Arizona fugitive planned suicide by bear, report says

Jan. 27, 2011
FLAGSTAFF - A convicted killer who escaped from an Arizona prison said after his capture that he had planned to overdose on heroin at Yellowstone National Park and let bears eat him to end the fear and panic he was experiencing while on the lam.

Tracy Province told Mohave County sheriff's Detective Larry Matthews that he had wanted to go up on a mountain, shoot up a gram of heroin and "be bear food." As he was preparing the drug, a voice told him not to go through with the plan, and he changed course in favor of trying to hitchhike to Indiana to see family.

"He called it divine intervention," Matthews wrote in an August report.

Al Nash, a spokesman at Yellowstone National Park, said it's certainly possible that Province's plan would have worked, but it struck him as improbable.

"We have a fair number of bears in the ecosystem," Nash said. "They eat about anything. A bear would rather get an easy meal than a difficult meal, but human bear encounters are very infrequent."

Authorities say Province asked fellow convict John McCluskey and their reported accomplice, Casslyn Mae Welch, to take him to Yellowstone, so they drove him to the Wyoming park from New Mexico. Province doesn't name anyone else in the interview with Matthews, but it's clear whom he's with.

Their travels took them to the Phoenix area to get clothing and to an eastern Arizona Walmart to buy sleeping bags, and they got turned around in Oklahoma and Texas, Province said in the interview first reported Thursday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The trio face capital murder and carjacking charges in New Mexico, where they're accused of killing an Oklahoma couple and burning their bodies inside a camping trailer.

Province has pleaded guilty to Arizona charges of escape, kidnapping, aggravated assault and armed robbery and is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. He then will be sent to New Mexico to face charges there.

Province, McCluskey and a third inmate, Daniel Renwick, escaped from a minimum-security prison near Kingman on July 30. Authorities say Welch helped them flee by throwing cutting tools over the perimeter fence.

Province told Matthews about his plan to commit suicide after he was returned to Arizona following his Aug. 9 capture in the sleepy town of Meeteetse, Wyo.

He was serving two life sentences for murder and robbery and told Matthews he fantasized about fleeing but became nervous after scaling a fence topped with barbed wire and cutting through another fence. The trio's escape went unnoticed for hours.

"He didn't know why anyone would want to escape because all you do is look over you(r) shoulder the entire time," Matthews wrote.

Province told the detective he had put a gun under a pillow at an Albuquerque motel, then turned on the TV and saw a story about the escape, so he panicked and left without the weapon.

Province also discovered that he forgot how to drive during their time in New Mexico, telling Matthews that he almost hit other motorists. The group of fugitives ended up leaving the vehicle he was driving behind.

"Everyone drives too fast now," Matthews quoted Province as saying. "When he went to prison the speed limit was 55."

Province recounted to Matthews that he told his traveling companions he was upset after the New Mexico killings and that "he wasn't in for it." The two suggested Yellowstone, and they dropped him off there.

The escape that Province said was planned over a couple of weeks spurred a nationwide manhunt for the fugitives.

Renwick had split from the group right away and was captured days later after a shootout with police in Colorado.

Authorities caught up with McCluskey and Welch in eastern Arizona, where a Forest Service employee spotted the beat-up Nissan they were driving at a campground. They are set to go to trial on Arizona charges April 19.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/01/27/20110127arizona-fugitive-planned-suicide-by-bear.html

New evidence postpones Mortensen murder trial

January 19, 2011
A judge agreed during a hearing on Tuesday to postpone action in the case of two men accused of killing a former BYU professor.

At the request of their attorneys, Martin Bond and Benjamin Rettig will next appear before Judge Thomas Low on March 15. Ronald Yengich and Michael Esplin, who represent Bond and Rettig, respectively, said that the defense has recently received a large amount of evidence from county prosecutors and postponing the case would give them a chance to thoroughly review it.

"It's going to take some time," Esplin said after the hearing.

Prosecutor Tim Taylor said after the hearing that given the quantity of evidence the defense needs to review, two months is appropriate.

Prosecutors are planning for a preliminary hearing later this year, and Taylor said they feel good about the case against Bond and Rettig. He said he hopes the case eventually provides some resolution for Mortensen's family.

Bond and Rettig are accused of slitting the throat of Kay Mortensen on Nov. 16, 2009. Prosecutors originally arrested and charged Mortensen's son Roger and daughter-in-law Pamela with the crime, but received a tip about Bond and Rettig late last year. The two men were eventually arrested in Vernal. Investigators believe they killed Mortensen while stealing guns from his home.

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_23372719-7e2c-5043-8472-081b65bf0311.html

I hope they get evidence that implicates Sherman besides the confession of Lincoln.  Below is a previous story that talks about Sherman being involved.


Documents reveal new details in Jackson County slaying

November 30, 2010
GREENWOOD — They got a cell phone, a house phone and a purse — and for these things, two men killed 62-year-old Vivian Ford, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday.

John Wayne Lincoln told Jackson County investigators in a post-Miranda interview that he and an accomplice went to 5016 Ford Road on Saturday afternoon in order to commit a burglary.

“He admitted that they knocked on the door several times with no one answering,” Inv. Rory Jackson wrote in an arrest affidavit. “As the two prepared to forcibly enter the home, Mrs. Ford answered the door. Realizing the home was occupied, Lincoln and his accomplice attacked Mrs. Ford with knives, stabbing and cutting her numerous times, causing her death.”

Her husband, Larry Ford, was out hunting during the attack. He came home to find Vivian Ford’s body and called the police. Investigators found a broken knife handle in the yard and noted that Vivian Ford had stab wounds to her chest, face and throat.

