August 7
TEXAS----juvenile faces death penalty
Acuna guilty; punishment phase resumes Monday
A Harris County jury took about 2 hours Friday to find Robert Aaron Acuna,
18, of Baytown, guilty of the capital murders of James Carroll, 76, and
his wife Joyce, 74.
Following the admonitions of Judge Mike Anderson, people filling the 262nd
District Court were silent as the verdict was read and the jurors were
individually polled. Acuna remained impassive during the verdict reading.
The state rested after testimony from a ballistics expert. The defense
rested without calling any witnesses.
A short time afterward, testimony began in the punishment phase of the
trial, which is expected to conclude Monday. Acuna faces the death penalty
or life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 40 years.
During closing arguments, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Renee
Magee said the prosecution's evidence against Acuna was "simply
overwhelming."
Magee called Acuna a "wannabe gangster" who killed his elderly neighbors
and then fled to Dallas, where he was "livin' large" wearing flashy
jewelry and false gold teeth.
She urged the jurors to think of the victims, who were "executed in their
own home," and their 3 adult children and other relatives.
"(The Carrolls) should have been able to have a peaceful life," she said.
"They deserved peace, happiness."
Lead defense attorney Bob Loper said that the prosecution had failed to
meet its burden of proof. He argued that police and prosecutors, while
demonstrating that Acuna had been arrested in Dallas with the Carrolls'
car and other possessions, had failed to establish that he was the person
who killed the couple.
He further argued that much of the prosecution's case relied on the
testimony of Adolfo "Mike" Jimenez, the Dallas man who shared a motel room
with Acuna where he was arrested Nov. 17. Loper reminded jurors that
Jimenez was a convicted sex offender who had not registered his correct
address with authorities.
Loper and Laine Lindsey, Acuna's second defense attorney, also questioned
much of the forensic and other investigatory work performed by police in
the case.
About an hour into their deliberations, the five-man, seven-woman jury
signaled that they had a question about testimony involving whether police
had tested for fingerprints on three spent .38-caliber shell casings found
among Acuna's belongings when he was arrested in Dallas.
Anderson brought the jury in to hear a read-back of a portion of Loper's
cross-examination of Baytown Police Detective J.R. Miller, the lead
investigator in the case.
In testimony, Miller said that he did not know whether the shell casing
had been tested.
After returning to the jury room, the jury signaled they'd reached their
verdict 20 minutes later.
Magee afterward said she was pleased with the verdict. "Justice was done
for the Carrolls," she said.
Michelle Cressy, who discovered her parents shot to death in their Country
Club Estates home on the evening of Nov. 13, said she was relieved at the
verdict.
"I really feared that after this week, having believed one thing all this
time, that I would go home not knowing or thinking that the person who did
this got away with it," said Cressy, who now lives with her family in West
Virginia.
"I feel (the verdict) is the beginning of closure for me and my family,"
she said.
Asked about what penalty she feels Acuna should receive, Cressy said, "The
end of our story is the same, no matter how it turns out."
Tim Carroll, the victims' son, said of the verdict that "considering the
overwhelming evidence, it's the only conclusion that the jury could come
to."
"If I had been on the jury, and had been given that evidence, I think my
responsibility would be to see that someone who committed such a horrific
act not get away with it," he said.
Barbara Acuna, the defendant's mother, said she was shocked at the
verdict, because she said the lack of scientific evidence at the crime
scene pointing to her son should have constituted reasonable doubt.
She also said that the trial was inherently unfair because the jury had
been "death certified" - that is, during jury selection, the jurors
indicated that they could sentence Acuna to death - making them more prone
to find guilt.
She criticized the prosecution's decision to proceed with the death
penalty despite that the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case in
the fall on whether it is constitutional to execute a person who commits a
capital crime at age 16 or 17. Acuna was 17 at the time of the Carrolls'
murders.
She vowed to work with advocacy organizations to eliminate the death
penalty.
Magee said that the decision to proceed with the death penalty, in light
of the Supreme Court case, was made after consultation with the Harris
County District Attorney's office's appellate division. Delaying Acuna's
case until after the Supreme Court decision, likely next summer, would
have prejudiced the trial against the prosecution, she said.
Loper could not be reached for comment.
Tim Carroll said that Texas law provides that juries are charged with
determining the appropriate punishment, and that there are a "broad range"
of penalties for violent crimes.
"I don't know what gives anyone, be it a Supreme Court justice or whoever,
to override the authority of a jury," he said.
"At the risk of sounding too simplistic, I feel the punishment should
match the crime. And I can't think of anything more horrible than what Mr.
Acuna did to my parents," he said.
In the penalty phase, jurors must consider 2 issues: whether Acuna would
"commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing
threat to society;" and whether, based on evidence of his character,
background and moral culpability, there are "sufficient mitigating
circumstances that a sentence of life imprisonment rather than a death
sentence be imposed."
The penalty phase began with testimony from Sidney Bodine, 76, a Mont
Belvieu man who was accosted by a man wielding a knife in the parking lot
of San Jacinto Mall on Aug. 7, 2003.
