Posted on 08/21/2007 6:32:37 PM PDT by Coleus
"Thrill killer" Jayson Vreeland, who is serving life in prison for his role in the "pizza murders" in Sussex County a decade ago, lost his last-ditch bid for a new trial or a reduced sentence yesterday. Superior Court Judge Thomas Critchley, sitting in Newton, denied Vreeland's petition for post-conviction relief, which is a routine legal tactic available only after all regular appeals are exhausted.
Vreeland, 27, choked up when he told the judge he regretted the killings, and that "I was a kid ... on one night I made a stupid, stupid mistake. "I don't take away anything that happened that night. It was a tragedy," Vreeland continued. "I definitely feel bad about it every single day. If I could take it back, I would." To win a new trial, Vreeland would have had to demonstrate that his defense counsel was woefully inadequate, and because of that, the trial outcome could have been different.
Critchley ruled that Vreeland's confession to police two days after the April 19, 1997, slayings was "damning," and furthermore, his defense attorney had been effective and did not make any substantive errors that could have changed the outcome of the trial. The appellate ruling upholding Vreeland's conviction also had stated the case against him was "extraordinarily strong," and included verbal and taped statements to police, a "confession" to an acquaintance and corroborative evidence.
"It is fair to say, and it has been said, that these proofs against Mr. Vreeland were overwhelming," Critchley said.
The main planks of Vreeland's petition, filed by his attorney, Elizabeth Smith, included that: Vreeland was not present during a "charge conference," where jury instructions are crafted;
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
A mistake?
Does anyone know this story?
I couldn’t access it either, but if it’s the one I’m thinking of, he jammed the woman employee’s head into the dough mixing machine after killing another employee there. Some stupid mistake.
The only mistake is leaving this guy alive 10 years later.
Pretty much what I thought.
this a-hole killed the pizza delivery guy just to see what it was like to kill someone.....
this a-hole should be given the death penalty just to see what it is like to die.....
You cut it off before the money quote from the killer’s attorney:
“It simply wasn’t fair to Mr. Vreeland that he be judged by a jury that heard so much information about the case, that they formed an opinion he was guilty,” Smith said.
No more relevant details about the crime in the rest of the story.
make up a zip code, age and gender, you will get in, it takes less than a minute.
It was a premeditated ambush and a thrill killing. They shot and killed two people trying to deliver a pizza to the "address" given.
Yes, I was living in Sussex County at the time, he ambushed a pizza delivery boy, this guy deserves to die.
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