[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA., LA., TENN., ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

August 17



FLORIDA----impending execution

Killer of gay men faces execution Thursday: Gary Bowles’ murders ended in 
Jacksonville Beach in 1994



Gary Ray Bowles, a serial-killing drifter caught in Jacksonville Beach in 1994, 
charmed his way into men’s lives and homes with promises of sex and manual 
labor only to end their lives typically by strangling them.

For 8 months, he was a nightmare come to life as he wooed and killed men up and 
down the East Coast and then quickly moved on to stalk his next prey.

The serial-killing drifter with a nasty alcohol problem came across to many 
initially as rugged and handsome. Gary Ray Bowles charmed his way into men’s 
lives and homes with promises of sex and manual labor only to kill them, 
typically by strangling them.

A quarter century since his killing spree ended, he is set to be executed at 6 
p.m. Thursday. To date, the courts have rejected any appeal to halt his being 
put to death, the most recent by the Florida Supreme Court on Aug. 13.

The 57-year-old Bowles lives in isolation, confined to a 6-by-9 foot cell on 
death row at the Florida State Prison since his 1996 conviction for killing 
Walter J. Hinton in Jacksonville.

Just days before Hinton’s murder, Bowles vaulted onto the FBI’s Most-Wanted 
List.

Bowles, who was living in the Beaches area under the name of Timothy Whitfield, 
met Hinton in Jacksonville Beach and within days moved into his Jacksonville 
mobile home.

After a day and night of drinking and getting high, Bowles dropped a 40-pound 
cement block on Hinton’s head as he slept. He then strangled the 47-year-old 
florist.

As he did with most of his other victims — he is believed to have killed at 
least six men in 1994 — he stuffed toilet paper and rags into Hinton’s mouth 
and throat.

Bowles continued to stay at the mobile home for a few days while Hinton’s body 
decomposed on the floor.

When Hinton died, the name Gary Ray Bowles was well-known particularly along 
the I-95 corridor. He was wanted for a March 1994 killing in Daytona Beach. He 
was wanted for a killing in Maryland and two killings in Georgia before 
returning to Florida for more. He struck fear in the gay community.

But Bowles always remained a step ahead of law enforcement by keeping on the 
move, a killing machine hurtling from state to state and back.

After Hinton’s sister discovered her brother’s body, she and others could only 
tell investigators he had a roommate named Tim who worked at a labor pool at 
the Beaches.

Jacksonville Beach police officer Robert Cook ran the names Tim and Timothy 
through his department’s computer for possible contacts. 70 references 
surfaced.

Cook narrowed his list to a handful of names by eliminating all but those who 
worked at labor pools. Yes, Cook learned, a Timothy Whitfield was known at the 
labor pool.

At 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 22, 1994, Cook got a call saying Whitfield was at the 
labor pool.

“I’d go the Nth degree to get things done,” Cook told The Times-Union in 1994. 
“But I had no suspicion that this could be Gary Bowles.”

When Bowles saw police at the labor pool, he rushed into a bathroom. It was too 
late. After eight months of dodging the law up and down the coast as he killed 
men, he had been caught — though police at that moment were completely unaware 
of his true identity. To them, he was Timothy Whitfield, Hinton’s roommate.

Soon after his capture, the man stunned investigators with the Jacksonville 
Sheriff’s Office when he interrupted his interrogation and asked if they’d like 
to know who he really was.

“I’m Gary Ray Bowles,” he said.

Bowles continued to talk, spilling out stories of his other killings.

That evening as he was being led past a phalanx of reporters on his way to 
jail, he said he was sorry and he wanted the killings to stop.

1 BY 1 THEIR LIVES WERE SNUFFED OUT

John Hardy Roberts of Daytona Beach was Bowles’ 1st known victim.

The 59-year-old insurance adjuster offered Bowles a place to live. On March 15, 
1994, Bowles beat and strangled Roberts, capping off the killing by shoving 
rags down his throat and stealing his car and credit cards.

The car was recovered in Tennessee.

Bowles quickly became a suspect when police found his fingerprints and 
probation paperwork at Roberts’ home.

Bowles pushed north.

David Jarman of Montgomery County, Md., was Bowles’ next known victim. The 
38-year-old credit union employee’s body was found April 14, 1994, in a 
basement. He had been badly beaten and strangled.

Again, the victim’s mouth was stuffed with rags. Jarman’s credit cards and car 
also were gone. Bowles was charged with murder though his whereabouts at the 
time were unknown.

