[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., ALA., MISS., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

August 22



TEXAS:----execution

Texas death row inmate Larry Ray Swearingen maintains innocence until his 
execution



A Texas death row inmate continued to maintain his innocence up until he was 
executed Wednesday.

Larry Ray Swearingen was executed at 6:47 p.m. for the death of 19-year-old 
Melissa Trotter.

"Lord forgive them. They don't know what they are doing," he said in his last 
words.

Swearingen was sentenced to death in July 2000 for Trotter's abduction, rape 
and murder.

The Montgomery College student was last seen alive on December 8, 1998. Her 
body was found in the Sam Houston National Forest on January 2, 1999, with a 
torn pair of pantyhose tied around her neck.

Swearingen repeatedly challenged his conviction and sentence over the years, 
and his execution was postponed 5 times. Over the years, he argued that the 
case against him was built on circumstantial evidence and questionable 
forensics.

Prosecutors contended that Swearingen killed Trotter after she rejected his 
sexual advances. Witnesses testified they saw Trotter leave campus with 
Swearingen on December 8, according to court documents. The state also pointed 
to the fact that Swearingen's wife found a lighter and a pack of cigarettes 
matching Trotter's preferred brand in the couple's trailer, although they did 
not smoke, and a detective found a pair of pantyhose in the trash outside the 
trailer with one leg missing.

In a prepared statement his lawyer released after his death, Swearingen said he 
had proved his "innocence beyond any shadow of doubt," although it was not 
enough to stop his execution.

"Today the State of Texas murdered an innocent man. Sadly, so many people have 
suffered from all this. Melissa's family and friends were denied the 
opportunity for closure. My family was torn apart," the statement said.

"I want everyone to know I'm not angry about my execution. Sure I would've 
liked to live and go free. But I feel certain that my death can be a catalyst 
to change the insane legal system of Texas which could allow this to happen. I 
am now one of God's sacrificial lambs, and hopefully people will use my example 
to help keep others from experiencing this dreadful and wrongful persecution."

One last appeal

The week before his execution, Swearingen requested another stay based on two 
claims, according to court documents.

He argued that the state allowed "false and misleading" trial testimony 
regarding blood flecks found under Trotter's fingernails. He also claimed the 
state knew that a criminologist had "manufactured" evidence that the torn 
pantyhose used to strangle Trotter matched pantyhose found at Swearingen's 
house.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied his request on August 16, saying the 
evidence he presented to support his claims was not strong enough to have made 
a difference to the outcome of his trial.

On Wednesday night, the Supreme Court turned down Swearingen's final appeal.

Swearingen nevertheless continued to maintain his innocence in an interview 
with the Houston Chronicle published Wednesday, and questioned if his scheduled 
execution would come to pass.

But the slain teen's mother told the Chronicle she is still convinced of his 
guilt.

"The overwhelming evidence is not just a coincidence," Sandy Trotter said. 
"There was a trial; he was found guilty, and they agreed on a sentence."

(source: CNN)

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

Today the State of Texas murdered an innocent man. Many people participated in 
my demise, beginning with the Montgomery County police who falsely arrested me 
without a warrant and particularly officer Leo Mock who planted the pantyhose 
in my home that was used to convict me. Harris County medical examiner Joye 
Carter then lied about the length of time Melissa Trotter's corpse laid in the 
woods. Judge Fred Edwards and the Montgomery County district attorney's office 
refused to give me a fair shake in legal proceedings, while the Houston 
Chronicle with other local media shared the same lack of fair play when it came 
to the court of public opinion. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals rejected my 
filings without even looking at them, and finally governor Greg Abbott pulled 
the trigger.

I also have to include myself in this accounting. Not because I had anything to 
do with Melissa's murder. She was my friend. But in my youth, I made a lot of 
stupid mistakes. When I was abducted by Montgomery County police in December 
1998, I had been driving a stolen vehicle and was trying to commit insurance 
fraud. I was philandering with Melissa and other women instead of taking care 
of my wife and kids. I had been violent with both women and men. I put myself 
in a perfect position to be framed for murder.

Sadly, so many people have suffered from all this. Melissa's family and friends 
were denied the opportunity for closure. My family was torn apart. My mother 
was ostracized and harassed to the point she had to leave her home, and my son 
is currently in jail.

