Sept. 15 TEXAS: Pair charged with murder in baby's death Panorama Village police have charged a man and a woman with capital murder in the 2003 death of a 2-month-old infant. Jessica Moren, 23, and Bruce Moren, 26, are being held in the Montgomery County Jail under bail of $250,000 each. Panorama Village Police Chief Jim Green said both were arrested at an apartment complex in the 3000 block of North Frazier in Conroe after their indictment Monday. Green said the baby, Kyle Moren, was first thought to have died from sudden infant death syndrome, but information supplied by the Harris County medical examiner's office led police to investigate a possible homicide. Kyle's died at a home in the 100 block of Cherokee in Panorama Village, Green said, declining to be more specific about the exact date or details surrounding the case because the investigation continues. In 1999, Jessica Moren's daughter, also an infant, died of apparent SIDS, but there was no investigation in that death, Green said. Green said he could not elaborate on the 1999 case because it happened in Conroe and that discussing it might hinder the current investigation. (source: Houston Chronicle) ************************** District attorney becomes 3rd high-profile public official to join Republican Party Walker County District Attorney David Weeks held a press conference Tuesday to formally announce he is leaving the Democratic Party and joining with the Republican Party. "Criminal justice issues matter to me," Weeks said. "It has become painfully clear to me, that when I go to the legislature about issues involving law enforcement, that those who stand with me are the Republicans, and those who stand against me are the Democrats." "Abraham Lincoln once said, 'Stand with anyone who stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him while he is wrong.' I stand today, with the party that's right." Weeks stood before a room full of Republican supporters, addressing them for the 1st time as a Republican. After his address, vice-chairman Brenda Robinson pinned him with the Republican elephant, a tradition which began in June when it was announced that Walker County Judge Danny Pierce and State District Judge Bill McAdams would both be joining the Republican Party. "It's been a long time coming," Weeks told the crowd. "It's something that (my wife) Kelly and I thought about a lot. (At first), it seemed to be a hard decision, but in the end it wasn't, because when I look around, I see my family, my friends and my supporters. When I see the values that are important to me and the criminal justice issues that are important to me, I see the Republican Party." Weeks said his decision was based around his views and which party they are mostly aligned with. When he took a close look at those, the Republican Party was right in front of him. "I've always enjoyed a great deal of Republican support ever since the 1st time I ran." Weeks said. "It's become very clear to me over the past few years, especially when dealing with the legislature, that my views on criminal justice really don't conform to those of the Democratic Party." One of the biggest issues Weeks pointed out was his position on the death penalty. Weeks is in strong support of capitol punishment, but he sees strong opposition to it from the Democrats. In a letter to Weeks, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting said that their views on this particular issue are not as different as Weeks thinks. "The Texas Democratic party does not seek an end to the death penalty," Soechting wrote. "We seek to ensure that no innocent person pays the ultimate price for a crime he or she didn't commit. As a former law enforcement officer, I consider this a common-sense stance and the least we should be able to count on from our criminal justice system." After the press conference, chairman Russell Martinez said that the addition of Weeks gives the Republicans a much stronger party. "We gain an elected official who makes the party's credibility increase," Martinez said. "It gives us 2 solid incumbents going into the next election. In the short term, it builds up the excitement for the party and long term, in 2006 when those elections come around, we're going in with incumbents, and we're going in to keep those offices." This is the 3rd elected official to switch to the Republican Party this year. Martinez said it does not normally happen this frequently, but he attributed it to a shift in the county as a whole. "It's happening more often, but it's very unusual for three to happen in one year," Martinez said. "I think it's indicative of what's going on across the state. Walker County is becoming a Republican county, and those who hold the core beliefs of the Republican Party are realizing that their party no longer resembles or reflects their beliefs." (source: The Hunstville Item) MISSOURI: Parolee charged in one of six Prospect killings----Terry A. Blair accused in murder of Sheliah McKinzie Prosecutors Tuesday charged a paroled killer with one of a string of killings that left 6 victims in overgrown lots and vacant buildings along the Prospect Avenue corridor. Terry A. Blair, 42, was charged with 1 count of 1st-degree murder in the death of Sheliah McKinzie. The body of McKinzie, whose neck was broken, was 1 of 2 found by investigators Sept. 2 in a detached garage in the 2600 block of Montgall Avenue. Family members said she disappeared a few days before her body was discovered. Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders said in an interview Tuesday that "further charges are likely" against Blair. Sanders said the investigations into the deaths of 5 other women whose bodies were found since mid-July were continuing. Blair was on parole after serving about 22 years of a 24-year 2nd-degree murder sentence for killing his girlfriend in 1982. "He made it less than 30 days on parole," Sanders said, before a warrant went out in February because he failed to report to his parole officer. Police arrested Blair last week at a house in the 5500 block of Virginia Avenue, less than a week after they were led to the 5th and 6th bodies by an anonymous phone call. Until Tuesday, police referred to him only as a "person of interest," not a suspect. That changed after tests on DNA evidence linked Blair to McKinzie, prosecutors said. According to court records, after his arrest, Blair insisted to investigators that he had never met the 38-year-old. Tests on semen found on and inside her body proved otherwise, prosecutors allege. Blair is eligible for the death penalty because of his prior conviction for murder, Sanders said. Blair is now in a prison in St. Joseph on the parole violation and can remain there until 2007 for the 1982 murder, prison officials said. McKinzie's family expressed relief Tuesday that someone had been charged in her death. "Right now, we have peace," said McKinzie's aunt, Karen Mahone, who said she talked to her niece only a few days before her body was found. "We hope the other families can get the same peace that we have." Investigators have identified four of the five other victims. Police said earlier that they think the same person killed all of the women. The 1st body discovered - though the last to be publicly linked to the alleged serial slayings - was that of Anna Ewing, 42, who was found July 14 behind an apartment in the 2600 block of East 23rd Street. But residents of the Prospect corridor area wouldn't start talking about a serial killer for 6 more weeks, when 5 bodies turned up over 3 days. McKinzie and Patricia Butler, 45, were found first, in the detached garage. The way the bodies were on top of each other indicated the killer threw them in through a window, Sanders said. The next day, Sept. 3, an anonymous tipster directed police to the remains of Carmen Hunt, 40, whose body was found behind a vacant house in the 2900 block of Park Avenue. Less than 24 hours later, a caller again told police where to search. They found the body of Darci Williams, 25, in an alley in the 2400 block of Prospect and the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman in the 2700 block of Olive Street. Police on Tuesday released more information about the unidentified victim. Investigators said she was a black woman, 39 to 50 years old and about 5 feet, 3 inches tall. The woman had 2 surgical pins in her left hip and a metal plate across her pelvic area - indicating injuries perhaps consistent with an automobile accident. The pins and plate lacked serial numbers for police to track. Police said several of the victims led "risky" lifestyles. 4 had pleaded guilty to drug possession charges and 3 had been charged with prostitution-related offenses. The killings spurred the city to launch a cleanup effort along Prospect, focused on the vacant buildings and weedy lots the suspected serial killer was using to hide his work. Sanders announced the charge in the McKinzie slaying at a press conference with interim Police Chief Rachel Whipple and Mayor Kay Barnes. Whipple said the task force's work will continue, and Barnes praised the cooperation between police, prosecutors and city officials in bringing the 1st charge. "Everything is not resolved yet," Barnes said, "but certain progress has been made." Investigators remained tight-lipped Tuesday on what led investigators to Blair. Blair was arrested in May of 1982 for the death of Angela Monroe, the mother of his 2 children, after he allegedly called police to tell them where her body could be found. He initially blamed the death on another man who he said was angry that Monroe was talking to Blair instead of working as a prostitute. Then Blair told police that he fatally beat her over the head with a tree limb because he was upset that she was "turning tricks." He eventually denied making the confession but was convicted in November 1982. The 42-year-old violated his parole by moving away from a halfway house without alerting his parole officer just a month after being freed. Missouri Department of Corrections officials issued a warrant for Blair's arrest Feb. 23. It was Blair's 2nd early release on the murder conviction. The 1st came May 16, 2002, when he was given a conditional release and sent to a Kansas City facility where parolees adjust to life outside prison. But 2 months later, Blair tested positive for marijuana, said John Fougere, public information officer for the Missouri Department of Corrections. On Aug. 8, 2002, Blair returned to prison. Blair's mother, Janice Billie Blair, was convicted of 2nd-degree murder in 1978 in Jackson County and was sentenced to 5 years probation, a prison spokesman said. His brother, Walter Blair Jr., was convicted of capital murder in the 1979 kidnapping and shooting death of Katherine Jo Allen. In that case, Walter Blair confessed to abducting Allen from her midtown apartment, taking her to a vacant lot and shooting her as she begged him not to kill her. Police said an accused rapist had promised to pay Walter Blair $6,000 to kill Allen. Walter Blair appealed his conviction. After a long stay on death row and several legal battles, Walter Blair Jr. was executed July 21, 1993, by injection at Potosi, Mo. Many family members of the victims limited their comments Tuesday