Articles Posted in Murder

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The Boston criminal defense team of a Massachusetts high school student accused of stabbing a classmate to death in a bathroom at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High in Sudbury wants the charges against the boy dropped because he has Asperger syndrome (AS).

The defense says that a grand jury were improperly ordered to ignore the fact that John Odgren, 17, has Asperger syndrome, which makes him a special needs case. Odgren’s defense team is arguing that the disorder is responsible for his sometimes violent and bizarre actions. Odgren has been charged with first-degree murder.

Odgren is accused of killing James Alenson, 15, in January 2007. He allegedly approached the boy, slashed his throat with a 13-inch carving knife before stabbing his lung, stomach, liver, and heart.

Odgren’s defense team believes that he would have been charged with second-degree murder or a lesser crime if the grand jury had been given more information about the teenager’s condition.

Last March, Odgren was found competent to stand trial. He is in jail in the Cambridge courthouse.

Asperger Syndrome
Considered an autism spectrum disorder, Asperger Syndrome can involve odd speech patterns, obsessiveness, poor social interactions, and peculiar mannerisms. Symptoms can include motor delays, limited interest, and peculiar preoccupations.

Odgren’s criminal defense team says that the boy’s disorder affects his premeditation and intent and that obsessing with weapons and other morbid items is associated with AS.

Suspect in fatal L-S school stabbing seeks lesser charges, Boston Herald, March 6, 2008
Related Web Resources:

State report describes teen’s early aggression, Boston.com, January 23, 2007
Asperger Syndrome, KidsHealth.org
Asperger Syndrome Fact Sheet, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Continue reading

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Mark Jensen, the Wisconsin man charged with poisoning his wife in 1998 has been found guilty of first-degree murder. Sentencing will take place on Friday although his conviction comes with a mandatory life in prison sentence. The conviction by the jury came after members deliberated for over 30 hours.

Jensen’s wife, Julie, was founded dead in her bed in 1998. Poisoning by ethylene glycol was the cause of death. Police say she had been given multiple doses. Just 30 ml of ethylene glycol can be deadly. Evidence during the criminal also indicated that a pillow might have been used by Jensen to smother her.

Prior to her death, Julie wrote a letter placing blame on her husband in the event that anything happened to her. She gave the letter to a neighbor. She also had told her son’s teacher and police that she thought Jensen was attempting to murder her.

Jensen was charged with 1st-degree murder in 2002. According to prosecutors, he was having an affair and wanted to get rid of his wife. Jensen’s defense team said that Julie was depressed, tried to kill herself, and then blamed her husband.

Strict hearsay rules that allow defendants to confront their accusers had blocked Julie’s statements and her letter as evidence. The issue of whether or not Julie’s words could admitted as part of the case delayed Jensen’s criminal trial for several years.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling compelled the Wisconsin Supreme Court to create an exception in this case so that Julie’s statements and letters could be admitted as a dying declaration of her state of mind when she died.

A couple of inmates testified that Jensen had admitted to killing his wife. One inmate testified that Jensen had asked him to kidnap a witness who was scheduled to testify.

A 2003 Massachusetts Domestic Violence Report by Jane Doe Inc. Lists several methods used for committing domestic violence homicide:

• Stabbing deaths • Fatal firearm injuries • Strangulation • Blunt trauma to head • Smothering the victim
Husband guilty of murder in ‘letter from grave’ case, CNN.com, February 21, 2008
Jury: Man Used Antifreeze to Kill Wife, AP, February 21, 2008
2003 Massachusetts Domestic Violence Homicide Report

Related Web Resources:

Read Judy Jensen’s Letter from the Grave, CNN.com
Ethylene Glycol, University of Cambridge Continue reading

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In Massachusetts, Superior Court Judge Charles M. Grabau has sentenced former Marshfield High School student Joseph Nee to 2.5 years for conspiracy to commit murder. Nee, 21, is convicted of plotting a Columbine-like attack on the school.

Nee had faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the crime. He will serve six months in prison and nine months in the Plymouth House of Correction. He will also serve a two-year probation upon release and undergo periodic alcohol and drug tests. He also will have his mental health evaluated.

The Marshfield man was convicted last week after a four-day bench trial and testimony from dozens of people. He was acquitted of two charges: threatening use of a deadly weapon and promotion of anarchy.

In September 2004, Nee, was still studying at Marshfield High. He and two classmates notified police that 16-year-old Tobin Kerns intended to attack the school the following April-in a killing spree similar to the 1999 Columbine High School attack in Littleton, Colorado.

Police arrested Kerns. They also arrested Nee a few weeks later after he was implicated by Kerns’ friends.