I have spent the last 19 years in solitary confinement, in a situation you 
wouldn't put a stray dog into. And this forced me to grow up. I found I had far 
more potential than I ever dreamed possible. I learned Texas law to the point 
where I proved my innocence beyond any shadow of doubt -- although 
unfortunately for me, actual innocence is not legal cause for stopping an 
execution.

I have made so many beautiful friends from all over the world, and I know they 
loved me and cared for me, as I did for them. This probably wouldn't have 
happened if I had been left to my own devices. I want to thank them and my 
excellent attorneys who worked all these years for no money just to keep me 
safe.

In closing, I want everyone to know I'm not angry about my execution. Sure I 
would've liked to live and go free. But I feel certain that my death can be a 
catalyst to change the insane legal system of Texas which could allow this to 
happen. I am now one of God's sacrificial lambs, and hopefully people will use 
my example to help keep others from experiencing this dreadful and wrongful 
persecution.

With love in my heart and peace in my mind, I am yours truly, Larry Swearingen.

(source: Larry Swearingen, August 21, 2019)



PENNSYLVANIA:

Jordan Clemons, facing death penalty, seeks relief in U.S. Supreme Court



An attorney for Jordan Clemons, who faces the death penalty in the murder of 
Karissa Kunco, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review decisions made in 
Pennsylvania courts that led to or upheld his conviction.

Clemons, now 30, was found guilty of 1st-degree murder by a Washington County 
jury, which chose to impose the death penalty after hearing trial testimony in 
2015.

Kunco, 21, of Baldwin Borough, Allegheny County, was Clemons’ former 
girlfriend. Last seen alive on Jan. 11, 2012, her naked body was found under 
brush, leaves and a tree stump the next day in woods along Sabo Road, Mt. 
Pleasant Township. Her throat had been cut. Police alleged Clemons took Kunco’s 
car and bank card, which he used to purchase an Xbox game console.

Facebook groups called “Karissa’s Army” and “Rot in Hell Jordan Clemons” sprung 
up, a rally was held before the trial at a school in Washington County during 
which Clemons was described as a murderer, and an online forum made racially 
charged comments about the case, according to his attorney, Marc A. Bookman.

The attorney from the nonprofit Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in 
Philadelphia alleges Clemons’ constitutional rights were violated in 2 ways.

One issue deals with whether Clemons waived his right to have a lawyer present 
during his initial contact with police in January 2012.

Bookman asserted Clemons “had clearly consumed alcohol” before being read his 
rights, “but did not otherwise manifest any understanding of those rights or a 
desire to waive them.”

As to Clemons’ right to have a lawyer present when he turned himself in, 
District Attorney Gene Vittone wrote, “Miranda warnings were properly given to” 
Clemons, who “then immediately provided a statement which placed him with the 
victim the evening that she disappeared. This statement was admitted at trial.”

Vittone notes that police asked Clemons to sign a form that would waive his 
right to have an attorney present. Clemons “then stated that he should probably 
talk to an attorney. The police then stopped the interview.”

Clemons also focused on whether social media and news coverage surrounding his 
case should have necessitated the selection of jurors from outside Washington 
County.

Bookman cited the large number of followers writing comments on the Facebook 
pages and signing a petition to change domestic violence laws as reasons to 
prejudice a Washington County jury.

Vittone wrote that although Public Defender Brian Gorman raised the issue at a 
pretrial hearing, the defense attorney did not bring it up again at jury 
selection.

Bookman claims the pretrial publicity was extreme and that the state appellate 
court “over-emphasized the cooling-off period between sensational coverage and 
the trial.”

Although review of a death penalty case in Pennsylvania goes directly to the 
state Supreme Court, whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case is up to 
the highest court in the land.

Vittone’s position, according to the introduction to his 17-page brief, is that 
these issues were put to rest when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld 
Clemons’ conviction and death penalty.

Clemons, an inmate in the State Correctional Institution at Greene, asked the 
U.S. Supreme Court in May to proceed as a pauper who earns $30 per month 
laboring as a prison inmate and receives $200 a month in gifts that he uses to 
purchase personal hygiene items, food and to communicate with his children, 
family and friends.