Neighbors recognized Lincoln’s 1990s-era Chevrolet truck and told police he had been in the area Saturday, authorities reported. Lincoln was known to investigators as someone who had been involved in previous burglaries in the area.

Lincoln has been charged with an open count of murder and is being held without bond in the Jackson County jail.

King Edward Sherman also was arrested in connection with the incident, investigators said. Lincoln and Sherman are accused of breaking into a home on Bates Road, where authorities said they took an LCD flat-panel television, which they later sold for $100.

Sherman has been charged with dealing in stolen property and is being held in the Jackson County jail on a warrant out of Calhoun County. He also has a $50,000 bond for the dealing in stolen property charge.

Sheriff’s officials have said they believe Sherman was present during the slaying but do not yet have the evidence necessary to charge him with murder.

http://www.newsherald.com/articles/greenwood-88983-jackson-new.html

Mistrial Declared in Gary Dunn Murder Trial

January 28, 2011
The second capital murder trial of Gary Dunn, accused of killing an Arkansas Tech University student in 2005, has been declared a mistrial.

The Johnson County jury told Circuit Judge Bill Pearson they were unable to agree on a verdict around 8 p.m. Friday. Dunn was on trial for the Dec. 15, 2005 death of Nona Dirksmeyer, 19.

He will be tried again at a later date, according to prosecutors. Dunn will be held in the Pope County Jail until then. A gag order has been issued in the case.

Jurors began deliberating the case Thursday afternoon before breaking for the evening. After 11 hours of deliberation Friday, Judge Pearson called the jury back around 6 p.m. He asked if they wanted to continue or resume on Monday. At the time the jury was split 9 to 3. The group decided to continue deliberations.

Before Dunn’s second trial began, the prosecution decided it would not seek the death penalty.  Dunn’s first capital murder trial in May 2010 for Dirksmeyer’s death ended in mistrial when the jury couldn’t reach a verdict.  The original suspect, Dirksmeyer’s boyfriend Kevin Jones, was acquitted of her murder in 2007.

It’s the second mistrial for Dunn after his first ended in a hung jury last April.

DIRKSMEYER’S DEATH

Jones found Dirksmeyer choked, beaten, and stabbed to death.  Police said it was not a random act.  Dirksmeyer lived off-campus in Russellville.  Police said the victim was beaten to death with a floor lamp.  Autopsy results indicated Dirksmeyer, a music major, died of multiple blunt force injuries.

Dirksmeyer was buried in late December.  On the day of her funeral, police also said they’d cleared all but one of the suspects.  No names were mentioned.  One month after the murder, the investigation was turned over to the Pope County prosecutor.

Three months had passed since Dirksmeyer’s murder when police made an arrest.  The suspect was Jones, her boyfriend. Jones turned himself in to face a first-degree murder charge.  He was eventually released on a $250,000 bond. He was later acquitted in 2007. A special prosecutor was named to the case.  In August 2008, a new arrest was made.

GARY DUNN

After Jones was acquitted in for Dirksmeyer’s murder in 2007, Gary Dunn was developed as a new suspect.  Dunn was Dirksmeyer’s neighbor at the Inglewood apartments in Russellville.  A judge ruled the DNA evidence found on a condom wrapper at the scene was admissible.

Authorities said Dunn put himself at the apartment complex at the time of the murder.

Dunn requested a mental evaluation.  His lawyers said the mental exam would help determine whether their client was competent to be tried.  Also noted, the prosecutors would have access to what Dunn said to examiners.  Having the exam would also enable defense lawyers to better defend Dunn if there is a penalty phase to determine whether he should be executed or given life in prison.

Dunn pleaded not guilty.  His bond was set at $1,000,000.

DUNN’S SECOND TRIAL

During Dunn’s second trial in January 2011, Dirksmeyer’s mother took the stand, testifying about her daughter’s sexual history and mental state.  She thought Dirksmeyer had committed suicide because of her history of depression and self-mutilation.

Also taking the stand was a jogger who was attacked by Dunn in 2002.  Kelly Jo McCormick, who resembles Dirksmeyer, said Dunn hit her in the head with a tree branch while she was on a jogging trail in Russellville.  McCormick said Dunn screamed, “I’m going to kill you.”  McCormick got away from Dunn after receiving several injuries to her face.  Dr. Charles Kokes, the state medical examiner, said Dirksmeyer’s body had the same type of blows.  Dunn was convicted of second-degree battery for the beating.

Dirksmeyer’s stepfather and uncle also testified.  The defense questioned them about Dirksmeyer’s boyfriend, Jones, and his behavior after the murder.

Dunn didn’t take the stand in his own defense.

The defense spent at least one hour giving closing arguments, pointing the finger at Jones.  The defense used Jones’ phone records and inconsistent timeline as evidence.  The defense also said no expert witness was able to testify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the DNA on the condom wrapper is in fact Dunn’s, or that it had anything to do with the murder.  Blood and DNA experts say the DNA allegedly linking Dunn to the crime scene is partial and inconclusive.

The prosecution concluded its case saying it didn’t need to prove why Dunn killed Dirksmeyer, only that he did.  Dunn has multiple explanations for his whereabouts during the time of Dirksmeyer’s murder.  The prosecution, however, said DNA on a condom wrapper found at the scene ties Dunn to the crime.

PRE-TRIAL TO SECOND TRIAL

Dunn said in court papers that another man murdered Dirksmeyer and used a television show to devise his method.  Dunn asked the judge if the jury could watch the show “Forensic Files” because it has “striking similarities” to how Jones acted around the time Dirksmeyer was killed.

