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Gee, wonder who did one of the only two no body murder trials in DC? Perhaps moi?
2 Arrests Made in Separate Decade-Old Deaths
By Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Two men were arrested last week in homicide cases that go back 10 years, D.C. police said. One case involved a woman whose body has never been found.
The woman, Yolanda Baker, 35, of the 400 block of 44th Street NE, was reported missing Aug. 4, 1999. Police said they investigated for a year but did not find her remains. She was declared legally dead in February.
The U.S. attorney's office and "cold case" detectives began a new investigation that involved interviews and forensic testing, and Terrence Barnett, 44, the father of Baker's twin children, was arrested Tuesday, police said. Barnett, of Capitol Heights in Prince George's County, was charged with second-degree murder.
"No body" murder prosecutions are difficult; it was reported last year that only two such trials had ever been held in the District.
In the other case, police said Lawrence Davis, 45, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Elizabeth Singleton, 32. Singleton was found stabbed in her home in the 1700 block of A Street SE in March 1999, they said.
Police said Davis, for whom no address was given, was her estranged husband. An investigation begun last year incorporated DNA evidence, police said.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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The Yolanda Baker case is one I worked on when I was with the US Attorney's Office. Nice to see an arrest:
From the PD press release:
On August 4, 1999, 35-year-old Yolanda Baker of the 400 block of 44th Street, NE was reported missing. At the time, she was living with the father of her twin children, 34-year-old Terrence Barnett. The couple had a history of domestic violence. The case was investigated for a year, but Ms. Baker’s remains were never found.
In February of this year, Ms. Baker was declared legally deceased. At the same time, Homicide Branch Cold Case detectives and the United States Attorneys Office began re-investigating the case. After additional forensic testing and numerous interviews the Homicide Branch obtained an arrest warrant, and subsequently the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested the now 44-year-old Barnett on June 23, 2009. Barnett had been residing in Capitol Heights, Maryland, and is charged with Second Degree Murder.
This is the second “no body” case now being prosecuted by the United States Attorneys Office in the past year.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Expert says missing homicide victim found
Police hope dental records will make positive identification
By SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Staff Writer
Published 06/20/09
A partial skeleton found last year in Baltimore may be the missing remains of a 2007 county homicide victim, according to police, prosecutors and a new federal database.
Forensic investigators are trying to use dental records to positively identify the body as Michael Francis, 21, of Brooklyn Park, but an orthopedic screw found in a right femoral bone makes them believe they are on the right track.
"We are hopeful the remains are those of Michael Francis so the family can have some closure on that end," said Capt. David Waltemeyer, the head of the county's Criminal Investigation Division.
The discovery comes as Antonio Moore, 22, of Brooklyn Park, prepares for his third jury trial in regard to Francis' April 14, 2007, death in Brooklyn Park. Charged with first-degree murder, he saw his first trial end in a mistrial March 3, 2008, and his second trial end with a hung jury on May 30, 2008.
While prosecutors had no body during either trial to prove Francis was dead, jurors said they weren't worried about that. Only one juror refused to convict after the second trial, and he withheld his vote because he didn't believe the state's witnesses could be trusted, other jurors said.
Still, prosecutors hope a special medical examiner will be able to positively identify the remains on Tuesday, giving them one more piece of evidence when they take the case back to court Dec. 1.
"We are anxiously awaiting the results of the special medical examiner," said Kristin Fleckenstein, a spokeswoman for the State's Attorney's Office. "We look forward to proceeding with the new evidence."
District Public Defender William Davis, Moore's defense attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Police and prosecutors credit a relatively new database with tentatively identifying the remains. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System - identifyus.org - the skeleton was located April 20, 2008, in a wooded area off Strathdale Avenue in Baltimore. The skeleton was missing limbs.
Investigators at that time determined the person who died was probably black, 20 to 25 years old and about 5 feet 5 inches tall. The person probably died in 2007.
Erin Jones, a forensic science analyst with System Planning Corp. who provides technical support for the federal database, tentatively identified the body earlier this month after Francis' information was added to a sister database dealing only with missing persons - www.findthemissing.org.
Jones said she noticed several similarities between Francis and the skeleton - both were the same age, sex, size and race, and both appeared to have died at about the same time. The body also was found in relative proximity to where Francis was shot.
"They were similar enough that I contacted Anne Arundel County Police," she said.
Jones explained the big question at that point was whether Francis had a screw in his right femur. She asked detectives to check with Francis' family, who confirmed he had been in an accident and had needed such a screw.
"This is my first hit," Jones said, happy to be able to reunite Francis' family members with their loved one. "We've gotten several hits, but this is the first one I have gotten."
Richard A. MacKnight, Jones' boss, said the U.S. Department of Justice launched the database dealing with unidentified bodies in 2007, but didn't launch the one dealing with missing persons until January. He said NamUs - the system's common moniker - is still working with different police departments to get them involved.
"Given the number of law enforcement agencies, it is a long-term proposition in getting the majority of the agencies to use the system," he said, eager to get the word out about this apparent success. "This is how the system is supposed to work."
According to court testimony, Moore shot Francis with an assault-style rifle about 3 a.m. April 14, 2007, behind 5102 Brookwood Road in Brooklyn Park. Witnesses said he stuffed Francis into the trunk of a Toyota Solara, then drove off with his girlfriend in the front seat.
Witnesses also testified Moore beat another man, Teiko Johnson, earlier that morning with the butt of the rifle and tried to put him in the trunk.
While the second jury could not reach a verdict regarding the murder charge, it did convict Moore of first-degree assault and two lesser charges in the beating of Johnson. Moore was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison for that assault.
Circuit Court Judge Michele D. Jaklitsch declared a mistrial in March after a state witness testified the Toyota Solara Moore was driving the day of the killing was stolen from Russell Toyota in Baltimore. The judge feared the jury could have concluded that Moore stole the car, even though he never was charged with the crime and someone else was under investigation for the theft.
sdaugherty@capitalgazette.com
Copyright © 2009 The Maryland Gazette and Capital Gazette Communications, Inc.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Pair accused of murder, dismembering man in drug deal
Jessica Fargen By Jessica Fargen
Monday, June 8, 2009 - Updated 16d 22h ago
Two Catholic high school buddies are accused of murdering a 37-year-old Guatemalan immigrant and then dismembering and burning his body at a Walpole cement business all over a massive drug debt, prosecutors alleged today.
Mass Pike toll collector Paul E. Moccia, 48, murdered Angel Ramirez because he couldn’t afford to pay his $70,000 drug debt, and then enlisted his friend to help make the body disappear, Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Robert Nelson alleged today during an arraignment.
Ramirez, who was killed March 20, brought kilos of cocaine to Massachusetts from the West Coast and allegedly sold the drugs to Moccia, he said.
Moccia’s longtime buddy, Daniel P. Bradley, 47, an assistant football coach at Xaverian Brothers High School, was allegedly involved in the shooting and the dismembering and disposed Ramirez’ body at his cement business. “The body was cooked,” Nelson said.
Nelson said investigators found blood spots inside Bradley’s concrete business, RJ Bradley Co. Inc., as well as blood on a pair of Bradley’s boots inside his Westwood home. Police executed six search warrants in connection with the case.
A Wrentham District Court judge ordered both men held without bail.
Defense attorneys for Moccia and Bradley said the pair have been friends since their days at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury.
Moccia, who has two sons, lives in Dedham and has worked for the Mass Pike collecting tolls for 13 years, said his attorney, Steven Boozang. “He’s a good man and he’s a good father,” Boozang told reporters after the arraignment.
Bradley lives in a quiet Westwood cul-de-sac with his 4-year-old son and his fiance. His attorney, John Gibbons, said his client doesn’t even know Ramirez. “He never met Ramirez,” he said.
Ramirez’ body has not found, but Norfolk County District Attorney William R. Keating in the past successfully charged a man with murder when there was no body.
Police began investigating Ramirez’ disappearance after his girlfriend reported him missing March 24. Ramirez picked up a friend from Logan International Airport on March 20 and the two went back to Ramirez’ Framingham apartment, where Ramirez told him he would be meeting a man, later identified as Moccia, to talk about a power washer, Nelson said.
Ramirez was actually Moccia’s drug supplier, and when the two met up that night Moccia shot him in the back somewhere near Bradley’s concrete business, Nelson said. Bradley was allegedly present for the shooting, he said.
Bradley and Moccia have been arrested for cocaine possession in the past. Bradley was arrested in June 2001 after police searched his car in a Walpole Wal-Mart and found crack cocaine. The case was dismissed because the search was later ruled illegal.
Moccia was arrested in 1987 on cocaine charges.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Lexington Co. investigates 24-year-old murder
Posted: June 3, 2009 03:55 PM
Updated: June 9, 2009 05:26 PM
Lexington Co. investigates 24-year-old murder, Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield reports
PELIOD, SC (WIS) - Deputies think they are closing in on whoever killed Darryl Morris. The 24-year-old disappeared in 1985.
"It's almost a Mayberry, you know your neighbors, know everyone, went to school with everyone," says Lexington County Sheriff James Metts.
And everyone around there knows what happened to Darryl Morris.
"We just believe from people we've talked to recently, he's met foul play and his body may still be somewhere around here," says Metts.
Metts was sheriff when it happened in 1985. Morris, a 24-year-old heating and air technician, disappeared after stopping at what used to be Shumpert's Grocery.
No official suspects were ever named and no body was found. The sheriff, who has been working the case for many years, says folks have been talking in the small town and he's got a hunch.
"We developed some good information on suspects in this case, but we need more," he says.
Darryl Morris' sister, Delores Hoover, called us asking us to help reopen the case.
"Some days are good, some days are bad. His birthday was May 12th, it just so happens it falls in the same month as Mother's Day and that's tough," Hoover says.
