April 15 CALIFORNIA: 9-year-old's killer gets death sentence More than a decade after the kidnap, rape and murder of a 9-year-old San Bernardino girl, a Superior Court judge Friday ordered former Victorville resident Dean Eric Dunlap to die by lethal injection. Judge Michael Smith denied the defense's motion to reduce the jury's Dec. 9 sentence of death to life without parole. "In my 19 years as a judge and my 12 years as a prosecutor, I would consider this the most cruel and callous manner of death I have seen," Smith said. "And the fact that it was administered to a 9-year-old child and the acts were extended over some period of time, whether it be hours or days, before death was administered." Dunlap, 47, abducted Sandra Astorga while she walked to Roosevelt Elementary School on the morning of Jan. 10, 1992. Her body was discovered 20 days later, naked except for her shoes and socks. Authorities determined she died by suffocation from a pair of women's nylons That were used to gag her. 8 months after Sandra's death, Dunlap was convicted of molesting another child, his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter. He spent 4 years in state prison until he was released in 1996. He then was required to submit a DNA sample into a statewide database, which later led authorities to link him to Sandra's murder. Dunlap was arrested in 2000 when DNA taken from semen in Sandra's underwear matched Dunlap's genetic profile. On Oct. 25, a jury convicted Dunlap of murder in the first degree. With the additional special circumstances of forcible rape, child molestation and kidnapping for the purpose of rape, Dunlap became eligible for the death penalty. Kathy Kirby, one of the jurors in Dunlap's trial, said she attended Friday's hearing to hear the judge's ruling. "I really appreciated the judge's support on our opinion," Kirby said. "It's reassuring to hear him say this is the worst thing he's seen and it doesn't happen all the time." Smith said the defense presented significant evidence in regards to Dunlap's experience with physical, mental and sexual abuse in his childhood. But, Smith said, the defense failed to prove Dunlap's diagnoses such as attachment disorder caused him to rape and kill his victim. Therefore, Smith said the evidence overwhelmingly supported the jury's death sentence. Dunlap was expected to be transported to San Quentin State Prison to await execution. Defense attorney Joseph Canty declined to comment after the hearing, but prosecutor Cheryl Kersey said she was pleased with the outcome. "It's expected," Kersey said. "There is finally justice for Sandra Astorga." (source: San Bernardino County Sun) ********************* Man Charged in Death of His Children in Blaze A father accused of burning his 2 children to death in the family's sport utility vehicle was charged Friday with 2 counts of murder and could face the death penalty if convicted, prosecutors said. Dae Kwon Yun, 54, allegedly locked himself and his 11-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son in his Toyota Sequoia on April 2 and started a fire in the passenger compartment. Yun, who survived the blaze, remains hospitalized and is being held without bail. His arraignment is pending due to his medical condition, prosecutors said. Los Angeles County district attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said it was unknown whether Yun had retained a lawyer. Deputy Dist. Atty. Todd Hicks said that Yun was charged with 2 special circumstances of multiple murders and murder during commission of an arson, either of which makes him eligible for the death penalty. A committee of 9 prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty for Yun, weighing aggravating circumstances against those that might mitigate the charges. Mitigating circumstances could include whether the accused was extremely mentally or emotionally disturbed. Yun pleaded guilty 2 years ago to beating his wife and was sentenced to 2 years probation. He reportedly was being counseled at a Koreatown social services organization. On the day of the fire, Yun had reportedly told his wife that he was taking the children to see a movie. Yun drove to a deserted alleyway in the downtown Los Angeles garment district, where he had owned a garment manufacturing business that failed recently. Los Angeles Police detectives said that Yun had splashed the interior with fuel. Yun fell out of the vehicle and was badly burned. The children, Ashley and Alexander, were found dead in the SUV when firefighters arrived at the scene. Other garment district business owners who knew the family said that Yun had struggled financially. The family had moved out of a house in Hancock Park and Yun was separated from his wife, Sun Ok Ma, who had filed for divorce a week before the fire. Merchants in the garment district said that Yun had borrowed money from them. Yun's wife told police that Yun had gambling debts and may have been living in his car. (source: Los Angeles Times) ***************** Appeals court upholds death sentence in '85 Hillsborough murder A federal appeals court today upheld the death sentence of condemned killer David Allen Raley for the 1985 kidnap and murder of a Peninsula teenager at a deserted Hillsborough mansion, pushing him near the front of the line among the more than 600 death row inmates awaiting execution. In an 18-page ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Raley's arguments that he received inadequate legal representation in the penalty phase of his 1988 trial and that the jury instructions tainted the death verdict. Raley is now the closest to execution of any Santa Clara County death row inmate since California restored capital punishment in 1978. Raley is on death row for kidnapping and repeatedly stabbing two Peninsula high school girls at the old Carolands Mansion, where he worked as a security guard. He drove both victims, Janine Grinsell and Laurie McKenna, to a remote Santa Clara County road and dumped them in a ravine, where he left them for dead. McKenna climbed to the road and was found alive the next morning. Grinsell was still alive, but died later that day at the hospital with 41 stab wounds and a fractured skull. Raley is unlikely to face a firm execution date until at least next year. His lawyers can still ask a 15-judge panel of the 9th Circuit to review the case, and petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a reprieve. But losing in the 9th Circuit is often the last chance to overturn a death sentence for California death row inmates. The state also has a de facto freeze on executions while a San Jose federal judge considers a challenge to California's lethal injection