Milton Bradley, a disabled World War II veteran living in Savannah, Ga., was 
considered generous to a fault. He took Bowles into his home.

On May 5, 1994, the 72-year-old’s body was found on a golf course near his 
home. He had been strangled and again his mouth was stuffed with rags. 
Investigators found Bowles’ palm print, but not the killer. He was charged with 
the murder and again was on the run.

Alverson Carter Jr., 47, of Atlanta was found stabbed to death on May 13, 1994. 
His body wasn’t discovered for several days.

Quickly Bowles struck again when he killed Nassau County convenience store 
owner Albert Morris. Morris was gagged, beaten, strangled and took a shotgun 
blast in the head. His body was discovered by his parents on May 19, 1994.

Morris, 38, met Bowles in a gay bar. He opened his home to the drifter a week 
before his death. Morris’ car was stolen as was his wallet and credit cards.

Three days after Morris’ body was discovered, his car was found in 
Jacksonville. A bulletin was sent out to law enforcement: “Bowles frequents 
homosexual bars where he meets and befriends patrons. All known victims were 
met at such establishments.”

“America’s Most Wanted” broadcasted Bowles’ story across the nation in July 
1994.

Residents of a Jacksonville Beach rooming house Bowles frequented called 
police. Police thought he was the wrong man and let him go. His mustache and 
tan threw them off, according to reports.

Authorities later learned Bowles used 5 different Social Security numbers and 
also went by the aliases Gary Ray Boles and Joey Pearson, also using the first 
names James, Mike and Mark.

‘ALL THE RAGE BUILT UP IN HIM’

Less than 2 years after his capture, Bowles pleaded guilty to killing Hinton. 
The state did not take a possible death sentence off the table in exchange for 
a guilty plea.

At a sentencing hearing, Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda argued 
the crimes against Hinton were motivated by Bowles’ hatred of homosexuals and 
that he killed for financial gain.

Bowles was represented by attorney Bill White who worked for the Office of the 
Public Defender. White, who would later be elected to oversee the office for 
the state’s 4th Judicial Circuit, argued Bowles was mentally unstable.

According to Times-Union reports from 1994, White told jurors Bowles endured a 
horrific childhood at the hands of an alcoholic stepfather who abused him as 
well as his brother and mother. The jury was told how at the age of 13, Bowles 
gave his mother an ultimatum: Either his stepdad goes or he goes. His mom 
picked the stepfather.

A pre-sentencing report from Volusia County gave this account of Bowles’ life: 
His father, a coal-miner died of lung disease just before Bowles’ birth. Bowles 
reported that his mother married about 8 times, some stepfathers were abusive 
alcoholics. He said he first tried marijuana when he was 12 and the began to 
smoke it weekly. He dropped out of grade school.

As a young teen living on his own, Bowles hustled the streets, offering himself 
to men for money.

“I think he learned at an early age that it was fast money and one way to make 
a living,” an investigator said in a report.

Bowles repeatedly drifted in and out of jail.

“It was a horrible childhood,” said White on Wednesday. He said Bowles was 
sexually assaulted at a young age and he lived in an abandoned car.

“I think all the rage built up in him over the years. It was predictable that 
it would happen and that that violence would come out,” White said. “But we 
don’t predict that. We only see it after the fact.”

The jury in Duval in 1996 voted 10 to 2 to recommend a death sentence, and the 
judge complied.

The Florida Supreme Court overturned the death sentence, saying there was no 
connection between Bowles’ alleged hatred for gay men and Hinton’s murder as 
prosecutor de la Rionda asserted.

The case was sent back to the lower court for another sentencing. Jack Schemer, 
the same judge, presided over it.

During the 1999 proceeding the state included testimony about Bowles’ prior 
felonies for sexual battery, robbery and 2 charges of 1st-degree murder — the 
Nassau County case and the Daytona Beach case.

After just 60 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with its decision: 
Bowles should die at the hands of the state.

Again, an appeal was filed to the state’s top court. The Florida Supreme Court 
ruled in favor of the Circuit Court. Bowles asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a 
judicial review. It refused.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant June 11.

On Tuesday the Florida Supreme Court unanimously denied a request by Bowles’ 
attorney to stop the execution. His legal team has been trying to get a hearing 
to determine whether Bowles is intellectually disabled. A brief filed with the 
11th Circuit of Court Appeals in Atlanta asks the court to order a hearing at 
the lower court level. To date it has not been ruled on.