DUNN’S FIRST TRIAL

Prosecutors acknowledged in opening statements that Russellville Police made mistakes when they investigated the case in 2005.

Prosecutors argued a condom wrapper found near the body had DNA matching Dunn’s.  A genetics expert said the chance the DNA on the condom wrapper doesn’t match Dunn’s is 120 million to one.  Dunn’s attorney argued the expert’s theory was outdated.

The prosecution also argued there was “substantial evidence” showing Dirksmeyer was the victim of a sexual assault or an attempted assault, even though no semen was found on her body.  Defense attorneys said there was no evidence Dirksmeyer was sexually assaulted.

The defense said Jones is the real killer, saying he contaminated evidence using techniques he learned while watching crime shows.  Jones testified during the trial and said he climbed on top of his girlfriend to try and keep her body warm after finding it.

Dunn’s estranged wife testified during the trial and said she saw him leaving Dirksmeyer’s apartment two weeks before her death.  Dunn told police he didn’t know Dirksmeyer.  His estranged wife also said Dunn asked her to lie about his alibi.  She also said her husband sexually abused her before they separated.

Prosecutors called Jones’ best friend and mother to the stand.  Police say Jones was with the friend and mother when he found his girlfriend stabbed and beaten to death.  Dirksmeyer’s mother and stepfather were also called to the stand.

Investigators said Dirksmeyer’s killer appears to be left-handed.  State Police Investigator Bill Glover says Dunn is left-handed, after watching him sign a statement using his left hand.  A doctor said the cuts and stab marks on Dirksmeyer’s neck and shoulder were likely inflicted by someone who was right-handed.

In the end, a jury didn’t convict Dunn.  The foreman told Circuit Judge Bill Pearson they hadn’t made any progress.  Judge Pearson asked the foreman which way the jury was leaning.  The foreman said, “Six, four, and two.”

The judge declared a dead-locked jury.

JONES’ TRIAL

Prosecutors called it a crime of passion and Dirksmeyer’s boyfriend was named a suspect.

In the arrest affidavit, investigators compared statements Jones made to them and those from his cell phone records.  Jones told investigators he last saw Dirksmeyer at 12:30 a.m. when he left her apartment.  That was also the day she was murdered.  Jones called her at 1:30 a.m. when he went to bed.  The affidavit states he told officers he got a text message from Dirksmeyer around 9 a.m.  Jones said he didn’t leave his house until 11:45 a.m., when he went to his parents’ gas station.  In the probable cause statement, it says the person Jones told police he spoke with didn’t actually see Jones until 1 p.m.  In the interview, Jones said he tried calling Dirksmeyer around 11 or 12 in the afternoon, but the phone rang and went straight to voicemail.  Phone records obtained by investigators show Jones didn’t call at those times.  He didn’t make a call until around 2 p.m.  After that time, authorities say he made several calls and sent a text message around 4:30 p.m. reading “U alive.”

A forensic pathologist testified, saying a time of death couldn’t be pinpointed because there is no science to establish it.  He did, however, say Dirksmeyer was tortured with the knife, punched in the face, and then hit with a floor lamp.

In the prosecution’s closing statements, they said Jones answered a text message from Dirksmeyer, his girlfriend, and then went to her apartment and killed her.  The defense said Jones was too busy doing chores at his house to be at Dirksmeyer’s apartment 25 minutes away.

The only thing linking Jones to the scene was a bloody palm print.  It’s unknown whether the print was left during the murder or when Jones discovered the body.  A forensic scientist said it was made when Jones found the body because the print was somewhat wet, as described in a police report.

The prosecution played a 95 minute tape of Jones’ first interview with police.  Jones was visibly shaken during the interview.  He usually cried when investigators left the room.

The defense grilled lead investigator Mark Frost, claiming the mass of police at the scene tampered with possible evidence.  Frost also admitted to taking a knife as evidence one day after the murder.  Frost also called the scene “staged.”  Frost said a condom wrapper found at the scene was only tested for fingerprints, never for DNA.

The defense also said a male’s fingernail was found in the carpet near Dirksmeyer’s body, but wasn’t tested.

Jurors also heard from state crime lab employees who tested evidence from the scene, including cell phones, clothes, and blood samples.

One of Dirksmeyer’s neighbors testified saying she saw a male, who wasn’t Jones, arguing and beating on her apartment door about one month before her death.

Jones was tried and acquitted of first-degree murder on July 19, 2007.  Jones started crying when the judge read the verdict.  Dirksmeyer’s stepfather yelled, “You got away with it, Kevin!”  Prosecutors said they respected the jury’s decision.

http://www.kspr.com/news/local/kfsm-mistrial-declared-in-dirksmeyer-murder-20110128,0,4993419,full.story

Murder trial ends with mistrial
With the jury unable to reach a verdict, a new trial will be held soon

January 28, 2011
It took nearly nine hours and two separate notifications to the bench that a consensus could not be reached Friday before a mistrial was declared in the first-degree murder trial of Adrian Deon Brown.

“We have discussed the weaknesses of our decisions and we have not been convinced to change our minds,” said a note from jurors that was passed to Circuit Judge Willard Pope at 9:36 p.m., leading the judge to declare, “At this point, I don't see anything to do but to declare a mistrial.”

The outcome threw into thin air two years of preparation for what was a death penalty case and two weeks of trial. Now, a new trial will be held with a different panel of jurors in the not-too-distant future.

A special status conference to discuss those preliminary matters will be held at 1 p.m. Feb. 4 before Pope. In the end, Brown appeared relaxed as he stood at the defense table, conferring with his legal counsel before returning to custody, his family looking on.

As they shuffled out of the courtroom late Friday night, emotions were mixed.

