Rick Halperin
2018-09-06 13:31:39 UTC
Sept. 6
NORTH CAROLINA:
Conover man charged with murder may face the death penalty
Scott Anthony Putnam, the Conover man charged with a July murder, will appear
in Catawba County Superior Court this week for a Rule 24 hearing to learn
whether or not he faces the death penalty.
Court documents say Putnam, 37, shot and killed 24-year-old Anthony Killian and
wounded Killian's mother Roxanne Killian at their home on Curlee Drive on July
24. Killian died on the scene.
Putnam was arrested at his home on Naked Creek Road on July 25.
Warrants, obtained by the Hickory Daily Record in August, reveal Putnam said
during his post-arrest interview there was an incident between him and the
Killians, which is the reason he committed the crime.
Documents, obtained from the Catawba County Sheriff's Office through a Freedom
of Information Act request, reveal the sheriff's office received an incident
report filed by someone at the Putnam residence on July 2, 2018. The incident
is listed as a sexual offense.
The incident report says the offense originally took place in 2013. The only
information provided on the suspected offender is they are a 24-year-old white
male. The status of the investigation says it was closed/cleared due to refusal
to cooperate.
However, the Putnams and Killians did have an altercation in 2013. Court
records reveal Putnam faced a misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon charge
in 2013, but the charge was dismissed. The witness listed on the charge is
Donald Killian, Anthony Killian's father.
According to the July warrants, Putnam attempted to shoot Donald Killian on
July 24, 2018 but he was out of bullets.
Despite witness statements and a possible post-arrest confession in the
warrants, Putnam is innocent until proven guilty.
Putnam remains in the Catawba County Jail without a bond.
He is charged with 1 count of felony murder, 1 felony count of assault with a
deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury and 1 felony count
of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.
If the district attorney plans to seek the death penalty against Putnam, it
will be up to a jury to convict him of 1st-degree murder and to determine
whether or not he should be sentenced to death.
(source: Hickory Record)
***************
Rockingham County prosecutor to seek death penalty against Rontae Hayes
For the 1st time since 1999, the Rockingham County District Attorney's Office
will prosecute a capital murder case.
Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Reese stated during a pre-trial
conference on Tuesday in Rockingham County Superior Court that she intends to
seek the death penalty against a man charged with killing 2 and injuring
several others during an overnight crime spree in the summer of 2016.
Rontae Devore Hayes, 38, of 4704 Fewell Road in Greensboro, faces 18 felony
charges in Rockingham County - including 2 counts of murder, 2 counts of
attempted 1st-degree murder, 2 counts of 1st-degree kidnapping, 3 counts of
assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury,
violent habitual felon, 1st-degree burglary and 1st-degree arson.
According to police, Hayes began a 12-hour crime spree at approximately 9 p.m.
on Saturday, June 11, 2016, after showing up unexpectedly at a backyard
barbecue taking place in the 100 block of Madison Street in Reidsville.
Witnesses said Hayes allegedly shot Leroy Angelo Blackwell in the leg,
shattered a beer bottle over the head of Craig Lee, and drove over Gregory
Tyrone Blackwell in the process of stealing Blackwell's car.
10 minutes later, authorities with the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office
responded to a different scene, approximately 7 miles away at a residence on
Knowles Road, where 49-year-old Kavin Allen Galloway was found with a gunshot
wound. They also located the vehicle stolen from Blackwell - ablaze and just 2
houses away from the new crime scene.
Hours later, at approximately 1:30 a.m. Sunday, firefighters found the bodies
of Mike Land and Gilbert Breeze dead inside a burning house on Grooms Road.
An older woman, also at the residence, was also located by police officers with
wounds to her head and areas of her face.
Later, when being transported to a local hospital, the woman told paramedics
that she had been raped.
An hour after the Grooms Road incident, deputies were dispatched to 121 Jack
Trail in Reidsville, where a homeowner spotted Hayes peeping from outside a
window, wearing only in his underwear.
The incident was caught on the resident's security system.
