[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA., MISS., LA., IND.. NEV., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

June 25




FLORIDA:

2nd suspect in Super Bowl murders due in court----Christopher Vasata found 
guilty in killings of 3 people in Jupiter on Super Bowl Sunday. Marcus Steward 
faces trial.



A trial date is expected to be set later today for the 2nd man charged in a 
triple murder in Jupiter.

Marcus Steward is also facing the death penalty in connection to the murders at 
a rental home on Mohawk Street on Super Bowl Sunday in 2017.

A jury last week found Christopher Vasata guilty for his role in the killings 
of 24-year old Brandi El Salhy, 20-year-old Kelli Doherty and 26-year-old Sean 
Henry.

The same jury will return on Wednesday to recommend a punishment for Vasata. He 
could get life in prison or the death penalty.

(source: WPEC news)

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

Murder trial begins today for Scott Nelson in kidnap, killing of Jennifer 
Fulford



The trial of Scott Edward Nelson, the man accused of kidnapping an Altamonte 
Springs woman from her employer’s home and killing her, will begin this morning 
at the Orange County Courthouse.

A jury was seated Friday in the 1st-degree murder case after a 2-plus-week 
selection process. Opening statements are expected when the case resumes 9 
a.m., after which prosecutors will begin calling their witnesses.

Nelson, 55, is facing the death penalty in the killing of 56-year-old Jennifer 
Fulford, who worked as a personal assistant and caretaker at the Winter Park 
home of Reid Berman.

Fulford was reported missing Sept. 27, 2017, after she didn’t show up to pick 
up Berman’s son from school. Her purse was found next to a toilet at Berman’s 
home, but her wallet, cellphone and tablet were missing.

Fulford’s husband, Robert, noticed a suspicious withdrawal of $300 from their 
joint checking account and, hours later, a 2nd withdrawal attempt that was 
denied. ATM surveillance video captured a man police later identified as Nelson 
with fresh cuts and scratches on his hands during the 2nd attempt.

Winter Park police found Fulford’s Hyundai SUV in the parking lot of the 
Colonialtown Publix 2 days after she disappeared. A blood-stained towel, 
T-shirt and gold watch found in the hatchback’s trunk matched DNA from Nelson 
and Fulford, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Her body was found 3 days after she went missing in a wooded area of southwest 
Orange County.

The medical examiner determined Fulford had been stabbed and suffocated, court 
records show. Her entire face was covered in duct tape, and her wrists and 
ankles were bound.

Nelson, a transient on federal probation from a 2010 bank robbery, was arrested 
Oct. 1 by U.S. Marshals at a Jacksonville motel. A month later, he offered 
detectives a confession in exchange for “better treatment in custody, including 
a single cell with a bottom bunk and more food or a food server job,” court 
records show.

Nelson’s attorneys have argued detectives coerced him into incriminating 
himself by promising to help, but Circuit Judge Keith White ruled prosecutors 
could use the police interview as evidence. The defense has raised concerned 
about Nelson’s mental health, but White deemed Nelson competent to stand trial.

White told jurors last Friday that he estimates the trial will continue through 
July 12.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)








ALABAMA:

Supreme Court Orders Documents Unsealed In Death Penalty Case



The U.S. Supreme Court ordered documents unsealed Monday in a death penalty 
case out of Alabama after a motion was filed by the Reporters Committee for 
Freedom of the Press and NPR.

The blacked-out information, a rarity for the Supreme Court, involves the drugs 
and protocol Alabama uses for executions.

The filings were redacted before the execution of convicted murderer 
Christopher Price earlier this month.

Price had wanted to be executed with nitrogen gas, which he contended would be 
less painful than death by lethal injection with the drug midazolam. Alabama 
ultimately used midazolam in his death.

The deletions were done at the insistence of the state of Alabama, the 
reporters committee noted. The Supreme Court has found itself mired in bitter 
debates about the death penalty, but it previously hasn't hidden those disputes 
from the public.