“I think it was good it was like that. I was hoping it would be not guilty,” said Bernice Brown, the defendant's mother, who had traveled from Miami with family members to attend the trial.

Tricia Jenkins, the defendant's lead attorney, said she felt the jury worked extremely hard and added of the hung jury outcome, “I don't know how to feel about it yet.”

Prosecutor Rock Hooker kept a positive outlook, saying, “We have to respect the jury's inability to arrive at a verdict.”

As for the items that prevented several jurors from believing the state had proved its case, Hooker declined to speculate, saying, “It could be something we never even imagined.”

The 12-member panel informed the judge both in the fourth and sixth hour of deliberations it could not reach agreement, each time being patiently instructed to carefully poll one another on differences.

Pope dismissed the jury to begin deliberations at 1:10 p.m Friday after a morning of closing arguments. It came back into the courtroom briefly thereafter to rehear the 911 call that Melissa Rivera, an alleged eyewitness, made to police after the shooting.

Throughout the trial, much attention had rested on the eyewitness testimony of Rivera, the state's key witness.

She is the person who allegedly saw Brown enter the bedroom where she and her boyfriend, Jonathan Brinson, slept early on Nov. 25, 2008, point a .40-caliber firearm into his cousin's face, demand money and drugs, pull the trigger, and then flee in Brinson's Pontiac GTO.

She claims Brown first ordered the two out of bed, shot Brinson once after they struggled inside a closet, ordered the pair into the living room and shot his cousin again as he attempted to flee out of the house.

Absent Rivera's statements to detectives, prosecutors and a grand jury, the state would have had on its hands a case built only on circumstantial evidence, a fact prosecutor Rock Hooker acknowledged to jurors Friday morning at the start of his closing argument.

“You're going to talk about Melissa,” he told the jury. “What you think about her is not whether or not you like her, it's whether you believe her.”

Trust in Rivera's statements was likely key as the jury deliberated whether to find Brown, 30, guilty or not guilty of killing his first cousin in cold blood, despite no anecdotal evidence that the pair had any history of animosity — just family members both involved in the sale of drugs. In the end, that view was divided.

“I had no reason to kill my cousin,” Brown told Marion County Sheriff's Detective Donald Buie during an interrogation in Miami the day following the shooting. Brown was arrested in that city after driving from Ocala to Miami in the early-morning hours after the shooting.

In that interview, he kept a prolonged silence when asked the question, “When is the last time you were in Ocala?” The state produced cell phone records that showed Brown made more than 30 calls between 3 a.m. and noon the following day, the calls forming a path from Ocala to Miami — his hometown.

“This is like a teenager who just got his cell phone yesterday ... or this is someone who needed help,” Hooker said of the frequency of those outgoing calls, many made to Mary Parks, the woman in Miami to whom Brown was married by Muslim ceremony.

She testified earlier in the week that Brown wanted her to meet him and bring a fresh change of clothes. She said he told her, “There's something I did I can't get out of.”

But fleeing Ocala in the early-morning hours doesn't necessarily make Brown the person who shot his cousin, defense attorney John Tedder told jurors earlier on Friday.

“We knew the crime occurred,” he said in his nearly two-hour closing argument. “The question is, who did it?”

Brinson was found dead behind his house with three gunshot wounds, allegedly after jumping through a window with his killer on his trail. Rivera claims Brown got “greedy” for a stash of money and drugs and targeted his cousin, a high-level drug dealer at the top of a drug ring which was, at the time, the focus of a multi-agency investigation called “Operation Fort Knox.”

“We don't get to pick our victims. We don't get to pick our witnesses,” Hooker said in his closing argument. “We don't have to prove why this defendant would kill a blood cousin.”

Inconsistencies in Rivera's statements — including referring to a plural set of culprits in her first 911 call, and telling a grand jury in January 2009 she saw Brown “toss a gun,” when she hadn't mentioned this fact to authorities before — led the defense to attack her credibility.

In his closing, Tedder accused law enforcement of performing an underwhelming investigation that didn't bother to check for fingerprints on a safe found in Brinson's home; neglected to investigate others closely aligned to Brinson, including Rivera; and overlooked at least two shell casings in the house later located by one of Brinson's ex-girlfriends.

“I will submit to you that this investigation was bungled from the beginning,” Tedder said.

Little DNA evidence linked Brown to the crime, although Brinson's blood was found on a gray shirt Rivera said she saw Brown wearing that morning, which was later found disposed of in Brinson's home.

Brown's DNA, however, was not found anywhere on a

tank top Brinson wore when Rivera said she saw Brown drag him up off the floor during a struggle in the bedroom closet.

The DNA profile of possibly another male, however, was located on the tank top.

The state was able to produce cell phone records between Brown and a close friend, Damien Brown, in which Fuller, at midnight the evening prior to the shooting, texts to Brown: “Be careful.”

Tedder, leaning back in his chair Friday evening at the defense table after the first sign that a mistrial was imminent, had this to say about the outcome: “When this happens, I'm disappointed. But that's just the way it goes.”

http://www.ocala.com/article/20110128/articles/110129674?tc=ar

Murder defendant removed from his trial
Lovejoy charged in stepdaughter's death

January 28, 2011
A Naperville man accused of the 2004 murder of his 16-year-old stepdaughter was barred from the Friday afternoon session of his jury trial in DuPage County because of ongoing outbursts.

"In seven years his interruptions have been too many to count," said Judge Kathryn Creswell, who has presided over the lengthy court proceedings involving Laurence Lovejoy. "I repeatedly warned him this morning, and he has ignored those warnings. We are not required to indulge his disruptive behavior."