In the following hours, the sheriff's office issued public text alerts to local
residents warning them of their search for an armed and dangerous suspect and
to keep their doors locked.
With the help of nearly 50 officers from local and state agencies, Hayes was
eventually captured at approximately 9 a.m. near Busick and Grooms Road.
Officers were able to connect the suspect to the line of crime scenes by
locating Hayes' driver's license in Blackwell's car and the scattering of
dry-cleaning tickets at each crime scene that were also found in Blackwell's
vehicle.
That night of violent crimes took place less than four days after a 1st-degree
murder charge against Hayes was dropped and he was released from jail after
being the primary suspect in the shooting death of Larry "Bud" Settle Jr. in
Eden on April 26.
Reese said the state was proceeding with the death penalty in the case due to
several aggravating circumstances, which stem from Hayes' long and violent
criminal history in the Triad.
Per state statute, Superior Court Judge Julia Lynn Gullet approved the
appointment of Forsyth County Assistant Capital Defender William Soukup as
assistant council to Hayes, who is represented by fellow Forsyth Assistant
Capital Defender Vincent Rabil.
According to previous reports, Hayes went missing for 3 years as a juvenile,
after being charged with assault at the age of 15.
Published reports state that in 1993, Hayes rode on a bike to a bus stop
outside of High Point Central High School and shot two students at the end of
the school day.
He was later charged with assault in the matter, after police began searching
for him when he returned to the area a week later, following the death of his
father, who was shot in the back 15 times.
While being lodged at a juvenile detention center in Greensboro awaiting trial,
Hayes escaped in 1994.
After clearing an 8-foot fence, Hayes wasn't seen by law enforcement again
until 1997, when he was arrested by the Reidsville Police Department for
disorderly conduct.
His was identified as a fugitive after his arrest and later convicted of the
high school shooting, before being paroled 2 years later.
Hayes later pleaded guilty in the shooting death of Gary Steverson, who was 1
of 2 brothers convicted of shooting Hayes' father - 40-year-old Ronnie Lee
Hayes - in July of 2000.
He was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
Hayes was also sentenced to 8 years in prison last February on a federal charge
of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. After pleading guilty,
pursuant to an amended plea agreement, Hayes appealed the guilty decision to
the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in September of 2017.
In early October of that year, 3 circuit judges concluded that the United
States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina gave Hayes a
sentence that is "procedurally and substantively reasonable".
The rule 24 hearing, which stems from Rule 24 of the General Rules of Practice
for the Superior and District Court in North Carolina, is mandatory in all
cases in which a defendant is charged with a crime that is punishable by death.
According to North Carolina General Statute 15A-2004, "The state in its
discretion may elect to try a defendant capitally or noncapitally for 1st
degree murder, even if evidence of an aggravating circumstance exists."
Currently, 142 convicted murders are on death row in the state of North
Carolina, according to information tallied by the North Carolina Department of
Public Safety.
The last execution in the state took place on Aug. 18, 2006, when Samuel
Flippen was executed via lethal injection.
At the start of 2007, a moratorium was placed on executions in the state,
following legal challenges to execution procedure and whether or not it
violates an individual's constitutional protection against cruel and unusual
punishment.
Since the start or 2010, only 8 convicted murderers have been sentenced to
death in the state.
Nobody has been sentenced to death row in the last 2 years.
Clinton R. Rose, who was sentenced to death in December of 1991, is the only
killer convicted in Rockingham County that remains on death row.
In recent history, natural death has played the biggest role in a reduction of
members on the death row roster.
In 2017 alone, 5 death row inmates, whose average age was 64, died of natural
causes.
Since 2015, 13 offenders have been removed from the state's death row roster.
Of those, 8 were removed after dying of natural causes, according to the North
Carolina Department of Public Safety.
In the other 5 cases, a sentence was vacated and a new trial was ordered, or
the offender was re-sentenced to life without parole.
The Hayes case is expected to return to the Rockingham County Superior Court
Calendar in November.
It's the 1st capital case the Rockingham County District Attorney's Office has
handled since the October 2000 conviction of Christene K. Kemmerlin, who was
found guilty as a murder-for-hire defendant in the 1999 shooting death of her
husband, Wayne Kemmerlin.