procedures. (source: Mercury News) NEW MEXICO: Revisiting the Torreon killings, 10 years later 10 years ago today, Albuquerque's Ben Anaya opened up his summer cabin in the Manzano Mountains 65 miles southeast of Albuquerque and discovered a horror he will never forget and a mystery that might never be solved. Before bolting from the cabin and running to a neighbor's place for help, Anaya saw bodies in his cabin, bodies discolored and decomposed into hideous anonymity. He thought strangers had gotten into the cabin during the winter and died there. That's what he told his neighbor. But Anaya was wrong. "It was my boy, but I didn't know it at the time," he later testified in court. There were 4 bodies in the cabin, a retreat tucked into a mountain forest 4 miles northwest of the small Torrance County town of Torreon. The dead were Anaya's son, Ben Anaya Jr., 17; Ben Jr.'s girlfriend, Cassandra Sedillo, 23; and Sedillo's children from a previous relationship, Johnny Ray Garcia, 4, and Matthew Gene Garcia, 3. Anaya had been shot once and Sedillo twice. Soon, investigators would estimate their time of death as a day in December 1995, 4 months before Ben Sr. found the bodies. But the most horrible revelation was that the little boys had been locked for weeks in the cabin with Anaya and Sedillo's corpses and had died slowly of starvation and dehydration. Visions of the nightmare and suffering endured by the children broke hearts, turned stomachs and chilled blood throughout New Mexico. "No one ever involved in that would ever forget it," said Santa Fe lawyer Steve Aarons, who represented one of the young men arrested in the case. "The crime was so horrendous that it was difficult to imagine." 10 years later, 2 men are serving time for the killings. But 2 others who were arrested, incarcerated, tried and vilified in the deaths were eventually freed, the charges against them dismissed. Ask anybody who was involved in or even just read about the Torreon cabin killings case and they'll tell you what happened and who did it. But their stories may differ. Because after 10 years, no one knows for sure. So, who would do that to kids? Police focused their attention on the 18th Street gang, an Albuquerque gang to which Ben Jr. had belonged. Police arrested 3 gang members in May 1996, and in June, a 4th suspect, an ousted member of the gang, was charged in the crime. Those arrested were Shaun "Sagger" Wilkins, 19, Lawrence "Woody" Nieto, 18, and Shawn "Popcorn" Popeleski, 18, all of Albuquerque, and Roy "Eazy" Buchner, 18, of Corrales. Police suspected the theft of guns and drugs and perhaps gang rivalry were the motives for the killings. It could have been an open-and-shut, slam-dunk of a case. Suspects were in custody and the public was thirsty for the blood of baby killers. Gary Mitchell, who defended Nieto, the first of the suspects to go to trial, felt he was up against the aroused passions of New Mexico more than he was up against the facts of the case. "I think that no matter what I say or what I do, it's not going to make a lot of difference," he said during a break from the summer 1997 trial in Estancia. "This doesn't have a damn thing to do about guilt. It has to do with atonement." Lawyer Aarons said he had serious doubts about the state's case from the start. Aarons, like Mitchell, is part of an elite band of New Mexico lawyers on contract to the state to represent defendants in death penalty cases who cannot afford to hire good lawyers on their own. He was assigned to defend Shaun Wilkins, who, according to the state's case, was the triggerman in the killings. "My job is easier if there is no question about guilt," Aarons said during a phone interview from his Santa Fe office this week. "But the state's case was not jiving with the evidence." Or lack of evidence. Physical evidence was never a factor in this case. That's because the crime scene was months old when the bodies were found and because the desperate little boys had been moving through it as long as they lived, trying to find something to eat or drink, trying to wake their mother. It was also because, according to trial testimony, the Torrance County Sheriff's Department and State Police officers who first responded did a poor job of protecting the scene and collecting evidence. Only Popeleski, who had been ousted from the 18th Street gang for being a snitch, could be connected to the cabin. He had been seen with Anaya, Sedillo and the boys on Dec. 7, 1995, preparing to travel with them from Albuquerque to the cabin. And he was later connected to guns, a jeep and a pager taken from the cabin. Besides, he told police he was at the cabin when the killings happened. The only things putting Wilkins and Buchner at the cabin were statements made by Popeleski and Nieto. But Nieto later withdrew his statement, testifying during Buchner's trial that police interrogators had forced him to make it. Even so, the state's case made Wilkins and Buchner the primary perpetrators and relegated Popeleski and Nieto to the roles of accomplices. The story, as told to police by Popeleski, was this. He said he was held at gunpoint outside the cabin by Nieto while Wilkins and Buchner went inside to kill Anaya and Sedillo. He said Nieto, a gang buddy, had then allowed him to escape. "The police bought into the wrong story," Aarons said this week. "A lot of cases are solved by what a snitch is willing to tell the police. We saw in this case how unreliable that sort of testimony can be." He said it is important, especially with today's technology, to gather as much physical evidence as possible. "Because physical evidence doesn't lie, it's not biased and it's not working off charges," Aarons said. "Relying on snitches and people who may themselves be the culprits doesn't get us any closer to the truth." At least some of the jurors in the four Torreon trials saw it that way. "All they had were gory pictures and liars on tape," one juror who voted for acquittal said of the state's case. Nieto and Popeleski, whose own testimony placed them at the cabin during the killings, were convicted - Nieto for all 4 deaths and Popeleski for the deaths of the kids. The trials of Wilkins and Buchner, who steadfastly denied ever having been at the cabin or involved in the killings in any way, both resulted in hung juries. Charges against them were eventually dismissed. "Some courageous jurors looked into it and stopped what looked like a train coming," Aarons said. "When there was reasonable doubt, ultimately our court system did not convict when it would have been very easy to do so. "That's the way it's supposed to be." Ron Lopez still doesn't think things went the way