Creswell told Public Defender Mark Lyons that Lovejoy could return to the courtroom Tuesday when his trial resumes. When the jury returned Friday afternoon, it was told not to infer anything from Lovejoy's absence. The jury heard forensic testimony for about three hours with Lovejoy absent.

Lovejoy is charged with the March 3, 2004, murder of Erin Justice, a Waubonsie Valley High School sophomore, who had claimed that about a month earlier she had been raped by her stepfather. The murder charge against Lovejoy claims he poisoned, stabbed, beat and drowned the victim in her mother's Aurora town house.

Lovejoy was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime in 2007, but the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the sentence, saying the state's DNA evidence linking him to the crime scene wasn't disclosed early enough for the defense to prepare a rebuttal. He is now being retried. Prosecutors have said they again will seek the death penalty if Lovejoy is found guilty.

On Friday morning, the fourth day of the retrial, DuPage County forensic scientist Tamara Camp was explaining about DNA evidence she was going to present to the jury, which wasn't in the courtroom at the time. Lovejoy stood up and loudly objected, stating that "this is a bogus trial" and that he "objected to the evidence." He continued his protests despite several warnings from Creswell that he was about to waive his right to be in the courtroom in the afternoon.

During numerous pretrial hearings, Lovejoy often interrupted attorneys, drawing repeated warnings from Creswell.

If the jury convicts Lovejoy of the murder, it will be asked to sentence him to death. Legislation has passed the Illinois General Assembly that would abolish the death penalty, but Gov. Pat Quinn hasn't said if he will sign it.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lovejoy-0129-20110128,0,4187266.story

In the video it looks like she has something in her mouth (candy or something).   The article says she gave a confession stating she was planning it and purchased gun 1-week prior to this after.  That's premeditation and she did not kill herself, so that tells me she is not crazy, just evil 


Police say New Tampa mom shot her teen children to death

01/28/2011
NEW TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa Police have arrested a New Tampa mother after they say she shot her two teenage children to death Thursday night.

Investigators say Julie Powers Schenecker, 50, shot and killed her children with a .38 caliber gun in their home.

Officers went to the home in the Ashton Reserve subdivision around 7:45 Friday morning after the police department received an out-of-state phone call from the suspect's mother.

After first seeing Schenecker outside covered in blood, police found the woman's son, Beau, 13, in the garage, and her daughter, Calyx, 16, was found in an upstairs bedroom, both fatally wounded.

Police say the grandmother received an email from Schenecker, saying she was depressed.  The grandmother tried to call the family, and could not reach anyone, so she called police.

According to investigators, Schenecker was driving her son to soccer practice when she allegedly shot him in the head twice for talking back to her. She then drove home and parked her van in the garage, leaving the victim on the front passenger-side seat.

Still armed, she reportedly went inside the house, walked up behind her daughter while she did her homework on the computer, and fired one shot into the back of her head and one shot to her face.

Both victims died at the scene.

After being read her miranda rights, police say Schenecker admitted to purchasing the revolver last weekend, and said she planned to murder her children and then kill herself.

Schenecker was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree.

The children's father, Colonel Parker Schenecker, is a military intelligence officer assigned to US Central Command (CENTCOM).  He is in his 3rd year at MacDill, and is currently on temporary assignment in the Middle East.

Video at link
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_tampa/two-murder-victims-found-in-new-tampa


***************

Police say mom killed her own kids

January 28, 2011
TAMPA - With a .38-caliber revolver she bought five days before, Julie Schenecker shot her 13-year-old son twice in the head as they drove home from soccer practice Thursday evening, police said.

She then parked the family's SUV in the garage of their New Tampa home, went upstairs and shot her 16-year-old daughter in the back of the head and in the face as she did her homework on the computer, authorities said.

When an officer arrived at the home in the gated Ashington Reserve community early Friday in response to a call from a worried relative, Schenecker was on the back porch in slippers and a bloody robe.

She told investigators she killed her children because "they talked back, they were mouthy and she was tired of it," police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.

Schenecker, 50, was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder.

McElroy said she showed no remorse.

Clad in a white jumpsuit, a wide-eyed and haunted-looking Schenecker shook uncontrollably as she was led in shackles to Orient Road Jail.

Her son, Beau, was an eighth-grader at Liberty Middle School and an "amazing goalkeeper."

Her daughter, Calyx, was a sophomore at King High School, where she was in the International Baccalaureate program and a member of the cross country team.

Schenecker's husband Parker is a colonel in U.S. Army intelligence and is in Qatar.

In the military for 28 years, he is assigned to U.S. Central Command, where he works in the intelligence directorate, said Centcom Lt. Col. Michael T. Lawhorn.

Centcom officials at MacDill Air Force Base notified Parker Schenecker of the tragedy at the request of Tampa police.

Friends of the Schenecker children were distraught.

"My son is uncontrollably crying," said Lottie Creech, whose son Hunter played soccer with Beau and hung out with him at McDonald's on Fridays after school.

King High junior Emily Kolilas last saw Calyx at Thursday track practice.

"She always, always had a smile on her face every day at practice," Kolilas said. "Everyone loved Calyx. I loved her. She was just an outstanding young woman. She was amazing. I just can't believe it."

King High Principal Carla Bruning said Calyx was "probably the perfect little child."

"She never missed school," Bruning said. "Today was her first absence."

Police received a call just after 7:30 a.m. Friday from Julie Schenecker's mother, who lives in Texas. She said she was concerned because she couldn't reach her daughter, whom she thought was depressed, McElroy said.

Officers arrived at the home at 16305 Royal Park Court six minutes later but got no answer at the front door, so they went around back and where they discovered Julie Schenecker.

