Jan. 31
TEXAS:
Luna set to appear at murder hearing
Juan Manuel Luna, a suspected Texas Syndicate prison gang member accused
of the 2002 murder of Manuel Rivera III, is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m.
today in 242nd District Court for a plea agreement hearing.
Hale County District Attorney Wally Hatch refused late Friday to release
details of the pending agreement.
A Hale County grand jury issued a sealed indictment on May 26, charging
Luna with Rivera's murder. A Texas Ranger and Lubbock police detectives
arrested Luna later that day in Lubbock.
On June 23, 2002, a farmer discovered Rivera's body in a ditch near a dirt
road along FM 400 northeast of Plainview. Autopsy reports later revealed
that he suffered 2 gunshot wounds to his head, 1 to his chest and numerous
superficial stab wounds, authorities said.
"I ain't done nothing. I'll walk out of this one," Luna said as officers
led him to a May 26 court hearing in Lubbock.
After an initial appearance before Lubbock County Justice of the Peace Jim
Hansen, officers transferred Luna to Hale County.
He has remained since in Hale County Jail on a $250,000 bond, a jail
spokesman said.
(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)
********************
Death Row battle----Yorks man in fight to save Texas prisoner
A death row prisoner has enlisted the help of a Yorkshire pen pal in his
fight for justice.
Samuel Bustamante received the death penalty after stabbing a 27-year-old
man to death back in January of 1998.
The 35-year-old is currently on death row in Texas from where he struck up
a friendship with Garry Kitchin from Tadcaster.
Mr Kitchin is convinced that mistakes were made at Bustamante's trial and
has now launched a personal crusade to get his sentence commuted to life.
And he plans to travel to Texas to visit prisoner 999380 in March.
Mr Kitchin first made contact with Bustamante in 2002 through an
organisation which works to befriend prisoners on death row.
"I have got to know Sam over the last few years and the more we have
written to each other the more he has opened up," said Mr Kitchin, 33, a
machine operator.
Ruined
"He accepts his guilt and was responsible for the death of the man. He is
very remorseful about what happened and accepts that it has ruined his
life."
Mr Kitchin has now launched his own website - www.justiceforsam.co.uk - in
support of Bustamante which he hopes will help in the fight to get his
death sentence commuted to life.
"We believe the law was not applied properly at Sam's trial. We feel he
should have been sentenced to life imprisonment rather than the death
penalty.
"We now plan to fight that conviction through the appeals process. People
may question the reason for me getting involved in Sam's case. But it's
simple.
"I feel I have made a friend and I am also strongly against the death
penalty."
Mr Kitchin said he was looking forward to meeting Bustamante face to face
for the 1st time.
He continued: "We have built up a friendship and it will be good to be
able to talk.
"But I am well aware that if the case goes against him it could well be
the 1st and last time I see him alive. I would go to the execution if he
wanted me to be there."
The state of Texas adopted lethal injection as means of execution of death
row prisoners in 1977.
There are currently 447 prisoners on death row in Texas awaiting
execution.
(source: Leeds Today (UK)
CONNECTICUT----new death sentence
'Snowmobile Killer' Is Sentenced To Death
A Torrington man was sentenced to death by lethal injection on Monday
after being convicted of shooting a man in exchange for a broken
snowmobile.
Eduardo Santiago Jr., was sentenced on Monday in Hartford Superior Court
to the death sentence, in addition to more than 45 years of imprisonment
on related charges.
Judge Douglas Lavine set an execution date of July 15, but said that the
appeals process would likely push that date back.
The sentencing had originally been scheduled for last month but was
postponed after two jurors in the case had expressed misgivings about the
death sentence the jury had recommended in August.
Earlier this month, Santiago's lawyers said the judge should explore the
possibility of juror misconduct, but Lavine said there wasn't enough
information to warrant a new hearing.
He also denied a motion to replace the death penalty recommendation with a
sentence of life in prison without parole.
Defense attorney Kevin Randolph said Monday that he plans to file an
appeal once Santiago is sentenced.
Prosecutors said Santiago, 25, was asked in 2000 to kill Niwinski by Mark
Pascual, a 39-year-old Torrington machine shop owner. Authorities said
Pascual became infatuated with Niwinski's girlfriend and hoped he could
win her affections by having Niwinski killed.
Pascual testified that he agreed to give Santiago a pink-striped
snowmobile with a broken clutch in exchange for killing Niwinski.
Authorities said Santiago was so enthusiastic about the murder-for-hire
plot that he made a rifle silencer out of a plastic soda bottle and wrote
"Joe," Niwinski's nickname, on the gun's bullets.
Pascual is facing 25 to 110 years in prison under a plea deal.
Another man, Matthew Tyrell, 23, of Winsted, pleaded guilty to helping
plan Niwinski's killing and entering his apartment with Santiago. He
testified against Santiago and faces a life sentence.
(source: NBC News)