they were supposed to in the cases of Wilkins and Buchner. As district attorney for the 7th Judicial District, Lopez headed up the prosecution in the Torreon cases and still views Wilkins and Buchner as the ones who got away. If it had been up to him, he would have retried them both. It wasn't up to him because he lost his re-election bid in November 2000. After the state Court of Appeals ruled in March 2000 that Nieto's statements to police were unreliable and tapes of those statements could not be used as evidence in retrying Wilkins and Buchner, Lopez's successor dismissed the charges against the two, citing lack of evidence. Lopez, now deputy district attorney for Valencia County, said this week that despite the Court of Appeals ruling he still believes he had enough of a case to put Wilkins and Buchner in front of juries again. "After doing four trials, we felt we had a better idea of what went on, and we could have used that in the retrials," he said during a phone interview from his Valencia County office. "We had new evidence we had gathered." He said splitting on the four trials was a frustrating experience. "We had two different district judges (Neil Mertz and Thomas Fitch) making different rulings with the same evidence. One allowed some of the evidence to come in, the other didn't. It drains your resources." Lopez said he hurts most for the families of the victims. "You just hope they have moved on with their lives," he said. Ray Twohig, the Albuquerque lawyer hired by Buchner's grandparents to defend their grandson, rejects Lopez's contention that there was sufficient reason to retry Buchner and Wilkins. "No more evidence came to light in that case," he said during an interview this week at his North Valley office. "Ron was close to the case and close to the families. He felt an obligation to go forward and let the jury decide. "It was an emotional case, but you can only play that emotion so far. You still have to have the evidence." Twohig blames a Department of Public Safety cost-cutting measure, in effect at the time, with preventing the proper collection of evidence at the cabin. A 1994 memo sent by the state Crime Laboratory to New Mexico sheriffs noted that lab evidence experts were overworked and would be unable to investigate every crime scene. Torrance County officials took that to mean the experts would not respond to crime scenes, so they did not call them to the Torreon cabin. Instead, officers inexperienced at evidence gathering tracked through the cabin. "They didn't do any of the things they should have done," said Maurice Moya, a retired Albuquerque Police Department detective hired by Twohig to investigate the Torreon killings. "Police brought their own Coke cans into the scene, they opened windows." Only one identifiable fingerprint was found at the death scene, and it turned out to belong to a police firearms expert. Moya said his own investigation showed that the killer or killers may have returned to the cabin twice between the deaths and the finding of the bodies and attempted to destroy evidence by trying to set fire to the cabin. "It's the details that make the difference in a complex case like this," Twohig said. "We felt the case had been badly handled, and if it had not been Buchner would not have been charged - and neither would have Wilkins." Twohig made his point during Buchner's November 1997 trial in Truth or Consequences. 8 of the jurors voted for acquittal. After 10 years, Ron Lopez still can't shake the Torreon case. "Maybe it's watching my (3) grandchildren go through the ages of the kids in the cabin," he said. "My granddaughter is 5 now. It makes me wonder what those kids went through in the cabin. "Sometimes I drive through Torrance County to visit friends, and whenever I do, that all comes back." No one involved will ever forget. Even though neither was ever convicted of anything, Buchner spent more than a year and a half in jail and Wilkins was jailed for 4 years. Aarons can't forget how Wilkins, usually tough, cool or even playful in demeanor, dissolved into tears when a Socorro jury failed to reach a verdict in his case and Wilkins realized he would have to return to prison. So who did it? Nieto is serving 130 years for the killings. But according to an April 2004 affidavit, he now says the story he told during his own trial was a fabrication forced on him by the police and that he was nowhere near the cabin when the killings took place. Popeleski is serving 16 years for leaving the little boys to die and for a car-theft charge. But did he kill Ben Jr. and Cassandra, too? Or was it someone else? "It is possible someone got away with it," Aarons said. "We'll never know." TORREON TIMELINE The Torreon cabin killings case started with a grisly discovery 10 years ago today. April 14, 1996: 4 decomposed bodies are found in a cabin in the Manzano Mountains 4 miles northwest of the small town of Torreon in Torrance County. April 16, 1996: The bodies are identified as Ben Anaya Jr., 17, son of the cabin's owner; Ben Jr.'s girlfriend, Cassandra Sedillo, 23; and Sedillo's sons, Johnny Ray Garcia, 4, and Matthew Gene Garcia, 3. Police report that the adults died of gunshot wounds, but the cause of the children's deaths is unknown. April 19, 1996: Medical investigators say the little boys starved to death. May 11, 1996: Shaun "Sagger" Wilkins, 19, of Albuquerque, is arrested and charged with 4 counts of murder. May 13, 1996: Roy "Eazy" Buchner, 18, of Corrales, is arrested and charged with 4 counts of murder. By this time, police believe the killings happened in December 1995, four months before the bodies were found. May 22, 1996: Lawrence "Woody" Nieto, 18, of Albuquerque, is arrested and charged with 4 counts of murder. Robbery is listed as the motive for the crime. But police note that all 3 suspects, plus victim Anaya, were members of Albuquerque's 18th Street Gang and internal rivalry might have played a role. June 30, 1996: Shawn "Popcorn" Popeleski, 18, of Albuquerque, up until now considered a key witness in the case, is charged with the 4 killings. The state says it will seek the death penalty for all 4 defendants. Aug. 5, 1997: Nieto is found guilty of four counts of 1st-degree murder and 4 other charges after a trial in Estancia. He is eventually spared the death penalty but sentenced to 130 years in prison. Sept. 22, 1997: Wilkins, represented by attorney Steve Aarons, goes on trial in Socorro. Oct. 2, 1997: 7th Judicial District Judge Neil Mertz declares a mistrial in the Wilkins case after the jury deadlocks - nine voting for conviction, three for acquittal. Seventh Judicial District Attorney Ron Lopez promises a retrial. Nov. 