Posted on 03/18/2007 9:15:06 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CHILTON, Wis. - A man who spent 18 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit was convicted Sunday of murdering a photographer, whose charred bones were found in a burn pit outside his home.
Steven Avery, 44, put his head down and shook it when the verdict was read. He faces a mandatory life prison term for killing Teresa Halbach, 25, on Halloween 2005 near his family's salvage yard.
Halbach disappeared Oct. 31, 2005, after going to the yard in rural Manitowoc County to photograph a minivan that Avery's sister had for sale through Auto Trader Magazine. Avery had called that morning to request the photo, testimony showed.
A few days later, Halbach's vehicle was found in the Avery salvage lot under branches, pieces of wood and car parts. Investigators then spent a week on the 40-acre property and found charred fragments of her bones in a pit behind Avery's garage and in a barrel, along with her camera and cell phone.
Two years before Halbach died, Avery was released from prison after serving 18 years for a Manitowoc County rape that DNA analysis showed he did not commit. He later settled a wrongful-conviction lawsuit against the county for $400,000 and used it for his defense.
The jury convicted Avery of first-degree intentional homicide and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was acquitted of mutilating a corpse. The panel deliberated over three days and heard a month of testimony.
After the verdict was read, Halbach's brother, Mike Halbach, 24, told reporters that he was pleased, despite being surprised by the split verdict, and that he believed his sister's spirit guided the jury.
"What matters is that Steven Avery is going to be in prison for rest of his life, which ... from the start is what we wanted," he said.
Defense lawyer Dean Strang said Avery was disappointed but not despondent. He said they plan to consider challenging the conviction within 30 days.
"He's surely disappointed, but he's also had experience with the time that can pass sometimes before others accept your innocence," Strang said. "He's in effect an old hand, unfortunately, at waiting out the criminal justice system to get it right."
The jurors issued a statement saying none would discuss the case.
Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey is due for trial next month. In March 2006, he confessed to helping kill and rape Halbach.
Prosecutors then added charges of sexual assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment to Avery's case. But Dassey recanted his confession and rejected a plea deal that would have required him to testify against his uncle.
The judge dismissed the sexual assault and kidnapping charges against Avery in January because prosecutors could not guarantee the nephew would testify. The judge dismissed the false imprisonment charge last week, saying the jurors didn't have enough evidence to convict Avery of the charge.
Mike Halbach said his family expects Dassey's trial to have a similar outcome after it begins April 16.
In closing arguments, defense lawyer Dean Strang had told jurors their verdict could "set a lot of things right" for Avery because of his previous wrongful conviction.
"The 1985 case won't matter so much anymore if justice is done this time," he said.
But special prosecutor Ken Kratz said it was "absolutely improper" for the defense to ask jurors to take the old case into account.
He told jurors the prosecution's theory of what happened — that Avery backed Halbach's vehicle into his empty garage, closed the garage door and at some point shot Halbach at least twice and put her in the back of her vehicle.
Avery's attorneys had claimed Manitowoc County Sheriff's Sgt. Andrew Colborn and Lt. James Lenk, embarrassed by Avery's wrongful-conviction lawsuit, planted evidence to make sure he would be convicted of the murder, including putting Avery's blood in Halbach's vehicle.
The lawyers claimed the blood came from an unsecured vial from Avery's appeals of the rape case. They also claimed the bones were moved to where they were found.
A detective in another county told Colborn in the mid-1990s that he had someone in custody who may have committed an assault in Manitowoc County. Colborn wasn't a sworn officer at the time and transferred the call to a detective. Lenk took his statement on the matter in 2003. Avery was not mentioned.
Colborn and Lenk testified they never planted evidence and had no anger or embarrassment over the lawsuit.
fyi
Steven Avery, right, looks around a courtroom in the Calumet County Courthouse Sunday, March 18, 2007, in Chilton, Wis. Avery was found guilty Sunday of first-degree intentional homicide in the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach, 25, on Oct. 31, 2005 near the family's auto salvage lot in rural Manitowoc County. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps, Pool)
Prior to being convicted in that rape that he was later found not guilty of he ran a deputies wife off the road with a gun and backed off after he said he saw her kid in the backseat.
The fact he was in jail 18 years for that rape was a good thing.
I submit that the lab screwed up and he was in fact guilty in the first case...
Well to get to the nitty gritty. The pubic hairs recovered from the victim of that rape DNA matched another man who also confessed to having done the rape after the statute of limitations for the crime had passed but while he was serving another long sentence for some other crime.
The victim of that assault picked Avery from a lineup and her id of him was key to the conviction.
Like you I don't care why the put him away all those years ago I am just glad he was locked up then to. My only regret is he ever got out at all.
The postman always rings twice.
Hmmm...seems a little convenient....dont you think?
Perp confesses after the fact....dna matches sample tested...poof..instant freedom...
screw what the witness said...
I mean really....it's not like anyone ever faked anything in a lab....for money...
call me a cynic..
The guy just happens to turns out to be a killer and rapist?
Didn’t think of that, but yes, and Ronald Merrett.
Interestingly enough, Steve's picture seems to have gone missing from the Wisconsin Innocence Project's web site.
That's another one of those fact sets where a claim is made that DNA 'proved innocence', when, in fact, it didn't. What it proved is that the victim was with someone else who could have been one of a number of individuals who assaulted her. The court then subsequently determines that without the DNA evidence there is not enough evidence for a conviction.
There was another highly touted case in California a few years back where an individual the media claimed was innocent was released based on the discovery that the DNA recovered from the victim wasn't his. Several weeks after his release, the lab found a match: the victim's husband. Clearly, the individual who assaulted her hadn't left any evidence.
The courts need to be really careful about getting wowed by the science and deciding it 'proves' more that it actually proves.
That is a surprise. How often do jurors pass up their chance at 15 minutes of fame?
I'm no lawyer, so I don't know how recanted testimony works.
Down the memory hole...except for the family.
Thanks for posting. I didn't want to re-hash the whole thing again, but was going to post the verdict either way.
And thanks ONCE MORE to our bleeding heart friends at 'The Innocence Project' for releasing this ANIMAL back into society. Yeesh!
Avery had a felonious criminal record as long as his arm when they took the case. Can't they screen out for this kind of stuff before they go to bat for these types? I mean, people can change, but if you have a lengthy record of bad, criminal behavior from the time you're a teen, who deserves protection more? A criminal who obviously won't change his spots, or an innocent victim as was Theresa Halbach?
It appears that they're not even going to pursue the two other rapes by Avery soon after his release from prison, before he got to Theresa. The two women wouldn't testify, hoping that Theresa's murder would put him back behind bars forever. However, I hold them accountable in her death too because these cretins always escalate in violence.
It's a terrible, terrible shame the way this whole thing went down.
And thanks again Governor Doyle for vetoing CC in our state THREE TIMES. Too bad Theresa wasn't armed. Too bad NO WOMAN IN WISCONSIN can legally arm herself against predators when we're just going about our day, doing our jobs, or carting the kids around.
We're sitting ducks!
Those 18 years limited the damage, awful as it was, to one victim.
Even though it was a wrong conviction, there was a strange sort of justice in it.
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