June 25 CONNECTICUT: Suspect could face death penalty A city man charged with killing his girlfriend's year-old son could face the death penalty. Prosecutors on Friday upgraded a murder charge against Prince Jones, 19, to a capital felony charge in the death of Naz'ayr Marshall. If convicted of capital felony, Jones would receive either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. The murder charge Jones had faced carries a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison. "There's a possibility that we will seek the death penalty," Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly said. "We'll have to look at the case closer. There will be a point in time when we'll determine whether to seek the death penalty." A person is charged with capital felony when he or she is accused of committing 1 of 8 types of murders, such as killing a police officer or kidnapping a person and killing them. Jones is charged with capital felony because the boy was younger than 16. If Jones is convicted of capitol felony and the state elects to pursue the death penalty, a penalty phase hearing would be held and a jury or 3-judge panel would decide whether Jones should die. Police arrested Jones on May 27, a day after Naz'ayr died. Police allege Jones failed to get medical treatment for the baby after the boy fell down a flight of stairs on May 25. Authorities further allege Jones smashed the baby's head against a bathtub the morning of May 26, and again didn't immediately seek medical help. The baby's mother, Chada Marshall, had left her son with Jones at an apartment at 261 Grove St. Marshall, 19, and Jones do not live together. It is unclear exactly how long, and for what reason, Marshall had left the baby with Jones. Along with public defender John Cizik, Jones is also being represented by public defender Patrick Culligan, chief of the state public defender's capital defense and trial services unit. Both lawyers said they had not received enough evidence from the state to comment on the charges against Jones. "One has to wonder why a young 19-year-old guy who wants to be a surrogate father for Naz'ayr, and took him out to Chuck E. Cheese for his first birthday, would ever have the intention of having him dead," Culligan said Jones appeared despondent during a brief appearance in Waterbury Superior Court on Friday. Shackled and wearing a tan prison uniform, Jones's voice was barely audible when Judge Frank Iannotti asked him if he understood he was waiving his right to a probable cause hearing within 60 days of his arrest. That hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31. About 20 people filled several courtroom benches behind Jones. About a half dozen women, some wearing T-shirts with Naz'ayr's picture screened on them, wept. The charges against Jones are reminiscent of the case of Ivo Colon, who was sentenced to die for killing his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter in 1998. Colon, 24, also of Waterbury, was convicted in 2000 of smashing Keriana Tellado's head against a shower wall because she vomited on herself. He had previously punched the toddler, lashed her buttocks and broken her arm because she was having problems being toilet trained. The state Supreme Court overturned Colon's death sentence late last year because of improper jury instructions during the penalty phase hearing. A second penalty phase hearing is expected to begin late this year. Robert Nave, of Waterbury, who is the executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, hopes Connelly does not elect to seek the death penalty against Jones. "It is a colossal waste of taxpayer money," Nave said. "It is the ultimate in civil rights abuse, it emulates the act of murder when it is sanctioned by the state and it has no societal value whatsoever." (source: Waterbury Republican-American) FLORIDA: Convicted Killer To Stay on Death Row A convicted killer in Florida will not be getting off death row. Lamar Brooks failed again to win a 3rd trial for the 1996 stabbing deaths of Rachel Carlson and her 3-month-old daughter. The Florida Supreme Court upheld Brooks' conviction and death sentence. Brooks and his cousin, Walker Davis, killed Carlson and the baby so that Davis could avoid paying child support and collect a $100-,000 insurance policy. Carlson, an Eglin Air Force Base medical technician, was stabbed more than 65 times. (source: WTVY News) ********************************** The Jessica Lunsford tragedy----Jury may not hear Couey's claims; Officers say he admitted killing Jessica Lunsford, but a possible misstep could keep it out of court. Now that John Couey's detailed confession in the killing of Jessica Lunsford has been made public, the question is whether a jury will ever hear it. Legal experts say the statements may not hold up in court because Couey asked for an attorney and didn't get one. "The potential for this issue to be explosive and determinative is clearly present," said J. Larry Hart, a former prosecutor who is now a criminal defense attorney in New Port Richey. "It's very problematic for the prosecution." Whether the confession can be used in court is among several issues that surfaced this week when prosecutors released transcripts of Couey's interviews with investigators. The statements also renewed questions about how long Jessica was kept alive after abduction, and why prosecutors didn't file charges against Couey's housemates. Prosecutors and Citrus County Sheriff's Office officials