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Widow’s suit: Unarmed mentally ill husband shot in back

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:42:02 +0000

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This undated photo provided by Adriana Medina shows Adriana and her husband Guillermo Medina. Medina, whose husband was suffering from a mental health crisis when she called a nonemergency number for help last year sued Culver City police Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, alleging they shot her unarmed husband in the back as he was running from officers. (Adriana Medina via AP)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California widow whose husband was suffering from a mental health crisis when she called a nonemergency number for help last year sued Culver City police Tuesday, alleging they shot her unarmed husband in the back as he was running from officers.

Adriana Medina filed her civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the fatal shooting of Guillermo Medina on Dec. 18 in the Los Angeles suburb.

Medina was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and hadn’t taken his medication in a couple of weeks when he showed up at his home and pounded on the windows, his wife said at a news conference.

She purposely avoided calling 911 and dialed the main number of the police station in hopes of having a mental health intervention. She told police she did not believe her husband was going to hurt anyone, according to the lawsuit.

“That cry for help became a death sentence,” attorney V. James DeSimone said.

A police spokesperson would not comment on pending litigation but a press release issued after the shooting said officers responded to a domestic violence call involving a husband threatening his wife with a handgun.

“There was no report of domestic violence,” DeSimone said. “There was no report that he was threatening her with a handgun. She never saw a gun.”

The conflicting statements from both police and Medina’s wife, along with grainy video of the shooting, make it too difficult to determine if the shooting was justified, said Ed Obayashi, a deputy sheriff and adviser to the Plumas County sheriff who investigates use of force incidents for police in California and nationwide.

Recordings of the call to police and what dispatchers relayed to officers will be crucial in determining the threat they may have perceived, he said.

“The most important factor is whether there was an immediate threat posed to the officers,” Obayashi said. “Assuming officers have been advised that there is a gun is a very relevant factor in determining if deadly force is justified.”

Guillermo Medina fled in a car when police arrived and then ran on foot after crashing into a median, police said in press release.

DeSimone presented a surveillance video from a building that showed Medina loping up to a utility pole and then dropping to his knees and rolling onto his back. Officers approached slowly and one appeared to handcuff him.

It appeared to take several minutes before first aid was rendered.

The coroner’s office determined the cause of death was homicide, DeSimone said.

The shooting is being investigated by the state attorney general’s office.

Adriana Medina said her husband was a good father who cooked for their children and coached them in youth soccer.

“The sudden loss of my husband has completely devastated my family and turned our life upside down,” she said. “I can’t believe he was taken away from us when what he really needed was help.”

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No new hearing on condemned Missouri man’s innocence claim

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 18:37:34 +0000

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The attorney for a Missouri man facing lethal injection next week said Tuesday that he will ask the state Supreme Court to postpone the execution by three or four months to allow more time to investigate his innocence claim.

Leonard Taylor, 58, faces execution Feb. 7 for the deaths of his girlfriend and her three children in suburban St. Louis in 2004. attorney Kent Gipson had asked St. Louis County Prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing on Taylor’s claim that he was out of state when the killings occurred. A relatively new provision in Missouri law allows a prosecutor to seek a hearing before a judge if evidence of a wrongful conviction emerges.

But Bell said Monday that he wouldn’t file such a motion, saying in a statement that “the facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.” Bell said he would support a stay of execution “so his counsel may further investigate the time that the victims died.”

Gipson said he would ask the Missouri Supreme Court to postpone the execution date by 90 to 120 days so that experts can seek to determine how long the victims were dead before their bodies were found — a question at the heart of the case.

Unless the court intervenes, Missouri risks executing a potentially innocent man, Gipson said.

“I think any fair-minded person that looks at all the evidence we have now would have serious doubts about whether he’s guilty, and that’s all we’re really asking for — to be able to be given an opportunity in front of a judge,” Gipson said.

Taylor had an extensive criminal record and was the live-in boyfriend of Angela Rowe. Her relatives had not heard from her for several days and asked police to go to her home in Jennings, Missouri. On Dec. 3, 2004, officers found the bodies of Rowe, her 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley.

All four had been shot to death. Taylor was arrested days later in Kentucky.

What remains unknown is precisely when the victims were killed. That’s key to Taylor’s innocence claim since he boarded a flight to California on Nov. 26, 2004 — eight days before the discovery of the bodies.

Gipson said authorities first believed the killings happened only a few days before the bodies were found, at the time when Taylor was in California. But at Taylor’s trial, medical examiner Phillip Burch said the killings could have happened two or three weeks before the discovery of the bodies.

“Several of (Rowe’s) family members, and a neighbor who had no reason to lie at all, saw her alive after Leonard left town,” Gipson said.

Meanwhile, Taylor’s adult daughter, Deja Taylor, claimed in a recent court filing that she and her father called Angela Rowe during his visit to California. Deja Taylor said she spoke with Rowe and one of the children. The court filing said Deja Taylor’s mother and sister corroborated her story.

The execution would be the third in Missouri in three months, all involving cases out of St. Louis County. Kevin Johnson was executed in November for killing a police officer in 2005. Amber McLaughlin was put to death Jan. 3 for killing a woman in 2003. It was believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S.

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