Kerns and Nee were indicted by a grand jury in October 2004. Both teenagers pleaded not guilty. The two other boys who reported the planned assault with Nee were given immunity in exchange for their testimonies.

Kerns was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and threatening to use deadly weapons. He is completing his 10- month prison sentence at the Plymouth House of Correction.

Ex-student gets prison in Marshfield plot case, Boston.com, February 20, 2008
Judge convicts ex-student in school plot, Boston Globe, February 15, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Are US Schools Safe?, CNN.com
Fast Facts: Major School Shootings of Past 10 Years, Fox.com, April 16, 2008 Continue reading

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Authorities throughout the United States are on the lookout for Andrew Boisvert, a 37-year-old Bridgewater, Massachusetts resident. Boisvert, a Waltham paramedic, is a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife Margaret Ninos. Ninos and Boisvert have a 7-year-old daughter named Maggie.

Boisvert is currently on the run. The Norfolk District Attorney’s office issued the arrest warrant against Boisvert on Friday and the national alert on Saturday. Ninos, a 47-year-old Medfield resident and obstetrics nurse, died from fatal head injuries on February 6.

Friends and former colleagues say that Boisvert and Ninos were involved in a child custody dispute over their child. Ninos’s friends say that Boisvert didn’t see his daughter a lot. He had custody of his child one weekend a month and got to visit her one Wednesday a month. Boisvert wanted to increase his visitation rights. He had remarried and has another child.

Police say that on February 6, Boisvert called 911 and directed them to Ninos’s home, where the body was found. Law enforcement authorities questioned Boisvert but allowed him to leave the crime scene.

A 2003 report by Jane Doe Inc., (JDI) the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, considers domestic violence-related homicides to include any of the following:

• The homicide victim and perpetrator were former spouses or intimate partners, adults or teens with a child in common, or adults or teens in a current or former dating relationship.

• The homicide victim was a bystander or intervened in an attempted domestic violence homicide and was killed (including friends, family members, new intimate partners, law enforcement officers or other professionals attempting to assist the victim of domestic violence, roommates and co-workers).

• The motive for the murder was reported to have included jealousy, in the context of an intimate partner or dating relationship.

• A relationship existed between the homicide perpetrator and adult or teen victim that could be defined as exhibiting a pattern of power and control (including family or household members and caregivers).

Nationwide alert issued for Medfield murder suspect, Daily News Tribune, February 11, 2008
Pals say slain woman battled ex over custody issues, BostonHerald.com, February 11, 2008
Slain Medfield mom’s ex on run from police, BostonHerald.com, February 10, 2008
Arrest warrant issued in murder of Medfield mother, BostonHerald.com, February 9, 2008

Related Web Resource:

2003 Massachusetts Domestic Violence Homicide Report
Continue reading

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Tim Masters, who was convicted in the 1999 of murdering Peggy Hettrick, was set free today. Masters had been serving a lifelong prison term for her in 1987 that happened when he was just 15-years-old. Her mutilated body was found in a field near Fort Collins, Colorado close to Masters’s trailer.

Fort Collins police worked on the case for over 10 years before arresting Masters. He has served more than nine years of his sentence. Masters has always maintained that he was innocent.

It wasn’t until the last few months that special prosecutors and defense attorneys brought to light the fact that key information had been withheld from Masters’ attorneys during his 1999 trial.

Evidence reportedly withheld by police and prosecutors included a plastic surgeon who had said that a teenager could not have made the meticulous cuts that were done to remove Hettrick’s body parts and an FBI profiler’s warning to police that just because Masters liked to draw horror scenes did not mean he murdered Hettrick.

The sketches, a collection of knives, and a series of narratives helped persuade a Colorado jury that Masters was guilty. There was never any physical evidence tying him to the murder.

Masters is now 36 years old. A judge overturned his conviction and set aside his sentence after new DNA evidence showed that the DNA found on Hettrick’s clothing did not belong to Masters. He was released on a $200,000 personal recognizance bond.

Prosecutors say they will decide by February 5 whether to try him again.

DNA Evidence
Except for identical twins who can have identical DNAs, no one else has the same exact DNA. DNA is Deoxyribonucleic acid. It is the main building block for a person’s genetic makeup. The person has the same DNA in every cell of the body and this never changes.

During crime investigations, DNA evidence is collected to identify a suspect or eliminate a possible suspect. DNA evidence can also be useful in reopening closed criminal cases or solving unsolved crimes.

A person who was wrongly convicted can be set free based on new DNA evidence proving his or her innocence.

