Jan. 5
TEXAS: TDCJ: Escapee didn't carry key from death row----X-rays would've detected anything killer Thompson smuggled, prison officials say Citing X-rays conducted before Charles Victor Thompson left their custody, state prison authorities have concluded that the handcuff key Thompson used when he slipped out of the Harris County Jail did not come from death row as Sheriff Tommy Thomas and other county officials claimed. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice launched an investigation after Thomas said publicly that the key was smuggled from death row in Livingston during Thompson's transfer to the local jail to await court hearings. The investigation concluded X-rays would have detected any hidden contraband on Thompson or in his personal property. "Our investigation did not determine the key came from Polunsky or any another TDCJ unit," said prison system spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. "Thompson has been adamant with prison investigators he obtained the key from Harris County. He said he simply told Harris County he got it from death row to expedite his transfer." Based on Thompson's statements to them, sheriff's officials maintain that the key was hidden in the inmate's toothpaste tube among the personal items he brought with him from the Polunsky Unit, where Thompson awaits execution for the 1998 slaying of his former girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30. Thompson had been in Houston for resentencing - a Harris County jury affirmed the death penalty Oct. 28 and was waiting to be returned to Livingston. "At this point, the only person who knows for sure is Mr. Thompson," Lyons said. "And he has told us he did not get the key from TDCJ." Along with the handcuff key, Thompson smuggled in his prison ID card and civilian clothes, which he used for his Nov. 3 dash to freedom. He was captured almost four days later in Shreveport, La. Recently released county documents indicate jail officials learned that Thompson had the items in his cell 2 weeks before his escape, but a search Oct. 20 uncovered only the clothing. Thompson said during an interview from death row last month that he used his legal binder to hide the items. He did not mention who gave him the handcuff key, saying he would take that secret to his grave. Chief Deputy Mike Smith, who oversees the jail, said that as a result of Thompson's escape he is considering changing the policy that allows inmates to keep their legal papers inside their cells. Smith said all policies were reviewed, but county officials determined that the legal binders would likely be the only adjustment. "We have policies; they were just not followed," Smith said. No memo or other notice was circulated to jail employees about the discovery of the clothes so that guards could be more alert, which allowed Thompson to smuggle in civilian clothes again, said Richard Cobb, an attorney who represents former Deputy John Thurmon in his appeal before the county's Civil Service Commission. 8 days after the Oct. 20 clothing discovery, Thompson again was able to sneak back to his cell the shirt and pants he wore during his final court appearance. A week later, Thompson escaped, using the state prison ID as a prop to support his claim that he was a state investigator. "It seems aggravating to me to hold the person at the bottom of the rung responsible when clearly it should've been something that management should've taken care of," Cobb said. "It's absurd they didn't. They could've put him in lockdown mode or in a number of other different scenarios." Sheriff's spokesman Lt. John Martin said the discovery of the clothes should have been widely known at the jail and that oversight led to the disciplinary action against Lt. Robert Henry, the highest-ranking employee to be disciplined. Henry acknowledged the error in his sworn statement. Henry declined to comment for this article. 7 county employees received unpaid leaves of absence and one a letter of reprimand, while another opted to retire rather than face discipline. 2 deputies and Thurmon are appealing to the Civil Service Commission. All of the disciplined employees also must serve 180 days of probation, during which they cannot work any off-duty security job, their disciplinary letters state. Deputy Michael Collins is appealing his weeklong suspension for, according to records, failing to verify that Thompson's prison badge was indeed among other personal items collected from Thompson. In his sworn statement, Collins acknowledged that he did not know whether the badge was inside the property bag before he sealed it, his disciplinary letter states. Sgt. Sean Conrad was cited for failing to provide reports to the appropriate chain of command after the Oct. 20 discovery of the smuggled clothes. Conrad, according to his disciplinary letter, was said to have told another deputy that the discovery of the clothes "was not a big deal because 'we have found him with court clothes before.'" Harris County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Danny Billingsley said he knows