September 2 TEXAS----new death sentence Lovers lane killer sentenced to die It took less than 20 minutes Thursday for a jury to sentence convicted lovers lane murderer Juan Edwardo Castillo to death for the Dec. 3, 2003 robbery and shooting of Tommy Garcia Jr. "May God have mercy on your soul," said 186th District Judge Maria Teresa Herr, after she issued the sentence. Castillo, 24, showed no reaction when Herr read the verdict and he remained equally impassive during the trial's victim impact phase. The sentence will be the subject of an automatic appeal by the state Court of Criminal Appeals. Relatives of Garcia broke down into tears, and when given the chance, vented their anger at Castillo. "He was my angel. He was my son," said Garcia's mother, Joyce Garza. "He was a brother; he was a grandson; he was a nephew; and you took that away from us. I hope you rot. I hope you rot for what you did to my son." The victim's father, Tommy Garcia Sr., said: "You think you're a man, you're not a man, you are a coward. "Would you like for this to happen to your son? You don't have a heart. That's what it is! You don't have a heart!" Garcia added. "You are a cold-blooded killer. That's what you are," Garza said, collapsing on a courtroom bench into the arms of relatives. In the final 2 days of his trial - during the punishment phase - Castillo defended himself after firing both of his court-appointed attorneys on Wednesday. He declined to cross-examine any prosecution witnesses, who testified in detail about Castillo's life of crime since age 16, and he gave no summation to jurors after lead prosecutor David Lunan argued that the defendant represents a continuing threat to society. Defense attorney Bill Harris said it was difficult to sit next to Castillo and offer no objections and arguments. Harris and co-counsel Denny Callahan remained at the defense table at the judge's direction to offer assistance to Castillo as the trial wound down. "It was very difficult to sit there and do nothing, but that was his choice," Harris said. When asked if Castillo may have been seeking the death penalty to avoid a life sentence, Harris said, "I think he was tired of fighting. He told us he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in jail." It was the 2nd death sentence imposed by a Bexar County jury in 2 weeks. On Aug. 17, Noah Espada, 21, was sentenced to die for the 2004 murders of Sandra Ramos, 29, and Luther "Luke" Scott, 30. Espada and Castillo represent the 37th and 38th defendants from Bexar County sent to death row, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Garcia was 19 when he was shot seven times by Castillo during a robbery that started when the victim was lured by Castillo's girlfriend to a South Side lovers lane to do drugs and have sex. (source : San Antonio Express-News) *********************** Castillo Sentenced To Death It took just 15 minutes for a jury to sentence a convicted killer to death in a capital murder trial that ended with an emotionally charged outburst. Just moments after Juan Castillo was sentenced to death, the family of his victim released 20 months of suppressed anger. "I hope you rot for what you've done to us," said one family member of murder victim Tommy Garcia. "You don't have a heart. That's what you don't have: a heart. You're a cold-blooded killer. That's what you are." On a dark street known as Lover's Lane, 19-year old Tommy Garcia was shot to death in a botched robbery. Castillo's girlfriend had lured Garcia there for sex, which was part of a plan to rob him. Following his conviction Tuesday, Castillo asked for and was granted permission to represent himself. Castillo's decision to move from his chair to his lawyer's chair at the defense table presented an unexpected challenge to everyone, especially his lawyers who tried to advise him against it. "He told us that he - basically - didn't want to spend the rest of his life in jail," said defense attorney Bill Harris. "He'd rather have the death penalty." (source: KSAT News) ******************************* Officers learn about mental illness Convincing law enforcement officers that they need to learn best practices for dealing with the mentally ill is often a tough sell, said Frank Webb of the Houston Police Department. After all, police don't encounter people in psychiatric crisis every day. Plus, a lot of officers think they already have enough skills to deal with most situations and don't relish the idea of sitting through another training seminar. But the way Webb looks at it, the best officers are well-rounded ones. If police think nothing of sitting through the 40 hours of firearm training or 32 hours of driving instruction required in basic training, they should be willing to learn a set of skills to improve their interactions with the quarter of the population diagnosed with a mental illness. "The average officers will never use his firearm during his whole career," Webb said. "The average officer does not get into high-speed pursuits all that often. But the average officer will encounter someone who is mentally ill. The problem is that the average officer has never been taught what is schizophrenia, what is psychosis, what's going on with these people." That was part of an introduction Webb gave Thursday to more than 100 local law enforcement officers who