Murder conviction thrown out; Masters goes free, CNN.com, January 22, 2008
Tim Masters Set Free, MyFoxColorado, January 22, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Timeline of the Masters case, RockyMountain, January 18, 2008
Special Prosecutors Offered Stipulation (PDF)

Defense Demands New Trial for Masters, October 23, 2007 (PDF)

Understanding DNA Evidence
Continue reading

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In Massachusetts, the second murder trial of former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson has ended in a mistrial. Middlesex Superior Court judge Christopher Muse granted a mistrial in the case because the jury was hopelessly deadlocked. They were unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for 10 days.

Pring-Wilson, 29, is charged with manslaughter in the 2003 stabbing murder of 18-year-old Michael Colono. The killing took place in Cambridge during a drunken, late-night brawl. Wilson stabbed Colono a number of times with a military folding knife.

Pring-Wilson was convicted of manslaughter in 2004 and sentenced to six to eight years in prison. In 2005, his conviction was overturned and the Massachusetts’s Supreme Judicial Court, however, granted him a new trial when it ruled that jurors should have been informed of Colono’s criminal and violent history.

The 29-year-old former student has always maintained that he acted in self-defense and that Colono and his cousin were the instigators of the attack. Pring-Wilson has been out on bail since his conviction was overturned.

If you have been arrested for any kind of crime in Massachusetts, you should speak with an experienced criminal defense attorney immediately. Even when all the evidence is against you, a good criminal defense attorney can still determine whether there are special circumstances that could persuade the persecution to charge you with a lesser crime or convince a jury to set you free. You deserve a fair trial.

Mistrial
A mistrial is a trial that ends before a resolution is reached. A judge can grant a mistrial for different reasons. A jury may have become tainted because it was given improper evidence. A jury is unable to reach a verdict. The defense or the prosecution may ask for the mistrial.

It is not known at this time whether Pring-Wilson will stand trial for a third time.

When a mistrial is declared, a new trial may be granted. Or, if circumstances allow the defendant to cite the Double Jeopardy Clause-which makes it impossible for the person to be tried more than once for the same crime-the defendant may go free.

Mistrial granted in trial of Harvard graduate student, Boston Globe, December 14, 2007
Ex-Harvard Student’s Retrial Ends In Mistrial, BostonChannel.com, December 14, 2007

Related Web Resource:

Justice for Alexander Pring-Wilson
Continue reading

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The mother and stepfather of 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers now face capital murder charges in the death of the little girl. The decision was made by a grand jury in Texas where Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, and Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, will stand trial. Prosecutors are deciding whether to push for the death penalty.

On October 29, Riley’s body was found wrapped in black plastic bags that had been stuffed a blue, plastic bin on an island in the Galveston Bay.

Police named the toddler “Baby Grace” because they did not know her identity. Riley’s paternal grandmother called police and told them that the drawing of the unidentified girl resembled Riley Ann.

Tampering with evidence and injury to a child were the initial charges filed against Zeigler and Trenor. Since then, however, police have found more evidence to warrant the more serious charge.

Trenor confessed to police that Zeigler beat her daughter with leather belts. Riley then was tossed across a room before she was held under water until she died. Riley’s skull was fractured in three areas-each one of them fatal. She was beaten for 4-6 hours.

Trenor says that the beating happened on July 24 because Riley wouldn’t say “yes, sir” and “please.” She and her husband hid her daughter’s body in a storage shed for several weeks before tossing it in the bay.

Trenor’s defense lawyer says that Zeigler wanted his client to hit Riley with a belt when she didn’t comply with his wishes. The beatings happened on the day he stayed home to make sure that Trenor was following his disciplinary plan. The couple supposedly did not intend to kill Riley.

Trenor says she wanted to call 911 but Zeigler wouldn’t allow it.

Capital murder is a very serious offense that can lead to the death penalty. Circumstances that can lead to a capital murder charge include murdering someone younger than 6 years of age, murdering a fireman or police officer, murder after escaping prison, murder while committing sexual assault, kidnapping, terrorism, or another capital felony.

Couple face capital murder charges in Baby Grace death, CNN.com, December 13, 2007
Mother’s lawyer: Child killed for failing to say ‘please, CNN.com, November 29, 2007

Related Web Resource:

Affidavit for Probable Cause of Arrest and Complaint (PDF)
Continue reading

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44-year-old Stevie Walker is on Trial in Suffolk Superior Court for the November 4, 2005 stabbing murder of Galina Kotik, a 65-year-old Russian grandmother, inside her Fenway apartment building in Boston.

Walker had been smoking crack cocaine for up to 24 hours before he went to Kotik’s building to visit an acquaintance and figure out a plan to rob her so he could get more drugs.

A witness for the prosecution testified on Tuesday about how Kotik’s dying cries could be heard. Valentina Tsodikovich says she saw a man with blood on his clothes flee the murder scene.

