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May 23, 2012
Judge: Overturn Cathy Lynn Henderson conviction, death sentence
Cathy Lynn Henderson, once two days from execution for the 1994 death of an infant she was baby sitting, should have her murder conviction and death sentence overturned, a Travis County judge has recommended.
District Judge Jon Wisser said scientific discoveries into the nature of head injuries — and a change of heart from the prosecution’s star witness, former medical examiner Roberto Bayardo - means no reasonable juror would convict Henderson if presented the new evidence at trial.
“Testimony of the state’s chief experts was, at bottom, scientifically flawed,” Wisser wrote in findings dated May 14 and delivered to the appeals court Tuesday.
After reviewing new evidence via testimony and briefs, Wisser recommended that the Court of Criminal Appeals dismiss Henderson’s conviction and return her case to Travis County, where she may face “any indictment or charges” that prosecutors choose to pursue in the death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh.
Henderson claimed that Brandon died after slipping from her arms and falling about four feet to the concrete floor in her Pflugerville-area home. She said she panicked, burying the boy’s body in a Bell County field before fleeing in Missouri, where she was found and arrested 11 days later.
The search for the boy’s body and hunt for Henderson dominated headlines in February 1994.
At Henderson’s 1995 trial, Bayardo testified that it was “impossible” to attribute the boy’s extensive head injury to an accidental fall. The only explanation, he said, was a deliberate and forceful blow struck by Henderson, adding that Brandon would have had to fall “from a height higher than a two-story building” to sustain a similar injury.
But in a 2007 affidavit and in testimony before Wisser, Bayardo said recent advancements in the understanding of pediatric head injuries indicates that relatively short falls onto a hard surface could produce similar injuries to those he found on Brandon during a 1994 autopsy.
“Based on the physical evidence in the case,” Bayardo said, “I cannot determine with a reasonable degree of medical certainty whether Brandon Baugh’s injuries resulted from an intentional act or an accidental fall.”
Bayardo, now retired, also said his autopsy report, which concluded that the child was a homicide victim, would today list the manner of death as undetermined “because of the new information” about pediatric head injuries.
The Court of Criminal Appeals will determine whether to accept Wisser’s recommendation. It can rule on his submission, request further briefing or schedule oral arguments. A final decision on Henderson’s fate is likely to be months away.
Read more in Thursday’s print edition and on line later tonight. This story will update with reaction as it becomes available.
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February 8, 2012
Williamson County jury finds Burks guilty of murder, robbery
A Williamson County jury this afternoon found Bobby Burks Jr., 34, guilty of robbing and killing a man whose cousin was giving two women a ride home from a Southeast Austin nightclub in April 2010.
The jury found Burks guilty of capital murder and two counts of aggravated robbery. Burks could face life in prison without parole or the death penalty for the murder charge and five to 99 years or life in prison for each of the aggravated robbery charges. The sentencing phase of the trial begins Thursday morning.
Burks is guilty of killing Raul Vizueth Torres, 18, after ambushing him on a dark road south of Taylor.
During the trial, prosecutor Jane Starnes had said that Burks conspired with his two sisters-in-law, Veronica Ortiz and Isabel Gonzales, to find men to rob at La Rumba nightclub on East Riverside Drive on April 17, 2010.
The women met Torres and his cousin, Jorge Castaneda, and asked them for a ride home to Taylor, Starnes said. During the drive, Castaneda passed a Ford Mustang owned by Burks, Starnes said. After Castaneda’s SUV passed the Mustang, Ortiz claimed to be sick and asked Castaneda to stop the car, Starnes said.
When Castaneda stopped the car in the 16700 block of FM 1660, the two women jumped out, and Burks ran up and demanded the men’s wallets, Starnes said. He also shot at the men, hitting Torres in the head but missing Castaneda, the prosecutor said.
Castaneda did not know how badly Torres was injured, so he drove him to a hospital after getting directions from his uncle, Starnes said. Torres was pronounced dead at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center.
Defense attorney Allan Williams had argued that Burks was not the person who ambushed the two men. There were no fingerprints at the scene, he said, adding that police never recovered a weapon. Castaneda initially described the man who ambushed him and Torres as bald and thin — a description that does not fit Burks, Williams said.
Detectives from the case embraced Castaneda and his uncle Jose Sanchez, who had also testified at the trial, after the guilty verdict was read Wednesday afternoon.
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November 23, 2011
Court upholds Gobert death sentence
The state’s highest criminal court today upheld Milton Dwayne Gobert’s conviction and death sentence for the 2003 murder of Mel Cotton and the attempted murder of her 5-year-old son in their North Austin apartment.
Gobert’s appellate lawyer claimed that seven mistakes were made during his 2010 trial that required his conviction or death sentence to be overturned. Today, the Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed six of the claims and ruled that the seventh, though valid, was a “harmless error” because it could not have affected the jury’s decision.
Writing for the unanimous court, Justice Cathy Cochran said Gobert correctly claimed that Austin psychologist Richard Coons offered invalid trial testimony when he determined that Gobert (pictured below) was likely to commit future acts of violence.
Cochran referred to a previous ruling in which the court determined that Coons, a frequent witness for the prosecution, provided no scientific research or studies to support his “idiosyncratic” methods for predicting future acts of violence.
“Given the overwhelming evidence of (Gobert’s) life-long penchant for violence … we are confident that this error did not affect appellant’s substantial rights to a fair sentencing trial,” Cochran wrote.
According to trial evidence, Gobert:
Stabbed Cotton 107 times, including 13 defensive wounds to her arms and hands, in a drawn-out attack in her bedroom.
Strangled her son, Demetrius, and stabbed him four times in the chest, puncturing a lung. The boy survived and testified at Gobert’s trial.
Plotted to escape from Travis County Jail by killing a guard and stealing his truck.
Admitted, when he took the stand in his own defense, that he had beaten his mother and women he loved because of “anger issues.”
Attacked a fellow prison inmate with a hoe, gashing his back, and threatened to fight prison guards.
Tampered with his leg restraint so it did not function properly during his capital murder trial.
“The jury did not need any expert’s opinion to determine whether appellant would likely commit acts of violence in the future just as he had done in the past. They heard it from the horse’s mouth,” Cochran wrote.
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September 13, 2011
Board: No clemency for killer whose trial featured race-based testimony
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this afternoon refused to recommend that Gov. Rick Perry delay or commute to life in prison the sentence of Harris County killer Duane Buck, who is scheduled to die Thursday for a 1995 double murder.
Buck’s clemency application relied heavily on arguments that the jury at his sentencing trial in 1997 improperly heard racially tinged testimony from a psychologist.
Perry may issue a 30-day reprieve to Buck but given the board’s decision may not commute Buck’s sentence.
Buck’s lawyers are calling for Perry to issue the delay so they can pursue a new sentencing trial. They also continue to ask Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos to ask for a withdrawal of the execution date.
“We urge Governor Perry to grant a temporary reprieve to allow all parties involved to work together to ensure that Mr. Buck receives a new and fair sentencing hearing untainted by race-based testimony,” Buck lawyer Kate Black of the Texas Defender Service wrote in an email today.
Buck’s case is exceptional because he was one of seven state death row inmates who then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn in 2000 said received unfair sentencing trials because of the testimony of psychologist Walter Quijano.
Quijano regularly told juries that defendants were more likely to commit future criminal acts because they were black or Hispanic, testimony he based on the fact that blacks and Hispanics are overrepresented in the Texas prison system when compared with the state’s general population.
Six defendants identified by Cornyn as having their trials tainted by Quijano’s testimony have since received new sentencing trials. Each was once again sentenced to death. Buck, who killed two people, including his ex-girlfriend, in 1995, has not received a new sentencing hearing.
Buck’s lawyers called Quijano as a witness his trial. During cross-examination he was asked by a prosecutor whether “the race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons; is that correct?”
“Yes,” Quijano answered.
Buck’s lawyers asked for a new sentencing trial both at state and federal court, but judges denied those requests, saying that they came too late.
Cornyn is now a U.S. senator and had been replaced by current Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott by the time Buck’s case reached federal court. At that time, Abbott’s assistants argued that Buck should not receive a new sentencing trial in part because his lawyers did not object to the racial testimony during his trial, according to court filings. They also noted that Quijano had been called by the defense to testify and ultimately told the jury that he did not believe that Buck presented a future danger to society.
Linda Geffin, who was the second-chair prosecutor in Buck’s 1997 trial and is now a supervisor in the Harris County attorney’s office, had joined Buck’s lawyers in declaring that he deserves a new sentencing hearing.
“Mr. Buck committed a terrible crime, and he must be punished,” Geffin wrote in a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and other officials that was released by Buck’s lawyers Monday.
Quoting Cornyn, now a U.S. senator, she wrote: “The attorney general was right when he said that ‘it is inappropriate to allow race to be considered as a factor in our criminal justice system.’
Phyllis Taylor, who was shot by Buck during the double killing but survived, has joined the calls to spare his life.
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September 12, 2011
Harris County prosecutor asks for halt to execution
A prosecutor who worked to secure the death sentence against a Harris County killer scheduled to be executed on Thursday is asking officials to stop the execution.
Linda Geffin, who was the second chair prosecutor in the 1997 prosecution of Duane Buck and is now a supervisor in the Harris County Attorney’s office, has joined Buck’s lawyers in declaring that his sentencing hearing was unfair because of racially tinged testimony.
Buck was one of seven state death row inmates who then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn in 2000 said received unfair sentencing trials because of the testimony of psychologist Walter Quijano. Quijano regularly told juries that defendants were more likely to commit future criminal acts because they were black or Hispanic, testimony he based on the fact that blacks and Hispanics are overrepresented in the Texas prison system when compared with the state’s general population.
Six defendants identified by Cornyn as having their trials tainted by Quijano’s testimony have since received new sentencing trials. Each was once again sentenced to death. Buck, who killed two people, including his ex girlfriend, in 1995, has not received a new sentencing hearing.
Buck’s lawyers with the Texas Defender Service have filed a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and have asked Gov. Rick Perry, current Attorney General Greg Abbott and Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos to intervene and stop the execution. They have also asked a federal judge to intervene.
“Mr. Buck committed a terrible crime and he must be punished,” Geffin wrote in a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and other officials that was released by Buck’s lawyers Monday.
“But the Attorney General was right when he said that ‘it is inappropriate to allow race to be considered as a factor in our criminal justice system,’” she wrote.
“It is regrettable that any race-based considerations were placed before Mr. Buck’s jury. No individual should be executed without being afforded a fair trial, untainted by considerations of race.”
Read more about Buck’s trial and the specific testimony that his lawyers say was unfairly given to the jury here.
Read more information on Buck from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice here.
Read Geffin’s letter here:
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July 20, 2011
Execution appears imminent after court hearing halted
Update 8 p.m. Lawyers for Rais Bhuiyan, a shooting victim who is seeking to halt the execution of his attacker in the hopes of speaking with the condemned man about the crime, failed in a late attempt this evening to have a state judge in Travis County intervene in the case.
Visiting state District Judge Joe Hart commenced a hearing in the case about 7 p.m. on Bhuiyan’s request for a stay of the execution of Mark Stroman, who is scheduled to die this evening.
Stroman killed two men and injured Bhuiyan, all immigrants, during a crime spree in 2001 in which he has said he was seeking retribution for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In dramatic, tearful testimony, Bhuiyan, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh, told Hart that the attack left him blind in one eye, ruined his marriage and threw him into deep depression and poverty.
“I couldn’t believe I had to go through this in the best country in the world,” he said.
He said that had been told during the prosecution of the case to avoid speaking to Stroman and he only began to rebuild his life during a spiritual awakening in 2009.
Asked by his lawyer, Khurrum Wahid of Florida, why he wanted to speak to Stroman, Bhuiyan said: “I want to see him. I want to talk to him in person. I want to connect with him in a human way. I want to know many things, many questions.”
“I would love him to explain, why? How? When he shot me, I was bleeding to death. What was going through his mind? Did he ever think about his kid? I’m somebody’s kid as well. When I was crying ‘mom’ again and again, what was he thinking?”
Shortly after that response, Assistant Attorney General Edward Marshall informed Hart that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had issued an order prohibiting Hart from continuing with the hearing.
Hart, looking somber, ended the hearing.
During one in a series of subsequent phone calls, Marshall said: “Call the warden and tell them to get ready.”
It appears there is nothing else standing in the way of Stroman’s execution.
Update 3:40 p.m.
U.S. Distict Judge Lee Yeakel this afternoon refused to halt tonight’s scheduled execution of Mark Stroman of Dallas despite the pleas by one of Stroman’s victims.
Yeakel said in an order that the law does not give him the authority to intervene in the case.
He also noted that “the irreparable injury asserted by Bhuiyan — his claim of violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights statute being rendered moot — is outweighed by the damage to the operation of the criminal justice system as a whole that would result from this court’s granting the requested stay.”
Stroman remains scheduled for execution this evening.
Bhuiyan’s lawyers said earlier that they would immediately appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if Yeakel refused to grant a stay in the case.
Earlier
Rais Bhuiyan said today that the only way he will get past the horrible psychological impact of being shot in the face while working at a Dallas convenience store in a hate crime following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is to sit down and talk with his attacker.
But that attacker, Mark Stroman, who killed two other immigrants during the crime spree that Bhuiyan survived, is scheduled for execution this evening.
This morning, a lawyer for Bhuiyan asked U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin to temporarily halt the execution to allow Bhuiyan a chance to speak with Stroman. Yeakel said he would rule on the request by early this afternoon.
“A lot of things I have to know from his mouth, to look into his eyes and to know his side of things,” Bhuiyon said after Yeakel adjourned court. “The trauma he caused, the mental anguish from the last nine years, it needs to come to an end.”
Bhuiyan, a 37-year-old from Bangladesh who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was working as a convenience store clerk Dallas in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks when he was shot by Stroman, who according to testimony at his trial was a white supremacist who said he was out for revenge.
Stroman also fatally shot Waqar Hasan in his Dallas convenience store, and Vsudev Patel, a gas station attendant in nearby Mesquite. Both were immigrants — Patel from India and Hasan from Pakistan.
Bhuiyan, who works in information technology at a travel website, has said that his Muslim faith calls on him to forgive Stroman and he has previously said he wants to break the cycle of violence and spare Stroman’s life. He said he believes that Stroman was a product of his upbringing and has changed since the attack.
He sued Gov. Rick Perry and Texas prison and parole officials this month in state District Court in Travis County claiming that his rights as a crime victim have been violated. Particularly, he said, he was never told that he the prison system offered mediation to victims of crime who want to speak with an offender.
Bhuiyan’s lawyer, Khurrum Wahid of Florida, said in court today that Bhuiyan only learned about these type of meetings in June and has been trying to arrange one since.
Attorneys with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, which represents Perry and the other defendants, moved the case to federal court.
Wahid told Yeakel that victim offender mediations are often profound events that allow victims of crime the ability to move on with their lives.
“Mr. Buiyon was shot 10 years ago and has not yet felt that closure,” Wahid said. “When he found out about this (mediation), he felt absolutely compelled to talk to Mr. Stroman.”
Yeakel questioned whether he has the ability to halt an execution because of a pending civil lawsuit that does not involve the condemned man.
“Your job, judge, is to protect Mr. Buiyon’s civil rights,” Wahid said.
Assistant Attorney General Cynthia Burton argued that Buiyon was made aware of the potential for mediation years ago and brought his claims too late. She also contended that Yeakel does not have the ability to interfere with an execution order.
Click here for a Statesman story in which Buiyon explains the crime and its effect on his life and his decision to sue.
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May 26, 2011
Areli Escobar transported to death row
Areli Carbajal Escobar arrived today on Texas’ death row.
Travis County sheriff’s department spokesman Roger Wade said deputies transported Escobar from the Travis County jail to death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston this morning. Livingston is about 75 miles northeast of Houston.
Escobar, 32, was sentenced to death last week for the 2009 sexual assault and fatal stabbing of Bianca Maldonado, a 17-year-old LBJ High School student.
Escobar, like other death row prisoners, will spend 23 hours a day alone in a 60-square-foot cell.
Escobar is the seventh person convicted in Travis County who is awaiting execution. He will join Milton Gobert, Paul Devoe, Selwyn Davis, Guy Allen and Louis Perez in Livingston. Cathy Henderson, convicted of killing a child she had been babysitting, is awaiting execution at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, the home of Texas women’s death row.
Ricardo B. Brazziell/AMERICAN-STATESMAN: Areli Carbajal Escobar reacts after hearing the death penalty sentence last week.
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May 21, 2011
Looking back at Escobar trial coverage
Over the past two weeks, a Travis County court convicted Areli Carbajal Escobar and sentenced him to death in the 2009 death of Bianca Maldonado, a 17-year-old LBJ High School student.
Here’s a recap of the American-Statesman’s coverage of the trial. (More can be read by scrolling down through past blog entries here on Austin Legal.)
Guilt/innocence phase
With jury selected, death penalty trial in LBJ student’s death to start Thursday
Ex-girlfriend says capital murder defendant had been ‘stressed out’
Accused killer’s text messages read in court
LBJ student was stabbed 46 times, medical examiner testifies
Escobar guilty of capital murder in LBJ student’s death
Sentencing phase
Woman testifies that convicted killer held screwdriver to her throat in 2007
Psychiatrist says Escobar likely to commit violent acts in prison
Escobar sentenced to death for slaying of 17-year-old
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May 20, 2011
Jury decides that Escobar should die for 2009 fatal stabbing, sex assault
Update 3:15 p.m.
A Travis County jury has decided that Areli Carbajal Escobar should die for the 2009 fatal stabbing and sexual assault of Bianca Maldonado, his 17-year-old neighbor.
State District Judge Mike Lynch read the jury’s punishment verdict, reached after about 2 1/2 hours of deliberations.
The jury decided that there is a probability Escobar would commit future acts of violence that would constitute a threat to society.
The jury then decided that there were no mitigating factors to warrant a sentence of life without parole instead of death.
Lynch then sentenced Escobar, 32, to death.
Escobar will soon become the 7th person convicted in Travis County on Texas death row.
Update 12:38 p.m.
A Travis County jury began deliberating at just after noon today whether Areli Carbajal Escobar will get the death penalty for killing and sexually assaulting 17-year-old Bianca Maldonado in 2009.
Prosecutors were emphatic in closing arguments that the case calls for the ultimate punishment, noting that Maldonado, a stranger to Escobar, was stabbed more than 40 times and brutally sexually assaulted with an object before she died on her living room floor while her 1-year-old baby sat nearby in ther far East Austin apartment.
“The baby saw every knife thrust… every scream, every grunt every moan… He was right there and he heard it,” prosecutor Allison Wetzel said.
The child, who just turned 3, has recovered from his injuries.
Wetzel told the jurors that a death sentence would “tell us we are a community that values life.”
The jury must answer two questions: whether Escobar poses a danger to society and whether there are any mitigating circumstances to warrant a sentence of life in prison. Mitigating evidence could be anything that jurors believe reduces his moral blameworthiness.
If the answer to the first question is yes and to the second is no, Escobar would receive the death penalty. Those answers must be unanimous.
To answer no on either, 10 jurors must agreed. The jury has as long it needs to reach the answers and state District Judge Mike Lynch ordered jurors to come to court with an overnight bag in case they could not reach a verdict and need to be sequestered in a hotel.
In the past decade, Travis County juries have been asked to assess the death penalty nine times. They have chosen death in five of those trials.
Escobar sat quietly at the defense table through the arguments, staring with a blank look ahead and down while the lawyers addressed the jury to his left.
Defense lawyer Steve Brittain acknowledged that his client’s crime was heinous but told the jury that a death sentence would not bring Maldonado back.
“There is no justice for what happened to Bianca Maldonado,” he said.
He argued that his client would not pose a threat of committing violence in prison, noting that Escobar is a small man whose previous violence came against women. He cited the testimony of a defense psychologist who side there is a 98.2% chance Escobar would not be violent.
He also argued that Escobar suffers from a mental illness — borderline personality disorder. He said that should be considered as reducing his moral blameworthiness.
And Brittain tried to convince the jury that life in prison would be hell for Escobar.
His co-counsel, Allan Williams, used his time before the jury to mount an overarching moral attack on the death penalty, quoting scripture at times.
“You are not killers,” he said. “You are better than that.”
Williams said almost all modern, industrialized nations have moved away from capital punishment, as have some states.
“I am pleading that we overcome cruelty with kindness that we overcome hatred with love,” Williams said. “I know the future is on my side.”
Wetzel told the jurors not to allow Escobar’s lawyers to make them feel guilty for their decision.
“When Areli Escobar raped and killed a 17-year-old girl on Sunday morning two years ago,” she said, “he created this situation and now the 12 of you have the duty and the responsibility to decide what is going to be done.”
Earlier
Closing arguments are scheduled for this morning in the punishment phase of Areli Carbajal Escobar’s capital murder trial.
Escobar faces a possible death sentence in the brutal May 2009 sexual assault and fatal stabbing of his LBJ High School student Bianca Maldonado, Escobar’s 17-year-old neighbor.
They lived about 350 feet from each other in the Huntington Meadows apartments on Decker Lane in far East Austin but witnesses have said that the two did not know each other.
The jury will be asked to answer two questions: whether Escobar poses a danger to society and whether there are any mitigating circumstances to warrant a sentence of life in prison. If the answers are yes to the first question and no to the second, Escobar would receive the death penalty.
In the past decade, Travis County juries have been asked to assess the death penalty nine times. They have chosen death in five of those trials.
Follow live tweets of the closing arguments below.
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May 19, 2011
Doctor says Escobar is likely a sexual sadist; closing arguments Friday
Update 3 p.m.
Court has adjourned for the day in the Areli Carbajal Escobar capital murder sentencing trial and the jury will return at 9 a.m. Friday for the culmination of the case.
State District Judge Mike Lynch told the 12 jurors who will soon decide if Escobar gets the death penalty to return with an overnight bag in case they are unable to reach a verdict by Friday night and must be sequestered in a hotel.
Lynch said he would read the jury instructions on the law it must follow during deliberations at 9 a.m. Then each side will get a closing argument.
Update 12:41 a.m. After a forensic psychiatrist told a Travis County jury that Areli Carbajal Escobar is a “fairly high risk” of committing violent acts if sentenced to life in prison, state District Judge Mike Lynch said closing arguments in the case would be Friday.
On Wednesday, Lynch told jurors that they should expect to begin deliberating whether Escobar gets the death penalty today. But before a lunch break, he said that he did not want them beginning their deliberations at the end of the day.
His statement came after the direct testimony of Dr. David Self, a forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Escobar and studied the documentation on his case and on his criminal history.
He disagreed with a defense expert who testified Wednesday that Escobar suffers borderline personality disorder and killed Bianca Maldonado, his 17-year-old neighbor, in a psychotic rage in 2009.
Self said that he made a provisional diagnosis of Escobar as a sexual sadist.
He said the reason the diagnosis is provisional is because he has no direct proof that Escobar finds the act of hurting someone to be exciting.
Self said sexual sadists who kill are likely to continue to kill until they are apprehended
Escobar’s lawyers will have the opportunity to cross-examine Self after the lunch break.
Earlier The jury in Areli Carbajal Escobar’s capital murder trial is expected to hear closing arguments in the case and begin deliberating on the punishment today.
Escobar, 32, was convicted Friday in the fatal stabbing and sexual assault of his 17-year-old neighbor, Bianca Maldonado, in her family’s far East Austin apartment in 2009.
Escobar’s lawyers yesterday called a string of witnesses in the hopes that some of the testimony would convince the jury to give him a prison sentence of life without parole instead of a death sentence.
A forensic psychologist who spent about seven hours interviewing Escobar said that he believes Escobar has borderline personality disorder and was in a psychotic state during the attack in the early morning hours of May 31, 2009.
Matthew Ferrara said he thinks the combination of stress about Escobar’s inability to get a job and about his then-girlfriend combined with his reported cocaine and alcohol use triggered the attack.
Escobar’s siblings and sisters-in-law also testified yesterday and described him as loving and helpful to them and to his five children.
“To me, he’s the most wonderful person in the world,” said Nancy Escobar, the defendant’s 21-year-old sister.
During deliberations, the jury must answer two questions: whether Escobar is a danger to commit future acts of violence and whether there are any mitigating factors to warrant a sentence of life in prison.
Staff writer Steven Kreytak is covering the trial and will provide live updates via Twitter below.
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May 18, 2011
Psychologist said Escobar is not a psychopath but suffers mental disorder
To see live Tweets from the courtroom scroll to the bottom of this entry.
Update 3:40 p.m. A forensic psychologist this afternoon told a Travis County jury that Areli Carbajal Escobar has borderline personality disorder and was in a psychotic state when he killed Bianca Maldonado in 2009.
But Matthew Ferrara, a defense witness, said that Escobar is not a psychopath, which he described as the “worst of the worst criminals.”
Ferrara said that people with borderline personality disorder — a mental illness — have problems with intimate relationships, such as with wives or girlfriends.