Justice Samuel Alito gave Clemons’ attorney an extension of time to file his 
petition. According to the Supreme Court docket, Washington County District 
Attorney Gene Vittone was granted a similar request. The district attorney on 
Friday filed his brief in opposition to Clemons’ claims.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania, 
the last of which occurred in 1999.

(source: Observer-Reporter)








FLORIDA----impending execution

Florida’s 99th execution set for Thursday



40 years ago, on May 25, 1979, Florida ended a 15-year hiatus on executions.

Public protest over executions has quieted considerably since they resumed in 
1979.

Gary Ray Bowles has killed at least 6 people.

All were violent.

He clearly fits the criteria set by Governor Ron DeSantis for using the 
ultimate penalty.

“I’m supportive of it for the most serious offenses,” said DeSantis in March.

Unless stopped, Bowles death Thursday evening will be the state’s 99th 
execution since the death penalty was reinstated.

“There are specific concerns with this case,” said Ingrid Delgado with the 
Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Catholic Conference has called on the governor to stop the execution, 
arguing Florida is safe with Bowles behind bars.

Testimony also shows the 57-year-old was abused.

“He suffered extreme violence at the hands of his step fathers,” said Delgado. 
"When he escaped that violence, he was a victim of homelessness and child 
prostitution, and we know that through neural scientific research that adverse 
traumatic experiences do affect future behavior.”

While it has taken 40 years for the state to get to its 99th execution, it did 
execute nearly twice as many, 196, between 1924 and 1964 when it went on a 
hiatus.

In 1979, the Capitol was awash in protests for over a week pending the 1st 
execution in a decade and a half.

But unlike 40 years ago, fewer than a dozen are expected to protest the 
execution and pay their respects to the victims when they gather in the Capitol 
rotunda Friday.

First Lady Casey DeSantis has cancelled a Thursday appearance at a Women for 
Trump Rally in Tampa.

The governor’s office said the appearance was cancelled out of respect for the 
victims.

(source: Capitol News Service)

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

Detectives: 1994 technology slowed search for serial killer



It wasn't hard for Daytona Beach police to figure out who killed John Hardy 
Roberts in March 1994: Gary Ray Bowles left a probation document at the scene 
and also was caught on an ATM camera trying to withdraw money from Roberts' 
account. He later confessed.

What proved more difficult was capturing him, something they were unable to do 
until after 5 other men in 3 states had been slain.

"One of the things that's always stayed in the back of my mind is how horrible 
we feel that we didn't solve it quickly when we were the first," said Alison 
Sylvester, a former Daytona Beach police detective who investigated Roberts' 
death. "It was just a sign of the times. We didn't have the quick access (to 
information). Law enforcement has a lot more tools at their disposal now."

Bowles is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison on 
Thursday for the murder of Walter Hinton — the last of 6 men whom he confessed 
to killing over an 8-month period.

Hinton was killed in Jacksonville Beach. The 4 other victims were slain in 
Nassau County, Florida; Atlanta; Savannah, Georgia ; and Rockville, Maryland. 
Bowles met his victims in gay bars, and in each case the victims were found 
with objects shoved down their throats: a towel, toilet paper, dirt and leaves, 
and in one case a sex toy, prosecutors have said.

Bowles later confessed to all six killings, but has been tried, convicted and 
sentenced to death only for Hinton's. He pleaded guilty to the other two 
Florida slayings and was sentenced to life without parole for each. Authorities 
in Georgia and Maryland planned to proceed with prosecutions in those states if 
he wasn't convicted in Florida.

Former Savannah police detective John Best recalls how hard it was to keep up 
with Bowles' movements. In the late 1990s, police departments didn't have the 
sophisticated photo-editing and information-sharing technology they do today.

Best received a paper copy of a composite sketch of Bowles from a Florida 
department in which the suspect was depicted as cleanshaven; witnesses said the 
man they saw with victim Milton Bradley had a mustache.

"I took a fine-tip pen and drew a mustache on his composite," Best said. "I 
took it to some witnesses and they said, 'Definitely, that's him.'"

