Rich’s Cup of Tea

Florida Justices Affirm Child Killer’s Conviction

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Back in January of this year, I posted information regarding the fact that Joseph Smith is requesting a new trial.  It’s been 6 months, and I have heard nothing else about it.  Apparently, there were so many problems with his first trial, that he deserves a new one.

In my opinion, he doesn’t deserve ANYTHING other than what’s coming to him inside the walls of the death chamber.

My opinions being what they are, I am assuming for the time being that the Supreme Court turned down his and his attorneys’ requests for a new trial.  If anyone knows the outcome of this with more certainty than I, please let me know!

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Kidnapping — GUILTY

Capital sexual battery — GUILTY

It was a just conclusion to an emotionally charged, eight-day trial.

At long last, Smith, then 39, had been convicted of the heinous kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia 22 months earlier.

Jurors recommended the death sentence Dec. 1.

Circuit Court Judge Andrew Owens concurred March 15, 2006, adding two life sentences.

And now the Public Defender’s Office in Bartow seeks a new trial.

For that monster?

Good God.

Among the issues:

n The FBI forensics expert who testified was not the person who did the DNA testing that helped convict Smith.

n Whether a medical examiner’s opinion should’ve been used since Carlie’s corpse was badly decomposed.

nThat statements by Smith’s brother should’ve been suppressed, given his cooperation with law enforcement.

I respect the importance of due process and that death sentences are appealed automatically.

Legally, it’s how the system works.

Morally, however, something is wrong with this picture.

Very wrong.

Fortified by a strong case, the state met its burden, proving “beyond a reasonable doubt” Smith was Carlie’s killer.

Yet the justice system seeks to give him more consideration than he gave her.

A new trial?

To what end?

Smith is where he belongs — on death row at a maximum security prison.

That this convicted murderer might win a new trial would be outrageous, a travesty, and a rebuke to Carlie’s family and a community that was traumatized by his atrocity.

On Dec. 1, 2005, before jurors deliberated Smith’s punishment, Assistant State Attorney Debra Riva asked them to imagine what was going through Carlie’s mind at the end, facing her horrible fate.

“She’s old enough to know what is happening to her,” Riva said. “When he placed the ligature around her neck, she knew what was going to happen next.”

The large, bold-faced headline in the next day’s Bradenton Herald still strikes home like a sledgehammer in its absolute finality:

JURY: DEATH

Let it be.

Rich’s Note: I have nothing to add to this article other than it is brilliantly written, and I agree with the author’s points completely.

Source:  Bradenton.com, Sunday, January 11, 2009.

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A man who killed an 11-year-old girl after her abduction was caught on camera and broadcast nationwide, is asking that his death sentence be overturned. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, an attorney for condemned killer Joseph Smith argued before the Florida Supreme Court, that there were so many problems with the trial, Smith deserves a new one.

This video sent shockwaves through parents nationwide. Carlie Brucia’s abduction caught on security cameras as the 11-year-old took a shortcut home.

Joseph Smith was caught days later and allegedly confessed to raping and murdering the 11-year-old. His alleged confession to family was a point of contention as lawyers appealed Smiths death Sentence to the Florida Supreme Court.

“The fact that his brother might have made this up is for the jury,” Public Defender Deborah Brueckheimer said.

Smith’s lawyer also raised questions about the handling of DNA that linked Smith to the killing suggesting it could have been mishandled by the FBI lab. Another objection was over graphic photos of the body shown to jurors.

“They just went too far,” Brueckheimer said.

It brought this response from one justice.

“I have yet to see photographs from any of these cases that I would say are pleasant,” Supreme Court Justice Fred Lewis said.

Here in the Capitol, House and Senate budget cutters are arguing over whether the should cut funds for prison drug treatment programs.

In 2001, when Smith was in prison, lawmakers cut all prison drug rehab funding. Whether drugs played a part in Carlie’s killing was part of the appeal.

“We know he had a long history of drug abuse of all sorts starting at a very early age,” Asst. Attorney General Carol Dittmar said.

Afterward, attorneys were reluctant to talk.

The court could rule at any time.

The court itself seemed concerned that the trial judge sited six aggregating factors in imposing death and that at least two of them may have been improper, including a prior conviction in which Smith pleaded no contest.

The state argued the 11-year-olds murder was well thought out in advance since Smith attacked her from behind with a shoe lace and strangled her while her hands were bound.

Rich’s Note: Well, we all knew this was coming (standard procedure for capital cases).  Problems with the trial?  Seemed to be pretty “textbook” to me.  Brother made up the confession?  I heard an audio clip of him telling his mom “it was an accident”.  Drug abuse for many many years?  I don’t flippin’ care, that’s not an excuse for raping and murdering a child!!!