He said that’s explains testimony that Escobar beat up his wife but was supportive and loving to his siblings.
“They idealize some people and tremendously devalue other people,” Ferrara said.
Ferrara said that he believes on the night of the killing that Escobar took out rage he felt for his girlfriend, Zoe Moreno,on Maldonado, his 17-year-old neighbor.
“I think he spun out of control,” Ferrara said.
(Moreno testified that she had spent the day of the killing at the beach with two friends and Escobar was suspicious about who she had been with.)
Ferrara noted Moreno’s testimony that Escobar was under stress the night of the killing, which Moreno said was fueled by Escobar’s inability to get a job.
Ferrara said the stress combined with alcohol and cocaine consumption and the borderline personality disorder led to the killing.
He said Escobar was probably in a psychotic state at the time but did not suggest that Escobar was legally insane, which is defined by the inability to differentiate right from wrong
Ferrara said that when he administered a test recognized in the psychological community to identify people who are psychopaths or sociopaths, Escobar scored a 20 out of 40. Anyone who scores a 30 or higher is considered a sociopath, he said.
Ferrara said he also performed a risk assessment that compared Escobar to capital offenders in the Texas prison system to determine how likely he would be to become violent in prison.
Ferrara said there’s a 98.2 percent chance he won’t commit a violent act in prison.
Update 12:10 p.m. In an effort save their client from the death penalty, Areli Carbajal Escobar’s lawyers on Wednesday morning called a series of witnesses who said good things about the now-convicted killer.
“To me, he’s the most wonderful person in the world,” said Nancy Escobar, the defendant’s 21-year-old sister.
“He always behaved very well with me,” said Brenda Arita, a former girlfriend. “He was never aggressive.”
The testimony came on the third day of the punishment phase of Escobar’s capital murder trial. The jury that convicted him of the 2009 killing and sexual assault of Bianca Maldonado, a 17-year-old neighbor he did not know, will soon decide whether Escobar gets life in prison or death.
They are expected to begin deliberating the sentence tomorrow.
Escobar’s family members said that he was born in central Mexico in a home that had dirt floors, no electricity and no indoor plumbing and moved to the United States with his father in the early 1980s when he was about 6.
His parents couldn’t read and did not drive and Escobar would often drive his siblings and his parents to things like doctors appointments, to the grocery store and to school, they said.
When Santos Escobar Jr., the defendant’s younger brother, ran cross-country at LBJ High School and he had to be at practice at 5 a.m. his brother Areli would drive him there on his way to work so he didn’t have to take the bus, Santos Escobar, Jr. said.
Santos Escobar, Jr. choked up when looking at a photo from his high school graduation that showed him and his older brother.
“I always knew Areli was there for me,” he said.
Prosecutors did not cross-examine most of the defense’s character witness. Prosecutor Allison Wetzel did challenge the claims of his oldest sister, Erenia Escobar, that Areli Escobar never got in trouble when he was younger.
Wetzel asked her if Areli Escobar was in a gang.
“I think I heard about it yes,” Erenia Escobar said. “He may have gotten in with some bad friends.”
Wetzel asked if Escobar is bad or if his friend’s are bad. Erenia Escobar said “he’s not bad.”
Wetzel asked if she was aware that her brother had been violent with his wife, Angelica Escobar.
“He pushed her,” Erenia Escobar said, “because she was hitting on him.”
Wetzel asked whether she was aware that police took pictures showing Angelica Escobar’s injuries and that her brother was convicted of assault family violence for attacking her.
“My brother wouldn’t do something like that,” she said.
When asked by Wetzel whether Areli Escobar had a good childhood, Erenia Escobar said that he did.
“Is there anything in your brother’s childhood that would explain killing a stranger in an extremely brutal way and sexually assaulting her?” Wetzel asked.
“No ma’am,” she said.
Erenia Escobar said she has not spoken to her brother about his criminal case because she was told not to. She said she does not believe her brother is guilty.
“Have you wondered what he would have to say about it, are you curious why he would do such a thing?” Wetzel asked.
“I don’t think he did it. I still don’t believe he did it,” Erenia Esccobar said.
Earlier
The punishment phase of Areli Carbajal Escobar’s capital murder trial continues today as defense lawyers continue to make their case that Escobar should be sentenced to life in prison and not the death penalty.
Defense lawyer Allan Williams said during opening statements to the punishment phase that the jury would hear from Escobar’s friends and family members.
Williams said that Escobar has been a hard worker, has done some positive things in his life does not have “a sociopathic personality who takes and doesn’t give.”
A jury on Friday convicted Escobar, 32, in the 2009 fatal stabbing and sexual assault of 17-year-old Bianca Maldonado in her family’s far East Austin apartment.
Maldonado was an LBJ High School student who maintained a B average while raising a 1-year-old child and working a part-time job at Jack in the Box.
Escobar lived in the same apartment complex but did not know Maldonado, police and witnesses have said.
Yesterday a woman who knew Escobar testified that Escobar once broke into her apartment after midnight and pressed his hands hard on her throat.
Xenis Prudencio cried as she testified that she thought Escobar was going to rape or kill her that night. She said Escobar fled the apartment when her cousin awoke.
Prudencio said the attack was on March 25, 2009, about two months before Escobar killed Maldonado.
Prudencio said she didn’t follow up with police in an investigation.
The jury yesterday also heard from Maldonado’s mother and a teacher at LBJ High, who gave details about the teen’s life and how her death affected the family.
At the end of the punishment phase, the jury will decide whether Escobar receives life in prison or death.
Staff writer Steven Kreytak is covering the trial and is providing live updates via Twitter below.
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May 17, 2011
Woman said Escobar's sister offered her $1,000 to back off report of earlier attack
Update 11:04 a.m. A woman who knew Areli Carbajal Escobar in 2009 testified today that he once broke into her apartment after midnight and pressed his hands hard on her throat.
Xenis Prudencio cried as she testified that she thought Escobar was going to rape or kill her that night. She said Escobar fled the apartment when her cousin awoke.
Prudencio said the attack occurred on March 25, 2009, about two months before Escobar killed Bianca Maldonado, 17, in her family’s far East Austin apartment.
Prudencio said she called the police the morning of the attack. They took pictures of her injuries and of the broken window she said Escobar used to enter her apartment.
Prudencio said that two days after the attack Escobar’s sister, Lydia Escobar, came to her apartment with an offer. The two had known each other.
“They wanted to give me $1,000 not to do anything,” Prudencio said. “I told her ‘no.’”
Still, Prudencio said detectives who came to her apartment the night of the attack told her to make an appointment to come to their office to give a written statement.
She said she never did give that statement
“I wanted to forget about that,” Prudencio said.
Earlier The punishment phase of Areli Carbajal Escobar’s capital murder trial continues today as prosecutors continue to try to show that Escobar will be a continuing threat to society who deserves the death penalty.
Among the evidence prosecutors will present to jurors today will be pictures of Escobar’s tattoos.
At the end of the punishment phase, which Lynch has said should conclude by the end of this week, the jury will be asked to determine whether Escobar, 32, gets the death penalty or life in prison without the chance of parole.
The same jury on Friday found Escobar guilty of capital murder in the killing and sexual assault of his 17-year-old neighbor Bianca Maldonado.
Maldonado was an LBJ High School student who maintained a B average while raising a 1-year-old child and working a part-time job at Jack in the Box.
She was attacked while alone in her family’s Decker Lane apartment in far East Austin during the early morning hours of May 31, 2009. The baby was injured in the attack but has recovered.
On Monday when the punishment phase began prosecutor Allison Wetzel said that Escobar deserves the death penalty because of his crime on Maldonado. But she said jurors would be further swayed when they see how his crimes got worse over the years.
A woman testified that Escobar broke into her apartment in the middle of the night in 2007 and held a screwdriver to her throat. He fled from her apartment when he believed her daughter had called 911, she said.
Escobar’s wife testified that he has been physically violent with her over the years and on some occasions their five children hid in a closet because they were so scared.
Defense lawyers said they would present evidence of Escobar’s good deeds, showing that he has been a good brother and a good father and has worked hard at a variety of jobs in the past.
Defense lawyer Allan Williams said Escobar has done good acts and does not have “a sociopathic personality who takes and doesn’t give.”
Related story: Woman testifies that convicted killer held screwdriver to her throat in 2007
Staff writer Steven Kreytak is covering the trial and will provide live updates via Twitter below.
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May 16, 2011
Escobar's wife tells jury their children hid in closet when he was violent
Update 12:42 p.m. Areli Carbajal Escobar’s wife testified today that at times in the past things became so violent in their home that the oldest of their five children would bring some of the children into a closet and hide there until Escobar left.
Angelica Escobar, who was separated from Areli Escobar in 2009 when he sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed his 17-year-old neighbor, said that Areli Escobar beat her multiple times during their marriage, which began in 1997.
Angelica Escobar testified during the punishment phase of Escobar’s capital murder trial in the death of Bianca Maldonado. He will receive either the death penalty or life in prison. The jury will begin deliberating his sentence later this week, Judge Mike Lynch has said.
Angelica Escobar told the jury that in 2007 she called police after her husband showed up at her apartment after he had been drinking. She said Areli Escobar believed that she had flicked embers from a cigarette at her so he punched her in the mouth.
A fracas ensued and Escobar punched a window and then continued hitting his wife, she said.
The jury today also learned that Escobar has previous convictions for assault family violence, engaging in organized criminal activity and driving while intoxicated. Police witnesses also said Escobar was in a gang.
On cross-examination, Angelica Escobar told the jury that she started some of the fights between her and Areli Escobar.
She also told defense lawyer Allan Williams that Areli Escobar has a good relationship with his children and that he has had good jobs — sometimes two or three at a time — in the past. He was unemployed when he killed Maldonado in May 31, 2009.
Angelica Escobar said despite his past violence, she brings her children to visit their father in jail. She said her children know about her father’s trial from reading news on the Internet and speaking with other children at school.
They are receiving counseling, she said
Earlier:The punishment phase of Areli Carbajal Escobar’s capital murder trial begins today at 9 a.m. in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court in Travis County.
At the end of the punishment phase, which Lynch has said should conclude by the end of this week, the jury will be asked to determine whether Escobar, 32, gets the death penalty or life in prison without the chance of parole.
The same jury on Friday found Escobar guilty of capital murder in the killing and sexual assault of his 17-year-old neighbor Bianca Maldonado.
Maldonado was an LBJ High School student who maintained a B average while raising a 1-year-old child and working a part-time job at Jack in the Box.
Her mother, Jaqueline Hernandez, is a manager at Jack in the Box but was working a second job, delivering newspapers for the Austin American-Statesman, during the early morning hours of May 31, 2009, when her daughter was attacked.
Maldonado’s 1-year-old son was injured in that attack. Details on his injuries are among the things the jury will learn about during the punishment phase.
Conducted just like the guilt/innocence phase, the punishment phase, also called the sentencing phase, will begin with opening statements. Each side will be able to call witnesses, and the punishment phase will culminate in closing arguments before the jury begins deliberating.
While the guilt/innocence phase focused on Escobar’s crime against Maldonado, the punishment phase will focus on the lives of Maldonado and Escobar. We should hear more details about Maldonado’s life from her family members and how her loss has affected them. We also will hear more about Escobar’s criminal history.
The jury ultimately will be asked to decide whether Escobar poses a continued threat to society and if there are any mitigating factors to warrant a sentence of life in prison. If the answer to the first question is “yes” and the second is “no,” Lynch will sentence him to death.
Read a Statesman story on Escobar’s conviction here.
Staff writer Steven Kreytak is covering the trial and will provide live updates via Twitter below.
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May 13, 2011
Escobar faces death penalty next week
Update 3:09 p.m.
A Travis County jury has found Areli Escobar guilty of capital murder in the May 2009 sexual assault and killing of his 17-year-old neighbor Bianca Maldonado.
State District Judge Mike Lynch scheduled the punishment phase of the trial to begin at 9 a.m. Monday. It is expected to take several days.
At the end of that phase the same jury that found Escobar guilty will decide if he gets life in prison or the death penalty.
Escobar did not have any discernible reaction to the verdict. Jaqueline Hernandez, Bianca Maldonado’s mother, remained quiet. After Lynch left court she appeared light headed and was assisted by family members, who provided her with a beverage and wet towel to wipe her face. She was escorted out a courtroom back door.
Update 12:29 a.m.
The Travis County jury in Areli Carbajal Escobar’s capital murder trial began deliberating at about 11:45 a.m. today following methodical closing arguments by prosecutors.
Assistant district attorneys Efrain De La Fuente and Allison Wetzel walked jurors through the evidence they believe links Escobar to the fatal stabbing and sexual assault of Bianca Maldonado in her family’s far East Austin apartment in 2009.
Escobar’s DNA was found on the back of the Maldonado’s apartment door and her DNA was found on shoes recovered from his apartment and from the inside of the car he was driving, De La Fuente said.
Escobar’s fingerprint was on a lotion bottle inside her apartment, he said.
They also noted testimony by Escobar’s girlfriend at the time of the killing, Zoe Moreno. She said that she called Escobar’s cell phone that early morning and when the phone connected she heard a female voice screaming repeatedly, and then grunting and moaning.
Wetzel said she is confident that jurors “will give Bianca’s killer the justice he deserves.”
If convicted Escobar faces the death penalty.
Escobar’s lawyer Steve Brittain described Moreno’s testimony as unreliable. He said that when she first talked to police she said a voice had been screaming but when she testified she said she heard “screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming.”
Brittain said told the jurors not to rely on the DNA evidence, saying that just because there was testimony that the DNA science relied upon in the case is accepted by the scientific community does not make it infallible.
“Cigarettes don’t cause cancer, nicotine is not addictive,” Brittain said, quotes he said were once said to be accepted by members of the “scientific community.”
Brittain argued that Maldonado’s killing was not done in the course of committing or attempting to commit sexual assault, as charged in the indictment.
He said the attack on Maldonado was a targeted murder and referred to the numerous wounds on her body. She was stabbed 46 times, cut 30 times, beaten in the head and face and sexually assaulted with an object before bleeding to death, Chief Medical Examiner David Dolinak testified.
“It cries out… this is a murder … a rage. That’s what the objective is here,” Brittain said.
If the jury finds the killing did not occur during an aggravated sexual assault or attempted aggravated sexual assault then they may find Escobar guilty of simple murder, which is punishable by a maximum life sentence and not death.
Earlier Closing arguments are expected today in the capital murder trial of Areli Carbajal Escobar, who is accused of killing a 17-year-old neighbor he did not know in 2009.
Escobar, 32, faces the death penalty if convicted of fatally stabbing and sexually assaulting Bianca Maldonado, a 17-year-old LBJ High School student who maintained a B average while raising a 1-year-old son.
Maldonado and her son were attacked in the early morning hours of May 31, 2009, while her mother and sister were delivering the Austin American-Statesman.
Escobar’s girfriend at the time believes she heard Maldonado’s screaming during the attack when she called Escobar’s cell phone looking for him.
DNA evidence strongly suggests a link between Maldonado’s death and Escobar. Spots of blood found on shoes in Escobar’s room and blood in a car he had been driving almost definitely came from Maldonado, DNA analysts testified.
And Escobar’s fingerprint was found on a baby lotion bottle found near Maldonado’s body, according to testimony.
Maldonado was stabbed 46 times, beaten with a hard object and sexually assaulted with an object, Chief Medical Examiner David Dolinak testified yesterday.
The capital murder indictment against Escobar charges him with killing Maldonado in the course of committing sexual assault.
Steve Brittain, one of Escobar’s lawyers, suggested during opening statements that wounds to Maldonado’s vagina and anus were caused after her death. Because sexual assault is a crime on a live person, if the jury finds that there was no sexual assault, then Escobar could only be found guilty of murder and would not qualify for the death penalty.
Previous story: LBJ student was stabbed 46 times, medical examiner testifies
Staff writer Steven Kreytak is covering the trial and will provide live updates via Twitter below.
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May 12, 2011
M.E.: Sexual assault wounds happened before teen's death
Update 4:50 p.m.:
Under cross-examination by a lawyer for capital murder defendant Areli Escobar, Travis County Chief Medical Examiner David Dolinak stood by his findings that Bianca Maldonado’s sexual assault injuries happened before she died.
Dolinak said he saw evidence of bleeding on all of the 46 stab wounds and 30 cuts on Maldonado’s body as well as on the injuries to her vagina and anus. He said bleeding does not occur from wounds inflicted to a deceased person.
Escobar’s lawyers contend that wounds to Maldonado’s vagina and anus were caused after her death and therefore she was not a victim of a sexual assault, which is a crime against a live person. The capital murder indictment against Escobar charges him with killing Maldonado in the course of committing sexual assault. If the jury finds that there was no sexual assault, then Escobar could only be found guilty of murder and would not qualify for the death penalty.
Closing arguments in the case are expected tomorrow morning.
Under questioning by Escobar defense lawyer Steve Brittain, Dolinak said the most definitive way to determine whether there was bleeding from wounds is to take a sample of the tissue a the wound site and look at it under a microscope.
He said he did not preserve Maldonado’s tissue because “the hemorrhage in the tissue was pretty clear to me. Its’ backed up by photographs.”
Brittain asked whether it is possible that the sexual assault wounds were inflicted after Maldonado’s death and then to have bled “after violent force is applied.”
“You could get some oozing,” Dolinak testified, but he said that he did not think that was what happened.
Earlier:
Bianca Maldonado was stabbed 46 times, beaten in the face and the head and sexually assaulted in May 2009, Travis County Chief Medical Examiner David Dolinak told a Travis County jury today.
As Dolinak explained the injuries using graphic pictures of the 17-year-old LBJ High School junior’s body that were flashed on a courtroom flat-screen television, Maldonado’s mother sat in the front row of the courtroom gallery and watched quietly.
When state District Judge Mike Lynch called a recess after the prosecution’s questioning ended, Hernandez exited the courtroom and began crying hysterically. Her wails filled the eighth floor of the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center.
The pictures showed stab and cut wounds to Maldonado’s arms, hands, chest, face and head. While the ones to her arms and hands were likely defensive wounds, the cluster of 16 wounds concentrated on her upper chest area were likely inflicted when she was no longer moving, Dolinak said.
Dolinak also described horrific wounds to Maldonado’s anus and vagina, wounds he said were inflicted with some type of hard object.
Dolinak said that all of the wounds were inflicted while Maldonado was still alive.
Earlier
Two Austin police department latent print analysts testified today that capital murder defendant Areli Escobar’s fingerprint was on a lotion bottle found near the body of his 17-year-old neighbor after her 2009 murder.
Analyst Sandy Siegel said when she first analyzed prints in the case in 2009 she could not connect the print with Escobar. But last week, after prosecutors asked her to do some further comparisons in the case, she decided to also take a fresh try at comparing the lotion bottle print with Escobar’s prints. She matched it on Monday, she said.
Siegel explained to the Travis County jury at Escobar’s trial that she had initially assumed that someone holding the bottle upside down with his right hand had left the print.
It turns out, she said, Escobar likely held the bottle between his left ring finger and thumb.
When she compared the print with the outside, middle of Escobar’s left ring finger, she had a match.
Her colleague, Richard Pickrell, testified that he reached the same conclusion in analyzing the same print.
Escobar faces the death penalty if convicted. His lawyers objected to Siegel’s testimony, claiming that were notified too late to adequately prepare. Judge Mike Lynch overruled that objection.
Under cross examination by defense lawyer Allan Williams, Sigel said the print on the lotion bottle linked to Escobar was “a low quality print.” A lot of print was missing, she said, including palm.
Maldonado was fatally stabbed and sexually assaulted in her family’s Decker Lane apartment in far East Austin in the early morning hours of May 31, 2009. Her mother and sister had left the LBJ High School student alone with her 1-year-old boy when they left to deliver the Austin American-Statesman.
Escobar, who was unemployed and whose girlfriend’s text messages suggested had a problem with cocaine, lived across the Huntington Meadows apartment complex on Decker Lane. His unit was about 120 yards from Maldonado’s, but witnesses have said they do not think the two knew each other.
This afternoon, the jury is expected to hear from Travis County Chief Medical Examiner David Dolinak.
Escobar’s lawyers have said his testimony is key to their case, as they contend that wounds to Maldonado’s vagina and anus were caused after her death and therefore not a sexual assault. The capital murder indictment against Escobar charges him with killing Maldonado in the course of committing sexual assault. If the jury finds that there was no sexual assault, which is a crime against a live person, then Escobar could only be found guilty of murder and would not qualify for the death penalty.
Previous story: DNA analysts say Escobar almost certainly linked to slaying
Staff writer Steven Kreytak is covering the trial and will provide updates via Twitter below. Note: Some testimony could be graphic.
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May 10, 2011
Bloody shoe prints could have been murder defendant's
As Areli Carbajal Escobar’s capital murder trial continued through its fourth day today the jury heard from a state forensic scientist who compared shoes found in Escobar’s apartment with a shoe print found near Bianca Maldonado’s body.
Melissa Valadez, the trace evidence section manager at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that one of the shoes “could not be eliminated as a possible source” of the impression in the carpet.
Valadez said she could not definitively say that the shoe made the impression because there are so many possible shoes that matched the black polo zip-up shoes taken from Escobar’s apartment. She said because the impression was left on a carpet, any defining characteristics of Escobar’s shoes, such as a particularly warn spot or a tear in the rubber, did not show up.
Prosecutors said during opening statements that blood found on those shoes matched the blood of Maldonado, Escobar’s 17-year-old neighbor who was found dead on May 31, 2009.
The two lived in the same apartment complex but did not know each other, witnesses and lawyers have said.
Maldonado, an LBJ High School student, was fatally stabbed and sexually assaulted in the early morning hours of May 31, 2009, after her mother and sister left for a job delivering the Austin American-Statesman.
Travis County Chief Medical Examiner David Dolinak is now expected to testify as early as tomorrow.
Escobar’s lawyers have said his testimony is key to their case, as they contend that wounds to Maldonado’s vagina and anus were caused after her death and therefore not a sexual assault. The capital murder indictment against Escobar charges him with killing Maldonado in the course of committing sexual assault. If the jury finds that there was no sexual assault, which is a crime against a live person, then Escobar could only be found guilty of murder and would not qualify for the death penalty.
Staff writer Steven Kreytak is covering the trial and providing live updates via Twitter below. Note: Some of the testimony could be graphic.
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May 6, 2011
Defendant seemed 'spaced out' on night of attack, said girlfriend who heard screams
Update 1:02 p.m.When Zoe Moreno went to Areli Escobar’s apartment in the early morning hours of May, 31, 2009, he told her that he was stressed out from not having a job and being unable to pay rent, Moreno testified Friday.
“He felt he was at a dead end,” Moreno told a Travis County jury during the second day of Escobar’s capital murder trial.
That was hours before prosecutors say Escobar walked across his far East Austin apartment complex and sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed his 17-year-old neighbor Bianca Maldonado.
Escobar faces a possible death sentence if convicted in the death of Maldonado, who he did not know and was home alone with her 1-year-old son.
Moreno believes she heard part of that attack on Maldonado.
She said she met Escobar through one of his sisters who is Moreno’s close friend. They began dating in February 2009 and in the early morning hours of May 31, 2009, Escobar invited her to the Huntington Meadows apartments, where Escobar lived with his sisters.
It was after 2 a.m.when she arrived. Moreno had just returned to town from Corpus Christi and Escobar, his sister and others were up because they had spent the night out at a nightclub, Moreno said. Escobar was drinking beer and appeared “under the influence,” she said.
Moreno said he “seemed spaced out” and changed topics frequently, which was common when Escobar had been drinking.
After the short conversation in the bathroom where Escobar mentioned being stressed out, the two talked little, Moreno said.
At one point, while she waited for him to come to bed, she heard the door close and realized that Escobar had left. While she left his apartment to go home, Moreno noticed that Escobar’s car was in the parking lot, she said.
On her drive to Round Rock, she tried to call Escobar three times, but each time he did not pick up. It was after 4 a.m.
On her fourth try the call connected.
“I heard a woman screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming and just screaming,” Moreno said.
There were no other voices, she said. “She was just screaming and screaming. It was just non-stop screaming.
At one point she started hearing “moans” and “grunts” mixed in with the screaming.
Moreno said she initially thought that Escobar had been having sex with someone. Later, when she learned from Escobar’s sister that Escobar had showed up at his mother’s house with blood on his shirt, she thought he had raped someone, prosecutors said.
Finally, Moreno said, when she learned the next day from the television news that a girl had been killed at the Huntington Meadows apartments, she believed Escobar had done it, Moreno said.
“I had previously stated to my son if I hear of anything happening to some woman at his apartment complex, I know he had something to do with it,” she said.
She said she was initially hesitant about reporting what she heard to police.
“I was scared. You don’t want to believe that someone you loved could have done something like this,” Moreno said.
EarlierThe capital murder trial of Areli Escobar, accused of sexually assaulting and fatally stabbing a 17-year-old neighbor he did not know, continues today in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court in Travis County.