Best also recalls going through parking tickets by hand to find one written for 
a stolen car in which Bowles was traveling. Photographs and copies of Bowles' 
fingerprints arrived by overnight mail instead of being sent electronically in 
an instant, as they are today.

"Technology absolutely would have sped things, between examining the 
fingerprints, the physical evidence, the photographs," Best said. "We didn't 
have email. We either called, faxed or your secretaries took notes."

Detectives learned the direction in which Bowles was traveling and tracked 
purchases he made on stolen credit cards, but by the time they passed the 
information along, Bowles was off to a new city. Police departments 
communicated with each other by teletype machines, which printed paper messages 
not seen until someone physically walked over to check them.

"A couple of days had passed before we were able to get information to know 
where to go," Sylvester said, adding that it took just as long to get responses 
to subpoenas "or even video surveillance that nowadays would have been almost 
instantaneous."

Bowles earned the nickname "The I-95 killer" because he moved up and down the 
interstate after most of his killings. He was featured on "America's Most 
Wanted," and the show produced a tip that led Jacksonville police to Bowles' 
home. But they let him go. Bowles had stolen a birth certificate and Social 
Security card and obtained a license under a false name. He told officers he 
was Timothy Whitfield and they had the wrong guy, and they believed him.

"His confidence was bolstered, especially when he became Tim Whitfield," Best 
said. "Again, there's technology. If they had a fingerprint biometric reader, 
they could have solved the case. They could have stopped him right there, but 
they didn't have the technology then."

Instead, Bowles killed 1 more time, prosecutors said, dropping a 40-pound 
(18-kilogram) stepping stone on Hinton's face as he slept. Hinton didn't lose 
consciousness and struggled as Bowles beat him, strangled him and shoved toilet 
paper and a rag down his throat, according to court records.

In the end, it wasn't technology but Bowles' own carelessness that led to his 
capture: He left behind a paycheck stub with Timothy Whitfield's name on it. 
Investigators quickly tracked down "Whitfield," and Bowles gave them his real 
name under questioning.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Florida bishops: Serial killer's execution is 'unnecessary'



The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops is pleading for Gov. Ron DeSantis to 
stop the execution of Gary Ray Bowles, who confessed to murdering 6 men during 
a six month period in 1994.

“As we approach the date of Gary Ray Bowles’ scheduled execution, we urge you 
to grant a stay,” said an Aug. 14 letter, signed by Michael B. Sheedy, the 
executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the 
state’s bishops.

Bowles’ execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Aug. 22. He was first sentenced to 
death in May 1996, after pleading guilty to the murder of Walter “Jay” Hinton, 
and then re-sentenced to death in 1999 after his initial death sentence was 
overturned. While in prison for Hinton’s murder, he was convicted of 3 other 
murders, and sentenced to 2 life sentences.

When Bowles was arrested for Hinton’s death, he admitted that he had killed a 
total of six people. As Bowles’ crime spree spread from Jacksonville, Florida 
to Montgomery County, Maryland, he was dubbed the “I-95 Killer.”

He killed men in three states, two of which presently use the death penalty. At 
the time of the crimes, the death penalty was legal in all 3 states.

Bowles met most of his victims in gay bars, and offered to have sex with them 
in exchange for money. He would then beat and strangle the men to death, and 
rob them. At the time he was arrested, he was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

The letter said that while Bowles’ “violent actions” ended the lives of six 
people, and caused “great grief” to their loved ones, “each of us is more than 
the worst thing we have done.”

“Mr. Bowles is more than a man who committed multiple murders,” said the 
bishops’ conference.

“He is a human being who survived many years of childhood abuse and, after 
escaping his stepfather’s violence as a young teenager, endured years of 
homelessness and child prostitution.”

“Neuroscientific research has found that such traumatic experiences severely 
affect a child’s developing brain, and thus affect subsequent behavior,” the 
letter added.

The bishops’ conference wrote that Bowles does not pose a danger to society as 
long as he remains in prison without parole, and that the death penalty is not 
necessary. Instead, “premeditated, state-sanctioned homicide of Mr. Bowles 
would only perpetuate the cycle of violence that victimized him, and which he 
later perpetuated.”

