[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., S.C., GA., ALA., OHIO, IND., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

March 7



TEXAS----impending execution

Hit man in San Antonio murder-for-hire slaying set to die----Rolando Ruiz is 
scheduled to die for the murder-for-hire slaying he carried out more than 24 
years ago


Rolando Ruiz walked up to a car as it pulled into the driveway of a San Antonio 
home and said he needed directions.

Then he asked Mark Rodriguez, 1 of the 2 men inside the vehicle, "Do I do it?" 
Rodriguez replied: "Yes."

Theresa Rodriguez, Mark's sister-in-law, was getting out the passenger side of 
the car, looked up at Ruiz as he walked toward her and smiled at him, according 
to court documents. Ruiz put a .357 Magnum revolver to her head and fired.

On Tuesday, Ruiz, 44, was set for lethal injection for the murder-for-hire 
slaying he carried out more than 24 years ago. Evidence showed he received 
$2,000 from Mark Rodriguez, whose brother, Michael, stood to collect at least a 
quarter-million dollars in insurance benefits from his 29-year-old wife's 
death. Evidence also showed Michael Rodriguez, who also was in the car the 
night of July 14, 1992, recently had applied for another $150,000 in life 
insurance for his wife.

Ruiz's execution would be the 3rd this year in Texas and the 5th nationally.

His lawyers argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that lower courts improperly 
rejected an earlier appeal. They also contended Ruiz's execution would be 
unconstitutionally cruel because he's suffered a "uniquely devastating 
psychological toll" after nearly a quarter-century on death row, multiple 
execution dates and 2 reprieves.

"It is entirely attributable to the state's failure to provide competent 
lawyers," attorney Lee Kovarsky told the high court in a filing. He also argued 
the deterrent value of the punishment was "undercut" by the lengthy time 
between imposing the sentence and carrying it out.

State attorneys contended Ruiz's arguments were meant to distract the courts 
from the weakness of his claims and said Ruiz had taken advantage of legal 
mechanisms to ensure his conviction and sentence were proper and previous 
judicial reviews found no constitutional error. While some individual Supreme 
Court justices have raised questions about long death row confinement, the 
courts consistently have ruled it was not unconstitutionally cruel, Assistant 
Texas Attorney General Edward Marshall told the justices. Ruiz's arguments 
about earlier deficient legal help "have been inspected, scrutinized, studied, 
probed, analyzed, reviewed and evaluated" at all levels of the federal courts, 
he said.

Ruiz had met Mark Rodriguez at the home of a mutual friend, was arrested nine 
days after the shooting and implicated the brothers in the contract killing 
scheme. Police focused on him after receiving a telephone tip after Theresa 
Rodriguez's employer, the insurance firm USAA, offered a $50,000 reward for 
information about her slaying.

Court records show Ruiz after the shooting drove off in a car waiting for him 
on the street. Evidence showed Mark Rodriguez already had paid him $1,000, then 
gave him another $1,000 3 days after the killing. Ruiz had made 2 earlier 
unsuccessful attempts to kill Theresa Rodriguez.

The Rodriguez brothers eventually accepted life prison terms in plea deals. 
Mark Rodriguez was paroled in 2011.

Michael Rodriguez later joined Ruiz on death row as one of the notorious Texas 
7, a group of 7 inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in 2000, remained 
fugitives for weeks and killed a Dallas-area police officer. He was executed in 
2008. He blamed his infatuation with a younger woman for the contract murder 
plot.

Joe Ramon, who accompanied Ruiz the night of the shooting, and Robert Silva, 
identified as the intermediary who put the Rodriguez brothers in touch with 
Ruiz, also received life prison sentences.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Texas set to execute triggerman in San Antonio murder-for-hire case----Texas is 
set to execute hitman Ronaldo Ruiz 25 years after he killed a San Antonio woman 
for $2,000. It's the fourth time the state has set a date for his death. 
Prosecutors hope it's the last.


It's been almost 25 years since Rolando Ruiz shot and killed a San Antonio 
woman in her garage. He was a 20-year-old hitman, paid $2,000 by the woman's 
husband and brother-in-law, who were out to collect her life insurance money.

On Tuesday, Texas plans to execute Ruiz - the 4th time the state has set a date 
for his death in nearly a decade. Ruiz's attorneys are hoping to block this 
one, too, arguing his nearly 22 years on Texas' death row constitute cruel and 
unusual punishment.

