Jan. 26 NEVADA: Former death row inmate Mazzan denied parole again Former death row inmate John Mazzan has lost another bid for parole from a life sentence in the murder of a Reno judge's son in 1978. The Nevada Parole Board on Tuesday cited the "nature and severity of the crime" in rejecting Mazzan's request to be set free. "In the opinion of the board, continued confinement is needed to protect the public from further criminal activity," board spokesman David Smith said. The board gave those same reasons for denying Mazzan's parole request three years ago. Mazzan, 58, now must wait 3 years before his next parole request. Mazzan was found guilty and sentenced to death for the stabbing of Richard Minor Junior, the son of former Reno Justice of the Peace and Washoe District Court Judge Richard Minor. Mazzan also was suspected in the death of Minor's girlfriend, April Barber, but prosecutors eventually decided against pursuing charges in that death. Mazzan appealed his conviction. In 1999, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered a new trial after ruling that the prosecution failed to share key evidence with the defense. But just before his trial, he struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to the murder of Minor in exchange for the dismissal of charges related to Barbers death. Mazzan maintained for years that he was innocent in her death but admitted during his last parole hearing that he had killed her, too. During last weeks parole hearing, he repeatedly was asked why he had committed the murders, but was unable to give a reason. Judge Minor died last year after a battle with cancer. His widow, Magaret Lightner Minor, attended the parole hearing last week at Nevada State Prison in Carson City and urged the board to keep Mazzan locked up. On Tuesday, she said she was pleased. "The board made the absolutely correct decision to keep him right where he is," she told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "There were a lot of people upset about the thought of him getting out." John Helzer, Washoe County assistant district attorney, said the board made the right decision. "This individual deserves to be there," he said. "I dont think anything has changed as far as giving the board answers that would give them any reason for him to be released." (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Ross left trail of victims prior to Connecticut killings Dzung Ngoc Tu was a 25-year-old graduate student at Cornell University back in May of 1981, studying agricultural economics. But she was also the 1st known victim of classmate Michael Ross, a budding serial killer. Ross, who eventually admitted raping and murdering Tu, was never prosecuted in the case. Tu was the first of eight women that Ross killed in the early 1980s. Nearly 24 years later, Ross awaits a death sentence for the murder and rapes of 4 young women in eastern Connecticut. If the U.S. Supreme Court lifts a stay of execution, his would be the 1st execution in New England since 1960. Ross left a trail of victims in New York, North Carolina, Illinois and Ohio before he started killing in eastern Connecticut. Some he raped. Others he attacked and attempted to kill. Besides Tu, he raped and strangled another young woman in New York, 16-year-old Paula Perrera. The brutal attacks began during Ross' senior year at Cornell and continued in the months following his 1981 graduation when he worked in the agriculture industry. It wasn't until years later did authorities learn that Ross was responsible for the terror. Dzung Tu's body was found in a gorge on the upstate New York campus, days after she was reported missing on May 14, 1981. Michael Malchik, a Connecticut state police investigator at the time, said Cornell authorities initially thought the student may have committed suicide. Cornell police never linked Ross to the woman's murder, or to a rape and a spate of attempted rapes in 1981, until Malchik arrived in 1987 - 3 years after Ross' arrest. Lan Manh Tu, Dzung Tu's older brother, said he always suspected foul play. He said his sister enjoyed Cornell, where she volunteered with the Big Sister program. He described Dzung Tu as "a brilliant student" who spoke Vietnamese, German, French, and eventually English after she moved with her family to Bethesda, Md. from Vietnam at age 13 in 1969. Dzung Tu, who graduated from Vassar College with a degree in economics, hoped to help people around the world. Between Vassar and Cornell, she worked for the National Institutes of Health helping children with terminal cancer, her brother said. Ross was not considered a suspect in Perrera's death until years after her 1982 disappearance. Barbara Emery, Perrera's childhood friend, said many people initially suspected Perrera had run away. But after her body was discovered, there was speculation that a family member or boyfriend may have killed her. Emery said when she first heard of the murders in Connecticut, she began to think Ross may