3, 1997: Buchner, represented by attorney Ray Twohig, goes on trial in Truth or Consequences. On the opening day, Nieto testifies that police forced him to make statements placing himself, Wilkins and Buchner at the crime scene. Later in the week, the jury learns that little physical evidence was gathered at the cabin. Nov. 18, 1997: Seventh Judicial District Judge Thomas Fitch declares a mistrial in the Buchner proceedings after the jury deadlocks - 8 voting for acquittal and 4 for conviction. District Attorney Lopez says he will probably retry the case. Dec. 8, 1997: Fitch orders Buchner released on bond from prison, where he has been held for more than a year and a half. He is put on house arrest. Sept. 1, 1999: A Las Cruces jury acquits Popeleski in the shootings of Anaya and Sedillo but convicts him of 2nd-degree murder for leaving the little boys in the cabin to die. He is sentenced to 15 years for the death of the boys and an additional year and a half on a car-theft charge. March 24, 2000: State Court of Appeals rules that statements made to the police by Nieto are unreliable and that a tape of those statements cannot be used in the retrials of Wilkins and Buchner. April 2000: Wilkins is released on bond after spending 4 years incarcerated. He is placed on house arrest. Jan. 3, 2001: Clint Wellborn, recently elected district attorney of the 7th Judicial District, announces he will not retry Buchner due to lack of evidence. March 2, 2001: Wellborn says he will not retry Wilkins because of lack of physical evidence and dubious testimony. Aug. 8, 2002: Wilkins and Buchner, represented by Twohig, file a federal lawsuit charging two State Police agents and a former Albuquerque Police Department Gang Unit detective of coercing false and damning statements against them in the case. The suit is still pending. (source: Tribune files) WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Roy "Eazy" Buchner He was accused by the prosecution of being the man who locked the cabin door, but eight of the 12 jurors voted for acquittal in his November 1997 trial in Truth or Consequences. A mistrial was declared, and charges against Buchner were eventually dropped. His lawyer, Ray Twohig, says Buchner is working now in electronics sales at a local department store. Lawrence "Woody" Nieto Lawrence Nieto at the time of court proceedings in the Torreon cabin killings case. He was convicted on 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in 1997. (File photo) Convicted of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and other charges in a summer 1997 trial in Estancia. He is serving 130 years in the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs. Shawn "Popcorn" Popeleski Originally considered a witness by the prosecution, Popeleski was ultimately charged as an accessory in the killings. In a September 1999 trial in Las Cruces, he was acquitted in the killings of the 2 adult victims but convicted of 2nd-degree murder in the deaths of the 2 children. He is serving a 16-year sentence at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe. Shaun "Sagger" Wilkins The prosecution's case fingered Wilkins as the triggerman in the killings, but a mistrial was declared when the jury deadlocked - 9 voting for conviction, 3 for acquittal - in his autumn 1997 trial in Socorro. Charges against Wilkins were eventually dropped. His lawyer, Steve Aarons, says Wilkins is now working as an assistant manager of a business in Arizona. (source: The Albuquerque Tribune, April 14) OKLAHOMA: Parole hearing nears for convicted murderer Steven Wilson hopes to see the west coast again someday. "If he ever gets out, I'm going to pick him up and take him right to the airport," said his cousin, Bruce Hayes. "He's planning on a 1-way ticket to California." Oklahoma is full of bad memories for Wilson, Hayes said, with the death of his stepdaughter, the loss of his wife and sons, and the unending hours of 24 years spent in prison. Wilsons mother is 76; his father is 80. Both disabled, they still run a business. A large portion of the money goes to attorneys back in Oklahoma. The Wilsons have had 6 representing their son over the years; Hayes estimates they've spent upwards of $150,000 trying to help. "We love our son, Steven, very much, and would like to have him home," said his mother, Clara "Jerri" Wilson, in a statement. "He could live with us, and we need his help." The mother's plea is only tarnished by the thought of Linda Notzen, who will never see her child again. Notzen's daughter, Audra Matheny, was murdered in 1982 at the age of 11, and Steven Wilson - the child's stepfather - was convicted of the crime. Wilsons family still maintains his innocence, however, pointing to several unanswered questions from the trial. And even if his conviction is never overturned, they believe he has spent enough time in jail for any crime he may have committed. According to a report by the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C., research and advocacy group, the average life sentence nationwide is approximately 29 years. Grady County district attorney Bret Burns, however, said that 15-20 year life sentences are not uncommon. After 24 years in prison, Wilsons family believes it is time for him to come home, regardless of what may or not have happened in his past. Making of a man Steven Virgil Wilson was born Sept. 30, 1951 in Louisiana, the second born son of Glen and Jerri Wilson. Wilson's earliest memories are of the Chickasha area, where he and his brother, Glen Jr., spent their younger years. The Wilsons owned a truck stop outside of town, running the station and a small restaurant for about 5 years. They moved to California in 1960. Wilson described his early years as uneventful, and later told a psychologist that his most devastating childhood experience was failing the 3rd grade. The failure was attributed to his difficulty in pronouncing and spelling words. As a teenager growing up in California, Wilson had average grades, held down different jobs, and was outgoing, with many friends. He had several girlfriends, but not a steady one. Within 2 months of his high school graduation, Wilson was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was 18. Once he completed basics, he attended a specialized electronics school which required him to qualify for a top-secret clearance. In June 1971, Steven Wilson was sent to Vietnam. "Initially, he was assigned to a communications center where he was acquainted with the electronic equipment during the day and at night guarded the perimeter of the base camp," said Thomas P. Scarano, Ph.D. in a report. Scarano was a licensed clinical psychologist who met