Prosecutors say Areli Carbajal Escobar, 32, killed Bianca Maldonado in the early morning hours of May 31, 2009, at her Huntington Meadows apartment on Decker Lane. Escobar lived on the other side of the apartment complex at the time.
Escobar, who pleaded not guilty, faces the death penalty if convicted.
During opening statements Thursday, one of Escobar’s defense lawyers, cautioned jurors to be skeptical of the DNA evidence that prosecutors say links Escobar to the crime.
Escobar’s lawyer, Stephen Brittain, also said that wounds to Maldonado’s vagina and anus occurred after she was killed, apparently suggesting that Maldonado’s killing did not occur in the course of committing sexual assault. If the jury finds that to be true, then Escobar could only be found guilty of murder and would not qualify for the death penalty.
The trial is expected to last 2-3 weeks.
Related story: Mother describes finding her slain daughter’s body
Follow live courtroom updates below or on Twitter @StevenKreytak.
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May 3, 2011
Ahead of death penalty trial, neighbors ponder brutal crime
It’s about 350 feet from Bianca Maldonado’s apartment, where the 17-year-old was sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed in 2009, to the apartment of the man accused of killing her, Areli Carbajal Escobar.
Between their buildings is a road that runs between a basketball court and some other apartment buildings in the Huntington Meadows apartment complex on Decker Lane, which is about eight miles east of downtown Austin near the Travis County Exposition Center.
Police have said that Escobar attacked Maldonado, at right, in the early morning hours of May 31, 2009, after her mother and sister had left to deliver newspapers and the LBJ High School student was alone with her 1-year-old son. Authorities do not believe that Escobar and Maldonado knew each other.
Escobar, pictured below right, goes on trial Thursday on capital murder charges and could receive the death penalty if convicted.
None of a handful of residents of the apartment complex interviewed today had known Escobar or Maldonado but all knew about the crime.
“I think about that all the time,” said Teandra Hodge, 21, who has a 5-year-old daughter. “I don’t let my daughter play outside by herself.”
Linda Sewell, another resident, said: “That was bad. I don’t even like living here because of that.”
There are about 50 buildings in the complex, most two stories with four apartments. Situated around a road that makes a oval through the complex, the apartment buildings have stone-and-wood exteriors and show signs of wear but not neglect.
There are few trees and little shade, and there’s a feeling of openness in the relatively undeveloped part of far East Austin.
Maldonado lived with her family on the east side of the complex, in a second-story apartment. From the balcony you can see the Frost Bank Tower downtown.
Escobar lived on the other side on the ground floor. His family members have said he lived with two of his sisters and three of his five children. (That apartment is shown at right in photo taken in the days after the killing.)
Nobody answered the door at either apartment today. Maldonado’s appeared empty. Plastic chairs and a bookcase without shelves outside of Escobar’s old apartment gave the appearance that someone is living there.
Escobar has been at the Travis County Jail since shortly after Maldonado’s death. According to a police affidavit, his girlfriend told police that Escobar slipped out of his apartment in the middle of the night but did not get in his truck, which she saw parked in the lot. When that girlfriend called Escobar at about 4 a.m., the call connected and she heard a female screaming and moaning for about 10 minutes, the affidavit said.
Police have said those sounds were of Maldonado fighting for her life.
Residents said that most people at the complex keep to themselves.
Charles Boone, who was smoking a cigarette two-buildings down from Escobar’s former apartment, was surprised to hear that Escobar could receive the death penalty. He knew that it is rare that the ultimate punishment is sought in Travis County.
“That was pretty bad,” he said of the way Maldonado died. “It’s a tragedy.”
Boone, 35, said he has noticed fewer people living in the apartments in recent years, but he believes it has more to do with rent increasing than with Maldonado’s death.
Sewell said she is moving to a senior citizens housing to get away from the noise at Huntington Meadows.
She said she is particularly disturbed that Maldonado’s son was stabbed in the attack.
Hodge said if it were up to her, she’d give Escobar the death penalty because the child was attacked.
“A child’s innocent,” Hodge said. “She (Maldonado) was innocent.”
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May 2, 2011
With jury selected, death penalty trial in LBJ student's death begins Thursday
A Travis County jury has been selected for the capital murder trial of Areli Carbajal Escobar, who is accused of killing and sexually assaulting 17-year-old LBJ High School student Bianca Maldonado in her East Austin home in 2009.
Escobar, 32, pictured at right, faces the death penalty if convicted.
Jury selection began April 20 and included the individual questioning of prospective jurors about their views on the death penalty.
The process wrapped up late this afternoon in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court. The panel selected includes 12 jurors and two alternates.
Opening statements had been scheduled for Wednesday but Lynch said that because jury selection went longer than expected, the evidence portion of the trial will now begin Thursday morning.
Lynch said he has told jurors to expect the trial to last two to three weeks.
When they returned they found Maldonado, pictured at right, dead of multiple stab wounds.
Escobar lived in the same apartment complex — Huntington Meadows at 7000 Decker Lane — and left his apartment in the early morning hours, according to a police affidavit. His girlfriend saw Escobar’s car was still in the parking lot and told police that when she called his cell phone a short time later, the call connected. She heard a female voice moaning and screaming, the affidavit said.
Escobar showed up at his mother’s apartment, on Rosewood Avenue in East Austin, later that morning covered in blood, police have said.
During a pretrial hearing, a detective testified that Maldonado’s DNA was found on items seized during a search of that apartment.
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April 1, 2011
Judge refuses to invalidate Texas' new execution procedures
A state district judge in Travis County today refused to invalidate Texas’ new procedure for executing murderers, ruling that a state law exempts the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from certain public levels of public scrutiny.
In a lawsuit, lawyers for two condemned inmates charged that in changing one of the drugs administered to kill inmates, officials failed to comply with the Texas Administrative Procedure Act. That law, they said, compels officials to subject the new procedures to public scrutiny, including public review and comment periods, before they are implemented.
In rejecting a request for a temporary injunction, Judge Stephen Yelenosky sided with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, whose case was argued by the attorney general’s office.
“There’s only one way to read this,” Yelenosky said, quoting the law. “This chapter does not apply to a rule of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that applies to an inmate. “
Lawyers Bryce Benjet and Maurie Levin, who represent plaintiffs Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal, said they would appeal to the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. Foster is slated for execution Tuesday. Leal, a Mexican citizen, is scheduled for execution July 7.
Levin said the issue is not just “important to inmates but to the citizens of Texas.”
“It’s about state officials making decisions in the light of day,” she said.
The lawsuit contends that since November 2010, Foster made numerous public information requests and pleas for information regarding the drugs TDCJ planned to use to execute him, but prison officials delayed their response and made the decision to change drugs without required public input — or input from Foster and other condemned convicts.
According to the suit, TDCJ announced March 16 — less than three weeks before Foster’s scheduled execution — that it would change the drugs used, including replacing sodium thiopental with pentobarbital as one of three drugs used in lethal injections.
If a court invalidates the change in drugs because state law was not followed, the state would be forced to resort to using the previous drug — which has become unavailable in the United States.
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March 22, 2011
Evidence OK'd for death penalty trial set for next month
State District Judge Mike Lynch has denied accused killer Areli Escobar’s bid to suppress evidence, including what an Austin police detective said was DNA linking Escobar to the killing of 17-year-old Bianca Maldonado.
Lynch has scheduled jury selection in Escobar’s Travis County capital murder trial to begin next month.
Escobar, 31, at right, faces a possible death sentence in the 2009 fatal stabbing of Maldonado, a mother and LBJ High School student. She was killed while alone in her Decker Lane apartment on May 31,2009.
Escobar’s is the only pending case in which Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg has announced her intention to seek the death penalty. There are currently six people on Texas death row who were convicted in Travis County — Milton Gobert, Paul Devoe, Selwyn Davis, Guy Allen, Louis Perez and Cathy Henderson.
Travis County District Clerk Amalia Rodriguez-Mendoza said 180 jurors have been summoned to appear in Lynch’s court on April 18 for the start of jury selection. Lynch said that jurors will then be called back for individual questioning during the following two weeks.
Opening statements are tentatively scheduled for May 4 and the evidence portion of the trial is expected to last about two weeks, Lynch said.
Maldonado, at right, took Advanced Placement courses and had a B average in school while raising her child, who was a year old when she died. She was sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed in the unit at the Huntington Meadows Apartments where she lived with her son, mother and sister, according to a police affidavit.
Maldonado did not know Escobar, who lived in the same complex, police have said.
The day she was killed, Maldonado’s mother and sister left her alone with her son when they left for jobs delivering the Austin American-Statesman about 3 a.m., police have said.
Early that morning, Escobar’s girlfriend, Zoe Lopez, who had been asleep with Escobar at his apartment, realized Escobar had left and began calling him, police said. About 4:15 a.m., on Lopez’s fourth call to Escobar, the line connected and Lopez heard a woman moaning and screaming for about 10 minutes, police said. They said those screams could have come as Maldonado fought for her life.
Maldonado’s mother and sister found her body later that morning. Maldonado’s son was taken to the hospital but later recovered.
According to the affidavit, Escobar also told a friend, using an expletive, that he had messed up and the blood on his clothes came from a girl.
Escobar spoke to police in a 30-minute recorded interview after he was arrested June 2, 2009, according to testimony at a pretrial hearing in January. The content of the interview was not disclosed in court.
Detectives said during that hearing that they executed several search warrants looking for evidence in the case, including one at Escobar’s mother’s Rosewood Avenue apartment. Police seized a number of items, including a shirt, jeans, boxer shorts and a swab of a stain on the washing machine lid, according to the hearing testimony.
Maldonado’s DNA was found on at least one of those items, Detective Kerry Scanlon said.
Scanlon also testified that DNA testing could not exclude Maldonado as the source of blood on shoes seized from Escobar’s apartment.
Escobar’s lawyers, Steve Brittain and Allan Williams, argued in court and in written motions that police did not have probable cause that Escobar committed a crime before conducting the searches and the interview, and asked Lynch to prohibit prosecutors from sharing the results of the search and a recording of the interview with jurors.
In a March 4 order, Lynch wrote that Escobar was legally arrested before he was interviewed, that he was properly warned and understood his rights before the questioning, that his statement was voluntary, that police had probable cause for each search warrant they obtained and that the searches were lawful.
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January 24, 2011
Detective: DNA links man to 17-year-old's killing
DNA evidence links Areli Carbajal Escobar to the 2009 stabbing death of his 17-year-old neighbor, Bianca Maldonado, an Austin police detective disclosed during a pretrial court hearing today.
Escobar, 31, at right, is charged with capital murder in the killing of Maldonado, an LBJ High School student who took Advanced Placement courses and had a year-old son.
Police have said that Escobar attacked her May 31, 2009, when she was alone in her family’s Decker Lane apartment with her son, shortly after her mother and sister left at 3 a.m. to deliver newspapers. Maldonado was sexually assaulted, a police affidavit said.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Escobar, whose lawyers are asking state District Judge Mike Lynch to suppress evidence gathered during the investigation.
After Escobar was arrested two days following the killing, police only disclosed circumstantial evidence against Carbajal, including the allegations of witnesses that shortly after the time Maldonado was killed, he went to his mother’s East Austin apartment wearing bloody clothes.
During today’s hearing, Austin police homicide Detective Kerry Scanlon testified that police secured warrants to search several places following Escobar’s arrest, including his mother’s Rosewood Avenue apartment.
During that search police seized a number of items, including a shirt, jeans, boxer shorts, an identification card bearing Escobar’s name and a swab of a stain on the underside of the washing machine lid, Scanlon said under questioning by Prosecutor Allison Wetzel.
Some of those items were submitted to the Austin police crime lab, which detected the presence of Bianca Maldonado’s DNA, Scanlon said.
He did not say on which item or items the DNA was found.
Scanlon also said that Maldonado could not be excluded from DNA taken from shoes seized from Escobar’s apartment.
Escobar’s lawyers Steve Brittain and Allan Williams are asking Lynch to rule that a jury may not learn about the evidence seized during the searches following Escobar’s arrest. They argued that police did not have probable cause for the searches.
Lynch said he would review the evidence and allow lawyers to submit their arguments in writing before ruling. He has not set a trial date in the case.
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December 21, 2010
Appeals court rebukes Baird in Willingham inquiry
This article has been updated since originally filed with information from Judge Charlie Baird.
The Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals has ruled that state District Judge Charlie Baird abused his discretion in handling an inquiry into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, a man whose lawyers contend was wrongfully executed in 2004.
The court ruled that Baird should not have commenced a hearing into the case in October after Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, whose office prosecuted Willingham in 1992, accused Baird of bias and asked Baird to recuse himself from the case.
“Judge Baird abused his discretion by failing to either recuse himself or refer the motion to the presiding judge of the administrative judicial district,” said the opinion, written by Chief Justice Woodie Jones and released Tuesday morning.
Baird said he would follow the 3rd Court’s ruling and refer the motion to recuse to state District Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, who sits in Williamson County and presides over the judicial region that includes Travis County.
A jury convicted Willingham in 1992 of killing his three young daughters by setting fire to his Corsicana house. Shortly before his execution, the first in a string of experts found that investigators relied on bogus science to determine that the fire was intentionally set.
Baird, who is leaving his Travis County-based bench at the end of the year to enter private practice, held a hearing in the case in October on a petition filed by Willingham’s relatives.
Prior to the hearing, Baird ruled that Thompson was not a party to the court action and therefore he refused to rule on Thompson’s recusal motion. Only lawyers for Willingham’s family members participated in the hearing, where fire experts attacked the original arson investigation.
“There is not a single item of evidence at that fire scene that would even suggest this was arson,” said Gerald Hurst, an Austin chemist who has studied fire for decades.
After Baird adjourned the hearing he learned that the 3rd Court issued a stay to the proceedings, preventing him from issuing a ruling.
Willingham’s family members are seeking a declaration that Willingham was wrongfully executed. They also claim that Texas officials committed official oppression in their handling of Willingham’s appeals.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd Court considered the case. Justice Bob Pemberton joined Jones; Justice David Puryear dissented.
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October 14, 2010
Appellate court orders halt to WIllingham inquiry
Update 5:23 p.m. An Austin appeals court has ordered Judge Charlie Baird to halt his inquiry into whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongfully executed in 2004 and whether there is probable cause that state officials committed a crime in their handling of Willingham’s case prior to his execution.
The Austin American-Statesman obtained an order by the 3rd Court of Appeals from the court clerk just prior to 5 p.m. today, after Baird heard several hours of testimony on the case. By that time, Willingham’s lawyers had announced that they were through presenting evidence.
Before Baird closed the hearing, former Gov. Mark White said that Willingham should be posthumously exonerated.
“The state of the testimony that convicted him has been impugned today,” said White, who said. “Every shred of evidence points conclusively to his innocence.”
Baird said he would take the case under advisement and issue formal findings of fact at a later date if they that is warranted.
It is unclear when Baird received notice of the appellate court’s decision, issued after Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson filed a petition for writ of mandamus and emergency motion for immediate stay.
The order, signed by Chief Justice Woodfin Jones, orders the parties to resond by Friday at 5 p.m. on Friday, October 22.
Update 3:54 p.m.
The inquiry into whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongly executed in 2004 began today with an aggressive attack on the 1991 investigation in which a state deputy fire marshal concluded a Corsicana fire that killed Willingham’s three young daughters in 1991 was intentionally set.
Florida fire expert John Lentini attacked the findings of Manuel Vasquez, now deceased, in which Vasquez found 20 indicators of arson at the small, wood-framed house.
“None of them, not one, say this is a set fire,” Lentini said.
Lentini walked state District Judge Charlie Baird, who convened the hearing at the request of lawyers for Willingham’s family, through each of the reasons why Vasquez determined the fire was intentionally set. He said that many of Vasquez’s theories were not accepted science at the time of Willingham’s 1992 trial; others have since been debunked, he said.
Lentini was among a panel of experts who agreed to review the case for the Innocence Project following Willingham’s conviction. He told Baird that nine fire experts, including himself, have rejected the original findings in the case.
If there was no arson, then there was no murder, he said.
Update 1:44
State District Judge Charlie Baird ruled today that the Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson did not have standing to seek Baird’s recusal in an inquiry into whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongly executed in 2004.
Baird said that Thompson is not a party to the lawsuit, in which Williingham’s surviving relatives are seeking a declaration that he was wrongfully convicted of arson murder in the 1991 deaths of his three young daughters.
As he left the court Thompson said he was heading to Austin’s 3rd Court of Appeals to seek a writ of mandamus to stop Baird from conducting the hearing.
Meanwhile, inside Baird’s court, Willingham family lawyer Gerald Goldstein gave an opening statement summarizing the case. Witnesses are expected to follow.
Update 1:17
Lawyers for Cameron Todd Willingham’s family appear to be preparing to present their case that he was wrongly executed in Judge Charlie Baird’s courtroom this afternoon, despite a pending motion requesting that Baird recuse himself in the case or refer the request for recusal to another judge.
As opposed to last week, when only Willingham lawyer Gerald Goldstein was present, today Willingham’s other two lawyers — Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck and former Texas Gov. Mark White — are present.
Willingham’s stepmother, Eugenia Willingham, also is here, as are investigators who have worked on the case. There are also dozens of member of the local, statewide and national news media present.
Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson also is in the courtroom.
Others parties have declined Baird’s invitation to participate, including officials from Gov. Rick Perry’s office and Willingham’s ex-wife.
Earlier State District Judge Charlie Baird is expected to rule today on a motion for him to recuse himself from a planned inquiry into whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongly executed in 2004 based on faulty arson science.
Baird has set the case for 1:30 p.m. in his Travis County courtroom.
The case was delayed last week after Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, whose office successfully prosecuted Willingham in 1992, asked Baird to step aside. Thompson questioned Baird’s impartiality, citing several grounds, including that as a member of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Baird ruled in1995 to uphold Willingham’s conviction and sentence, and that Baird has recently received an award from an anti-death penalty group.
Lawyers for Willingham’s family, who asked for the hearing, are expected to file a motion countering Thompson’s shortly before the hearing.
If Baird rejects Thompson’s request, he is expected to begin hearing evidence on the case immediately in a hearing that is expected to last two days.
Those lawyers — Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck, former Texas Gov. Mark White and high-powered San Antonio defense lawyer Gerald Goldstein — asked Baird to hold a hearing to restore Willingham’s reputation and to convene a court of inquiry to determine whether any crimes were committed in the handling of Willingham’s case prior to his execution.
Willingham was convicted of capital murder after prosecutors argued that he intentionally set his Corsicana house on fire, killing his 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron and 2-year-old Amber.
Two fire investigators testified at the trial that there were numerous indicators of arson found in the small, charred wood framed house in the town about 55 miles northeast of Waco.
But just prior to Willingham’s execution, leading fire scientist Gerald Hurst found that those investigators relied on now debunked theories. Hurst ruled there was no evidence of arson and his findings were later upheld by a series of other scientists.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission also has been looking into the case, which has drawn international media interest because of the possibility that Texas may have executed an innocent man.
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October 12, 2010
Willingham's ex-wife will not testify at Travis County inquiry
Cameron Todd Willingham’s ex-wife will not accept a judge’s invitation to participate in a Travis County court hearing expected to probe whether the Corsicana man was wrongfully executed for the arson killings of their three young daughters in 2004, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Judge Charlie Baird has scheduled the inquiry for Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in his 299th District Court. Lawyers for Willingham’s family asked for the inquiry in a petition that lays out the findings of a line of fire experts who believe that Willingham was convicted based on faulty arson science. They are asking Baird to declare Willingham was wrongly executed in order to restore his reputation and to determine whether probable cause exists to find that unnamed state officials mismanaged Willingham’s case prior to his execution.
The case was originally set for last week. Baird reset it after stating that he need more time to review a motion seeking his recusal and to allow lawyers for Willingham’s family to respond to the request.
At right, a photo of Johnny Sutton and Stacy Kuykendall outside Travis County’s Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center last week.
On the day the case was initially scheduled last week, Willingham’s ex-wife, Stacy Kuykendall, stood outside the courthouse and declared her belief that he was guilty of the killing. She said that during a visit to death row a couple of weeks before Willingham’s execution, he confessed to killing their girls because Kuykendall had threatened to divorce him the night before.
Kuykendall’s account of the confession contradicts previous public statements she has given about the case, according to media accounts.
Baird wrote to Johnny Sutton, a former U.S. attorney who represents Kuykendall, on Oct. 8. Kuykendall was not in court last week and Baird wrote that he read that Sutton represents her in the Austin American-Statesman.
Reached on Tuesday, Sutton, said that he had not yet received the letter but that Kuykendall would certainly decline Baird’s offer. Kuykendall gave the media statement last week so she could move on with her life and she has no interest in continuing to dwell on the case, he said.
“She has said her piece,” Sutton said. “
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October 11, 2010
Judge invites executed man's ex-wife to participate in hearing
Before state District Judge Charlie Baird announced last week that he would postpone the scheduled start of a hearing to determine whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongly executed, Willingham’s ex-wife stood outside the Travis County courthouse and said she believes Willingham is guilty.
Stacy Kuykendall said that during a visit to death row a couple of weeks before Willingham’s execution, he confessed to setting the couple’s Corsicana house on fire with their three young daughters inside in 1991 because Kuykendall had threatened to divorce him the night before.
Baird, who reset the case until Thursday because of a motion seeking his recusal, said he has sent a letter to Kuykendall’s lawyer inviting her to participate in the inquiry.
Kuykendall’s account of the confession contradicts previous public statements she has given. Her lawyer, former U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Read about Kuykendall’s statement in Travis County last week and the case in Baird’s court here.
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October 6, 2010
Judge Baird postpones Willingham hearing
Update An inquiry into whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongly executed was postponed today after state District Judge Charlie Baird announced that he needed some time to review a motion for his recusal from the case and to allow lawyers for Willingham’s family to respond..
Baird reset the case for a week from Thursday in his Travis County courtroom.
The recusal motion was made by Navarro County District Attorney Lowell Thompson, whose office successfully prosecuted Willingham in 1992. Thompson was in court and said he would return next week.
Baird said that prior to the hearing he was delivered a letter form Caren Burbach, general counsel for Gov. Rick Perry, declining Baird’s invitation for the governor or someone from his office to participate in the Willingham hearing.
In the letter, Burbach questioned whether Baird had the jurisdiction to hear Willingham’s case and noted that multiple levels of state and federal court upheld Willingham’s conviction.
“The petition and hearing appear to be improper collateral attacks upon a final judgment against a man found guilty of murdering his three children,” Burbach wrote.
Baird said from the bench that “these were pretty much exactly the same proceedings that we engaged in on behalf of Mr. Timothy Cole, who the governor later recognized and who was posthumously pardoned by the governor.”
After a hearing last year, Baird issued the first posthumous DNA exoneration to Cole, who died while serving a prison term for a rape he did not commit.
Earlier
On the day a judge is scheduled to begin a hearing into whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongly executed, Willingham’s ex-wife stood outside the Travis County courthouse and said she believes Willingham was guilty of killing their three young daughters in 1991.
Stacy Kuykendall told reporters that before his 2004 execution, Willingham admitted to setting their Corsicana house on fire because she had threatened to leave him the night before. Their daughters, 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron and 2-year-old Amber, died from the fire.
“I think about my daughters every day and I miss them,” said Kuykendall, who was joined by her brother Tracy Kuykendall and her lawyer Johnny Sutton. “He burned them, he admitted he burned them to me, and he was convicted of his crime. That is the closest to justice that my daughters will get.”
Willingham publicly maintained his innocence until his death and his family and lawyers have claimed he was convicted on faulty arson science. Beginning shortly before his death, a string of arson experts have found that the science that two investigators used to determine the fire was arson relied on disproven theories and should not have been presented to a jury.
Lawyers for Willingham’s family last month petitioned state District Judge Charlie Baird in Travis County to restore Willingham’s reputation by declaring that he was wrongly convicted and to probe whether state officials committed official oppression in their handling of his case before the execution. Those state officials were not named.
It is still unclear whether the hearing in the case would happen at 1:30 p.m. as planned. On Monday, Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson filed a motion seeking Baird’s recusal. Thompson’s motion noted several grounds including that while Baird was on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1995 he voted to uphold Wilingham’s conviction and death sentence. Thompson noted that that ruling could call into question Baird’s ability to be impartial. He also noted that Baird this year received an award from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Kuykendall did not go into detail about Willingham’s alleged statements to her but her lawyer distributed a written statement from her that was first published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a year ago.
In the dramatic two-page statement, she said she had doubts about her husband’s story after the fire and that she was incredulous that he did not testify on his own behalf to proclaim his innocence during his trial.
Kuykendall wrote that she visited Willingham on death row about two weeks before he was executed. With 10 minutes remaining in the visit, Willingham asked her to write the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole and ask for his sentence to be commuted to life, she wrote.
Kuykendall said he then put his head down, began crying and mentioned a fight the two had the night before the fire and her threats to leave him.