They are also arguing that at least one of the aggravating factors (previous felony conviction) is incorrect.  The court subsequently found him guilty.  That is a conviction.  Possession of cocaine is a felony.  Therefore, we have a FELONY CONVICTION.  See http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-no-contest-plea.htm.

Being the avid proponent of the Death Penalty that I am, if any case deserves capital punishment, it is this one.  Please, men and women of the Supreme Court, keep him on death row!

Source:  Capitol News Service (flanews.com), Wednesday, January 7, 2009.

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Sarasota County deputies are looking for a name to go with faces on surveillance camera images from a fundraiser Saturday night at Evie’s on the Green, 4735 Bee Ridge Road.

The video shows two people deputies say stole from a fundraiser for the Police Athletic League.

Cameras in the ice cream and pizza parlor recorded a couple sitting in the back of the room and grabbing items from other tables, deputies say. They even took purses and bags of volunteers working in a fashion show for the fundraiser.

“It’s unbelievable. They eat and steal, eat and steal. They don’t even look nervous,” said Craig Bridges, the manager of Evie’s.

Volunteers told deputies they are missing iPhones, car keys and cash.

“The worst part was that they took car keys,” said Mary Winter, who helped organize the event. “The girls couldn’t even get home. We had to call locksmiths.”

Nearly five years ago, security cameras outside Evie’s recorded Joseph Smith abducting 11 year old Carlie Brucia. Smith was sentenced to death for raping and murdering Carlie.

Rich’s Note: Gotta love those cameras.  As I stated in an earlier post, they don’t always guarantee prevention, but apprehension is much more likely.

Source:  TBO.com, Monday, November 17, 2008.

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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A longtime sex offender was sentenced to death Wednesday for the 2005 kidnapping, torture and murder of a 9-year-old northern Idaho boy after federal jurors who watched video of some of the brutality deliberated just three hours.

The jurors’ recommendation was binding on U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, who thanked them, dismissed them and then sentenced Joseph Edward Duncan III.

Relatives of the victim, Dylan Groene, remained somber as the jury’s decision was announced. Duncan murdered Dylan’s mother, older brother and his mother’s fiance to kidnap him and his younger sister, who was sexually abused along with her brother but survived.

“The jury speaks the mind of the community,” U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said. “By the verdict today, they have given voice to the victims.”

Duncan showed no reaction other than smiling as the verdict was passed to the judge.

He took Dylan and the boy’s then-8-year-old sister, Shasta, to a remote western Montana campsite where he raped, tortured and threatened them before shooting Dylan in the head and burning his body. Jurors viewed horrifying video Duncan made of him sexually abusing, torturing and hanging Dylan until the boy lost consciousness.

“This defendant is dangerous. He is a predator who takes pride in his work,” prosecutor Traci Whelan said. “He earned this day. His actions … call out for the death penalty.”

Duncan acted as his own attorney but had offered no response to prosecutors’ closing argument.

“I have no argument,” he told the court.

With an eye toward kidnapping the two children, Duncan stalked their family. In 2005 he entered their Coeur d’Alene-area home and used a hammer to fatally bludgeon their 13-year-old brother, Slade Groene, his mother, Brenda Groene, and her fiance, Mark McKenzie.

Duncan was arrested and Shasta rescued weeks after the kidnappings when a waitress at a Denny’s in Coeur d’Alene called police after recognizing the two as they ate.

Duncan pleaded guilty in December to 10 federal charges involving the kidnappings and the murder of Dylan. He pleaded guilty to the other three murders in state court, where he also could be sentenced to death.

“I am so glad this is over. Justice has been served,” said Darlene Torres, Brenda Groene’s mother. “It’s been very painful.”

She said that when she saw Duncan in court, “I seen nothing but an evil, empty, coldhearted shell.”

In closing arguments, Whelan reminded the jury of Duncan’s lifelong “pattern of violence,” including a conviction for raping a boy at gunpoint in 1980. Duncan has told investigators he killed two half-sisters from Seattle in 1996, and he is charged with killing a young boy in Riverside County, California, in 1997.

Duncan may now be brought to Riverside County to stand trial in the death of Anthony Martinez.

Whelan told the jury that Duncan would pose a risk even to prison guards and fellow inmates.

“This defendant uses the time that he has to think out these plans and he is dangerous,” she said. “He is adaptable and he is dangerous.”

The heinousness of the evidence in Dylan’s murder made it particularly difficult for the jurors to remain impartial as they deliberate, said Art Patterson, a jury consultant and senior vice president of the trial consulting firm DecisionQuest.

“Generally, for human beings, it’s pretty hard to maintain impartiality when confronted with such horror,” Patterson said.