out of fear of jeopardizing the investigations. But several expressed hope that the case could be coming to a close. "We're encouraged by this," said Christine Boyles, Darci Williams' sister. "We are very grateful that the police are working so hard on this. I can tell by looking at the policemen when we go in to talk with them that they are working hard." Boyles also urged observers to look past any of the victims' run-ins with the law. "These were real people," Boyles said. "I've talked to a lot of the families during the family briefings. These were real people that were loved. They had problems, but they were loved." Mahone said McKinzie was "a happy person, she didn't bother anybody." McKinzie's 2 teenagers were taking their mother's death hard, Mahone said. Now, Mahone said, the 18- and 19-year-old "won't be able to have a mother, they won't be able to call a mother up and talk with her." (source: The Kansas City Star) FLORIDA: Fort Myers man suing current, former prosecutors, 3 assistant state attorneys A self-described civil rights activist is suing Southwest Florida's current and former top prosecutors and three assistant state attorneys, claiming he is being maliciously prosecuted for criticizing investigations and prosecutions since the 1970s. Fort Myers resident Brian Bevan, 69, filed the suit Friday in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers. He is seeking an injunction so prosecutors will drop a 2002 criminal case against him. He also wants a federal judge to rule that the misdemeanor prosecutions for breach of the peace and assault violates his First Amendment free speech rights. In his suit, Bevan, who is represented by his son, attorney Andrew Bevan, claims he is being prosecuted because he reported on his Web site the malicious prosecution in 1974 of an innocent black man, Delbert Tibbs, who had been charged with rape and murder. He says his investigation into the death - categorized as a suicide after an inquest and as murder by Bevan - of a man at Babcock Ranch in the 1980s also holds him in the prosecutors' sights. "Defendants are acting in bad faith and are using Florida state criminal law and the criminal justice system to harass, oppress and punish (Bevan) because of his vigorous and zealous advocacy under the First Amendment ...." the suit says. The suit names State Attorney Steve Russell, his predecessor Joseph D'Alessandro, and Assistant State Attorneys Anthony Kunasek, Dean Plattner and Larry Justham, chief of the misdemeanor division. "As with all cases, it is pending action. I cannot comment on it," State's Attorney's Office spokeswoman Chere Avery said referring to the lawsuit. D'Alessandro was unavailable for comment Tuesday. A message was left for Andrew Bevan on Tuesday at his office in his father's home, but neither were available for comment. Tibbs was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a 27-year-old man and the rape of a 16-year-old female friend in 1974 in Lee County. Tibbs, who was hitchhiking through the South while away from his studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary, spent two years on Florida's death row before the state Supreme Court overturned his conviction because of insufficient evidence. In 1982, the Florida Supreme Court agreed to a retrial for Tibbs, but D'Alessandro dropped the case. In his suit, Bevan accuses D'Alessandro of dropping Tibbs' case because he didn't want anyone to learn he had obstructed justice in the case. Bevan states in the suit that he has been investigated "on numerous occasions" and prosecuted, but never been convicted. According to Lee County Circuit Clerk records, Bevan also was charged in 1999 with a misdemeanor count of assault. However, he was acquitted in March 2000 on this charge, court records show. (source: Naples Daily News) NEW YORK: Silver sinks new death penalty bill----Assembly speaker says troubled legislation should be looked at closely before approached again Almost 10 years after New York revived the death penalty, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Tuesday the Legislature needs to revisit the controversial issue. Silver said the Assembly will not try to fix problems with the death penalty law, which was struck down in June by the state's highest court, when it returns to Albany next week. Instead, Silver said, the Legislature should hold hearings on the law, which has not resulted in any executions and cost the state more than $170 million in the last decade. "After 10 years of having a death penalty, and very limited ... attempts to use it and enforce it, I think we should look at the whole thing," said Silver, D-Manhattan. The Democrat-controlled Assembly is expected to be in Albany on Monday, and there would not likely be enough time to hold meetings, or even let a bill age the required 3 days. "It's not something for next week," Silver said. The Speaker has long been a supporter of capital punishment, and said the state should come up with a constitutional way to impose it "since there are some pretty horrendous people sitting on death row." But, he added, his chamber won't follow the lead of the state Senate, which passed an amendment to the death penalty legislation in mid-August, without debates or even 24 hours for lawmakers to review the bill before the vote. The Senate bypassed the mandatory three-day waiting period for bills to age because Gov. George Pataki gave the bill a message of necessity. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said Bruno would not comment on what the Assembly may or may not do next week. Pataki's office called Silver's delay in voting on a new death penalty bill "playing politics with a serious issue." "There is simply no excuse for Speaker Silver's failure to lead on this issue," said Pataki spokeswoman Lynn Rasic. "Given the fact that the bill passed by the Senate represents the Assembly's very own proposal, they should make this their number one priority on Monday." The state Court of Appeals in June ruled the sentencing instructions of the 1995 law unconstitutional because they could coerce juries into choosing death over life without parole. Juries were advised during the sentencing phase that a deadlock would automatically give the convicted criminal a lesser sentence of 20 to 25 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole. The Senate bill would require the judge to impose life without parole if the jury cannot agree. It would also change the jury instructions to allow a 3rd option, a sentence of 20 to 25 years to life with possibility of parole. But questions about that bill arose as the ink was drying -- the legislation calls for retroactive sentencing for crimes already committed. Some lawyers said that could raise another constitutional challenge. In the meantime, several murder defendants with trials or appeals pending have taken this legal limbo period to plead guilty in exchange for life without parole, to avoid the death penalty. The Senate bill's sponsor, Dale Volker, R-Lancaster, could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but last month called the legislation a compromise and a solution. He predicted it would pass both chambers. The Republican-led Senate approved it almost down party lines. Many Democratic senators voiced strong reservations about the rushed process or the law itself. Sen. Seymour Lachman, D-Brooklyn, said he was not opposed to the death penalty, but could not vote for the bill. "Why are we rushing?" he asked. "There have been no public hearings, there has been inadequate public review, the (district attorneys) of New York have not been involved, the major religious organizations of the state are opposed to this, and yet we haven't brought them into the process." Lachman added many lawmakers' concern: "I didn't even see the bill before today." Death penalty opponents outside the Legislature said all summer they want their elected officials to re-evaluate the law, which has cost the state about $170 million since 1995 and resulted, essentially, in life sentences for death row inmates. "I hope they take their time and really debate this," said Marguerite Marsh of Guilderland, whose daughter was murdered by a serial killer in the late 1990s. The killer was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Marsh said she knew other families wanted to see the killer executed, but she told the district attorney she did not. "To me, I'd be as much a murderer," she said. "As for closure, there's no closure when you lose someone you love. I think about my daughter every day. Whether her killer got the death penalty, I'm still going to think of her every day. "I feel more peaceful about it knowing I didn't put him to death," she said. Marsh said she would consider voicing her feelings to the Legislature if public hearings are held. Bruno's spokesman Mark Hansen said after the August vote that the death penalty has been debated for decades, and was probably already the most publicly scrutinized issue before the legislature. (source: Albany Times Union) OHIO: Appeals court upholds death sentence in Cincinnati case A man sentenced to death for killing his 5-year-old stepdaughter lost an appeal of his conviction and sentence Wednesday. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected John R. Hicks' argument that he was inadequately represented by his lawyers at the February 1986 trial. Hicks was sentenced to death for suffocating Brandy Green and life in prison for strangling his mother-in-law, Maxine Armstrong, 56, in August 1985. Hamilton County prosecutors said Hicks killed Armstrong while robbing her Cincinnati apartment to get $300 for his cocaine habit. He returned hours later and killed his stepdaughter because he had seen her at the apartment and knew she could have identified him as the last person to visit Armstrong, police said. Hicks, now 48, is on death row. His execution date has not been scheduled while he appeals. Hicks said he was under the influence of cocaine at the time of the slayings. He contended that his trial lawyers didn't do enough to inform the jury about how cocaine could have made him psychotic. Appeals judges Eugene Siler Jr. and Martha Craig Daughtrey ruled that the evidence of his guilt was overwhelming and he refused to help his lawyers with his defense. The judges noted that two psychologists had testified in court that Hicks could have committed purposeful acts while under cocaine's influence. In a dissent, appeals Judge Eric Clay agreed that Hick's conviction should be upheld but said that he should be granted a new sentencing hearing. Clay said the prosecutor made impermissible statements in court, including urging jurors to serve as the community's conscience by imposing the death sentence. The appeals court has previously ruled this off-limits if prosecutors do it to incite the passions of jurors, Clay said. (source: Associated Press) USA----re: federal death penalty case Case of Missing Ex-Wife Remanded for 2nd Trial A federal appeals court yesterday granted a new trial for former naval intelligence officer Jay E. Lentz on charges of kidnapping and killing his ex-wife, ruling that the jury that convicted him had seen evidence that never was admitted in the case. In a broad decision that resolved