“Killing him will only further erode the sense of the sacredness of human life 
and implicate us all – the citizens of the State of Florida – in his death.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, Florida Catholics, as well as others opposed to the 
death penalty, will be gathering at locations around the state, including the 
governor’s mansion and across the highway from the Florida State Prison’s 
Execution Building. They say they will be praying for Bowles, his victims, the 
families of the victims, and for an end to the death penalty.

If Bowles is executed, he will be the 99th person sentenced to death in Florida 
since the state reinstituted its death penalty in 1976. His will be the 2nd 
execution presided over by DeSantis, a practicing Roman Catholic.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is today 
“inadmissable,” because “there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of 
the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes,” and 
“more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due 
protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the 
guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

(source: Catholic News Agency)

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

Convicted killer fighting to get off death row----Lamar Brooks was convicted of 
killing an Eglin airman and her 3-month old daughter in 1996 and sentenced to 
death. Now his attorneys are fighting to have his life spared.



Twice since his initial conviction for the 1996 murders of Eglin Senior Airman 
Rachel Carlson and her 3-month-old daughter Alexis Stuart, Lamar Zennon Brooks 
has been sentenced to die for the crimes.

This week, and likely into next, attorneys representing Brooks will have a 
third shot at convincing a jury their client deserves to have his life spared, 
even if it means spending the rest of his life in prison.

The First Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office, however, believes enough in 
the original sentence of death to put in the resources required to prevent it 
being overturned, according to Bill Bishop, the chief assistant state attorney 
for Okaloosa County.

In a Wednesday statement opening his case for the death penalty, Assistant 
State Attorney Jack Schlechter notified 11 men and three women assembled to 
make the death penalty decision that they would hear witnesses describe the 
brutality with which Brooks had killed both Carlson and Stuart.

“You will hear how she was stabbed over and over and over and over and over,” 
Schlechter, said. “Over 60 times.”

He also said witnesses would describe the single stab wound to the chest that 
had taken the life of little Alexis.

Carlson and the baby were found dead on April 25, 2006 in an idling car at a 
remote location on Booker Street in Crestview. Investigators arrested Brooks, 
25, at the time, and Walker Davis Jr., believed to have fathered Alexis through 
an affair with Carlson, for the murders.

Prosecutors in the earlier cases had obtained convictions by arguing Brooks and 
Davis had killed Carlson to collect on a $100,000 life insurance policy and rid 
the married Davis of a messy domestic complication. Davis was sentenced to life 
in prison and Brooks to death.

Randall Richardson, who is leading the defense team attempting to win a life 
sentence for Brooks, told jurors that no crime is so horrible that a person 
should be put to death for it, and that his client, in particular, should be 
spared.

Richardson said that Brooks had returned from a stint in the Army with PTSD and 
a drinking problem, and pointed to Davis as the person involved in the plot to 
kill Carlson with evil motive and the most to lose.

The 1st jury vote to recommend Brooks be put to death came in 1998. Jurors 
returned to announce their decision had been made in both Carlson and her 
daughter’s cases by a 10-2 majority.

In 2002, following his retrial, jurors again recommended death for Brooks, this 
time by a 9-3 margin in Carlson’s case and 11-1 in the baby’s.

This week, 23 years removed from the crime, the State Attorney’s Office bar to 
succeed in achieving a death penalty recommendation is higher than it was.

Brooks was granted the 3rd rehearing of the death penalty phase by virtue of a 
2016 ruling known as Hurst v. Florida that stated Circuit Court judges should 
play a more active role in imposing death penalty cases.

The ruling eventually led to the Florida Legislature passing a law requiring 
that death penalty sentences could only be handed down if a jury had voted 
unanimously to recommend it.

(source: The Walton Sun)

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

Death Row Inmate Pleads Guilty To Murdering Cellmate



An inmate already on death row has pleaded guilty to murdering his cellmate.

Rocky Ali Beamon entered guilty plea to 1st degree premeditated murder for the 
January 2017 murder of inmate Nicholas Anderson.

Beamon and Anderson were cellmates at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution. 
Beamon punched the victim in the face, tied his hands and feet together, and 
strangled him with bed sheets. Beamon also stabbed the Anderson in the neck 
with a homemade weapon, but the cause of death was strangulation.