De la Rionda said he is prepared for a hearing, should it be granted. He came 
out of retirement this summer after a lengthy career in the 4th Judicial 
Circuit to see the case through as well as handle 8 of his former death-penalty 
cases that have been sent back to court for resentencings due to changes in 
Florida law regarding the death sentences.

In 1996 and 1999, de la Rionda convinced 2 juries and a judge to put Bowles on 
death row. He plans to be at Bowles’ execution Thursday as a witness. He said 
being there in the witness room is a promise he makes to the victims’ families 
of the men he has put on death row, a number that reaches several dozen.

Hinton has no living family that de la Rionda was able to track down and ask 
whether they planned to attend.

If Bowles is executed Thursday, it will be the second de la Rionda has 
witnessed.

Had Bowles not been captured after Hinton’s murder, de la Rionda predicted he 
would have kept killing. “I believe he is a classic serial killer who comes 
into contact with innocent victims,” he said. ”... He had the classic serial 
killer MO [modus operandi] and they continue to kill until they are stopped.” 
(source: jacksonville.com)

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

Death row inmate back in Duval County jail ahead of hearing----Taxi driver Paul 
Durousseau accused of killing 5 women in Jacksonville



Death row inmate Paul Durousseau has been brought back to the Duval County jail 
ahead of a hearing next week on his re-sentencing.

Durousseau was convicted in the 1999 murder of 24-year-old Tyresa Mack, 1 of 7 
murders he was accused of committing from 1997 to 2003 in Jacksonville and 
Georgia.

After his conviction, prosecutors opted not to try him in the other murders.

Durousseau's death sentence was thrown out in 2017 by the Florida Supreme 
Court, which ordered a new sentencing hearing. The high court rejected 
arguments for a new trial.

(source: news4jax.com)








ALABAMA:

Alabama won’t release contract related to executions



The Alabama attorney general's office says it will not release to the news 
media a copy of a contract related to death penalty litigation.

The attorney general's office on Tuesday cited security reasons for refusing a 
records request from The Associated Press for a copy of a $25,000 contract with 
a Tennessee firm specializing in occupational safety. The state office declined 
to answer questions about the contract.

State Sen. Greg Albritton said the attorney general's office indicated the 
contract was related to litigation over nitrogen gas as an execution method.

The state has authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method but has not 
used it.

A federal judge last year ruled Alabama must release its lethal injection 
protocol but can keep some information secret, such as employee names.

(source: Associated Press)








LOUISIANA:

SUSPECT DESCRIBED AS ‘CAREER CRIMINAL’----Trial date set for man accused in 
boy’s death ---- Home invasion in 2017 results in shooting of 10-year-old



A hearing involving several motions was expected to be held in the case 
Thursday, but Davis determined a full hearing wasn't necessary since most of 
those matters had previously been heard.

Thompson was in state district court as were prosecutors, the defense and many 
of Jaylyn's family and friends.

Dwight M. Doskey, an attorney with the Capital Defense Project of Southeast 
Louisiana, has been representing Thompson since 2018.

Doskey told Davis on Thursday one matter that still needed to be resolved was a 
prior motion concerning a crime scene preservation order. Davis said he earlier 
gave Doskey 90 days to attend to that matter.

The defense attorney told the judge there was an issue with an expert who 
wasn't available so Davis gave him an additional 30 days to address it.

At a hearing last year in state district court, family members of Jaylyn, 
wearing T-shirts that displayed photos of him on the front, filled a row in the 
courtroom, and cried softly as Thompson was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to 
the charge of 1st-degree murder.

Prosecutor Loren Lampert told Davis at that hearing the Calcasieu Parish 
District Attorney's Office planned to seek the death penalty.

Doskey told the court a few months ago he plans to retire soon from the Capital 
Defense Project but not his private practice. Setting the trial for a year from 
now will allow time for a new attorney to be appointed and to become familiar 
with the case before trial.

Thompson was paroled early from Angola State Penitentiary after serving 24 
years of a 99-year prison sentence for armed robbery and other crimes and at 
the time of his arrest authorities said he was from the Kenner area and they 
did not know why he was in Lake Charles.

Former Lake Charles Police Chief Don Dixon called Thompson "a career criminal" 
after he was arrested.

