homicide – Attorney Legal Counsel

California judge who’s charged with murder texted court staff that he shot his wife, prosecutors say

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 08:13:26 +0000

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California judge accused of killing his wife during an argument while drunk texted his court clerk and bailiff afterward to say he had shot her, prosecutors said Friday as they charged him with murder.

A court filing from prosecutors says Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson texted minutes after last week’s killing: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”

Ferguson is free on $1 million bail. But prosecutors said they’re seeking new bail conditions to protect public safety and ensure he doesn’t flee after authorities found 47 weapons, including the pistol used in the shooting, and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition at his Anaheim home. The weapons are legally owned but a rifle registered in his name is still missing, they said.

The shooting happened after Ferguson and his wife, Sheryl Ferguson, were arguing at a restaurant on Aug. 3, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in the court filing. The argument continued after the couple returned to their home in the upscale neighborhood of Anaheim Hills. The court document says the wife said something to the effect of “why don’t you point a real gun at me?” and he pulled a pistol from his ankle holster and shot her in the chest.

Their adult son called 911 and said his father had been drinking too much and shot his mom, the document says.

Jeffrey Ferguson also called 911 to vaguely report the shooting. When asked if he shot his wife, he said he didn’t want to talk about it at that time and she needed paramedics.

When officers arrived, Ferguson smelled of alcohol and told them, “Oh man I can’t believe I did this,” according to the document.

Ferguson, 72, was arrested at his home. He was released a day later and is set to be arraigned on Sept. 1.

On Friday, prosecutors charged Ferguson with murder with weapons-related enhancements. They want him to surrender his passport, wear an ankle monitor and possess no alcohol or firearms.

Ferguson’s attorneys, Paul Meyer and John Barnett, issued a brief statement and declined to answer questions. “This is a tragedy for the entire Ferguson family. It was an accident and nothing more,” they said.

Ferguson has been a judge since 2015. He handles criminal cases in the Orange County city of Fullerton. He started his legal career in the Orange County district attorney’s office in 1983 and went on to work narcotics cases, for which he won various awards. He served as president of the North Orange County Bar Association from 2012 to 2014.

In 2017, Ferguson was admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance for posting a statement on Facebook about a judicial candidate “with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth of the statement” and for being Facebook friends with attorneys appearing before him in court, according to a copy of the agency’s findings.

Ferguson said on his Facebook page that he grew up in a military family and traveled throughout Asia as a child. He went on to attend college and law school in California. He and his wife were married in 1996.

The arrest shocked the Southern California legal community and officials have been grappling with how the case should be handled. The Orange County district attorney’s office asked state officials to weigh in on whether there was a conflict of interest before filing charges. A judge in neighboring Los Angeles County will hear the case, officials said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the county jail, said Ferguson was released last week according to the pre-established rules for bail and the law. No additional conditions were sought for his release by Anaheim’s police agency, which arrested him, said Jeff Puckett, Orange County’s assistant sheriff for custody operations.

“We’re simply the people that housed him as part of our county mandate to house arrestees,” he said. “The sheriff’s department cannot impose conditions.”

At the time of Ferguson’s arrest, the facts and circumstances didn’t justify a bail enhancement, said Anaheim police Sgt. Jon McClintock. He said the judge “is afforded the same constitutional right to post bail as anyone else” and declined to comment on the filing by the district attorney’s office.

Orange County is made up of a cluster of cities — the most populous being Anaheim — that are between Los Angeles and San Diego and are collectively home to more than 3 million people.

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A California man is found guilty of murder for killing a 6-year-old boy in a freeway shooting

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 21:20:31 +0000

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A jury on Thursday convicted a California man of murder for shooting to death a 6-year-old boy who was riding in the back of his mother’s car on a busy freeway.

Jurors in Orange County found 26-year-old Marcus Eriz guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Aiden Leos, who was strapped in a booster seat on his way to kindergarten. They also found him guilty of shooting at an occupied motor vehicle.