say they are confident their case remains strong. They say they will seek the death penalty against the 46-year-old Couey, who is being held at the Citrus County jail on a 1st-degree murder charge. The central legal concern with the confessions arose halfway through Couey's 1st conversation with Citrus sheriff's detectives Scott Grace and Gary Atchison. It was March 17, hours after Couey's arrest in Augusta, Ga. According to the transcript, the detectives read Couey his Miranda warnings and then questioned him about the disappearance of the 9-year-old girl. He denied ever speaking to her. The detectives told him they believed he was lying and asked him to take a polygraph examination. "I guess. I'm just, I want a lawyer, you know," Couey said. "Hang on, hang on, John. All right. Hang on, I'm just asking," Grace said. "If that's what you want to do, but I mean, you know . . ." Couey said. "I'm just asking, "Would you?' I'm not saying do it now. I'm saying would you . . ." Grace said. "I said I would," Couey said. "I just want to talk to a lawyer." "Okay," Grace said. After the tape was turned off, the detectives asked Couey if they could talk with him again the next day, said Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway. Couey took a polygraph test the next morning, and then asked to speak to Citrus investigators. After again being read his rights, Couey admitted the killing, officials say. Couey didn't speak to an attorney until he returned to Citrus County days later and was appointed a public defender. Ridgway and Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said they could not explain why investigators didn't stop the interview when Couey asked for an attorney. "Anybody who is critical of the Citrus County Sheriff's Office in this case either doesn't know what they're talking about or they haven't done the job," Ridgway said. The defense has not asked a judge to suppress the statement, but prosecutors expect as much. Largo defense attorney John Trevena said he was "floored" when he read that part of the transcript. "I can't imagine those detectives would not know the basics of interrogation and how to respond to a suspect's request for counsel," he said. "They stammered; they actually stammered. What kind of response is that? They should have ceased and hoped for reinitiation (by Couey), which often occurs. Let the suspect reinitiate the conversation." One legal doctrine likely to come into play, several experts said, is the "fruit of a poisonous tree." That means evidence gathered from a tainted confession is also tainted. In this case, that would include details Couey disclosed, including the location of Jessica's body, said Joe Little, a constitutional law professor at the University of Florida. "Once he's asked for an attorney, he's entitled to have them back off and stop questioning," Little said. "That could have a major bearing on whether or not any of the evidence thereafter obtained is admissible." That Couey was read his rights before the polygraph test and again before each of his confessions could be a mitigating factor, the professor said. "The argument is going to be he never would have agreed to any polygraph had he been given an attorney," Little said. Ridgway said if the confession is thrown out, the finding of Jessica's body still would be admissible under the doctrine of "inevitable discovery," which means that investigators would have found the body eventually, even without Couey's help. "The regular investigative techniques would have led them to the body," he said. "(Couey's) directing them to it just shortcutted it." By the time Couey was interviewed, investigators already had searched his mobile home and found a mattress stained with blood, prosecutors say. Ridgway said they eventually would have found Jessica's body, which was buried in a shallow grave behind Couey's mobile home. Trevena, however, predicted prosecutors would have difficulty arguing that the body would have been found anyway because it was underground. Without the confession, the case likely would rely on the mattress and other physical evidence, as well as witnesses and whatever else prosecutors can get into court, Ridgway said. "I do not want the citizens of Citrus County to be concerned about whether he'll be convicted. . . . This case is rock solid," Dawsy said. Couey repeatedly says in his statements that he kept Jessica in his bedroom closet for 3 days before killing her. Ridgway, however, said he thinks the girl was likely dead before sun-up, just hours after Couey abducted her from her bed. He said his opinion is based on evidence and the typical behavior of sex offenders. Couey said he fed Jessica grits, hamburgers, eggs and pizza. But the medical examiner reported her stomach was empty when she died. The Lunsford family said Jessica didn't like pizza. Couey said Jessica urinated on the closet floor where he kept her. Investigators found no evidence of that, Ridgway said. They found a plastic jug in the closet, but Couey said the urine in it was his. He also said Jessica was alive and hidden in his closet when officers visited the mobile home shortly after her disappearance. He suggested officers could have found her alive if they had searched the home. Sex offenders - Couey has a prior conviction for a sex offense on a child - often blame crimes on others and suggest the victim's family or law enforcement is at fault, said Amy Swan, a forensic psychologist and former chairwoman of the Florida Board of Psychology. Prosecutors referred reporters to Swan. "I don't place a lot of credibility in his statements ... There's often a lot of untruths mixed in with truths in order to show it was someone else's fault," she said. Couey has been the only person charged in the case, a fact that has drawn criticism from Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, among others.<>P> Couey shared the mobile home with his half-sister, Dorothy Marie Dixon, 47; her daughter, Madie Catherine Secord, 27; her daughter's husband, Gene Allan Secord, 35; and Dixon's boyfriend, Matthew Oley Dittrich, 31. An infant and a teenage girl also lived there. But Couey's statements, while new to the public this week, weren't new to the State Attorney's Office. Prosecutors knew Couey's story two months ago when they declined to charge the housemates with obstruction, or as accessories. Ridgway repeated Friday that investigators have no evidence that the housemates knew Jessica was in the mobile home, or that Couey killed her. They will not be prosecuted, he said, "barring discovery of evidence that thus far does not seem to exist." "What's missing thus far is that they knew she was there," he said. "They have to know that (Couey) did it." (source: St. Petersburg Times) ALABAMA: Court upholds death sentences A state appeals court upheld death sentences Friday for the killing of a federal drug agent in Shelby County and the murder and robbery of a man who attended a birthday party in Macon County. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals rejected arguments from Eugene Milton Clemons II that he is mentally retarded and shouldn't be executed for the shooting death of federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent Douglas Althouse. The agent was killed on May 28, 1992, during the theft of his undercover car from a Shelby County convenience store. The appeals court also ruled that Michael Irvin's capital murder conviction and death sentence were appropriate for the robbery and shooting death of Jackie Thompson in Macon County. In Clemons' case, the Court of Criminal Appeals looked at his sentence in 2003, after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled against executing the mentally retarded. The appeals court told Shelby County Circuit Judge Al Crowson to review whether Clemons was mentally retarded and should have his sentence switched from death to life in prison without parole. The judge, after reviewing mental evaluations and school records, decided Clemons did not qualify as mentally retarded. The appeals court agreed in a 5-0 decision Friday. The court also rejected arguments from Clemons that there were numerous errors in his 1994 trial for capital murder. In Irvin's case, Thompson, a construction worker from Eclectic, attended a birthday party for Irvin in Tuskegee on Nov. 12, 1997. The next day, Thompson's burned auto was found in a rural part of Macon County, but there was no sign of Thompson. In 1999, Irvin was arrested for another killing and confessed to being present when a companion shot and killed Thompson. Irvin admitted they took $3,000 from Thompson's body, burned his car and dumped his body in another part of the county. He led investigators to the remains. In a 5-0 ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals said the death sentence was appropriate for the crime because 2/3 of the death sentences imposed in Alabama are for robbery-homicide convictions. (source: Associated Press) VERMONT: Man Convicted in Vt. Death Penalty Case The conviction of a man accused of abducting and bludgeoning to death a woman as she prayed for her life marked the 1st death penalty case in Vermont in nearly a half century. The federal court jury will begin hearing evidence next week in the penalty phase of the case and decide whether Donald Fell should be executed for the death of Terry King. "It's what we've been waiting for for the last four years," said King's sister, Barbara Tuttle after the conviction Friday. "Now we hope they continue on and decide to give him the death penalty." Fell, 25, was accused of joining another man in carjacking King from a Rutland supermarket in 2000, taking her across the state line to New York, and killing her. The other defendant, Robert Lee, hanged himself in prison in 2001. Vermont does not have a state death penalty and has not executed anyone since the 1954. But federal prosecutors brought charges under a U.S. law that allows the death penalty for a carjacking that results in a death. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected a plea bargain that would have given Fell life in prison. The jury took less than two hours to find Fell guilty on all 4 counts. He showed no emotion as he stood and listened to the verdict. The verdict came after federal prosecutor William Darrow told jurors in closing arguments that Fell made "cold-blooded, rational decisions" to kidnap and kill. Defense attorney Alexander Bunin argued that Fell made "a series of bad decisions that led to tragedy." "This is not planning," the lawyer said. Authorities said Fell and Lee killed Fell's mother and a friend of hers after a night of drinking and smoking crack, then set off on the journey that ensnared King, 53, as she arrived for work. In a taped confession played for the jury, Fell said, "I didn't want her in the car anymore." The last time a defendant was sentenced to death in Vermont was in 1957, but the sentence was later commuted. (source: Associated Press)