have been her friend's killer. "I started finding things out that they were really killed the same way," Emery said. "Along the way, I found stuff out." Ross picked up Perrera hitchhiking on March 2, 1982. She had missed a bus to a local vocational school where she was studying food service, Emery said. Ross was on his way home to Connecticut after visiting his former Cornell girlfriend. He had learned she found a new boyfriend. Perrera often hitchhiked in Orange County, N.Y. Emery said her friends repeatedly warned her against getting into cars with strangers. But Perrera, a bubbly girl with a troubled family life, thought of it as an adventure, a chance to meet new people. "She said, 'I don't get into cars with anyone who looks crazy,"' Emery recalled. It was not until 2001 that Ross was convicted in Perrera's rape and murder. Although he was already facing death in Connecticut, Perrera's family wanted to pursue a trial. Ultimately, a deal was reached that sentenced Ross to 8 1/3 to 25 years in state prison - theoretically after the Connecticut sentences are carried out. "Basically, it doesn't close the case for the family," Assistant Orange County District Attorney John Geidel said in 2001. "It's something they'll live with for the rest of their lives." Before Perrera's killing, Ross served less than 6 months in jail and several months of psychological counseling for an assault in Ohio. On April 26, 1982, he attacked a 26-year-old, pregnant, off-duty police officer in Licking County, Ohio. Ross knocked on the woman's door and said his car had broken down. She managed to fend him off. Ross is also known to have attacked a woman pushing a baby carriage in Rolesville, North Carolina on Aug. 25, 1981. After threatening to kill the baby, Ross raped and attempted to strangle the woman, leaving her for dead in a soybean field. She survived. According to news reports, Ross was charged with attempted murder, sexual assault and kidnapping but was never tried. Shortly afterward, on Sept. 28, 1981, Ross dragged a 15-year-old girl in La Salle City, Ill. into the woods. He gagged her with a sock and wrapped a belt around her neck before being discovered by police. Ross paid a $500 fine and served probation. Although those crimes aren't sending Ross to Connecticut's death chamber, family members and friends of his out-of-state victims are still keeping a close watch on Ross' possible execution. "We want him dead," Lan Tu said. "It's a simple answer. As soon as possible." (source: Associated Press) NEW YORK: Jaeger, prosecutor speak out against death penalty Wheatfield's Debbie Jaeger offered another heartfelt plea at the state capitol Tuesday, this time joining the veteran prosecutor whose death sentence against the killer of Jaegers sister was overturned in 2003. The 2 argued that New York's capital punishment law needs serious repairs to work effectively. Jaeger and Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick spoke in regard to the killing of City of Tonawanda native Jill Russell-Cahill, who was murdered in 1998 by her husband, James Cahill. "This law continues to victimize the victims," Jaeger said. "It's time to restore an effective death penalty law so other families will be spared the pain and suffering we have endured." The state Assembly is holding public hearings as it decides what should be done next. But testimony Tuesday - ranging from a prosecutor who sought the death penalty to adamant opponents - showed how controversial the issue remains. Jaeger spoke to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 12, 2004, as part of the review process, before the appointment of a Court of Appeals judge. This time, she was invited to speak by assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore, who announced that he is introducing legislation to fill gaps in the states death penalty law. "The Cahill decision and other recent decisions by the court indicate that New York states death penalty law is lacking in several areas," Schimminger said. Fitzpatrick sounded frustrated at times as he testified about how New Yorks highest court vacated the death sentence of Cahill in 2003. The ruling was one of several by the state Court of Appeals that has effectively left the 10-year-old law in limbo. "We as a civilized people must not resort to vengeance," Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard, speaking for the New York State Catholic Conference, told Assembly members. "... Revenge through execution does not heal the wounds, control the rage, fill the emptiness or bring the anticipated 'closure' so many hope to find." Fitzpatrick sidestepped arguing the merits of the death penalty to focus on the case of Cahill, who was convicted of 1st-degree murder in 1998 for fatally poisoning his wife with potassium cyanide. She was in a hospital at the time, recuperating from a severe beating Cahill inflicted on her 6 months earlier with a baseball bat at their home near Syracuse. (source: Tonawanda News)