Hoover was 17 when her big brother disappeared. He was last seen cashing a check.
"He was a good person, loved his family, worked all the time," said Hoover.
The case has been pretty much cold until about a year ago when they got a tip that Morris had an ongoing dispute with some folks at a store that was knocked down. The rumor was he was buried out back. Deputies excavated the place with the help of USC anthropologists.
"We hand-dug the area and it turned out to be a garbage pit," said Metts.
But they still think his body is somewhere in this town and so is the person who could crack this case.
"We have some persons of interest we've interviewed and we just need a little more," said Metts.
"We don't want to know details, but I think it would be much easier to have a body and bury it and to bury him and know he's where you put him. You can go visit the place," said Hoover.
This case is a little different. Deputies say they're not sure if the person who did it is even alive. But they say someone in Pelion has the answers. If you have a tip, call 1-888-CRIME-SC.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Although Christopher Jeppson plead guilty to greatly reduced charges in the Kiplyn Davis case, Timmy Brent Olsen still has murder charges pending against him in Utah:
Judge issues a no-ruling on the no-body issue in Kiplyn case
By Sara Israelsen-Hartley
Deseret News
Published: Monday, June 1, 2009 5:03 p.m. MDT
PROVO — A judge has deferred judgment on a potentially case-ending motion against a man charged with killing Kiplyn Davis.
Kiplyn was 15 when she disappeared from Spanish Fork High School in May 1995, and prosecutors charged a former classmate, Timmy Brent Olsen, with murder.
However, attorneys for Olsen have argued that the murder case against him should be dismissed because Kiplyn's body has never been found, and neither has a murder weapon, blood nor DNA evidence. The only evidence against Olsen is alleged incriminating statements Olsen made to several people regarding his knowledge of and participation in Kiplyn's death.
Defense attorney Jeremy Delicino has argued that the case fails under the "corpus delicti" rule, which requires the state to present a "body of evidence" — which in this case would be an actual body — to support Olsen's incriminating statements.
However, prosecutors argue that foul play is the only likely option because Kiplyn didn't have money, a driver's license or any personal problems that would have led to her running away or committing suicide.
Fourth District Judge Lynn Davis recently ruled that he is not in a position to make a decision on the motion because prosecutors have not yet brought their full case, according to court documents. The evidence already presented was in a preliminary hearing nearly a year and a half ago and under a lower burden of proof, he wrote.
"Ruling on corpus delicti without considering all facts (presented) at trial or at an evidentiary hearing is an invitation to commit error," Davis wrote. "At this stage, the facts in evidence are simply incomplete. The parties are essentially asking the court to test a cake for done-ness before it has even been put into the oven."
Olsen's murder case is still on hold while an appeal is pending regarding a change-of-venue motion.
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Not having closure for a family is one of the worst features of any missing/no body murder case:
A purgatory of sorts: Families suffer from the uncertainty
Robert and Juene Soper can cover their table with photos and artifacts related to their son Alan, who has been missing since 1974. JAMES PLUMLEE / Tulsa World
By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 5/25/2009 2:18 AM
Last Modified: 5/25/2009 3:27 AM
Read more about Tulsa’s cold-case missing-persons investigations, watch a video of a woman who sells pies to fund a reward for information about her missing daughter, and read the stories in the first part of the series
Thirty-three people have vanished from Tulsa in the last three decades.
By definition, police classify this core group of cold-case missing persons as "endangered." In most cases, however, investigators say they are likely dead.
"Every year we have two, maybe three cases where we know that a fatality has most likely taken place," Tulsa Police Sgt. Mike Huff said. "But when you have no body or scene, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
The victims linger in a purgatory of sorts. Their names are never added to any homicide count. But even years and decades later, their families still post fliers pleading for information that might bring them home. And for decades, the lack of a uniform state and nationwide system to match unidentified remains with missing people has prevented some families from learning that their missing loved one has died.
Hundreds of people are reported missing in Tulsa every year. During 2008, 323 people age 18 or older were reported missing, Detective Margaret Loveall said.
More than 95 percent of missing-persons cases are closed quickly — when the victim is found, Loveall said.
"In
a lot of cases, people are just gone for a few days and they don't tell their family, or they are involved in a situation where they are trying to distance themselves from someone they know," she said.
Adult missing-persons cases — and those of children who are missing along with them — are investigated by the Homicide Unit. Missing people younger than 17 are referred to the Exploitation Unit. Most of these youths are categorized as runaways if there is no reason to believe that they were harmed.
In Tulsa, few people remain missing long term. A person of any age who is "missing under circumstances indicating that his/her safety may be in physical danger" is considered endangered, according to the FBI's definition. The chance of finding them alive declines with time, so police must act accordingly.
Maj. Matt Kirkland, commander of the Detective Division, said, "I think it is important to recognize when you have certain criteria present in a missing-persons case, you have to treat that case like a homicide and utilize all of the resources that you have available."
A third of Tulsa's 33 missing-endangered cold cases might have resulted from illegal drugs or domestic problems or a combination, a Tulsa World analysis shows.
"Most of these cases are going to be caused by lifestyle issues, whether it be domestic, drug-related or a transient life they are leading," Loveall said. "The stranger abductions are going to be rare, but they do happen."
Searching for answers
Police believe that drugs led to the disappearance of Karen Heim on Dec. 26, 2006. But Heim hadn't always lived such a risky lifestyle.
"She was a cheerleader, pompom girl, played softball, and all of sudden she got hooked on drugs," her uncle Roy Heim said.
Heim is retired from the Tulsa Police Department after spending many years in the Homicide Unit. Even before his niece's disappearance, he began tracking missing-persons investigations in Oklahoma and compiling them in a database.
"Karen was involved in meth production in Osage County and in Tulsa," he said. "She testified in a federal drug case right before this happened, the spring before it happened. It was a huge case."
Karen Heim, 42, was last seen at residences in the 3400 block of West 48th Street and in Sand Springs.
Her car was found abandoned the next morning in Red River County, Texas. It contained a receipt indicating that it had exited Oklahoma's Indian Nation Turnpike at the Eufaula exit. Her family went to Texas to search for her, but she has not been found.
"I think everyone has given up hope she will be found alive," Heim said.
He believes, however, that "there is a good possibility that she will be found and identified someday."
In at least seven of Tulsa's 33 cold missing-persons cases, the reason the person disappeared remains a mystery. There isn't enough information for police to say why they are gone.
Analysis shows that at least two disappearances, including Lisa Addington's on May 16, 1984, might have been stranger abductions.
Addington attended her bachelorette party at a nightclub near 21st Street and Garnett Road with a group of friends. When her friends left, she decided to stay, and she was never seen again.
"Stranger abductions are harder cases to solve," Loveall said. "When a suspect has some type of relationship with the victim, the connection itself generates leads to follow. With a stranger, it is much more difficult. It is a shot in the dark."
At least two of the missing people, including Alan Soper, who disappeared in 1974, were last known to be traveling with truck drivers.
Soper, 22, graduated from Oklahoma State University and had planned to travel during the summer by working for truck drivers. When he last called his family on June 7, 1974, he said he was in Sacramento, Calif. His wallet and clothing were found near Needles, Calif., in 1977, but he has never been found.
Soper's parents, Juene and Robert Soper, knew within weeks after he left that something was wrong because he didn't call them again, as he had said he would.
"A mother does not give up thinking that your child might be alive," Juene Soper said. "I was determined to learn what happened."
While searching for their son, the Sopers found a note from him that was posted on the bulletin board of a truck stop along Interstate 40 west of Oklahoma City. The note indicated that Soper was seeking a job with a truck driver so he could travel cross-country.
The trail eventually turned cold, and his belongings that were found in California were thrown away before DNA testing became available.
"We just want him found so we could give him a Christian burial," his mother said.
Transitory lifestyles, hitchhiking and truck drivers have been linked to many serial killings.
Last month, the FBI unveiled its Highway Serial Killings Initiative, which includes a database of 500 murder victims found along or near highways, as well as a list of about 200 potential suspects.
The FBI began the initiative after an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation analyst saw a pattern of slain women being dumped along the Interstate 40 corridor in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi.
The suspects in the FBI's database are predominantly long-haul truck drivers. The mobile nature of the suspects, the lifestyles of the victims, the significant distances involved, and the scarcity of witnesses or forensic evidence make the cases tough to solve.
Missing links
Unexplained links between missing people make their cases even more mysterious. In Tulsa, two families have each had two members disappear during different years.
Paula Phillips was 26 when she was last seen on Oct. 3, 1991. She left her home about 7 p.m. and said she was going to a store. But detectives say she might have met up with her sister, Londa Phillips, who disappeared in 1992.
Londa Phillips was 22 when she was reported missing by her boyfriend after she failed to arrive at a relative's home.
"Their disappearances could potentially be connected to one another and to drug activity," Loveall said, adding that although detectives have had "persons of interest" in the cases, they never had enough evidence to make an arrest.
In another unusual case, Terrence Haney was 36 when he was last seen leaving a relative's house about 5 p.m. April 2, 2001, to walk about two blocks home. He was never heard from again.
Haney's brother-in-law, Edward Martin, 50, is also on Tulsa's missing-persons list. Martin, known by the nickname "Chicken," was last seen about July 1999. His disappearance was not reported until a few years later, Loveall said.
Martin and Haney disappeared from the same area.
Haney's wife, Corlina Haney, still calls Loveall frequently, hoping to hear some good news. The couple were separated when her husband disappeared, but the last time they talked, they spoke of reuniting.
She believes that "there is more to the story than we know," Loveall said, referring to a potential link between the Martin and Haney cases.