(source: americanpress.com)








TENNESSEE:

Who's next to be executed from East Tennessee? 2 more await dates in death 
chamber



Stephen Michael West became the 2nd inmate executed this year in Tennessee on 
Thursday night — the 1st from Union County since 1937.

West, 57, died by electric chair for raping and killing Sheila Romines, 15, and 
her mother, Wanda, on March 17, 1986, at their home in Andersonville. He spent 
nearly 33 years on death row.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has set execution dates for 2 more inmates from 
East Tennessee — one this year and one in 2020. That number doesn't include the 
four left from Knox County who still wait for their sentences to be carried 
out.

Because each of the pair committed his crime in the years before Tennessee 
changed execution methods in 1999, each will get the choice between lethal 
injection and electrocution.

Here's a half-dozen of East Tennessee's most infamous executions. Angela 
Gosnell, Knoxville News Sentinel

Leroy Hall Jr.: Dec. 5

Leroy Hall Jr. and his girlfriend couldn't get along. The last time they 
argued, he sloshed her with gasoline and set her and her car on fire.

Traci Crozier lived long enough to tell Chattanooga police who threw a burning 
2-gallon jug of gas at her the night of April 16, 1991. She suffered burns over 
95 percent of her body and died of what emergency-room doctors at Erlanger 
Hospital called the worst injuries they'd ever seen.

Hall at first denied he'd thrown the firebomb at Crozier, then insisted she 
only burned because she ignored him when he threw it and told her to get out of 
the way. He loved her, he said — he just wanted to burn her car. Never mind 
he'd left messages on her answering machine threatening to kill her exactly the 
way she died.

A Hamilton County jury found Hall guilty in 1992 of first-degree murder and 
aggravated arson. He's set to die Dec. 5.

Nicholas Todd Sutton: Feb. 20

Nicholas Todd "Nicky" Sutton wasn't old enough to buy a beer the 1st time he 
killed — or the 2nd, or the 3rd. None of those got him the death penalty.

Sutton was 18 when he knocked his grandmother, a retired elementary school 
teacher, unconscious with a stick of firewood, wrapped her in a blanket and 
trash bags, chained her to a cinder block and threw her alive into the 
Nolichucky River from Hale's Bridge in Hamblen County's Lowland community three 
days before Christmas Day 1979. She drowned in the icy waters, an autopsy 
found.

Dorothy Sutton, 58, had made the mistake of telling her grandson no when he 
asked for money, prosecutors said. She might also have discovered he'd already 
killed 2 other people — John Large, a childhood friend, and Charles P. Almon, a 
bankrupt Knoxville contractor.

Dorothy Sutton's daughter reported her missing when she didn't show up for 
dinner on Christmas Day. The grandson at first claimed she'd disappeared, but 
the various stories he told deputies fell apart fast. Searchers pulled her body 
from the river Dec. 29.

Sutton eventually led authorities to Large's body after a jury found him guilty 
of 1st-degree murder in his grandmother's death and sentenced him to life in 
prison. He'd killed Large, 19, on a trip to Mount Sterling, N.C., and buried 
his body in a shallow grave on property that belonged to Sutton's aunt.

In October 1979, he shot Almon and dumped his body in a North Carolina quarry. 
Searchers found that corpse only after spending thousands of dollars searching 
in other spots as Sutton, who loved the attention, spun first one confession, 
then another.

Investigators learned to recognize what they called the "Sutton signature" — 
bodies wrapped in plastic, bound in chains and weighted with cinder blocks. He 
claimed he'd killed 5 people in all, but 2 of the stories he told never yielded 
bodies, missing-person reports or other hard evidence.

Sutton hadn't served 5 years when he helped stab Carl Isaac Estep, a convicted 
child rapist from Knoxville, more than 3 dozen times Jan. 5, 1985, in a cell at 
Brushy Mountain Penitentiary in Morgan County. This time a jury sentenced 
Sutton to death.

He's set to die Feb. 20.

(source: Knoxville News Sentinel)








OREGON:

The back-alley mugging of the death penalty: Steve Duin



Betsy Johnson predicted all of this months ago.

The conservative Democratic senator from Scappoose and I were both at Josh 
Marquis’ retirement party at the Fillmore in Northwest Portland. A half dozen 
other Oregon district attorneys were in the crowded room.

And late on that January night, Johnson told me to keep a wary eye on criminal 
justice issues in the 2019 session.