several issues in the increasingly complicated case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit also threw out the trial judge's finding that the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. Mellin, had deliberately placed the evidence in the jury room. The court said the judge made "a rather broad leap" based on a lack of evidence and "clearly erroneous" logic. The appeals court also took the rare step of removing the judge, U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in Alexandria, from the case, ruling that his criticism of Mellin and other prosecutors would require a new judge for the retrial. Lee had accused Mellin of recklessly planting the evidence, which included Doris Lentz's notes about threatening phone calls Lentz allegedly had made to her. The ruling, for now, settles the swirl of highly personal and unusual allegations involving a federal judge, a career prosecutor and a sitting U.S. attorney. The evidence battle, in which prosecutors accused Lee of bias and Mellin at one point suggested that defense lawyers may have tried to frame him, had come to overshadow Doris Lentz's death. Now, the case is expected to refocus on the mystery that made it an unusual prosecution from the start: What happened to Doris Lentz, who disappeared in 1996 and whose body has never been found? A federal jury in July 2003 convicted Lentz of kidnapping and killing Doris Lentz, but Lee overturned the verdict -- a first in a federal death penalty case -- ruling that prosecutors never proved that a kidnapping, as defined by federal law, took place. But the 4th Circuit yesterday reinstated Lentz's conviction even as it ordered the new trial. The judges ruled that the government had proved the key legal point underlying its case: that Jay Lentz had "held" his former wife. Prosecutors predicted that that 4th Circuit ruling would bode well for them at the next trial. Underscoring the case's importance to the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty called an unusual news conference to praise the 4th Circuit's ruling as a "vindication of Steve Mellin" and to announce that Mellin will remain the lead prosecutor. "There was no basis, no basis whatsoever, to find that a dedicated federal prosecutor acted inappropriately," McNulty said as more than 20 of Mellin's colleagues from the office looked on. Mellin thanked the appellate court but declined to comment in detail on the ruling. "It's been a tough year," he said. "It was difficult to have your name kicked around like it was. I'm gratified that it's over." Attorneys for Lentz said they were pleased Lentz would get a new trial but would not say whether they will seek a review of the various decisions by the full 4th Circuit or the Supreme Court. "We are absolutely pleased that we will live to fight another day for our client," the lawyers, Frank Salvato and Michael Lieberman, said in a statement. Lee declined to comment through a court spokesman because the case is still pending before the court. It remains unclear when a new trial might begin for Lentz, who has been jailed since he was arrested in April 2001, or which judge would hear it. If convicted, Lentz faces life in prison. Prosecutors said the death penalty will not be an option this time because the jury in the 1st case declined to sentence Lentz to death. The 4th Circuit's opinion was written by Judge William B. Traxler Jr. Judge Robert B. King concurred. Judge M. Blane Michael dissented in part, because he said prosecutors never proved that Doris Lentz was kidnapped and held. The Lentz case has always been unusual because prosecutors brought it with no body, no crime scene and no witnesses. But the case grew especially heated in January when Lee leveled his accusations at Mellin. The judge said Mellin was the last person to have the disputed evidence, which consisted of 2 day planners kept by Doris Lentz. Lee also said that Mellin waved one of them around in his closing argument and that his testimony in an evidentiary hearing on the matter had been "less than candid." The judge had ordered the hearing after 3 jurors came forward in July and said the planners had a significant impact on their decision to convict Lentz. In his January ruling, Lee said he had excluded most of the materials in the day planners from the case. But the 4th Circuit yesterday said the materials never were excluded; they actually never were formally offered as evidence. Prosecutors and Mellin vehemently objected to Lee's ruling, accusing the judge of bias against them and their case. Mellin even filed his own appeal with the 4th Circuit. In yesterday's decision, the 3-judge 4th Circuit panel said it understood why Lee had gone to such lengths to determine how the materials got before the jury but that it could not agree with his conclusion that it happened deliberately. The panel said Lee had also erred in concluding that his court staff had nothing to do with the incident, saying his court clerk had "made at least 2 negligent errors" in her handling of exhibits in the case. However the materials reached the jury, the court said, "we think it highly unlikely that anyone would have taken the brazen step of intentionally placing unadmitted exhibits" before the jury. "In our view," the court concluded, "despite the best intentions on the part of the district court and the frustrations associated with this serious incident, the evidence simply cannot support the district court's findings that Mellin intentionally slipped these items into the jury room in contravention of court orders and at risk to his legal career." (source: Washington Post)