A partial skeleton and some clothing were found in 2006 at an old dump site at 3000 N. Victor Ave. Authorities are investigating whether the remains are either man's and are waiting for DNA results.
If the bones belong to Terrence Haney, his wife feels certain that he was forced into the woods and slain.
"He would not go off in some woods unless it was with someone he knew," she said. "I hope they find whoever did this. That is all I want. I want closure to it."
Nicole Marshall 581-8459
nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Jury convicts Arlington man of murder in 2007 killing
BY MARTHA DELLER
mdeller@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH -- Alejandro Orona’s attorneys contended that there was no evidence that Orona intentionally killed Scott Sartain or that the homeless diabetic was even dead.
Prosecutors argued that Orona, 33, was linked to Sartain’s 2007 beating death by numerous witnesses, even though Orona and another man cleaned up the bloody Arlington house where Sartain was killed, chopped up his body and his car and disposed of them.
Apparently believing the witnesses that the defense had denounced as liars, a Tarrant County jury convicted Orona Friday of Sartain’s Sept. 6, 2007, murder. Jurors deliberated for two hours and 45 minutes before delivering the verdict to 396th District Judge George Gallagher.
Orona’s relatives did not react to the verdict as instructed by Gallagher. Afterward, they wailed outside the courtroom. Sartain’s parents conferred briefly about the punishment phase scheduled to resume later Friday.
A string of witnesses testified this week that Orona and co-defendant Kelly Munn killed Sartain, 40, in retaliation for the arrest of a woman for forging a check that Sartain gave her to cash for his grandmother.
After beating Sartain, some witnesses said Orona and Munn confined him to a back room next to a garage where he was deprived of insulin. A deputy medical examiner said the lack of insulin could have killed him within 24 hours.
Some witnesses said they witnessed the beating. Others said they saw blood or smelled rotting flesh. Still others say they were shown Sartain’s severed head or were told by Munn that they had killed him and chopped up his body.
In closing arguments, however, defense attorneys Jerry Woods and Brett Boone said those witnesses were not credible because they hoped to get favorable deals from prosecutors for pending criminal cases.
The defense contended that Brian Johns was an accomplice in Sartain’s beating and, as such, his testimony could not be used to convict Orona unless it was supported by other evidence.
Johns acknowledged that he punched Sartain once and his wife backhanded him because they blamed him for her arrest. But he said that Orona and Munn inflicted most of the blows and were still beating him when they left the house to pick up their children from school.
Several days later, Johns said, the men summoned him to the house and asked him to buy cleaning supplies. That’s when he noticed an assault rifle, knives and a saw laying on a table near a back room where Munn picked up a Sartain’s severed head by the ear and showed it to him, he said.
Woods made much of the fact that neither Johns or others who said they witnessed parts of the crime didn’t tell police about the crime until Arlington Detective Jim Ford began investigating a tip nearly three months later. Even then, they lied about what they knew, he said.
Sartain was not reported missing until Ford contacted his mother nearly five months after he was killed. Woods said that means Sartain could have survived the beating, given Munn his car and split for the West Texas oilfields where he had previously worked.
“That’s no more absurd than the scenario (state witnesses) gave you,” he said.
Prosecutors Kevin Rousseau and Robert Huseman denounced the defense alternate theories of the crime as “murky.”
On one hand, Rousseau said, defense attorneys wanted jurors to believe a witness who said Johns joined Munn and Orona in beating, kicking and punching Sartain. On the other hand, he said, Orona’s attorneys wanted to discount that woman’s testimony, saying she just wanted the state to help her get a reduced sentence on a drug charge.
Rousseau said prosecutors didn’t even know that the woman was facing a drug charge when she testified before the grand jury in October.
He acknowledged that many of the state’s witnesses had criminal records and that there was not much physical evidence because Orona and Munn cleaned up the crime scene.
But there is ample evidence, Rousseau said, that Sartain is dead.
“Scott is dead,” he said. “He’s not going to come riding back in his pickup with a hard hat and a bouquet of flowers for his mother.”
MARTHA DELLER, 817-390-7857
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Confessed Child Killer Claims CSI Planted Evidence
Posted: May 11, 2009 11:46 PM
Updated: May 12, 2009 02:08 PM
Omaha, NE - He confessed to killing his own son and pleaded guilty to the crime, but now Ivan Henk wants his conviction thrown out.
Henk filed a 21 page motion in Cass County claiming a CSI, already under fire, planted evidence in his case.
The Commander of the Douglas County Crime Lab, Dave Kofoed, faces four federal charges and one state charge in connection with the April 2006 double murder of Wayne and Sharmon Stock in Murdock, NE. He is accused of mishandling evidence and misdating a report about when he searched a suspect's car. Two men, Matt Livers and Nick Sampson, were falsely arrested and spent seven months in jail. The men are suing Cass County, the investigators and Kofoed. Kofoed has said he made a mistake, but was not malicious.
In Ivan Henk's case, he claims Kofoed planted blood evidence in his case, even though Henk admitted he did it and even took investigators to the Bellevue dumpster where he says he put Brendan's remains and the knife he used to decapitate his son in January 2003.
Kofoed examined the dumpster, found Brendan's blood and gave the sample to the lab, which confirmed it was Brendan's DNA. However, Henk's motion claims there is "compelling circumstantial evidence" to believe Kofoed planted evidence and-or falsified reports concerning Brendan's blood and the dumpster. The documents say no one was around when Kofoed found the blood and mentioned that he's accused of mishandling evidence in the double murder case in Cass County.
Brendan's grandmother is outraged with the accusations. Hannah Gonzalez says she is appalled to think of Henk being set free. She says, "I don't see how they would bring that case up again. He confessed. what else is there, there wasn't even a trial."
The Plattsmouth Police Chief, who still keeps Brendan's picture on his desk, wants Henk to stay in prison.But he understands why this is happening now. Chief Brian Paulsen says, "We have to make sure everything was done properly. I think it was. I have nothing but accolades for those guys and girls who worked case for us ."
Brendan's mother, who lives in Louisiana, believes if searchers would have found Brendan's body in the landfill, no one would want Ivan Henk out of prison.
The same judge who sentenced Henk will review the motion.
Reported by Michelle Bandur;michelle@action3news.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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My friend Steven Banic in Australia, the only other person I know of who tracks no body murder cases as obssessively as I, sent me the following updates:
Virginia man pleads guilty in no body murder case
GUILTY PLEA ENDS TRIAL
Gaudenzi pleads guilty to murder, agrees to serve 25 years
BY ELLEN BILTZ
Date published: 5/7/2009
BY ELLEN BILTZ
Joe Marto said he got some relief yesterday, but he didn't get closure.
His long-missing daughter's husband, Lawrence Gaudenzi, pleaded guilty to second degree murder.
But the plea agreement does not require Gaudenzi to say what happened to Lisa Gaudenzi's body, or whether he destroyed it.
"He took away a bright star out of my life," Marto said, holding back tears after yesterday's plea. "I wanted to know where the body was so I could bring her back home."
As part of the plea deal, Caroline County Commonwealth's Attorney Tony Spencer agreed to reduce a first degree murder charge to second degree in exchange for the guilty plea.
Spencer and Gaudenzi's defense attorneys also agreed on a 25-year sentence. The maximum for second degree murder is 40 years in prison.
The plea came about a day and a half into what was supposed to be a four-day jury trial.
A tape was about to be played, potentially showing that Gaudenzi was planning his life without his wife before anyone knew she was missing.
Lisa Gaudenzi's disappearance had been a cold case for 13 years until Spencer announced last year that he would be prosecuting Gaudenzi for murder following a Virginia State Police investigation.
Marto had already spent more than a decade hiring private investigators and searching for his daughter.
He said yesterday that he didn't get what he really wanted, but he's glad Gaudenzi is behind bars.
"I'm still in shock," he said.
That feeling was shared by many of the other 30-plus family and friends gathered outside the courthouse after the trial.
Most were glad the case had finally come to an end.
"I just wish it were sooner," said Leah Burdette, Lisa Gaudenzi's first-born, 23-year-old daughter.
Burdette had told the jury earlier in the day that her mother's relationship with Gaudenzi was an abusive one. Her mother disappeared when she was nine years old.
Burdette said she'd always known Gaudenzi killed her mother.
Kathleen Marto, Lisa's mother and Joe Marto's ex-wife, said she also doesn't feel closure, but for another reason.
"I won't have closure until I meet by daughter again," she said. "I have justice though. I don't want a body. I was relieved that he is finally out of society."
The hours leading up to Gaudenzi's guilty plea were full of testimony from those who were close to Lisa Gaudenzi near the time of her disappearance.
Lisa Gaudenzi had just finished basic training in the Army when she disappeared Jan. 26, 1995. She was supposed to report for a new training program two days later.
But she never showed up.
And witnesses told the jury yesterday what Gaudenzi said to them about Lisa after she vanished.
Their stories varied between Lisa going AWOL from the Army, leaving suicide notes and running away to Florida to be with a Cuban man.
Though Judge Horace Revercomb III has accepted Gaudenzi's guilty plea, he is expected to sign the formal plea agreement this morning.
At that time, there will also be a sentencing hearing so that Lisa Gaudenzi's family can express their victim-impact statements.
"I wrote a statement in anticipation," Joe Marto said. "I want him to know he left two of my grandchildren without a mother."
Ellen Biltz: 540/374-5424
Email: ebiltz@freelancestar.com
Plea and sentence in Craiglist No Body Murder case
John Burgess To Be Sentenced; Donna Jou's Family To Send Letter To Craiglist
Monday, May. 18 2009 @ 10:13AMBy Spencer Kornhaber in Crime & Sex
A press release sent out this weekend by lawyer Gloria Allred notifies us that John Steven Burgess, the man who plead guilty to manslaughter and concealing an accidental death in the case of Rancho Santa Margarita's Donna Jou, faces sentencing in Los Angeles Superior Court today at 1:30 p.m. As part of his plea agreement, Burgess is expected to face five years in state prison.