Kemmerlin's execution was vacated by the North Carolina Supreme Court in
January 2003 and a life sentence was imposed.
(source: greensboro.com)
FLORIDA:
Mom deemed incompetent to stand trial in child 'ritual sacrifice'
case----Prosecutors plan to pursue the death penalty against Egypt Robinson,
who is accused of stabbing her toddler to death in a ritual sacrifice.
A mother accused of fatally stabbing her toddler son in 2015 in what
authorities described as a "ritual sacrifice" has been committed to a state
mental hospital for treatment, according to court records.
Egypt Moneeck Robinson, 30, was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for a
competency hearing in the case. Prosecutors have been seeking the death penalty
against her since Dec. 29, 2015, when authorities discovered her 3-year-old
son, Aries Juan Acevedo, stabbed to death and stuffed in a suitcase in a swamp
behind a Callaway home. Robinson had been tentatively scheduled for trial on
charges of aggravated child abuse and felony 1st-degree murder at the end of
October, but the future of her case is uncertain with Robinson being sent to a
mental hospital for treatment, court records state.
Documents filed in the case do not reveal the grounds for the decision as
psychological and health records are not public. However, Circuit Judge Michael
Overstreet deemed Robinson incompetent to proceed Wednesday and is expected to
sign an order for her to be committed to a mental hospital.
In recent months, Robinson's defense attorney, Kim Jewell, filed a notice that
she would be presenting testimony of 2 psychologists during the penalty phase
of her trial. Their findings likewise are unclear. But the psychological
testimony would be aimed at convincing jurors to not sentence Robinson to death
for the killing of her child.
Authorities discovered the boy's body on Dec. 29, 2015. Aries had been stabbed
in the chest, and investigators found a 3- to 4-inch piece of concrete in his
throat allegedly placed there by Robinson. However, officers said he had been
dead since Dec. 26, and in the interim Robinson had been arranging to get a bus
ticket out of town.
As a sheriff's deputy approached Robinson to arrest her, she allegedly told him
she had killed her son to save him from a biblical flood and asked to be taken
to jail, BCSO reported.
"Just put me in handcuffs," officers quoted Robinson as saying. "I did it. ...
I killed my baby and put him inside the suitcase. ... He is floating on top of
the water."
According to court records, Robinson also admitted under oath to stabbing
Aries. She allegedly told authorities she threw the suitcase into the swamp
behind her Callaway home to protect him from a "Noah's Ark"-type flood,
officials reported.
A cellmate of Robinson's later came forward to tell investigators that Robinson
said she did not believe what she did was wrong. Robinson allegedly said her
son was evil and had the "soul of Hitler," the cellmate told investigators.
"She still thinks to this day that he is supposed to be dead," court records
quote the cellmate as saying. "She did it because she said he was the soul of
Hitler. His birthday is 4-20 and um he was an evil child, she said. And she
said if she didn???t kill him um ... he was going to keep, grow up and kill all
of use (sic). She basically she like saved us by sacrificing him."
Robinson's case has been one of many in Bay County slowed down as officials
waited on changes to Florida's death penalty procedure, although prosecutors
still intend to pursue the death penalty. Her case is scheduled to come back
before Overstreet on Oct. 1 for a routine hearing.
(source: Panama City News-Herald)
USA:
Government Joins Objection to Closed Hearing in Death Penalty Case
Federal prosecutors have filed a formal motion supporting VtDigger's objection
to the closing of the courtroom to the public during a pretrial hearing last
week in the death penalty case against accused killer Donald Fell.
Judge Geoffrey Crawford closed a hearing to the public and press last Wednesday
over concerns that potential "volatile" testimony from a prison informant could
"taint" the jury selection process, which kicked off on Tuesday and is expected
to last several weeks.
Fell is facing capital charges in the November 2000 carjacking and beating
death of Terseca King, 53, of North Clarendon, Vt., according to court records.
