Articles Posted in Murder

More than five years after Kathleen Savio’s death, her husband, ex-police sergeant, Drew Peterson, has been charged with her murder. Savio was found in a dry bathtub with her head soaked in blood from a head wound. The cause of her death was originally determined to be accidental drowning, but that finding came into question after Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, went missing in 2007 and the former cop became the main suspect in her disappearance.

Savio’s family has long questioned whether her death was accidental and after Stacy’s disappearance, they had Savio’s body exhumed. Savio died right before her divorce settlement with Peterson was going to be finalized by a court, and her death left him as her primary beneficiary. Last month, they filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Peterson accusing him of beating and drowning her.

Now, authorities are saying that Savio was murdered and that the crime scene was arranged to look like she accidentally drowned. The indictment against Peterson accuses the 55-year-old of causing his then-wife to inhale fluid.

Police took Peterson into custody on Thursday afternoon. He is being held on $20 million bond. Peterson’s criminal defense attorney says that he will try to obtain a more “reasonable” bond for his client because he considers the amount excessive.

Prosecutors say they may use a new hearsay law that allows the words of murder victims to be used against the defendants that are accused of killing them. Family members say that Savio told her sister that if anything ever happened to her, Peterson would have been the one to kill her. If convicted for her murder, he could face up to sixty years in prison.

Meantime, Stacy Peterson has yet to be found. Police are saying she may have been murdered, but no charges have been filed in her death. Peterson has said that he believes that his wife, then 23, ran away with another man.

Drew Peterson Arrested, but will it stick?, MSNBC.com, May 8, 2009
Savio’s family files lawsuit claiming Drew Peterson beat, drowned third wife, Chicago Sun-Times, April 22, 2009
Related Web Resources:
New Illinois hearsay law to shape Peterson case, Cleveland.com
Drew Peterson timeline, Chicago Sun-Times, May 7, 2009 Continue reading

In Massachusetts, three of the jurors who helped convict a man for the 1991 bombing that maimed on Boston police officer and murdered another are asking a federal judge to either grant Alfred Trenkler a new trial or free him. Trenkler was convicted in 1993 of making a bomb that killed Boston Police Officer Jeremiah J. Hurley Jr. and caused Boston Police Officer Francis X Foley to lose his eye, as well as his hearing in one ear.

Now, however, three of the jurors who helped put him behind bars are having doubts about the guilty verdict they reached and they are questioning whether he was wrongly convicted. The jurors sent letters to US District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel citing their doubts. Sheridan Kassirer, the jury forewoman in Trenkler’s criminal case, even has gone so far as to say that she thinks Trenkler may be innocence. All three jurors say they began to have doubts about the guilty verdict after reading a 700 page, unpublished manuscript written by a man who built a Web site for Trenkler.

Legal specialists say it is uncommon for jurors to have doubt about a verdict, especially one that was issued so long ago. Harvard Criminal Justice Institute Director Ronald Sullivan, however, says that the court can only act if new evidence, or evidence that had not been revealed before, has come to light.

Trenkler has long maintained his innocence and for years has sought to have the verdict appealed or his sentenced reduced. In 2007, the US Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Zobel could review the case based on Trenkler’s claims that there was new evidence that could set him free. Zobel reduced Trenkler’s double life sentence to 37 years in prison, but last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reinstated his original sentence.

Trenkler’s co-defendant and ex-lover Thomas Shay was also convicted for the same crimes in 1998, but the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the verdict. He was released from prison in 2002 after pleading guilty to a lesser offense but he was put back in jail in 2007 for probation violations.

Jurors who convicted in ’93 ask judge to retry case, Boston.com, February 23, 2008
It’s double-life in prison for Trenkler, Wicked Local, August 6, 2008
Related Web Resources:
Alfred Trenkler, Innocent Committee
Wrongful Murder Convictions, Massachusetts Continue reading

This time it was not a post office or in the city of Boston. It was a Cambridge supply company where two employees did not get along. Clyde H. 65, of Brookline (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is now accused ending the feud by killing his adversary, Marurice R, 33, (hereinafter, the “Victim”). At arraignment today, somebody ought to tell his attorney not to argue with his new client, just in case he is not one of our daily readers.

It was the first homicide in Cambridge in more than a year.

The shooting took place yesterday morning at the Baystate Pool Supplies complex on Smith Street. Co-workers watched in horror as the Defendant allegedly gunned down the Victim at the complex. chasing him outside to finish him off, authorities said. While the reason for the dispute remains unknown, police say that the two had been arguing for months.

“There was an ongoing dispute between the two employees,” said Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone at a press conference at the Cambridge Police Department. “The dispute unfortunately resulted in this tragic death.”

The Defendant allegedly used a handgun to blast the Victim once inside the building, then chased him outside and shot him multiple times, including at least once in the head and torso, authorities said.
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