[Update, 5/19: Burgess was sentenced to five years. Read more at the LA Times.]
Additionally, the Jou family will release a letter that they plan to send to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. The letter will be "suggesting specific changes in the policy and practice of Craigslist, which could help to prevent other convicted sexual predators from being able to use Craigslist to contact unsuspecting young women such as Donna Jou."
No additional information is provided as to what exactly that could mean. But Allred recently spoke to the Weekly about Craigslist. Then, she said that Craigslist should implement some sort of screening system that will either block convicted sex offenders from the site, or flag their posts with a warning message.
When Burgess plead guilty on May 6, he said that he had injected 19-year-old Donna Jou with a "speedball" of heroin and cocaine during a party at his home in Los Angeles in June 2007. When he awoke the next morning, he found her dead. In a panic, he says he took her body out to sea and dropped it off the side of his sailboat. Burgess had previously been convicted for lewd acts against a child, and in October 2007 was convicted for failing to register as a sex offender. He refused to speak with law enforcement about the Jou case while serving time for the failure-to-register conviction.
The Jou family request to Craigslist comes less than a week after Craigslist it announced it would bend to criticism from law enforcement around the country by eliminating its "erotic services" section. Jou and Burgess reportedly met on Craiglist, when Burgess answered Jou's ad offering her services as a math tutor.
Did no body defendant lead police to body before sentencing?
Sedlak Cooperates On Body Search, Sentence DelayedPITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
KDKA
Sentencing has been delayed for a Greenfield man who has been convicted of third-degree murder.
Man arrested in no boy murder of his brother
May 05, 2009
Missing Man’s Brother Arrested for His Murder
Los Angeles: Detectives are investigating the murder of a man who has been missing for more than a year; the man’s brother has been arrested in connection with the disappearance and murder.
On May 16, 2008, 48-year-old Mohammad Reza Shirazi was reported missing by his family members. He was last seen on or about April 24, 2008, at his home in West Hills.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit (MPU) has been investigating Shirazi’s disappearance. All efforts to locate Shirazi have failed, and Shirazi has made no attempts to contact his family, causing increasing concern that he has met with foul play. In February 2009, family members contacted a private investigator to help search for Shirazi.
Over the course of interviewing Shirazi’s family members, the private investigator uncovered information that led him to believe that Shirazi had indeed become the victim of a violent crime. That information was relayed to the MPU who passed it on to West Valley homicide detectives in March 2009.
After all of the information and evidence was gathered, detectives determined that Shirazi had been murdered on or near the date that he was last seen alive, April 24, 2008. Though his body has yet to be found, efforts to locate Shirazi’s remains are ongoing.
On April 30, 2009, Detectives arrested Shirazi’s 34-year-old brother, Hossein Shirazi of Canoga Park for murder. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Anyone with information is asked to contact West Valley Homicide Detectives John Doerbecker or Gregory Crowe at 818-374-7725. During off-hours, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text “Crimes” with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on Web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with “LAPD.” Tipsters may remain anonymous.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
Bryan Sedlak, 37, led authorities to the victim's body, which had gone undiscovered for four years.
Sedlak was convicted of third-degree murder in the shooting death of Patrick Kenney, of Jefferson Hills.
Sedlak claimed he shot Kenney in self-defense at a Homestead hair salon.
Kenney's body was dismembered.
Friday, Sedlak reportedly led police to an undisclosed location where pieces of vertebrae were found.
Sentencing will be delayed until those bones can undergo DNA testing.
Stay with KDKA for more details.
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A rarity: a no body murder case was dropped in Utah against one defendant:
Jeppson pleads no contest to lesser charge in Kiplyn case
By Sara Israelsen-Hartley
Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 10:43 p.m. MDT
PROVO — Christopher Jeppson shuffled into the courtroom Wednesday afternoon with a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
His family members put their arms around each other and wiped away tears as they watched him sit down between his two attorneys.
Less than an hour later he walked out, still shackled at hands and feet but free of a murder charge for a crime he says he knows nothing about.
"Christopher Jeppson knows nothing about the circumstances or cause (of Kiplyn Davis' disappearance)," said his attorney Scott Williams. "He has never wavered on that. Now (he) can start cleaning up from the tornado that has hit his life."
Jeppson was charged with murder in 2007 in the death of Kiplyn Davis, a sophomore at Spanish Fork High School who disappeared on May 2, 1995. Her body has never been found.
And although prosecutors tried to link Jeppson to the crime through two joking-type statements he made regarding Davis, he has maintained he doesn't know what happened to her.
Because of that, Jeppson was only willing to plead no-contest Wednesday to an obstruction of justice charge, based on his 2005 grand jury testimony, that meant no increase in prison time, Williams said.
Jeppson is already serving a five-year prison commitment for a federal perjury conviction related to the case.
So, as part of the plea deal, both sides agreed to a one-step reduction of the obstruction of justice charge, meaning that Jeppson was technically sentenced on a third-degree felony.
That zero-to-five prison sentence will be served at the same time as his federal sentence, which is appropriate, given that they are the same facts in both cases, Williams said. Jeppson also agreed to drop his appeal of his federal sentence.
The final element of the plea deal was a small, signed statement from Jeppson. It said only two things.
First, that he is the defendant in the case and second, "I have no knowledge of, nor involvement in the cause or circumstances of the disappearance of Kiplyn Davis."
This prevents him from coming back later and trying to add or remove blame from someone else.
Although they were hoping for more information about Kiplyn, this is an appropriate solution, said prosecutor Mariane O'Bryant.
She said she still doesn't believe Jeppson is as innocent as he claims to be, but it's hard to prove guilt without a body, or blood, or a murder weapon or DNA evidence or anything actually linking Jeppson to the alleged crime.
"It's a difficult case from the beginning," she said. "We got some, we lost some. But when you take a jury, you never promise anybody anything."
For the Davis family, it feels mostly like a loss.
"It hurts quite a bit," said an obviously upset Richard Davis after the hearing. "We didn't really want to go with this, but we have to go with it. It's more than we've had in the past. We'll ride with it, go on with our lives."
Over the past 14-plus years, parents Richard and Tamara Davis have faithfully attended nearly every hearing in federal and district courts, a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed by Judge Lynn Davis in 4th District Court.
"This is a painful but only partial closure of this case as it relates to the Davis family and also the Jeppson family," Judge Davis said. "The Davis family is no closer to discovering the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of their beautiful daughter than they were before. There is some measure of closures but nothing that comes close to any final closure."
There is still a murder case against co-defendant Timmy Brent Olsen; however, his case is on hold due to a pending appeal.
For Jeppson's family, Wednesday meant a huge sigh of relief.
They too, have attended hearing after hearing and listened to hours and hours of testimony, waiting for their side of the story to be seen.
"I'm just glad it's done," Jeppson's wife, Jessika, said after the hearing.
The family have already braced themselves for five years without Jeppson while he's serving his federal sentence, so they can handle this, they said.
The last-minute plea deal canceled a three-week jury trial slated to begin in late May.
Williams said the deal was mutually arranged and represents not only the right decision but a financially prudent move that saves tens of thousands of dollars and could potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in trial and appeal costs.
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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From the arrest of Drew Peterson to a ongoing trial in Virginia, lots to report on:
Appeal in Iowa no body murder case:
Jamee Corean appeals kidnapping conviction
By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal staff | Wednesday, April 01, 2009
A woman sentenced to life in prison for her role in the 2004 kidnapping of Troy Klug has appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court, asking that her conviction be overturned.
Jamee Corean, 29, was convicted last August on charges of aiding and abetting aggravated kidnapping and being an accessory to murder. State prosecutors say she knew that Klug, then 26, was being held, bound and gagged, in a toolbox in the garage of her Belle Fourche home but failed to call authorities.
Fourth Circuit Judge John Bastian sentenced Corean to five years in prison for accessory to murder and to a mandatory life sentence for kidnapping. Tory Teigen is serving a 100-year prison sentence for kidnapping and is now charged with murdering Klug, although no body was ever found.
In a brief filed March 3 with the state Supreme Court, defense attorney Dave Claggett argues that the evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to convict Corean on either charge.
Claggett objects to the fact that jailhouse letters from Teigen – one of which mentions “James and Jaime” in writing that is lighter than the rest of the letter, suggesting it may have been written at a different time – were allowed to be introduced at trial.
Claggett also says the state did not prove that Corean was involved in any conspiracy.
“Corean was not a co-conspirator of Teigen’s under any theory, given the facts of the case, certainly not at the time that the letters were written,” the brief reads. “The introduction of these letters is prejudicial and, at a minimum, grounds for a new trial.”
In the brief, Claggett argues that Judge Bastian should have told jurors that three people who testified for the prosecution at Corean’s trial were “accomplices as a matter of law,” which could have led jurors to give their testimony less weight.
Witnesses James Kusick, Abby DeJong, Eric Haar, Tell Cook and Cynthia Kindall all testified that they knew about Klug’s kidnapping and had “varying levels of participation in the crimes for which Corean was charged,” the motion states.
Kusick pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and perjury and is serving 20 years in prison. Cook pleaded guilty to failure to report a felony and served probation. Kindall pleaded guilty but mentally ill to kidnapping and is serving a 20-year sentence.
DeJong and Cook were given immunity in exchange for their truthful testimony.
Claggett also argues that Coren’s sentence is excessive and “disproportionate to the severity of the crime” in light of evidence used to convict her.
Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com
Rare acquittal in Kansas no body murder case:
Jeffrey Salas Found Not Guilty in Death of Tony Epps
Last Update: 4/27 9:19 pm
by Cliff Judy (WICHITA, Kan.)
Jeffrey Salas says he's relieved and praying for Tony Epps' family after being released from the Sedgwick County Jail. He and family members walked out of the jail shortly before 3:00 p.m., three hours after a jury found him not guilty of Epps' murder.
"I'm relieved," Salas told Eyewitness News Reporter Cliff Judy. "It's been 21 months (in jail). I have a lot of sympathy for Tony's family, and I'm praying for them."
Salas' mother and brother carried out two large grocery bags worth of belongings and mail he'd collected since he was arrested in July 2007. Epps disappeared in March 2007. Sandra Salas, Jeff Salas' mother, cried as she told Eyewitness News, "I just want to take him home."
Salas agreed.
"I just want to get some fresh air and go home," he said. "We placed our faith in God that this day would come."
Epp's family was crushed by the news of the not guilty verdict. His body has never been found, and they were hoping for answers at Salas' trial. Epps' mother told Eyewitness News she didn't feel justice had been done.
"They had enough evidence to convict him, and they didn't," said Emily Epps. "We got a bad deal. This man can go free for killing (Tony). Whoever (the jurors) were, I don't know what they were listening to."
Update - Monday AM
A jury has found Jeffrey Salas not guilty in the death of Tony Epps.
by Cliff Judy (WICHITA, Kan.)
Jurors have begun hearing evidence in the murder trial of Jeffrey Salas. He's accused of the March 2007 killing of Tony Epps, whose body has never been found.
During opening statements, prosecutors told jurors Salas killed Epps because he owed the man a drug debt of somewhere between $11,000 and $18,000.
Prosecutors say a man called Wichita police after Epps disappearance saying Salas had wanted to store an SUV in his garage, and the man suspected the vehicle was stolen. Police later found the SUV in Oklahoma City, and a small amount of Epps' blood was found in both the SUV and the garage.
The man told police Salas also asked him if anyone hunted near the garage.
"Mr. Salas had told Mr. Malloy that if you hear a shot, don't worry about it," said prosecutor Kevin O'Connor. "Don't come out and check. Don't ask any questions."
Prosecutors also plan to call Salas' ex-girlfriend to the stand who says while talking about Epps, Salas told her, "I did it."
Salas' defense attorney told jurors there's no evidence to show Epps is even dead, and Salas didn't have anything to do with his disappearance.
"No one in this courtroom knows where Tony Epps is except Tony Epps," said Philip White, Salas' attorney. "Tony Epps is alive, and he is not dead."
Epps' family members tell Eyewitness News Reporter Cliff Judy even they didn't know the details told in court Wednesday morning.
Cliff was in the courtroom to hear both prosecutors and defense attorneys lay out their strategies for the trial.
Below are his updates from inside the courtroom.
Update: 10:15 a.m.
PROSECUTION OPENING STATEMENT:
KEVIN O'CONNOR TELLS THE JURY NO ONE HAS SEEN OR HEARD FROM TONY EPPS SINCE 3/21/07. HIS VEHICLE WAS FOUND TWO DAYS LATER. FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS SAY HE'D TOLD THEM HE WAS GOING TO SEE JEFF SALAS.
MANY SAID SALAS OWED EPPS A DRUG DEBT...THE PROSECUTION BELIEVES THE DEBT WAS FROM $11,000-$18,000.
OFFICERS WENT TO TALK TO SALAS AFTER HEARING THAT'S WHO EPPS WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET THE DAY HE DISAPPEARED. AS THE OFFICER BEGINS TO TALK TO SALAS, HE SAYS HE WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET EPPS. O'CONNOR SAYS SALAS THEN SAID TO THE OFFICER, "WHY IS EVERYONE LOOKING AT ME?" THE OFFICER THINKS THIS IS STRANGE AND SAYS HE'S ONLY CHECKING INTO A MISSING PERSONS CASE.
AT ONE POINT, A WITNESS CALLS POLICE SAYING SALAS HAD ASKED HIM IF HE COULD PARK HIS SILVER DENALI AT THE MAN'S GARAGE. THE MAN BELIEVED THE SUV WAS STOLEN.
THE MAN SAYS SALAS HAD ASKED HIM IF PEOPLE "SHOOT" (HUNT) NEAR THE AREA OF THE GARAGE AND IF THE MAN HEARD A SHOT, "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT." POLICE WENT TO CHECK ON THE SUV, BUT IT WAS GONE BY THEN.
IN MAY 2007, OKLAHOMA CITY POLICE FOUND THE SILVER DENALI AND IMPOUNDED IT. WICHITA POLICE PROCESSED THE CAR FINDING SALAS' FINGERPRINTS...THERE WAS ALSO EVIDENCE OF BLOOD IN THE CAR THAT WAS A MATCH FOR TONY EPPS.
WHEN WICHITA POLICE PROCESSED THE WICHITA MAN'S GARAGE, THEY FOUND A SMALL AMOUNT OF BLOOD THAT ALSO WAS A MATCH FOR EPPS. POLICE BELIEVED THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF SOMEONE TRYING TO CLEAN UP BLOOD.
O'CONNOR SAYS SALAS AND HIS LIVE-IN GIRLFRIEND WERE CLOSE TO BREAKING UP, BUT SALAS WANTED HER TO STAY. THE WOMAN HAD HEARD RUMORS ABOUT TONY EPPS, MENTIONED EPPS' NAME, AND SAID SHE WAS LEAVING SALAS. THE WOMAN SAYS SALAS CRIED AND SAID, "I DID IT."
SALAS DIDN'T RESPOND WHEN THE WOMAN ASKED, "DOES THAT MEAN WHAT I THINK IT DOES?"
Update: 10:25 a.m.
DEFENSE'S OPENING STATEMENT:
SALAS' DEFENSE ATTORNEY STARTS BY SAYING, "NO ONE KNOWS WHERE TONY EPPS IS EXCEPT FOR TONY EPS. EPPS IS NOT DEAD. HE'S ALIVE."
THE ATTORNEY GOES ON TO SAY THERE'S NO DEATH CERTIFICATE, NO BODY, ETC., AND EPPS IS A MISSING PERSON...NOT A HOMICIDE VICTIM.
THE ATTORNEY ADDRESSES SEVERAL OF THE ACCUSATIONS O'CONNOR MENTIONED EARLIER EXPLAINING THEM AWAY.
FOR INSTANCE, THE ATTORNEY SAYS SALAS WAS INTIMIDATED AND SCARED BECAUSE HE'D RECEIVED DEATH THREATS FROM EPPS' FAMILY AFTER HE DISAPPEARED. THAT'S WHY SALAS ASKED AN OFFICER "WHY IS EVERYONE LOOKING AT ME?" WHEN THE OFFICER FIRST BEGAN INVESTIGATING EPPS' DISAPPEARANCE.
Murder trial begins in Virginia:
Murder trial starts in case of missing Caroline County woman
By AP
Published: May 6, 2009
BOWLING GREEN — Fourteen years ago, Lisa Gaudenzi disappeared. Now her husband is on trial in Caroline County on a charge of murdering her.
Circuit Court jurors were set to hear evidence today in the trial of 45-year-old Lawrence Peter Gaudenzi, who prosecutors contend killed his wife then destroyed her body.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer told jurors that even though Lisa Gaudenzi’s body was never found, circumstantial evidence points to her husband.
He said one witness will testify that Gaudenzi cut up his wife’s body and dumped it in a swamp in Surry County.
Defense attorney Kathy Hancock countered that there’s no proof Lisa Gaudenzi ever died.
And finally, Drew Peterson, long suspected to have killed and disposed of his fourth wife, is arrested for murdering his third wife:
Drew Peterson arrested — but will it stick?
Lawyer: Case against him for murder of third wife is ‘weak, circumstantial’
May 8: Drew Peterson, the former police sergeant suspected in the disappearance of his fourth wife, is being held on $20 million bond in the drowning death of his third wife. Amy Robach reports from Illinois and Joel Brodsky, Peterson’s attorney, discusses the charges.
Peterson's attorney: 'His spirits are high'
TODAY staff and wire
updated 9:21 a.m. ET, Fri., May 8, 2009
The murder case against Drew Peterson is not a strong one, the former police sergeant’s attorney said. Peterson was arrested Thursday and charged with the murder of his third wife. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife.
“This is a weak, circumstantial case at best,” lawyer Joel Brodsky told TODAY’s Natalie Morales Friday in New York. He pointed out that Will County, Ill., prosecutors have to prove that Peterson drowned his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in her bathtub in 2004. “Drew doesn’t have to prove his innocence,” Brodsky said.
Joking in cuffs
After Peterson was arrested at a traffic stop in his hometown of Bolingbrook, Ill., he was led to jail in handcuffs. He quipped to reporters, “I guess I should have returned those library books.”
Morales asked Brodsky if Peterson understood the gravity of the charges against him.
“He takes it very seriously,” Brodsky said, dismissing the flip remark as a way to deal with tension. “That’s just Drew’s way of reacting to his stressful situation. That’s just his nature. It’s impossible not to take it seriously.”
Peterson, 55, was scheduled to be arraigned on charges of first-degree murder in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
Peterson is being held on $20 million bond, Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich said, and his young children are in the custody of local child welfare officials.
“We are very confident in our case,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said.
Savio’s body was found in a dry bathtub, hair soaked in blood from a head wound, just before the couple’s divorce settlement was finalized. Her death originally was ruled an accidental drowning, but authorities later said it was a homicide staged to look like an accident.
The indictment alleges that “Peterson on or about Feb. 29, 2004 ... caused Kathleen Savio to inhale fluid,” causing her death.