VtDigger filed a hand-written motion objecting to the closing of the courtroom
last week, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont, which is prosecuting
Fell, filed a motion in support of the news organization's position.
"In this case, which has played out in the courts and the press for over 17
years, the government is not convinced that the defense has shown a
'significant risk of prejudice to the defendant's right to a fair trial' from
further coverage of the matter," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Doyle
wrote in the filing.
"The current order excludes, among others, family members of victims who have
steadfastly followed the court proceedings for nearly 2 decades," Doyle added.
"If the Court believes it must evaluate the reliability of witnesses prior to
their taking the stand about personal interactions with the defendant, this
sort of unprecedented hearing should be open to the public. The government
continues to oppose the closure of the courtroom."
Doyle also wrote that the closing of the courtroom is not something that should
be taken lightly, and only after a "showing of a significant risk of prejudice
to the defendant's right to a fair trial or danger to persons, property or the
integrity of significant activities entitled to confidentiality."
He then added, "The defense has presented nothing more than bare assertions to
support closure at this time."
Fell's attorneys did not submit a filing in support of closing the courtroom
for the hearing and did not make any arguments in open court. Instead, they
said they were relying on arguments made earlier during a closed door meeting
in the judge's chambers prior to the hearing.
It's unclear what, if any, steps beyond the filing of a motion the federal
government will take in light of the hearing already having taken place behind
closed doors.
VtDigger is exploring the possibility of seeking the public release of the
transcripts of the hearing as well as the chamber's meeting.
Vermont does not have the death penalty. However, because King was abducted as
she arrived to work early one morning at a supermarket bakery in Rutland and
was killed in New York state, federal prosecutors took jurisdiction. Fell's
defense has been unsuccessful in multiple attempts to take the death penalty
off the table as a possible punishment.
Fell's trial in the case is expected to begin in early November.
This will be the 2nd trial for Fell. He previously had been convicted and
sentenced to death. However, due to juror misconduct that conviction and
sentence were overturned.
An alleged accomplice of Fell's, Robert Lee, was also charged with capital
offenses. But, before he could be tried, Lee died in prison.
(source: vnews.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
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NORTH CAROLINA:
Conover man charged with murder may face the death penalty
Scott Anthony Putnam, the Conover man charged with a July murder, will appear
in Catawba County Superior Court this week for a Rule 24 hearing to learn
whether or not he faces the death penalty.
Court documents say Putnam, 37, shot and killed 24-year-old Anthony Killian and
wounded Killian's mother Roxanne Killian at their home on Curlee Drive on July
24. Killian died on the scene.
Putnam was arrested at his home on Naked Creek Road on July 25.
Warrants, obtained by the Hickory Daily Record in August, reveal Putnam said
during his post-arrest interview there was an incident between him and the
Killians, which is the reason he committed the crime.
Documents, obtained from the Catawba County Sheriff's Office through a Freedom
of Information Act request, reveal the sheriff's office received an incident
report filed by someone at the Putnam residence on July 2, 2018. The incident
is listed as a sexual offense.
The incident report says the offense originally took place in 2013. The only
information provided on the suspected offender is they are a 24-year-old white
male. The status of the investigation says it was closed/cleared due to refusal
to cooperate.
However, the Putnams and Killians did have an altercation in 2013. Court
records reveal Putnam faced a misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon charge
in 2013, but the charge was dismissed. The witness listed on the charge is
Donald Killian, Anthony Killian's father.
According to the July warrants, Putnam attempted to shoot Donald Killian on
July 24, 2018 but he was out of bullets.
Despite witness statements and a possible post-arrest confession in the
warrants, Putnam is innocent until proven guilty.
Putnam remains in the Catawba County Jail without a bond.
He is charged with 1 count of felony murder, 1 felony count of assault with a
deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury and 1 felony count
of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.
If the district attorney plans to seek the death penalty against Putnam, it
will be up to a jury to convict him of 1st-degree murder and to determine
whether or not he should be sentenced to death.
(source: Hickory Record)
***************
Rockingham County prosecutor to seek death penalty against Rontae Hayes
For the 1st time since 1999, the Rockingham County District Attorney's Office
will prosecute a capital murder case.
Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Reese stated during a pre-trial
conference on Tuesday in Rockingham County Superior Court that she intends to
seek the death penalty against a man charged with killing 2 and injuring
several others during an overnight crime spree in the summer of 2016.
Rontae Devore Hayes, 38, of 4704 Fewell Road in Greensboro, faces 18 felony
charges in Rockingham County - including 2 counts of murder, 2 counts of
attempted 1st-degree murder, 2 counts of 1st-degree kidnapping, 3 counts of
assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury,
violent habitual felon, 1st-degree burglary and 1st-degree arson.
According to police, Hayes began a 12-hour crime spree at approximately 9 p.m.
on Saturday, June 11, 2016, after showing up unexpectedly at a backyard
barbecue taking place in the 100 block of Madison Street in Reidsville.
Witnesses said Hayes allegedly shot Leroy Angelo Blackwell in the leg,
shattered a beer bottle over the head of Craig Lee, and drove over Gregory
Tyrone Blackwell in the process of stealing Blackwell's car.
10 minutes later, authorities with the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office
responded to a different scene, approximately 7 miles away at a residence on
Knowles Road, where 49-year-old Kavin Allen Galloway was found with a gunshot
wound. They also located the vehicle stolen from Blackwell - ablaze and just 2
houses away from the new crime scene.
Hours later, at approximately 1:30 a.m. Sunday, firefighters found the bodies
of Mike Land and Gilbert Breeze dead inside a burning house on Grooms Road.
An older woman, also at the residence, was also located by police officers with
wounds to her head and areas of her face.
Later, when being transported to a local hospital, the woman told paramedics
that she had been raped.
An hour after the Grooms Road incident, deputies were dispatched to 121 Jack
Trail in Reidsville, where a homeowner spotted Hayes peeping from outside a
window, wearing only in his underwear.
The incident was caught on the resident's security system.
In the following hours, the sheriff's office issued public text alerts to local
residents warning them of their search for an armed and dangerous suspect and
to keep their doors locked.
With the help of nearly 50 officers from local and state agencies, Hayes was
eventually captured at approximately 9 a.m. near Busick and Grooms Road.
Officers were able to connect the suspect to the line of crime scenes by
locating Hayes' driver's license in Blackwell's car and the scattering of
dry-cleaning tickets at each crime scene that were also found in Blackwell's
vehicle.
That night of violent crimes took place less than four days after a 1st-degree
murder charge against Hayes was dropped and he was released from jail after
being the primary suspect in the shooting death of Larry "Bud" Settle Jr. in
Eden on April 26.
Reese said the state was proceeding with the death penalty in the case due to
several aggravating circumstances, which stem from Hayes' long and violent
criminal history in the Triad.
Per state statute, Superior Court Judge Julia Lynn Gullet approved the
appointment of Forsyth County Assistant Capital Defender William Soukup as
assistant council to Hayes, who is represented by fellow Forsyth Assistant
Capital Defender Vincent Rabil.
According to previous reports, Hayes went missing for 3 years as a juvenile,
after being charged with assault at the age of 15.
Published reports state that in 1993, Hayes rode on a bike to a bus stop
outside of High Point Central High School and shot two students at the end of
the school day.
He was later charged with assault in the matter, after police began searching
for him when he returned to the area a week later, following the death of his
father, who was shot in the back 15 times.
While being lodged at a juvenile detention center in Greensboro awaiting trial,
Hayes escaped in 1994.
After clearing an 8-foot fence, Hayes wasn't seen by law enforcement again
until 1997, when he was arrested by the Reidsville Police Department for
disorderly conduct.
His was identified as a fugitive after his arrest and later convicted of the
high school shooting, before being paroled 2 years later.
Hayes later pleaded guilty in the shooting death of Gary Steverson, who was 1
of 2 brothers convicted of shooting Hayes' father - 40-year-old Ronnie Lee
Hayes - in July of 2000.
