven Timothy Robel, 25, on a charge of 
1st-degree murder. He is expected to be arraigned this Thursday before Superior 
Court Commissioner Billy Sipe Jr.

Robel is being held in jail on a $5 million bond. A defendant convicted of 
1st-degree murder faces the death penalty or natural life in prison.

Detention officers were alerted to an altercation on Nov. 20 between Robel and 
Rayan Wayne Couch, from Kingman, in a cell they had shared for several days in 
the medium security section at the county jail.

Couch, 41, who had been in jail since Nov. 2 for a probation violation, was 
flown to a Las Vegas hospital with serious head injuries. He died Dec. 3 from 
the injuries suffered in the assault, the sheriff's office reported.

Robel is also charged by the Arizona Attorney General's Office with fraudulent 
schemes and artifices, acquisition of a narcotic drug by fraud and forgery. 
Robel and 7 others are accused of involvement in an opioid ring in the Bullhead 
City area.

The alleged ringleader of the opioid ring, Amanda Lee Doyle, 29, of Fort 
Mohave, was arrested Nov. 6 at a Henderson casino. She is also charged by the 
attorney general's office with 26 felony counts. Doyle, who is being held on a 
$10,000 bond, was arraigned on the charges Thursday.

(source: Mohave Calley Daily News)