Dec. 9 TEXAS: Man sought in double slaying arrested A capital murder suspect wanted in the slayings of 2 people last week on the Northeast Side has been arrested. More arrests could be made in the case. Police arrested 24-year-old Juan Gomez just before 1 a.m. in a house on Lennon Avenue. According to police, Gomez shot and killed 2 men who came to the tattoo parlor where he worked in the 3900 block of Interstate 10 East on Thursday night. The victims, Steven Bustamante and Juan Alvarez, were slain at the tattoo shop then dumped in the 6000 block of Clematis Trail. 2 plumbers discovered the bodies. Investigators said the slayings were drug related. One of the victim's vehicles was recovered at an H-E-B in the 6500 block of FM 78. (source: San Antonio Express-News) OHIO: Doctor accused of poisoning wife stops fighting extradition, will return to Ohio to face charges A Gates Mills doctor who fled the country after he was accused of killing his wife with cyanide has given up his fight to avoid extradition and will return to Cleveland to stand trial. Yazeed Essa, 40, is charged with aggravated murder in the slaying of his wife, Rosemarie, on Feb. 24, 2005. He could be returned from Cyprus by the end of the month, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Monday. "That's if there are no hitches," Mason said. "In this case, there have been hitches at every step." Essa has been a fugitive since shortly after his 38-year-old wife's death. He had been fighting his return since October 2006, when he was arrested after flying from Beirut, Lebanon, to Cyprus. Officials of the Mediterranean island accused him of using fake travel documents. An attorney for Essa's family in Cleveland, Mark Marein, declined to comment Monday. An Associated Press story quoted Essa's attorney in Cyprus as saying prosecutors made a plea agreement with Essa that involved dropping charges against family members accused of theft in exchange for his return to Cleveland. Prosecutors suspect Essa's siblings took money from companies they owned in order to help Essa while he was on the run. Mason and attorneys for Essa's brother and sister said no such agreement exists. The cases against Firas Essa of Hudson and Runa Ighneim of Chester Township are pending in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Mason said he believes Yazeed Essa decided to drop his extradition battle because he "was at the end of his rope on appeals. He took it as far as he could go." Initially, Essa fought his return on the grounds that he could face the death penalty if convicted for the slaying. Cyprus won't extradite suspects who face the death penalty. Mason stressed again Monday that he wouldn't bring death-penalty charges. The reason: Essa is not eligible under Ohio law. The death penalty is reserved for those convicted of aggravated murder with certain specifications, such as killing a child, a witness or a police officer. Prosecutors also can seek it against someone who killed someone while committing certain felonies or attempting to escape after a crime. The maximum sentence that Essa faces is life in prison, with the chance of parole after at least 20 years. Essa is a former emergency room doctor at Akron General Hospital. He is accused of poisoning his wife of 5 years by giving her cyanide. Authorities said he substituted the cyanide for calcium, which Essa had urged his wife to take. Dominic DiPuccio, Rosemarie Essa's brother and the guardian of her two children, Armand and Lena, could not be reached for comment. (source: Plain Dealer) USA: 5 Charged in 9/11 Attacks Seek to Plead Guilty The 5 Guantnamo detainees charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge on Monday that they wanted to confess in full, a move that seemed to challenge the government to put them to death. The request, which was the result of hours of private meetings among the detainees, appeared intended to undercut the governments plan for a high-profile trial while drawing international attention to what some of the 5 men have said was a desire for martyrdom. But the military judge, Col. Stephen R. Henley of the Army, said a number of legal questions about how the commissions are to deal with capital cases had to be resolved before guilty pleas could be accepted. The case is likely to remain in limbo for weeks or months, presenting the Obama administration with a new issue involving detainees at the naval base at Guantnamo Bay to resolve when it takes office next month. At the start of what had been listed as routine proceedings Monday, Judge Henley said he had received a written statement from the five men dated Nov. 4 saying they planned to stop filing legal motions and "to announce our confessions to plea in full." Speaking in what has become a familiar high-pitched tone in the cavernous courtroom here, the most prominent of the 5, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said, "we don't want to waste our time with motions." "All of you are paid by the U.S. government," continued Mr. Mohammed, who has described himself as the mastermind of the 2001 attacks. "I'm not trusting any American." Mr. Mohammed and the others presented their decision almost as a dare to the American government. When Judge Henley raised questions about the procedure for imposing the death penalty after a guilty plea, some of the detainees immediately suggested they might change their minds if they could not be assured they would be executed. The announcement Monday sent shockwaves through the biggest case in the war crimes system here the case for which some government officials say the system was expressly devised. With the case suddenly at a critical juncture, President-elect Barack Obama may find it more complicated to carry out his pledge to close the detention camp here. Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for the presidential transition office, declined to comment. Military prosecutors have sought the death penalty against all 5 men since filing charges last February in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people. Mr. Mohammed has emerged as the outspoken leader of the detainees in the courtroom and, presumably, behind closed doors. In September, Mr. Mohammed requested permission for the men 3 of whom are defending themselves to meet without lawyers to plan their defense. A military judge granted the request with the approval of the prosecution, and the men met several times for a total of 27 hours and prepared a written statement. On Monday, Judge Henley methodically questioned each man to determine if he agreed with the joint statement. 1 of the 5 detainees, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, told the judge, "We the brothers, all of us, would like to submit our confession." Mr. bin al-Shibh is charged with being the primary contact between the operations organizers and the Sept. 11 hijackers. National security specialists said the strategy appeared orchestrated by Mr. Mohammed, who has repeatedly tried to turn to the legal process into an international platform. "These guys are smart enough to know that they're not ever going to see the light of day again," said Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal terrorism prosecutor who is chairman of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism in Washington. "I think they're trying to make as big a publicity splash as they can." For the 1st time, the Pentagon arranged for relatives of 9/11 victims to travel to Guantnamo to attend the session. A group of them, who spoke to reporters afterward, said they were struck by the extensive rights accorded the accused men. One of the relatives, Hamilton Peterson, said he was offended by the detainees, who he said were sneering and laughing in the courtroom. "They seemed to view these proceedings as a joke," Mr. Peterson said. In an outburst, Mr. bin al-Shibh said he wanted to congratulate Osama bin Laden, adding, "We ask him to attack the American enemy with all his power." Some lawyers who have been following the prosecutions said the timing of the effort to plead guilty was significant, coming in what may have been the last major hearing here in the Bush administration. Mr. Obama has suggested that he might end the military commissions and charge the detainees in existing American courts. Vijay Padmanabhan, an assistant professor at Cardozo Law School who was until July a State Department lawyer with responsibility for detainee issues, said the 5 detainees had worked to use criticism of the military tribunals to their advantage. "They are trying to ensure their martyrdom in a manner that continues to attack the credibility of the legal system challenging them," Mr. Padmanabhan said. In Monday's session, which was covered by an international press corps from the Arab world, Spain, Brazil, Japan and elsewhere, Judge Henley directed prosecutors to submit full legal arguments by Jan. 4 on the procedures in capital cases outlined by the Military Commissions Act, which governs proceedings here. Among other fundamental issues, Judge Henley asked for analysis of whether the men could be sentenced to death if they pleaded guilty instead of being found guilty by a panel of military officers. Because this week's proceedings were to consider legal motions to be decided by the judge, no panel was present. Another potential hurdle to guilty pleas was a claim by lawyers for 2 of the detainees that they may not be mentally competent to represent themselves. The judge ruled that those two detainees could not make decisions about their cases on Monday. The two are Mr. bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, charged as a Qaeda financial operative. In addition to Mr. Mohammed, the other detainees are Walid bin Attash, who is accused of selecting many of the hijackers, and Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Mr. Mohammed who is said to have been one of his key deputies in the Sept. 11 plot. The judge said the competency issues might not be resolved for a substantial period. The three detainees who are representing themselves said they would wait to enter a plea, as Mr. Mohammed put it, "until a decision is made about our brothers." The judge ruled that he would permit the three men who represent themselves to withdraw motions filed on their behalf, which would set the stage for a guilty plea. Human