"The state did not provide any explanation for its asserted need for secrecy," 
the reporters committee noted. It added that Alabama only cited its need "to 
reference certain material ... designated 'confidential.' Alabama has no 
legitimate interest that justifies sealing either its lethal injection protocol 
or expert evidence regarding the effects of midazolam."

The reporters committee further noted that in even in the Pentagon Papers case 
in 1971 — a case in which the government claimed a national security interest 
in barring publication — the briefs were not redacted. They were available to 
the press and public, and oral arguments were conducted publicly, with only 
parts of the court appendix sealed.

Chief Justice John Roberts has touted the judiciary's transparency previously. 
In 2018, for example, he called it, in fact, "the most transparent branch in 
government."

The Supreme Court has long upheld the right of access to a wide range of 
judicial proceedings and records. The court has said the constitutional right 
of access "enhances the quality and safeguards the integrity of the 
fact-finding process" and allows "the public to participate in and serve as a 
check upon the judicial process — an essential component in our structure of 
self-government."

The court has also said that court proceedings cannot be closed "unless 
specific, on-the-record findings are made demonstrating that closure is 
essential to preserve higher values" and that the closure is "narrowly tailored 
to serve that interest."

(source: nr.org)

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

In 2018, Alabama approved death by nitrogen for executions. When did it inform 
its inmates?



On June 26 last year, something was off in Holman prison's death row tiers.

The inmates at the Atmore, Alabama, prison were used to 1 or 2 men from the row 
meeting with their lawyers every day. But on the last Tuesday in June, groups 
of men streamed into the visiting yard for a legal visit most weren't 
expecting.

They had 5 days to choose how they would die.

In the past 2 years, 5 inmates on Alabama’s death row have died without ever 
seeing the inside of the state’s execution chamber, at Holman Correctional 
Facility in Atmore.

In March 2018, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill to give inmates the option to choose 
execution by nitrogen, an untested form of death by asphyxiation that 
proponents argued was a more humane way to kill a person.

The statute, in dense and verbose language, said the 174 men and women already 
condemned in Alabama could opt in within 30 dates of "the effective date of the 
act adding this language." The new law gave no language or process as to how an 
inmate could opt-in beyond informing the prison warden "in writing."

Alabama officials say the election period was triggered on June 1, and they 
were not legally required to inform any inmate about the new option.

Alabama corrections officials say Holman Warden Cynthia Stewart directed 
election forms to be distributed to her inmates. In a January 2019 sworn 
affidavit in federal court, Holman correctional officer Jeff Emberton said he 
handed out election forms in "mid-June" to every death row prisoner.

But multiple death row prisoners and attorneys dispute this statement.

3 men incarcerated on death row confirmed they were unaware of the situation 
before they were contacted by their attorneys in the final days of the election 
period. All requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from Alabama prison 
officials, but the Advertiser confirmed they are all on death row and would 
have first-hand knowledge of the situation.

(source: Montgomery Advertiser)








MISSISSIPPI:

Cornell Law School professor wins Supreme Court death penalty appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned the 2010 murder conviction of 
Mississippi death row inmate Curtis Flowers, who was represented by Sheri Lynn 
Johnson, the James and Mark Flanagan Professor of Law.

Flowers, who is black, had been tried 6 times by the same white prosecutor for 
a 1996 quadruple murder that he says he did not commit. Johnson, assistant 
director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project, argued on Flowers’ behalf before 
the court in March.

In the 7-2 ruling written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court agreed with 
Flowers’ defense team – which included Keir Weyble, clinical professor of law 
and director of death penalty litigation for the Cornell Death Penalty Project, 
as co-counsel – that state prosecutor Doug Evans’ repeated removal of 
prospective black jurors constituted racial discrimination. At contention in 
the case was whether the Mississippi Supreme Court had failed to properly apply 
the precedent of the 1986 Supreme Court ruling in Batson v. Kentucky in 
concluding that the prosecutor’s actions were not motivated by discriminatory 
intent.

The majority opinion was joined by the court’s 4 liberal justices as well as 
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Justices Clarence Thomas 
and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

“We are grateful that the Supreme Court has reversed Curtis Flowers’ 
conviction,” said Johnson, who called the decision a “victory for everyone.”