Ruiz killed 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez in July 1992; he was convicted and 
sentenced to death almost 3 years later. Rodriguez's husband and 
brother-in-law, Michael and Mark Rodriguez, both received life sentences.

Michael, the husband, escaped from prison in 2000, 1 of the notorious "Texas 
7." He was sentenced to death and executed in 2008 for a murder the prisoners 
committed while on the run. Mark, the brother-in-law, was released on parole in 
2011 and was recently charged with felony theft in an alleged roofing scam.

Ruiz, now 44, still lives in solitary confinement on death row, awaiting an 
execution that has come down to the wire 4 times.

"He's actually had 3 different execution dates before this one, 2 of which were 
stayed at the 11th hour," said Burke Butler, 1 of Ruiz's appellate attorneys 
with the Texas Defender Service. "That obviously is something that causes 
immense psychological pain and stress."

Ruiz has multiple petitions pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, most 
claiming his prolonged confinement on death row - about 22 years, or 1/2 of his 
life - qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.

The court has been divided on that matter; Justice Stephen Breyer, the high 
court's leading death penalty opponent, said in a 1999 opinion that it is cruel 
and unusual to leave inmates on death row for decades. Others, like Justice 
Clarence Thomas, have argued it is the defendant who creates the long 
confinement by filing and refiling appeals.

Ruiz's 1st execution was scheduled for July 2007, 12 years after he was 
sentenced to death.

He had been trying unsuccessfully to bring his claims of ineffective counsel to 
court. He argued his trial lawyer didn't present enough mitigating evidence in 
court, like an abusive childhood and substance abuse, and that his state 
appellate lawyer failed to bring up his ineffective trial lawyer in appeals. 
Although a federal court agreed with Ruiz's argument and went so far as to call 
his appellate lawyer's representation "appallingly inept," procedural rules 
kept that court from reviewing his case.

But after a new, last-minute filing, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals 
granted Ruiz a stay and agreed to review the case. Ruiz was sitting in a 
holding cell waiting to be walked into the execution chamber. Instead he was 
led out of the prison and back to death row.

Ultimately, the lower federal court ruled that Ruiz's claims of ineffective 
counsel were not worthy of a new sentencing trial, and a new execution date was 
set for July. It was rescheduled to Aug. 31. But 5 days before that execution, 
he got another stay, this time from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Ruiz had filed another appeal a couple of weeks earlier, and the court 
postponed his execution while it reviewed the case. In November, its judges 
issued a harsh ruling denying Ruiz's claims - both of ineffective counsel and 
of cruel and unusual punishment.

"Rolando Ruiz does not contest his guilt. He just doesn't want to be executed. 
Neither did Theresa Rodriguez," Judge Bert Richardson wrote in the court's 
opinion.

At the Bexar County District Attorney's Office, appellate division chief Rico 
Valdez said Ruiz deserves the death penalty because of his violent nature.

"In Ruiz's case, it's just his background. He just had a history of being a 
violent person," Valdez said.

Ruiz was a gang member and has had multiple violent encounters in prison with 
inmates and officers, Valdez said. According to prison records, Ruiz was 
convicted of aggravated assault on a Bexar County corrections officer while he 
was awaiting his original death penalty trial.

Now, in the final hours before his execution, Ruiz's fate lies with the U.S. 
Supreme Court. If it denies review of Ruiz's case and doesn't stay the 
execution, Ruiz's execution will be the 3rd in Texas this year - and the 5th in 
the country.

"From my perspective, whether you're for or against the death penalty, it is 
the law," Valdez said. "... At some point, it's time for the sentence to be 
fulfilled."

(source: Texas Tribune)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Is the death penalty dead in Wake County? There hasn't been a death sentence 
handed out in Wake County since 2007.


The death penalty is becoming increasingly rare in the state's capital county.

It's been nearly 10 years since a Wake County jury agreed to hand down capital 
punishment.

The rejection of that sentence last week by a jury in the Nathan Holden trial 
continued a string going back nearly 10 years.

It was the 7th consecutive capital case in which a Wake jury refused to send 
the defendant to death row.

The last death penalty delivered by a jury in Wake was in July of 2007.

The defendant in that case, Byron Waring, was sentenced to death for the murder 
of Lauren Redman.

The last jury to reject the death penalty prior to the Holden trial was in the 
case of defendant Travion Smith in February of 2016.

At that time the then-new District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said, "I do think at 
some point we have to step back and say, 'Has the community sent us a message 
on that?'"