with Wilson after Audra's death. "Mr. Wilson became very disillusioned, feeling that the Vietnamese people did not want them in their country, and realizing men were uselessly dying.'" Wilson told Scarano that after about 3 months in Vietnam, he was attached to 7 Marines whose sole purpose was to protect him and the electronic equipment he carried into the field. For the next 6 months, his mission was to be dropped into suspected enemy positions to monitor enemy troop and equipment positions, using a radar detection system. Wilson said that it was clearly understood that if he anticipated being taken prisoner, the Marines were to kill him and destroy the equipment to present the enemy from capturing Wilson and the equipment. "During many of these missions, Mr. Wilson's team encountered the enemy. He revealed that he had many confirmed kills and after several of these types of experiences there was no longer any feeling when he killed someone," Scarano said in his report. "Even though 5 of his Marine escorts were killed, he said, 'I never cared about them dying because I would not become close to them.' When questioned further, Mr. Wilson did admit he felt responsible for their lives because 'They wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for me.'" Wilson told Scarano that his most traumatic experience in Vietnam was when their base camp was overrun and his team was captured for 4 days. The North Vietnamese could not identify him because they all wore the same uniforms without rank. "One of the only Marines he ever became close to, Eric, was taken out in front of the remaining men and they 'torched him up with a flame-thrower,'" Scarano reported later. "At this time, Mr. Wilson began to weep excessively, saying repeatedly, 'They were after me. Eric should have never died.'" The domestic life After he returned from Vietnam, Wilson was stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas. He was awarded the National Defense Service medal with 2 Bronze Service Stars, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign medal, the Meritorious Unit Commendational medal, a Good Conduct medal. the Bronze Star medal with Valor and a Purple Heart. Wilson began taking classes in electronics school while he was stationed in Texas. It was there that he met Margaret Fegel. The couple were married on Aug. 17, 1972 in Bell County, Texas. Wilson later described his days with Margaret as satisfying. The couple lived off-post, and Wilson was working part-time at a funeral home. Wilson said that he enjoyed working as a mortician. "I felt like I was fixing something instead of killing and destroying things," he said. Wilson said that everything seemed good in his life when Margaret unexpectedly announced she was moving to Michigan. She left, taking their young son, Steven Scott Wilson, with her. The divorce was granted on May 9, 1975. Wilson said he later found out that his wife had left because she did not want to move to California. After his discharge came through that same year, Wilson went, alone, back to California. He stayed with his parents and missed his wife and son. During this time, Wilson said that he was very depressed and spent time drinking and smoking marijuana as a way to dull the pain. But if the drugs eased the loneliness, something else helped wipe it away completely. That was Linda Matheny. She had been a single woman for about 2 years, and had a 5 year old daughter named Audra. The couple met, and dated. They soon married, saying their wedding vows on May 15, 1976. "Linda lit up my life," Wilson said. Although his wife remembers Wilson as a batterer, Wilson felt that even though their marriage had problems, they were still solvable. He admitted later that their disagreements sometimes ended in physical conflict. Wilson said that when Linda said she was leaving him, he was become scared and angry because he loved her and the children so much. The Wilsons were blessed with a son in 1977, and named him Christian Sean Wilson. Wilson felt complete with his 2 sons, Scott and Sean, and his stepdaughter, Audra, and so he underwent a vasectomy operation. The sterilization surgery was performed during the December after Sean was born. Wilson started studying a new type of grave liner that was gaining popularity in California, and thought it might go over well back in Oklahoma. In 1981, the family made the trip back to his childhood state. They moved in with Wilson's cousin, Bruce Hayes, and his wife and children for several weeks while they searched for a home to call their own. They found what they were looking for in a small town outside of Oklahoma City. Final free days The Wilsons moved into their home in Tuttle in 1981 and Audra was enrolled in the 5th grade at Tuttle Schools. At 4 years old, Sean was still not old enough to attend public school. Linda found a job, and Wilson went about the work of making his business plan a reality. He found backers, including the man who sold him the house in Tuttle. "I invested some money in his little business," said Dennis Meyer, who estimated he put around $3,000 or $4,000 into the enterprise. Meyer said the idea sounded like a good one, but as the months went by, he began to wonder if Wilson was more of a doer - or a dreamer. Wilson would come by Meyers' office and talk about his plans for the business, but little seemed to actually pass the planning stage. Meyer said he started thinking Wilson was a "little different," but he still seemed like a good man. "I knew that [Wilson] was a little odd, but he loved his little boy and seemed to love his wife and the little girl," Meyer said. Wilson's parents sent money every month too, to help with the business they believed in and to make sure the house payment was made. They planned on moving back to Grady County in 1982 to help get the business going. The Wilson family began making friends in the Tuttle community. They started attending church services and Bible studies at the Tuttle church of Christ. Their neighbors, a man, woman, and her daughter, became friendly with them as well; the man, Mike, became friends with Wilson, and the two of them would often spend time together at the Wilson home. Wilson also remained close to his cousin, Bruce Hayes, and his family. Hayes and his wife had children that were around Audra and Sean's age, and the families enjoyed getting together as often as possible. Christmas came and went. The Wilsons celebrated New Year's 1982 with Tuttle as their home. Audra turned 11, and the Wilsons threw a party for her at their house. Although dark clouds appeared on the horizon as the Wilsons fought and he became abusive to his wife, they still managed to stay