“He told me that he believed I was going to but he couldn’t let that happen,” the statement said. “He said if I didn’t have my girls I couldn’t leave him.”
Sutton said Kuykendall did not come to Travis County to participate in the scheduled hearing. He said she also did not wish to comment on the validity of the hearing, although Sutton did.
“There’s a lot around this hearing that looks wrong. That minds have been made up, that agendas are present here,” said Sutton, a former U.S. attorney. “It’s obvious in this case that there is an agenda, that people are pushing an anti-death penalty agenda.”
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October 5, 2010
Corsicana DA seeks Baird's recusal in Willingham case
Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson has filed a motion asking for Judge Charlie Baird’s recusal from tomorrow’s planned court inquiry into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his three young daughters.
The motion, filed in Travis County late Monday, asks Baird to recuse himself or to refer the motion to another judge to conduct a hearing on his fitness to hear the case, which Baird scheduled for a two-day hearing to begin tomorrow. While acknowledging that it was not filed within 10 days of the hearing, as required by law, the motion cites several grounds, including that Baird has previously participated in the case as a member of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In 1995 Baird joined that court in voting to uphold Willingham’s capital murder conviction.
Thompson’s office successfully prosecuted Willingham in Corsicana in 1992. At that trial the jury heard expert testimony that a fire at the Willingham family house in 1991 was intentionally set. In recent years, a series of arson experts have found that investigators used flawed science in reaching their conclusions that the fire was arson.
The case has been closely watched, and Baird was expected to be the first judge to weigh in on whether Texas executed an innocent man.
Baird, a state district judge whose court hears trials and not appeals, scheduled the hearing to review the case after lawyers for Willingham’s family filed a written petition with his court claiming that Willingham was wrongly executed.
The family’s lawsuit asks Baird to restore Willingham’s reputation by declaring he was not guilty of the crime under a provision of the Texas Constitution that states that, “All courts shall be open, and every person for an injury done him in his … reputation shall have remedy by due course of law.”
The lawsuit also asks Baird to probe whether state officials committed official oppression in their handling of Willingham’s appeals under a seldom-used legal mechanism called a court of inquiry.
In his motion, Thompson argued that Baird has misapplied the law governing courts of inquiry and in doing so has called into question his own impartiality.
The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states that a judge who has probable cause that a crime has been committed must initiate the court of inquiry process by filing with the district clerk a sworn affidavit stating the probable cause, the motion said.
The next step is for that judge to request that the presiding judge of the judicial district appoint a different judge to commence the court of inquiry, which could include an evidentiary hearing.
“The appearance of impropriety … could reasonably be questioned in that he already feels the facts warrant a hearing,” Thompson wrote in the motion. “He is attempting, contrary to statute, to have the evidentiary hearing in front of his court.”
Thompson also noted that the statute of limitations for official oppression, the crime the petition alleges was committed by unnamed state officials, has expired.
The motion also quoted reader comments in online newspaper stories, including one published on Statesman.com, as proof that there is a perception of impropriety among members of the public.
Thompson’s motion also noted that earlier this year Baird received the Courage Award from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, another factor that could call into question his ability to be impartial.
Neither Baird nor a lawyer for Willingham’s family could be immediately reached for comment.
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September 27, 2010
Judge Baird to hold hearing in case of executed man
State District Judge Charlie Baird announced today that he will hold a two-day hearing in Travis County next week in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 in the 1991 arson murder of his three young daughters in Corsicana.
Lawyers for Willingham’s relatives on Friday filed a lawsuit asking Baird to hold the hearing to determine whether Willingham was wrongly convicted and whether there is probable cause to charge Texas officials with official oppression.
The suit claims that those officials, who were not named, committed that crime by failing to consider before Willingham’s execution that he was convicted on discredited arson science.
Several arson experts in recent years have rejected the science that the investigators who testified at Willingham’s trial used to determine that the fire that killed his daughters was intentionally set. The Texas Forensic Science Commission has been reviewing the science in the case since 2006.
The hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 and 7.
Baird, right, wrote today in an e-mail to the American-Statesman that he has issued a bench warrant to have Johnny Everett Webb, who testified at Willingham’s 1992 trial, brought to Travis County for the hearing. Webb told a jury during that trial that Willingham, above, confessed to the arson while they were in the same jail.
Baird said that he has appointed a lawyer to represent Webb, who is incarcerated in Navarro County, during the Travis County hearing.
Lawyers for Willingham’s family served their 62-page suit along with the hundreds of copies of exhibits on officials at Gov. Rick Perry’s office, the state fire marshal’s office, the Navarro County district attorney’s office and the office of the state prosecuting attorney, which represents the state in cases at the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Baird wrote in today’s e-mail that he has mailed letters to those parties notifying them of the hearing dates and “invited them to attend if they wanted to present evidence on, for or against the issues raised in the petition.”
Read more about the Willingham family lawyers petition in Travis County here.
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March 11, 2010
Gobert quickly taken out of Travis County for death row
Travis County sheriff’s officials wasted no time in ridding themselves of Milton Dwayne Gobert, who was sentenced to death Wednesday evening in the 2003 stabbing death of Mel Kernena Cotton.
Sheriff’s deputies drove Gobert to Huntsville and handed him over to state prison officials today, said sheriff’s office spokesman Roger Wade.
Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said Gobert would arrive at death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston tonight.
Gobert will join six other inmates convicted in Travis County on death row.
Usually people sentenced to prison in Travis County are taken by state prison buses, which leave Travis County periodically.
But Wade said that because Gobert is a maximum security inmate, “we just decided it was time for him to go.”
Gobert, who has a history of beating women, his family members and others, was painted during the punishment phase of the trial as a major security risk.
He killed Cotton by stabbing and cutting her 107 times at her North Austin apartment on Oct. 6, 2003. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed in the attack but survived.
A former female jailer said she had an ongoing personal relationship with him and smuggled a cell phone into jail for Gobert to use from his cell. That jailer, who was arrested for smuggling the phone following her testimony, later testified that Gobert had a detailed escape plan that involved shooting a jailer who worked the night shift in his cell block.
After Gobert was convicted Wednesday, he unleashed a profanity-laced tirade while Cotton’s sister was talking about her family’s loss.
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March 10, 2010
Gobert sentenced to death in 2003 slaying, screams profanity at victim's family
UPDATE 9:09 PM
After deliberating for about three hours, a Travis County jury found that Milton Dwayne Gobert is a continuing threat to society and that there are no mitigating factors that warrant a sentence of life in prison.
State District Judge Bob Perkins sentenced Gobert to death in accordance with the verdict.
Gobert had no obvious reaction to the verdict. His family was not in court.
Gobert, 37, was convicted last week in the October 2003 stabbing death of Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, at her North Austin apartment.
Cotton’s sister, Ethel McPherson, took the stand and called her sister “an angel.”
While she was talking Gobert cut McPherson off by screaming: “That was no angel, that was a (expletive).
He then shouted more profanity at Cotton’s family and then at Perkins as he was escorted from the courtroom.
UPDATE 8:40 PM
The Travis County jury in Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder has reached a punishment verdict. Gobert faces life in prison or death in the 2003 killing of Mel Kernena Cotton. The verdict will be announced shortly. The jury in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court began deliberating at about 5:20 p.m.
UPDATE 5:45 PM
A Travis County jury began deliberating this evening whether Milton Dwayne Gobert would receive the death penalty after prosecutors said it would be unsafe not to execute him, while Gobert’s lawyers asked for a life term.
Gobert’s lead attorney, Leonard Martinez, told the jury during punishment phase closing arguments that it is not likely that Gobert would commit criminal acts that constitutes an ongoing threat to society.
“He will be severely punished with a life prison sentence. … When it comes to a life being taken, let it be on God’s time.”
Gobert was convicted last week in the 2003 fatal stabbing of Mel Kernena Cotton at her North Austin apartment. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed in the attack but survived and testified.
The jury must answer two questions: whether there is a probability Gobert will commit future acts of violence that constitute a continuing threat to society and whether there is any mitigating evidence to warrant a life sentence.
If the answers are “yes” and “not” Gobert will become the seventh person convicted in Travis County on death row.
The last lawyer to address the jury, prosecutor Gary Cobb, said that Gobert had promised to do better before but has not followed through.
“Each of those women that he was beating and choking and threatening to kill, they all came back,”Cobb said of Gobert’s exes who testified during the trial. “Because he was promising to do better.”
Cobb attacked the defense arguments in favor of life, “an indulgence (Gobert) was not willing to give Mel Cotton.”
Cobb closed his argument by playing a recording of a phone call that Gobet made from jail. During that call, Gobert referenced Brian Nichols, a criminal defendant who stole an officer’s gun and killed several people in an Atlanta courthouse in 2005.
“They killed the judge, the clerk and some more (expletive),” Gobert said on the recording played for the jury.
“If you ignore this warning now, we all share in the responsibility,” Cobb said.
“If you value life, you make sure he never gets a chance to do what he is planning for,” Cobb said.
He then sat down and the jury left to begin deliberations.
UPDATE 4:45 PM
During closing arguments in the punishment phase of Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial Wednesday, prosecutor Allison Wetzel said the convicted killer has no conscience and deserves the death penalty.
Wetzel said the stabbing of Mel Kernena Cotton was a very personal crime.
“When you stab someone … you can hear and feel everything that that other person is feeling. Every cry, every movement they make, you are right there on top of them,” she said.
Wetzel said Gobert deserves to die for that crime alone, for killing the 30-year-old Cotton, a Velocity Credit Union teller, in 2003.
She said it is even clearer that Gobert deserves to die when considering his testimony that he had continuously abused women, when considering his past convictions for things like burglary and robbery, and when considering that he has manipulated two jail guards into personal relationships.
“Being locked up isn’t going to stop this man from any violence,” Wetzel said.
She closed by asking the jury to consider that Demetrius Cotton, the boy who is now 11 and testified about the night his mother died.
“Imagine how much Demetrius would love to see his mother, to touch his mother,” she said. “He’s got a long life ahead of him and he’s going to live it without his mother because of Milton Gobert.”
Defense lawyer Kent Anschutz opened his argument by calling Gobert’s “a prosecutor’s dream case.”
Anschutz urged the jury to focus on Gobert and the threat he would pose in prison and not on Cotton’s death.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous to come in here and try to justify or defend the nature of Mel Cotton’s death,” he said.
Gobert would live the rest of his life in prison, he added.
“The only society this man will know is inside the Texas Department of Corrections, that is a fact,” Anschutz said.
Anschutz attacked the credibility of Tasha Lass, the former corrections officer who said she gave Gobert a phone to use in jail and discussed with him an escape plan.
“Any woman who is working in a jail that would get involved with someone like him has got to be unhinged,” Anschutz said.
Follow live updates of closing arguments on Twitter.
UPDATE 3:26 PM
After prosecutor Gary Cobb questioned convicted killer Milton Dwayne Gobert for more than 90 minutes today, lawyers on both sides closed their punishment cases.
Judge Bob Perkins began reading legal instructions to the jury at about 3:20 p.m. When he is done, the lawyers will make final arguments.
Gobert could receive the death penalty or life in prison for the 2003 killing of Mel Kernena Cotton. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed in the attack but survived.
If the jury finds that Gobert is a continuing threat to society and there are no mitigating factors to warrant a life in prison term, then he would be sentenced to death.
Earlier in the day, Cobb asked Gobert why the jury should spare his life.
“I have a redemptive will,” Gobert said. “I can be changed as far as my problems in my life and what I acquired through my upbringing.”
Cobb asked Gobert, who said he has changed, “at what point did you go from being that angry, rageful person who hurt women, who choked women, who stabbed women,” who killed Mel Cotton and stabbed her son “ to this person who is now being redeemed?”
Gobert said it was in 2004, the year after Cotton was found dead in her North Interstate 35 apartment.
Cobb then reminded Gobert about evidence that he had attacked fellow jail inmates after that time.
Follow live updates of closing arguments on Twitter.
UPDATE 12:22 PM
From the witness stand in the punishment phase of his capital murder trial Wednesday, convicted killer Milton Dwayne Gobert told the jury “when I explode, I explode” and blamed many of his problems on his childhood when he said his mother did not treat him well and that he did not love her.
Gobert said that if sentenced to life in prison instead of death, he would share his experiences with “youngsters coming through, kind of like giving back.”
He also said that he hopes to one day share his life experiences with the then 5-year-old boy who was stabbed on the day in 2003 that Gobert killed the boy’s mother.
Gobert also denied that he spoke to former jail corrections officer Tasha Lass about escaping but said the two had been intimate and that the two had code words for their genitals that they used in conversations subject to recording.
Leonard Martinez, one of Gobert’s lawyers, asked him about his repeated abuse of his girlfriends.
“Why do you have to hurt these women,” Martinez asked.
Gobert said: “It’s got to do with anger issues and … just dealing with coming up.”
“To me it takes a lot to get me to the point of exploding and when I explode, I explode,” Gobert said.
Prosecutors will soon begin to ask Gobert questions.
Follow live updates of Gobert’s testimony on Twitter.
UPDATE 10:49 AM
Milton Dwayne Gobert took the witness stand to testify in his punishment phase of his capital murder trial today.
Gobert’s lawyer said that Gobert is testifying against the advice of his lawyers.
“You know I have concerns about you taking the witness stand,” Gobert’s lawyer, Leonard Martinez, asked him in front of the jury.
“You wanted to address the jury and make a plea for your life, don’t you,” Martinez said.
“Yes,” Gobert said.
Follow live updates of Gobert’s testimony on Twitter.
EARLIER TODAY
The punishment phase of Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial continued this morning with defense lawyers questioning Tasha Lass, the former Travis County jail officer who testified earlier in the trial that she smuggled a cell phone to Gobert in jail and that Gobert hatched an elaborate escape plan.
That plan, according to Lass’ testimony, included shooting a corrections officer. Gobert’s lawyer said in court Tuesday outside the presence of the jury that they feared it could lead to a death sentence.
The jury could begin deliberating today whether Gobert receives life in prison or death for the 2003 killing of Mel Kernena Cotton, his ex-girlfriend’s friend, in North Austin.
After Gobert’s lawyers on Tuesday asked for a delay in the trial so they could research Lass’ background for anything that might raise questions about her credibility, state District Judge Bob Perkins reset the trial until this morning.
When Gobert’s lawyers returned before the jury entered court this morning they said they had no luck getting information on Lass from the Chattanooga Police Department, where Lass worked for 5 years before moving to Austin in 2008.
When the jury entered, the questioning of Lass was brief and did little to discredit her testimony. Kent Anschutz, one of Gobert’s lawyers, asked Lass about her life history. Lass said that she once went to a bible college in New York and has traveled extensively, including to Romania, where she worked with street kids, and Sri Lanka.
Anschutz asked her if it was challenging traveling internationally as a single woman.
“I never looked at it as a challenge,” Lass said. “It was always interesting.”
During the guilt/innocence phase of the trial, Gobert’s lawyers were the first ones to call Lass to testify. She testified then that inmates have little privacy from their cellmates.
During the punishment phase Lass was called by prosecutors and disclosed an ongoing personal relationship with Gobert, during which the two would speak almost daily on the phone after her shift was over. After testifying that she smuggled a phone in to jail to give to Gobert so their conversations would not be recorded, she was fired, arrested and charged with bringing a prohibited item into a correctional facility, a felony.
During his questioning Wednesday, Anschutz noted that Lass made no mention of a personal relationship with Gobert during conversations to prepare for that testimony.
While the jury was on a break, prosecutor Gary Cobb showed the defense information that he said showed that Lass left the Chattanooga Police Department on good terms, received a strong letter of recommendation and was not under investigation. Lass had testified that her peers once voted her officer of the year.
While Gobert’s lawyers were looking over those documents with prosecutors, Gobert made a comment about Lass potentially striking a plea bargain because of her testimony.
Prosecutor Allison Wetzel looked at him and said: “You have bigger problems.”
Permalink | Comments (52) | Categories: Death penalty cases
March 9, 2010
Jail security under review after Gobert trial disclosures
The Travis County sheriff’s office is conducting a review of its jail security after recent court testimony disclosed that former jailer Tasha Lass had given now convicted killer Milton Dwayne Gobert a cell phone to use behind bars and discussed with him an elaborate escape plan.
That plan, Lass testified Monday, called for her to smuggle a gun into jail that Gobert would use to shoot a corrections officer who worked the night shift in his cell block. Gobert knew where the officer regularly parked — from his cell window he could see the officer park in the garage across the street from the jail — and planned to steal the officer’s truck, Lass said.
Lass was one of two jail officers who had a personal relationship with Gobert, a violation of sheriff’s office policy, according to testimony.
Gobert was convicted of capital murder last week in the October 2003 stabbing death of Mel Kernena Cotton, his ex-girlfriend’s friend, in North Austin. He faces the death penalty. The sentencing phase of his trial continues tomorrow.
Officials had known about the personal relationships prior to Gobert’s trial and sheriff’s office spokesman Roger Wade said they are already planning to update training for corrections officers on “inmate con games.”
Wade, who has said that all jail officers are searched for contraband while coming into jail, said reviews of other security matters are ongoing. Wade said Sheriff Greg Hamilton is very involved in the investigation.
“As with any critical incident or major incident, one of the things that we look at is how we do the job and how we can keep that incident from happening again,” Wade said. “I am willing to bet things are going to change once the investigation is complete.”
He said any changes being considered would likely not be disclosed when implemented because doing so could compromise security.
Read more about Lass testimony about Gobert’s escape plans here.
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Gobert trial delayed so defense can research jailer
State District Judge Bob Perkins today delayed the sentencing phase of Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial for a day to give Gobert’s lawyers time to look into the background of a former jail guard who testified Monday that Gobert had shared with her an elaborate escape plan.
“This is no minor thing,” said Leonard Martinez, one of Gobert’s defense lawyers, in arguing for a delay in the case. “It sounded like a conspiracy to commit capital murder.”
Tasha Lass, who until last week was a corrections officer at the jail, testified Monday that Gobert’s plan called for her to smuggle a gun into jail and for Gobert to use it to kill another officer and then steal his uniform and truck during a late-night jailbreak. She said she refused to participate.
Martinez said he wanted time to look into Lass’ background for a chance to discredit her on cross examination.
During testimony last week, Lass said that she has had an improper personal relationship with Gobert since earlier this year that involved them talking on the phone after her shift almost every day. That’s a violation of jail policy prohibiting personal relationships between jailer and inmates, officials said.
Lass also testified that she brought Gobert a cell phone to use in jail so their calls would not be recorded, a violation of state law. She has been charged with bringing a prohibited item into a correctional facility — a felony — and is free on personal bond.
Gobert’s lawyers did not question Lass after her direct testimony on the escape plan Monday. She had been told to return today at 9 a.m., but before court began Gobert’s lawyers said they needed more time to look into the background. Lass has testified that before joining the sheriff’s office in June 2009 she was a Chattanooga, Tenn., police officer for five years and prior to that, a missionary in several foreign countries.
The jury will decide at the end of the punishment phase, which is almost completed, whether Gobert gets the death penalty or a life sentence.
“This revelation,” Martinez argued, “could make the difference between this man living and dying.”
Martinez asked for several days to look into Lass’ background. Perkins gave him one.
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March 8, 2010
Former jail officer: Gobert has plan to shoot jailer, escape
The former Travis County jailer who testified last week that she smuggled a cell phone to Milton Dwayne Gobert while he was in jail took the stand again today and told the jury that Gobert has a plan to escape.
Tasha Lass said that Gobert’s detailed plan includes shooting an officer, stealing the officer’s uniform and car and hiding out in a storage unit.
Lass testified last week that the two had a forbidden personal relationship that was flirtatious at times while she was working as a corrections officer. Lass also said that she had smuggled Gobert a cell phone in jail, testimony that led to her arrest and firing from the sheriff’s office.
Lass, who faces a third-degree felony charge for bringing the phone into jail, is free on a personal recognizance bond.
She said that she approached her lawyer about Gobert’s plans last weekend and her lawyer in turn told prosecutors.
Under direct questioning from prosecutor Gary Cobb today, Lass said she came forward with the information on Gobert’s escape plan to clear her conscience. She said that she regretted giving Gobert the cell phone almost immediately after handing it over and feared she had put her co-workers’ lives in danger.
Lass, a former police officer in Chattanooga, Tenn., and missionary, said before her testimony last week she had spoken to Gobert by phone almost every day since the end of February. She said the conversations made her feel needed.
She said that Gobert’s escape plan called for her to bring him a gun with a silencer and to help get him out of the jail the night of the escape, help that she said she repeatedly refused to give. She said that Gobert repeatedly asked for her help with the escape.
Gobert faces a possible death sentence for the 2003 killing of his ex-girlfriend’s friend, Mel Kernena Cotton. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed as well as choked in the attack, but he survived.
Related story: When killer was 5, mother thought he had demons in him
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When killer was 5, mother thought he had demons in him
When Milton Dwayne Gobert was a young boy, the now convicted killer threatened to kill a cousin, told his grandmother to jump out a window and said such nasty things that his mother thought he was possessed, according to court testimony.
“I thought demons had gotten into my child,” his mother, Alice Gobert, told a jury this morning.
Her testimony came during the fourth and likely final day the jury will hear from witnesses in Gobert’s capital murder trial. Gobert was convicted of capital murder last week, and the jury is expected to begin deliberating tomorrow whether he should receive the death penalty.
Lawyers for Gobert called three of his family members to testify about his childhood.
Alice Gobert testified that when her son was very young he could not go to day care because he was so hyper and threw temper tantrums. She said that when he was 5 he was hit by a vehicle while riding on a small “big wheel” near the family’s home in Abilene and spent a month in the hospital. He was also in a cast from the waist down, she said.
During his recovery he grew particularly nasty, according to his mother and a cousin, Belinda Shavers, who helped cared for him at the time.
“He would call me a (expletive),” Shavers said. “He would say ‘(expletive) you. I will kill you. Things like that.’”
Gobert’s brother and mother said that as Gobert grew older he got into many fights, including some with family members.
He smashed his brother Michael Gobert with a trophy so hard once that Michael Gobert needed stitches, his famly members said. His mother needed stitches after Milton Gobert beat her with a broom when he was 15. He lashed out at teachers, football teammates and others.
Gobert went into the custody of the juvenile system in his native Abilene for the earlier incidents several times, his mother said, but eventually returned no better than before.
“It was always bringing him back to me,” Alice Gobert said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
She said that after Gobert was arrested for robbery and got probation when he was 19, he cut her with a knife in a confrontation.
Gobert had asked his mother to lie about that confrontation in preparation for his trial in Travis County, she said.
She said she told her son that she would not do that.
Gobert, 37, faces life in prison or death in the October 2003 stabbing death of Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, in her North Austin apartment. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed and choked in the attack but survived.
Related story: Gobert has plan to shoot jailer, escape, former jail officer testifies
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March 5, 2010
Jailer has been fired for giving cell phone to murderer
UPDATE 4:46 PM
Former Travis County corrections officer Tasha Lass, who testified she gave a cell phone to now convicted killer Milton Dwayne Gobert in jail, has been released from jail. Lass was released today on a personal recognizance bond signed by Judge Bob Perkins.
EARLIER TODAY
The Travis County corrections officer who testified that she gave convicted killer Milton Dwayne Gobert a cell phone in his jail cell has been fired from the office and remained in jail this morning on a third-degree felony charge of bringing prohibited items into a correctional institutions, according to an arrest affidavit and jail records.
Bail for Tasha Lass, at right, is set at $50,000. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
During the punishment phase of Gobert’s trial Thursday, at which he faces a possible death sentence, Lass testified that she has had an ongoing improper personal relationship with Gobert. She also testified that she had given Gobert a cell phone to use from jail so the two could talk without having their conversations recorded.
The arrest affidavit, released today, said that after Lass’ statement in court about the cell phone, the jail was locked down and Gobert’s cell was searched. A jail sergeant told the jury today that a cell phone and charger were located inside a bag of cheese puffs.
Lass later told a major crimes investigator that she had recently been the subject of an internal affairs investigation, the affidavit said.
Lass, 36, said “she believes it was about three weeks ago” that she brought the phone to Gobert, the affidavit said.
Lass testified in court that she had brought the phone after Gobert’s trial started, which was Feb. 22.
Gobert, 37, was convicted Tuesday of capital murder in the Oct. 6, 2003, stabbing death of Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, at her North Austin apartment. Cotton’s 5-year-old son was stabbed and choked in the attack but survived.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating whether Gobert deserves the death penalty sometime early next week.
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Judge: Call from jail to juror unrelated to Gobert case
The phone call that a juror in the Milton Dwayne Gobert capital murder trial received from the Travis County Jail on Thursday was apparently unrelated to the case, state District Judge Bob Perkins said today.
While the juror was in the shower getting ready for court Thursday, he received a call, according to members of Perkins’ staff who spoke to the juror. His answering machine picked up and recorded a notification that accompanies jail phone calls informing the receiver that he has received a call from the jail.