“How could any juror not want to see this person removed from our list of living human beings? How could you live with yourself as a juror if there’s any chance this human being could escape from jail and do something like this again?” Patterson said.

Rich’s Note: Bye bye monster, now just waive all of your appeals.  I have nothing further to say.

Source:  CNN.com, Wednesday, August 27, 2008.

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TAMPA, Florida (AP) — A man already in prison for burglary and stealing a car was charged Tuesday in the rape and slaying of a 6-year-old southwest Florida girl nearly two years ago, police said.

Investigators used DNA evidence to link Patrick Murphy, 27, to the September 2006 killing of Coralrose Fullwood, North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis said.

Murphy has been charged with first-degree murder, sexual assault on a victim under 12 and kidnapping.

In 2006, Murphy lived in the same neighborhood as the girl. Her body was found a couple of blocks from her home.

Murphy has refused to speak with authorities and requested an attorney, Capt. Robert Estrada said. The jail said no attorney has been listed for him.

“He’ll be given one, then hopefully through his attorney we’ll be able to talk to him,” Estrada said.

Murphy began serving a two-year prison sentence in Florida in February. His DNA profile was entered into a state computer database, and investigators got a match.

Lewis described the investigation as “very active” and said investigators are looking for others who may have been involved. He asked for help from the public in trying to determine Murphy’s movements around that time.

“I don’t understand how anybody can hurt a child in any way, especially this way,” said the girl’s mother, Ellen-Beth Fullwood. “I’m grateful we’ve gotten this far finally, but my daughter is not coming back.”

Coralrose was last seen by her father early September 17, 2006, when he checked her room after he got home from his bartending job. The family noticed she was missing later that Sunday morning.

A neighbor walking his dog found the first-grader’s body near a construction site two blocks from the family’s home, in a newer subdivision of ranch houses surrounded by woods and pine scrub.

The little girl’s slaying unsettled the community of about 43,000 residents about 65 miles south of Tampa.

Suspicion fell to Coralrose’s father, Dale, after authorities searching the family’s home found child pornography on a computer. He was convicted of possessing child pornography and served a year in jail. He was sent to prison in June after authorities said he violated his probation by having unauthorized contact with a child relative.

Last year, police cleared the girl’s mother and siblings in Coralrose’s slaying but refused to rule out the father’s involvement, even though DNA evidence indicated she was sexually assaulted by someone outside the family.

Estrada said Tuesday that the father’s involvement has not been ruled out, but he declined to elaborate.

Rich’s Note: Yes!! They finally caught him! Keep ‘em coming! So long, Mr. Murphy. Now we just need to find out who killed Taylor and Skyla…

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Tampa, Florida — After three years in legal limbo, the murder trial of David Onstott is set to start Monday morning. Onstott is accused of killing 13-year-old Sarah Lunde in 2005, launching a search for the girl that lasted a week.

Prosecutors face an uphill struggle to get a conviction in the trial.

The judge has thrown out a confession Onstott made to detectives, and the state will build its case without any physical evidence linking him to the crime.

When Sarah Lunde disappeared, it hit the bay area hard. She was the third teenage girl to vanish in just a little over a year.

It was April 2005. Police and volunteers had searched for Carlie Brucia the previous year, and Jessica Lunsford just a month before. Again, they took to the woods near her home in Ruskin and fanned out through neighborhoods, looking and hoping.

The search lasted almost a week. A search dog finally found Sarah’s body in an abandoned fish farm. She was partially clothed and weighed down by concrete blocks.

Even before that discovery, detectives had gotten a confession from David Onstott, a convicted sex offender who used to date Sarah’s mother.

But jurors won’t hear about that.

The judge threw out the confession after Onstott’s lawyers argued that he’d been questioned even though he had demanded to speak to a lawyer.

That decision has delayed this trial dramatically. It has also forced prosecutors to drop their pursuit of the death penalty.

Without the confession, they’re going to be seeking life in prison and trying Onstott based on circumstantial evidence. The state has no physical evidence linking Onstott to the crime.

However, prosecutors do have testimony from Sarah’s brother that puts Onstott at Sarah’s house the day she disappeared. And, since he was arrested, Onstott has talked to loved ones about having a violent soul, and breaking all of the Ten Commandments.

After three years of motions and hearings, jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning.

As an example of how long these legal delays have gone on, consider this: Jessica Lunsford disappeared about a month before Sarah Lunde. Jessica’s killer, John Couey, has already been convicted and condemned and has now been sitting on death row for almost a year.

Rich’s Note: It is extremely unfortunate that the death penalty cannot be sought in this case. Obviously, I do not believe Onstott deserves anything other than death for his actions. I lay part of the blame on those who questioned him in spite of the fact he demanded to speak to a lawyer, but at this point whether it’s the DP or LWOP, justice needs to be served NOW. I will update the blog regularly as the trial progresses. RIP Sarah…

Source: TampaBays10.com, August 11, 2008.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — A death row inmate scheduled for execution in October said he’s so fat that Ohio executioners would have trouble finding his veins.