together as a family. That all ended in May 1982. Everything falls apart May 11, 1982 was unremarkable within the Wilson household but for the death of Audra Matheny. Wilson had been playing the role of single dad that week; his wife was in California handling some business with their former home and visiting family. That day, Audra was at home sick, and Wilson gave her and Sean chicken noodle soup for lunch. That evening, he and Sean went to Williams IGA and bought hamburger meat, milk, buns and other groceries before going back home to cook the burgers outside. While Wilson grilled the burgers, Audra and Sean piled into their parents bed to watch "Gorilla at Large," a 3-D movie playing on channel 25. The movie started at 7 p.m., and Wilson cooked up dinner and served it up around 8 p.m. The family ate together while they watched the remainder of the movie. The show ended at 9 p.m., and another movie was starting on HBO at 9:15 p.m., and they turned it over to that channel. At 9:30 p.m., the phone rang. It was Wilson's aunt, Mary Hutzel, who was helping to organize a family reunion. The event was to be held at the Wilsons' home. She had already called several times that day with information about the reunion. During the 9:30 p.m. call, she gave Wilson the number of a nephew of hers that he was going to invite. Wilson called out to Audra to get paper and a pencil, and she wrote down the number as he repeated it to her. According to Wilson, Audra went to bed a short time later. He went to take a bath at 10:30 p.m., then got back in bed with a drowsy Sean. Wilson said they both fell asleep with the television on. The doors to the house were unlocked. That night, between 11 p.m. and 12 a.m., Wilson said, Audra was up, and coughing. "I was half asleep and she just went to the bathroom and coughed and gagged a little bit and it sounded like she was going to throw up, and she walked back and I said, 'Are you all right?' and she says, 'I feel sick,' and then she went back into her room and she laid down and I did not go into her room and check on her," Wilson said to authorities the next day. He said that he wasn't overly concerned with her coughing, since it sounded like what she had been doing all day long. Wilson did not wake up again that night, he said. The next morning, the alarm went off, and Wilson went to wake his stepdaughter but found her dead. He immediately went and called the Tuttle Police. When the authorities arrived and talked to him, they believed the death looked like a natural one, and told Wilson so. His cousin's wife arrived, and they went about cleaning up the house, trying to get it a little cleaner before the anticipated relatives arrived. Wilson took the sheets off of Audra's bed and put them in the washer, trying to lessen the slight smell that permeated the room. Sean woke up and watched television with his dad and the police officers. Already wheels were in motion, unbeknownst to Wilson. Audra's body was being examined by various doctors, and they were become more and more convinced that she had been raped and murdered. After they came to that conclusion, they looked for a killer - and the blame fell to Wilson. He was arrested less than 12 hours after Audras death was reported. 4-year-old Sean was there, watching as the police put his dad in handcuffs and led him away. Wilson was taken to Grady County Jail and booked, then taken for an interview at the district attorneys office. There, he expressed bewilderment at the entire course of events. "I haven't ever been through anything like this," he said. "All I have seen in the last hour or couple of hours since this happened and it's my whole damn life falling apart and I don't even know what the hell is happening to it...All I know is that I have lost a hell of a daughter and I dont know what in the hell happened." 24 years Wilson's arrest eventually led to his conviction at the hands of a Grady County jury. The prosecution asked for the death penalty, but that was not granted. General consensus on both sides is that 11 jurors wanted to hand down the death penalty, but one woman was not able to vote that way. He was given a life sentence instead, and was moved to the Lexington Correctional Center. He was there for 6 years, then was transferred to Jess Dunn Correctional Center in Taft, Okla.; in 1995 he was moved to James Crabtree Correctional Center in Helena, Okla. During his time in prison, Wilson has been a model prisoner, and has only been disciplined once - for possession of contraband after a couple of quarters were found in his shirt pocket after visitation. For that he lost 15 days in the prison gym. Wilson received an Associate in Arts - sociology/corrections degree from Oklahoma City Community College in 1985 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Central State University in 1989. He has tutored many other prisoners, helping them get their high school equivalency (GED) tests finished. According to his cousin, Bruce Hayes, Wilson has even learned sign language so he can help deaf prisoners finish their high school educations. "He's probably the most important person at every prison he's been at, including the guards," said Hayes. "There's no telling how many people he helped get their GEDs." Wilson has also trained other inmates to make leather belts, bill folds and purses, and has worked with computers. He was assigned as an ADA orderly in 2002. He also received numerous tutoring and tutor training certificates, completed workshops and acted as Commander of the Veterans Post at Jess Dunn. His latest assessment with the state department of corrections, dated Dec. 7, 2005, gives him top marks on all counts. But for the severity of his crime, he would be in a minimum security prison. Instead, he is in James Crabtree, which is medium security. One thing Wilson is not interested in would be the sex offender program. He refuses to take part in any sex offender training, saying that he has never been convicted of a sexual crime. Although alleged rape was part of the state's case in the trial, it was not part of the conviction. However, the district attorney's narrative claims Wilson admitted sexual acts with Audra, so he has been assessed as a sexual offender by the prison system. He has been up for parole several times since 1982, and each time the narrative about him speaks with glowing terms of his work in prison, his demeanor, and his record there. Then it bluntly states parole is not recommended due to the severity of the crime. Wilson is up for parole again this month; the pardon and parole board will meet next week at Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City. At that time, they