Perkins assigned investigators to look into the matter.
Perkins said this afternoon, before the jury entered court, that investigators determined the call was likely made by an inmate who dialed incorrectly. The juror’s number was close to a number dialed regularly by the inmate, Perkins said.
“He apparently misdialed it,” Perkins said.
Gobert, 37, was convicted Tuesday of capital murder in the 2003 stabbing death of Mel Kernena Cotton, his ex-girlfriend’s friend. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed in the attack but survived.
The jury next week will decide whether Gobert gets life in prison or the death penalty.
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March 4, 2010
Jailer faces criminal inquiry for giving phone to confined murder defendant
UPDATE 5:33 P.M.
Tasha Lass, the Travis County corrections officer who testified today that she gave a cell phone to a capital murder defendant last week, has been arrested and booked into the county jail on a third-degree felony charge, according to a jail Web site. The site does not state the charge and a jail spokesman said he did not have further information. Lass’ bail was set at $50,000.
UPDATE 4:40 P.M.
A Travis County sheriff’s office spokesman said that a criminal investigation has begun into a corrections officer who testified this morning that she gave a cell phone to Milton Dwayne Gobert, who was convicted Tuesday of capital murder.
Tasha Lass testified today that while working at the Travis County Jail, she began regular phone conversations with Gobert that she described as flirtatious. Lass said after Gobert’s trial began last week, she gave Gobert a cell phone so the two could speak without the calls being recorded by authorities.
Roger Wade, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said that Lass has been put on administrative duty and will not have contact with inmates until an investigation into her actions can be completed. Wade said she is being investigated for bringing contraband into a jail, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Lass’s revelation that she had provided Gobert a cell phone was apparently news to authorities.
Prosecutor Gary Cobb said during a break in testimony today that after Lass’ finished testifying today, sheriff’s officials found the cell phone inside a bag of chips in Gobert’s cell.
Prosecutor Allison Wetzel said during the break that Gobert’s separate romantic relationships with Lass and another corrections officer are relevant to the sentencing phase of the trial, at the end of which the jury will choose between life in prison and the death penalty.
The information shows that Gobert is dangerous, Wetzel said. Wetzel said that she is worried that Gobert could manipulate prison guards in the future and have them do things for him that would allow him to injure or kill someone else.
“The fact that there’s a pattern of him doing this makes him a security risk,” Wetzel said.
Defense lawyer Leonard Martinez suggested that the testimony about the women falling for Gobert show that he has some redeeming qualities.
“At least two women think he’s a good guy,” Martinez said.
UPDATE 11:30 A.M.
A Travis County Jail officer testified this morning that she gave Milton Dwayne Gobert a cell phone for him to use from jail during his capital murder trial, which began last week.
Tasha Lass, who has been suspended from the sheriff’s office, is one of two female corrections officers at the county jail who had separate relationships with Gobert since he was arrested for capital murder in 2003, according to testimony.
Gobert, 37, was convicted Tuesday of capital murder in the October 2003 fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend’s friend Mel Kernena Cotton at her North Austin apartment. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was stabbed and choked in the attack but survived, according to testimony.
Gobert could receive the death penalty.
One of the jail officers, Patricia Wieczorek, resigned in 2007 after confronted with questions about a relationship with Gobert, said Capt. Lisa Brown, a jail supervisor.
Brown said that Wieczorek had allowed Gobert out of his cell to help clean the jail even though as a maximum-security inmate he should not have been allowed that privilege. She also said Wieczorek had numerous personal phone conversations, some of them romantic, with Gobert, a violation of jail policy.
After Wieczorek resigned, she continued to visit Gobert, who according to testimony has a pattern of physically abusing women. Wieczoerk visited Gobert 17 times from May through November 20007, Brown testified.
Brown said relationships between inmates and officers are strictly prohibited.
Lass testified that she had become very close to Gobert during her time at the jail. She said at one point she bought a disposable cell phone for Gobert to call her so that the call could not be linked to her. She did not say when the relationship began.
During their conversations, Gobert repeatedly told Lass that he loved her, Lass said.
Lass testified that she and Gobert talked mostly about his case. During one phone call, which was recorded and played in court for jurors, Gobert talked about preparations for his trial and at one point said: “You feel me?”
Lass responded: “I wish I could feel you.”
Lass testified that earlier in the trial, which began February 22, she gave Gobert a cell phone to use from jail so the calls would not be recorded by the jail.
Prosecutor Allison Wetzel said outside court that Lass’ relationship was only recently discovered. Sheriff’s office Captain Bennie Cureton said that the office is investigating Lass’s conduct and that this morning Lass was placed on administrative suspension.
During the guilt/innocence phase of the trial, Lass was called by Gobert’s defense to testify about the jail environment. She said at the time that she was a corrections officer and made no mention of a relationship with Gobert.
During that testimony, Lass said that inmates who share cells have access to each other’s belongings and legal papers. The testimony was apparently meant to show that one of Gobert’s former cell mates could have learned about his case through court documents and not through what the inmate claimed was Gobert’s bragging about the killing.
EARLIER TODAY
The start of testimony in Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial was briefly delayed this morning after state District Judge Bob Perkins asked sheriff’s officials to look into a call received this morning by one of the jurors in the case.
A juror received a call while he was in the shower at about 7:15 a.m., Perkins’ bailiff and court coordinator told him while he was on the bench this morning. A message on the voice message said the call was from an inmate at the Travis County Jail, the judge’s bailiff said.
After the juror notified court officials about the call, Perkins’ court coordinator Lisa Eufracio learned that the person whose name was on the juror’s voice message is not an inmate at the jail.
Perkins said the number that the call came from is a cell phone number.
“I am surprised that a juror’s number or something, they would have that,” Perkins said before halting court to ask the sheriff’s office to look into the matter.
Kent Anschutz, one of Gobert’s lawyers, suggested that the caller could have been one of the juror’s relatives.
Perkins did not ask Gobert whether he had anything to do with the call. While the investigators looked into the call, Perkins began hearing testimony in the case at about 9:45 a.m.
Gobert, who faces the death penalty, was convicted Tuesday of capital murder in the October 2003 fatal stabbing of Velocity Credit Union teller and single mother Mel Kernena Cotton, 30. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was choked and stabbed in the attack, according to testimony.
The jury is expected to continue hearing punishment evidence through this week and begin deliberating Gobert’s sentence by early next week.
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March 3, 2010
Gobert's criminal past revealed during punishment phase
The punishment phase of Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial began this morning with prosecutor Allison Wetzel telling the jury that Gobert deserves the death penalty.
“During the guilty/innocence phase, the focus is on the crime,” Wetzel said. “The focus is now on the criminal.”
For the first time, Wetzel told the jury about Gobert’s criminal history, including that he had spent about nine years in prison for burglary and robbery before he fatally stabbed Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, in her North Austin apartment in October 2003. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed in the attack but survived and testified last week. Gobert was convicted of capital murder Tuesday.
Wetzel also told the jury that Gobert’s ex-girlfriend, Christina Pocharasang, had accused Gobert of brutally beating her in the month before the attack on Cotton.
The jury had previously learned that Pocharasang, aided by Cotton, had moved out of an apartment that she had shared with Gobert in September 2003.
Prosecutors said that Gobert, at right, was furious about that move and believed that some of his things had been taken. That is what prompted Gobert’s vicious attack on Cotton, prosecutors said.
Pocharasang will testify that Gobert’s physical abuse prompted that move, Wetzel said.
Wetzel also told the jury that Gobert has been a problem inmate and a security risk at the Travis County Jail, where he has been housed since his arrest shortly after Cotton’s murder. She said there have been violent incidents at the jail.
If the jury determines that there is a threat that Gobert would commit continuing acts of violence and that there are no mitigating factors to warrant a life sentence, then Gobert will receive the death penalty.
Gobert’s lawyers did not make an opening statement today.
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March 2, 2010
Gobert guilty of capital murder in 2003 stabbing death
UPDATE 5:34 PM
A Travis County jury has found Milton Dwayne Gobert guilty of capital murder in the 2003 death of Mel Kernena Cotton, who was stabbed or cut 107 times in an attack at her North Austin apartment.
Gobert faces the death penalty or life in prison at the sentencing phase, which state District Judge Bob Perkins set to begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
The punishment phase of the trial will not conclude until next week, Perkins said.
During the punishment phase, jurors will learn more about Gobert’s background. Prosecutors are expected to offer evidence of his criminal history - he has been convicted of numerous crimes including robbery and burglary. In the year before his arrest for murder, he had been accused of abusing two different women. The jury will likely hear evidence of those accusations.
For the defense, the goal is humanizing Gobert. Leonard Martinez, one of Gobert’s lawyers, said he will call Gobert’s family members to talk about how family is important to him. Martinez also said he would present evidence of a brain injury Gobert suffered when he was five. Family members have said that Gobert angered quickly after suffering that injury, when he was hit by a car.
At the close of the punishment phase, the jury will answer two questions: Whether Gobert is a continuing threat to society and if there are any mitigating evidence to warrant a sentence of life in prison instead of prison.
If the answers are “yes” and “no,” Gobert will receive the death penalty.
UPDATE 2:09 PM
During closing arguments in Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial Tuesday, a prosecutor called Gobert a coward for leaving a then 5-year-old boy for dead after killing his mother in a North Austin apartment in 2003.
“This child… by the grace of God at 11 years old was able to come into this courtroom and tell us what happened,” prosecutor Allison Wetzel said. “He had the courage to come in here and sit just a few feet from the man who took his mother away in the most vile, brutal disgusting way possible.”
Wetzel told the jury to reject Gobert’s claims of self defense and convict him of capital murder in the Oct. 6, 2003, death of Mel Kernena Cotton, 30.
The jury walked out of state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court to begin deliberating in the case at about 1:41 p.m.
If they find him guilty Gobert could receive the death penalty.
Gobert claims he acted in self-defense in killing Cotton and that her son was stabbed accidentally during a struggle at Cotton’s North Interstate 35 apartment.
During closing arguments, defense lawyer Leonard Martinez said that Gobert may be guilty of murder but is not guilty of capital murder. Murder is punishable by a maximum of life in prison.
Gobert is charged with committing capital murder by intentionally killing Cotton in the course of committing kidnapping or attempted kidnapping of Cotton and her son and in the course of robbing or attempting to rob Cotton.
“The evidence far more supports a domestic violence situation gone way bad,” defense lawyer Kent Anschutz said, “than the offense of capital murder with the intent to rob or kidnap.”
In calls to his family from jail, Gobert said that he tied Cotton with a phone cord and binded her with duct tape, but Anschutz said that there were no ligature marks to show she was restrained.
Martinez said a capital murder conviction requires that murder was done to facilitate robbery or kidnapping. “He may very well be guilty of murder, maybe,” Martinez said.
EARLIER TODAY
Closing arguments are expected this morning in the capital murder trial of Milton Dwayne Gobert, who is accused of killing a North Austin woman by stabbing and cutting her 107 times.
Gobert could face the death penalty if convicted by a Travis County jury of killing Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, who was found dead Oct. 6, 2003, in her apartment on Interstate 35 at U.S. 183. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was stabbed four times and choked that day, according to testimony.
Prosecutors say Gobert killed Cotton because she had helped his ex-girlfriend move out of Gobert’s apartment. Gobert said that some of his things disappeared during that move.
Gobert told his family in calls he made from jail and played in court that Cotton drew a knife on him first and that he killed Cotton after wresting the weapon from her and becoming fearful that she would retrieve a gun to shoot him. No gun was found in the apartment.
Gobert said Cotton was jealous because he would not fully commit to a relationship with her. Gobert said the boy was stabbed accidentally during the melee.
The indictment against Gobert charges him with intentionally killing Cotton in the course of committing several felonies: attempted kidnapping or kidnapping of Cotton; attempted kidnapping or kidnapping of her son; and robbery of Cotton.
Gobert’s lawyers are expected to argue that even if he is guilty of intentionally killing Cotton, he did not do it in the course of committing one of the other felonies and therefore it is not capital murder. If the jury finds that, they may not sentence him to the death penalty.
Prosecutors contend that Gobert used tape and a phone cord to bind and restrain his victims, which is kidnapping. They also have said he is guilty of robbery because he left the apartment with several of Cotton’s belongings, including a purse.
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March 1, 2010
Expert: Many stab wounds came while woman was not moving
UPDATE 12:11 PM
A crime scene expert told a Travis County jury today that Mel Kernena Cotton had likely moved around her bedroom while she was being attacked the day she was fatally stabbed there in 2003 but likely had stopped moving when she received more than 30 stab wounds to her left chest area.
Prosecutors on Monday called Tom Bevel, a forensics consultant from Norman, Okla., as the final witness in Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial. Closing arguments in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court are scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Gobert (pictured at right) could receive the death penalty if convicted of capital murder in the death of Cotton, who suffered 107 stabbing and cutting wounds when she was killed Oct. 6, 2003. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son, Demetrius, was also stabbed and choked that day.
Gobert told his family in a series of recorded jail phone calls that Cotton confronted him with a knife after he went to Cotton’s apartment that night to continue a romantic relationship with her. He said that he stabbed her after gaining control of the knife and binding her with duct tape because he was afraid that she had a gun and would use it on him. Gobert said the boy was stabbed by his mother during the fracas.
Bevel said that Demetrius’ wounds were not consistent with someone who was accidentally stabbed. He said that the four wounds were in the same small spot on Demetrius’ chest, proof that the boy was not moving when he was stabbed.
Demetrius testified during the trial that he passed out after the man who attacked his mother had choked him and that he woke up to find a hole in his chest.
Bevel said there is evidence on the door of Cotton’s bedroom that she touched the door at one point and coughed blood on it.
He said the cluster of 38 stabbing and cutting wounds on Cotton’s upper left chest area show that she was “not moving or was restrained” when those wounds were inflicted. He also said the dozens of stab wound son her back were likely inflicted while she was still, or moving slowly.
Bevel also said that two small wounds on Gobert’s hands likely were caused when the knife slipped, perhaps because it became so bloody and had struck bone, while he attacked Cotton.
EARLIER TODAY
Milton Dwayne Gobert’s lawyers today called the second of two witnesses in his defense before resting during Gobert’s Travis County capital murder trial.
Gobert’s first witness was his brother, Michael Gobert, who testified Friday that Gobert had returned from Atlanta several days before the Oct. 6, 2003, killing of Mel Kernena Cotton at her North Austin apartment. Gobert had visited a woman in Atlanta, his brother said.
The value of that testimony was unclear.
Gobert’s second witness, who testified today, was a Travis County Jail corrections officer who said that inmates at the jail who share cells have no way of keeping their things safe from their cellmates.
The corrections officer testimony could have been offered to show that a former cellmate of Gobert’s — who testified that Gobert bragged about the stabbing — could have learned about Gobert’s case by accessing Gobert’s legal files. Gobert’s lawyers suggested that that former cellmate had made up the story about Gobert bragging to gain a favorable plea bargain in his own case.
Gobert, 37, is accused of killing Cotton, 30, by stabbing and cutting her more than 107 times in her apartment on Interstate 35 near U.S. 183. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son, Demetrius Cotton, was stabbed four times and choked in the attack but survived, according to testimony.
Gobert’s defense attorneys did not call Gobert to testify despite saying before the trial that they would. Leonard Martinez, one of Gobert’s defense lawyers, said on Friday that the jury heard Gobert’s side of the story in recorded phone calls he made to his family member after his arrest.
In those phone calls Gobert said that Cotton drew the knife first that night and that the boy was stabbed by Cotton while the two struggled over the knife. Gobert said he stabbed Cotton once he gained control of the knife because he was fearful that Cotton would get a gun and shoot him.
No gun was found in the apartment.
On cross-examination by prosecutor Gary Cobb, Gobert’s brother Michael said that Milton Gobert had asked his family members to lie to help his case. The nature of those requested lies was not revealed.
Prosecutors are expected to call several rebuttal witnesses today.
Closing arguments in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court are expected tomorrow.
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February 26, 2010
In jail calls, Gobert said he tended to boy, was attacked out of jealousy
Milton Dwayne Gobert told his brother during a phone call from jail in 2005 that he thinks about the boy injured the day he killed the boy’s mother in 2003 but he does so “with dry eyes.”
“I feel … for him because he’s without his mother, but I do it with dry eyes because … if I was gone, I’d say, I’d look at my family,” Gobert said.
The phone call came during a series of recorded phone conversations that prosecutors played for the jury in Gobert’s capital murder case. They played three on Thursday and an additional six calls this morning before resting their case.
Defense lawyers will begin calling witnesses this afternoon and continue Monday. Closing arguments in the case will likely take place Tuesday, state District Judge Bob Perkins said.
In an interview outside court, defense lawyer Leonard Martinez said he no longer planned to call Gobert as a witness in his own defense. Martinez said that the calls sufficiently explain Gobert’s account of that night.
Gobert is accused of capital murder in the Oct. 6, 2003, killing of Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, at her apartment on Interstate 35 near U.S. 183 in North Austin. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son Demetrius was also stabbed and choked that day, according to testimony.
Gobert could receive the death penalty if convicted.
The first phone call, in which Gobert claims that he acted in self-defense that night, took place about four months after Cotton’s death. The final call played occurred Nov. 6, 2005.
During the calls, Gobert gives a series of often difficult to understand explanations to his brothers and his mother about some of the things that happened that night. He said he acted after Cotton had attacked him with a knife, apparently jealous that he had planned to move in with another woman and not her.
Prosecutors have said that Gobert was angry at Cotton for helping Gobert’s ex-girlfriend move out of his apartment, a move during which he claims some of his things were taken.
In his first calls, Gobert said that Cotton drew a knife on him and while they fought over it, the boy was stabbed. He said that he tried to wrap Cotton in tape to get away but that she broke free of it. He also said he ordered her to put tape on the boy.
He said he did not leave after gaining control of the knife because he was afraid that either Cotton or the boy would go for a gun that he believed she had.
In later phone calls, Gobert added details to his account and attacked some of the evidence in the case.
He had learned, for example, that the boy told police that Gobert had smashed his mother’s cell phone and that the boy said he had been choked.
In an April 2004 call to his brother Michael, Gobert said there would be pieces of the cell phone in the bathroom if he had smashed it.
He also gave this account of the struggle: “When she was on top of me, he (the boy) was grabbing my eyes … I grabbed him by his neck and push him back and then he’ll come up again and she was still there on top. She was on top of me trying to stab me.”
In a Jan. 21, 2005, call to his brother Michael, Gobert said he was not guilty of capital murder because he did not commit kidnapping or robbery in the course of intentional murder, as he is charged.
Kidnapping is if “somebody restricts or prevents your liberation,” he said. “My liberation was prevented.”
He added: “I ain’t had to do no robbery from her. If I needed money from her all I had to do was ask.”
He also said during that call that he had just gotten out of the shower and was naked when Cotton first attacked him with a knife.
In a July 14, 2005, conversation with his brother Michael, Gobert said: “I was making sure that she wasn’t gonna hurt me.”
“A person don’t know what they’ll actually do when fear is involved, and you know behind this woman’s anger is really a bit of jealousy.”
In an Oct. 15, 2005, conversation, Michael Gobert told his brother that the “D.A.’s case is very strong.”
“The child was injured and you didn’t try to get him help,” Michael Gobert said.
Dwayne Gobert denied that he didn’t get help fort the boy. He said after the boy was stabbed and his mother was dead he “tended to” the boy, giving him a pain killer.
He said he waited outside because he knew his aunt would be coming to the apartment.
“If I was so cold-blooded and heartless, then why didn’t I take him out, too?”
Gobert told his brother that the killing happened in passion and was “not a cold-blooded act.” He said that prosecutors would use evidence of the boy’s injury to inflame the jury. He called it “a sympathy plea that has no connection to the crime itself.”
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February 25, 2010
Judge refuses Gobert's request for more comfortable leg brace
UPDATE 4:16 PM
Capital murder defendant Milton Dwayne Gobert complained this afternoon that a leg brace he’s wearing during the trial to keep him from running makes him uncomfortable.
Gobert raised the complaint during a break in testimony, shortly after medical examiner Elizabeth Peacock told the jury that Mel Cotton, whom Gobet is accused of killing, had suffered 107 stabbing and cutting wounds.
While the jury was out of the room, Gobert spoke directly to Judge Bob Perkins about the leg brace that goes up his left leg and is designed to lock if he tries to run to limit his ability to move.
“I am here all day and my leg goes to sleep,” he said.
Gobert is wearing the leg brace, which goes up past his knee on one leg, under a pair of black pants. During jury trials, sheriff’s officers use the braces instead of chains that hold inmates legs together so defendants are not unfairly prejudiced by appearing to be in custody. Gobert said earlier in the trial he was wearing an anklet that was more comfortable.
That anklet, a sheriff’s security officer told Perkins, is designed to shock an inmate if they try to run, similar to a Taser. It was being used on a test basis and is not readily available, he said.
While Gobert spoke with judge, Cotton’s niece, Sparkle Smith, shook her head side to side while sitting in the front row of the courtroom gallery.
Perkins refused to alter Gobert’s leg brace.
UPDATE 3:58 PM
Former Travis County deputy medical examiner Elizabeth Peacock told a jury today that Mel Kernena Cotton suffered 107 stabbing and cutting wounds in the October 2003 attack that killed her.
Peacock, who now works in San Antonio, said that Cotton had stabbing and cutting wounds on her ear, head, chin, chest, arms and elsewhere. She had 38 on her left upper chest, Peacock said.
Penetrating wounds to her aorta and jugular vein would have been fatal, Peacock said.
Follow live trial updates on Twitter here.
EARLIER TODAY
Milton Dwayne Gobert’s former cellmate told a Travis County jury today that last year Gobert bragged to him about killing a woman and injuring her child with a knife.
“He was telling me he was locked up for murder and he started bragging to me how he repeatedly stabbed his girlfriend,” said Homero Miguel Carrillo, “and how he’s manipulating the system and how he stabbed a little boy.”
Under questioning by prosecutor Gary Cobb, Carrillo, 28, also said that Gobert told him that he had wrapped up the woman with an extension cord and stabbed her repeatedly and that he eventually threw the knife in a lake.
Gobert, 37, is on trial for capital murder in the Oct. 6, 2003, death of 30-year-old Mel Kernena Cotton at her apartment on Interstate 35 in Northeast Austin. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed in the attack, but recovered from his injuries.
If Gobert, 37, is convicted, he could receive the death penalty.
Kent Anschutz, one of Gobert’s defense lawyers, suggested in questioning that Carrillo and Gobert never got along because Gobert had accused Carrillo of not being hygienic and because Gobert had not shared his jail commissary. Carrillo denied those assertions.
Anschutz also cast doubt on Carrillo’s reasons for coming forth with the story.
Anschutz noted that Carrillo had previously been to prison on convictions for sexual assault of a child and unlawful possession of a firearm. When he was in the cell with Gobert, Carillo had faced from 25 years to life on an aggravated assault charge, Anschutz said. After Carrillo told authorities about Gobert’s statements, he reached a plea bargain with prosecutors under which he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge, he said.
The sentence Carrillo received for that crime was a year in jail, a year he had already served, Carrillo said.
Carrillo did not respond to a subpoena to testify earlier in the week so he was arrested Wednesday and jailed, according to testimony. He was in custody when testifying but after his testimony state District Judge Bob Perkins ordered he be released.
Prosecutors have said that Gobert was angry at Cotton for helping his ex-girlfriend move out of an apartment that Gobert and his ex had shared in Austin. Gobert, according to testimony, thought some of his things were taken during the move, which happened without his knowledge while he was at work.
Gobert’s lawyers have said that he killed Cotton only after she first drew the knife on him. Gobert, his lawyers said, stabbed the boy accidentally when he tried to enter the fracas.
They said that Gobert went to Cotton’s apartment that night to continue what Gobert has described as an intimate relationship between the two.
Follow live trial updates on Twitter here.
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February 24, 2010
Boy, 11, who was stabbed by man who killed his mother, testifies
An 11-year-old boy who was stabbed in an attack that left his mother dead in 2003 took the stand today in the trial of Milton Dwayne Gobert, who is on trial for capital murder.
Demetrius Cotton spoke with a soft voice from the witness stand in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court while 30 people in the courtroom gallery looked on. The microphone on the witness stand came to his forehead until it was adjusted by prosecutor Allison Wetzel.
Gobert, 37, is accused of killing Demetrius’ mother, Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, on Oct. 6, 2003 in her North Austin apartment. He could receive the death penalty if convicted.
Gobert’s lawyers have said that he killed Cotton only after she drew a knife on him. Gobert, his lawyers said, stabbed the boy accidentally when he tried to enter the fracas. They said that Gobert went to the apartment that night to continue what they described as an intimate relationship between the two.
Prosecutors have said that Gobert was angry at Cotton for helping his ex-girlfriend move out of an apartment that Gobert and his ex had once shared in Austin. Gobert, according to testimony, thought some of his things were taken during the move, which happened without his knowledge while he was at work.
