Jan. 11
UTAH:
Death penalty to be sought in Utah police shootings
Prosecutors said on Monday they will seek the death penalty against a Utah Army
veteran suspected of killing 1 police officer and wounding 5 others in a
shootout during a drug raid at his home.
Weber County Attorney Dee Smith also revealed a few details on a suspicious
device detonated last weekend at the home in Ogden of the suspected shooter,
37-year-old Matthew Stewart.
Stewart, who remains hospitalized from wounds suffered in the shootout, is
accused of firing at police officers who served a drug-related "knock and
announce" search warrant at his home on January 4.
"This is a very significant event, something that I don't know that the state
has ever experienced something of this magnitude," Smith told reporters.
"There's a lot of lives affected, a lot of families affected."
Stewart will be charged with capital murder, which could lead to a sentence of
death following a conviction, the prosecutor said.
He will also face 8 counts of attempted aggravated murder and a charge of
cultivation of marijuana, after he is released from hospital and booked into
jail, Smith said.
The eight counts of attempted murder are based on the 5 officers wounded in the
shootout, and others who were in the line of fire but not physically wounded
during the raid, Smith said. The operation was conducted by the Weber-Morgan
Narcotics Strike Force, which is composed of officers from multiple law
enforcement agencies in the region.
Following the shooting, investigators were seen removing from the home
fluorescent light panels and PVC pipes.
Stewart was on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1994 to 1998, Army officials
have said.
The gunfight in a residential neighborhood in Ogden, about 30 miles north of
Salt Lake City, ranks as one of the worst outbreaks of violence against police
officers in Utah history.
Smith said he would not "speculate" on Stewart's possible motive for opening
fire.
On Saturday, a bomb squad detonated a suspicious device at Stewart's home, but
further tests are pending to determine the exact nature of the object.
"I'm not an expert, I can't tell you if it was a bomb or it was not a bomb,"
Smith said.
In recent days, Ogden police have been mourning the death of their colleague,
agent Jared Francom, who was slain in the shootout. "A number of individuals
were wounded as they were giving aid and trying to remove fallen officers from
the scene," Smith said.
Ogden police officer Kasey Burrell, who was wounded, remains in critical
condition at McKay-Dee Hospital Center, said Chris Dallin, a spokesman for the
medical facility.
Fellow officers Shawn Grogan and Michael Rounkles are in fair condition at the
facility, Dallin said.
The other 2 wounded officers were treated and released.
Smith said he was limited in what he could reveal about the shooting and the
investigation, in part because Stewart has not been officially charged.
"This is crime scene that is massive. We've had crime scene investigators
combing through this hour after hour after hour for days," he said.
(source: Reuters)
OHIO:
Ohio man resentenced to death in fatal beating
A man was sentenced to the death penalty a 2nd time Tuesday for beating a woman
to death with a baseball bat in Cincinnati more than 14 years ago.
A Hamilton County Common Pleas judge accepted the recommendation made in
December by a jury in Rayshawn Johnson's second sentencing trial.
Johnson was convicted and sentenced in 1998 for murdering his neighbor, Shanon
Marks, in Cincinnati, but a federal appeals court threw out his 1st sentence in
2008. Johnson's conviction was allowed to stand, but the appeals court said his
lawyers in the 1st trial didn't fully investigate his abusive childhood and
that he deserved a new trial on the penalty phase.
Jurors in the resentencing trial that ended in December were not told that
Johnson had previously received a death sentence.
Authorities said Johnson hit Marks 13 times with the bat after breaking into
her home on Nov. 12, 1997. Her husband found her body hours later.
Johnson has admitted killing Marks and taking money from her purse, but a
doctor testified that Johnson was addicted to alcohol and drugs at the time,
his attorney, Will Welsh, said after Tuesday's sentencing.
"We feel that Rayshawn is not the same person he was when he was a young
19-year-old being raised in the house he was raised in and how he was raised,"
Welsh said. "We think he's truly changed his life since he's been in prison and
on death row."
Johnson's mother was addicted to drugs and alcohol, and he lived with his
grandmother, who subjected him to beatings and neglect, Welsh has said.
Welsh had asked the judge to sentence Johnson to life without parole, and he
said the sentence would be appealed.
The jury and the judge made the right decision, prosecutor Joe Deters said
through his spokeswoman Julie Wilson.
(source: Associated Press)
MARYLAND:
Death penalty trial set to begin for prisoner charged in killing of Md.
correctional officer
A trial that could test recent changes to Maryland's death penalty law is set
to begin.
Opening statements in the trial of Lee Edward Stephens, 1 of 2 prisoners
charged with stabbing corrections officer David McGuinn to death in 2006, are
scheduled to take place Wednesday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.
The slaying was a primary factor in the decision to close the Maryland House of
Correction.
This is the 1st death penalty case to go to trial since Maryland's death
penalty law was changed. The law now reserves capital punishment for murders in
which there is a videotaped confession or biological evidence linking the
defendant to the crime.
No trial date has been set for prisoner Lamar Harris, whose mental fitness to
stand trial is in question.
(source: Associated Press)
ARKANSAS:
New trial set for Arkansas inmate whose death sentence was tossed because of
tweeting juror
A new trial has been scheduled for an Arkansas inmate whose murder conviction
and death sentence were overturned because 1 juror slept and another posted on
Twitter during the court proceedings.
Judge Jon Comstock scheduled an Aug. 27 trial for 26-year-old Erickson
Dimas-Martinez, who was convicted in 2010 for the death of 17-year-old Derrick
Jefferson. Last month, the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned Dimas-Martinez'
capital murder conviction and death sentence because of juror misconduct.
The high court ruled it was inappropriate for the juror to tweet about the
trial, even though the juror did not mention specifics of the case.
The Benton County Daily Record reports (http://is.gd/pIPcT3 ) that prosecutors
will again seek the death penalty.
The judge also scheduled pretrial hearings for March 14 and Aug. 8.
(source: Associated Press)
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