He was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
Hayes was also sentenced to 8 years in prison last February on a federal charge
of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. After pleading guilty,
pursuant to an amended plea agreement, Hayes appealed the guilty decision to
the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in September of 2017.
In early October of that year, 3 circuit judges concluded that the United
States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina gave Hayes a
sentence that is "procedurally and substantively reasonable".
The rule 24 hearing, which stems from Rule 24 of the General Rules of Practice
for the Superior and District Court in North Carolina, is mandatory in all
cases in which a defendant is charged with a crime that is punishable by death.
According to North Carolina General Statute 15A-2004, "The state in its
discretion may elect to try a defendant capitally or noncapitally for 1st
degree murder, even if evidence of an aggravating circumstance exists."
Currently, 142 convicted murders are on death row in the state of North
Carolina, according to information tallied by the North Carolina Department of
Public Safety.
The last execution in the state took place on Aug. 18, 2006, when Samuel
Flippen was executed via lethal injection.
At the start of 2007, a moratorium was placed on executions in the state,
following legal challenges to execution procedure and whether or not it
violates an individual's constitutional protection against cruel and unusual
punishment.
Since the start or 2010, only 8 convicted murderers have been sentenced to
death in the state.
Nobody has been sentenced to death row in the last 2 years.
Clinton R. Rose, who was sentenced to death in December of 1991, is the only
killer convicted in Rockingham County that remains on death row.
In recent history, natural death has played the biggest role in a reduction of
members on the death row roster.
In 2017 alone, 5 death row inmates, whose average age was 64, died of natural
causes.
Since 2015, 13 offenders have been removed from the state's death row roster.
Of those, 8 were removed after dying of natural causes, according to the North
Carolina Department of Public Safety.
In the other 5 cases, a sentence was vacated and a new trial was ordered, or
the offender was re-sentenced to life without parole.
The Hayes case is expected to return to the Rockingham County Superior Court
Calendar in November.
It's the 1st capital case the Rockingham County District Attorney's Office has
handled since the October 2000 conviction of Christene K. Kemmerlin, who was
found guilty as a murder-for-hire defendant in the 1999 shooting death of her
husband, Wayne Kemmerlin.
Kemmerlin's execution was vacated by the North Carolina Supreme Court in
January 2003 and a life sentence was imposed.
(source: greensboro.com)
FLORIDA:
Mom deemed incompetent to stand trial in child 'ritual sacrifice'
case----Prosecutors plan to pursue the death penalty against Egypt Robinson,
who is accused of stabbing her toddler to death in a ritual sacrifice.
A mother accused of fatally stabbing her toddler son in 2015 in what
authorities described as a "ritual sacrifice" has been committed to a state
mental hospital for treatment, according to court records.
Egypt Moneeck Robinson, 30, was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for a
competency hearing in the case. Prosecutors have been seeking the death penalty
against her since Dec. 29, 2015, when authorities discovered her 3-year-old
son, Aries Juan Acevedo, stabbed to death and stuffed in a suitcase in a swamp
behind a Callaway home. Robinson had been tentatively scheduled for trial on
charges of aggravated child abuse and felony 1st-degree murder at the end of
October, but the future of her case is uncertain with Robinson being sent to a
mental hospital for treatment, court records state.
Documents filed in the case do not reveal the grounds for the decision as
psychological and health records are not public. However, Circuit Judge Michael
Overstreet deemed Robinson incompetent to proceed Wednesday and is expected to
sign an order for her to be committed to a mental hospital.
In recent months, Robinson's defense attorney, Kim Jewell, filed a notice that
she would be presenting testimony of 2 psychologists during the penalty phase
of her trial. Their findings likewise are unclear. But the psychological
testimony would be aimed at convincing jurors to not sentence Robinson to death
for the killing of her child.
Authorities discovered the boy's body on Dec. 29, 2015. Aries had been stabbed
in the chest, and investigators found a 3- to 4-inch piece of concrete in his
throat allegedly placed there by Robinson. However, officers said he had been
dead since Dec. 26, and in the interim Robinson had been arranging to get a bus
ticket out of town.