Savio’s family has long voiced suspicions, saying she feared Peterson and told relatives if she died it would not be an accident. Their fears resurfaced after the October 2007 disappearance of Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, then 23.
Drew Peterson is a suspect in the disappearance, which police have called a possible homicide. But he has not been charged and has repeatedly said he thinks Stacy Peterson ran off with another man.
Former police officer Drew Peterson was arrested for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, near his home in Bolingbrook, Ill.
In one of several appearances on TODAY after Stacy Peterson’s disappearance, Peterson told co-host Matt Lauer, “I can look right in your eye and say I had nothing to do with either of those incidents.”
‘Lock-tight alibi’
One of Peterson’s attorneys, Andrew Abood, said the indictment was not a complete surprise.
“There was tremendous pressure for the government to do something in this case,” Abood said Thursday evening. But Abood said one of Peterson’s sons with Savio has “provided a lock-tight alibi” for his father, who faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted.
In an appearance on CBS’ “The Early Show” last month, 16-year-old Thomas Peterson appeared alongside his father and defended him.
“I highly do not believe that my dad had murdered my mom. Because, first off, he wasn’t there, he was with us during that period of time,” Thomas Peterson said on the show.
Peterson has seemed to relish the spotlight since Stacy Peterson's disappearance, appearing in a People magazine cover story and on multiple national talk shows — most recently to tout his new engagement to a 24-year-old woman.
TODAY
Stacy Peterson had two children with Drew Peterson before her disappearance.
From the day Stacy Peterson was reported missing, her husband, a cop of nearly 30 years, knew if investigators weren’t focused on him, they soon would be. And it wasn’t two weeks before the Illinois State Police made it official, calling Peterson a suspect and her disappearance a possible homicide.
When at the same time authorities announced they believed Savio’s death looked like it was a homicide, Peterson knew authorities were looking closely at him as well.
“The husband is always a suspect, whether you declare him so or not,” another of Peterson’s attorneys, Joel Brodsky, said when authorities revealed an autopsy on Savio’s exhumed body showed she was murdered.
Savio’s body was found by a friend of Peterson’s after the police sergeant called him to say he was worried because he had not talked to or seen Savio for a few days. The couple had recently divorced.
The friend, Steve Carcerano, has said he went to the house and went upstairs while Peterson waited downstairs. When he found Savio’s body in the bathtub, he called downstairs to Peterson, who has said he then ran upstairs, took Savio’s pulse, but found none.
Video
Peterson’s fiancee: ‘I just don’t believe it’
Feb. 13: Drew Peterson, who is suspected in the disappearance of his fourth wife and the death of his third, and his fiancee, Christina Raines, talk about their plans for the future.
Today show
Peterson’s next wife was Stacy, who was 30 years younger. They had two children, who lived with the couple along with Peterson’s two children from his marriage to Savio.
On the morning of Oct. 28, 2007, Stacy Peterson talked to a friend. Stacy’s sister, Cassandra Cales, tried to call her in the middle of the afternoon, and did not get through. Late that night, Cales went to Peterson’s home, but neither Drew nor Stacy was there. A few minutes later, she reached Peterson on his cell phone, with Peterson telling her that Stacy had left him.
Cales didn’t believe it and reported her sister missing the next day.
Pamela Bosco, a friend of Stacy’s family who has acted as an unofficial family spokeswoman, said, “We’re just happy for the Savio family.
“We always said that Stacy and Kathleen had one thing in common ... Drew Peterson,” Bosco said.
For more details on Drew Peterson's arrest in the death of his third wife, watch Dateline on NBC Friday, May 8, at 9 p.m. ET.
—Mike Celizic, with additional reporting by The Associated Press
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Interesting case going forward in Washington state:
Spit on letter could help prove woman's murder
The playbill from a local production, pulled from the files of producer Peggy Coverdale, is displayed on her table in Westport, Wash. Bruce Allen Hummel, back center in plaid shirt, portrayed the murderer in the play.
Story Published: Apr 17, 2009 at 7:40 AM PDT
Story Updated: Apr 17, 2009 at 7:40 AM PDT
By Associated Press
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) - Prosecutors say a little bit of spit on an old letter could help prove an 18-year-old Bellingham, Wash., murder case.
Bruce Hummel is accused of killing his wife, Alice, in October 1990. After she disappeared, Hummel told their children she had simply run off, and the children didn't report her missing for more than a decade.
Whatcom County Prosecutor Dave McEachran says Hummel sent relatives a letter in the mid-1990s purporting to be from his missing wife, to make them believe she was still alive. The prosecutor wrote in court papers this week that detectives tracked down the letter and plan to analyze DNA taken from the stamp and the envelope to prove that Bruce Hummel - not Alice - sent it.
No trace of Alice's body has ever been found. Hummel's murder trial is set to begin next month. He fled to Westport, on Washington's coast, when he realized police were after him. There he joined a community acting troupe - and played the killer in a dinner-theater mystery.
Accused husband plays role of killer
In the small-town dinner-theater mystery, Bruce Hummel had no trouble admitting he was the killer: "I got my revenge," he told the audience. "Tell that to the sheriff."
Now he must answer to a real-life murder charge. Whatcom County Prosecutor Dave McEachran charged the handyman and amateur actor with first-degree murder in the disappearance of his wife.
McEachran has no body and no blood - only Hummel's bizarre words and actions since his wife vanished. Detectives say Hummel told his children their mom had abandoned them; he sent them gifts purporting to be from her; and only in 2004, after being questioned by police, did he write them a rambling, implausible letter acknowledging she had been dead all along.
He also continued to cash her disability benefits from the Alaska Teachers Retirement System - for which he is serving a 27-month federal prison sentence - and led police on a yearslong cat-and-mouse game that ended in Westport, a small fishing village on Washington's coast, last year.
Hummel blended in there by tutoring children at a low-income housing complex, driving senior citizens to doctor appointments and starring as the killer in a dinner mystery put on by a local theater group, the Grayland Players.
"Oh my gosh, it's so long coming," Hummel's niece, Laura Keithley, said during an interview last year. "It's a bittersweet moment. I so want some kind of resolution for my aunt."
In the words of her husband: Alice Hummel's sudden departure
In 1990, Bruce and Alice Hummel lived in a house atop Bellingham's Alabama Hill, after more than a decade teaching in some of the remotest parts of Alaska: Bethel, a hub for dozens of native villages; St. Paul Island, 200 miles into the Bering Sea; Naknek, a salmon fishing outpost.
One day that October, Alice Hummel disappeared. According to charging papers, Hummel told his three children that their mother left to take a job in California, and for the next few years he sent them letters and gifts - from fictitious return addresses - so they would believe she was alive.
One typewritten letter to the younger daughter said her mom "had found another man and he did not want to have any kids around," McEachran wrote in charging papers.
The children, then ages 13, 17 and 21, had suspicions, he wrote. It seemed strange that their mother would have no contact with them, that she would skip her son Sean's high school graduation, and that through the 1990s they were unable to locate her.
There was one other troubling fact, the charging papers say: Two weeks before Alice Hummel disappeared, the younger daughter told her she had been molested by her father. Alice Hummel promised it would never happen again.
"Alice Hummel disappeared, never to be heard from again, after agreeing to confront her husband, Bruce Hummel, about his molestation of their 13-year-old daughter," McEachran wrote. "The evidence clearly shows that Bruce Hummel had the motive and opportunity to murder Alice Hummel and in fact did so in October 1990."
The children did not report their mother missing until August 2001. Bellingham police detectives spent the next six years tracking down Bruce Hummel and contacting state, federal and foreign authorities searching for any trace of Alice Hummel.
Bruce Hummel was living in Billings, Mont., with a new wife. The only sign Alice Hummel was alive was that someone was cashing her disability checks.
During an interview with investigators in 2004, Hummel insisted he had last seen Alice alive when he took her to the airport in October 1990. He denied cashing her checks until confronted with evidence, they wrote in interview reports.
Hummel fled after being questioned by police and made his way to Westport. Police found him there after he registered his van to a P.O. box; he pleaded guilty last year to stealing the disability payments.
While on the lam, Hummel wrote a letter to investigators claiming his wife slit her wrists in the bathroom of their home. He insisted he disposed of her body by towing it in a makeshift raft out into Bellingham Bay, and that he invented the story that she had run off to keep the children from learning she had killed herself.
"I rowed and bailed for an hour and a half at least but the wind got worse and I had to let her body go," the letter said. "I was too tired to cry but I remember saying a silent prayer."
Bellingham Detective Glenn Hutchings said there's no way Hummel could have handled his wife's corpse in the way he described; there was no wind on Bellingham Bay that night; and there was no trace of blood in the bathroom when detectives processed it for evidence.
Cadaver-sniffing dogs and ground-penetrating radar also turned up no indication of a body buried on the Bellingham property, McEachran said.
Keithley, now 50 and living in Bellevue, said Bruce Hummel - her father's brother - tried to molest her in the 1970s, when she lived with Bruce and Alice in Alaska for several months. For years after Alice disappeared, Bruce Hummel continued to attended the family's annual reunion picnic on Mercer Island and behaved as if nothing was wrong, she said.
"It was sort of an unspoken thing; our family didn't talk about it at all," Keithley said. "But the circumstances of what we heard - that she left without saying goodbye to her own children - we knew she would never have done that. A mother would never go off
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The article says there have been three no body murder cases in Kansas but there have actually been at six, all of which resulted in convictions except for the Floyd case:
Unusual murder trial begins
Reported by: Anthony Powell
Email: apowell@ksn.com
WICHITA, Kansas – Prosecutors are asking a Sedgwick County jury to convict a man of murder even though the body of his alleged victim has never been found.
On Tuesday, attorneys finished selecting a jury, including alternates. It includes 10 women and 4 men. Opening statements are set to begin Wednesday morning.
