Jan. 19 TEXAS: Trial for 2004 McKinney quadruple homicide focuses on man who once confessed The capital murder trial of Raul Cortez, one of two defendants charged with killing 4 people in McKinney, has been overshadowed by the presence of a man originally charged with the crime. Cortez has been all but invisible in the death-penalty case as attention has been focused on the missteps made by McKinney police during interviews with narcotics informant James Jones, who confessed to the crime a month after the March 12, 2004, killings. Jones also implicated 2 other suspects. But the case against those 3 men quickly crumbled when Jones recanted his confession and charges against them were dropped. As a result, McKinney police came under fire for rushing to make arrests in the high-profile crime and for the way they handled the investigation. Collin County prosecutor Greg Davis said last week he knew the police investigation of Jones would play a large role in this trial. "The bulk of this case is undoing what's been done," said Davis, who still hopes to present evidence against Cortez before the end of this week. Prosecutors say Cortez went to the McKinney home of Rosa Barbosa, 46, and shot her to death. He also is accused of shooting and killing her nephew, Mark Barbosa, 25, and his friends, Matthew Self, 17; and Austin York, 18. Authorities have said the motive was robbery. When the trial began last Monday, defense attorney Richard Franklin put Jones at center stage during his opening arguments to the jury. Jones "knew things that only a person who had been at the crime scene would know," he said. With that salvo, prosecutors turned their attention to proving that Jones in an attempt to make a deal on unrelated criminal charges lied to police when he told them he had knowledge about the murders that only the killer could know. McKinney police Sgt. Steve Riley testified that Jones was questioned by several officers, who he said may have given him information about the crime during interviews. Riley, who spent more than 2 days on the witness stand, told the jury that investigators did not realize Jones "was interrogating us as much as we were interrogating him." Riley testified that he had drawn a diagram of the crime scene during one interview with Jones. It showed the rooms where the victims were found and how they were positioned. Riley told the jury that he'd left the drawing in the interview room with Jones. When other officers came in to resume the interrogation, Jones told them that he'd made the drawing, Riley testified. The jury was shown videotaped police interviews with a mumbling and often incoherent Jones, who insisted that he was in the McKinney house on the night of the killings. He knew that the victims included "white kids" and a woman and that all the victims had been shot in the head. "All you've told me is [expletive] that's been in the newspapers and on TV," a frustrated police interrogator tells Jones at one point. "You tell me something that ain't in the papers." But Jones was unable to tell investigators details about the crime that had not been publicized, such as the color of the duct tape that bound one victim or the location of the weapons. And DNA evidence failed to find any link between Jones and the other 2 suspects he implicated in the crime, according to an expert witness who testified last week. Jones and the other 2 men were released in 2004. Three years later, police got a break in the stalled case when a woman went to authorities and told them her boyfriend, Eddie Ray Williams, was involved in the slayings. Authorities eventually charged Williams and Cortez with 5 counts of capital murder 1 count for each of the 4 victims, and an additional charge for more than 1 murder occurring during the same incident. Authorities linked DNA from a cigarette discarded by Cortez to evidence collected from the crime scene. The Collin County jury hearing the case has not heard testimony about that evidence yet but could as early as this week. A trial date for Williams has not been set, but he is expected to testify during the trial, which is scheduled to resume Tuesday. Jones, who is serving a 10-year sentence for aggravated kidnapping in connection with another crime, is also expected to testify during the trial. (source: Dallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: Triple murder trial set to begin----Steven Colegrove could face death penalty if convicted The horror of a triple murder in Bradford County, Pa., will be relived Tuesday as the trial of Steven Colegrove, charged with killing 3 members of his family, begins. Colegrove faces 3 counts of criminal homicide in the shooting deaths of his parents and brother in their Tuscarora Township home on Aug. 8, 2007. Colegrove, then of Deposit, N.Y., is accused of killing his father, longtime Laceyville Fire Chief Joseph Colegrove, 60; his mother, Marlene Colegrove, 56, a Wyalusing School District bus driver; and a brother, Michael Colegrove, 35, who lived with his parents. A 3rd brother, Robert, did not live in the home. As the trial begins Tuesday morning, Bradford County District Attorney Daniel Barrett and Assistant District Attorney Albert Ondrey, assisted by attorney Kathryn Barrett, daughter of Daniel Barrett, will face off against county Public Defender Helen Stolinas and Williamsport attorney William Miele. County Judge Maureen Beirne will hear the case. A week of jury selection ended Friday with 12 jurors and 3 alternates selected. One more alternate still must be chosen today. If Steven Colegrove is found guilty, the district attorney plans to ask for the death