Authorities said Eriz and his girlfriend, Wynne Lee, were heading to work on May 21, 2021, when Lee cut off a car driven by Aiden’s mother, who responded with a rude gesture. Eriz pulled out a gun, reached out the window and fired a shot at the mother’s car that went through the trunk and pierced Aiden’s heart, authorities said.

The shooting shocked the county of 3 million, which relies heavily on a network of freeways to get to work and school, and drew international attention as authorities searched more than two weeks for the killer.

“If you shoot somebody or use violence in this county, and you harm an individual, you will pay the price,” Orange County District attorney Todd Spitzer told reporters after the verdicts were read.

“Mr. Eriz is looking at 40 years to life. His life is over, and it’s because he took the life of this precious, innocent little boy,” Spitzer said, pointing to a large photo on display of a smiling Aiden.

Eriz looked directly at jurors as they were polled after the verdicts were read. He is being held without bail and scheduled to be sentenced on April 12. Eriz’s attorney, Randall Bethune, declined to comment Thursday.

Just over two weeks after the shooting, authorities arrested Eriz and Lee outside their apartment in the Orange County city of Costa Mesa after chasing leads to the white car she had been driving.

Eriz told police he pulled out his gun and fired the shot, knowing it was dangerous, Dan Feldman, senior deputy district attorney, told jurors during the trial.

Eriz’s attorney argued his client didn’t mean to kill anyone in what began as a road rage incident and didn’t know he had until days later when a co-worker commented that Lee’s car looked like the one authorities were searching for.

Lee, who has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact, is being tried separately.

Jurors began deliberations late Wednesday. They met for a little more than an hour Thursday when they announced they had reached a verdict, Feldman said.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard M. King thanked jurors and told them free counseling was available for them if needed.

“This has been a very trying case,” he said before dismissing them.

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Cases affected by California county’s illegal use of jail informants jumps to 57, new analysis finds

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 06:44:19 +0000

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The California public defender who sounded the alarm about Orange County’s illegal use of jailhouse informants says the number of major criminal cases that have unraveled because of the scandal has jumped from about a dozen to 57.

A new analysis by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders finds 35 homicide cases and 22 serious felony cases saw convictions overturned, charges dropped and sentences dramatically reduced, the Orange County Register reported Tuesday.

“We already knew that this was the largest and longest running informant scandal in U.S. history, but there had never been a complete accounting of the cases with changed outcomes,” Sanders told the newspaper. The analysis was partly based on data from the district attorney’s office.

With Sanders first raising concerns in 2014, state and federal investigators confirmed that Orange County prosecutors and law enforcement officers systematically violated the constitutional rights of criminal defendants with the illegal use of jailhouse informants.

Some informants collected up to $1,500 a case to coax confessions out of targeted inmates. Many of those inmates had a constitutional right not to be questioned by informants because they had already been charged and retained attorneys.

Some of the informants used threats of violence to persuade their targets to talk, which is not allowed by law. Prosecutors failed to disclose to defense attorneys the use of informants and their histories.

All of the impacted cases came during the tenure of former District attorney Tony Rackauckas. The use of informants under current DA Todd Spitzer is more restricted.

Spitzer said in a statement that much of Sanders’ analysis was previously compiled by the DA’s office and shared with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We have a team of prosecutors tasked with reviewing each one of these cases and ensuring all of our discovery obligations have been met, and to take any further remedial action, if necessary,” he said. “In addition, the Orange County District attorney’s Office has expanded the role of our Conviction Integrity Unit by adopting a policy to review any wrongful conviction claim.”

Authorities can use jailhouse informants but can’t have them deliberately elicit information from defendants once they are represented by lawyers. In addition, prosecutors are required to turn over evidence to defense attorneys that could be seen as favorable to their clients.

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2 Los Angeles County men exonerated after spending decades in prison

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 07:40:09 +0000

LOS ANGELES — Two men who spent decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit have been exonerated and freed, the Los Angeles County district attorney announced Wednesday.