Beau's body was found in the SUV's front passenger seat in the garage, police said. Calyx's body was in the upstairs bedroom.

Schenecker told investigators she had planned to kill the children and herself, police said. They said she left a detailed note with her plans.

After being booked, Schenecker immediately was taken to the jail's medical ward because of her shaking, sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon said. She likely will stay there for a couple of days for observation and then placed in an individual cell to allow closer monitoring.

The state Department of Children & Families previously investigated a domestic argument involving the family, spokesman Terry Field said. But the case did not rise to the level of abuse and was closed in the past few months. Field could not immediately provide further details.

Forensic psychologist Geoffrey McKee said it's rare for mothers to intentionally kill their children and rarer still when the children are older than 12.

"The primary dynamic in those situations is conflict over the children's independence," said McKee, author of the book "Why Mothers Kill" and a clinical professor in neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina's School of Medicine in Columbia, S.C. "It might involve issues of curfew or getting the car keys."

He said it is typical for parents who intentionally kill their children to commit suicide.

The Scheneckers paid $448,000 for their 3,300-square-foot home at 16305 Royal Park Court in April 2008, according to property records, which also list the current market value at about $260,000.

With police and media descending on the community, residents described the situation as unnerving.

"This is devastating for the neighborhood," said neighbor Michelle Ball as she walked her dog past the taped-off crime scene.

Kemi Alli waited at the nearby school bus stop Friday afternoon; she said school officials recommended parents meet their children coming off the bus in light of the slayings.

Alli's children played soccer with Beau and her 15-year-old daughter attends King.

"Those kids had such a bright future," she said. "And now it's gone.

"Imagine how the husband must feel on his way back. He lost everything."
http://northeast2.tbo.com/content/2011/jan/28/281544/police-investigating-double-homicide-in-new-tampa/news/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tbo%2Fnewtampa+%28TBO+%3E+New+Tampa%29

Judges allows use of sexually explicit material in Coleman case

January 28, 2011
WATERLOO • Prosecutors seeking to prove a motive for murder can show a jury sexually explicit homemade videos and images exchanged between defendant Christopher Coleman and his girlfriend in Florida, a judge ruled Thursday.

Circuit Judge Milton Wharton reviewed the material before denying a defense request to bar its use next month when Coleman, 33, goes on trial on three counts of first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of his wife, Sheri, and two pre-teen sons.

Police allege that Coleman wanted to start a new life with the girlfriend, Tara Lintz, without seeking a divorce that might have cost him his career as televangelist Joyce Meyer's bodyguard.

Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz foreshadowed the provocative nature of the images and videos at a hearing last week, saying they will demonstrate the "extent, intensity and audacity of the affair."

"They offer some pretty despicable behavior," Reitz said.

He said the jury would not grasp the full circumstance if prosecutors 'simply acknowledge that (Coleman) had an affair."

William Margulis, an attorney for Coleman, had argued that the material was "highly prejudicial" and of minimal probative value.

Wharton said he would place some restraints, which are not specified, on use of the material.

Meanwhile, Coleman's defense announced Thursday that it will rely on an alibi defense at trial, maintaining that he was at a south St. Louis County gym when the murders occurred at his home in Columbia, Ill.

Dr. Michael Baden, a nationally prominent pathologist, is expected to testify that the three victims were slain in a range of time before 3 a.m. May 5, 2009. Coleman told detectives his family was still alive when he left for a gym about 5:43 a.m.; he called police before 7 a.m., concerned that they did not answer the phone.

Another pathologist in the case has said the precise time of death "is not a matter which can be determined."

Defense lawyers are now asking Wharton to throw out all statements Coleman made to police the day the bodies were found. They allege that detectives subjected him to a long and unfair interrogation after he asserted his right to remain silent.

"If you're not charging me or booking me with anything, I can go. ... I would like to leave," the lawyers say Coleman told police.

Defense lawyers say the ex-Marine then asked several officers whether he could leave but was not granted permission. They said his statements, which they did not specify, were given "under duress."

The attorneys also are asking Wharton to exclude all communications between Coleman and a police chaplain, saying it is privileged communication with clergy.

"After the defendant's family was found dead, the Columbia police sent a police chaplain to speak with the defendant," the motion says. "The defendant and the chaplain had private communications concerning these murders."

Wharton will hear arguments on the latest motions this morning in open court.

Coleman has pleaded not guilty and reportedly has claimed to have been framed by an enemy of the Joyce Meyer Ministries.

Jury selection is to begin in mid-February in Pinckneyville, Ill., where there ostensibly has been less publicity about the crime. The trial will take place in Waterloo.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_1fde6bcc-e90d-5b08-bd93-891ec176f5e5.html?mode=story


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Coleman's attorney signs statement declaring they're ready to go to trial

Friday, Jan. 28, 2011
WATERLOO -- At the order of the trial judge, defense attorney John O'Gara today "reluctantly" signed a certificate of readiness stating that he is prepared for trial in the Chris Coleman triple murder case, even though he has not received supporting documents regarding DNA evidence.

The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 15.

O'Gara said he signed the certificate at the order of St. Clair County Circuit Judge Milton Wharton, "Over my objection and the objection of Mr. Coleman under the compulsion of the court."

Earlier, O'Gara told Wharton that he was reluctant to sign the statement because he had not received "supporting documents," including Illinois State Police DNA sample reports that arrived yesterday.

Wharton said O'Gara could file a motion for a continuance of the trial if the accompanying documents contained information that needed more time to review. After a recess, O'Gara signed the document.

On Thursday, Wharton ruled that sexually explicit videos exchanged between Christopher Coleman and his girlfriend will be allowed during Coleman's capital murder trial next month.

