May 26 GEORGIA/FLORIDA: Florida Murder Suspect Climbs Crane, Disrupts Atlanta Traffic In Atlanta, a man believed to be a Florida murder suspect remained atop an 18-story crane Thursday as authorities continued to try to talk him down. Florida officials said the man is Carl Edward Roland, 41, who is wanted by the Pinellas County, Fla., sheriff's department for the murder of his former girlfriend. The badly beaten body of Jennifer L. Gonzalez, 36, was found in a retention pond Tuesday. The man climbed the crane, which was at a construction site, Wednesday at about 5 p.m. and would not come down. The intersection was closed, snarling traffic as the man refused to move from his perch high above Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood. Police negotiators tried to talk to the man throughout the night as he contemplated committing suicide, said Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley. However, Atlanta police were not releasing the man's identity - or any other information about him - Thursday morning. "I'm not keen to release anything until he comes down," Quigley said. "I don't want to give this guy any notoriety. I don't want any copy cats. I just hope he comes down safely." (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Woman sentenced to 25 years in husband's death In August 2001, Bradford Bill Beatty was shot twice in the back of the head and buried in the back yard of his Mascotte home. His remains were not found for more than 2 years. Today, Martha Beatty pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill her husband and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. It was a plea agreement she couldn't avoid, said her attorney John N. Spivey. She originally was indicted with her son, Andrew Paul Norman, on first-degree murder charges, and prosecutors were intent on seeking the death penalty against both. "This spares her from the death penalty and life in prison," Spivey said before his client's sentencing hearing at the Lake County Jail. The sentencing was held at the jail instead of the courthouse because Martha Beatty has been infected with a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, according to Gary Borders, chief of operations for the jail. The highly contagious skin disease is common in hospitals and jails, where those infected are treated with antibiotics. Norman's trial in the slaying is expected to be held in the fall, according to Assistant State Attorney Gross, who agreed to the 60-year-old woman's plea bargain. Because Martha Beatty is expected to testify at that trial, Lake Circuit Judge Richard G. Singeltary ordered she serve the beginning of her sentence at the county jail until her son's trial is finished. Gross said he was not sure if she would testify for or against her son. The deadly saga began in August 2001 when Bradford Bill Beatty's supervisor grew worried when he didn't show up for work at the gas station convenience store he managed. Beatty's wife told police that he had been depressed lately and had disappeared once before for several months after an argument. She said she believed he would come home eventually. She refused to fill out a missing-persons form and would not give investigators permission to search her property. Then, on March 4, 2004, after the property had been sold, Mascotte police officers and agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement acted on a tip and found the missing man. He had been shot twice in the back of the head and buried under 6 feet of dirt and debris in the back yard of his Mascotte home. Witness statements do not reflect a particular motive for the killing, nor are they consistent about who fired the fatal gunshots. Police reports show that Martha Beatty was upset when her husband refused to pay legal fees as she fought for custody of her granddaughter. A witness told police that Martha Beatty called for her son to come over after her husband got angry about their financial situation a week before his death. Later that same afternoon, Norman said that his mother had accidentally shot her husband and that he had buried him, according to the witness. Another witness, however, told police that Norman admitted doing the shooting. (source: Orlando Sentinel) ILLINOIS: Mother Convicted in Son's Slaying Gets New Trial----Judge Permits Defense to Submit Serial Killer's Confession - 3 years ago this month, an Illinois jury unanimously found Julie Rea-Harper guilty of the brutal stabbing death of her 10-year-old son, Joel Kirkpatrick, and sentenced her to 65 years in state prison. 2 years into her sentence, however, an appeals court dismissed her conviction. Rea-Harper was released from prison in July 2004, after the appeals court ruled that the appointment of lawyers from the state appellate prosecutor's office to obtain the indictment and to prosecute the case violated state law. That law has since been amended to allow attorneys from the office to handle murder cases, and Rea-Harper will face the same prosecutors in a new trial on 1st-degree murder charges brought by the state. A series of developments in the case continue to cast it back in the spotlight. Tommy Lynn Sells, a convicted serial killer on death row in Texas, has claimed multiple times that he murdered a boy around the time and place Rea-Harper's son was killed. At least 3 of his confessions have been publicly recorded. Diane Fanning included Sells' confession to her in a chapter of "Through the Window," her biography of Sells. His confession to Illinois Special Prosecutor David Rands and 2 Illinois State Police officers was recorded on audiotape. And a 3rd confession -- to "20/20" corrspondent Lynn Sherr -- was videotaped. In a victory for Rea-Harper's defense team, the Illinois trial court judge in Lawrence County ruled in March of this year that Sells' confessions would be permitted as evidence in her new trial. It will be compelling testimony given that Sells has recounted committing a murder at the same time and in the same area of the country. The question now is whether Sells' confessions are credible. Sells claims he entered a home at night, grabbed a knife from the kitchen, entered a bedroom and began stabbing. He further recounted being surprised by a woman and wrestling with her both inside and outside of the house before fleeing. All of these events are similar to those recounted by Rea-Harper in her original trial defense. They also match the methods used by Sells in other murders he has confessed to and been convicted of. State prosecutors have said they don't believe Sells' confession. Rea-Harper's defense team believes it strongly. The showdown in trial court is expected to begin in early December. "20/20" will continue to cover this story as it unfolds and add to the reporting that began nearly 3 years ago when Julie Rea-Harper was originally convicted of the crime. (source: ABC News Internet Ventures)
