[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 2



TEXAS:

Capital murder defendant jailed 4 years set for trial



After spending more than 4 years in the McLennan County Jail, it appears Todric 
Deon McDonald soon will be getting his day in court.

As of Thursday’s pretrial hearing for McDonald, the 32-year-old capital murder 
defendant had been in the county jail 1,722 days awaiting trial. His trial in 
the May 2014 shooting deaths of cousins Justin Javier Gonzalez and Ulysses 
Gonzalez at the Pecan Tree Apartments, 2600 Grimm Ave., is set to start Feb. 
11.

Prosecutors announced more than three years ago they would seek the death 
penalty in the case. However, they since have changed their minds, announcing 
in August they had taken the death penalty off the table, meaning if McDonald 
is convicted of capital murder, he faces an automatic sentence of life in 
prison with no parole.

Judge Ralph Strother has set jury selection to start Feb. 11. Testimony should 
start the next day, the judge said during Thursday’s brief hearing involving 
prosecutor Hilary LaBorde and McDonald’s defense team, John Donahue and Jon 
Evans.

The hearing involved mostly last-minute discovery issues, including discussion 
of a firearm, ammunition and projectiles that are still being tested by a 
defense expert but should be done in time for trial.

Donahue also asked LaBorde to clarify which among 50 hours of recorded jail 
phone conversations the state plans to use in evidence against McDonald. 
LaBorde said she has narrowed it down to portions of 30 to 40 phone calls, each 
lasting 15 minutes, that she and fellow prosecutors Robert Moody and Evan 
O’Donnell plan to introduce, and she gave copies to Donahue.

Evans asked the judge if parties in the case are still under a court-issued gag 
order, preventing them from discussing the case with the media. Strother said 
his order is still in effect.

McDonald also has a number of other felony and misdemeanor cases pending 
against him, including two counts of aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, 
endangering a child, assault-family violence, unlawful possession of a firearm, 
indecent exposure, assault on a public servant, retaliation and evading arrest 
or detention.

A status conference in the capital murder case of McDonald’s co-defendant, Tony 
Olivarez, 34, is set for Feb. 22 in Waco’s 54th State District Court. No trial 
date has been set in Olivarez’s case.

(source: Waco Herald-Tribune)








VIRGINIA:

Death penalty sought in slaying of Chatham woman; body was found in burning 
vehicle in Axton



Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the criminal case against Curtis 
Trumaine Callaway, according to court documents filed in Henry County Circuit 
Court.

Callaway, 43, of Callands, is charged with rape, arson, abduction with the 
intent to defile and two counts of capital murder in connection with the death 
of Juanita Dalton of Chatham.

“The Commonwealth intends to seek the death penalty on the aggravating factors 
of both future dangerousness and vileness,” the notice filed on Jan. 25 reads.

On Feb. 25, 2018, the Henry County Fire Department responded to a vehicle fire 
on the 5000 block of Irisburg Road in Axton, according to a criminal complaint. 
After crews put out the fire, they found a body in the car.

Medical examiners determined the body was 74-year-old Dalton. And Henry County 
Fire Marshal Lisa Garrett determined the evidence pointed to arson.

Court records report she was stabbed.

Dalton’s last phone call was to a landline that law enforcement traced back to 
an address on the 1700 block of Water Oak Road in Callands. There, they met 
Callaway and his mother, Sandria Leavelle, according to the complaint. Callaway 
had visible scratches on his arms and face, and “there were red stains on his 
boots that appeared to be blood,” the complain states.

When deputies and investigators from Pittsylvania County and Henry County 
sheriff’s offices found Callaway, he initially denied seeing Dalton around the 
time of the killing before he admitted to it. He told officers that Dalton came 
to his house on Feb. 25 and he drove her away in her white Chevrolet Cobalt. 
The documents do not state the reason Dalton was at Callaway’s house or their 
destination.

“Ms. Leavelle received multiple phone calls from the accused the evening of 
Feb. 25, 2018 to come pick him up in the Axton, VA area where the vehicle and 
the body were recovered,” the complaint states.

Callaway was arrested Feb. 27 and has been held without bond since.

The death penalty is relatively rare in Virginia, according to data compiled by 
the Death Penalty Information Center based in Washington, D.C., and executions 
are even rarer. Since 1975 — when the death penalty was re-enacted in the 
commonwealth — there have been 113 executions. Virginia’s death row is only 
3-strong today, and the state’s last execution was in 2011.

Nationally, the highest number of executions in a year was 1999, which saw 98 
executions. And death penalty convictions across the nation have declined from 
as many as 295 in 1998 to 42 in 2018, according to the data.

Under Virginia law, the only crime punishable by death is premeditated murder 
with at least one of 15 aggravating factors. Those circumstances range from 
murder in the course of a robbery or rape to the murder of a court witness or 
law enforcement officer, according to state code.

(source: godanriver.com)








NORTH CAROLINA:

1st murder trial set in fatal North Carolina prison attack



A North Carolina inmate now knows when he’ll face a death-penalty trial after 
the state’s deadliest attempted prison breakout.

District Attorney Andrew Womble said Friday a judge set Oct. 7 for 29-year-old 
Mikel Brady’s trial on murder charges. He would be the 1st of 4 inmates from 
Pasquotank Correctional Institution to be tried.

They’re accused of using hammers and scissors from a prison workshop to kill 4 
employees on Oct. 12, 2017. 8 other prison employees were injured.

Brady was already serving time for attempted murder after shooting a North 
Carolina state trooper who pulled him over in Durham in 2013. He was a fugitive 
from Vermont on a probation violation when he shot the trooper at close range 
in the face, hands and right shoulder.