House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson and the liberals in Salem had plans, 
Johnson said. Serious and audacious plans to kill off the death penalty, once 
and for all.

The politics, and glorious deceit, of that agenda came into focus this week.

In July, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1013, which dramatically redefined 
aggravated murder, thereby limiting the crimes eligible for the death penalty.

In shepherding that bill through the House, Williamson insisted it wasn’t 
retroactive and only “applies to aggravated murder cases going forward.”

She also told The Oregonian/OregonLive that a second Senate bill made clear 
that SB 1013 doesn’t apply to defendants who were sentenced to death but who 
have been granted reversals through post-conviction relief.

That would include Angela McAnulty, who tortured and starved her 15-year-old 
daughter, and Billy Lee Oatney Jr., who raped and tortured Susi Larsen in 1996 
before suffocating her with a garbage bag.

On such authority, Senate Bill 1013 passed the House and Senate on largely 
party-line votes. On Aug. 1, Gov. Kate Brown signed it into law, noting, 
“Oregon’s death penalty is dysfunctional. It is costly and immoral.”

Cue this week’s roller-coaster ride for the families of the murdered and the 
meaning of words.

First off, Benjamin Gutman, Oregon’s solicitor general, told state prosecutors 
that despite “conversations with many of you in which I suggested otherwise,” 
the new law does apply to death-penalty cases that are awaiting new trials or 
sentencing.

Prosecutors went nuts. As Beth Heckert, the president of the Oregon District 
Attorney Association, wrote in a letter to legislative leaders, “This law is a 
failure on multiple levels – a failure to respect the will of voters, a failure 
to draft a clear law for Oregon’s most dangerous criminals, and a failure of 
trust by telling voters it is not retroactive when the opposite is true.”

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, said he never meant for his Senate bill to 
apply to cases awaiting new sentences, and promised he would ask Kate Brown to 
allow the Legislature to certify that in a one-day special session.

On Thursday, however, Williamson – who is widely rumored to be considering a 
run for statewide office – finally emerged to tell The Oregonian/OregonLive 
editorial board that the bill doesn’t need a fix: “It does what we said it was 
going to do.”

Asked to square that with her floor speech and previous arguments, Williamson, 
as The Oregonian’s Noelle Crombie reported, couldn’t explain why she made those 
statements and acknowledged that her earlier explanations might have been 
unclear.

Hey, she’s not screaming, “Fake news,” the common refrain these days when the 
truth is so damn inconvenient.

Marquis, the prosecutor in three of Randy Guzek’s four death-penalty trials, 
didn’t mince words:

“They’ve crippled the death penalty, and crippled it in a way that’s 
irredeemable,” Marquis said. “And it was done intentionally. It’s not mere 
incompetence.”

It’s not hard to piece together how and why this charade came together. 
Williamson had to maneuver the bill around House Speaker Tina Kotek, who has 
long argued that the future of capital punishment requires a public vote.

Then there’s the August blog post from CFM, the marketing firm that helped 
Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty push the bill to Brown’s desk.

The firm argued against another referral of the death penalty to Oregon voters 
– “it would have invited opponents to use scare tactics” – and said this bill 
was the ideal way to approach the governor:

“Turning SB 1013 into law may force Brown to confront whether some existing 
Oregon death row inmates should have their sentences reduced to life sentences 
or even commuted.”

Imagine that: Randy Guzek and Billy Lee Oatney, once again on the loose, making 
up for lost time.

“Jennifer Williamson promised that this law wasn’t retroactive, and 
specifically referenced Billy Oatney, saying he is still eligible for the death 
penalty,” said Bracken McKey, Washington County’s chief deputy district 
attorney.

“Susi Larson’s father is 83 years old, and he’s been waiting for justice for 
his daughter for 25 years. Now, what am I supposed to tell him and the rest of 
the victim’s family?”

Tell him Jennifer Williamson knows best. Back in May, Williamson summed up her 
support of the juvenile Measure 11 bill, and her ongoing trust in the voters, 
by saying, “I believe there are times when putting people’s rights to a vote of 
the people is not a wise move.”

“Apparently,” McKey says, “there are times when the public can’t trust her, 
either.”

(source: oregonlive.com)








USA:

The federal government should not bring back executions----It's a bad idea that 
reeks of politics, not a sound decision based on the effectiveness of capital 
punishment as a crime-fighting tool.