rights groups monitoring the proceedings said the judge's uncertainty about the procedures for accepting guilty pleas in a death-penalty case here illustrated the difficulties of using a new legal system to prosecute terrorism suspects. "It is indicative about the last 4 years of a failed commission process," said Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. But a Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, said, "These are extraordinarily complex issues, and we have worked hard to ensure that those accused of war crimes get full and fair trials." Alice Hoagland, the mother of Mark Bingham, who was killed on Sept. 11, said she was pleased that the military judge had not rushed to allow guilty pleas. The detainees "do not deserve to be dealt with as martyrs," Ms. Hoagland said. "They do not deserve the glory of execution." (source: New York Times) SOUTH CAROLINA: Death penalty sought in stabbing of SC cheerleader Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a man accused in the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend, a South Carolina high school cheerleader. Pernell Clayton Thompson pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday as prosecutors told him of their decision. Investigators have said the 20-year-old former Wingate University football player stabbed 16-year-old Marisha Jeter in January to prove his love to his wife. Jeter's body was discovered under a bridge and her car was found torched in another county. Jeter was the junior class president, a cheerleader and honor roll student at Union County High School. Thompson's wife, 19-year-old Yolanda Dee Thompson, has also been charged with murder. Wingate is a private liberal arts college 35 miles east of Charlotte, N.C. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Jury gives killer life in prison----Judge says to consider the good, as well as the bad convict did. The failure of Henry C. Myers to follow his own advice has cost 2, maybe 3, people their lives. On Monday, a Jacksonville jury said it shouldn't cost Myers his. After a full day of testimony, the same jury that convicted Myers last month of 1st-degree murder and arson recommended that he should spend the rest of his life in prison for binding, gagging, beating and repeatedly stabbing Chad Sullivan in 2005. The state wanted Myers, 34, put to death. Circuit Judge Linda McCallum immediately sentenced Myers to life in prison plus 30 years for the arson. 3 teenage accomplices, all convicted of murder, are awaiting sentencing after testifying against Myers. It was the 2nd homicide conviction for Myers, who shot a homeless man in Atlanta in 1993 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Jurors didn't even get to hear about a third slaying Myers is charged with - the shooting of Adrian Levelle Williams, 29, near Pickettville in 2005. Prosecutors rejected a proposal last week from Myers' lawyers to let him plead guilty to that killing and drop all appeals in exchange for 2 mandatory life sentences. The slayings and other convictions led the Times-Union to chronicle Myers in its award-winning Homicide 360 series in 2006 as an example of the type of repeat criminal helping to fuel Jacksonville's murder rate, the highest in the state. During his incarceration in Georgia, Myers wrote to his sister, advising her to stay in school and off the streets, she testified Monday. "The streets will devour you," Jamika Bostic said he told her. She and other friends and relatives said the letter showed that Myers was essentially a good man who tried to help others. Others who testified on his behalf talked about how he ministered to AIDS sufferers and worked at a Miami homeless ministry during the 13 months he was on the run from Jacksonville police. "I looked at him as my right-hand man," said Joanna Brookins, who runs the homeless ministry. Myers also was praised as a mentor to other inmates in the Duval County jail. Assistant State Attorney John Guy said Myers' good works shouldn't overshadow what he did to Sullivan, 30. And his letters from prison in Georgia show he knew right from wrong when he was released from that sentence, Guy told jurors. "He had his 2nd chance. ... This is what he did with it," Guy said, holding up a photograph of Sullivan's charred body. Jurors heard tearful statements from Sullivan's mother, sister and friend. They described him as an artistic, hard-working man who masked his drug addiction with good humor. "The day my son died, his father, mother and sister died as well," said Linda Sullivan, the victim's mother. Guy asked jurors to recommend a death sentence because of the prior slaying, the fact that Sullivan was held against his will and the cruelty of the murder. But defense attorney Quentin Till said Myers shouldn't shoulder all the blame for Sullivan's death and reminded jurors that the alternative to death was a mandatory life prison sentence. He asked jurors to take into account the good in his client's life as well as the bad. "You are asked to take his life, so consider his life, all 34 years," Till said. McCallum scheduled a pretrial hearing Jan. 14 in the Williams slaying. (source: Florida Times-Union)