Tony Epps and Jeffrey Salas knew each other from what police say was criminal activity. Now, more than two years after Epps disappeared, Salas is on trial for his murder.
Epps, a father of two, has not been seen since March 2007. The only trace of him was his car and cell phone found at the Green Mill Restaurant on E. Kellogg.
"Even though we have not located his body, through our investigation, we believe Mr. Epps was murdered,” said Capt. Randy Landen with the Wichita Police Department.
While evidence to support the theory that Salas is the murderer, legal analyst Dan Monnat says without a body, prosecutors can face an uphill battle.
"In a bodiless case, the prosecutor is trying to prove both a killing and a killer by circumstantial evidence, while the jury is required to presume innocence as to both elements,” Monnat said.
Monnat has been involved with one of the handful of Kansas murder cases that went to trial when there was no body. Only two convictions have resulted. He defended Shannon and Chad Floyd of Johnson City. They were accused of killing Shannon’s ex-boyfriend Michael Golub, who was also the father of her child. His body was never found, but DNA evidence linked to blood was. Still, two juries emerged hung. Several months ago, prosecutors dropped the charges.
"Blood or the presence of DNA doesn't mean anybody died,” Monnat said. “And it doesn't mean that somebody died other than by accident or suicide."
Now only time will tell if the jury hearing Salas’ murder trial will decide if there’s enough evidence to convict – even without a body.
Monnat could soon find himself in the middle of another bodyless case. Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield is still deciding whether or not to file charges – possibly murder charges – against Doug and Valerie Herrman. Their adoptive son Adam disappeared 10 years ago and the two never reported him missing.
Monnat is Doug Herrman’s attorney.
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Check out the latest table of nearly 300 no body murder trials. Will be more to add soon....
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Lawyers question evidence in Levy case
April 11, 2009 - 2:55pm
This undated file photo released by the family shows Chandra Ann Levy, a 24-year-old graduate student from University of Southern California. A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons says Ingmar Guandique, a Salvadoran immigrant facing charges in the slaying of Washington intern Chandra Levy, was transferred Thursday, April 9, 2009 from the Adelanto, Calif. prison where he was serving a 10-year sentence for assault to the bureau's federal transfer center in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Family Photo via The Modesto Bee, File)
By NAFEESA SYEED
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - There are plenty of witnesses in the case against an imprisoned Salvadoran immigrant accused of killing former D.C. intern Chandra Levy _ the ex-girlfriend who says she was beaten, other women he's convicted of attacking and a man believed to be a fellow inmate.
But none of the dozen prosecution witnesses outlined in a March 3 affidavit actually saw the attack on the young woman in a Washington park about eight years ago. Only two directly link Ingmar Guandique, who's expected to arrive in Washington in the next few weeks, to Levy's death.
Prosecutors have nailed convictions in other cases with no physical evidence and only secondhand or circumstantial witness accounts. New evidence could also emerge in the Levy case.
But without forensic evidence linking Levy and Guandique or an eyewitness account, the Levy case offers weaknesses the defense could pounce on, say several attorneys not connected to the case.
"It's long on witnesses and short on direct evidence that Guandique had anything to do with this," said David Benowitz, a criminal defense attorney who once worked as a public defender in the District of Columbia.
The same team of prosecutors and detectives working the Levy case last year solved the 1996 D.C. slaying of Shaquita Bell, even though her body has never been found and no one saw the killing.
Michael Dickerson, her ex-boyfriend and a convicted felon, pleaded guilty in October to killing her after authorities lined up evidence from ballistics, past domestic violence and witnesses who saw the couple argue.
Thomas A. "Tad" DiBiase, a former federal prosecutor in D.C. who now runs the Web site nobodymurdercases.com, recalled many other cases in which suspects were convicted even though a body was never found and no witnesses actually saw the killing.
"You line all these things up and that ends up being quite powerful and difficult for the defense to deal with," DiBiase said.
The Levy investigation has been problematic since it started. Critics have long pointed to early missteps such as the police department's failure to find Levy's body until a year after the Modesto, Calif., resident disappeared.
Some former investigators also say police remained too focused on former U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, the California lawmaker who was reportedly romantically involved with Levy. Condit lost his bid for re-election in 2002.
Guandique is accused of sexually assaulting and killing Levy on a trail in Rock Creek Park on May 1, 2001. By the time her remains were found, they were so decomposed that valuable evidence probably was lost.
The March 3 arrest warrant and affidavit make no mention of DNA or other forensic evidence pointing to Guandique. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said that there was no physical evidence linking Guandique to the crime, but that the "cumulative weight" of circumstantial evidence led investigators to Guandique.
Guandique has been serving a 10-year federal prison term in California for two other attacks in the same park where authorities say he attacked Levy. Federal Bureau of Prisons officials said he was moved to their federal transfer center in Oklahoma City on Thursday.
Authorities have said they don't have a date for Guandique's arrival in Washington, but they expected the U.S. Marshals Service to transfer him to D.C. within 30 to 60 days of the arrest warrant date.
Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said a grand jury will convene to consider indicting Guandique, but he could not say when. In D.C., suspects must be indicted within nine months of being charged.
Santha Sonenberg and Maria Hawilo, Guandique's public defenders, have called authorities' investigation "flawed."
Some criminal defense attorneys say prosecutors, lacking forensic evidence and eyewitnesses, are relying too heavily on secondhand witnesses.
None of the witnesses are named, but police describe some of their identities. There's an ex-girlfriend who says they argued and that he occassionally hit, grabbed and bit her. Then there are the two women he's convicted of attacking along with another woman who was walking in the park and believes Guandique followed her around the time Levy went missing. Another witness is merely the dog-walker who discovered Levy's remains a year later.
Others include those who claim to have known Guandique for many years and those who say they've exchanged letters with him. One of the most extreme characterizations of Guandique comes from a witness who says Guandique boasted about being known as "Chuckie" because he had a reputation for killing and chopping up people.
In the affidavit, the interview with witness 11 is dated from February. That man also was present when Guandique allegedly heard a recent news report about authorities' plan to arrest him in the Levy murder. The witness claims Guandique said he was involved in her slaying and described the incident in detail. Given that Guandique was in jail at the time, it's likely that man is an inmate.
Another witness also said that Guandique admitted to killing Levy, though police say the account Guandique provided that person was "inconsistent in some respects with accounts he gave to other witnesses." The affidavit does not specify the discrepancies. Only that witness and the 11th witness connect Levy by name to Guandique.
Benowitz, the former public defender, said he would question witnesses' motivation for speaking to police and under what circumstances they were interviewed. He said that the 11th witness appears to be a "jailhouse snitch," and that the defense would need to know whether the inmate received any favors in exchange for the interview.
As for the two witnesses directly linking Guandique to Levy, the defense may question whether they could have gotten those details from published reports or other sources and not actually from Guandique, said Paul Rothstein, an evidence expert at Georgetown University's law school.
Rothstein also said it would help if authorities could get evidence to show how Levy died _ evidence that would square with Guandique's alleged admissions outlined in the affidavit. And if Guandique had accomplices, as some witnesses suggest, they would need to testify, too.
"What's set forth in this affidavit, without more facts, does not seem to add up to a sound case of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, if it went to trial," Rothstein said.
Associated Press writer Gillian Gaynair in Washington contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
U.S. Attorney's Office, Washington: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/dc/
Public Defender Service, Washington: http://www.pdsdc.org/
Georgetown University Law: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/
No Body Murder Cases: http://www.nobodymurdercases.com/
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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From Salt Lake Tribune:
Tribtowns.com
Prosecutor: Murder only explanation for Kiplyn Davis disappearance
Court » Defense argues no body, no crime scene means no case.
By Donald W. Meyers
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/09/2009 04:10:37 PM MDT
Provo » There is no body, and a judge has ruled the death certificate is inadmissible. But prosecutor Mariane O'Bryant still believes she can prove Kiplyn Davis was murdered, and that Timmy Brent Olsen was involved.
"The only conclusion that can be reached under these circumstances is that Kiplyn is dead, and the cause is unnatural," O'Bryant said Thursday in a 4th District Court hearing where she recounted the May 1995 disappearance of the 15-year-old Spanish Fork resident.
Prosecutors are fighting a motion by Olsen's lawyer to drop the case for a lack of evidence.
Earlier this week, Judge Lynn W. Davis had tossed out the death certificate as evidence. This issue was raised by attorneys for Christopher Neal Jeppson, who, along with Olsen, is being charged in connection with the Davis disappearance.
On Thursday, Olsen attorney Jeremey Delicino told the judge that without that certificate, the body or a crime scene, prosecutors "only have circumstantial evidence and innuendo."
But O'Bryant said the death-certificate decision does not affect her case. The evidence --including Olsen's statements to others admitting he killed her -- shows Kiplyn is dead.
Delicino retorted that Olsen's statements were made when he was intoxicated, thus rendering them untrustworthy without corroborating evidence.
While Olsen and Jeppson have both been convicted on federal perjury charges for making false statements to investigators and a grand jury, Delicino said that is not evidence of guilt. It just means they made inconsistent statements.
He also said Kiplyn also had problems with her parents at the time of her disappearance, was cutting classes and even talked of suicide.
Countered prosecutor O'Bryant: Kiplyn was a typical teenager with all the usual emotional ups and downs, but there was nothing to suggest she would run away or kill herself.
O'Bryant is taking a fall-back position, though: If the court agrees there is insufficient evidence, she wants the charges left intact pending an appeal. She said that is necessary because Olsen is also serving a federal prison sentence for perjury, and the state would lose any chance of trying him if he were to go back into federal custody -- even if Kiplyn's body were found.