“Seven members of the court painstakingly analyzed the complex factual record 
and concluded that Doug Evans discriminated on the basis of race in a decision 
that reaffirms the importance of racial fairness in the administration of 
criminal justice, both for the defendant and for the community,” Johnson said.

“The numbers speak loudly,” Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion. “Over the course of 
the first four trials, there were 36 black prospective jurors against whom the 
state could have exercised a peremptory strike. The state tried to strike all 
36. Equal justice under law requires a criminal trial free of racial 
discrimination in the jury selection process.”

“A 7-2 vote is about as close to consensus as one is likely to see in a death 
penalty case before this court, which speaks to the powerful persuasiveness of 
Sheri’s advocacy,” said Eduardo M. Peñalver ’94, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and 
Professor of Law.

Flowers has spent 22 years in prison, much of it on death row, and his appeal 
in the sixth trial has dragged on since 2010. On March 20, his case reached the 
Supreme Court of the United States, where Johnson, assistant director of the 
Cornell Death Penalty Project, argued on his behalf.

In their brief, Johnson and Weyble emphasized that the prohibition against 
racial discrimination in jury selection provides important protections for the 
rights of both defendants and jurors, and that it prevents the undermining of 
public confidence in the criminal justice system. They wrote, “All of those 
values were diminished by the Mississippi Supreme Court’s perfunctory treatment 
of the evidence of discrimination in this case.”

“The quadruple homicide in this case was a terrible crime, but Curtis Flowers 
did not commit it,” said Johnson. “While [the June 21] decision is extremely 
important, it is also important to recognize that the conviction the Supreme 
Court has now overturned was a product not only of racial discrimination in 
jury selection but also of a wide array of other forms of prosecutorial 
misconduct.”

Johnson says it is a “travesty” that Flowers has had to endure 6 trials and 
more than 2 decades on death row.

“A 7th trial would be unprecedented, and completely unwarranted given both the 
flimsiness of the evidence against him and the long trail of misconduct that 
has kept him wrongfully incarcerated all these years,” Johnson said. “We hope 
that the state of Mississippi will finally disavow Doug Evans’ misconduct, 
decline to pursue yet another trial, and set Mr. Flowers free.”

(source: Chris Brouwer is editorial director at Cornell Law 
School----cornell.edu)








LOUISIANA:

'How could he?' Terrytown family stunned by accused killer's plea in 
court----Terrance Leonard accused of beating girlfriend, 3 children to death



In a Jefferson Parish courtroom Monday, the family of a woman and children 
killed in a Terrytown attack in March were left stunned when the man accused of 
beating their loved ones to death with a hammer entered 5 not guilty pleas. 
Terrance Leonard, 33, is facing the death penalty on 4 1st-degree murder 
charges in the deaths of his girlfriend, 32-year-old Kristina Riley, her 
14-year-old daughter, 10-year-old son and 9-year-old niece. Leonard is also 
charged with 1 count of attempted 1st-degree murder for allegedly attacking 
Riley’s 12-year-old daughter, who survived.

When Leonard’s attorney, Paul Fleming, announced the not guilty plea, a family 
member yelled out in disbelief and said, “How could you?” The family member 
declined an interview with WDSU.

Leonard is being held in jail without bond. A pretrial hearing is set for Aug. 
22.

(source: WDSU news)




INDIANA:

US Supreme Court rejects Weisheit appeal, upholding death sentence



The US Supreme Court will not hear an appeal in connection with the death 
sentence of Jeffrey Weisheit, a death-row inmate convicted of killing 2 
children in Vanderburgh County, Indiana in 2010.

In 2013, Weisheit was sentenced to death for killing 5-year-old Caleb Lynch and 
8-year-old Alyssa Lynch.

Weisheit bound and gagged the 2 children before intentionally setting fire to 
his home in northern Vanderburgh County, by using a railroad flare.

Weisheit was arrested in northern Kentucky after a high-speed chase.

In 2015, a court unanimously upheld Weisheit's convictions and sentence in a 
direct appeal.