As a sheriff's deputy approached Robinson to arrest her, she allegedly told him
she had killed her son to save him from a biblical flood and asked to be taken
to jail, BCSO reported.
"Just put me in handcuffs," officers quoted Robinson as saying. "I did it. ...
I killed my baby and put him inside the suitcase. ... He is floating on top of
the water."
According to court records, Robinson also admitted under oath to stabbing
Aries. She allegedly told authorities she threw the suitcase into the swamp
behind her Callaway home to protect him from a "Noah's Ark"-type flood,
officials reported.
A cellmate of Robinson's later came forward to tell investigators that Robinson
said she did not believe what she did was wrong. Robinson allegedly said her
son was evil and had the "soul of Hitler," the cellmate told investigators.
"She still thinks to this day that he is supposed to be dead," court records
quote the cellmate as saying. "She did it because she said he was the soul of
Hitler. His birthday is 4-20 and um he was an evil child, she said. And she
said if she didn???t kill him um ... he was going to keep, grow up and kill all
of use (sic). She basically she like saved us by sacrificing him."
Robinson's case has been one of many in Bay County slowed down as officials
waited on changes to Florida's death penalty procedure, although prosecutors
still intend to pursue the death penalty. Her case is scheduled to come back
before Overstreet on Oct. 1 for a routine hearing.
(source: Panama City News-Herald)
USA:
Government Joins Objection to Closed Hearing in Death Penalty Case
Federal prosecutors have filed a formal motion supporting VtDigger's objection
to the closing of the courtroom to the public during a pretrial hearing last
week in the death penalty case against accused killer Donald Fell.
Judge Geoffrey Crawford closed a hearing to the public and press last Wednesday
over concerns that potential "volatile" testimony from a prison informant could
"taint" the jury selection process, which kicked off on Tuesday and is expected
to last several weeks.
Fell is facing capital charges in the November 2000 carjacking and beating
death of Terseca King, 53, of North Clarendon, Vt., according to court records.
VtDigger filed a hand-written motion objecting to the closing of the courtroom
last week, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont, which is prosecuting
Fell, filed a motion in support of the news organization's position.
"In this case, which has played out in the courts and the press for over 17
years, the government is not convinced that the defense has shown a
'significant risk of prejudice to the defendant's right to a fair trial' from
further coverage of the matter," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Doyle
wrote in the filing.
"The current order excludes, among others, family members of victims who have
steadfastly followed the court proceedings for nearly 2 decades," Doyle added.
"If the Court believes it must evaluate the reliability of witnesses prior to
their taking the stand about personal interactions with the defendant, this
sort of unprecedented hearing should be open to the public. The government
continues to oppose the closure of the courtroom."
Doyle also wrote that the closing of the courtroom is not something that should
be taken lightly, and only after a "showing of a significant risk of prejudice
to the defendant's right to a fair trial or danger to persons, property or the
integrity of significant activities entitled to confidentiality."
He then added, "The defense has presented nothing more than bare assertions to
support closure at this time."
Fell's attorneys did not submit a filing in support of closing the courtroom
for the hearing and did not make any arguments in open court. Instead, they
said they were relying on arguments made earlier during a closed door meeting
in the judge's chambers prior to the hearing.
It's unclear what, if any, steps beyond the filing of a motion the federal
government will take in light of the hearing already having taken place behind
closed doors.
VtDigger is exploring the possibility of seeking the public release of the
transcripts of the hearing as well as the chamber's meeting.
Vermont does not have the death penalty. However, because King was abducted as
she arrived to work early one morning at a supermarket bakery in Rutland and
was killed in New York state, federal prosecutors took jurisdiction. Fell's
defense has been unsuccessful in multiple attempts to take the death penalty
off the table as a possible punishment.
Fell's trial in the case is expected to begin in early November.
This will be the 2nd trial for Fell. He previously had been convicted and
sentenced to death. However, due to juror misconduct that conviction and
sentence were overturned.
An alleged accomplice of Fell's, Robert Lee, was also charged with capital
offenses. But, before he could be tried, Lee died in prison.
(source: vnews.com)
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