The Trump administration’s decision to start executing federal death row 
prisoners after a 16-year lull is a bad idea that reeks of politics rather than 
a sound decision based on the effectiveness of capital punishment as a 
crime-fighting tool.

If the administration truly supports criminal justice reform, as it claimed 
back in December when it supported a package of changes to the justice system, 
including reducing mandatory minimum sentences, then it needs to rethink 
reviving a practice that has been shown to be discriminatory, unjust, prone to 
error and ineffective at deterring crime.

It’s curious that as use of the death penalty has waned across the country, 
President Trump would suddenly want to revive it. In 2017, the number of 
prisoners sentenced to death declined for the 17th year in a row, according to 
a report released this month by Trump’s own Justice Department. Many states no 
longer allow the killing of criminals as punishment. The last federal execution 
was in 2003, and there have only been 3 since 1988.

That will change now that the administration has ordered the execution of 5 
inmates in December and January. That’s right, the country will kill more 
inmates in 2 months than in 31 years.

We see through your political tactics, Mr. Trump. The death penalty is another 
one of those divisive and partisan wedge issues you believe will rile up your 
base, present you as a tough-on-crime politician and Democrats as soft on the 
issue. The subject is sure to divide the parties. It’s of a piece with Trump’s 
constant playing of the race card and use of dog whistle politics to remind a 
certain segment of white voters he has their backs.

The problem is that Trump is playing with people’s lives here. Life without 
parole is a far better sentence, given that the death row process has been 
shown to be far from perfect.

Far too many people have been sent to death row only to be determined innocent 
later. Since 1973, 166 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all 
charges and set free, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. If 
you’re African American you are more likely to be sentenced to death. (More 
than half of inmates on federal death row are black or Latino.) Same if you’re 
poor and can’t pay for good representation.

On top of that, all the resources used to pursue these cases don’t keep us any 
safer and could be used on other crime-fighting tactics.

States without the death penalty have lower murder rates than those with it, 
and the South has more than 80 % of the nation’s executions and the highest 
murder rate in the United States, according to Conservatives Concerned About 
the Death Penalty.

Yes, that’s right, conservatives and Republicans are concerned about bringing 
back the death penalty as well. They have come out to express their 
disagreement with their idea.

If the injustice isn’t bad enough, there is also the trauma the death row 
process can inflict on the families of victims. The appeals process can take 
decades, opening new wounds with each appeal and trial. Attorney General 
William Barr said in a statement: “The Justice Department upholds the rule of 
law – and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the 
sentence imposed by our justice system.” A life sentence may actually be more 
humane for these families.

This same is true for executioners, a group that people are less likely to 
think about in the conversations about the death penalty. Many of them also say 
they experience a certain trauma from taking someone’s life.

We doubt any of this matters to Trump, who has long been a staunch supporter of 
the death penalty. His obstinacy on the issue was made clear when he refused to 
apologize to the Central Park 5, a group of black and Latino teenagers he made 
the poster children for the death penalty after they were accused of raping a 
white woman in Central Park in 1989. They were cleared of the crime years 
later, but that wasn’t enough for Trump.

Apparently his support of criminal justice reform goes only so far. For the 
sake of justice, the federal government doesn’t need to bring back executions, 
but our president would prefer to take the country back in time.

(source: Editorial, Portland (Maine) Press-Herald)

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

3 reputed gang members charged in execution-style slayings on West Side



3 reputed West Side gang members could potentially face the death penalty after 
they were charged in federal court Thursday in a murder-for-hire plot that led 
to the execution-style slayings of a suspected police informant and his 
girlfriend in 2018.

Deshawn Morgan, 37, Demond Brown, 26, and Darius Murphy, 19, all alleged 
members of the Wicked Town faction of the Traveling Vice Lords gang, were 
charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit murder for hire.

The charge carries a mandatory life sentence if convicted, and prosecutors 
could move for the death penalty — a decision that would require the approval 
of the U.S. attorney general.

Reputed West Side gang member Deshawn Morgan was charged in federal court in a 
murder-for-hire plot that led to the execution-style slayings of a suspected 
police informant and his girlfriend in 2018.

Detention hearings are scheduled for all 3 men next week at the Dirksen U.S. 
Courthouse.

The charges allege Morgan hired Brown and Murphy to kill Donald Holmes, Jr. in 
late 2017 after growing suspicious that Holmes, a fellow member of the Vice 
Lords, was cooperating with law enforcement.