of no other instance in which clothes were found in Thompson's cell. Thurmon has declined to comment through his attorney. Collins and Conrad could not be reached for comment. (source: Houston Chronicle) ********************** Lawless Disorder----Top 10 crime and justice stories 1) Burn Baby, Burn: 6 Austin police officers and 4 dispatchers were punished for a stream of inappropriate, insensitive, and callous comments - beginning with the now infamous "burn baby, burn" - delivered via patrol-car data terminals during the Feb. 18 fire at the Midtown Live! nightclub. The upside of the incident, if there was one, was the city's subsequent public airing of the lack of a social infrastructure for Austin's African-American community. The city's nascent plans to remedy the disparity is a question for 2006. 2) Get Thee Behind Me, Reaper: On March 3, federal District Judge Royal Fergeson overturned the death sentence for Kenneth Foster, sentenced to die for being a getaway driver in the 1996 murder of Michael LaHood in San Antonio. Although Foster played no direct part in the murder, the state sought his death under the law of parties, arguing that Foster should've foreseen LaHood's actions. Fergeson opined that killing Foster would be cruel and unusual punishment; the state's appeal is pending. And in October, nearly seven-and-a-half years after he was convicted and sentenced to die, Rodney Reed got word that the Court of Criminal Appeals is sending his case back to Bastrop Co. district court for a hearing on Reed's claims that prosecutors hid evidence supporting his claims of innocence in the murder of 20-year-old Stacey Stites. 3) Prosecuting the Prophet: Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed "prophet" of the polygamous breakaway sect of Mormons known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was indicted in June on 2 Arizona state felony counts related to his arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and an older, married man. Shortly after the charges were announced and a $10K reward posted on Jeffs' head, the feds added a count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and dubbed Jeffs 1 of their 10 Most Wanted. So far Jeffs has avoided arrest, even as prophet sightings persist - including hints that he may be traveling in and out of the FLDS's private Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas. 4) Knee Stiffens: The June shooting death of 18-year-old Daniel Rocha by APD Officer Julie Schroeder renewed allegations of excessive use of force by APD officers against minority residents. Unlike previous police shootings, the Rocha case ended in Chief Stan Knee firing Schroeder and sparked police union allegations of interference on the part of the Citizen Review Panel and the Office of the Police Monitor. At press time, an official "fact-finding" inquiry into the leak is ongoing. Schroeder is appealing her termination, and her arbitration, scheduled for March, will be a story to watch in 2006. 5) Perry Rues Kid Commutations: In a 5-4 ruling in March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing juvenile offenders violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In the opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court said that the differences between juvenile and adult offenders "are too marked and well understood" - like the fact that children lack the emotional and intellectual development of adults - "to risk allowing a youthful person to receive the death penalty despite insufficient culpability." The ruling handed 28 youthful offenders a ticket off Texas' death row - though Gov. Rick Perry made it clear that were it not for the Supremes he'd have no moral qualms about sticking the needle in their arms. "I have no choice but to commute these sentences to life in prison," Perry said. 6) Electric Peacemaker?: In July, the APD reported a significant decrease in the total number of use-of-force reports, and an equally impressive decrease in both officer and suspect injuries since cops were equipped with less-than-lethal Taser electro-shock guns. Indeed, serious injuries to suspects declined a whopping 82.4% in 2004, and serious injuries to officers dropped by 50%. Yet whether the Taser is a wonder weapon remains uncertain. In September, 33-year-old Michael Clark died in police custody after he was Tasered three times. At press time, an independent review of Clark's death by a panel of local medical experts was still pending. 7) Settling for Secrets: After three long years, the city of Austin and APD Officer Jeff White reached a settlement that closed White's whistle-blower lawsuit. White sued the city in 2002, claiming he was retaliated against by former Assistant Chief Jimmy Chapman after White said investigators should focus on Chapman if they actually wanted to pursue allegations of criminal activity by high-ranking members of the APD in connection with the defunct drug-trafficking investigation known as Mala Sangre. White pushed the envelope further than any Mala Sangre investigator before him, but the city remains uninterested in airing any of its Bad Blood laundry. 