The judge also will decide if prosecutors can introduce testimony from Olsen's ex-girlfriend that he raped her when she pressed him about Kiplyn's disappearance.
U.S. Attorney Richard Lambert, who is serving as co-counsel with O'Bryant, said the woman's testimony, which was used in the perjury trial, not only shows Olsen is guilty, but illustrates how Kiplyn was killed.
The woman, Lambert said, testified that when she asked Olsen about his role in Kiplyn's disappearance, Olsen struck her, forced her into his truck and drove to a railroad tunnel in Spanish Fork Canyon where he raped her.
That testimony corresponds with an account Olsen gave another woman as to what he did to Kiplyn.
But Delicino wants that testimony excluded. It would unduly prejudice the jury against his client, he said. He also noted that Olsen was never charged with the alleged rape.
Davis will conduct a closed hearing on the matter May 5.
Richard M. Davis, Kiplyn's father, said after Thursday's hearing that he believes the judge will evaluate the arguments fairly. But regardless of the decision, Davis said his goal is to give his daughter a proper burial.
"I'm not stopping until I bring her home," the father said.
dmeyers@sltrib.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Suspect goes to trial for murder of Jean Johnson
WBIR.com Updated: 3/30/2009 12:00:29 PM Posted: 3/30/2009 11:54:01 AM
Jean Johnson went missing in February of 2007. No body has ever been found. Monday, her ex-husband Douglas Whisnant went to trial for her murder.
Jury selection began Monday morning.
Douglas Whisnant was sentenced to 25 years in prison on two gun-related charges. As a convicted felon, Whisnant was barred from owning firearms. During the search for Johnson, authorities reported finding a Sten machine gun in his home.
A grand jury indicted Whisnant for Johnson's murder in February, 2008.
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Lawyers in Wilberger case build strategy Prosecutors hope to present evidence of Joel Patrick Courtney’s “previous acts”
By Karen McCowan
The Register-Guard
Posted to Web: Sunday, Mar 29, 2009 12:23PM
Appeared in print: Sunday, Mar 29, 2009, page A7
News: Local: Story
CORVALLIS — Court documents filed in advance of a May hearing in Joel Patrick Courtney’s death penalty murder case allege that the man accused of killing Veneta resident Brooke Wilberger told his sister days after Wilberger’s 2004 disappearance about a “blonde girl who was kidnapped” and dies a violent death.
Wilberger was a blonde, 19-year-old Brigham Young University student when she vanished five years ago from a summer job cleaning lamp posts at an apartment complex near Oregon State University. Her body has not been found, although investigators reported finding DNA evidence that the Brigham Young University student had been in a green van Courtney was driving in May 2004.
Among the details in prosecution filings is a claim that an agitated Courtney appeared at his sister’s Portland home two weeks after Wilberger vanished. According to prosecutors, the sister told investigators that Courtney acted “like he was on something” and told her that someone with a gun was in the sister’s car. When the sister walked outside with Courtney to show him that her car was empty, the motion continued, he told her there was “a blonde girl who was kidnapped,” that “there was blood all over her,” and “she dies.”
Courtney’s trial is still 10 months away. But motions filed in Benton County Circuit Court reveal a prosecution plan to present evidence of Courtney’s “previous acts” — including two sexual assault convictions — in the Feb. 1 trial. The documents include new details about Courtney’s alleged and proven attacks on other women and about his behavior in the aftermath of Wilberger’s May 24, 2004, disappearance.
Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson and deputy district attorney Karen Kemper also have filed a motion to consolidate Courtney’s kidnap, rape and murder charges in the Wilberger case with another case involving two other women he allegedly approached in Corvallis the day Wilberger vanished. A Benton County grand jury in May 2007 indicted Courtney on charges of attempted kidnap, rape and murder of the other Corvallis women.
In both motions, prosecutors charge that Courtney had a pattern of prowling the outskirts of college campuses for petite, college-age females he could lure into his vehicle and attack.
Courtney has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. His defense team has filed responses urging Benton County Circuit Judge Locke Williams to deny both prosecution motions. Williams is expected to rule on the matters after hearing oral arguments beginning May 4.
In the motions, the prosecutors ask Williams to let them present evidence of Courtney’s alleged attempts to abduct two other young Corvallis women the morning Wilberger disappeared; his subsequent behavior as observed by his sister and others; his conviction for the November 2004 abduction and sexual assault of a young, blonde University of New Mexico student; and his sexual abuse conviction for what they call the attempted rape of a Portland woman in December 1984.
The documents assert that one of the other Corvallis women reported she was walking along a sidewalk the morning of May 24, 2004, when the driver of a green minivan pulled into a driveway ahead of her, blocking her path, and asking for directions. She reportedly became nervous and walked away after he got out of the vehicle and opened a sliding door on the side of the van. Less than a half hour later, the prosecutors wrote, another young woman became suspicious when the driver of a green van slowed down and stared at her as she walked near Reser Stadium. When she saw what may have been the same van coming back toward her moments later, she reported the incident to an athletic department employee, who called police, according to the motions.
The prosecutors also allege that Courtney used force in a 1985 case in which he sexually assaulted an acquaintance in her car. And they want to include evidence from a December 2004 Utah incident in which they say Courtney used a knife to force a young woman into his car and to strip. After sexually assaulting her, they write, he used her shoelaces, scarf and socks to tie her up and gag her. She managed to escape from his car; Courtney later pleaded guilty to kidnapping and criminal sexual penetration.
In responses filed this month, Courtney’s attorney, Steven Gorham, challenged as speculative the prosecution’s linking of the Wilberger case and the attempted kidnap, rape and murder charges involving the other two Corvallis women. The only “overt action” alleged by the state in the latter case, Gorham wrote, is “that someone in a green van” asked the two women for directions. He said prosecutors failed to meet two state legal standards for consolidating cases: that they cover acts of “the same or similar character” or are parts of a common plan.
He also argued that Courtney could not get a fair trial under consolidation of the cases or inclusion in the Wilberger case of testimony about his “other acts.”
“Each act offered is too remote, too dissimilar, too tenuous or not proved,” Gorham said.
In their motions, Haroldson and Kemper acknowledged that a defendant’s other acts are inadmissible “for the purpose of saying ‘once a bad person, always a bad person.’ ”
But, they argued, Oregon law allows that other acts committed by the defendant are admissible if direct relevancy can be established and the “probative value” of the evidence outweighs undue prejudice against the accused. They cited Oregon evidence rules that past acts may be admissible to prove motive, opportunity, intent, preparation or plan. Haroldson and Kemper wrote that such “relevant circumstantial evidence” is crucial to the state’s case in a no-body homicide.
Earlier documents in the case revealed that Courtney went to Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland complaining of chest pains and high blood pressure two days after Wilberger’s disappearance. Records also show that Courtney’s relatives said he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Those documents also said residents of the apartment complex reported hearing a woman scream some time after 10 a.m. the day Wilberger disappeared. Relatives looking for her later in the day found only her flip-flops and the bucket of soapy water she’d been using to wash lamp posts.
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S.F. Attorney Charged With Capital Murder in Palm Springs Fraud Case
By Matt Smith in Breaking News, Crime
Thursday, Mar. 19 2009 @ 7:50PM
ShiningMurder.jpg
David Replogle, a San Francisco attorney famed for winning a $7 million sex abuse settlement from prominent local stockbroker Thomas White, has been charged with murder in connection with an unrelated Palm Springs fraud case, according to new charges filed in Riverside County court. Replogle has been charged with murder while committing a robbery, and murder carried out for financial gain, as well as fraud, embezzlement, and damage to property of over $1 million. If convicted of murder under these special circumstances, Replogle faces the death penalty, or life imprisonment without possibility of parole, according to the California Penal Code.
Replogle was arrested earlier this month on forgery charges in connection with an alleged scheme to steal the assets of retired art dealer Cliff Lambert, 75, who was last seen in early December. Also arrested were four other suspects in connection with an alleged scheme to empty Lambert's bank accounts, loot paintings and other valuables from his house, steal his Mercedes sports car, and fraudulently sell Lambert's $1 million home.
When Replogle was arrested earlier this month, he demanded to see a Palm Springs district attorney, so that he might cut a plea deal, said Detective Frank Browning, of the Palm Springs police department.
"He was very arrogant," Browning said, during an interview prior to the filing of the murder charges. Browning said Replogle was told there would be no deal.
Also charged with murder in connection with the case are Kaushal Niroula, 27, who police say is Replogle's boyfriend, and Daniel Garcia, 27, who served as Replogle's key client in a 2003 sex abuse lawsuit against San Francisco financier Thomas White.
As reported in this week's SF Weekly, Replogle has a reputation among some San Francisco attorneys for pushing ethical boundaries. White's attorneys, meanwhile, have long accused Replogle of conducting a sophisticated frame up, in order to extract a large settlement from the San Francisco financier. White now faces sex abuse charges in Mexico and San Francisco, spurred in part by Replogle's tireless recruitment of Mexican boys willing to say they had sex with White. Now that Replogle has been charged in connection with the Lambert case, White's attorneys claim the case against their client may be tainted by Replogle's damaged credibility.
Prior to their arrest in Palm Springs earlier this month, Niroula had gained a reputation among associates for battling accusations that they repeatedly defrauded people. Niroula faced separate charges of stealing more than $600,000 from victims in San Francisco and Marin County, while facing a lawsuit alleging he stole $500,000 from a Japanese woman visiting San Francisco.. Garcia, meanwhile, faced charges of impersonating and stealing from a friend in Las Vegas. Garcia had also been accused of stealing thousands of dollars from White's bank accounts.
Replogle's bail, which had been set at $5 million, was revoked, according to court records. Replogle is scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 23, at which time a judge will determine whether there exists sufficient evidence for a trial.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy