April 4 TEXAS: Shooting gets mixed reaction----Some are afraid, while others say violence is life Friday's fatal shooting outside a Westside movie theater has some parents talking about protecting their children while others say children can't be shielded from life. Linda Guerra said last week's incident, in which a man was shot to death outside Tinseltown 16, cements her need to keep her 2 children, both 13, close to home. "It's hard because they're at an age where you are trying to give them a little bit of trust," Guerra said. She said she sometimes allows them to attend movies with older cousins but has been very uncomfortable with the idea. "I'm just so fearful because there are just so many people out there looking to start trouble and they don't care where they are . . . you never know," she said. Guerra said she doesn't know that she'll ever be comfortable letting them go on their own. Diana Valdez said she's allowed her son, a junior at Ray High School, to attend social events like movie nights with friends since he was about 13. She made the decision to loosen the apron strings based on her son's maturity level. Valdez said the shooting incident wouldn't change the way things are done in her home or how much freedom she gives her son. "I can't keep him from living life because of this," she said. "There are shootings at the mall, on the streets, just about everywhere. Violence is very public." For her 11-year-old daughter, who is still learning boundaries and safety, it may take a little longer. Valdez still goes over the rules with both her children - don't go with anyone they don't know, stay with a group, don't wander off, be home on time. Police took four teenage boys into custody in connection with the shooting: two 16-year-olds, a 15-year-old who police believe was the shooter, and a 14-year-old. Cmdr. Mike Walsh said several of the boys involved in the shooting are believed to have gang ties but he would not call this a gang-related shooting because there is no indication the victim was connected to a gang. Witnesses told police John Gabriel Fernandez, 24, who died in the shooting, was protecting his little brother when he got into an argument with his attackers on the sidewalk outside the theater. "Witnesses said that it was his little brother that was called over to the side of the building by a group of juveniles," he said. "The older brother instead said, 'You stay here, and I'll go see what they want.' That would tend to make me think he was only trying to shield his brother." Police were still searching Monday for the gun used in the attack. The Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Fernandez's death a homicide and that his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. Some teens said violence in places where they would normally hang out or go with a date won't keep them from enjoying life. "I think violence is part of life," Jason Brown said. "Everyone is going to do it no matter what." Jason, an 18-year-old Flour Bluff student, said incidents like the Friday shooting won't change what he does. "But I keep an eye out." Lori Cerva, a 17-year-old Miller High School student, said the shooting in such a public place did surprise her but after a minute she changed her mind. "But then it kind of doesn't because I live in a neighborhood where there are always shootings," Lori said. She said she never goes anywhere alone, but that is her normal behavior and not a reaction to violence. "But I know I'm probably going to go out with people," Lori said. "It makes me wonder and look around more - yeah, you're more cautious." (source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times) ******************** Davidson trial delayed until May----Defense wants more time for DNA test results The trial of Wendi Mae Davidson, the San Angelo veterinarian accused of killing her husband, has been delayed for the second month in a row while her defense awaits a report of DNA tests in the case. State District Judge Tom Gossett granted a motion to postpone the highly publicized case until the week of May 15 - 17 months after Davidson filed a missing-persons report, claiming Michael Leslie Severance had disappeared. "Some scientific testing needs to be done," said Fred C. Brigman III, one of the 3 attorneys now representing Davidson. "Its just one of those things. Youve got to turn every stone there is." When she goes to trial, Davidson will face 2 counts of tampering with evidence and 1 count of murder in the death of Severance, a Maine native who was an officer at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene at the time of his disappearance in January 2005. The couple lived in San Angelo, where Davidson keeps her Advanced Animal Care veterinary clinic. (source: San Angelo Standard-Times) *************** Pacheco facing grand jury, death penalty not decided If indicted by a 238th District Court grand jury April 26, the Midland County District Attorney's Office will then decide whether to pursue the death penalty against a disfigured capital murder defendant who allegedly killed his former wife and her friend. With his left eye missing and part of his face blown away by buckshot from a sawed-off shotgun, 36-year-old Aldo Rene Pacheco of Odessa has been released from Midland Memorial Hospital and is being held at Midland County Central Detention Center in lieu of a $1-million bond. He is accused of shooting 36-year-old Barbara Pacheco and 39-year-old Eric Wiggs in the early afternoon of Jan. 16 at the woman's home in the 700 block of West Pine Avenue. She and Wiggs were 3rd grade and special education teachers at Cavazos Elementary School in Odessa. Assistant District Attorney Tim Flathers said Monday a trial is planned this summer or fall. Judge John Hyde has appointed Midland attorney Ray Fivecoat to defend Pacheco. Referring to three other murder cases involving four victims that have reached authorities since November, Flathers said, "We hope to get it in front of the grand jury pretty quickly, especially considering the rash of murder offenses we've had in the last few months. "Whether it involves the death penalty will not make a difference to the grand jury. We will review all the evidence and the defendant's background before we decide. "I don't think it needs to be delayed because we have two dead victims." Flathers noted a capital murder conviction leaves the jury only two options -- death by lethal injection or a life sentence. If the death penalty is not sought but a conviction is returned, the trial is then over because a life term is automatic. Sheriff Gary Painter said plans for Pacheco to have reconstructive surgery have not been determined. "That's up to the doctors," he said. The first recent homicide took place Nov. 10, when Monica Ayala Palmer allegedly dragged cab driver Richard Cullum to death in east central Midland. James Nicky Lozano, his brother Sammy and Yvonne Lozano then were charged with stabbing Frank Ramirez and Jorge Brito to death early on New Year's Day at a party on the west central side of town. Jeffery Eugene Keith is accused beating his mother to death and setting fire to her house Feb. 18 in the 1100 block of East Nobles Avenue. Prosecutors have filed notice they will seek the death penalty for Palmer. (source: Midland Reporter-Telegram) ******************** To the dead, we owe only truth "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." - John 8:32 It's too late for the truth to be of any help to Ruben Cantu. He was executed by the state of Texas 13 years ago after being convicted in a 1984 robbery and murder that left 1 man dead and another badly wounded. He was 17 at the time of the crime. Cantu, it must be said, was no angel. He grew up on the south side of San Antonio, a drug user, a gang member and a car thief. But maybe not a killer. In fact, there's strong evidence to suggest he never committed the crime for which he was put to death, including an alibi witness and a co-defendant who says Cantu was not his accomplice. But the most convincing evidence is that the sole witness, the surviving victim of the crime, says Cantu didn't do it. Back in November when this information came to light in a report by the Houston Chronicle, authorities vowed a vigorous investigation to uncover the truth. However, a new Chronicle report suggests that quite the opposite has happened. Neither the alibi witness nor the co-defendant has yet given the district attorney a full statement. Both say they want to cooperate, but both have accused prosecutors of instead trying to intimidate them. We don't have space to detail their claims. Besides, it is once again the experience of witness Juan Moreno that's most telling. He hasn't given a statement either because, you see, the district attorney has threatened to prosecute him. For Cantu's death. Confused? Good. I'd hate to think I was the only one. Moreno was shot nine times that night and only narrowly survived. Police visited him twice in the hospital, but found him barely able to speak. They visited him again the following month, this time armed with a photo array that included a shot of Cantu who, according to neighborhood scuttlebutt, had been involved in the crime. Moreno couldn't pick him out. And there the case sat until three months later, when Cantu got into an argument with a guy in a bar. Both were armed, both had been drinking. Cantu shot the guy and wounded him. The guy turned out to be an off-duty cop. The case never went to trial because overzealous cops apparently tainted evidence and botched the investigation. Despite a roomful of witnesses and his own admissions of involvement, Cantu went free. And suddenly police had a special hate for this guy. So they went back to Moreno, but he still couldn't make the ID. The next day, they hauled him down to the station and showed him Cantu's picture yet again. "They told me they were certain it was him," Moreno told the Chronicle. So he agreed to agree. Even though he knew this wasn't the man who shot him. Moreno's testimony, by the way, was the only thing tying Cantu to the crime. No fingerprints, no forensics, no firearm. Nineteen years old, an illegal alien, sitting in the police station with cops who obviously wanted him to finger this guy ... he says he felt pressured. Can you blame him? So what are we to make of this threat to prosecute him for Cantu's death? It's a desperate ploy, yes. It's a brazen act of covering your backside, yes. It's a stretch that would do Yao Ming proud, yes. But it is also rather pungent proof of how awful a thing the truth can sometimes be. Awful if you're one of the jurors, cops or prosecutors who likely condemned an innocent man to die and let a guilty one go free. Awful even if you're just one of those people who desperately needs to believe in the righteousness and infallibility of state-sanctioned killing. So awful you turn your head, close your eyes, stick fingers in your ears and sing nonsense songs rather than face it. Because the truth doesn't always set you free. Sometimes, the truth indicts. Sometimes, the truth condemns. Sometimes, the truth abhors. Which is why sometimes, times like this, the truth is the last thing anyone wants to know. (source: Abilene Reporter News - Leonard Pitts is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132) ************************* Condemned killer's hopes rest on DNA evidence For the 1st time, the family of an Austin man on Texas' death row is speaking out. Last month, the Travis County District Attorney's Office said it would retest DNA evidence in the case of Louis Castro Perez, convicted in 1999 for 3 murders. For Perez's sister, schoolteacher Delia Perez-Meyer, the search for the truth has been a 2nd full-time job. "I spend most of my waking hours thinking