attended a training session he led in Waco. It was the 1st of 5 sessions this month in which 700 to 800 Central Texas officers will learn about how to better deal with the mentally ill. Known as Crisis Intervention Training, or CIT, the sessions are designed to give officers a basic overview of mental illness and intervention techniques. Departments across the state have begun to send their officers to such classes because they are increasingly coming into contact with the mentally ill as a result of cuts in mental health-care spending. "Some people think it's warm and fuzzy social work training or sensitivity training," said Webb, who coordinates Houston's CIT program, which is the largest in the country. "It isn't. It's officer safety training." CIT involves two main parts. One is educating officers about different types of mental illnesses. For example, they learned about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder at Thursday's session. That component is necessary, Webb said, so officers can recognize when someone is mentally ill. The 2nd part of the training focuses on the best way to approach a person who is mentally ill. Police are generally taught to be authoritative, commanding and even physical when controlling situations. But those traditional tactics often backfire when dealing with the mentally ill, Webb said. "Actually less is more in many incidents dealing with the mentally ill," he said. The 8-hour training is being paid for by the Heart of Texas Region Mental Health Mental Retardation Center, which delivers public mental health services locally. The sessions had been planned since May, but as it turns out, they will fit perfectly into a new law that took effect Thursday. The law requires all veteran officers to go through 16 hours of CIT. Although they have until Sept. 2009 to do so, most local officers should have the requirement satisfied by the end of the year. At some point later this fall, Webb is going to come back to do a second round of CIT. It will last an additional 8 hours and cover topics such as active listening and common drugs used to treat mental illness. Barbara Tate, executive director of the local MHMR, said mental health officials are thrilled so many area officers are participating in the training. "I think everyone realizes this is a very important area of training, and as (Webb) said, it's not only to help improve the safety of clients out in the community, but ... also to improve the safety of law enforcement personnel." Officers who attended the training also said it's positive. "Since there has always been so little training (about mental illness), we haven't been able to recognize (people with mental illness)," said Cody Myers, a Bellmead police officer assigned to the Agriplex Drug Task Force. Sgt. Steve Graeter of the Waco Police Department said many of the techniques Webb taught about are things his department has been doing for several years. But the session was still helpful, he said. "You can never have enough training," he said. (source: Waco Tribune-Herald) ********************************* Accused Plano mom won't face death----Plano: Schlosser's attorney planning insanity defense A Plano mother accused of severing her 10-month-old daughter's arms will not face the death penalty when tried next year, according to Collin County district attorney's office officials. Dena Schlosser, 36, remains in the Collin County jail facing a capital murder charge in Margaret Schlosser's death. "Based on everything we know about this case, we just don't think this is a case for the death penalty," said Collin County Assistant District Attorney Curtis Howard. Ms. Schlosser's attorney, David Haynes, said he was happy with the decision. "Any time you have a client that was about to be put on trial for her life and isn't, that's a good development." In November, police responding to a 911 call arrived at the Plano apartment Ms. Schlosser shared with her husband, John, and their 3 children. She held a knife and told police that she had cut off Margaret's arms. The child was found in a bedroom and whisked to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Ms. Schlosser had been diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. She was found incompetent to stand trial in February after a jury determined she was unable to assist with her own defense. Then Ms. Schlosser was treated at North Texas State Hospital in Vernon until her competency was declared restored in late May. Not long afterward, she was returned to the Collin County Jail. Mr. Haynes said that he last saw Ms. Schlosser on Monday and that she continues to improve. This week, Mr. Haynes filed paperwork declaring his intent to raise an insanity defense. "We believe that we have strong evidence to indicate that she was insane at the time of the offense," Mr. Haynes said. The day before Margaret's death, Ms. Schlosser reportedly told her husband that she wanted to give her daughter "to God." Ms. Schlosser's stepfather and mother, Mick and Connie Macaulay, have said Ms. Schlosser's mental state combined with her fervent religious beliefs and obsession with her church's charismatic leader led her to harm her youngest daughter. Doyle Davidson, leader of Water of Life Church in Plano, is a self-proclaimed prophet who preaches that women have a "Jezebel