Prosecutors had asked to be able to show the racy videos to the jury, while Coleman's attorney John O'Gara opposed it, saying they would be prejudicial.

At a hearing before Wharton set for this morning, O'Gara will ask a judge to keep the jury from watching his videotaped statements to police the day his wife and sons were found strangled in the family's home.

He also plans to tell the jury at his upcoming trial that he was at the gym at the time his family was murdered, according to a document filed by O'Gara.

"Defendant maintains that on Tuesday morning, May 5, 2009, he left his house at approximately 5:43 a.m. and drove to Gold's Gym located at 151 Concord Plaza in St. Louis, Mo.,," the court pleaded stated. "Defendant maintains that he was not home when the alleged crimes charged herein occurred."

O'Gara asserts that Coleman was not properly read his rights during the questioning by Columbia Police Detective Justin Barlow and Illinois State Police Sgt. David Bivens, and that Coleman never waived those rights.

"At one point, Mr. Coleman stated to Mr. Barlow and Mr. Bivens, 'If you're not charging me or booking me with anything, I can go ... I would like to leave,'" the motion to suppress stated.

Coleman faces three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the May 5, 2009, strangulations of his wife, Sheri, and his sons Garett and Gavin.

Coleman later asked another officer where he could leave and the officer said no.

"Mr. Coleman, obviously flummoxed, stated, 'I can't?'" the motion stated. "The officer then stated to him, 'No. Sorry about that, but you're going to have to go in there and sit down for -- OK?'"

O'Gara wrote that Coleman asserted his right to counsel and his right to remain silent.

The interrogation was extremely long and unfair to Coleman, O'Gara wrote, and his statements were the product of duress.

Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz will ask the jury to impose the death sentence if Coleman is convicted.

Jury selection for Coleman's trial is set to begin Feb. 15.

http://www.bnd.com/2011/01/28/1569175/coleman-made-statements-under.html

Link to appeal dated June 2010

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/09/09-70030.0.wpd.pdf

Maple Heights man who killed grandparents found guilty of capital murder, won't fight death penalty

January 26, 2011
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A three-judge panel found a Maple Heights man guilty Tuesday of capital murder for killing his grandparents and raping his grandmother.

Denny Obermiller, 28, earlier this month had told Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judges Shirley Strickland Saffold, John Sutula and Timothy McGinty that he wished to plead guilty. But prosecutors still were required to present evidence proving the factors that make Obermiller eligible for the death penalty.

Obermiller will return to court Feb. 23, when judges will hear testimony for and against sentencing Obermiller to death.

Obermiller, however, has told the judges he plans to waive his right to fight for his life.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/01/maple_heights_man_who_killed_g.html

Here are some of his appeals.  He's arguing about the same thing each time.  The aggravating factors.  It's amazing how long this has taken.  I think this needs to change.  What if he did get a new trial, then the evidence and witnesses would all be degraded.  To me that's not justice, that's BS.

Here are the links to some I have found

Filed 2003
http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/03/02/004079P.pdf

Filed 2002
http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/02/01/004079P.pdf

Submitted 1990
http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/951/951.F2d.895.88-2584.html

No death penalty for killer
Jury cites Allentown man's horrendous upbringing, low IQ in voting for life in prison.

January 24, 2011

An Allentown killer who remained stoic throughout his murder trial last week broke down during the penalty phase Monday when his mother tearfully apologized for abusing him as a child and raising him in feces-filled homes that sometimes lacked heat, electricity and food.

Kyle "K" Dickerson, 22, held his hand over his face and wept loudly for a few minutes before composing himself as his mother, Katrina Dickerson, admitted failing him and six other children.

The children lacked coats and food, and she beat Dickerson with broomsticks and extension cords, while some of the men she brought home also beat him, according to testimony. She abused drugs and alcohol and left the kids home alone and hungry in houses infested with cockroaches while she went out drinking, witnesses said.

"I love you," she told her son. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kyle."

On Monday, three days after convicting Kyle Dickerson of first-degree murder for killing 23-year-old Shawn Evans during a home-invasion robbery, a Lehigh County jury spared Dickerson's life.

Dickerson's family members and a mitigation specialist told the jury about the dreadful hand Dickerson was dealt. Dickerson's attorney, Matthew Potts, said the upbringing doesn't excuse what his client did, but tells us "how we got here."

The jury deliberated for about an hour before reaching its decision around 5:15 p.m. It cited Dickerson's upbringing and IQ of 76, which is 24 points below average, as factors.

Dickerson will now serve the rest of his life in state prison with no chance of being paroled.

"I didn't want to see him put to death; that's just another life taken," said Evans' uncle, Craig Brown. "I want him to sit and think about what he did."

Evans' grandmother, Janice Harris, said, "I feel better and lighter than I have in months."

Dickerson's brother, 18-year-old Isaac "Boobie" Dickerson of Allentown, was convicted of second-degree murder Friday for his role in the killing and will be sentenced to life in prison next month by Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos.

The Dickerson family, according to testimony, lived in public housing in West Philadelphia and various dilapidated homes in Allentown.

Dickerson, who doesn't know his biological father, sometimes went "bumming into the street" for money or food to support his siblings, and when he lodged a complaint against his mother, officials from Children & Youth found the family living in a home filled with animal feces and discovered two dogs "eating each other" because they had no food, according to defense witness Louise Luck, who has reviewed Dickerson's records since childhood.

Luck said Dickerson's mother kept him out of school for 50 or more days in first, second and thirdgrades, and she failed to get another son medical treatment for a testicle issue and a heart murmur. That son had to have eight teeth pulled from his mouth because they had eroded, Luck said.

