Nov. 26
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death sentence for 2-time York County murderer affirmed by Pa. Supreme Court
A convicted 2-time York County murderer who took his wife and child to the
scene of his latest slaying has had his death sentence upheld by the state
Supreme Court.
The high court's ruling comes nearly 3 years after Kevin E. Mattison, 37, was
found guilty by a county jury of 1st-degree murder for the December 2008
robbery and shooting of 34-year-old Christian Agosto in a York City apartment.
That was the 2nd time Mattison was convicted of murder. As a teenager, he
pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder for killing a man during a street fight in
Maryland in 1995.
According to investigators, Mattison committed the York slaying amid someone
else's lover's dispute. Agosto's girlfriend suspected him of 2-timing her, and
a friend of hers recruited Mattison to accompany the woman to Agosto's
apartment to confront him.
Mattison, who had his wife and son with him, drove the girlfriend to Agosto's
home, where she caught Agosto with another woman. While the 2 were arguing,
Mattison apparently realized Agosto was a drug dealer and decided to rob him,
Justice Max Baer noted in the Supreme Court's recently issued majority opinion
on Mattison's case.
Mattison went into the apartment with his gun drawn, prosecutors said, and in
front of an eye witness robbed Agosto of a bag of marijuana, then shot Agosto
in the head.
A month later, police captured Mattison as he tried to hide in a house in
Maryland. He was convicted of Agosto's murder, plus charges of robbery and
burglary, in December 2010. The fact that Mattison was a 2-time killer and had
shot Agosto while committing other crimes prompted the York County District
Attorney's Office to seek the death penalty.
In affirming Mattison's sentence of capital punishment, the Supreme Court
concluded that the evidence solidly supports his conviction for Agosto's
murder, Baer wrote. He found that Mattison's argument that someone else killed
Agosto "is not persuasive."
(source: Pennlive.com)
LOUISIANA:
Grand jury indicts Opelousas man in wife's death
An Opelousas man who told police he couldn't wait to kill again after he
allegedly stabbed his wife multiple times last month has been charged with
1st-degree murder.
St. Landry Parish District Attorney Earl Taylor's office said in a release
Tuesday that Hank Moran, 44, faces life in prison or the death penalty if he's
convicted of the 1st-degree murder charge issued by a grand jury Nov. 21.
Taylor was not immediately available for comment Tuesday morning.
According to an Opelousas police report, Moran was arrested around dawn Oct. 8
after he was found standing over Constance Moran's body, holding a knife in his
right hand. She was 57.
Moran was placed on suicide watch at the St. Landry Parish Jail in the days
after the killing, then transferred to the Pine Prairie Correctional Center
about 30 miles northwest of Opelousas.
The St. Landry Parish grand jury indicted Moran on Nov. 21.
(source: The Advocate)
********************
Sentencing of baby killer postponed until February
A Shreveport man convicted of the 1st degree murder of his 1-year-old son will
have to wait almost 3 months to be formally sentenced to the death penalty.
Rodricus Crawford, who was convicted Nov. 12 in the February 2012 death of his
baby, was scheduled to be sentenced today, but Judge Joe Bleich continued the
sentencing until Feb. 21, 2014.
The Caddo Parish jury that convicted Crawford also voted in favor of the death
penalty after a full day of testimony during the penalty phase of the trial. In
Louisiana, conviction of first degree murder is only punishable by death or
life imprisonment without possibility of parole, probation or suspension.
(source: Arklatexhomepage.com)
INDIANA----new death sentence
William Gibson gets death penalty
A judge on Tuesday gave the death penalty to a southern Indiana man convicted
of killing his late mother's 75-year-old best friend.
56-year-old William Clyde Gibson of New Albany will be executed. The Floyd
County jury that convicted him last month of murder in the April 2012 slaying
of Christine Whitis decided he should face execution.
Floyd County Judge Susan Orth was required by law to follow the jury's
death-penalty recommendation.
Gibson still faces 2 murder trials in connection with the 2012 slaying of a
woman nearby Charlestown and the 2002 death of a Florida woman in Floyd County.
Prosecutor Keith Henderson has said he intends to pursue trials in both of
those deaths.
