Sept. 1 CALIFORNIA----new death sentence Erskine sentenced to death for torture-murders of San Diego boys A San Diego judge accepted a jury's recommendation Wednesday to sentence a man to death for the 1993 torture and murder of two boys who vanished when they went for a bicycle ride. Scott Erskine, 41, was convicted in October of torturing, sexually assaulting, strangling and killing Jonathan Sellers, 9, and Charlie Keever, 13. The boys were found in a makeshift fort along the banks of the Otay River after they failed to return home from their ride near the U.S.-Mexico border. "I thank God that it's over," said Maria Keever, the mother of Charlie. "I promised my son that justice would be served, and I'm so relieved that justice was served today." "It'll never be over for us. The boys were here, they were beautiful, and they deserve to be remembered," said Milena Sellers, Jonathan's mother. Superior Court Judge Kenneth So ordered a retrial of the penalty phase of Erskine's case after the jury that convicted him deadlocked 11-1 in favor of the death penalty. A new jury recommended the death sentence in June. Erskine was linked to the boys' murders in 2001 when new DNA extraction techniques recovered biological evidence found on one of the boys. At the time, Erskine was serving a 70-year sentence for raping a San Diego woman 6 month after the boys' murders. Last week, Erskine pleaded guilty to murdering a Florida woman in 1989. The plea in the death of Renee Barker, 26, means Erskine is likely to be sentenced to life in prison for the crime, rather than the death penalty. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) *************************** Expert: Laci Peterson's scent picked up by search dog at marina Scott Peterson's murder trial resumed Wednesday with the cross-examination of a search dog handler who testified her canine picked up Laci Peterson's scent at the marina where Scott Peterson launched what he says was a solo fishing trip the day his wife vanished. Defense lawyer Mark Geragos began his cross-examination with stern questions about how search dogs are trained in a effort to undermine the reliability of the scent-tracking technique. Defense lawyers attempted to show Tuesday that the scent-sniffing techniques are based on theory, not science. Eloise Anderson, a dog handler with the Contra Costa County Search and Rescue team, testified Tuesday that her dog, a Labrador named Trimble, picked up Laci's scent at a pylon at the marina. Anderson said she brought Trimble to the marina on Dec. 28, 2002 -- four days after Peterson reported his pregnant wife missing -- to assist in the search. Geragos noted Wednesday that Trimble had recently failed a test similar to the tracking technique used at the Berkeley Marina to pick up Laci's scent. The defense lawyer played for jurors a video of the training exercise where Trimble can be seen trying to track a subject in a vehicle. The dog is seen wandering in and out of bushes along the road, sniffing the sidewalk and turning in the opposite direction before stopping and barking at the person videotaping the exercise. "The dog just alerted on the videographer, right?" Geragos asked. "No. She barked at me," Anderson said. The training exercise continued. The dog again circled back in the opposite direction and the test was stopped. Anderson acknowledged the dog failed the test. However, prosecutors noted on redirect that the dog did eventually pick up the search subject's scent later at the command center where the exercise began. Geragos also noted that Anderson left the so-called failed exercise out of her report and that the tape of the incident only surfaced this month. Geragos pointed out for jurors that during a pretrial hearing, Anderson testified she could not recall her dog performing the unsuccessful test. Geragos implied that only after he issued a subpoena to Contra Costa County authorities on Aug. 3 did the tape surface. Geragos said that on Aug. 4, he received an e-mail from prosecutors alerting defense attorneys to the tape's existence. Anderson insisted Wednesday she hid nothing and, in fact, did not know the tape existed until recently. Geragos then began criticizing the search done at the Berkeley Marina, noting that Anderson never performed what is called a "missing member test," in which Scott Peterson would have been brought to the marina for the dog to smell before beginning the search for Laci's scent. Such an exercise, Geragos noted, could have helped rule out the possibility that the dog was smelling Scott Peterson and not his wife. Anderson insisted that a missing member test was not necessary. Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then drove to San Francisco Bay and dumped her body. The badly decomposed remains of Laci Peterson and the couple's fetus washed ashore in April 2003, not far from where Peterson launched his fishing trip the day Laci vanished. Defense lawyers contend someone else abducted and killed Laci, then framed their client after learning his widely publicized alibi. On Tuesday, Anderson, using a large screen aerial picture of the marina, pointed out for jurors where Trimble picked up Laci's scent. Anderson said Trimble followed the scent from the parking area, along a tree line and down a pier, where the dog stopped at a pylon at the water's edge. "She went to the end of her line, pulled steady ... level head and maintained that posture ... all the way out to that pylon," Anderson said. "That's a behavior that indicates that she's working a valid scent trail." Judge Alfred A. Delucchi ruled during pretrial hearings that jurors would hear some, but not all, details gathered by the scent-sniffing police dogs. Calling the details "iffy, at best," Delucchi in March tossed out prosecution claims that other dogs had detected a broken trail of Laci Peterson's scents leading from the Petersons' home to the warehouse where Scott Peterson kept his boat and along the boat's rim. Delucchi said the marina evidence was admissible because Scott Peterson had admitted going to the marina, and the bodies washed ashore near there. Earlier in the day, one of Anderson's supervisors testified about how dogs pick up scent and follow trails as they search for missing people. Christopher Boyer spent much of the morning explaining to jurors the mundane details of dog-tracking, scent theory and skin rafts. Boyer testified that he collected a number of items from the Peterson home to help in the search for Laci, including a hair brush, slippers and sunglasses. Anderson said she used the sunglasses as scent for her search dog. On cross-examination, defense lawyers questioned the reliability of dog-tracking evidence, constantly referring to the technique, as Boyer did himself, as "scent theory" rather than science. Defense lawyer Pat Harris noted that during a pretrial hearing, Boyer spoke of dog-tracking as "not a science. It's an art." Boyer remained steadfast that scientific literature supports the accuracy of dog-tracking. "You use the word theory, correct?" Harris asked. "Yes," Boyer said, but added, "I have read it as fact." Harris noted that the class used to teach dog handlers the technique is even called "scent theory." Boyer explained for jurors how skin rafts shed constantly from one's body, leaving behind a trail of scents. Harris noted that scents can be combined if, for example, 2 people live together. But Boyer argued that the dogs are trained to determine which scent to track. Boyer also acknowledged that although dogs can pick up a scent, they cannot determine how long that scent has been there or how it got there. Boyer was assigned to supervise a team of dog handlers as they searched for clues at the marina in the days after Laci vanished. Harris suggested Laci may have previously been in Peterson's truck and boat, leaving behind skin rafts that the dogs may have later smelled. There has been no dispute that Peterson drove his truck and boat to the marina that Christmas Eve morning. "If someone had been in that truck within 24 hours ... their skin rafts would be all over the truck, correct?" Harris asked. "Yes sir," Boyer said. "There's no way the dog can determine when that person was in the truck or the boat, is there?" Harris prodded. "No sir," Boyer said. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Highway shootings suspect enters insanity plea A man charged in a series of highway shootings in Ohio, including one that killed a woman, is changing his plea to innocent by reason of insanity, one of his attorneys said Wednesday. Charles A. McCoy Jr.'s change in plea from innocent, to innocent by reason of insanity, was being filed Wednesday morning in court, attorney Andrew Haney said. McCoy, 29, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, according to court documents and his attorneys. McCoy is charged in shootings that occurred from October through February, including the death of a 62-year-old woman in November. She was the only person hit in the shootings that occurred mostly around the Interstate 270 beltway on the south side of Columbus, Ohio. McCoy, who was arrested in March in Las Vegas, could be sentenced to death if convicted in the slaying. In a 2-page opinion Tuesday, Judge Charles A. Schneider determined he was competent to stand trial. McCoy's mother refused to comment, referring questions to Haney. Messages also were left at his father's workplace and at the Franklin County prosecutor's office. McCoy came to authorities' attention in March after someone -- authorities will not say who -- called police to say McCoy's father had guns belonging to his son. Charles McCoy Sr. gave police the guns after checking with his son and his ex-wife. Ardith McCoy testified at a March court hearing she found pieces of a disassembled handgun under her son's mattress in mid-February and turned them over to her ex-husband. She had previously given her ex-husband another handgun found in August and 2 shotguns she had found under her son's bed in December. (source: Associated Press)