In 2018, the Indiana Supreme Court agreed that Weisheit's convictions and 
sentence should stand.

Weisheit argued that during the penalty phase of his trial, his lawyers failed 
to obtain and introduce records from the Indiana Boys School that might have 
helped persuade the jury against death. He also argued that his lawyers failed 
to call expert witnesses and introduce certain evidence.

The US Supreme Court's decision on Monday means the death sentence for Weisheit 
will stand.

(source: WEHT news)








NEVADA:

Judge rules quadruple murder suspect may be tried in Reno



A man held in the murders of two Douglas County women may be tried in Reno, a 
Washoe County Judge ruled on Friday.

District Judge Connie Steinheimer ruled against a defense motion to dismiss 
charges related to the January shooting deaths of Connie Koontz and Sophia 
Renken within a mile of one another.

El Salvadoran Wilbur Martinez-Guzman, 19, is facing the death penalty in 
connection with the slayings in Gardnerville Ranchos and the shooting deaths of 
Reno couple Jerry and Sherri David.

The Washoe County grand jury returned the 10-county indictment on March 13.

Martinez-Guzman faces 4 counts of murder with a use of a deadly weapon, 4 
counts of burglary with a firearm, 1 count of burglary and 1 count of 
possession of a stolen firearm.

A jury trial has been set for April 6, 2020, in the case.

Washoe County public defenders John Arrascada, Katheryn Hickman and Gianna 
Verness are defending Guzman.

They filed a motion to dismiss the Douglas County counts in the indictment, 
arguing the Washoe grand jury didn’t have jurisdiction in Douglas County.

“Since the grand jury was impaneled in Washoe County, the grand jury exceeded 
its jurisdiction when it indicted him on the Douglas County acts.”

Martinez-Guzman’s attorneys have also filed a writ of habeas corpus addressing 
the same issues.

Judge Steinheimer said that when the law was changed in the 1960s, the 
Legislature changed the requirement for district judges and hence grand juries 
be limited to their respective districts. Lawmakers replaced the term with 
territorial jurisdiction.

She said the 2nd term is more expansive.

“District courts within the state of Nevada have jurisdiction over felony 
offenses, not confined to the respective county or counties that are part of 
the district,” she wrote in her opinion. “The grand jury may inquire into all 
public offences triable in the district court committed within the territorial 
jurisdiction of the district court for which it is impaneled, and the Second 
Judicial District Court territorial jurisdiction extends statewide to all 
felony offenses.”

Steinheimer declined to rule on whether Washoe County was the proper venue, 
since it hasn’t been raised by defense attorneys.

A status hearing is schedule in Washoe District Court in the case on Monday.

Martinez-Guzman is accused of stealing the murder weapon while he was working 
on the Davids’ property.

On Jan. 10, he allegedly entered Koontz’ home and shot her. 3 days later, he 
allegedly shot Renken. The Davids were shot at their home on Jan. 16.

According to authorities, Martinez-Guzman took an Apple watch from Koontz that 
he tried to use from his mother’s home, which allowed authorities to zero in on 
him.

He was arrested in Carson City on Jan 19. Martinez-Guzman is in the country 
illegally.

(source: Tahoe Daiy Tribune)








CALIFORNIA:

Death penalty recommended in Fallbrook family's murders



Jurors have reached a decision on whether to recommend a death sentence for a 
Southern California man convicted of killing a family of four and burying their 
bodies in shallow desert graves.

Charles "Chase" Merritt was convicted this month of the murders of his former 
business associate Joseph McStay, McStay's wife, Summer, and the couple's 4- 
and 3-year-old sons.

The case puzzled investigators for years after the family vanished from their 
San Diego County home in 2010. Their bodies were found in 2013.

Merritt pleaded not guilty. His lawyers didn't offer witnesses during the 
trial's penalty phase, insisting he's not guilty.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)

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

State Supreme Court upholds conviction, death sentence in Rialto man’s 2005 
shooting spree----3 people died and 3 were wounded in attacks at Colton car 
dealership and a San Bernardino apartment complex.