(source: WISH news)
MISSOURI:
Jefferson City man given death penalty for fatal shooting in 2009
A Jefferson City man has sentenced to die for the 2009 killing of a woman with
whom he had a relationship while she was separated from her husband, who was
also shot to death.
Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce agreed with a jury's recommendation in
imposing the sentence Tuesday on 58-year-old David Hosier.
KRCG-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1b2ZEua ) Hosier addressed the court for about
10 minutes, denying he shot Angela Gilpin and claiming the real killer remains
at large.
Angela and Ronald Gilpin were found dead in September 2009 at Angela's
Jefferson City apartment. Prosecutors said Angela Gilpin had an affair with
Hosier while separated from her husband, but the Gilpins were trying to
reconcile.
Hosier was charged in both killings, but the status of the case in Ronald's
death is unclear.
(source: Associated Press)
USA (VERMONT):
Lawyers in Donald Fell death-penalty case raise new juror misconduct
allegations---Claim involves fourth juror in challenge against 2005
death-penalty sentence
Another juror who sat on the death-penalty trial of Donald Fell in 2005 has
been accused of withholding personal information during the jury-selection
process, Fell???s legal team contends in a new filing at U.S. District Court in
Burlington.
According to the document, a Barre man listed as Juror 27 in court papers
answered "no" to a question about whether he had ever been charged with a
crime.
Fell's lawyers said they recently discovered that Juror 27 was convicted of
driving under influence in 1982 and was charged, but not convicted, of an
assault in 1981.
"There is significant reason to believe that these concealed facts evince an
inability of Juror 27 to consider the facts of Mr. Fell's case impartially,"
Fell's lawyers wrote in a 411-page amended motion asking the court for a new
trial or a reduced sentence.
Efforts by the Burlington Free Press to contact Juror 27 on Monday were
unsuccessful.
Fell was charged, along with Robert Lee, in the grisly, drug-fueled kidnapping
and beating death of North Clarendon grandmother Terri King in November 2000,
shortly after the Fell and Lee killed Fell's mother and a friend of hers in
Rutland.
Lee later died in jail. Fell was convicted after a trial in summer 2005 of
killing King and then was sentenced to death by the 7-man, 5-woman federal
jury. He is on death row at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.
Vermont does not have the death penalty, but Fell was tried under federal law
in the 1st capital case in the state in 50 years.
Fell's legal team, which took over his defense in 2009 from the lawyers who
represented him at trial, stated in their filing that they also have new
evidence supporting misconduct charges they levied against 3 other jurors
earlier this year.
The 3 jurors underwent rare court proceedings this summer before Judge William
K. Sessions III during which they had to answer questions about their behavior.
Federal prosecutors, in a filing last week, told Sessions that the new claims
by Fell's lawyers should be thrown out because they were filed long past a
deadline for making such allegations, and because they were unnecessarily
intrusive.
"Following an extraordinary investigation into the lives of the jurors who
convicted him by a team of (lawyers), Fell now seeks to turn the tables and put
his jurors on trial, for perjury or false statement," the government filing
stated.
Fell's lawyers stated that their new evidence against the other three jurors
includes claims that:
-- Juror 26 hid the fact he had misdemeanor convictions in the 1990s for
driving under the influence and non-payment of wages.
-- Juror 143 answered "no" on the jury questionnaire when asked if he had ever
been accused of a crime when Vermont State Police records show he was
investigated, but not charged, with stealing property from a public recreation
area.
-- Juror 162 was not candid about disclosing details of her son's criminal
history and substance abuse problems, and did not disclose she once filed a
criminal complaint against an "ex-partner."
The new disclosures about Juror 162 were referred to in the the government???s
objection to the filing by Fell???s lawyers. Fell's lawyers, in their motion,
blacked out all 24 pages of its claims against Juror 162, apparently because
the initial allegation made by Fell's lawyers against the woman involved
evidence she failed to disclose she was the victim of a sexual assault 50 years
ago.
The woman, Joyce Gagnon of Williston, told the Burlington Free Press last month
that the sexual assault incident occurred when she was a little girl, and she
forgot about it when answering a question regarding whether she was ever the
victim of a crime.
"They're dragging me and my son through the mud," said Gagnon, who gave the
Free Press permission to use her name. "It's hard to grasp a hold of why. I
wish I was never on that jury."
(source: Burlington Free Press)
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