"The severity of the family dysfunction is off the charts," Luck said.

"I put a lot on Kyle," Katrina Dickerson said. "In snow, he would shovel sidewalks so we could have a meal to eat and if I wanted to go to the bar, I'd ask him to put the kids to bed. I didn't make good decisions."

Adding to the emotion, Kyle Dickerson saw his infant son for the first time Monday. His girlfriend, 18-year-old Ashley Barry, brought the baby boy into the courtroom. Barry was pregnant when Dickerson was arrested and hadn't been permitted to visit Dickerson in jail because she had to testify in his trial.

Besides murder, the Dickerson brothers also were convicted of robbery, burglary and theft charges.

Two co-defendants who testified against the brothers — their cousin, Thomas "Tom-Tom" Dickerson, 21, of Philadelphia, and Kenneth "Kills" Prescott, 21, of Allentown — are expected to enter plea deals. Thomas Dickerson and Prescott are also charged with homicide, robbery and burglary.

According to First Assistant District Attorney Steven Luksa, the four men went to Evans' home at 830 Green St. in Allentown around 12:45 a.m. March 15 and robbed Evans and others inside. Kyle Dickerson acted as the leader and pointed a gun at Evans and demanded marijuana and money, Luksa said. Evans was shot when he didn't comply and died eight days later.

Evans, a youth football coach, had a daughter born five months after the killing.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-home-invasion-murder-dea20110124,0,3366526.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+morningcall%2Fnews%2Flocal+%28Local+News%29

Judge refuses to exclude Coleman murder evidence

January 22, 2011
WATERLOO • Witnesses in Christopher Coleman's murder trial will be allowed to attack the harmony of his marriage and his alibi despite defense objections, a judge ruled Friday.

Circuit Judge Milton Wharton also decided that a handwriting expert will be allowed to testify about similarities between Coleman's handwriting and words written in paint on walls at the murder scene.

The judge deferred until Friday judgment on defense attempts to prevent prosecutors from presenting jurors with sexually graphic messages and videos Coleman allegedly exchanged with a girlfriend in Florida, Tara Lintz.

In his written order, Wharton agreed to allow at least some testimony from friends of Coleman's wife, Sheri Coleman, about the stormy state of her marriage, her knowledge of her husband's extramarital affair and her fears of harm from him. Wharton placed a limit on material, however, that would be repetitive or outweighed by potential prejudice.

Wharton wrote that he would place unspecified limits on the testimony and that he would instruct the jury on how to properly evaluate it.

Christopher Coleman, 33, has been charged with the deaths by strangulation of his wife, 31, and sons, Gavin, 9, and Garett, 11, whose bodies were found in their bedrooms at home in Columbia, Ill., on May 5, 2009. Police allege that Coleman wanted to start a new life with Lintz and avoid a divorce that might have cost him his career as televangelist Joyce Meyer's bodyguard.

In court Friday, Wharton denied a defense request for a hearing to exclude a time-of-death estimate by a nationally known forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden.

Coleman's defense team attacked the science behind pinpointing a time, and asked Wharton to allow a so-called Frye hearing, a legal inquiry into whether a piece of potential evidence is scientifically reliable.

Baden, a celebrity in his profession, reviewed the case for prosecutors and has said the three victims were slain in a range of time before 3 a.m. Coleman told detectives his family was still alive when he left for a gym about 5:45 a.m.; he called police before 7 a.m., concerned that they did not answer the phone. Another pathologist in the case said the precise time of death "is not a matter which can be determined."

Wharton said the jury, which will be selected from Perry County, Ill., because of local pre-trial publicity, can hear both sides and "make their conclusion."

Also at the hearing, Wharton refused to grant Coleman a Frye hearing to test the reliability of handwriting analysis.

Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz foreshadowed the provocative nature of the sexual images and videos he proposes to show, saying they will demonstrate the "extent, intensity, and audacity of the affair."

"They offer some pretty despicable behavior," Reitz said.

William Margulis, an attorney for Coleman, said the material was "highly prejudicial" and of minimal probative value.

Wharton will review the material before making a decision.

Coleman, who has pleaded not guilty, could face a death sentence if convicted, though there is currently a freeze on executions in Illinois. He has reportedly claimed that he was framed by an enemy of Joyce Meyer's.

Jury selection will begin in mid-February in Pinckneyville, Ill. The trial will take place in Waterloo.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_26539763-661d-513d-8365-14018e90adf3.html

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I cannot believe they even think they can trash evidence from this medical examiner. 

Quinn wants public input on death penalty

Associated Press - January 19, 2011
URBANA, Ill. (AP) - Gov. Pat Quinn says he'd like to hear from the citizens of Illinois before he decides whether to sign legislation that would abolish the death penalty in the state.

During an event at the University of Illinois on Wednesday, Quinn said he's already weighing input from prosecutors, clergy and others on the bill passed this month by the General Assembly.

The governor wouldn't say when he'll make a decision. He says he's going through a period of what he called "reflection and review."

Quinn has said he supports the death penalty. But he also has kept a moratorium on capital punishment put in place in 2000 by Gov. George Ryan after courts overturned the death sentences of 13 men after finding them innocent.

http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=13870503

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Here is the link to contact Governor Quinn - at this link is online email option
http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/Pages/ContacttheGovernor.aspx

By Phone or Mail

Springfield
Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone: 217-782-0244
TTY: 888-261-3336
   
Chicago
Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph, 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: 312-814-2121

I hope they take that bastard down to his last pair of sh*t stained underwear.   With being on the 3rd mental evaluation I guess they are not getting what they want yet.  Either way, this guys going to 'get it'