spirit" and must submit to their husbands. He has said he has been blamed unfairly and does not manipulate people. The Macaulays, who live in Canada, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Mr. Schlosser has custody of the couple's two older daughters and has filed for divorce. Mr. Schlosser could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But his attorney, Howard Shapiro, said his client is pleased Ms. Schlosser won't face the death penalty. But Mr. Schlosser does not want her to have access to their daughters, Mr. Shapiro said. "We don't have any desire that she be put to death," Mr. Shapiro said. "That wasn't the real Dena Schlosser that did what she did that day. Putting her to death won't solve any of the issues of that day ... probably harm them [their daughters] more than anything else." A trial date is expected to be scheduled for February, said Mr. Howard, the prosecutor. (source: Dallas Morning News) ************************ Mexican nationals want new trials An investigator's description of 2 suspects in the 1996 armed robbery and murder of a convenience store clerk differed in several ways from that provided by the officer who interviewed the dying victim, according to court testimony Thursday. "If the investigators do not give you useful information, wrong decisions could be made, innocent people could be arrested," defense attorney Barry McNeil said while questioning the district attorney who received the report from the investigator, a Texas Ranger. "Could it happen?" District Attorney Mark Yarbrough asked McNeil. "Sure." The hearing for Jesus Ramirez, 56, and Alberto Sifuentes, 32, both Mexican nationals, is a challenge to their 1998 convictions in the death of Evangelina Cruz, a mother of 4, in nearby Littlefield. Their convictions were upheld on appeal. The defense is trying to have the convictions thrown out and new trials ordered. The hearing must provide evidence of the men's innocence and cannot just attack the credibility of prosecutors' cases at trial. In the Littlefield police officer's report and in testimony he gave at each man's trial, the suspects were described as 18-20 years old, one with long hair and the other with short hair. The officer also included that Cruz described the suspects' car as gold-colored. In the report by Texas Ranger Sal Abreo, the suspects' age range was left out, one suspect was described as having a light complexion and the car used by the suspects could also have been yellow. "Did you talk to Sal Abreo about the differences?" McNeil asked Yarbrough. "If I did, I don't recall doing that," Yarbrough answered. The defense has attempted to discredit Abreo's work on the cases. Yarbrough prosecuted only the Ramirez case. A special prosecutor was appointed to handle Sifuentes' case. In evidence presented earlier this week, Abreo is described as less than honest in a document about witnesses that Yarbrough created for the special prosecutor. "He lied to me to get me to file this case," the document from Yarbrough reads. Abreo was subpoenaed to testify but couldn't be in Lubbock this week for medical reasons. (source: Associated Press) USA: FBI Abandons Controversial Bullet-Matching Technique The FBI said Thursday that it had discontinued the use of bullet-lead matching, a forensic technique used for at least 25 years that had been heavily criticized as inaccurate and misleading. The bureau suspended its use in 2004 after a report by the National Research Council found the technique could be "seriously misleading" and "objectionable." The council's finding called into question FBI testimony in hundreds of cases involving murder and other serious crimes. "It's a victory for good sense and good science over the kind of nonsense the FBI was representing in court," said William C. Thompson, a professor of law and criminology at UC Irvine. The FBI said it would alert about 300 courts and prosecutors that since 1996 had received bullet-lead laboratory reports indicating positive results. "These agencies may take whatever steps they deem appropriate, if any, given the facts of their particular case," said an FBI statement released Thursday. Overall, the bureau estimated it had conducted 2,500 bullet-lead examinations for federal, state, local and foreign cases since the early 1980s. In bullet-lead analysis, crime-scene bullets are tested for trace elements, such as antimony, silver and tin. Examiners then compared those elements to levels found in bullets in a suspect's possession. FBI examiners had testified that crime-scene bullets could be linked to bullets found in a box owned by a suspect. The method was often used when no gun was found, making it impossible to identify a bullet by matching rifling marks left by a gun's barrel. FBI Laboratory Director Dwight E. Adams said the agency, after conducting its own evaluation over the last 14 months, concluded that the manufacturing and distribution of bullets was too variable to make the matching reliable. "It wasn't possible to obtain accurate, easily understandable probability estimates like it is with other methods, such as DNA," Adams said. Nonetheless, he said, "we stand by the results of the reports we have already issued." FBI testimony had sometimes gone beyond the lab reports, and juries had often accepted such testimony as important in