August 26 ALABAMA: Bester claims insanity in morning plea James Lee Bester pleaded innocent in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court to the capital murder accusation that he shot and killed his 15-year-old stepdaughter in their Holt-Peterson Road residence almost 1 year ago. Bester, 44, stood before Judge John England in shackles and a clean, white Tuscaloosa County Jail uniform as he listened to prosecutors read the charges against him. His attorneys, Jim Roberts and Nettie Blume of Tuscaloosa, then entered the pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental defect. State law allows a capital murder defendant to enter both pleas, a move defense attorneys use to leave open the doors of both innocence and insanity. Bester is accused of killing Shannon Marie McGuire, 15, in the morning hours of Aug. 30, 2004. Authorities said Bester shot the teenage student of Holt High School in the head with a .38-caliber pistol has he kept them locked in her bedroom. When sheriff's deputies entered the residence following an hour-long standoff, they found the girl's body in the closet. Chris Hargett, chief assistant district attorney for Tuscaloosa County, said prosecutors want a death sentence for Bester. "The state, at this point, is seeking the death penalty," said Hargett, who filled in for District Attorney Tommy Smith during today's arraignment. Smith is the lead prosecutor in the case. However, Hargett declined to specify why the state is seeking the death penalty for Bester, citing ethical issues. The 8-count indictment, which includes 4 counts of capital murder, was delivered by a grand jury in November. It accuses Bester of killing the teenager while holding her prisoner, while breaking in to the residence with the intent to commit assault and burglary and committing murder in violation of a violence protection order. All of these charges are punishable by death or life in prison without parole. The remaining 4 charges include third-degree domestic violence for allegedly threatening to set Shannon on fire with a lighter, violation of a court-sanction protection order and two counts of attempted murder for allegedly attempting to shoot and kill Shannon's mother and his wife, Barbara Bester, as well as James Langford, who lives next door to the Bester residence. ********************************* Prosecution witness against murder suspect found dead A prosecution witness against capital murder suspect Jeremy Jones was found dead at a residence in Chunchula. The body of William Donald "Scooter" Coleman Jr., 39, was found Thursday by a family member. A Mobile County sheriff's department statement Friday said there were no signs of foul play. The cause of death remains under investigation by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Coleman was expected to testify in the Oct. 17 trial of Jones in the death of Lisa Nichols, 45, who was raped and burned. She was found dead inside her home in Mobile County last September. Besides Nichols, Jones is charged with killing a teenage girl in Georgia and a woman in Louisiana. Authorities have said Jones confessed or is being investigated in the deaths of a couple and the disappearance of 2 teenage girls in Oklahoma, plus the killing of another woman in Georgia. Jones, a native of Oklahoma, could be sentenced to death if convicted. At the time of his Alabama arrest, Jones was wanted in Oklahoma for rape and failure to register as a sex offender. Investigators from other states have visited Alabama to talk with Jones about unsolved cases. (source for both: The Tuscaloosa News) ******************************* Alabama appeals court upholds death sentence for Georgia man A state appeals court Friday upheld the death sentence of a Georgia man in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old Phenix City boy who was dumped into a makeshift grave with his father, who was left for dead but survived. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals rejected claims of pretrial publicity and bias on the part of the judge as it upheld the death sentence of Michael David Carruth, a bail bondsman from LaGrange, Ga., in the abduction and killing of William Brett Bowyer. The ruling was among several addressing death sentences: -In two other cases, the appeals court reduced the death sentences of Mark Anthony Duke in the slaughter of a Shelby County family and Shaber Chamond Wimberly in 3 southeast Alabama killings. The court was implementing the March ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that prohibited the death penalty for killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. The sentences were changed to life without parole. -The court also upheld Rex Allen Beckworth's death sentence for the 2002 murder of 87-year-old Bessie Lee Thweatt in Houston County. His half-brother, James Earl Walter, also has been sentenced to death for the crime. -The justices rejected Gregory Hunt's claim that his attorney was ineffective during his capital murder trial for the 1988 beating death of a former girlfriend, Karen Lane, in Parrish. Hunt was accused of torching her house, going to an apartment where she was staying, sexually assaulting and fatally beating her. In the Bowyer slaying case, Carruth and Jimmy Lee Brooks Jr., of Smiths Station, were convicted of abducting the 12-year-old boy and his father from their home, robbing the father of some $40,000 and a gun, then eventually cutting the father's throat and shooting the boy to eliminate witnesses. The father, Forest Bowyer, survived to testify at the trial. He said Carruth slit his throat and left