The State Attorney is seeking the death penalty for Beamon, and he faces a 
minimum sentence of life in prison. Since Beamon waived his right to a jury 
trial to determine his sentence, he will be sentenced by Judge Darlene Dickey. 
The sentenced date has not yet been set.

Beamon is current on death row for the July 2012 murder of a sex offender 
inmate at the Apalachee Correctional Institution in Jackson County, Florida. He 
is also serving a life sentence for murder in a 2005 case in Hillsborough 
County, Florida.

(source: northescambia.com)

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

77 Reasons Why: Defense lawyers submit list of reasons Donald Davidson’s life 
should be spared----Sexually abused, raised in “extreme filth,” lawyers seek 
mercy for admitted rapist and murderer



Donald Davidson faces a possible death sentence in September, having confessed 
to the brutal 2014 rape and kidnapping of a child and murder of her mother.

As part of his unusual plea in a death penalty case, Davidson did not contest 
his guilt.

But his lawyers nonetheless filed a list of considerations for Circuit Judge 
Don Lester to consider before imposing a sentence.

The list was presented at the final hearing in the case – a so-called Spencer 
Hearing, at which lawyers can present any defenses not introduced at trial.

The list includes details of Davidson’s deprived and abusive upbringing, 
including being sexually abused and physically abused by relatives. It notes he 
slept on the floor, was always hungry and thought incestuous sexual relations 
were "normal."

The list also notes multiple prior suicide attempts and diagnosed mental 
illness.

“Donald is genuinely remorseful for his crimes,” notes item 70, while item 74 
says that by pleading guilty he spared his surviving victim and her brother 
from “experiencing the trauma of having to testify.”

(source: firstcoastnews.com)








ALABAMA:

Madison County Courthouse has high-profile murder trial, death penalty cases 
looming



The Madison County Courthouse will in 2020, likely be the site for a murder 
trial of a Huntsville police officer and separate capital murder trials for a 
couple accused of killing 5 people.

That means, local residents, tabbed as jurors will decide their fates.

Veteran Huntsville attorney Mark McDaniel, who has practiced law for 42 years, 
said lawyers handling high-profile cases start thinking about what kind of jury 
they want from nearly the moment they get the case. McDaniel said experience is 
especially helpful in selecting jurors. He said the lawyers are looking for 
clues on who will be able to consider the evidence, without bias. The lawyers 
use the written responses on the jury questionnaire and the would-be jurors' 
answers during voir dire, or jury selection

"You have 100 people in the jury room, 12 people are going to serve on that 
jury," McDaniel said. "And when the judge asks ‘Has anybody seen, read or heard 
anything about this case?’ If somebody hadn’t, you want to strike that person 
cause they’re not telling the truth."

The Madison County Court Administrator's Office will send out 450 jury summons 
during a regular trial week and more than 500 if a judge is hearing a 
high-profile case or a capital murder case. McDaniel says in Madison County 
that means a lot of scientists and engineers in the jury pool.

"You may or may not want an engineer," he said. "Engineers tend to be more 
likely to convict in a case. But if the state doesn’t have everything in line, 
if they don’t have everything just, boom, boom, boom, boom, they’ll find a 
person not guilty."

Huntsville Police Department officer William Darby's murder trial date hasn't 
been set, though it appears likely to be held in 2020. Jury selection will be 
crucial for both sides in a case that involves an on-duty shooting.

"The issue in any case where you’re representing a police officer or soldier, 
whatever, is the word reasonable," he said. "And juries may be more likely to 
give the benefit of the doubt to the police officer, the soldier, on that 
issue, were they reasonable?"

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Christopher Henderson and 
Rhonda Carlson in the killings of 5 people in New Market in 2015. They'll be 
tried separately. Henderson is set to go on trial in June 2020 while Carlson is 
expected to get a trial date this week. The cases involve an unusually high 
number of victims and that means 2 different juries will have to consider a lot 
of grim evidence, including details about the deaths of young children.

"A lot of times people, when they see, especially these real bad cases, you 
know, kidnapping, torture, murder, stuff like that ...," McDaniel said. "They 
hear what one human being can do to another -- they don’t get over that."

The Madison County Court Administrator's Office says jury summons go out three 
to four weeks before a trial date. They estimate that out of 450 summons issued 
about 12 % of residents summoned fail to show.