criminal cases. A Times investigation published in 2003 suggested the FBI might have exaggerated the scientific validity of bullet-lead matching. In one case, that of Michael Behn, a New Jersey man convicted of murder in 1997, an FBI examiner testified that bullets collected from the victim's body matched those in Behn's home. In Behn's case, Adams blamed the prosecutor, who "overstated the evidence," he said. Behn challenged the bullet-lead evidence on appeal. His conviction was overturned in March, and he was granted a new trial. His case is pending. Thompson said the FBI should be more aggressive in making sure wrongful convictions due to faulty bullet-lead evidence were overturned. "If the FBI is serious about correcting the problems, they should make the list of cases known to organizations such as the National Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers that might be able to provide assistance to incarcerated individuals," he said. (source: Los Angeles Times) NORTH CAROLINA: Woman Charged In Norlina Slaying Could Receive Death Penalty A woman accused of killing a traveling salesman from Warren County could face the death penalty if convicted. Theresa Jones is charged with murder in the death of Donald Wimbrow in Norlina last March. Wimbrow's body was found stuffed under the mobile home where Jones lived. The district attorney's office says Jones hit Wimbrow over the head with a rock, then strangled him. (source: WRAL News) ARKANSAS: Man's fate in jury's hands A Miller County jury doesn't have to worry about finding 24-year-old Justin Anderson guilty or innocent. They just have to consider sentencing him to death or to life in prison. Anderson was originally convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on Jan. 22, 2002, by a Lafayette County jury for the robbery and shooting of Clara Creech, 87, of Lewisville, Ark. Mrs. Creech, who had been working in her flower garden, was shot once in the head above her ear with a .38-caliber pistol on Oct. 12, 2000. A Miller County jury was selected to sentence Anderson because the Arkansas Supreme Court, in May 2004, set aside the original sentence because Lafayette County jurors did not understand or properly fill out the jury forms. The guilty conviction remains. The lawyers for the Arkansas Public Defender's Commission will argue to sentence Anderson to life in prison instead of death. Anderson was 19 years old when the murder occurred. Prosecuting Attorney Brent Haltom and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Griffin are seeking the death penalty. Circuit Judge Jim Hudson agreed to move the case to Miller County because Anderson's lawyers argued the jury pool in Lafayette County would be prejudiced by the notoriety of the case. Mrs. Creech was the mother-in-law of former state Rep. Russ Bennett, R-Lewisville. The 7-woman, 5-man jury was selected by noon Wednesday and testimony started about 1:30 p.m. in the Miller County Circuit Court in Texarkana. "It's a senseless crime and it shouldn't have happened. The pain to the family is unimaginable. Our hearts go out to them. They're pain is real," said Robby Golden, one of three lawyers representing Anderson through the public defender's commission during the opening statement. "Justin has already been found guilty of capital murder. We're not here to debate that. We're here to decide the punishment," said Golden. "Before you make a decision to kill my client, consider his past." Golden outlined a childhood of abuse and neglect for Anderson. His mother's boyfriends had beaten him while Justin's mother was too mentally retarded to defend him. Golden said Anderson was placed in foster care homes and enjoyed it. But his father discovered he was in foster care and eventually regained custody of his son. Golden said Justin and his brother Maurice were disciplined by their father who would "strip them naked and use an electrical cord wrapped in duct tape to whip them." He said the brothers were verbally abused and went at times without food. "He lived from family to family. If he was not at rock bottom, he was getting pretty close," said Golden. He said following a search for Creech's killer, Anderson waited "for the cops to come and pick him up and didn't resist." Haltom urged the jury to consider the death penalty. "Justin didn't show Mrs. Creech any mercy. Don't show him any mercy," said Haltom. Wednesday's testimony started with Lewisville Police Chief Jason Tomlin saying he was the 1st law enforcement to arrive at the woman's house after neighbors called 911 when they spotted her body partially laying in a flower bed. Arkansas State Police Special Agent Hays McWhirter testified Mrs. Creech was shot once in the right side of her head above her ear. He said next to her body were flower clippings in a box and a bucket of water. She appeared to have been working in her flower garden when the shooting occurred. A transcript was read from the original trial made by Anderson's family members saying the pistol was found in a vacuum cleaner in the house where Anderson was staying. The testimony ended about 5 p.m. and Judge Hudson said the sentencing trial will reconvene at 1 p.m. Thursday. Hudson told the jury an unexpected death occurred and courthouse officials will be attending the funeral Thursday morning. (source: Texarkana Gazette)