Giovanni Hernandez and Miguel Solorio had their convictions vacated earlier this year and on Wednesday a judge found them factually innocent, the District attorney‘s Office said in an email.

At a news conference, District attorney George Gascón apologized to both men.

“It’s truly devastating when people are wrongfully convicted, especially when they were so young at the time of their arrest. In the case of Mr. Solorio, he was 19 years old. Mr. Hernandez was just 14 years old,” Gascón said.

After two trials, Hernandez was convicted in 2012 of killing 16-year-old Gary Ortiz during a 2006 drive-by shooting in Culver City. He was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Hernandez said he was at home with his family at the time of the shooting.

He was exonerated after his case was twice submitted to the Conviction Integrity Unit of the District attorney‘s Office.

Investigators interviewed witnesses who hadn’t previously been contacted and analyzed Hernandez’s cellphone records, which showed he wasn’t near the shooting location, according to a statement from the DA’s office.

Solorio spent 25 years in prison following his conviction for the 1998 shooting of an 81-year-old woman, Mary Bramlett, in an unincorporated county area near Whittier.

Authorities contended Solorio was driving a car containing gang members who mistakenly shot Bramlett while she was stopped at a red light. She had been driving home with some friends after playing bridge at church.

Solorio, who said he had spent the evening with his girlfriend, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

His attorney submitted an innocence claim in 2021 to the Conviction Integrity Unit, which concluded on the basis of new evidence that Solorio had been misidentified in a photo lineup, the DA’s office statement said.

Hernandez was represented by the Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic at Loyola Law School and Solorio was represented by the Northern California Innocence Project.

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Family of Los Angeles deputy killed in ambush shooting plans to sue county over forced overtime

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 07:56:56 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The parents of a Los Angeles County deputy who was shot and killed while sitting in his patrol car plan to file a lawsuit accusing the sheriff’s department and county leaders of putting law enforcement officers at risk by making them work excessive overtime because of severe understaffing, an attorney announced Tuesday.

Investigators said Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, was ambushed Sept. 16 while waiting for a traffic light to change in Palmdale, a city of more than 167,000 residents in the high desert of northern LA County.

“I don’t want any parent to ever have to sit at a Thanksgiving or holiday dinner with someone missing, like we had to this year,” the deputy’s mother, Kim Clinkunbroomer, said tearfully at a news conference.

“Had he not been fatigued and exhausted, he would have responded safely; he’d be here today,” said the deputy’s father, Michael Clinkunbroomer.

Clinkunbroomer had racked up 69 hours of overtime in the two weeks leading up to the shooting and had worked a double shift the day before, said attorney Brad Gage, who represents the slain deputy’s parents. Clinkunbroomer was so exhausted from being overworked that his senses were dulled and he missed “the telltale signs” of an impending ambush, Gage said.

Prosecutors have charged Kevin Cataneo Salazar, 29, with one count of murder, plus special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, murder committed by lying in wait, murder committed by firing from a car and personal use of a firearm. Cataneo Salazar has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Gage said in a government claim filed Monday that Clinkunbroomer was forced to work up to 100 hours of overtime each month. Gage accuses Sheriff Robert Luna, department officials and county leaders of knowingly endangering the lives of law enforcement officers by enforcing excessive amounts of mandatory overtime.

The claim is the precursor to a wrongful death lawsuit and names the county sheriff’s department and Board of Supervisors. County officials have 45 days to respond to the claim before a lawsuit can be filed.

Gage said the lawsuit would seek $20 million in damages and changes to sheriff’s department staffing and scheduling policies.

In a statement Tuesday, the sheriff’s department did not comment on the potential lawsuit. Luna, who was sworn in as sheriff a year ago, has previously vowed to make increasing the number of deputies a priority.

“The senseless ambush murder of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was the epitome of evil and the Department continues to mourn his death. We lost a valued member of our Department family who was committed to serving our communities,” the department statement said. “The Sheriff’s Department remains committed to securing a successful prosecution against the individual responsible for Ryan’s murder. Our thoughts continue to remain with the entire Clinkunbroomer family.”