But on Monday she told ABC11 that as long as the death penalty is the law in NC 
she will have to weigh whether to pursue it despite what appears to be 
declining odds and the massive expense of death penalty trials.

She noted that the Holden case was especially violent, ending in a shootout 
with law enforcement after Holden murdered his in-laws and beat and shot his 
wife while his 3 children were in the room.

"Certainly the pattern of violence, the multiple victims in this case played a 
big role in our decision to pursue the death penalty," Freeman told ABC11.

So it appears the Holden trial will not be the last death penalty trial in Wake 
County.

(source: WTVD news)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Can lawmakers help in moving capital punishment forward in SC?


The South Carolina Department of Corrections is asking legislators to help 
secure the equipment necessary to continue capital punishment in the state as 
reserves of the drug for lethal injection begin to dry up worldwide.

There are issues the Corrections Department has in securing the drug required 
for execution by lethal injection.

In the past, the state has used pentobarbital, an anesthetic, as the 1st 
component of a 3-drug series that also includes a paralyzer, pancuronium 
bromide and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. South Carolina had been 
using a different anesthetic, such as sodium thiopental, until the Drug 
Enforcement Administration cracked down on the use of that foreign-made 
ingredient in 2011.

In South Carolina, capital punishment, or the death penalty, is carried out by 
either lethal injection or electrocution. Currently, there's no one up for 
execution.

If an inmate on death row were to choose to be executed, however, the only 
means to do so would be electrocution.

The last execution in South Carolina happened in 2011.

(source: WIS TV news)






GEORGIA:

Man faces death penalty in Albany shooting


A South Georgia man is now facing the death penalty for his role in a January 
26 shooting.

Jessie Brown Jr., 31, faces 17 counts including murder and aggravated assault.

Prosecutors said that in January, Brown went to a Maryland Drive home and shot 
and killed Keyon Branch, 24, and her grandmother Brenda Forrester, 67.

3 other men were also shot, including Qua'Shawn Branch, 19.

Branch was shot 4 times, leaving him paralyzed.

Brown has new lawyers, who were granted 60 days to review the case and its 
details.

Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards said that his lawyers have to 
meet special requirements to represent a death penalty case.

"You have to meet certain minimal requirements to represent someone that is 
being prosecuted in this manner and the capitol defenders are the ones that 
have been assigned to represent Mr. Brown in this manner," said Dougherty 
County District Attorney Greg Edwards.

Prosecutors said the death penalty is justified because of the viciousness and 
premeditation Brown used committing the murders.

(source: WALB news)






ALABAMA:

Judicial override in death penalty sets dangerous precedent


Should a judge or a jury have the power to decide that a capital defendant will 
die? That question is at the center of a remarkable turn of events in the state 
of Alabama.

In contrast to virtually all other jurisdictions, in Alabama, it is the trial 
judge, not a jury of citizens, who makes the decision to sentence capital 
defendants to death. Alabama's capital juries give only advisory 
recommendations in death penalty sentencing. Their recommendations to spare a 
defendant's life can be - and often are - overturned by the trial judge.

This practice of "judicial override," in which judges can ignore a jury's 
recommendation and sentence a defendant at odds with the jury's recommendation, 
has contributed to the fact that Alabama has one of the highest death 
sentencing rates in the country. 1 out of 5 people on Alabama's death row are 
there because a judge overrode a jury's recommendation to spare the defendant's 
life. The state has resisted multiple calls to change the system and empower 
the jury.

However, in a notable shift last week, the Alabama State Senate passed a bill 
requiring that juries have the final say when the jury recommends life 
imprisonment rather than a death sentence. A similar bill has been sent to the 
Alabama House of Representatives.

The Senate bill allows just 10 of 12 jurors to recommend death, but the House 
bill requires that all 12 jurors agree on a death sentence. In both bills, a 
life sentence requires that a majority of jurors agree.

A jury, not a judge, should determine whether a capital defendant deserves the 
death penalty. Trial by jury includes the right to have all facts relevant to a 
sentence of death decided by a jury, and is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment to 
the U.S. Constitution for good reasons.

First, juries are better able to represent the community than judges are. 
Jurors are selected at random from citizens in the local community. Even taking 
into account that capital jury selection decreases representativeness, capital 
juries are more likely to include people from all walks of life than 
professional judges, who tend to reflect an elite, predominantly white, and 
largely male slice of the community.