A Rialto man’s conviction and death sentence for a 2005 shooting spree that 
left 3 people dead and 3 others wounded was upheld Monday by the California 
Supreme Court.

Louis Mitchell Jr., now 49, was sentenced in 2006 for an attack the year before 
that killed 2 employees at a Colton auto dealership and left 2 wounded. A 
shooting later that same day at an apartment complex in San Bernardino killed a 
16-year-old girl and wounded her brother.

Mitchell was arrested the next day after being shot and wounded in the leg by a 
San Bernardino police officer that he was advancing on. The officer was sent to 
an apartment house after Mitchell had started firing his gun into the air — 
that complex was different than the one where the fatal shooting took place the 
day before.

The 7-0 opinion by Associate Justice Goodwin H. Liu found 1 trial error: A 
failure by the judge to tell jurors in the penalty phase that one witness had a 
prior felony conviction.

But the ruling said the error was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt,” and 
called the witness’s testimony “not controversial.”

The shootings started the afternoon of Aug. 8, 2005 because Mitchell was angry 
about a compact truck purchase his girlfriend had made earlier in the day, 
investigators said.

The truck had broken down even before the deal was complete, but the girlfriend 
agreed to take a loaner while the dealership repaired the truck, according to 
testimony.

Mitchell had left California Auto Specialist in Colton before his girlfriend 
negotiated the purchase but complained in a phone call to another woman he knew 
that the couple had been “screwed over” in the car deal.

When he returned to the dealership later that day, he pulled a gun out of his 
pants pocket and fatally shot employees Patrick Mawikere, 20, and Mario Lopez, 
59.

2 others were wounded. One of them, already shot in the arm, suffered deep 
gashes on his knees after diving through a glass window to escape.

Authorities were uncertain about why Mitchell next went to the apartment 
complex in San Bernardino and fatally shot Susano Torres, 16, and wounded 
Susano’s brother, Armando.

Mitchell had previously lived at the apartment building and continued to visit 
it. The brother and sister knew Mitchell from those visits, but did not have 
any problems with him, the ruling Monday noted.

Experts testified that Mitchell was under the influence of PCP at the time of 
the incidents. While he had handed off his gun on Aug. 9 before the officer 
arrived at the San Bernardino apartment building, he told the officer as he 
advanced on him, “Come on, you a cop, you’re supposed to kill me,” according to 
the court record.

In addition to being sentenced to death, Mitchell was additionally sentenced to 
150 years to life in prison on his convictions of 3 counts of attempted 
1st-degree murder, with a firearm enhancement.

(source: San Bernardino Sun)

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

Man Suspected in Officer’s Killing Appears in Court



The man accused of killing a Sacramento police officer appeared in court 
Monday.

Adel Sambrano Ramos was taken to the hospital Sunday after the Sacramento 
County Sheriff’s Office he hit his head against a bedpost in his jail cell. He 
was being monitored Monday before his appearance in court.

The hearing itself was brief, with Ramos’ next court date set for July 22.

Ramos, 45, is charged with the murder of Officer Tara O’Sullivan, the attempted 
murder of another officer, and possessing 2 illegal assault rifles. The charges 
include special circumstances, including that he killed her while lying in 
wait.

The special circumstances allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty against 
Ramos, though that decision would be months away and California Gov. Gavin 
Newsom has imposed a moratorium on executions.

O’Sullivan, 26, was shot several times and one of the wounds was 
“non-survivable,” Sgt. Vance Chandler said at a late Friday news conference 
during which police released body camera video of the Wednesday night 
confrontation in North Sacramento.

The department has been under scrutiny because it took 45 minutes to rescue the 
downed officer, who died at a hospital.

Police Chief Daniel Hahn said the gunman had stashed two assault rifles, a 
shotgun and a handgun in different rooms and opened fire as officers knocked on 
the door.

Officers arrested Ramos early Thursday morning after an hours-long standoff, 
during which police say Ramos and officers periodically exchanged gunfire. 
Police described the gunman as strategically shooting at officers for hours, 
using all the weapons in different rooms.

(source: Fox News)