Law enforcement officers and members of the public are at risk because “fatigue resulting from these demanding work schedules impairs the deputies’ ability to stay alert and respond effectively in the line of duty,” the claim states.

“Sheriff Luna and the Board of Supervisors knew of the dangers to their employees as a result of intentionally forcing overtime, but intentionally pursued such actions in conscious disregard of the rights and safety of deputies,” Gage writes in the claim.

The Board of Supervisors did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the allegations.

“Everybody likes to work a bit of overtime, to earn a bit of extra money, but they don’t want to work so much overtime that they’re unable to take care of themselves and others,” said Gage, the family’s attorney.

The head of the deputies’ union said limited staffing is an ongoing problem in Los Angeles, but did not respond to specific questions about average overtime worked by its members.

“The department’s staffing crisis is pushing our deputies to, and sadly sometimes beyond, their limits. We need our elected officials to take a more aggressive and intelligent approach to addressing the department’s inability to recruit and retain qualified people,” said a statement from Rich Pippin, president of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. “Failure to do so can only result in more tragic outcomes, not only for our deputy sheriffs, but for the millions of people who rely on them for protection.”

The Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, D.C., tracks staffing problems at law enforcement agencies nationwide. “What you’re seeing in LA, you’re seeing across the country,” said Chuck Wexler, the forum’s executive director. “It’s a huge issue.”

Wexler said Tuesday that fewer young people want to work in law enforcement and current police officers are retiring and resigning faster than they can be replaced. The result is more overtime for officers and deputies currently on the job.

“And what you’re finding is increased overtime, for some officers, is contributing to them leaving their jobs,” Wexler said. “It’s a generational thing. Younger officers would rather have more free time than overtime.”

Prosecutors haven’t laid out a motive in the criminal case or said whether Clinkunbroomer and Cataneo Salazar previously knew each other.

Authorities said the deputy was “targeted” but would not say whether Cataneo Salazar was seeking to harm Clinkunbroomer specifically or any member of law enforcement generally.

Cataneo Salazar allegedly followed Clinkunbroomer just before 6 p.m. as he left the sheriff’s Palmdale Station, the district attorney’s office said in a September news release.

The deputy was “waiting for a red light to turn” when he was shot, Luna said at the time.

Cataneo Salazar was arrested after an hourslong standoff with sheriff’s deputies. He had barricaded himself inside his family’s Palmdale home.

His mother, Marle Salazar, told the Los Angeles Times her son was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic about five years ago. He would say he was hearing voices in his head, she said, and sometimes claimed that cars or people were following him. He twice attempted suicide and had been hospitalized at least once, she said.

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8 teens arrested on murder charges in beating of classmate in Las Vegas

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 05:29:51 +0000

Eight high school students in Las Vegas between the ages of 13 and 17 have been arrested on suspicion of murder in the fatal beating of a 17-year-old classmate, authorities announced Tuesday at a news conference.

Las Vegas police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson said investigators were still working to identify two more students believed to have participated in the Nov. 1 fight that he said was over a pair of wireless headphones and a vape pen.

Johansson said the local FBI office assisted with the arrests Tuesday morning of the eight students. The two outstanding students will also face murder charges, he said.

Johansson said the 17-year-old victim, Jonathan Lewis Jr., remained hospitalized with severe “head trauma” and other injuries until his death about a week after the fight. The coroner’s office in Las Vegas ruled the beating a homicide.

Las Vegas Undersheriff Andrew Walsh called a video of the attack, which has circulated on social media, “extremely disturbing.”

Johansson said it was that video that allowed investigators, with the help of school officials and Clark County School District police, to identify the suspects.

“Many of you, and many people in the community, have seen the violent video that has circulated throughout our community via social media,” Walsh said Wednesday. “And if you, or your child, or someone you knew, has seen that violent video, and recognized anybody that may have been a participant in this senseless crime, you need to get ahold of us.”