For example, an American Judicature Society analysis based on 2008 data 
reported that 88 % of Alabama state court judges were male and 93 % were white. 
More recent data from 2014 showed that nationwide, 68 % of active federal 
district court judges were male and 75 % were white.

2nd, it makes a difference who decides. Judges are more likely than juries to 
decide on death. In Alabama, the Equal Justice Institute reports that judges 
have overridden jury verdicts in 112 cases to date, about a quarter of all 
death sentences.

In 91 % of these cases, judges have imposed death sentences when juries 
recommended life. The most recent example: Ronald Bert Smith was executed on 
Dec. 8, 2016 after an Alabama judge sentenced him to death even though the 
majority of the jury recommended that his life be spared. The Equal Justice 
Institute analysis showed that the frequency of judicial overrides varied by 
geography and whether the victim was white, raising concerns about fairness.

Additional evidence that judges are more prone than juries to decide on death 
comes from research I conducted along with my colleagues and students at 
Cornell Law School on 30 years of death penalty cases in the state of Delaware.

Halfway through our study period, Delaware shifted from a jury sentencing 
approach to judge sentencing, like Alabama's. That allowed us to compare how 
that shift from jury to judge sentencing affected the outcomes in capital 
cases. We discovered a dramatic increase in death sentences when judges instead 
of juries were the final arbiter of death.

In 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned the death penalty statute on 
constitutional grounds; we were gratified that they cited our articles in the 
judicial opinion.

Giving judges the final decision has other negative consequences. Accuracy 
suffers. A recent article in the Yale Law Journal Forum reported that death 
sentences in judicial override cases were more likely to be overturned on 
appeal because of errors. Of the 6 Alabama death row defendants who have been 
exonerated in the modern period of capital punishment, 3 were judicial override 
cases.

When judges are in charge of the final decision, jurors recognize that the 
judge and not the jury is responsible for the sentence. Juries in judicial 
override states take less time reviewing and discussing the evidence relevant 
to sentencing. And jurors often recommend life when they have residual doubts 
about a defendant's guilt. Judicial override, though, wipes out the jury's 
caution.

Requiring unanimity boosts the care that a jury takes in deliberation. It 
encourages full participation by all members of the jury in the significant 
decision the jury makes on behalf of its community. A unanimous jury decision 
has more legitimacy as well.

Some might say that juries can be biased, and judicial ability to override 
biased jury decisions are needed as an added layer of protection. Ample 
research, however, shows that judges suffer from many of the same biases. What 
is more, in states like Alabama, where judges are elected, they are subject to 
an additional source of influence - the pressure to show the public that they 
are tough on crime.

That may be why judicial overrides from life to death are sometimes higher in 
election years than during other times. Giving juries the final decision takes 
this source of pressure off judges.

In sum, juries, not judges, should determine who is to receive our nation's 
most severe penalty. I urge Alabama's legislators to join the rest of the 
nation and ensure that unanimous juries, not judges, decide who receives the 
community's ultimate penalty.

(source: Opinion; Valerie P. Hans is Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. 
Author of over 100 research articles and 4 books on the jury system, she is a 
2017 Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project----thehill.com)



OHIO----death row inmate commits suicide

Ohio man kills himself on death row


An Ohio man condemned to die for the slaying of his former girlfriend has 
killed himself on death row, the state prisons agency said Monday.

Inmate Patrick Leonard died Sunday night of an apparent suicide on death row in 
Chillicothe, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in an 
email to The Associated Press.

Leonard was sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of his ex-girlfriend, 
23-year-old Dawn Flick, in Hamilton County.

The 47-year-old Leonard was angry at Flick for ending their relationship and 
refusing to reconcile, according to court records.

Records say Leonard handcuffed Flick, tried to rape her and shot her 3 times.

Leonard was unusual among death row inmates in that he did not have a previous 
criminal record.

"Prior to this incident, Leonard was not considered violent and had not been in 
trouble with police," the Ohio Supreme Court noted in a 2004 ruling upholding 
his death sentence. "The fact that Leonard had committed these crimes was 
described as shocking and extremely out of character."

Leonard didn't have a scheduled execution date. A message was left with his 
attorney.

The last death row suicide in Ohio was in 2013, when Billy Slagle hanged 
himself just days before his scheduled execution. Slagle used a belt in his 
cell on death row, also at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

In a note, Slagle called his nearly 3 decades in prison torture and said he was 
taking his destiny into his own hands, according to a State Highway Patrol 
report.

3 years after the execution of convicted killer Dennis McGuire made 
international news, Ohio is once again delaying carrying out the death penalty 
as it deals with legal hurdles.