(source: WHNT news)

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

Prosecutors seek death penalty for father charged with infant son’s death



Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if a Houston County man is found 
guilty of capital murder in the 2018 death of his infant son.

According to court documents, Houston County Judge Kevin Moulton issued an 
order earlier this month acknowledging the state’s intent to seek the death 
penalty if Rolando Castillo Jr. is found guilty.

Castillo was arrested and charged with capital murder almost four month after 
his son died on Jan. 2, 2018.

Police charged Castillo after autopsy results indicated the infant died from 
blunt force trauma to the head and torso. The autopsy also indicated various 
internal injuries.

During Castillo’s preliminary hearing, former Dothan Police investigator James 
Harvey testified he interviewed Castillo three times following the infant’s 
death. According to Harvey, Castillo was very calm during the first interview. 
Harvey said he did not believe that would be a typical response from a father 
who had lost his son to natural causes.

Harvey testified that both parents said the infant was fussy and upstairs with 
his mother, who is not charged in the case. At about 4 a.m., Castillo went 
upstairs and took the infant downstairs to his swing so the mother could rest. 
He remained with the infant until 7 a.m.

At 7 a.m., Castillo sent the mother a text message stating he was not feeling 
good and asked her to get the infant. Harvey testified the mother went 
downstairs and noticed something was wrong with the infant and he was cold to 
the touch. He said the mother then yelled for Castillo, who was upstairs, and 
they called 911.

Harvey said Castillo’s story changed during the third interview, in which 
Castillo admitted to dropping the baby from a short distance to the floor. 
Castillo also admitted to seeing the child have issues breathing and saliva 
dripping from the mouth area. He added that Castillo did not check on the child 
who was having breathing issues.

The pathologist report states the infant child suffered several internal 
injuries, including fractures to the skull and retinal bleedings, Harvey 
testified.

During cross examination, defense attorney Derek Yarbrough showed a text from 
the victim’s mother that she sent earlier to an acquaintance stating she was 
scared the baby would not live very long. Yarbrough indicated the possibility 
someone else could be responsible for the death.

“We don’t know an exact time frame when this incident occurred,” Yarbrough 
said. “But, we do know my client and the infant’s mother were the only 2 people 
with the child.”

Castillo’s jury trial is tentatively scheduled for April 2020. He remains in 
the Houston County jail.

(source: Dothan Eagle)








MISSISSIPPI:

A serial killer’s link to 1995 murder in Jackson----Glen Edward Rogers is on 
death row in Florida, but not for the death of Linda Price in Jackson



The mother of a woman who was murdered in Jackson more than 20 years ago is 
pleading with the governor of Florida to keep her daughter’s alleged killer 
behind bars.

Carolyn Evans remembers every detail and emotion connected with the violent 
stabbing death of her daughter, Linda Price, who was 34 when she met Glen 
Rogers at the Mississippi State Fair in October of 1995.

“Linda was walking down through the fair, and he got ahold of her hair and 
said, ‘That’s the prettiest red hair I ever saw,’” Evans recalls. "Of course 
Linda just fell madly in love with him.... First thing we knew, they had rented 
an apartment together.”

The couple lived at the Briarcliff South apartments on Rainey Road, and they 
seemed happy. Everyone liked Price’s new boyfriend, who worked on a 
construction crew building the new Olive Garden restaurant in north Jackson.

“He’d come and eat at my house," Evans says. "I would have never dreamed of him 
doing what he did. He had so much charisma. He was just a person that could 
fool you. He really charmed us.”

On Halloween night in 1995, when the family went to get Price to help with 
trick-or-treating, no one came to the door.

“I looked through the window, (and) what upset me so bad -- the bathroom 
curtain was pulled (closed)," Evans remembers. "Linda cleaned houses, and she 
would always leave her bathroom curtain pulled back. So I had the funniest 
feeling. I told my granddaughter that went with me, I said, ‘Linda’s in that 
house. I just feel it.’ She said, ‘Mimi, don’t say that,’ but I said I feel 
like she’s in that house, I really do.”

It would be several days before they could force their way inside. A mother’s 
intuition was right.