Kotik was a nursing assistant. Prosecutors say that she pulled out one of the Walker’s dreadlocks and scratched his face during the attack. They say that Walker smashed in the elderly woman’s head with an ashtray and stabbed her nearly two dozen times.

Walker’s defense attorney admits that his client did kill Kotik. However, he is asking the jury to consider convicting Walker of a lesser charge than first-degree murder.

Walker has a personality disorder and does not remember killing Kotik. After the attack, he fled to a parking garage in the area and got trapped in a storage closet for approximately 40 hours. He escaped through a window and went to a police station where he fell asleep. He was arrested there.

Defense acknowledges violence of killer, Boston.com, December 11, 2007
Gruesome testimony in trial of man charged with murder of elderly woman, Boston Herald.com, December 11, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts General Laws

Legal Definition of First-Degree Murder, Lectlaw.com Continue reading

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Corrine Stephen, a 25-year-old Massachusetts foster mother, was found guilty of causing the death of four-year-old Dontel Jeffers because she did not get him medical help immediately after he was severely beaten. Stephen had been charged with second-degree murder, but yesterday was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by the Suffolk County Superior Court jury.

During the trial, prosecutors showed no evidence that Stephen abused Dontel. They based their case on reasons why the foster mother should be held criminally responsible for Dontel’s death. Rather than getting him medical treatment, she gave him a large does of Tylenol with codeine. They also say that she did nothing while others attacked the boy.

Stephen’s sentencing is scheduled for December 5. Her criminal defense attorney says he will appeal the case because the judge made a mistake when informing jury members that failure to do something can be considered a malicious act.

Dontel was placed in Stephen’s care on February 24, 2005. 10 days later, she arrived at Caritas Carney hospital with the boy, who had a black eye, bruised throat, ruptured intestine, bruised arms, and ligature marks around his ankles and wrists. Doctors were unable to revive Dontel. A blow to his stomach gave him a fatal infection.

Forensic pathologists determined that Dontel died from Child Abuse Syndrome, which consists of repetitive abuse over a period of time.

Stephen’s lawyer says that police did not conduct the necessary forensic tests to identify other potential suspects who could have beaten Dontel nor did they look hard enough for the Dontel’s real killer.

Involuntary Manslaughter
Involuntary manslaughter is the accidental killing of a person caused by the defendant’s reckless or criminal actions. “Involuntary” refers to the fact that the defendant did not mean to kill the victim.

In Massachusetts, an involuntary manslaughter conviction carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in state prison.

Guilty verdict reached in Dontel Jeffers case, Boston Herald, November 16, 2007
Foster mother found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in death of boy, 4, Boston.com, November 16, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts General Laws

Violent Crimes Overview, Justia Continue reading

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Robert Iacoviello Jr. has pled not guilty to the shooting murder of Revere Police Officer Daniel Talbot on September 29 in Massachusetts. At the 20-year-old’s arraignment in Chelsea District Court, he was ordered held without bail.

Also charged in Talbot’s murder is Derek Lodie, 17, who has pled not guilty to being an accessory to murder.

Iacoviello’s defense attorney claims that his client did not shoot Talbot. He says that police intimidated the witnesses they interviewed so that they could name a suspect as soon as possible.

According to the prosecution, Talbot and two other police officers were drinking beer and hanging out by the bleachers on the athletic field at Revere High School. Lodie and Talbot allegedly got into a verbal fight, which allegedly ended with Iacoviello shooting Lodie in the head.

At his arraignment this morning, Prosecutor Ed Zabin alleged that Talbot, who was socializing while “off duty” with other officers, was ambushed by the two defendants. Zabin claims that Lodie was offended by something Talbot said and called Iacoviello and a few others by cell phone to join him on the high school field.

At this time, Lodie and Talbot allegedly got into a verbal fight. Lodie walked into the parking lot during the discourse and Talbot followed him there. They were met by Iacoviello and Lodie’s other friends. Iacoviello then allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Talbot in the head.

Iacoviello will appear in court again on December 12 for his probable cause hearing.

Probable Cause Hearing
A probable cause hearing takes place so that a judge can decide whether the prosecution has enough evidence to charge a defendant with a crime that may need to be “bound over” to a higher court. The outcome of the hearing is based solely on the prosecution’s evidence.

Prosecutor says slain Revere cop was ambushed, Bostonherald.com, November 13, 2007
Man pleads not guilty in slaying of Revere officer, Boston.com/AP, November 13, 2007
Common legal proceedings, Massachusetts Bar Association

Related Web Resource:

Remarks of District Attorney Daniel F. Conley on the Arrest of Robert Iacoviello, Jr., Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Continue reading

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