Brown and Murphy lured Holmes, 29, to a meeting in the 4700 block of West 
Arthington Street in January 2018 under the guise that they were going to give 
him a gun and cash that Morgan owed him, the complaint alleged.

After Holmes arrived with his girlfriend, Diane Taylor, 31, Murphy got into the 
back seat of their Jeep Cherokee and shot each of them multiple times in the 
back of the head, according to the complaint.

Months later, a senior member of the gang who was facing his own federal 
charges agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and secretly record 
conversations with Brown and Murphy in Cook County Jail, according to the 
complaint. The 2, in custody on unrelated charges, admitted to their roles in 
the slayings, the charges said.

In the recordings, made in September and October 2018, Murphy allegedly 
described in detail how Holmes had tried to take the gun and cash from him 
through the open passenger side window, but he insisted on getting in the car.

“I say, ‘Naw, man.' I get in the back seat. ... Pow! Pow!" Murphy was quoted as 
saying. “His b---- tried to bail out, I grabbed her by the back of her wig. I 
said, 'Where you going? Pow! Pow!”

Less than 5 hours after the slayings, Brown texted Morgan a screen shot of the 
Chicago Tribune’s breaking news story on the shooting, according to the 
complaint, which contained an image of the text.

A video later found on Brown’s phone — which appeared to have been taken from 
Murphy’s third-floor apartment — depicted Chicago police officers processing 
the shooting scene, the complaint said.

Federal authorities say this 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol was used to commit the 
murders was recovered in Milwaukee after an unrelated arrest in 2018.

According to the charges, Morgan paid Brown and Murphy $5,000 and also gave 
Brown an assault rifle as payment for the hit. The day after the slayings, 
Brown purchased a used Buick LeSabre for $900 in cash and drove to Minneapolis, 
where he traded the 9mm handgun used in the murders for a different firearm.

The murder weapon was recovered in February 2018 when a different man was 
arrested by police in Milwaukee with the gun in his possession, according to 
the complaint.

Although Holmes had previously worked as a cooperating source for law 
enforcement, he was not working with law enforcement at the time of the 
murders, the complaint said.

In fact, law enforcement at the time had won approval in Cook County criminal 
court to wiretap Holmes’ cellphone as part of an ongoing narcotics 
investigation, according to the complaint.

Based on that wiretap, undercover officers had Holmes under surveillance on 
Nov. 30, 2017 — 2 months before his killing — and watched as Morgan pulled up 
to Holmes’ residence to retrieve a firearm, the charges alleged.

Morgan was pulled over as he drove away, but no weapons were found and he was 
released, according to the complaint. Morgan immediately suspected Holmes was 
behind the traffic stop and began plotting to have him killed, the charges 
alleged.

In the recordings made by the senior gang member in the county jail, Brown 
allegedly said he believed Morgan still owed him money since they ended up 
having to kill 2 people instead of just one.

A Chicago cop fatally shot a black teen who he says pointed a gun at him during 
a foot chase. But no gun was found — until 3 months later.

“It was never supposed to have went how it went,” Brown said in one 
conversation in September 2018, according to the complaint. “You see what I’m 
saying? Man, m----------- got to pay me something else too.”

The next month, the gang member again recorded Murphy in jail talking about his 
role in the killings. He said he didn’t know Holmes “from a can of paint" and 
said the hit was Morgan’s idea.

“It’s like, if you call me and say, ‘Kill this n----. He snitching on me.’ I 
don’t know dude. I’m gonna take your word,” Murphy was quoted as saying. 
"You’re one of the guys. I’m gonna kill him! That’s what happened.”

(source: Chicago Tribune)

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

Lawyers say man facing execution is intellectually disabled



Attorneys for a man facing the federal death penalty want a judge to halt his 
execution and say their client can’t legally be put to death because he’s 
intellectually disabled.

Alfred Bourgeois’ lawyers argue in court papers Thursday that a jury was 
unaware of Bourgeois’ disability and a court never reviewed the evidence.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people with intellectual 
disabilities is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual punishment.

Prosecutors say Bourgeois, of Louisiana, tortured, sexually molested, and then 
beat his 2½-year-old daughter to death.

Attorney General William Barr resumed the death penalty last month and 
scheduled executions for the first time since 2003.

Bourgeois is on death row at a federal penitentiary in Indiana. He’s scheduled 
to be executed Jan. 13.

(source: Associated Press)