will decide if his time to go free has come. Wilson and his family hope that this year is the year that he gets on that plane and goes home, to California. They can't imagine that anyone would want different. "I don't understand how anyone would want to hurt a family like us," said Wilson's mother, Jerri. "We didnt do anything." The pardon and parole board will be reviewing parole candidates from James Crabtree Correctional Center at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 20. More information may be found on their website at www.ppb.state.ok.us. (source: Tuttle Times) PENNSYLVANIA: Confessed killer threatened his family----Relatives were becoming frustrated with Wise's troubles with the law and were considering kicking him out of the house. In the weeks before Jesse Dee Wise went on the worst killing spree in modern history here, his family had grown increasingly frustrated with him and his frequent run-ins with the law. At one point, Wise's relatives threatened to throw him out of their Leola home. "I got the impression his family was sick of him and were in the process of kicking him out. He was getting into too many problems," an acquaintance said. Wise's response? "2 weeks ago he told a friend he hated his family. He said he wanted to kill them, but nobody took that seriously," the acquaintance, Leo Reed, told the Daily News of New York, where the family once lived. Wise, 21, has admitted to police that over the weekend he beat to death 6 members of his family living at 81 E. Main St. - from his 5-year-old cousin to his 64-year-old grandmother. He went on to live in the home for days, until their bodies were discovered on Wednesday wrapped in bloody sheets and blankets and tossed onto a pile in the basement of the 3-story home. In the upstairs bedrooms, police discovered further markings of a brutal massacre: walls splattered with blood, hair and fragments of bone. In a guitar case they found a hammer and 17-inch metal club. This morning, District Attorney Donald Totaro acknowledged there was "animosity" between Wise and his family, but he would not go into further detail about a possible motive. Wise, who has a police record, was arraigned before District Judge B. Denise Commins Thursday afternoon. Wearing blue jeans, white sneakers and a blue shirt, he looked downward as Commins read the names of the relatives he is accused of killing. Wise appeared to mouth the names as the judge read them. The only words he spoke during the hearing were, "When will I get a lawyer?" He was ordered held without bail. His next hearing has been set for April 20. Totaro said today that while he was "not prepared to discuss motive" for the crime, "there is evidence to establish animosity between the defendant and some of his victims." Although it is also early in the legal process, Totaro said there are apparent aggravating circumstances in the case, which means prosecutors could seek the death penalty if Wise is convicted. Little is known about Wise, who was known as Jay. Until about 2 weeks ago, he worked at a local grocery store. And he has an 11-month-old daughter who lives with her mother. The victims are Wises three cousins, Chance Wise, 5; Jessie James Wise, 17; and Skyler Wise, 19; his two aunts, Agnes Arlene Wise, 43, and Wanda Wise, 45; and grandmother Emily Wise, 64. Wise admitted killing all six during an interview late Wednesday and early Thursday with East Lampeter Township Police Detective Joseph Edgell and state police Trooper Gerard Sauers, according to court documents. Wise methodically laid out for the detectives how he murdered each one between Saturday and Sunday. He began by strangling Jessie James Wise, then beat Skyler Richard Wise over the head with a blunt metal object, according to court documents. He then beat both his aunts with a blunt metal object as well. Finally the killer turned his attention to his grandmother and his youngest cousin. He told the detectives he strangled them both. After Wise had finished killing all 6 relatives, he told police, he carried all 6 bodies to the basement. For days, Wise continued to live there while his grandfather, 65-year-old Jessie Lee Wise Sr., who owned the home, was on business in New York. The grandfather had called home but received no answer. The family, including the elder Wises wife, Emily, was supposed to have joined the businessman in New York, John Sean Adams told police, but no one had heard from them since Friday. Concerned, the elder Wise on Wednesday contacted Adams, 24, who has been described as a grandson. Adams lives in New Holland. Adams told The Philadelphia Inquirer that when he got to the Leola home, Jesse Wise and a girlfriend were at the house. After answering a few questions, Wise left before the search of the house began, the paper reported. When Adams went into the basement shortly after 2 p.m., "the first thing I saw was Arlene, then I saw the baby. He was facing me and I felt like somebody had hit me in the chest with a bag of sand," Adams told the newspaper. According to court documents, "Adams stopped approximately half-way down and came running up the steps yelling, 'Theyre all dead! All 6 of them are dead!'" When the policeman went down to the basement, according to the affidavit, he "observed at least 4 people lying on the basement floor clearly lifeless." State police stopped Wise's vehicle Wednesday afternoon on Horseshoe Road near Conestoga Valley High School in East Lampeter Township. He was taken into custody and interviewed at the East Lampeter Township police station for several hours. The elder Wise, who is staying with Adams, told the Inquirer he could not understand why the killings happened. He said his grandson "was never vicious." "What made this happen, I can't say," he said. Arrest records on the younger Wise, however, show a lengthy history that grew more and more violent. In fact, at the time of last weekend's murders, Wise was free on $90,000 bail awaiting a court appearance later this month. He was expected to plead guilty to 21 criminal charges stemming from 6 separate cases, ranging from reckless driving to simple assault. In July 2004, Wise was charged with reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident and agricultural vandalism. East Earl Township Police said Wise was spotted driving a 1982 Mercedes at a high rate of speed on and off East Earl Road. Property owners said Wise damaged their crops when he drove into a field along East Earl Road. Wise was stopped a short time later and admitted to driving the car, but said he was having mechanical problems. Later that month, state police said Wise and 2 other men broke into First Baptist Church in