8) Legal Lynching: Although there was no incontrovertible evidence against her, on Sept. 14, 40-year-old Frances Newton became the 3rd woman executed by the state during the modern era of the death penalty, and the 1st black woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. Lingering questions about the evidence against Newton had prompted the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend and Gov. Rick Perry to grant a 120-day reprieve in 2004. At least one critical piece of evidence had been contaminated, but additional evidence favorable to Newton failed to persuade either the BPP or Perry to again delay her death. 9) Coffey Finally Cleared: In August, APD announced that the U.S. Department of Justice had, after two years, finally cleared Officer John Coffey of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with the 2002 shooting death of Sophia King, a 23-year-old woman with a history of schizophrenia. The 19-year department veteran will not face federal prosecution for any violation of King's civil rights; the DOJ concluded there was "insufficient evidence" to support any charges. 10) Not Exactly CSI: It was an embarrassing year for the Travis Co. Medical Examiner's Office. An unflattering audit chastised the county for making the ME do far too much with too few resources. The office fumbled toxicology results in the police shooting death of Daniel Rocha - finding first that there were no drugs in Rocha's system, later that there was a trace amount of marijuana. In August, they misreported that cirrhosis of the liver caused by alcoholism killed musician Randy "Biscuit" Turner - until informed that Turner wasn't a drinker, and further testing showed that the cirrhosis was actually caused by hepatitis C. In August, Burnet Co. officials asked for a refund of the $1,800 they paid the ME's office for a June 2004 autopsy that the office botched by misidentifying the burned remains of an 81-year-old woman as those of a 23-year-old man. (source: Austin Chronicle) ********************* Jailed Round Rock killer again a suspect -- Fain, convicted of 1994 killing of Austin woman, is linked by DNA to Arlington slaying, police say. A Round Rock man sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for murdering Austin advertising executive Sandra Dumont and dumping her body in a cow pasture has been linked through DNA evidence to the unsolved 1987 death of a North Texas woman. Roger Fain, 51, who remains locked up, was charged Tuesday with capital murder in the death of 41-year-old Linda Sue Donahew, who was found naked, stabbed and strangled in her Arlington home on June 1, 1987. She had been sexually assaulted, and investigators took a swab of semen from her body after the slaying but could not develop a DNA profile from it, Arlington police said. Cold case detectives reopened the case in August and used advanced technology to obtain a DNA profile, which they ran against a database of known offenders and linked to Fain. They learned that Fain lived in Dallas at the time, that he drove a white 1976 Ford pickup that matched one seen near Donahew's house when she was killed and that he resembled a composite sketch of a person seen with Donahew before she was killed, according to Arlington police. Arlington detectives spoke with Round Rock investigators and found similarities among the deaths of Dumont, 39, Donahew and Darlene Anderson, 38, of Round Rock. Fain was never charged with Anderson's death because there wasn't enough evidence, but prosecutors have said that he remains the prime suspect. Anderson disappeared around the same time Dumont did, and her body was found in the same pasture off Louis Henna Boulevard. The women were all attractive, all knew Fain and each had part or all of their clothing cut from their bodies, said Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour. The June 1994 disappearance of Anderson, a mother of two, touched off a wave of fear in Round Rock. Her car was found in her driveway and her purse and credit cards were inside her home. Friends, relatives and neighbors organized mass searches of open fields nearby. Fain, a handyman who at one time had dated Dumont, joined in a search and touched off police suspicions with his inquisitiveness. "Darlene Anderson's disappearance had a profound impact (on the community). She's the kind of person you live next door to and I live next door to," said state District Judge Mike Jergins, who as an assistant district attorney in Williamson County won the conviction against Fain in Dumont's case. Dumont, who was last seen leaving a part-time job as a card dealer at a Sixth Street nightclub, was reported missing in August 1994. The bodies were found days later. "When they arrested him they pre-empted Oprah and went live with the arrest story," Jergins said. "It was a big deal." The trial was moved to Tyler because of publicity about Fain, who had a history of crimes against women dating to age 16. Prosecutors presented a circumstantial case with no witnesses or fingerprints, no murder weapon or