Authorities did not name the suspects because they are juveniles. Johansson said he and his team are working with the local district attorney‘s office to determine if they will be charged with murder as adults.

The fight, Johansson said, had been prearranged after the headphones and vape pen were stolen from the victim’s friend.

Johansson said investigators believe that the victim originally wasn’t supposed to be involved in the fight but had accompanied his friend to a nearby alleyway, where the brawl was scheduled to take place after classes ended for the day at Rancho High School in eastern Las Vegas.

In the alley, the 10 students “immediately swarm him, pull him to the ground and begin kicking, punching and stomping on him,” Johansson said.

After the fight, he said a “citizen” in the area found the victim badly beaten and unconscious in the alleyway and carried him back to campus, where school staff called 911.

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Suspect in University of North Carolina shooting is not competent for trial, his attorneys say

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 13:14:04 +0000

Attorneys for a University of North Carolina graduate student say he is not competent to stand trial in the killing of his academic advisor

ByThe Associated Press

September 19, 2023, 5:48 PM

FILE – Law enforcement respond to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., Aug. 28, 2023, after the university locked down and warned of an armed person on campus. Two shooting 30 years apart at the University of North Carolina show how much has changed. Some alumni who remember a deadly shooting in 1995 now have children enrolled at their alma mater in Chapel Hill, where an associate professor was shot to death Aug. 28. In some ways, the era of campus shootings has come full circle though there have been vast changes in the way information spreads. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum, File)

The Associated Press

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Attorneys for a University of North Carolina graduate student accused of killing his academic advisor said in court on Tuesday that a doctor has found their client not competent to proceed with trial.

Defense attorneys for Tailei Qi told Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour they plan to file a motion challenging Qi’s capacity to proceed. Meanwhile, the judge granted a request from prosecutors to get a separate competency evaluation.

Qi is charged with killing Dr. Zijie Yan inside a campus laboratory on Aug. 28. Police were alerted when a 911 caller reported gunfire at Caudill Labs. Qi was not at the building when officers arrived soon after.

Police arrested the Chapel Hill resident without force off campus less than two hours after the shooting. He is being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder and having a gun on educational property.

The attack and hourslong lockdown terrified students and faculty who had just returned to campus for the start of the fall semester.

At the Tuesday hearing, Qi spoke multiple times, including asking for new attorneys, WTVD-TV reported.

Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour advised Qi to remain quiet.

“I don’t want you to say anything else today. What I want you to know is that you have two lawyers beside you who are willing to work for you and with you, and what they need from you is your cooperation and your help,” Baddour said.

The campus of the state’s flagship public university was locked down again last week over reports of an armed and dangerous person. No shots were fired and an arrest was made.

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Double-amputee with a knife shot and killed by police; family claims excessive force used

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:52:31 +0000

CNN
—

Videos purportedly capturing the moments before the shooting death of a double-amputee man holding a knife after a stabbing attack are raising questions about whether police used excessive force in the Southern California city of Huntington Park.

On Thursday afternoon, Huntington Park Police Department officers responded to a report of a stabbing, the department said in a statement Monday. Responding officers found a victim suffering from “a life-threatening stab wound resulting in a collapsed lung and internal bleeding,” the statement said.

The victim described the attacker as a Black man in a wheelchair who “dismounted the wheelchair, ran to the victim without provocation, and stabbed him in the side of the chest with a 12” butcher knife” and then fled the scene in his wheelchair, HPPD said.

The victim was taken to a local hospital and remains in critical condition, according to HPPD.

During their search, police found the alleged suspect a few blocks away holding a 12-inch butcher knife, HPPD said. The suspect allegedly ignored officer commands and threatened to “advance or throw the knife,” and officers used two separate Tasers to try and subdue the suspect but failed, HPPD said.

“The suspect continued to threaten officers with the butcher knife, resulting in an officer-involved shooting,” HPPD said. It was not immediately clear how many officers were present or shot the suspect.

