AZ Man, Efren Medina, Sentenced To Death In 1995 Slaying Of Carle Otis Hodge

[heidi salazar]

Death sentence in slaying of former Republic reporter

A man who killed a former Arizona Republic reporter was sentenced to death Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court, nearly 15 years after he was found guilty of the crime.

In 1995, a jury convicted Efren Medina, 35, of first-degree murder in the death of Carle Otis Hodge, a former science writer for The Republic.

Hodge, 71, tried to stop Medina, then 18, and another man, Ernest Aro, from stealing his car in west Phoenix. Medina pulled Hodge from his car, beat and stomped on him, then dragged him into the street and ran over him twice.

Both men were found guilty of murder in 1995 and during the next year, Aro was sentenced to life in prison and Medina to death. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld Medina's conviction and death sentence in 1999.

But during the ensuing appeals process, the judge who had sentenced Medina to death decided to send the case back to court for resentencing because Medina's mental health issues had not been fully taken into account during his trial.

A second trial to sentence him ended in mistrial in October 2008. The case went back to trial a third time in December 2009, and on Tuesday, a jury imposed the death penalty again.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/01/13/20100113death-for-killing-of-ex-reporter13-ON.html

[spotya]

so in a way hes been run over twice and now hes going to die to and so he should