about it. I live, eat, sleep and breathe Louis Castro Perez," she said. Louis Castro Perez was convicted for the murder of Cinda Barz, Michelle Fulwiler, and Fulwiler's 9-year-old daughter in their South Austin home. "We never believed my brother committed that crime, never, not for a second," Perez-Meyer said. Last year Perez's family asked the Travis County District Attorney's Office to take another look at some of the evidence, including items from the crime scene that were never tested for DNA during the trial. Two weeks ago the Perez family got their wish. Perez-Meyer recalled visiting her brother in Huntsville to share the excitement. "He says 'Did you hear the news?' and I said, 'Did you hear the news!' He said the guards woke him up at 2 in the morning and handed him the newspapers," she said. Prosecutors are in favor of the DNA testing. "It's the right thing to do. Mr. Perez is facing the ultimate punishment, the death penalty," Travis County Assistant District Attorney Buddy Meyer said. Advances in DNA technology could lead to new information on items left at the crime scene, including a skillet, cigarette butts, a telephone cord, pantyhose and a towel. That evidence is on its way to the Texas Department of Public Safety's crime lab, where it will be tested for new DNA samples. Any new DNA detected could belong to Perez, the victims or another person. "The truth is going to come out. We know that the railroad serial killer murdered those girls," Perez-Meyer said. She's referring to another man on death row, Angel Maturino Resendiz. Resendez has been convicted of one murder and is suspected in at least 14 other killings nationwide; all were committed near freight rail lines. Perez-Meyer believes Resendez was the one who came to the home of Fulwiler and Barz, which sat just a mile away from the train tracks. Her brother was dating one of the women, and was the first to discover their bodies, and that is why police found her brother's handprint in blood at the crime scene, she said. "It was just the epitome of being at the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. The new DNA tests will look for any matches to Resendiz's profile, but they believe they had the right guy all along, prosecutor's said. "I'm confident in the conviction of Louis Castro Perez for the murder of those three people. If I'm wrong then the system did what it needed to do and it worked," Meyer said. It could take anywhere from a few weeks to two months for DNA test results come back, the DA's office said. "We just want him to come home so we can all pick up our lives where we left off," Perez-Meyer said. (source: News 8 Austin) ALABAMA: State prison officials unveil new Web site Information is power seems to be the approach taken with a new state Department of Corrections Web site. Prison officials say they are trying to give the public more access to information about inmates housed in the Alabama prison system. A search engine allows people to find inmates, where they are located, their sentence and release date. The Web site also contains information about inmates on death row and execution rosters and a page on escapes. As of yesterday (Monday), 14 inmates remain on the run and some escapes occurred as far back as January 2000. But prison officials credit the 2-week-old Web site with helping them recapture four fugitives. The A-D-O-C site is http://www.doc-state.al.us. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Judge rejects death row inmate's appeal----Richard Lynch said he got lousy legal advice when he pleaded guilty to murdering his former mistress and her 13-year-old daughter. In Sanford, a judge has rejected the appeal of death row inmate Richard Lynch, who said he got lousy legal advice when he pleaded guilty to murdering his former mistress and the woman's 13-year-old daughter. Lynch, 52, formerly of Sanford, shot and killed Roseanna Morgan and her daughter, Leah Caday, March 5, 1999, in their Sanford apartment after a standoff with a SWAT team. He had left a suicide note in his garage across town, saying he loved Morgan, even though she had dumped him. Lynch pleaded guilty to both murder counts Oct. 19, 2000. His attorneys told him that would improve his chances of being sentenced to life in prison rather than getting the death penalty. But after a sentencing hearing, Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. handed down two death sentences. Lynch got a new state-appointed attorney, and during a weeklong hearing in July, she asked Eaton to throw out the guilty pleas. Marie-Louise Samuels Parmer alleged that Lynch's original attorneys, Tim Caudill and James Figgatt, had been ineffective. Eaton signed his appeals decision late Monday. It was filed today. In it, he set aside all nine specific allegations of poor lawyering. He described the defense's new firearms expert, a self-taught former pulp and paper engineer, as "among the least credible experts this court has ever heard testify." (source: Orlando Sentinel) SOUTH CAROLINA: Attorney for inmate on death row argues before state Supreme Court The attorney for a man on South Carolina's death row argued before the state Supreme Court Tuesday that emotional testimony related to their client's previous conviction was improperly introduced during his capital sentencing process. Attorney Robert Dudek told justices that testimony about the nightmares of Johnny O. Bennett's 1988 assault victim should not have been allowed as evidence in Bennett's 1995 death row sentencing. Bennett was convicted in 1995 of murdering a 24-year-old man by stabbing him more than 60 times with a screwdriver. Bennett also had sex in prison with a former guard at the Lexington County jail while he awaited trial. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., FLA., S.C.
Rick Halperin Tue, 4 Apr 2006 16:21:09 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