Baytown Police arrested Robert Acuna for the aggravated assault in
September. He was free on $30,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in
court Nov. 13, the day his parents reported him missing and Michelle
Cressy discovered her parents murdered. Prosecutors were not allowed to
introduce the assault charge during the guilt-or-innocence phase of the
murder trial.
Bodine testified that while he was about to enter his car, he heard
someone close behind him say "Get in the car."
When he turned, Bodine said, he saw a young man wearing a red bandanna and
pointing a large, open pocketknife at him.
Bodine testified that he backed away from the man and began running back
to the mall, where he asked for help from a store employee.
He testified that when Baytown Police detectives later showed him a photo
lineup of suspects, he was not able to identify his assailant.
Matthew Wiley, an Orange man who was driving out of the mall parking lot
at the time, testified that he saw a young man chasing an old man.
Believing that the elderly man might be a shoplifter being pursued by a
store employee, he watched the 2 running toward the mall until the younger
man began running in the opposite direction, he said.
Wiley testified that he tried to follow the younger man, but lost sight of
him when he entered the mall.
Wiley testified that he also could not identify the young man when police
showed him a photo lineup.
Testimony is set to resume at 10:30 a.m. Monday. Members of the Carroll
and Acuna families are expected to testify.
(source: The Baytown Sun
************************
Officials urge special probe of crime lab -- Famed attorney weighs in on
call for major reforms at HPD facility
In the wake of new allegations of problems at the Houston Police
Department crime laboratory, politicians, activists and a nationally known
defense lawyer urged local officials Friday to appoint a special master to
conduct a large-scale review of evidence processed by HPD analysts.
"What we need here in Houston is the appointment of a special master, an
independent person ... just to see if any mistakes in those cases might
have led to wrongful convictions," said attorney Barry Scheck, co-founder
of the Innocence Project in New York City.
"What we're talking about is 25 years of bad science (at the HPD lab),"
said Scheck.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who has consistently
opposed the appointment of a special prosecutor to conduct a grand jury
investigation independent of his office, says that he would not oppose the
appointment of a special master.
"It's OK with me," he said, if the city agrees to pay for it.
Through a spokesman Friday, Mayor Bill White said he wants Police Chief
Harold Hurtt to confer with Rosenthal before making a decision about a
special master. However, at a press conference earlier in the day, when
asked about a special master, Hurtt deferred to his crime-lab chief, Irma
Rios.
When asked about the possibility of another massive retesting effort, Rios
said it should be up to anyone with questions about his or her case to
request retesting in accordance with state law.
As the result of an audit that found shoddy science and substandard
working conditions at the facility, the lab was closed in December 2002.
The closure triggered the retesting of DNA evidence in about 375 cases.
Still looming is an even more massive retesting effort at the HPD
toxicology lab, which also was closed for several months last year.
In one case, defendant Josiah Sutton was freed from prison last year after
DNA retesting cleared him of rape.
Earlier this week, the Chronicle reported that questionable crime-lab
practices in two cases cast some doubt on the convictions of Lawrence
Napper, who was found guilty of kidnapping and rape, and Frank Fanniel,
convicted of aggravated robbery.
That news was followed by the Innocence Project filing a motion Thursday
to vacate the conviction of George Rodriguez, who in 1987 was sentenced to
60 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.
DNA testing conducted for the 1st time on pubic hairs found on the
victim's panties now point to a man who was also a suspect during the
original investigation, according to court documents.
The motion to vacate Rodriguez's conviction was also based on the findings
of six forensic experts who issued a report stating the conclusions
reached in the case by the HPD crime serology division were
"scientifically unsound."
The serology analysis was performed by James Bolding, the former DNA lab
chief who left the job to avoid being fired, and Christy Kim, whom the
city attempted to fire.
Hurtt, who took over as police chief earlier this year, said Friday his
department has launched a review of the Rodriguez case.
Scheck suggested that Houston would be well-served to model a special
master system after one in Cleveland, which is facing its own crime-lab
controversy. Under the Cleveland plan, findings of the special master are
passed on to the mayor, district attorney, trial court judges and the
local defense bar.
Scheck also believes that hair and fingerprint analysis by the HPD lab
should be included in any review.
The New York lawyer expressed concern that some of Houston's problems may
have involved capital murder defendants who have already been executed.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
**********************
Re: Judge rejects another appeal by Darlie Routier 8/5/2005
I must correct your factual error in your "Judge rejects another appeal by
Darlie Routier" article in today's paper. It was Judge Mark Tolle rather
than Judge Robert Francis who presided over Darlie Lynn Routier's 1997
death-penalty trial. Judge Robert Francis presided over the hearings
involving her appeals.
As someone who has followed this case from the beginning, I have been very
disappointed to observe that the Dallas media is as diligent about getting
the facts straight as the Texas courts have been in weighing solid factual
evidence and bringing the real murderer to justice.
David K. Kirkpatrick
(source: Letter to the Editor)