Lawyers for Richard Cooey argue in a federal lawsuit that Cooey had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and that the problem has been worsened by weight gain. The lawsuit said Cooey is 5-feet, 7-inches tall and weighs about 270 pounds. The lawsuit also said a drug Cooey is taking for migraine headaches could diminish the effectiveness of the first of three drugs Ohio uses in its execution process. Cooey was sentenced to die for raping and murdering two female University of Akron students in 1986.

Rich’s Note: This reminds me of what Jeffrey Lundgren tried to argue when filing a lawsuit to stop his execution back in October of 2006. At the time, the lead prosecutor on the Lundgren case, Steve LaTourette, said the following: “The decision is ludicrous. The notion that someone can eat their way out of the death penalty and lethal injection is repugnant to decent Americans. If that’s the case, perhaps we should shoot him in the head execution-style like he did the five members of the Avery family”. That comment applies here as well. Here’s hoping the October execution is not delayed and justice is served!

Source: NewsNet5.com, August 4, 2008.

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Oklahoma authorities on Monday urged the public to help find a pair of killers, playing a dramatic segment of a frantic 911 call from a relative who reported two girls had been found dead in a ditch.

The 911 tape was released six weeks after the bullet-riddled bodies of 13-year-old Taylor Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker were discovered along a remote country road in the town of Weleetka.

A breathless woman, identified only as a member of a family, can be heard on the tape. Her voice is raw with emotion.

“Somebody killed two young girls.” she says. “They are both down here dead. My granddaughter and her friend. … Help me. Please!” Listen to authorities play the dramatic tape. Warning: Not for the faint-of-heart.

Jessica Brown, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman, said she hoped someone would hear the tape and be inspired to identify the killers.

“We know someone knows what happened,” said Brown. “Hopefully if they hear the tape they will understand what happened and come forward.”

Brown said investigators have run down about 500 leads and have eliminated 100 possible suspects but have not been able to crack the case.

“Someone has to come forward,” she said.

Police are asking members of the public with more information about the case to call (800) 522-8017.

The two girls had planned a sleepover at Taylor’s house on June 8, the night they were killed. They left the house about 5 p.m.

Less than 30 minutes later, Taylor’s grandfather discovered the bodies in a ditch on the side of a road, near a bridge that is a popular gathering spot in the area.

The killings have rattled the community of Weleetka, a town of about 1,000 residents 75 miles from Tulsa. Taylor and Skyla were the only girls in their sixth- and fifth-grade classes,

Investigators don’t have any suspects or motives, but a forensic examination of the bodies indicated that two guns had been used. Police have said they are looking for two shooters.

There has been speculation the girls’ slayings were “thrill killings,” and police investigators have said they hope one of the shooters will turn against the other.

Several witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man on the same dirt road where the girls were shot, Brown said last month.

She said authorities believed that the man, “who didn’t look like he should have been there,” was on the road before the girls were shot multiple times in the head and chest and left in a ditch.

Witnesses described the man as having a black ponytail, about 6 feet tall and 35 years old. They said he was standing in front of a white single-cab pickup with chrome striping, possibly a Chevy or Ford model, with Oklahoma tags, Brown said in a press conference on June 13.

“He acted a little suspiciously but we don’t know what he was doing,” said Brown, stopping short of calling him a suspect. “We just want to talk to him. We think he might have seen something.”

Brown said other witnesses reported hearing gunshots near the crime scene.

Taylor’s uncle, Joe Mosher, described his niece as an intelligent girl who loved animals.

“She rescued turtles on the highway and wrote her name on them and turned them loose in the country,” Mosher said Wednesday.

Mosher said Taylor was at the top of her class in public school after being homeschooled most of her life.

“She was very smart,” said Mosher, who last saw Taylor at a family reunion two weeks before her death.

Skyla’s grandmother, Claudia Farrow, described the girl as “a typical tomboy. She lived out in the country. She loved animals, loved to fish.”

“Every time she`d come over here in my yard, which they just lived about a hundred yards from me, all her animals would follow her over here,” Farrow told CNN last month. “She’d have five or six cats following her, her little dog and her goat. I’d get on to her daddy, I said, ‘Now, don’t you let that goat eat my flowers,’ because she’d always eat my flowers. I will miss that. I will miss her.”

Rich’s Note: This was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to listen to. Probably ranks a close second to Carlie’s surveillance video for affecting me emotionally. I sure hope some progress is made on this case. Someone has to be held accountable, and with their life.

Source: CNN.com, July 21, 2008.

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