him for dead, while Brooks shot his son in the head three times. Brooks also is under a death sentence. In his appeal, Carruth argued that he didn't receive a fair trial because the judge had already presided over two separate bond-forfeiture cases against his bonding company, and therefore should have stepped down from the murder trial. But the appeals court said there was "no reasonable question" as to the judge's impartiality or any appearance of impropriety. The court also rejected Carruth's argument that pretrial publicity hurt his chances at getting a fair trial. In Duke's case, the court reduced his sentence because he was 16 when he and a cohort killed his father, 2 little girls and their mother at a Shelby County home. His cohort, Brandon Samra, remains on death row for his part because he was 19 at the time. The death sentence for Wimberly was also vacated because he was 17 when he killed Max and Johneen King in January 1997 and Mary Spivey 5 months later. (source: Associated Press) MARYLAND: Defense considering insanity plea for inmate charged with murder ---- Twice-convicted killer accused of strangling inmate on prison bus Attorneys for Kevin G. Johns Jr., the twice-convicted killer accused of strangling a fellow inmate on a prison bus this year, said yesterday that they are considering an insanity plea for their client but need more time to have him evaluated by mental health professionals before making a decision. During a hearing in Baltimore County Circuit Court, Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. gave defense lawyers 45 days to decide whether to file a plea of not criminally responsible in a case he called "too bizarre." And while he said the facts of the case have left him questioning whether Johns' competency to stand trial should also be evaluated, he ultimately left it up to the 22-year-old inmate's lawyers to make that call. Defense attorneys have been negotiating with prison officials to find a way to safely and properly have Johns examined by psychiatrists. He is heavily guarded and wears mitts on his hands whenever he is out of his prison cell, said William C. Brennan Jr., one of his lawyers. The mitts would make it difficult for Johns to perform some psychological tests, Brennan said. Johns is accused of strangling Philip E. Parker Jr. on Feb. 2 during a 75-mile bus ride from Hagerstown to the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, also known as Supermax, in Baltimore. The two were among more than 30 inmates on the bus as it traveled through Washington, Frederick, Howard and Baltimore counties and into the city. Parker's body was discovered when the bus stopped at Supermax. Johns was charged with 1st-degree murder. Baltimore County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The hearing yesterday had been scheduled to allow lawyers to argue whether Johns was properly charged in Baltimore County - or whether the case should be moved to another jurisdiction along the bus route. Charges traditionally are brought where the crime occurred, and Johns' defense attorneys have argued in court papers that Parker's death could not have taken place in Baltimore County. But the illness of one of Johns' defense attorneys forced a postponement of the hearing on that motion yesterday. Instead, the lawyers used the hearing to discuss the status of the case. Johns is serving a 35-year sentence for killing his uncle and a sentence of life in prison without parole in the death of Armad Cloude, his 16-year-old cellmate at the Maryland Correctional Training Center near Hagerstown. Parker had testified the day before his death on Johns' behalf at a sentencing hearing in Hagerstown, telling the court that Johns needed psychiatric help. Johns also said during that hearing that he likely would kill again if he did not receive treatment. Several correctional officers were fired or disciplined as a result of Parker's death. (source: The Baltimore Sun) MISSOURI: Judge rejects suit against death penalty A federal judge today rejected a condemned mans claim that the execution he faces next week by lethal injection would be unconstitutionally cruel. His lawyers promised to appeal. U.S. District Judge Charles A. Shaw heard two hours of testimony this morning on the petition by Timothy Johnston, 44, who was condemned for beating and kicking his wife to death in 1989. In a written order, Shaw refused to delay the execution, saying Johnstons lawyers hadnt made their case. Johnston, of St. Louis, murdered Nancy Johnston, 27, on June 30, 1989, by beating and kicking her while in her car and at their home in the 4700 block of Minnesota Avenue. He admitted killing her in a rage over an argument they had at a tavern. He is to die by lethal injection shortly after midnight Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Mo. With all other appeals exhausted, Johnston is arguing that Missouris system administering the drugs is flawed enough to allow the chance of a "painful and protracted death." Missouri calls the chance of that "non-existent." The state has administered a 3-drug series intravenously in all 64 of its executions since 1989. Johnston's lawyers claim that Missouri doesnt adequately monitor administration of the 1st drug, a heavy sedative, creating a chance a condemned person could be conscious when the lethal drugs are administered - and thus suffer great pain. Michael A. Gorla, a lawyer for Johnston, said they would ask the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday to block the execution and hold another hearing. (source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