The suspect was struck by gunfire in the upper torso and was pronounced dead on scene, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in an initial statement.

The involved officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending ongoing investigations from HPPD, the sheriff’s department’s Homicide Bureau and the Los Angeles County District attorney’s Office, HPPD said.

The sheriff’s department confirmed it is investigating but declined to comment.

While authorities did not name the man who died, family members identified him as 36-year-old Anthony Lowe during a news conference held by a community organizer.

Bystander videos of the incident posted on social media appear to show the confrontation between police and Lowe on Thursday just before the shooting. A family member of Lowe confirmed to CNN the man in the video is Lowe.

In one video, two uniformed officers are seen pointing their guns at Lowe. Lowe then appears to move himself in the opposite direction, holding something shiny in his hands, while an officer walks behind him. A police car then obscures the view. Another video from a different view shows the moment when officers appear to open fire.

“The way they killed my son, they murdered my son in a wheelchair with no legs,” Dorothy Lowe, Anthony Lowe’s mother, said at a news conference Monday. “So they do need to do something about it, because I do I want justice for my son.”

Family members did not address the suggestion that Lowe may have stabbed someone prior to the shooting.

The family and community members are calling on Los Angeles County District attorney George Gascón to charge the involved officers.

“There can be no justification for killing Anthony, and we’re here to stand with his family and his community to fight for justice for Anthony,” said Cliff Smith, an organizer with the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police.

Lowe was a loving, caring father who loved to dance and was quite funny, Ebonique Simon, mother to one of Lowe’s children, told CNN. He had been “dealing with a lot of depression” over the loss of his legs in an incident around a year ago, she said.

The family is heartbroken over the loss and cannot make sense of the story the police are telling, she told CNN.

The family is eagerly awaiting autopsy results as the coroner’s investigator assured them that “Anthony’s body will tell the story,” she said.

The Los Angeles County District attorney’s office will conduct an independent review after the sheriff’s department completes its investigation, but Communications Director Tiffiny Blacknell told CNN in a statement that it is inappropriate to comment until the case is formally presented.

“We know that the Black community in Los Angeles is reeling and searching for answers. We know nothing can heal the trauma the community is experiencing right now,” she said, adding that “Los Angeles County deserves to know how and why these incidents have occurred.”

The California attorney General’s office, which is required under state law to independently review officer-involved shootings in the state, told CNN that it is not investigating the matter “at this point in time.”

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Attorneys for Jennings man on death row ask Supreme Court to postpone execution

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 13:17:31 +0000

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — 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, but Bell on Monday said he wouldn’t file such a motion.

Bell on Tuesday sent a letter to the Supreme Court in support of postponing Taylor’s execution to allow time for “additional review” of the victims’ times of death.

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.

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. 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 as 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.

The Post-Dispatch contributed to this story.

The first recorded use of the death penalty in Missouri was in 1810.

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Attorneys for Jennings man on death row ask Supreme Court to postpone execution

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:27:59 +0000

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press

Bell on Tuesday sent a letter to the Supreme Court in support of postponing Taylor’s execution to allow time for “additional review” of the victims’ times of death.

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

“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.

The Post-Dispatch contributed to this story.

The first recorded use of the death penalty in Missouri was in 1810.

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homicide – Attorney Legal Counsel

California judge who’s charged with murder texted court staff that he shot his wife, prosecutors say

A California man is found guilty of murder for killing a 6-year-old boy in a freeway shooting

Cases affected by California county’s illegal use of jail informants jumps to 57, new analysis finds

2 Los Angeles County men exonerated after spending decades in prison

Family of Los Angeles deputy killed in ambush shooting plans to sue county over forced overtime

8 teens arrested on murder charges in beating of classmate in Las Vegas

More from CBS News

Suspect in University of North Carolina shooting is not competent for trial, his attorneys say

Double-amputee with a knife shot and killed by police; family claims excessive force used

Attorneys for Jennings man on death row ask Supreme Court to postpone execution

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