(source: Associated Press)








FLORIDA:

Hillsborough judge re-sentences murderer, rapist Kenneth Ray Jackson to life in 
prison



A Hillsborough County judge has sentenced convicted murderer and rapist Kenneth 
Ray Jackson to life in prison.

Jackson, 36, was convicted of murder, rape, arson and car theft. Jackson 
attacked Cuc Tran, a mother and wife from Seffner back in 2007 while she was on 
a morning jog. Jackson then raped and stabbed Tran before setting a stolen van 
on fire with her body inside.

A judge sentenced Jackson to death in 2013 for the brutal crime, but the 
Florida Supreme Court overturned that death sentence in 2017.

The reason was because the jury’s 11-1 vote wasn’t unanimous, which is now 
required by law.

Judge Christopher Sabella said in court Friday that Kenneth Ray Jackson will 
take his last breath in prison. There is no possibility of early release for 
him.

(saource: WFLA news)








ALABAMA----impending execution

Judge denies stay of execution for Alabama inmate



Domineque Hakim Marcelle Ray, an Alabama death row inmate, is challenging the 
state on religious grounds after prison officials denied his Muslim spiritual 
advisor access to the execution chamber.

A federal judge on Friday denied a stay of execution request from a Muslim 
death row inmate who claimed the absence of his spiritual adviser in Alabama's 
death chamber would violate his religious rights.

Domineque Ray this week filed a stay of execution, which is slated for Feb. 7, 
to challenge Alabama's practice of placing a Christian prison chaplain with 
inmates in the state execution chamber. Ray argued in court documents that he 
should have access to his Muslim spiritual adviser in the moments before his 
death.

Failing that, Ray requested the Christian prison chaplain not be present.

On Thursday, the Alabama Department of Corrections acquiesced to Ray's 1st 
request, agreeing to keep the prison chaplain out of the chamber. But lawyers 
argued security concerns required Holman prison limit the execution chamber to 
trained corrections employees.

In a written order on Friday, U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins agreed that 
allowing a "free world" spiritual adviser into the death chamber would 
overburden ADOC's execution process.

"Though a state chaplain is usually in the death chamber, he is also a trained 
member of the execution team. He has witnessed dozens of executions and trained 
on how to respond if something goes wrong," Watkins wrote. "If the chaplain 
disobeys orders, he will face disciplinary action. In contrast, Ray’s private 
spiritual adviser is untrained, inexperienced, and outside the State’s 
control."

Stephen Hahn, Ray's co-counsel, argued Thursday training nonemployee spiritual 
advisers to be present in the execution chamber should not be a barrier to 
providing inmates their religious rights.

"We are disappointed that the District Court's order did not uphold the 
substantial claim that Mr. Ray's free exercise of religion is being interfered 
with, or the claim that the State is violating the establishment clause of the 
First Amendment of the United States Constitution," said John Palombi, an 
attorney for Ray. "We will be appealing this ruling and asking the Court of 
Appeals to stay Mr. Ray's execution to allow these important issues to be 
resolved in a more deliberate manner."

ADOC policies allow a death row inmate's chosen spiritual adviser visitation up 
to 5:15 p.m. on the day of an execution, when they are then allowed to view the 
execution from a witness room adjacent to the execution chamber.

"Why does Mr. Ray not get the same benefit that Christian would?" Hahn asked 
the court.

Ray was sentenced to death for the 1995 rape and fatal stabbing of 15-year-old 
Tiffany Harville of Selma. Months before his death penalty trial, he was 
sentenced to life for a 1994 slaying of two teen brothers, The Associated Press 
reports.

Watkins questioned the last-minute stay filing, asking why Ray didn't push back 
on the protocol months earlier. Hahn said Ray was unaware of the protocol 
before his conference with Stewart.

Ray's lawyers also filed an amended complaint requesting a stay of execution to 
consider Ray's late opt-in for death by nitrogen hypoxia, which Watkins 
dismissed.

Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation into law last year allowing condemned inmates 
to choose the death by gas, which is essentially a hypothetical method. Alabama 
joined Oklahoma and Mississippi to allow the execution method, but no execution 
in the country has actually carried out the method. Proponents of the 
legislation said it is a more humane way to kill people, but its unclear how 
such an execution would be carried out. Methods ranging from a gas chamber to a 
gas mask have been floated.

Ray did not opt-in during the allowed window last year, court records state, 
but changed his mind this week after conferring with his imam.

"Ray knew that he must have submitted a written nitrogen-hypoxia election 
within 30 days of June 1, 2018," Watkins wrote in his ruling. "Dozens of other 
death-row inmates at Holman did so."

(source: Montgomery Advertiser)








LOUISIANA:

Louisiana shooting suspect won’t fight extradition from Va.



A man charged with killing 5 people in Louisiana and fleeing to Virginia is 
being flown back home after waiving extradition.

Authorities said Dakota Theriot confessed and could face the death penalty on 5 
murder charges. They said the 21-year-old shot and killed his girlfriend along 
with her brother and father, then shot his parents.

The 21-year-old showed little emotion in first court appearance, offering 
polite yes and no responses to the judge. He appeared chained in a blue jail 
jumpsuit. A deputy kept a hand on the chain throughout the hearing.

Theriot was arrested Sunday outside his grandmother’s house in Warsaw. His 
grandmother had alerted police and checked into a hotel.

Richmond County Sheriff Stephan Smith said a plane was on its way to take 
Theriot back to Louisiana.

(source: Associated Press)