Ohio is appealing the ruling that U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Michael 
Merz in Dayton issued in December that put an indefinite hold on three 
scheduled executions. In the meantime, Gov. John Kasich, who supports capital 
punishment, pushed back execution dates for two inmates: Ronald Phillips and 
Raymond Tibbetts.

Phillips, Tibbetts and other death row inmates are challenging a new Ohio law 
that keeps secret the source of lethal injection drugs. Their attorneys argue 
that they can't adequately challenge the use of the drugs without access to the 
information.

Ohio has 32 executions scheduled between 2017 and 2021.

Ohio has 138 inmates on death row.

(source: Dayton Daily News)

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

Seasoned prosecutor appointed to death penalty case


The prosecution in the death penalty case against a man accused of killing a 
15-month old boy just gained an experienced member.

Allen County Prosecutor Juergen Waldick joined his former assistant prosecutor, 
Eva Yarger, who is in her 1st term as the Van Wert County prosecutor. They will 
tag-team against 2 experienced death penalty attorneys, Bill Kluge and Bob 
Grzybowski, in the case against Christopher Peters.

Peters, 27, is charged with aggravated murder with a death penalty 
specification in the killing of Hayden Ivan Ridinger on Nov. 15.

Ridinger was found unresponsive in an apartment at 23239 Lincoln Highway by his 
mother. Peters was not at the apartment when authorities arrived. He was 
arrested in the days that followed in another county.

Waldick is a seasoned prosecutor who has handled at least a half-dozen death 
penalty cases. He currently has 2 men he prosecuted on Ohio's death row.

During a pretrial conference Monday, Judge Martin Burchfield said he would 
issue an order allowing Peters to appear without visible restraints when the 
jurors are around at the time of trial.

Burchfield also approved sending jury questionnaires to 800 people to assemble 
a jury of 12 people and likely at least 2 alternates for the trial in 
September.

The judge also has approved up to $5,000 to be spent on an investigator for the 
defense.

(source: limaohio.com)






INDIANA:

Slaying victim's family wants death penalty


Survivors of a Muncie man who was shot to death on Valentine's Day want 
prosecutors to pursue the death penalty for his accused killers.

Authorities said the body of Jeffrey D. Brown, 39, was found in a field along 
Inlow Springs Road on the early afternoon of Feb. 14.

"They shot my son 14 times, in the head and face," the slaying victim's mother, 
Shirlena Brown, said from her Arkansas home on Monday. "That's overkill. He 
left behind 6 kids. He did his wrongs, but he didn't deserve that."

3 days after the slaying, Muncie resident Alonzo Williams, 24, was arrested on 
murder and criminal confinement charges stemming from Brown's death.

On Saturday, sheriff's investigators and city police arrested a 2nd suspect - 
Jeremy Terrell Holland, 30, also of Muncie - on allegations he was involved in 
the homicide.

Shirlena Brown said she believe prosecutors should pursue capital punishment in 
the case.

Her husband, Charles Golden - Jeffrey Brown's stepfather - agreed.

"I'd like to see them get what they've got coming," Golden said. "Hopefully the 
state of Indiana still has the death penalty."

It does, but Chief Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said Monday it would not be 
pursued in the Brown slaying.

"We will not be pursuing the death penalty in this case," he said. "The facts 
don't necessarily fit within the statute."

With the case pending, Hoffman said he couldn't discuss details of the 
investigation. Williams appeared in court last week, told Delaware Circuit 
Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr., "I didn't do it," and received an April 24 
trial date.

In a court system now in its 190th year, only 2 men have been sentenced to 
death for a Delaware County homicide. And only 1 of those defendants was 
actually executed.

Shirlena Brown said her son - whose children range in age from 18 years to 5 
months - suffered from cerebral palsy.

She acknowledged Jeffrey Brown - who in 2014 was convicted of battery resulting 
in serious bodily injury in a 2011 shooting - had been involved with a street 
gang.

She said in their final conversation, her son told her he was taking steps to 
end that affiliation.

Court documents have reported Alonzo Williams believed Jeffrey Brown had 
fatally shot a member of Williams' extended family.

Joseph Lamar Johnson, 38, was gunned down outside his Pershing Drive home on 
Feb. 5. He also had been shot numerous times.

Shirlena Brown said she had been told her son was not in Indiana when Johnson 
was killed.

Hoffman said he could not discuss details of that investigation. No arrests 
have been made in Johnson's slaying.