confession. Fain maintained his innocence. Among other evidence, jurors learned that Dumont's jaw was broken and that Fain had surgery for a broken hand around that time. Prosecutors also presented undeveloped pictures found in Fain's home taken of the field where the bodies were found. After what jurors termed 12 stressful hours of deliberations, they returned a guilty verdict. Fain is incarcerated at the Eastham Unit in Lovelady, about 175 miles northeast of Austin. He will not be eligible for parole until 2024. Arlington police say Tarrant County prosecutors will pursue the capital charges against Fain, which could lead to a death sentence. (source: Austin American-Stateman) ****************** Convicted killer wants to pursue insanity plea He's on death row, convicted of killing a man for car parts. However, Thursday morning, a murderer is expected to plead for his life. The victim's mother, Vicki Marin, is outraged because she has learned the man who shot and burned her son could claim that he is mentally retarded, and therefore does not deserve to die. "What about my son? My son was just 20 when I lost him," Marin said. In 2002, a jury took 20 hours to deliberate before deciding to sentence 24-year-old Geronimo Gutierrez to death for killing 20-year-old Rick Marin in 1999. "Its like I have a void in my heart. Yes, he should pay," Marin said. However, in 2002 the Supreme Court ruled it's unconstitutional to execute a person with mental retardation, and now Gutierrez's mother is expected to testify that her son falls into that category. "So what, now all the murderers are mentally retarded?" Marin said. Vicki Marin believes in her heart that Gutierrez planned everything from shooting her son execution style to putting his body in a plastic bag and burning it, to stealing his car, and torching it after selling the parts to neighbors. "Why should he go on? Go on living? And a person mentally retarded does not do what he did," Marin said. Gutierrez's mother is expected to testify in the hopes of sparing her son's life. (source: KENS 5 Eyewitness News) *********************** Death Row Inmate Claims He's Mentally Retarded; Wants Lighter Sentence----Gutierrez Was Convicted Of Killing Man During Carjacking A death row inmate from San Antonio claims he is mentally retarded and therefore should receive a lighter sentence. Attorneys for Geronimo Gutierrez argued in court Thursday that their client scored a 70 in an IQ test, which categorizes him as mildly mentally retarded. But prosecutors argued that the score has a margin of error which could put Gutierrez out of the mental retardation range. Gutierrez was convicted of capital murder in April 2002 of killing Rich Marin during a carjacking in June 1999. Trial testimony revealed that Gutierrez shot Marin 5 times and then set his body and his Ford Mustang on fire and dumped the vehicle on a South Side field. Testimony in the hearing was expected to continue Thursday afternoon. (source: KSAT news) **************** Victim says DNA issues don't matter in his case Once again, there are serious questions about DNA evidence from the Houston police department Crime Laboratory. Those questions could lead to new trials for some prisoners. John Priddy will never forget December 17, 1997. He's tried a few times, but that night just keeps surfacing. "Every time I see his name or face on TV it makes me really upset. It just makes my skin crawl that they are trying to work with this man," Priddy said. The man he is referring to is Franklin Dewayne Alix. He is a man police say shot and killed at least 4 people that year, robbed dozens of others, sexually assaulted women and shot 2 security guards. One of the guards was Priddy. Priddy was shot at point-blank range in the face and has been in and out of hospitals ever since. "I just had recent surgery on my eye not a month-and-a-half ago. It's something I have got to live with the rest of my life. I am not ever going to be the same," Priddy said. Priddy was one of the key witnesses who sent Alix to death row. But now Alix has some new hope, now that the crime lab's old cases are being reviewed. There has been some question about the DNA collected back then. "As far as I am concerned, I don't care what the DNA testing says. They proved him guilty. They had all kind of evidence brought against him that you didn't need DNA testing," Priddy said. 11 News visited with Alix on death row last year. "I don't think I am going to get out, you know what I am saying? That ain't what I am looking for. I know that is not possible. I am looking for the truth to come out," said Alix. Alix says the truth is that he didn't rape anyone and that he only killed one person. But many witnesses have different stories to tell, like John Priddy, who saw him face-to-face. Alix's attorney, Robert Rosenberg, told 11 News in 2003 that the DNA evidence swayed jurors to give his client the death penalty and that because of the discrepancies in the retests, Alix should receive a new trial. But the Harris County DA's office is confident that won't happen. (source: KHOU News)