While Demetrius testified in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court, Gobert was seated about 50 feet away at a table next to his two lawyers.
In testimony that lasted about an hour, Demetrius told the jury that he did not know the man who killed his mother. He said the man had a black duffle bag and had demanded money from his mother.
It started, Demetrius said, when he awoke that night in 2003, when he was 5, to the screams of his mother coming from her bedroom.
He got up and found a man who he described as “tall and bald and buff” standing over her, stabbing her with a knife, he said.
His mother had duct tape on her mouth; the man was wearing gloves, Demetrius said under questioning by Wetzel.
“I went over there and tried to pull him down by his leg,” Demetrius said.
The man put duct tape on Demetrius’ mouth and legs, cutting the tape with the knife, Demetrius said.
Then the man pushed him out of the room and locked the door. The screaming continued inside.
Demetrius returned to his room and fell asleep, he said. He awoke when the man came in, got on top of him and choked him with two hands, Demetrius said.
He passed out.
When he woke up Demetrius was bleeding from a hole in his chest and the man was gone, Demetrius said.
He went into his mother’s room and felt her neck, he said.
“When you felt her neck what did you feel,” Wetzel said.
“Nothing,” Demetrius said. “She was gone.”
The boy said he kneeled next to his mom for a while, holding her cold hand before going to find something to stop the blood that was flowing from his chest.
He got a washcloth from the bathroom, tried unsuccessfully to put a Band Aid on his chest and retrieved a Popsicle from the refrigerator before returning to his room and falling asleep again, Demetrius said.
He thought of calling for help but the man had cut the phone cord and smashed his mother’s cell phone, he said.
He awoke to his aunt’s knock at the door.
EARLIER TODAY
A pediatric ophthalmologist told a Travis County jury today that a then 5-year-old boy injured in a 2003 attack that left his mother dead had likely been choked.
The testimony came at the start of the third day of evidence in the capital murder trial of Milton Dwayne Gobert, 37, who could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Mel Kernena Cotton, 30. Gobert is also accused of stabbing Cotton’s son Demetrius that day.
The testimony of Dr. Hillary Onan of Round Rock, who treated the boy after the attack, bolstered the account given by him to police following the attack.
Demetrius Cotton could not identify the man who killed his mother but said he was bald with a mustache, which described Gobert at the time, prosecutors said. He also told police that the man demanded his mother’s purse before killing her and had choked him until he passed out, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors told the jury that Gobert was likely angry at Cotton for helping his ex-girlfriend move out of the apartment they had shared. Gobert believed that some of his things had been taken during that move, which happened while he was at work, according to testimony.
Gobert’s lawyers have painted a different picture of that day at Cotton’s apartment, on North Interstate 35 near U.S. 183. They said that Gobert went to the apartment to continue an intimate relationship that he and Cotton had at times shared. They said Gobert only attacked Cotton after she pulled a knife on him and said that the boy was injured during a fight for that knife.
The trial in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court is expected to last at least through the end of the week. Demetrius is expected to testify.
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February 23, 2010
Gobert left nasty voice mail messages prior to killing
Ten days before Milton Dwayne Gobert was accused of brutally murdering Mel Cotton in North Austin, Gobert left a series of vulgar and at times ominous voice mail messages for his ex-girlfriend, who was one of Cotton’s close friends.
In the voice messages left for Christina Pocharasang, which were played in court Tuesday during the second day of testimony in Gobert’s capital murder trial, Gobert complained that some of his belongings had been taken when Pocharasang had moved out.
“I know you gave them … my (expletive) before you left, (expletive),” Gobert said in one voicemail.
In another, Gobert said, “one day you are going to look up and you are going to see me. Bet that.”
In another, Gobert said, “You need to send my (expletive) back here…. No keep that (expletive). You keep that.”
Gobert, 37, could face the death penalty if convicted in the October 6, 2003, attack on Cotton at her Interstate 35 apartment. Cotton’s then 5-year-old son was also stabbed that day but has recovered.
Prosecutors told the jury during opening statements that Gobert killed Cotton because he was angry at her for helping Pocharasang move out of the apartment they shared.
Gobert’s lawyers told the jury that he went to Cotton’s apartment the morning of her death to sleep with her. They said Cotton first drew the knife on Gobert after she became angry at him at being unable to commit to a relationship with her.
Pocharasang testified Tuesday that she enlisted the help of Cotton that day. Cotton, she said, hired a man to help in loading a U-Haul truck with Pocharasang’s things while Gobert was at work, Pocharasang said.
Assistant District Attorney Allison Wetzel did not ask Pocharasang about her allegations, laid out in a police affidavit, that Gobert had abused Pocharasang that same month by squeezing her throat, striking her in the face, head and back with a closed fist, and biting her on her shoulder.
Pocharasang said that Gobert had threatened her after she moved out and accused her of stealing some of his things from the apartment, including a vacuum cleaner, a television and a computer.
“He said Nina (Cotton) had his vacuum cleaner,” Pocharasang said.
That vacuum was found in Cotton’s apartment when she was found dead, prosecutors said.
State District Judge Bob Perkins ended the trial early Tuesday, citing the inclement weather in Austin. The trial will continue Wednesday.
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Boy's injuries were no accident, doctor tells jury
A pediatric surgeon who treated a 5-year-old boy who was stabbed on the morning that his mother was killed in North Austin said the boy had lost 20 to 30 percent of his blood when he arrived at the hospital.
“There was nothing accidental about this,” said Michael Josephs, testifying about Demetrius Cotton-McCants’ injuries on the second day of testimony in Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial.
If convicted of capital murder in the 2003 death of Mel Kernena Cotton, 30, Gobert could receive the death penalty.
Gobert’s lawyer has said that the ex-con, now 37, had stabbed Cotton out of self defense and accidentally injured Demetrius while the two were fighting over the knife.
A neighbor testified he heard yelling and banging coming from Cotton’s apartment several hours before Cotton’s sister found Cotton and Demetrius at about 8 a.m. on October 6, 2003. Demetrius’ underwear and t-shirt were soaked with blood and he had suffered four stab wounds, according to testimony. Cotton was dead of about 100 stab wounds, a prosecutor said.
Josephs, who treated the boy at what was then called Brackenridge Hospital, said that Demetrius suffered a wound through his chest to his lung, what he called a “serious, life threatening injury.”
He said Demetrius showed a particularly strong reaction when Josephs tried to use scissors to remove his sutures. Josephs said that it was so bad that doctors took the rare step of putting Demetrius under anesthesia to remove the sutures.
After Joseph’s testimony, the jury in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court began viewing photographs of Cotton’s apartment, where the floors, walls and some of the contents were stained with blood.
Follow trial updates on Twitter here.
For a story on the trial from today’s Statesman.com click here.
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February 22, 2010
Prosecutor: Gobert wanted money, stabbed victim in the back
A single mother found dead in her North Austin apartment in 2003 was stabbed more than 100 times, prosecutor Gary Cobb told a Travis County jury this morning.
“About 30 of those times were in her back,” Cobb said at the start of Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial. “Over and over again, as she’s tied up unable to resist.”
If Gobert, 37, is convicted in the October 6, 2003, death of Mel Cotton, 30, he could receive the death penalty. Cotton’s then-5-year-old son also was stabbed that day but survived and will testify at the trial.
Cobb said that Gobert was angry with Cotton for helping his ex-girlfriend move out of the home they had shared and suggested he went to her apartment for retribution. Cobb said that in recorded phone calls Gobert revealed that he was angry because he believed some of his things had been taken when his ex-girlfriend moved out.
“More than anything else he wanted his (expletive),” Cobb said, quoting Gobert. “You know what his (expletive) turned out to be? A vacuum cleaner.
“A woman who was good Samaritan lost her life and a 5-year-old boy lost his mother over a vacuum cleaner.”
Cobb said that the boy told police that the man who killed his mother had a mustache, was bald and wore a striped shirt, all of those matching how Gobert looked that day. The boy also told police that the man who had attacked his mother told her, “I want your purse, where’s the money.”
Defense lawyer Leonard Martinez said that Gobert stabbed Cotton only after she tried to use the knife on him, angry that he had been unable to commit to her in a relationship.
Martinez said the two had known each other since high school.
Martinez said that the boy was stabbed accidentally during the fracas and that Gobert stabbed Cotton in the back while she crawled to the closet, where Gobert thought she had a gun.
“She is known to possess firearms,” he said.
Martinez said that he wrapped Cotton in a phone cord and in some duct tape in an aborted effort to dispose of her body.
Gobert is accused of killing Cotton in the course of committing or attempting to kidnap and rob her and in the course of committing or attempting to kidnap her son.
Martinez said that any other felonies that Gobert may have committed came after the killing and therefore he should not be found guilty of capital murder and should not face the death penalty.
The trial in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court is expected to take at least a week. For a longer story on the trial from today’s Statesman, click here.
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February 3, 2010
Jury seated in Gobert death penalty case
Lawyers finished selecting a jury today in the capital murder trial of Milton Dwayne Gobert, 37, who faces the death penalty if convicted in the October 2003 death of Mel Cotton in North Austin.
Twelve jurors and two alternates will hear evidence in the case— nine men and five women, according to prosecutor Allison Wetzel.
Opening statements remain scheduled for Feb. 22.
Cotton, a 30-year-old Velocity Credit Union teller, was fatally stabbed in her apartment near Interstate 35 and Rundberg Lane. The attacker also stabbed her then 5-year-old son, who recovered.
Cotton was a friend of Gobert’s ex-girlfriend.
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January 28, 2010
Judge says death row inmate Allen should be denied appeal
A judge in Travis County has recommended that the latest appeal of Texas death row inmate Guy Len Allen, convicted of a 2002 double murder in East Austin, be denied by the state’s highest criminal court.
Senior State District Judge Jon Wisser’s findings of facts and conclusions of law were filed January 5 and forwarded to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will make a final decision on Allen’s application for writ of habeas corpus.
Allen, 46, shown at right, was sentenced to death in 2004 after a Travis County jury convicted him of the April 3, 2002 killing of his girlfriend Barbara Hill and Hill’s daughter, 19-year-old Janette Johnson.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Allen fatally stabbed the women with a pocket knife after Hill tried to kick him out of her house in East Austin, near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard just east of U.S. 183,
In June 2006, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied Allen’s first appeal, known as a direct appeal. The United States Supreme Court declined to consider the case.
Two months before that decision came out, one of Allen’s appellate lawyers, Alexander Calhoun of Austin, had filed the application for writ of habeas corpus claiming Allen was illegally restrained and his sentence was illegally imposed for a variety of reasons, including that he was denied the effective assistance of trial.
On September 21, 2007, senior state District Judge Jon Wisser held a hearing on the appeal in Travis County. Allen’s trial lawyers, Berkley Bettis and Joe James Sawyer testified.
Wisser ruled that the lawyers acted appropriately in representing Allen and passed his findings that Allen’s appeal be denied on all grounds to the Court of Criminal Appeals. There is no time limit on when that court must rule.
Before an execution date is set, Allen may also take up his case in federal court.
Allen is one of six death row inmates from Travis County.
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January 25, 2010
Jury selection continues in potential death penalty case
The individual questioning of potential jurors in Milton Dwayne Gobert’s capital murder trial began this morning in state District Judge Bob Perkins’ court in Travis County.
Gobert, 37, faces a possible death sentence if convicted of capital murder in the October 2003 death of Mel Cotton, a 30-year-old mother and Velocity Credit Union teller.
Cotton was fatally stabbed in her apartment near Interstate 35 and Rundberg Lane. The attacker also stabbed her then 5-year-old son, who recovered.
Because Gobert could be sentenced to death, lawyers in the case along with Perkins will question potential jurors individually about their ability to serve on the case, including their views on the death penalty.
About 160 people were summoned to a group jury selection last week. All but 96 were eliminated before today for a variety of reasons, including that their views on the death penalty.
Starting today, as many as 10 prospective jurors per day will report to Perkins’ for questioning.
After the questioning, Perkins may eliminate potential jurors for legal reasons, such as if they say they can not be fair in the case. Prosecutors and defense lawyers may eliminate any jurors that remain for almost any reason by using one of their peremptory strikes.
Anyone that remains after that will become part of the jury of 14, which would include two alternates.
Opening statements are scheduled to begin February 22.
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January 19, 2010
Jury selection underway in Travis death penalty case
Beginning a jury selection process that will continue for weeks, 70 Travis County residents were seated in state District Court Judge Bob Perkins’ courtroom this morning to be considered as jurors in the capital murder trial of Milton Dwayne Gobert.
Gobert, 37, is accused of killing Mel Cotton of North Austin and stabbing her 5-year-old son in 2003. If convicted, Gobert would be sentenced to either life in prison or death.
An additional 80 prospective jurors have been summoned to appear in Perkins’ court at 2 p.m. today.
They will be questioned by Perkins, by Gobert’s lawyers Leonard Martinez and Kent Anschutz, and by prosecutors Gary Cobb and Allison Wetzel.
The questioning is aimed at eliminating those who could not give Gobert a fair trail, whether it is because of their views on the death penalty or whether they have read information about the case and have reached a conclusion on whether Gobert is guilty.
Starting next week, Perkins and the lawyers in the case will begin individually questioning jurors on similar topics. That process will continue with 10 people questioned a day until there are 12 jurors and two alternates chosen for the trial.
Opening statements are scheduled for Feb. 22. The guilt/innocence phase and, if needed, the punishment phase of the trial are expected to last about three weeks.
Cotton, a 30-year-old single mother and teller for Velocity Credit Union, was found dead in her apartment near Interstate 35 and Rundberg Lane on Oct. 6, 2003. Her son was stabbed in the chest. He later recovered.
Cotton was a friend of Gobert’s former girlfriend, who he was accused of assaulting about two weeks before Cotton’s death. Police theorized at the time that Gobert might have been angry with Cotton for helping his ex-girlfriend after that alleged attack.
Gobert has been in jail since his arrest two days after Cotton was found dead. In an interview with police, Gobert admitted to stabbing Cotton, according to court records.
The jury will not hear that statement during the trial under a ruling by Perkins, which was overturned by the 3rd Court of Appeals but upheld by the state’s highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals. Perkins and the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Austin police had improperly continued to question Gobert after he invoked his right to a lawyer.
Martinez said that he hopes to prove that if Gobert did kill Cotton, which he is not conceding, then it was not done while committing another felony, which is what qualifies the crime for a capital murder charge and a possible death sentence.
Perkins, who has been a district judge since 1982, is presiding over his first death penalty trial. He is retiring at the end of the year.
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January 6, 2010
Lawyer won't ask for delay in death penalty case, despite judicial campaign
Undoubtedly many political candidates gearing up for the March primaries have day jobs that will distract them from campaigning. But perhaps none have a more intense task than Leonard Martinez, who is running for judge in Travis County. Martinez will spend much of January and February in court trying to save a man’s life.
Martinez is the lead defense lawyer for Milton Dwayne Gobert, who is accused of capital murder in the October 2003 killing of 30-year-old Mel Cotton, his ex-girlfriend’s friend, at her apartment on Interstate 35 near Rundberg Lane. Gobert is accused of stabbing Cotton and her then 5-year-old son, who survived. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Gobert’s trial, which has been delayed by pretrial appeals, is finally set to begin January 19 with jury selection, which is expected to last for several weeks. Opening statements are scheduled for February 22.
The Democratic primary is March 2. Martinez said he would not ask for a delay in the case because of the campaign, even though preparing for such a high-stakes case often has lawyers working into the evenings and on weekends.
“I wish there was something I could do about the timing,” Martinez said. “There is just no way I am going to make the family of the victim wait another several months or make the defendant who, has been in jail for six years, wait for his day in court.”
Martinez is among four Democrats who hope to replace Judge Charlie Baird, who is not running for re-election to the 299th District Court.
Also running are defense lawyer Eve Schatelowtiz Alcantar, 38; prosecutor Karen Sage, 44; and family and criminal defense lawyer Mindy Montford, 39. No Republican filed to run.
Martinez said that he has asked state District Judge Bob Perkins to end the trial each day by 5 p.m. so he can attend candidate forums in the evening. He said he would prepare for the next day’s proceedings after that.
Veteran defense lawyer Kent Anschutz has also been appointed to represent Gobert.
Martinez said that he hopes to prove that if Gobert did kill Cotton, which he is not conceding, then it was not done while committing another felony, which is what qualifies the crime for a capital murder charge. Then he could not received a death sentence.
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December 7, 2009
DA to seek death penalty for man charged in LBJ student's death
Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said Monday that prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Areli Carbajal Escobar, charged with capital murder in the May slaying of his 17-year-old neighbor at an East Austin apartment complex.
Escobar, 30, is accused of sexually assaulting and fatally stabbing Bianca Maldonado, an LBJ High School student. Police have said that Escobar attacked Bianca when she was alone in her family’s apartment with her 1-year-old son, minutes after her mother and sister left at 3 a.m. to deliver newspapers.
“I believe the facts of this case represent an extreme level of violence,” Lehmberg said in explaining her decision to seek death. “Coupled with Escobar’s history of violence, I have concluded that he will pose a threat to the public safety and that includes individuals that he might come in contact with inside the penitentiary.”
If Escobar is convicted, the jury will choose between a sentence of life in prison without parole or death.
Escobar’s defense lawyer, Steve Brittain, said the charge against his client “isn’t consistent with the kind of person that he’s been.”
(Escobar’s) family members believe “he is not a person that they believe would be capable of this,” Brittain said. “Of course that is true in a lot of cases. It will all come out in the trial.”
Jaqueline Hernandez, Bianca’s mother, said last month that she asked for the death penalty against Escobar.
“I will only find peace if he dies,” she said. “If he stays forever in jail, his family can see him, but I cannot ever see my girl again.”
Sometime during the May 31 attack, Escobar’s girlfriend, Zoe Lopez, who had been asleep with him in his apartment, realized Escobar had left and began calling Escobar, police said.
About 4:15 a.m., on Lopez’s fourth call to Escobar, the line connected and Lopez heard a woman moaning and screaming for about 10 minutes, police said. Later that morning, Escobar arrived at his mother’s house with a bloody shirt, police said.
Maldonado has been remembered as a solid student who took Advanced Placement courses and made a B average.
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October 1, 2009
Segura sentenced to life without parole
Update: 2:23 p.m.:
After deliberating for three hours, a Travis County jury sentenced Albert Segura to life in prison without parole.
Segura, 37, was present for the verdict. Since Tuesday, he had refused to attend the proceedings. Sheriff’s deputies testified that Segura wanted to remain in the jail to watch TV and talk to family.
“We’re very thankful for the jury’s verdict,” defense lawyer Ariel Payan said after the verdict was read. “Mr. Segura is, too. He told us that.”
Segura was convicted Monday of capital murder in the deaths of Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, and Ferguson’s mother, Patricia Smith, 51.
During the trial, witnesses testified that Segura shot Ferguson in a southern Travis County home after hearing that a mutual friend had called Segura a snitch. Then Segura kidnapped Smith, who lived in the home with her son, walked her into a Hays County field and returned without her, a witness testified.
Smith’s body was found shot in that same field three weeks later.
Earlier: A Travis County jury is now deciding whether Albert Segura will live or die.
Segura, 37, faces either the death penalty of life in prison without parole for the murders of Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, and Patricia Smith, 51. Jurors found Segura guilty of capital murder on Monday. Since then, they have been hearing testimony from witnesses in the punishment phase of the trial.
Prosecutors say Segura should get the death penalty because he is a member of the Texas Syndicate prison gang. Though he will likely be housed in a cell for 23 hours a day because of his gang affiliation, prosecutors say that he would still have the ability to harm people by working behind the scenes through letters and phone calls.
But defense lawyers argued this morning that Segura does not have a violent history. He’s never been charged with any gang-related crimes and was never punished for any violent infractions while incarcerated, they said.
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Segura no show at trial again
Convicted killer Albert Segura is skipping court again today but says he’ll show up to hear whether jurors sentence him to death or life in prison without parole, Segura’s lawyers say.
Segura, 37, has refused to come to court since Tuesday. On Monday, he was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, and Patricia Smith, 51. Segura told sheriff’s deputies that he wanted to stay in jail to watch television and call family members.
Yesterday, lawyers finished the testimony of the punishment phase. Jurors are expected to start deliberating later this morning.
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September 30, 2009
Segura trial: defense rests
Testimony for the punishment phase of the Albert Segura, Jr. murder trial just ended.
Defense lawyers spent the day calling family members to speak on behalf of Segura, who was convicted Monday of the capital murder of Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, and Patricia Smith, 51.
Lawyers will present their closing arguments tomorrow morning. Then the jury will retire to determine whether Segura will face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Segura, who did not attend his trial for the second day in a row, is expected to show up for closing arguments tomorrow morning.
During the day, defense lawyers called Segura’s relatives to the stand. His father, Albert Segura Sr., said Segura was a caring son who cleaned his house and took him to medical appointments. Segura Jr.’s nephew, Marcus Segura, said his uncle played catch with him, took him out to eat and encouraged him to stay in school.
Previous post: Corrections officers: Segura never a problem
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Corrections officers: Segura never a problem
UPDATE, 2 p.m.:
Albert “A.J.” Segura has never caused any problems in the Travis County Correctional Complex, two corrections officers testified today.
Segura, who faces the death penalty for the capital murders of Billy Ferguson and Patricia Smith, was never hostile, violent or disobedient, they said. Instead, he started out every day reading the newspaper.
Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, are trying to prove that keeping Segura alive would constitute a continuing threat to society.
EARLIER:
Proceedings in the Albert Segura capital murder trial have temporarily stopped because Segura’s father — who was testifying on his son’s behalf — became ill on the stand.
Albert Segura, Sr. — who uses a motorized scooter and has heart problems, high blood pressure and other illnesses — had been testifying about his son’s childhood and criminal history when he became breathless and said he didn’t feel well.
Senior State District Judge Jon Wisser has called a recess and sent the jurors out of the courtroom.
Segura Sr. is currently resting on the stand,
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September 29, 2009
Judge to allow testimony on Segura's absence
UPDATE 3:40 p.m. The prosecution just rested its case. The jury has been released for the day and defense lawyers are expected to put on their testimony tomorrow.
UPDATE, 2 p.m.: Senior State District Judge Jon Wisser ruled a few minutes ago that he will allow testimony from a sheriff’s deputy who said this morning that Albert Segura refused to attend his own capital murder trial.
“I have to agree with the state that the jury must be wondering what’s going on,” Wisser said.
There’s no word on when prosecutors will address the jury on that matter. After Wisser’s ruling, the jury came into the courtroom and prosecutors called to the stand one of Segura’s former parole officers, who testified that Segura did not comply with the terms of his parole.
Earlier: Prosecutors in the Albert Segura capital murder trial want jurors to know why the man they convicted isn’t in court today.
Segura — who was found guilty yesterday of murdering Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, and Ferguson’s mother, Patricia Smith, 51 — told jail officials this morning that he did not want to come to the punishment phase of his trial today. After several more days of evidence, jurors will decide whether to give Segura the death penalty or sentence him to life in prison without parole.
Senior State District Judge Jon Wisser allowed the trial to continue without Segura, but may force him to come to court later today.
After the jury was released for lunch at noon, prosecutor Bill Bishop told Wisser that he wanted to tell the jury why Segura was not present. According to a sheriff’s deputy questioned this morning, Segura told officials he preferred to spend the day watching television and talking to his family on the phone,
Bishop said he wanted to put that sheriff’s deputy on the stand. Jurors had obviously noticed Segura’s absence and should know that he willingly chose not to come to court, he said.
Ira Davis, Segura’s lawyer, objected to that move. Such testimony is not relevant and would just prejudice the jury against his client, Davis said.
Wisser plans to make a decision during the lunch hour. Court resumes at 1:30 p.m.
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Segura refuses to attend trial
Convicted murderer Albert Segura has refused to attend the punishment phase of his trial today so he can watch television and talk to his family on the telephone, a sheriff’s deputy testified this morning.
On Monday, a Travis County jury judged Segura guilty in the 2007 killings of Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, and Ferguson’s mother, Patricia Smith, 51. The punishment phase of the trial began Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Defense lawyers are hoping for life in prison without parole.
Court was slated to resume at 9 a.m. today, but the proceedings were delayed when defense lawyers announced that Segura was refusing to come to court.
Lawyers Ira Davis and Ariel Payan left the courtroom to talk to Segura in jail. About 20 minutes later, they returned and said Segura still refused to attend his trial.
Davis told visiting Senior State District Judge Jon Wisser said that Segura said he didn’t feel well. But the sheriff’s deputy charged with bringing Segura to court testified that Segura told him that he wanted to spend the day watching tv and talking to his family on the phone.
For several minutes, lawyers debated what to tell the jury about Segura’s absence — if anything,
“I don’t want to tell them he’s ill, but I don’t want to draw attention to the fact that he’s not here either,” Wisser said.
Wisser decided not to tell the jury anything.
The jury came in at 10 a.m. Several jurors looked over at Segura’s empty chair and visibly appeared to be perplexed.