(source: the starpress.com)






CALIFORNIA:

California eases conditions at death row disciplinary unit


California will no longer keep death row inmates in solitary confinement for 
years only because of their purported gang affiliations, according to a lawsuit 
settlement announced Monday.

6 San Quentin State Prison inmates sued in 2015, saying they were being held 
indefinitely under inhumane and degrading conditions in what prison officials 
call the "adjustment center." 1 inmate had been there for 26 years and 2 others 
for more than a decade when the lawsuit was filed.

About 100 inmates were held when the lawsuit was filed. The number had recently 
dropped to less than 10, although the corrections department said Monday that 
it has since increased to 22 inmates.

"I think that this settlement provides for a more humane treatment of prisoners 
who are in that very difficult situation, facing the death penalty," said Dan 
Siegel, an Oakland-based attorney who filed the lawsuit.

Inmates can still be sent to the windowless cells if they are considered an 
immediate danger to the prison or others, or if they have at least 3 
infractions within 5 years for offenses including fighting or possessing drugs 
or cellphones. The length of their disciplinary sentences can be increased by 
1/2 if they are gang members.

But the maximum length of time in the adjustment center is 5 years, with a 
review every 6 months to see if they can be released. They also can have 
certain property taken away as punishment for no more than 90 days, according 
to the settlement obtained by The Associated Press before it was filed in 
federal court.

The adjustment center is 1 of 3 units in the nation's largest death row, which 
has 749 condemned inmates.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had already changed its 
policies and none of the plaintiffs are in the center anymore, spokeswoman 
Vicky Waters said.

The lawsuit is patterned after a class-action lawsuit that the state settled in 
September 2015. California agreed then to end its unlimited isolation of 
imprisoned gang leaders, a practice that once kept hundreds of inmates in 
isolation for a decade or longer.

"The safety of California prisons in terms of risks to staff and other 
prisoners has really not been enhanced by keeping people in solitary," Siegel 
said.

The state will pay inmates" attorneys $245,000 under the agreement.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Modesto couple charged with murder, torture in 3-year-old's death; bail at $10 
million


A mother and her fiancee pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and torture in 
the death of her 3-year-old son.

Bail was set at $10 million each for the couple, Connie Escamilla, 24, and 
Kylie Beasley, 20, at an arraignment in Stanislaus Superior Court on Monday 
afternoon. Both are charged with murder, mayhem, torture and child abuse.

The couple's next court appearance, a pretrial hearing, was set for April 3.

The women, appearing before Judge Marie Silveira, denied all charges and 
special circumstances. The complaint charges Escamilla and Beasley with 
1st-degree murder with the special circumstances of use of torture and 
commission of mayhem.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees said no decision has been made on 
whether to seek the death penalty, which the special circumstances would allow.

In cases in which there is use of torture and mayhem, a killing is considered 
1st-degree murder whether or not it was premeditated, said Stanislaus County 
district attorney spokesman John Goold.

The couple also is charged with a count of aggravated mayhem, 1 count of child 
abuse causing death, and 1 count of torture causing great bodily injury, all 
said to have occurred between Jan. 1 and Gilbert Escamilla's death March 1. If 
convicted, the women would not be eligible to serve their sentences in county 
jail, the complaint adds.

On Wednesday, emergency crews were called to Emerald Pointe apartments on 
Standiford Avenue for a child not breathing. The child, Gilbert, was airlifted 
to Valley Children's Hospital in Madera, but later died.

The child had burns, lacerations and bruises on his body, some old enough to 
indicate prolonged abuse, said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather 
Graves.

The couple gave conflicting stories about what had happened to Gilbert, but 
Beasley is believed to have been the primary aggressor, Graves said.

Escamilla's 7-year-old daughter, who had no visible injuries, was placed with 
Child Protective Services.

Neighbors at the apartment complex said the women had moved there a few months 
earlier, though none had seen the little boy. Graves said the couple had been 
together for about 9 months, and police had been called to Escamilla's home 
twice in the past 6 months.

In January, police responded to the apartment for a report of 2 women fighting, 
but were told only children had been arguing. In October, police were called to 
Escamilla's home, then on California Avenue, also on reports of 2 women 
fighting, but she told them there had been no fight.

Investigators ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 
209-521-4636. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and are eligible 
for a cash reward. Tipsters can also text information to Crime Stoppers at 
274637; type "TIP704" along with the message.

(source: modbee.com)