penalty. The Pennsylvania death penalty statute says that if a defendant is found guilty of capital murder, a jury must vote for a death sentence if it finds at least one aggravating circumstance as outlined by the statute and no mitigating circumstances, or if the jury unanimously finds one or more aggravating circumstance that outweigh any mitigating circumstances. Otherwise, the verdict must be life in prison. The defendant has been held without bail in the Bradford County Jail since his arrest several days after the murders. Each victim was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun in the bedrooms of their home on Kirk Road. State police at Towanda, when they arrested Steven Colegrove about 3 days after the murders, described the crime as an "execution-style" homicide. Colegrove has denied killing his parents and brother. The motive investigators developed? To inherit money and property. Much of the prosecution's case was laid out in a 22-page criminal complaint from troopers George Confer and James Kerrick and in Colegrove's preliminary hearing and other court appearances leading up to the trial. They include arguments that: * Steven Colegrove shot his father and brother as they slept and killed his mother as she tried to leave her bedroom. All 3 were shot in the head and face with 3-inch magnum cartridges from the shotgun, police said. Marlene Colegrove also was shot in the hand. Police theorize that she put her hand in front of her face or tried to grab the gun. * During a search of the Colegrove home after the murders, police recovered a letter from the Colegroves' gun safe indicating that when the parents died, son Robert was to get only $1. That meant if the parents and Michael Colegrove were dead, Steven would inherit the money from his mother's $100,000 insurance policy and any other family money and property. * Investigators said the killer tried to make the Colegrove home look as if the killings were the result of a burglary gone bad. * During the interrogation, police found injuries on Steven Colegrove's hands and right shoulder. The shoulder injury was consistent with having fired a shotgun, police said. * When a doctor examined the shoulder injury, he said it was approximately 72 hours old, linking it to the time of the murders. * Investigators determined that the shotgun used in the murders is owned by Robert Rynearson Sr., with whom Steven Colegrove lived. * There were inconsistencies in what Colegrove told them during his interrogations. Defense attorneys Stolinas and Miele have not revealed much of their defense strategy. But several weeks ago, Stolinas said she and Miele were "vigorously preparing a defense for Mr. Colegrove" and they expect "to contest the Commonwealth's evidence" in the case. In pre-trial motions argued in March, the defense team: * Asked the court to suppress evidence in the case that they claim police found after Colegrove said he wanted legal representation. * Asked the court to move the trial out of Bradford County or neighboring counties or to bring in an outside jury because the pre-trial publicity was "pervasive and sensational," preventing the defense from finding an impartial local jury. Because this is a death penalty case, Stolinas said recently, in addition to preparing a defense for Colegrove, she and Miele also must be prepared for arguments during the sentencing portion of the trial should Colegrove be found guilty. Barrett said he expects the trial to take about 2 weeks. (source: Gannett News Service) ************** Death Penalty Decision An accused killer from Cambria County will learn this week if he'll face the death penalty. District attorney Patrick Kiniry has until Tuesday morning to decide if he'll seek death for Fredrick Phillips Jr. Phillips is accused of strangling his mother, Anna Phillips, to death in October. Police say he killed her inside her suburban Johnstown home then dumped her body in the woods of Westmoreland County. Phillips is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. (source: WTAJ News) NORTH CAROLINA----federal death penalty to be sought Prosecutors will seek death penalty for Atwater Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man charged with killing UNC Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has approved prosecutors' request to seek the execution of 22-year-old Demario Atwater. Atwater pleaded not guilty last month to four federal charges, including carjacking resulting in death. His trial is set for November. Co-defendant, Laurence Lovette, is also charged in Carson's death but isn't eligible for the death penalty. (source: WWAY News) WASHINGTON: Trial in death of pregnant Pasco woman set for May ---- A woman charged with killing a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from her womb is now scheduled for trial on May 18. The delay was granted Friday in Benton County Superior Court to allow more time for a death penalty decision in the case of 24-year-old Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong. She's charged with aggravated 1st-degree murder in the death of Araceli Camacho Gomez on June 27 in Pasco. Synhavong is accused of cutting Gomez's nearly full-term son from her womb and claiming the baby as her own. Prosecutor Andrew K. Miller now has until March 10 to decide whether to seek the death penalty. Defense lawyers are preparing a mitigation packet to try to keep their client from facing the possibility of execution. (source: Seattle Times) _______________________________________________ DeathPenalty mailing list [email protected] http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