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September 25, 2009
No decision in Segura capital murder case
UPDATE 7:02 PM
After deliberating for about seven and a half hours Friday, the jury in Albert Jesse Segura’s capital murder trial decided to go home for the weekend and continue deliberations Monday morning.
At about 6 p.m., senior state District Judge Jon Wisser asked the jury if they wanted to continue deliberating into the evening, return tomorrow morning or return Monday. An hour later the jury sent a note back indicating that they prefer to return on Monday.
EARLIER TODAY
A Travis County jury began deliberating today whether Albert Jesse Segura committed capital murder in 2007 by fatally shooting a man in a southern Travis County house and the man’s mother in a Hays County field hours later.
If the jury convicts Segura, 37, of murdering Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, and Patricia Smith, 51, he would receive either the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
During closing arguments, defense lawyer Ariel Payan said his client is innocent and sought to discredit the testimony of two main prosecution witnesses — one man who was also shot that night and another who said he was with Segura at the time of both killings but did nothing wrong.
Prosecutors Bill Bishop and Rob Drummond said the testimony of those witnesses proves their case.
The first was Mario Rivera, a friend of Segura’s, who told the jury that Segura was angry the night of November 18, 2007, because he believed Rivera had called him a “snitch.”
Segura had stormed off from a house on Margra Lane, near Slaughter Lane and Manchaca Road, that night but Rivera said he invited him back to do more drugs. Rivera lived at the house with Smith, Ferguson and another woman.
Rivera said when Segura arrived he came in the bedroom alone wearing gloves, armed with a handgun and opened fire on him and Ferguson. Rivera was shot in his chest and legs but survived.
The second important prosecution witness was David Valdez, who lived with Segura in a mobile home in Del Valle around the time of the shooting. Valdez said he drove Segura to the house that night thinking they were returning to do more drugs. When they arrived at the house, though, Segura told him to park on a side street and wait in the car, Valez testified.
Valdez said he heard gunshots, screaming and then saw Segura coming to the car holding Smith by her hair with one hand and a gun to her head with the other.
Valdez testified that because he feared Segura he drove him to Segura’s father’s girlfriend’s house in Kyle to get money and then south on I-35. Valdez said he believed Segura was a member of the violent Texas Syndicate prison gang.
Valdez said between Kyle and San Marcos the 1985 Oldsmobile he was driving, which belonged to Segura’s father, ran out of gas. Adjacent to a secluded stretch of highway frontage road Segura marched Smith into a field covered with tall grass and emerged a short time later without her, Valdez said.
Smith’s body was found about three weeks later. She was dead from a gunshot to the neck. A shell casing found 18 inches from her foot came from the same gun as the shell casings found in the bedroom in the house on Margra Lane, according to testimony.
Payan, one of Segura’s defense lawyers, argued that Rivera’s story did not match the evidence in the house. A bullet was found in an air conditioning closet in the hallway and could not have gotten there if, as Rivera said, Segura fired all of the shots from the doorway of the bedroom to the inside of the bedroom.
Payan suggested that Ferguson may have had the gun and waited in the bedroom to ambush Segura. The shot into the hallway could have been fired when Segura — or Valdez — was taking the gun away from Ferguson before shooting Ferguson and Rivera.
Payan also pointed out a series of inconsistencies in an account of that night that Valdez gave a sheriff’s office investigator and one he gave from the witness stand. Valdez gave different accounts of who drove to Margra Lane and when the Oldsmobile ran out of gas - on the highway or after they pulled off the frontage road - for example.
Payan also challenged Valdez’s assertion that he waited in the car when Segura went into the Margra Lane house. A neighbor testified he saw two men followed by a woman walking from the house that night, Payan noted.
Payan argued that Valdez actively participated in the crime, making him an accomplice. Texas law says that Segura can not be convicted based solely on the testimony of an accomplice and therefore, Payan noted, Segura may not be found guilty of Smith’s murder.
Valdez and Segura drove to the San Antonio house of Paul Rodriguez, a friend of both men who once ran a mechanic’s shop in Austin where Segura worked and lived. Rodriguez then drove to Del Rio and Segura walked into Mexico, where he was arrested about three weeks later, according to testimony.
Valdez returned to live with Rodriguez in San Antonio. When authorities found him there three weeks later he began cooperating with the investigation.
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September 24, 2009
Defense rests in Segura case; closing arguments Friday
The evidence portion of Albert Jesse Segura’s capital murder trial ended today, and senior state District Judge Jon Wisser sent the jury home and told them to return for closing arguments at 9 a.m. Friday.
Segura, 37, would face a potential death sentence if convicted of capital murder in the deaths of Billy Gene Ferguson, who was fatally shot in a southern Travis County house, and Ferguson’s mother, Patricia Smith, whose body was found in a Hays County field.
Segura’s defense lawyers called just three witnesses. The first was a private investigator who testified that he took a video of the outside of the Margra Lane house, near West Slaughter Lane and Manchaca Road. The video was shown to the jury, although it was unclear what evidentiary value it has.
The next witness, Segura’s cousin, testified that in the hours before Segura is accused of shooting Ferguson at the Margra Lane house, he was at her mobile home on Bastrop Highway to ask for a job at her janitorial company.
Finally, defense lawyers recalled Mario Rivera, who also was shot at the house that night but survived.
Rivera, who with Ferguson, Smith and another woman lived at the house on Margra Lane, had testified earlier in the trial that he had been a close friend of Segura’s until the night of the shootings. He also said that Segura may have been angry at him because a woman they both knew had earlier in the night told Segura that Rivera had called him a “snitch.”
Defense lawyer Ariel Payan covered much of the same ground that prosecutors had with Rivera, asking how long the men had known each other, about the snitch comment and how the men had used cocaine together earlier in the night.
Then, after Rivera once again told the jury how Segura walked into his bedroom at the Margra Lane house on Nov. 18, 2007, said something about being called a snitch, and started shooting, Payan questioned him about a bullet that was found in an air conditioning closet outside Rivera’s bedroom.
How could the bullet have gotten there if, as Rivera said, Segura shot from outside the bedroom, Payan asked.
Rivera said he did not know.
Then Payan suggested that either Ferguson or Rivera had the gun initially that night and tried to shoot Segura, sending the bullet into the hallway, before the gun was wrested away by Segura.
Rivera laughed at the suggestion, then denied that’s what happened.
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September 23, 2009
Witness: "I thought the next bullet was coming toward me"
David Valdez told a Travis County jury Wednesday that he thought Albert Jesse Segura wanted to return to a southern Travis County house early one night in November 2007 to do more drugs, as the two had done earlier in the evening.
But when they got to the house on Margra Lane, Segura told Valdez to park on an adjacent street and to wait in the car so Segura could go inside and “see if everything is all right, if everything’s cool,” Valdez testified.
Seconds after Segura went inside, Valdez heard gunshots, he said. Then Valdez said he heard screaming and saw Segura emerge from the house with Patricia Smith.
Segura is on trial for capital murder in the killings of Smith, 51, whose body was found about three weeks later in a San Marcos field, and her son Billy Gene Ferguson, who was pronounced dead inside the house on Margra Lane, near Slaughter Lane and Manchaca Road.
Another man - Mario Rivera - was also shot in the house that night but survived. He testified earlier in the trial and identified Segura as the shooter. Rivera and Valdez both said that Segura had gotten angry earlier in the evening when a woman told Segura that Rivera had called him a “snitch.”
If convicted, Segura could receive the death penalty.
Ballistics tests showed that the .45 caliber bullets fired in the Margra Lane house and used to kill Smith came from the same gun. But Valdez is the first witness to link Segura to Smith’s death.
Valdez said he first met Segura in 2006 when Segura came to a party to sell drugs to Valdez’s friends. The two started hanging out and doing drugs together and Valdez eventually moved into Segura’s father’s mobile home east of the Austin airport, Valdez said. Segura sometimes did up to two grams a day of cocaine and Valdez used about a half to three quarters of a gram of cocaine a day, Valdez said.
When Segura emerged from the house on Margra Lane the night of the shootings, he was pulling Smith by her hair. “She’s screaming like she just lost her kid, you know,” he said.
“He’s got a gun pointing toward her head,” Valdez said. “She keeps falling down and he keeps picking her up.”
When Segura got in the car - a 1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with tinted windows - Valdez said he pointed the gun at him and told him to drive.
“I asked him where he wanted to go,” Valdez testified. “I thought the next bullet was coming toward me.”
Valdez said Segura called his father and said “he threw his life away, that he needed money.” Then the trio went to Segura’s father’s girlfriend’s house in Kyle to pick up some cash, Valdez said.
They then headed south on I-35 because Segura wanted to go to Mexico, Valdez said. Between Kyle and San Marcos, Valdez said, the car ran out of gas.
“He told me to wait in the car,” Valdez said. “He pulls Patty out by her hair. She’s crying.”
Segura and Smith walked into a field covered with high grass, Valdez said. Less than 15 minutes later, Segura returned alone, he said.
After the pair walked a few miles for gas, they drove to Paul Rodriguez’s mother’s house in San Antonio, and Rodriguez drove them to the border at Del Rio. Rodriguez is a friend of Segura’s father who had testified earlier in the trial that he knew nothing of the killings. Valdez said Segura had told Rodriguez what happened.
After dropping Segura at the international bridge in Del Rio, Valdez said he returned to San Antonio and lived with Rodriguez until Travis County sheriff’s office investigators showed up about three weeks later.
Valdez said he did not contact police himself because he was scared of Segura, who had told him that he was a member of “T.S.,” presumably meaning the Texas Syndicate prison gang.
He cooperated with the investigation, he said, and led investigators to Smith’s body.
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September 22, 2009
Evidence puts defendant's phone near area of killing
The capital murder trial of Albert Jesse Segura, who could receive a death sentence if convicted in the killings of two people in November 2007, continued Tuesday as a Travis County jury heard cell phone evidence and more details about the role of a man who prosecutors say was with Segura around the time of the killings.
Segura, 37, is accused of killing Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, in a southern Travis County house on Nov. 18, 2007, and then taking Ferguson’s mother, Patricia Smith, 51, from the house to a Hays County field and fatally shooting her.
A friend of Segura’s, Mario Rivera, who also was shot at the house on Margra Lane but survived, testified Monday that Segura may have been angry because he believed Rivera had accused him of being a snitch.
According to testimony Tuesday, including from an AT&T engineer who relied on cellular phone tower transmissions, a cell phone linked to Segura was used off and on for about two hours after the killing in an area between San Marcos and Kyle in Hays County where Smith’s body was found. The cell phone was not used around the time Rivera and Ferguson were shot.
Travis County sheriff’s office Detective Craig Smith, who led the investigation, said that David Valdez, who prosecutors have said was with Segura the night of the killings, led investigators to Smith’s body about three weeks after Ferguson and Rivera were shot. Smith said he did not arrest Valdez because he did not believe Valdez had committed any crimes. Valdez is expected to testify later in the trial.
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September 21, 2009
Witness: Murder suspect was angry at being called 'snitch'
A man who survived a 2007 shooting in a southern Travis County house that left another man dead told a jury Monday that Albert Jesse Segura may have been prompted to kill by being called a “snitch.”
Segura, 37, is charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Billy Gene Ferguson, 28, in the house, and Ferguson’s mother Patricia Smith, 51, whose body was found in a Hays County field.
Segura, who according to prosecutors is a member of the violent Texas Syndicate prison gang and has a more than two-decade criminal record, would face either the death penalty or life in prison without the chance of parole if convicted.
Mario Rivera, the trial’s first witness Monday, testified he had been close friends with Segura since about 2003, when the pair met in the Travis County Jail.
On Nov. 17, 2007, Rivera said, he had been living in a house on Margra Lane, near Slaughter Lane and Manchaca Road, with Ferguson, Smith, and another woman. That day Rivera invited Segura to do some drugs and hang out at the house, Rivera said.
Segura came with his friend David Valdez and the trio smoked and injected cocaine, Rivera said.
At one point, a woman that both Segura and Rivera had previously dated — Raane Gutierrez — arrived and told Segura that Rivera, “who you think is your homeboy, is calling you a snitch,” Rivera testified.
Gutierrez, who was called later in the day as a witness, testified that she had been drinking and using a lot of drugs at the time. She confirmed telling Segura that Rivera called him a “snitch,” but did not explain why. She only said that she had been angry with Rivera for dating another woman.
Rivera said he denied calling Segura a snitch.
Segura and Valdez left after doing more drugs, Rivera said.
But after midnight, Rivera said, Segura returned. Ferguson let him into the house and then into Rivera’s room, where Segura pulled out a gun, said someone had called him a “snitch” and then fired at Ferguson and Rivera, Rivera testified. Segura was wearing brown gloves and left after the shootings, said Rivera, who was hit in the legs and heart.
Ferguson was pronounced dead at the scene.
During opening statements, prosecutor Bill Bishop said that Smith tried to flee the house after the shootings but was captured by Segura and taken hostage. Segura then drove to his father’s house in Kyle and then with Valdez headed south with the woman on Interstate 35, Bishop said.
When their car ran out of gas on I-35 in Hays County, Bishop said, Segura “walked Patricia Smith into a field and shot her in the neck.”
Paul Rodriguez, who described himself as a friend of Segura’s father who owned a mechanic’s shop in Austin where Segura once worked, said that Valdez and Segura came to his mother’s house in San Antonio, where he was staying at the time, the morning of Nov. 18.
They asked for a ride to the border town of Del Rio but said nothing of the shootings, Rodriguez said. Rodriguez agreed and dropped Segura at the international bridge and returned with Valdez to San Antonio.
Less than three weeks later, Segura was arrested in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila. The day after Segura was booked into the Travis County Jail, Smith’s body was found in a San Marcos field near I- 35. Valdez is expected to testify.
During his opening statement, Ariel Payan, one of Segura’s lawyers, asked jurors to pay close attention to the evidence before forming an opinion. Segura’s lawyers reserved their cross-examination of Rivera until later in the trial.
The trial Travis County’s 147th District Court and presided over by Senior State District Judge Jon Wisser, is expected to continue through next week.
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September 9, 2009
Two Travis death penalty trials move ahead
This story has been corrected since it was originally posted with information on the last time two death penalty cases have been tried at the same time in Travis County.
Lawyers in Albert Jesse Segura’s capital murder case finished picking a jury of Travis County residents today. Meanwhile, one floor down in the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center, the individual questioning of prospective jurors continued into a second day in the capital murder trial of accused killer Paul Gilbert Devoe.
Both men face the death penalty if convicted.
It is the first time since 2004 that two death penalty trials are going on in Travis County at the same time. That year, a jury convicted Patrick Russo in the strangling death of Diane Holik of Austin but spared his life. Another jury convicted Guy Len Allen in the stabbing deaths of Barbara Hill, 47, and her daughter, Janette Johnson, 19.
The last defendant to face the death penalty in Travis County was Alberto Garcia, who last year was convicted of killing Austin cab drivers Eleazar Hinojosa, 57, and John Parrish, 41, in 1990. The jury in September 2008 spared Garcia the death penalty after deciding Garcia would not pose a future danger in prison.
Like Garcia, Segura and Devoe have long criminal records.
Segura, 37, (pictured at top) is accused in the 2007 killings of a man who was found fatally shot inside a southern Travis County house and the man’s mother, who was found in a San Marcos field about three weeks later. He is a member of the violent Texas Syndicate prison gang, prosecutors say.
Opening statements in his case are scheduled for Sept. 21.
Devoe, 46, (below) is accused of killing a Marble Falls bartender, four people — including his ex-girlfriend and her daughter at a Jonestown house — and an elderly woman in Pennsylvania in August 2007.
The opening statements in his case are expected in late September. The exact date depends upon when a jury is seated.
Jury selection in cases where the death penalty is an option often takes weeks, while picking a jury in other cases usually only takes a few hours. In death penalty cases, jurors are quizzed individually about their views regarding the death penalty.
In Segura’s case, jury selection began Aug. 25. Devoe’s began three days later, but individual questioning of jurors started Wednesday.
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July 8, 2009
Lawyer for convicted cop killer files petition to delay execution
The day before a judge was to begin considering the execution date of a man convicted of killing an Austin police officer, his lawyer filed new court documents with information he said could have swayed jurors in separate trials.
According to the petition, which seeks to block the execution, a newspaper advertisement last year paid for by the Austin police union set forth a sequence of events in the 1978 shooting of Officer Ralph Ablanedo, pictured at top, that differed from what investigators and prosecutors previously presented.
The full-page ad, published in the Austin American-Statesman marking the 30th anniversary of Ablanedo’s death, said Ablanedo fired nine rounds at David Lee Powell, pictured at right, who was later convicted and remains on Texas death row in the shooting.
“Had the evidence that Officer Ablanedo returned fire nine times been available, the picture of the crime would have changed dramatically,” attorney Richard Burr said in court documents. “This evidence would have cast other strands of evidence in a different light.”
Val Escobar, executive director of the Austin Police Association who compiled information for the advertisement, said Wednesday that she pulled a narrative of the shooting from the Internet and that it wasn’t based on official documents or interviews.
Escobar did not specifically remember the site from which she collected the information.
Bruce Mills, who was Ablanedo’s patrol partner, said Ablanedo’s gun was still snapped in its holster when he arrived at the scene moments after the shooting. He said he unloaded the bullets and gave them to a homicide investigator at the hospital.
“No shots were fired from his gun,” Mills said. He said the petition is “a feeble attempt to draw a distraction.”
Travis County prosecutors last month asked state District Judge Mike Lynch to set an execution date for Powell in October. The defense requested more time to file a petition about the new information. Lynch signed an order saying that he would wait until after Wednesday to allow Burr more time to file the petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The court must decide if the petition can be considered under state law. Burr must show he has found new evidence not previously available or that state law or court precedent has changed in a way favorable to Powell.
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July 1, 2009
Court rejects Reed's latest appeal
The state’s highest criminal court has again rejected death row inmate Rodney Reed’s claims that he did not kill Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old who was raped and strangled in Bastrop County in 1996.
Reed’s latest appeal built on allegations — contained in earlier court petitions — that Stites was murdered by her then-fiance, Jimmy Fennell, a former police officer who was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for kidnapping and improper sexual activity with a woman in his custody.
But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled today that the latest allegations against Fennell did not change the case against Reed.
“The allegations of Fennell’s misconduct and domestic violence do not exonerate (Reed),” the court ruled in an unanimous, unsigned opinion. “The totality of the evidence before us still supports a guilty verdict.”
Reed’s latest appeal included information compiled by Georgetown police during their investigation into a 2007 incident when Fennell responded to a domestic disturbance call, drove the woman to a secluded area and forced her to have sex with him.
According to the new allegations in Reed’s appeal, Fennell also forced a woman he met during a traffic stop in July 2007 to have sex with him, abused his now ex-wife and stalked a woman in Giddings in 1997.
Reed’s lawyers argued that the new information, coupled with earlier allegations of Fennell’s misconduct, points to Fennell as Stites’ killer. They also claim no jury would have convicted Reed had it known about Fennell’s abusive history with women.
But the appeals court rejected Reed’s claims, raised in his sixth petition for a writ of habeas corpus since his May 1998 conviction.
Reed’s case is now expected to move into the federal court system for his next — and final — round of appeals before execution.
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May 12, 2009
Gobert's death penalty trial scheduled for January
A judge today denied Dwayne Milton Gobert’s motion to suppress evidence and scheduled his capital murder trial for January 2010.
Travis County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Gobert, 36, who is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s friend and stabbing her 5-year-old son in 2003.
Mel “Nina” Cotton, 30, and was found dead and her son injured from stab wounds when Cotton’s sister went to their apartment near Interstate 35 and U.S. 183 on Oct. 6, 2003, according to a police affidavit.
The case has been slow to proceed to trial as prosecutors and defense lawyers argued whether a statement Gobert made to police after being arrested in the case was lawfully obtained.
Gobert admitted to participating in the crime, court records show, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled earlier this year that police improperly denied him his right to a lawyer and upheld state District Judge Bob Perkins’ order that the statement cannot be used at trial.
Gobert’s lawyers, Leonard Martinez and Kent Anschutz, then asked Perkins to suppress other evidence against Gobert, arguing that it had been obtained as a result of the tainted interview. Prosecutors Allison Wetzel and Gary Cobb argued that some evidence had been obtained prior to the interview with Gobert and that other evidence was obtained based on probable cause other than Gobert’s statements.
“I do not find that there is any violation of Mr. Gobert’s rights as far as any of those (search warrants) are concerned,” Perkins said Tuesday.
Perkins scheduled jury selection to begin Jan. 19, 2010. Lawyers noted that Cobb is also trying the case against Paul Devoe, which is scheduled for jury selection in September. That trial is expected to about two months to complete.
Devoe has been indicted on a capital murder charge in Travis County in connection with the shootings of a man at a Marble Falls bar, four people in a Jonestown house and a woman in Pennsylvania in August 2007.
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January 28, 2009
Court throws out confession in murder case
The state’s highest criminal court today threw out the confession of accused murderer Milton Dwayne Gobert, saying police improperly continued to question the suspect after he requested a lawyer.
Read the Court of Criminal Appeals ruling here.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 2003 stabbing death of Mel Cotton in her North Austin apartment. Her 5-year-old son was stabbed but survived, helping police from his hospital bed.
The trial has been held up while the appeals courts determined whether Gobert’s confession could be admitted as evidence. The trial judge declared the recorded confession inadmissible, but the Austin appeals court reversed.
The day after police arrested Gobert, homicide Detective Michael Burgh read him his rights, according to the opinion. Gobert indicated that he understood and then said, “I don’t want to give up any right, though, if I don’t got no lawyer.”
But Gobert also indicated he wanted to talk to the detectives, and the interview continued.
The Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously ruled that Gobert made his “desire abundantly clear” that he would deal with police interrogators only in the presence of a lawyer.
“Once a suspect has clearly invoked his right to counsel, no subsequent exchange with the police (unless the suspect has initiated it himself) can serve to undermine the clarity of the invocation,” the ruling states.
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January 26, 2009
Federal court halts Swearingen execution
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today halted Tuesday’s planned execution of Larry Swearingen, a death row inmate who claims he did not kill a Conroe college student in 1998.
(Read Saturday’s story on his appeal here.)
Prosecutors insist Swearingen killed Melissa Trotter, a Montgomery County Community College student he had met a few days before Trotter disappeared on Dec. 8, 1998. Trotter’s body was found Jan. 2, 1999, in a forest outside Conroe.
But four forensic pathologists, including the medical examiner who autopsied Trotter and testified against Swearingen at his capital murder trial, now believe Swearingen could not have killed the 19-year-old.
The pathologists say the condition of Trotter’s internal organs indicate she could not have been in the forest for more than two weeks, and probably for a much shorter time, meaning Swearingen was in jail when Trotter was killed.
Swearingen was jailed on unrelated charges three days after Trotter disappeared.
The federal appeals court gave Swearingen permission to bring another appeal — focused on the pathologists’ opinions — to a U.S. district court.
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January 14, 2009
Court again denies appeals by Rodney Reed
The state’s highest criminal court today refused to grant a new trial to Rodney Reed, sentenced to death a decade ago in the Bastrop County murder and sexual assault of Stacey Stites, 19.
In December, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 100-page opinion concluding that new information raised by Reed failed to establish his innocence and could not have swayed jurors to vote for his innocence if presented at trial.
Today’s rulings denied two remaining state appeals by Reed, presumably clearing way for his case to proceed to the next level of review in the federal courts.
But one of Reed’s appellate lawyers, Bryce Benjet, said he hopes to file another state appeal containing more information about “incidents of misconduct” by Stites’ fiance, Jimmy Fennell, a former police officer serving a prison sentence for kidnapping and improper sexual activity with a woman in his custody.
“We believe this also needs to be presented to the Court of Criminal Appeals. We are preparing that, and it will be filed shortly,” Benjet said.
Reed alleges that Fennell could have killed Stites. Fennell has consistently denied the allegation.
In one appeal denied Wednesday, Reed accused prosecutors of suppressing evidence that Fennell abused and stalked an ex-girlfriend. The information, Reed argued, supports his theory that Fennell murdered Stites — a theory the Court of Criminal Appeals found unconvincing in its December opinion.
The court ruled today, however, that the information from Fennell’s ex-girlfriend should have been raised in Reed’s first appeal. Because it was not, it is ineligible to be raised at a later date, the court said in an unsigned opinion.
Reed’s second pending appeal, claiming to contain evidence of Reed’s innocence, also was denied.
“The totality of the evidence before us still supports a guilty verdict,” the court ruled.
Both appeals are addressed in a single ruling, available here.
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November 18, 2008
Judge opens new inquiry into infant's 1994 death
A state District Judge in Austin has begun a series of hearings to determine whether death row inmate Cathy Lynn Henderson should get a new trial in the 1994 death of 3-month-old Brandon Baugh.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last year ordered hearings after the appeals court granted Henderson a stay of execution. The June 2007 reprieve came two days before the former baby sitter was scheduled to die.