Salisbury Township, causing $550 worth of damage and stealing a $60 pair of headphones. During that same time, police said the same group broke into a Salisbury Township garage, stealing a cash register, a cell phone and two containers of antifreeze, causing damage estimated at $300. The next month, Wise was arrested after a traffic accident that injured a passenger in his car, Jackie Boots. Wise, who at the time was not yet 21, was charged with recklessly endangering another person, underage drinking and possessing a prohibited offense weapon, a knife. The accident sparked a lawsuit, according to court documents, in which Boots received $10,500 for her injuries. Then, in late September, Wise was arrested at New Holland Fair after he and another man, Freddy Morales, allegedly attacked Francisco Rodriguez and stole $20 from him. According to New Holland Police accounts, Rodriguez approached police officers telling them that 2 men had forced him into an alley. One of the men held him while the other repeatedly punched him, then went through his pockets and took the money, police said. Rodriguez told police he was able to slip out of his jacket and escape. The policemen walked with Rodriguez through the fair until he identified Wise and Morales as his assailants. Wise and Morales yelled and swore at Rodriguez, denying the assault and refusing to cooperate with police. Policemen said they had to use a stun gun to subdue Wise and take him into custody.Wise is now charged with six counts of criminal homicide. Adams, speaking to a reporter from New York on Wednesday, expressed rage at Wise. "If he killed his little 5-year-old cousin, he has no heart," Adams told the Daily News. "He has to go down for it." Wise is said to have moved in with his grandparents after his own parents were killed in a traffic accident. Wise is identified in court records as having numerous addresses - South Railroad Avenue in New Holland, Churchtown Road in Narvon and Ashlea Gardens in New Holland. The family moved into the Leola home about 6 months ago. The extended Wise family is originally from New York but had shuttled back and forth between the familys homes in Howard Beach, N.Y., and Lancaster County. One news account said it was expected that the bodies would be returned to New York for a memorial service. The elder Wise runs a construction company, according to the New York Daily News, but spends a great deal of time at the Federation of Black Cowboys stables in Howard Beach, where he has seven quarter horses. The organization, which the elder Wise founded, according to the New York newspaper, teaches young people about the role black cowboys played in history. (source: Lancaster New Era) USA: Judge rescinds order; 'shoebomber' won't testify in Moussaoui trial Would-be "shoebomber" Richard Reid will not testify at the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema has vacated her order from Tuesday that issued a subpoena for Reid's testimony. No reason was given for the reversal, and those court documents have been sealed. Brinkema on Friday said she vacated the previous order "given the proffers made by defense counsel" in a letter to the court as well as a court filing by Reid's attorneys. Both documents are under seal. Reid's attorneys, Elizabeth Prevett and Judith Mizner, federal defenders in Boston, said in an earlier statement they had been trying to meet with Reid about his possible testimony. They were to represent him in Virginia, if needed. Moussaoui's attorneys had wanted Reid to testify against Moussaoui's claim that he and Reid were to head a crew that would have hijacked a fifth passenger jet on September 11, 2001. Moussaoui has claimed in 2 turns on the witness stand that he intended to pilot a 5th plane that day into the White House. Captured al Qaeda leaders, such as September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaiykh Mohammed, have said in statements to their interrogators that Moussaoui was tapped for a potential second wave of attacks but not the original plot. Reid, 33, is serving a life sentence for terrorism charges stemming from his failed attempt to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers on a December 2001 American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. Passengers thwarted his attempt, and the plane landed safely in Boston, where Reid pleaded guilty in October 2002. He is serving his sentence at the nation's super-maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado. The prison says Reid had not even been moved to Virginia for potential trial testimony, and there was no plan for U.S. marshals to move him. (source: CNN) ****************** Real justice for real crime Justice is not supposed to be about vengeance, but there is the possibility that may happen in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui now underway in Alexandra, Va. Moussaoui is the now infamous "20th" 9/11 terrorist who was taken into custody before the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 and thus was not able to contribute to the carnage of that black day. Having already pleaded guilty to a variety of charges, the federal trial is now all about whether or not Moussaoui will receive the death penalty for failing to inform federal law enforcement agents of the plans of the other 19 terrorists who flew 2 jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and a third into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A 4th hijacked jetliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Given the loss of nearly 3,000 lives on that day, and thousands more in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, finding a scapegoat to pay a penalty for that day is something almost all of us in the United States would dearly love. However, sentencing Moussaoui to death would not be justice. This argument has little to do with the seemingly-deranged and obviously fanatical Moussaouis wishes for martyrdom. Rather, it has to do with Richard Reid. Reid, for those who have trouble making the link, is the British national who was arrested in late 2001 for trying to ignite explosives carried in his shoes in order to blow up an American Airlines flight in midair. Despite that intentional act of terrorism on American soil, Reid was not sentenced to death, instead ordered to spend the rest of his life in a federal prison. It is just that Reid serve a life sentence for his crime. It would be equally just for Moussaoui to do the same. (source: The Sun (Oklahoma) )
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., N. MEX., OKLA. PENN., USA
Rick Halperin Sat, 15 Apr 2006 10:50:41 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