“The guy opened the door and he went in, and when he came out, he was white as 
a ghost. He looked at me, and he said, 'I’m sorry.’ I said, ‘She was in there, 
wasn’t she?’ He said, ‘Yes, she was.’ I said, ‘Was she in the bathtub,’ and he 
said yes.”

Price had been stabbed to death, her body left in the tub. Glen Rogers, the new 
boyfriend, was gone.

Chuck Lee was the Jackson police detective on call the night Price’s body was 
found. He is now retired, but he remembers the case well.

“There was a bloody mop in the kitchen sink, there were bloody paper towels in 
the garbage can, and blood smeared on the floor," he says of the crime scene. 
He says it was evident that someone had tried to clean it up but soon realized 
the job was too big.

Lee says after interviewing Price’s family members and acquaintances, it became 
clear that Rogers was their prime suspect. Jackson police quickly alerted the 
public to be on the lookout for him. The phones started ringing with calls from 
investigators in other states where young women had been killed the same way.

“I had police agencies from all over the United States and Canada calling and 
inquiring about this individual," Lee says. "They had some unsolved murders 
they were trying to connect him to.”

And there were more to come. On November 6, the body of Tina Marie Cribbs was 
found in a motel room bathtub in Tampa, Florida. Three days later, the body of 
Andy Jiles Sutton was found in her apartment in Bossier City, Louisiana.

“When victims started showing up so close together in Mississippi, Louisiana 
(and) Florida, all indications were that he was going all over the United 
States, from state to state to state, killing people,” Lee says. “So it had 
everybody in the United States on high alert. Is he coming to my state next?"

Finally, on November 13, two weeks after Linda Price’s death, Rogers was 
captured after a high-speed chase in Waco, Kentucky. He was driving the Tampa 
victim’s car.

“In watching the video of his arrest, you could tell he was not a normal 
individual by the crazed look on his face,” Lee still recalls.

A jury in Tampa later convicted Rogers of 1st-degree murder. He was sentenced 
to the death penalty. He was given another death sentence in Los Angeles for 
killing a 31-year-old woman he’d met at a bar just before he moved to Jackson.

He was never tried for Price’s death.

“(The Hinds County District Attorney’s Office) made the decision not to try 
him," Lee says. "He had 2 death penalties, and they didn’t want to put our 
victim’s family through the trial.”

All these years later, Rogers, now 57, is still on death row in Florida as a 
mother continues to grieve back here in Mississippi.

(source: WLBT news)








LOUISIANA:

Judge orders summaries in Robinson death penalty case signaling a decision 
could be made soon



An order from 9th Judicial District Court Judge Patricia Koch in the case of a 
convicted quadruple murderer trying to get his conviction and death penalty 
sentence vacated signals that a decision could be made in the case soon.

Judge Koch, who oversaw a roughly month-long hearing last summer in Rapides 
Parish, has ordered that Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office special 
prosecutor Hugo Holland and attorneys for the Capital Post-Conviction Project 
of Louisiana submit post-hearing briefs by Oct. 31 and responsive reply briefs 
by Nov. 20. This is essentially a request for summaries of the arguments they 
made last summer. We're told the delay in the request could have to do with the 
extensive time it took to transcribe testimony in the case.

Robinson was sentenced to death in March 2001 for the May 1996 murders of a 
family of four in the Rapides Parish community of Poland - Billy Lambert, 
Lambert's sister Carol Hooper, Hooper's daughter Maureen Kelly, and Kelly's 
infant son Nicholas Kelly.

Throughout the summer of 2018, post-conviction attorneys for Robinson had been 
trying to build a case that Robinson had ineffective defense during his trial 
and that the prosecutor at the time withheld information. Both Robinson's 
original defense attorney, Mike Small, and the case's prosecutor, Mike Shannon, 
have denied wrongdoing. Post-conviction attorneys have also been trying to 
prove that someone else was responsible for the murders.

Robinson is currently housed on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary 
at Angola. The Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office brought in special 
prosecutor, Hugo Holland, to argue the case on behalf of the state. Robinson 
was primarily represented by Matilde Carbia with the Capital Post-Conviction 
Project of Louisiana.

Regardless of what happens in this post-conviction effort, an appeal is 
expected to be filed.

(source: KALB news)