At issue now before senior Judge Jon Wisser is whether Brandon, who died while Henderson babysat him in her Pflugerville-area home, could have died from an accidental fall.
At Henderson’s 1995 trial, prosecution witnesses who included then-Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo argued that Brandon’s skull fractures indicated that he was violently thrown against a flat surface.
Henderson claimed that she accidentally dropped the boy onto a concrete floor.
In her appeal, Henderson’s lawyers claim that scientific research not available during the trial shows that infants can receive fatal head injuries from falls of about 4 feet.
After learning of that research, Bayardo said he could no longer back his previous testimony that Brandon could not have been injured from a fall.
The Court of Criminal Appeals pointed to Bayardo’s change of heart in ordering Wisser to conduct fact-finding hearings and report his findings back to the court.
Wisser has scheduled six days of hearings spread throughout this month and next for the defense to make its case. The first was Monday, when Henderson’s lawyers called as a witness bio-mechanics expert Kenneth Monson, an assistant professor from the University of Utah.
In January, prosecutors will get to call their own witnesses.
The “main issue is whether newly discovered evidence, or rather, new types of scientific testing, would result in a different verdict,” Wisser said in an e-mail.
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September 26, 2008
Court releases depositions in Hood case
On Thursday, death row inmate Charles Dean Hood filed an appeal asking for a new trial because his judge and prosecutor had an affair prior to his 1990 trial. (Story here.)
Retired Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Thomas O’Connell admitted to the affair in early September after a state court ordered them to testify about their relationship under oath.
Their depositions, released today by a Collin County District Court, provide a fuller picture of the relationship.
According to Holland and O’Connell, their friendship began when they worked together in the district attorney’s office and gradually developed into a physical relationship in the 1980s.
Instead of the torrid affair that Hood’s appeal implied, the relationship was infrequently sexual, with months passing between romantic encounters, both testified.
“We still did not see much of each other outside the courthouse, didn’t spend much time together,” O’Connell said.
When asked why she didn’t divulge the relationship to the lawyers in Hood’s case, Holland replied: “I didn’t think of it. I didn’t think it was necessary, material or — that had nothing to do with my serving as the trial judge, because it wasn’t in existence, you know.”
Holland also noted that she was close friends with one of Hood’s defense lawyers. “I was fair and impartial, regardless of my relationships,” she said.
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September 25, 2008
Death row inmate seeks new trial over judge-prosecutor affair
Disclosing new details about the once-secret affair between his trial judge and prosecutor, lawyers for death row inmate Charles Dean Hood asked the state’s highest criminal court for a new trial Thursday to remove a “deep shadow over justice” in the case.
Forced to testify about their relationship after a grueling fight in multiple courtrooms to avoid it, retired Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Thomas O’Connell said in Sept. 8 and 9 depositions that their sexual relationship began in the early 1980s and lasted about five years, though their recollections differ on the starting and ending dates.
Both said they remained close friends in the years that followed, including 1990, when Hood was found guilty in Holland’s court of two murders and sentenced to death.
The details were included in an appeal filed Thursday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
“That a judge charged with avoiding the appearance of bias and a prosecutor tasked with doing justice would allow their desire for secrecy to trump their sworn constitutional duties is a stunning display of arrogance and the corrupting influence of power,” the appeal says.
“Mr. Hood survived five execution dates before the truth was disclosed. No one should escape blame for this reprehensible record that has eroded the public’s faith in the integrity of the judiciary,” the appeal says.
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September 5, 2008
AG will ask court to investigate Hood's claim
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today will file a friend-of-the-court brief asking that the allegations raised by death row inmate Charles Dean Hood be fully investigated — even if it delays Hood’s Wednesday execution.
Hood has accused his trial judge and prosecutor of conducting a secret relationship while his 1990 trial took place.
In a letter to Collin County prosecutors, Abbott said he’s confident Hood killed two people and deserves the death penalty.
“However, a death sentence is the most serious and solemn act of any state. The impartiality of a defendant’s trial and conviction must be beyond reproach,” Abbott wrote in the letter sent Thursday night.
Abbott said his brief will ask the state district court in Collin County to conduct a thorough review of Hood’s allegation “to preserve the integrity of Texas’ legal system.”
“Unfortunately, too many capital murder defendants and their lawyers wait years before raising last-minute claims,” the letter reads. “This unnecessary delay is often traumatic for the victims’ families, who desperately want, need and deserve finality.
“With that in mind, I understand and regret that this action may further delay justice for families whose loved ones were murdered by Hood nearly twenty years ago.
“However, if the execution proceeds as scheduled, before questions about the fairness of his trial are legally resolved, neither the victims nor justice will be served.”
UPDATE: The brief was filed around 2 p.m. Read it here.
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September 4, 2008
Hood gets hearing on judge-prosecutor relationship
Death row inmate Charles Dean Hood will no longer have to wait until after his Sept. 10 execution date to argue that his trial judge and prosecutor should be forced to answer questions about their alleged relationship.
Hood claims he was denied a fair trial because former Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Thomas O’Connell were in a secret relationship during his 1990 trial.
Judge Robert Dry had scheduled a Sept. 12 hearing on Hood’s request to compel Holland and O’Connell to testify, but Dry recused himself from the case Wednesday.
Hood’s new judge, Greg Brewer, on Thursday set a hearing on the matter for 9 a.m. Monday in Collin County.
Hood was sentenced to die in the 1989 shooting deaths of his boss, Ronald Williamson, and Williamson’s girlfriend Tracie Wallace in their Plano home.
Hood’s bloody fingerprints were found inside the home. When he was arrested a day after the killings, in Indiana, Hood had the victims’ car, clothes, jewelry, camera and credit cards.
See today’s story on the Hood case here.
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September 3, 2008
Former judges, prosecutors seek execution reprieve
Twenty-two former federal and state judges and prosecutors have asked Gov. Rick Perry to grant death row inmate Charles Dean Hood a 30-day reprieve from his Sept. 10 execution.
The extra time is needed, they said, to allow a complete investigation into allegations that Hood’s judge and prosecutor were engaged in a secret romance during his 1990 trial.
“If this is true, we have no doubt that this relationship would have had a significant impact on the ability of the judicial system to accord Mr. Hood a fair and impartial trial,” the Sept. 2 letter to Perry says.
State District Judge Robert Dry has scheduled a Sept. 12 hearing in Collin County — two days after Hood’s execution date — on Hood’s request to compel Holland and O’Connell to testify about the allegations —.
“It is an irrevocable wrong to send a man to his death without ever hearing this critical evidence,” says the letter, signed by William Sessions, FBI director from 1987-93 and former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, which includes Austin; six other former U.S. attorneys; and two retired U.S. appeals court judges, among others.
Hood’s lawyers have alleged that former District Judge Verla Sue Holland and then-District Attorney Tom O’Connell conducted a years-long relationship they kept secret from voters and others in Collin County. An affidavit from a former assistant district attorney, Matthew Goeller, said the Holland-O’Connell relationship was “common knowledge” in the prosecutor’s office when Hood was convicted and sentenced to death.
Citing the Goeller affidavit, the letter to Perry said “Hood’s claim appears on its face to have substantial credibility.”
“If Mr. Hood’s claim is proven, we believe that his right to an impartial judge and a fair trial was violated and his conviction and sentence were unconstitutionally obtained,” the letter said.
Perry declined to grant a 30-day reprieve before Hood’s original execution date, June 17, when Hood’s execution warrant expired amid a flurry of court filings concerning the alleged Holland-O’Connell relationship.
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August 19, 2008
Death row inmate's lawyers want depositions from judge, prosecutor
Lawyers for Texas death row inmate Charles Dean Hood, scheduled for execution Sept. 10 despite allegations that the trial judge and prosecutor at his 1990 trial were involved in a secret intimate relationship, hope to secure direct evidence of the affair in a civil rights lawsuit.
Hood’s lawyers said today that they will file a petition in a Collin County court at law asking to take the depositions of former state District Judge Vera Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, who have refused to answer questions about any relationship they had in 1990.
Hood’s lawyers claim their relationship violated Hood’s right to a fair and impartial trial and have asked for a new trial.
The petition can be found here.
It is based on rule 202 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, which allow oral or written depositions to be taken before a lawsuit is filed to investigate possible claims.
Under those rules, the court must order a deposition allowed if it finds that allowing the deposition would prevent a failure or delay of justice in an anticipated suit or the likely benefit of allowing the deposition to investigate a potential claim outweighs the burden or expense of the deposition.
Hood was scheduled for execution June 17. But after protracted legal wrangling that day, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it did not have enough time to administer the lethal injection before the death warrant expired at midnight. In the days before, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to consider Hood’s claims of the relationship, saying they were raised too late.
Hood’s lawyers hope more direct evidence of the relationship — from the mouths or notes of Holland and O’Connell — would better persuade the court to order a new trial.
Hood was convicted of killing his boss, Ronald Williamson, and Williamson’s girlfriend, Tracie Wallace, in their Plano home. Lyons said family members of Hood’s victims were gathered at the Walls Unit in Huntsville last night and were frustrated by the delay.
Hood’s case is drawing national attention, particularly by legal ethicists, some who say that regardless of whether he is guilty or innocent Hood should get a new trial if an intimate relationship existed between Holland and O’Connell.
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June 20, 2008
Death penalty defendant complains of Statesman coverage
Got a letter from Milton Dwayne Gobert this week. He’s the Travis County capital murder defendant facing the death penalty whose case will be heard soon by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Gobert, 35, didn’t like the Statesman coverage (read it here) of the announcement by the state’s highest court that it granted discretionary review in the case.
“When you write about me, write the whole truth and not half truth and implied guilt toward me,” wrote Gobert in opening his four-page letter.
Gobert has has been awaiting trial in the Travis County jail since 2003, when he was arrested and charged with stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s friend, 30-year-old Mel Cotton, in North Austin. Gobert was also accused of stabbing Cotton’s then 5-year-old son, who survived.
His case has been held up on appeals centered around whether a confession prosecutors say he gave to Austin police should be allowed at trial.
State District Judge Bob Perkins, the trial judge, ruled it should not be allowed because Austin homicide detectives continued to question him after Gobert invoked his right to an attorney. The 3rd Court of Appeals agreed with Perkins, and then reversed course and ruled Gobert’s statement was lawfully obtained.
Most of Gobert’s letter quoted from 3rd Court Justice Jan Patterson’s dissenting opinion in the case.
“Police deceived me of why I was there to be questioned and there (sic) manner of questioning,” Gobert wrote. “Your facts were wrong, and implying guilt on me through innuendo were (sic) wrong; so if you want to print something print the truth.”
June 18, 2008
Charles Dean Hood reflected on fear of going to death chamber
Charles Dean Hood, who last night was spared execution when the clock ran out on his death warrant, reflected on his fear of being executed in a recent interview with Texas Monthly, part of which is shown in a video on Editor Evan Smith’s blog here.
After a flurry of appeals yesterday, Hood returned to death row, (read today’s Statesman story here) giving his lawyers more time to pursue recent allegations that he deserves a new trial because when he was convicted of two murders and sentenced to death in 1990, his trial judge and the district attorney on the case were having a secret intimate relationship.
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Time ran out to carry out execution, officials say
After prison officials said they did not have enough time to carry out Charles Dean Hood’s execution before a midnight deadline last night, officials in Gov. Rick Perry’s office agreed with prison officials’ decision put off the execution, according to a Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman.
The move ended a legal tennis match (read the Statesman story here) last night in the case of the convicted double murderer who claims he didn’t get a fair trial in Collin County in 1990 because of allegations his trial judge and the district attorney on the case were having a secret intimate relationship.
Following orders from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, a Dallas-area judge reinstated Hood’s death warrant after 10 p.m. Hood’s final appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied after 11 p.m., clearing the way for Hood’s execution.
At about 11:30 p.m., Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said Hood’s execution would commence “any minute.” Hood’s death warrant was set to expire at midnight and officials said it could not be extended.
But Lyons said prison officials, who usually have from 6 p.m. to midnight to carry out executions under standard death warrants, did not feel they had enough time to follow their usual protocol.
Lyons said Hood’s case now returns to the trial court for issuance of a new death warrant. The execution could not be set within 30 days.
Hood was convicted of killing his boss, Ronald Williamson, and Williamson’s girlfriend, Tracie Wallace, in their Plano home. Lyons said family members of Hood’s victims were gathered at the Walls Unit in Huntsville last night and were frustrated by the delay.
Hood’s case is drawing national attention, particularly by legal ethicists, some who say that regardless of whether he is guilty or innocent Hood should get a new trial if an intimate relationship existed between Judge Verla Sue Holland and then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell.
The action last night was fast and furious and Austin Legal did not have a chance to post any court filings in the case. So here are a few of the more interesting ones:
Motion by Charles Dean Hood’s lawyers asking Court of Criminal Appeals to allow subsequent appeal (includes a statement of Hofstra University Law School Professor Monroe H. Freedman that Hood’s should be granted a new trial. It was endorsed by nine legal ethics scholars and attorneys from Texas and around the country.) See the pdf here.
Collin County prosecutors’ petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals asking the court to order a Collin County trial judge to reinstate Hood’s death warrant. pdf here
Court of Criminal Appeal order that presiding judge in the case reinstate death warrant. pdf here
All documents were provided by Hood’s lawyers, including those with the Texas Defender Service.
June 17, 2008
Time runs out on window to execute Hood
UPDATE, 11:55: The Associated Press is reporting that Charles Dean Hood’s execution was halted because of there was not enough time to carry it out before the midnight deadline set by his execution warrant.
UPDATE, 11:19 p.m.: The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Charles Dean Hood’s final appeals and the condemned double murderer is set to be executed “any minute now,” according to Michelle Lyons, a spokesperson with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
UPDATE, 11:10 p.m.: A North Texas judge has reinstated the death warrant ordering the execution of Charles Dean Hood, according to his lawyers. Hood remains in a cell adjacent to the Texas death chamber in Huntsville as prison officials await word on his final appeals.
The Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered a North Texas judge to reinstate the death warrant for Charles Dean Hood. The warrant had been recalled earlier in the day. Prosecutors in Collin County successfully asked the state’s highest court to order the region’s presiding judge to reinstate the case. Hood could be executed this evening if the order is reinstated by midnight, when the warrant expires.
UPDATE, 9:13 p.m.: Prosecutors in Collin County have again this evening asked the Court of Criminal appeals to reinstate the execution warrant for Charles Dean Hood. In one court filing, Collin County Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Garon asked the court to order the presiding judge of the state’s First Administrative Judicial District to order the execution warrant reinstated tonight. In another filing, Garon asked for “extraordinary writ relief” because “no judge is available to withdraw the order.
Meanwhile, Texas prison officials say that Hood remains in a holding cell adjacent to death row in Huntsville. The execution warrant that prosecutors are trying to reinstate expires at midnight.
Update: The Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered that a district judge in Collin County had no authority to withdraw Charles Dean Hood’s death warrant. However, the state’s highest court said in an unsigned order that since the judge has now recused himself from the case, the Court of Criminal Appeals has no authority to order the judge to reinstate the death warrant. Hood’s lawyers say they are unsure whether Collin County prosecutors will file additional motions this evening in an attempt to prompt Hood’s execution.
Charles Dean Hood’s scheduled execution today was delayed after a state district judge recalled Hood’s death warrant in the wake of recent allegations that the district attorney and trial judge in the case had a secret intimate relationship that may have undermined Hood’s right to a fair trial.
But Hood’s fate this evening remains unresolved as prosecutors in Collin County have appealed for the state’s highest criminal court to overrule the district judge and order the execution to proceed. The Associated Press reports that state prison officials have declined to return Hood to death row, pending the outcome of the appeal.
“Only in Texas. Only in Texas,” said Lawrence Fox, who teaches law at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania and has been watching the case closely.
“If we’re going to have the death penalty in America, then we better conduct the proceedings in a pristine way … If it (the relationship between the judge and district attorney) is true, he is entitled to a new trial in front of another judge and it doesn’t make a difference that everyone thinks he is guilty.”
Hood is a former bouncer for a topless club convicted of killing his boss, Ronald Williamson, and Williamson’s girlfriend Tracie Wallace in their Plano home. He claims he is innocent.
Last week, Hood’s lawyers argued in appeals that the trial judge in the case, Verla Sue Holland, could not have provided Hood with a fair trail while involved in a long-term intimate relationship with then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell. O’Connell actively participated in the case, the appeals said. Holland is now retired and O’Connell is in private practice.
The Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday ruled unanimously that the allegations came too late in the process to be considered.
Hood’s lawyers then appealed to court where he was convicted and sentenced for relief.
After hearing arguments by telephone today, Judge Curt B. Henderson, sitting in the 296th District Court in Collin County, where Hood was convicted in 1990, submitted an order recalling the “execution “date and the death warrant.”
In a separate order, Henderson recused himself from the case. He gave no explanation for his actions.
At 5:36 p.m., Hood’s lawyers were notified that the Collin County District Attorney John R. Roach filed two motions asking the Court of Criminal Appeals to overrule Henderson, who Roach claimed “clearly abused his discretion by attempting to withdraw the execution date without authority.”
Hood's death warrant withdrawn but prosecutors challenging
UPDATE: At 5:36 p.m. this evening, the Collin County prosecutors filed a motion asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to withdraw the trial court’s order and allow Charles Hood’s execution to proceed tonight, according to Hood’s lawyers.
A state district judge in Collin County has withdrawn the death warrant for Charles Dean Hood, who had been scheduled to die this evening for a 1989 double murder in Plano, according to his lawyers.
They had argued in recent appeals that Hood deserves a new trial because of allegations that the trial judge and the then-Collin County district attorney had a secret romantic relationship during the trial.
With execution imminent, lawyers may appeal to Supreme Court
Lawyers for Charles Dean Hood, a former Dallas-area topless club bouncer scheduled to be executed this evening, said they are considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge his conviction citing allegations that Hood’s trial judge had a romantic relationship with the district attorney.
Hood’s lawyers contend he should get a new trial because of the allegations they made in appeals last week that Hood’s trial judge, Verla Sue Holland, and then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, had a romantic relationship at the time of the trial. Read Chuck Lindell’s stories on the appeals here and their rejection by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals here.
Texas Defender Service Executive Director Andrea Keilen issued the following statement on behalf of Hood’s lawyers this afternoon:
“Nothing is more fundamental to the right to a fair trial under the U.S. and Texas constitutions than an impartial judge. Mr. Hood’s right to a fair trial was denied when Judge Verla Sue Holland failed to recuse herself even though she was engaged in an intimate relationship with Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell. It is unacceptable that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Mr. Hood’s application for writ of habeas corpus and motion for stay of execution on technical grounds, rather than hearing the merits of his case.
This is an outcome that Texans cannot accept. Ten of the nation’s leading legal ethicists agree that the romantic relationship between the DA who prosecuted Mr. Hood and the judge who presided over the case renders the proceedings ‘invalid per se.’ Today, we are considering other avenues of litigation, including an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
No court has ever been presented with the facts of Judge Holland’s relationship with District Attorney O’Connell. It is an irrevocable wrong to send a man to his death without ever hearing this critical evidence.
Only days ago, on June 3, 2008, Matthew Goeller, an assistant district attorney in the Collin County District Attorney’s Office from 1987 to 1996, filed an affidavit testifying that “[i]t was common knowledge” that Judge Holland and District Attorney O’Connell “had a romantic relationship” for several years, including the time of Mr. Hood’s trial and death sentence.
It is nonsensical for the Court of Criminal Appeals to hold that Mr. Hood should have brought this claim sooner when key witnesses came forward only recently. Dismissals on such technicalities in death cases belong in fiction, not our state courts.
Almost a year ago, Michael Richard was executed because the Court of Criminal Appeals locked the courthouse doors after Richard’s attorney’s computer broke down and the attorney requested an extra 20 minutes to file the stay motion. Incredibly, as Mr. Hood’s case shows, little has changed in Texas. Texans demand that their judges care enough to be impartial and fair, especially when it is literally a matter of life and death.”
June 12, 2008
Judge, prosecutor dated, death penalty appeal claims
An appeal filed Thursday claims Charles Dean Hood’s capital murder conviction should be overturned because the judge at his 1990 trial was involved in a secret intimate relationship with the prosecutor.
Judge Verla Sue Holland, now retired, could not have provided Hood with an impartial trial while dating then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, who played an active role in prosecuting Hood for double murder, the appeal alleged.
Hood is scheduled to be executed June 17.
Hood’s lawyers had tried to confirm the rumored affair for years. Last week, a former assistant district attorney provided an affidavit that called the relationship “common knowledge” in the prosecutor’s office, the appeal states.
“An intimate relationship … not only implies a special willingness of the judge to accept the prosecutor’s representations and arguments, but also suggests extensive personal contacts beyond the confines of the courtroom,” the appeal said.
The full story will be in the American-Statesman and online Friday.
The appeals — two versions were filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, but both are essentially the same document — can be read here and here.
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June 11, 2008
State's highest criminal court to decide if Austin police violated rights of defendant facing death penalty
A man facing the death penalty in Travis County in the 2003 stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend’s friend will have his case heard by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the court announced Wednesday.
The state’s highest criminal court will determine whether Milton Dwayne Gobert’s recorded confession to stabbing 30-year-old Mel Cotton in North Austin should be admissible at his trial.
At issue is what Gobert (shown at right) said to Austin homicide Detective Michael Burgh the day after Cotton was found dead.
“I don’t want to give up any right, though, if I don’t got no lawyer,” Gobert said, according to court documents.
Burgh and Detective Kerry Scanlon both asked: “You don’t want to talk?” Gobert then agreed to talk to them and signed a card saying he understood the rights he was waiving.
After a few questions, Scanlon again asked Gobert if he was sure he wanted to give up his right to a lawyer. Gobert said he was sure.
During the interview Gobert said he wrestled a knife away from Cotton and stabbed her with it, court documents show. Her 5-year-old son also was stabbed but survived.
Defense lawyers say Gobert clearly asserted his right to a lawyer and that police should have ceased questioning him. Prosecutors say that Gobert’s statement about a lawyer was not clear.
In 2006, state District Judge Bob Perkins sided with Gobert’s defense lawyers and ruled that nothing Gobert said could be used at his capital murder trial.
A three-judge panel of the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals in April 2007 affirmed Perkins’ ruling. Chief Justice Kenneth Law and Justice Jan Patterson agreed with Perkins and Justice David Puryear dissented.
Prosecutors asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to take the case, but before the 3rd Court forwarded the case up the ladder for review, the justices took another look. In October, Law changed his mind and sided with Puryear. The court then ordered that Gobert’s statements could be used during his trial.
Gobert’s lawyers then asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to take the case. With its ruling Wednesday that it would accept, the court said it would entertain oral arguments in the case. The date has not been set.
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June 10, 2008
Paul Devoe in court for ruling on statements about killings
A judge in Travis County could rule today on the trial admissibility of potentially incriminating statements made by Paul Devoe during and after what authorities say was a cross-country killing spree in August.
State District Judge Brenda Kennedy last month heard two days of testimony on statements made by Devoe around the time he was arrested in the fatal shootings of five people in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
According to the testimony at those hearings, the 44-year-old handyman and painter who is facing the death penalty:
* Asked a Suffolk County, N.Y. police officer, “”Do you know how many bodies they found?”
* Told Suffolk County detectives he killed a woman in Pennsylvania for her car and gave details of murders in Texas.
* Told his sister that he had shot people.
* Told his former co-worker he had killed people.
* Told a former housemate, “I just snapped.”
* Told a cellmate at the Travis County jail, “I killed six people.”
Devoe is charged in Travis County with capital murder in the killings of his ex-girlfriend’s daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17, in Jonestown on Aug. 24. He also is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Paula Marie Griffith, 46, and her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, in Jonestown, and bartender Michael Allred, 41, at a Marble Falls bar on the same day. Authorities have said that on his way to his native Long Island, N.Y., where he was arrested August 27, he killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart in Greencastle, Pennsylvania for her car.
Tom Weber, one of Devoe’s defense lawyers, argued in a memorandum filed with the court last week that all of the statements are inadmissible in court. Prosecutors had not filed a brief as of late Monday but are expected to argue the statements may be used at Devoe’s future capital murder trial. Kennedy has not scheduled the trial.
Weber made a separate argument for every statement Devoe is accused of making. He argued, for example, that before speaking to Suffolk County police officers he did not receive the appropriate Miranda warnings and before speaking to Suffolk detectives “he was not permitted to sleep, even though he had been awake for 56 hours.”
Weber said Devoe’s statement to his cellmate that he killed six people did not include details about the killings and therefore did not constitute a confession.
Weber noted that prosecutors did not present evidence of statements Devoe made to Travis County sheriff’s office investigators during last month’s hearing. Therefore, that would be inadmissible he argued.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Devoe spoke to detectives but said they are not planning to present those statements to a jury due to “trial strategy.”
The hearing in Kennedy’s 403rd District Court in the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center in downtown Austin is scheduled for 2 p.m. Read previous Statesman stories about the Devoe case here.
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