Freed Mass. Killer Charged In Double Murder

TACOMA, Wash. -- A convicted Massachusetts killer now accused of slaying a neighbor couple told police he shot them after the man insulted him when he tried to collect a $50 debt, according to court documents.

Daniel Thomas Tavares Jr., 41, was charged Tuesday with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, a charge that carries a penalty of death or life in prison without parole.

He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail. The Pierce County prosecutor has 30 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Tavares.

Investigators say Tavares fatally shot Brian and Beverly Mauck, 30 and 28, who had recently purchased a home in Graham, about 40 miles south of Seattle.

The Maucks were found dead on the morning of Nov. 17, in the living room of their home, with three close-range gunshot wounds to each of their heads, court papers said.

Massachusetts prosecutors had attempted to keep Tavares behind bars after he completed his sentence for manslaughter in June, according to published reports.

The office of Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early requested that Tavares be held on $50,000 bail on charges that he assaulted two guards at the Sousa-Baranowski Correctional Center while serving time for the 1991 stabbing death of his mother.

Bail was approved by a district court judge but overturned in July by Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman, who approved Tavares' appeal of the bail and released him on personal recognizance, according to court documents.

"Obviously, we tried to keep him incarcerated," said Tim Connolly, a spokesman for the district attorney.

Reached by the Boston Herald at home, Tuttman said she could not comment.

Darrel Slater, the father of the slain woman, expressed anger that his daughter's accused killer had been released.

"It's because of stupidity in Massachusetts that my daughter is dead," Slater told the Herald.

Tavares' wife, Jennifer Lynn Tavares, 37, was charged Tuesday with rendering criminal assistance, a gross misdemeanor. She also pleaded not guilty and posted $5,000 bail.

Officials say the Tavareses met through a prison pen-pals Web site.

A pretrial hearing for the couple has been set for Dec. 6. At that time the prosecutor will ask for a delay in the trial date, which initially was set for January, said Deputy Prosecutor Gerald T. Costello.

Daniel Tavares also is charged with one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. He was forbidden to have a gun as a condition of his parole.

Investigators linked Tavares to the Maucks' slayings through shoe impressions found in blood on the floor of the living room and a bloody palm print found on a door jamb in a bedroom.

Tavares initially told investigators he heard gunshots while he was in bed with his wife at their home. He also described two men and a red truck he said he saw outside. "These various statements were later acknowledged to be lies," Costello said in the charging papers.

Jennifer Tavares initially told police she was having sex with her husband at 7 a.m. when she heard shots fired. She later said that was a lie she told trying to provide an alibi for her husband, Costello said.

Daniel Tavares told police he went to the Maucks' house to collect a $50 debt, but Brian Mauck insulted him and "after spending 20 years in prison" he was not going to put up with being called an insulting name, court papers said.

Tavares pulled out a gun and shot Brian Mauck in the back of his head and then stopped Beverly Mauck from running out of the house and shot her in the back of the head, investigators said.

He dragged her body to where her husband was lying, placed her body over his and covered them both with a blanket because "he respected them," court papers said.

Investigators said Jennifer Tavares had obtained a .22 caliber gun from a family member for self protection before Daniel Tavares moved in with her. Later, she was asked to return the gun and claimed she did not know what had become of it. Daniel Tavares said they threw the gun off a cliff.

The following excerpts (emphasis added) are from: Boston Herald.com

quote: "But Romney stopped short of expressing regret for his nomination of Superior Court Judge Kathe M. Tuttman. Overturning the bail decision of a lower court on charges he assaulted prison guards, Tuttman set Tavares free July 16."

quote: "While some speculated that the nomination could emerge as a thorny issue for Romney, noted political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics said, “Romney has a way out, but he hasn’t used it. This is so egregious he ought to come out and say, ‘I’m sorry I appointed (the judge).’

quote: “If he doesn’t (apologize),” Sabato said, “he’s asking for a negative attack ad, which would be a devastation. It will compare him perhaps unfairly to the Dukakis furlough program.”

_________

One other thing: How about bringing back the death penalty for guys like this? That should have happened after he knifed his mother to death in 1991 and we wouldn't be dealing with him in 2007 and the trauma he has caused to society.

Wait. Just a year and a half ago, Romney was extolling all the women appointees he made to the bench INCLUDING Tuttman. thus, (from Romney’s own website, Women for Romney):

Moreover Governor Romney has been dedicated to women Judiciary Nominees, note the following press release from April 26, 2006

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Department
State House Boston, MA 02133
(617) 725-4000

MITT ROMNEY
GOVERNOR

KERRY HEALEY
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 26, 2006

CONTACT:
Eric Fehrnstrom
Corbie Kiernan
(617) 725-4025

ROMNEY NOMINATES FOUR WOMEN TO JUDICIARY

Governor Mitt Romney announced today that he has nominated four women to serve as judges in the Massachusetts trial court system, the largest number of female candidates ever brought forward at one time.

Romney has made the appointment of women to the state’s courts a priority, and recently asked his Judicial Nominating Council to bring forward the names of more female and minority applicants. If these four women are all confirmed by the Governor’s Council, women will represent 36% of the appointments made by Romney for judicial office, which includes judges and clerk magistrate positions.

“I am pleased with the outstanding qualifications of the individuals I have nominated to the bench,” Romney said. “They have the capability, the qualifications and the experience to be fair and balanced jurists.”

Nominated were:

* Kathe M. Tuttman of Andover, as Associate Justice of the Superior Court;
* Tracy L. Lyons of Marblehead, as Associate Justice of the Brighton division of the Boston Municipal Court;
* Therese M. Wright of West Barnstable, as Associate Justice of the Edgartown District Court; and,
* Merita A. Hopkins of Boston, as Associate Justice of the Superior Court.

Tuttman has served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Essex County District Attorney’s Office since 1989. During that time, she has held various positions, including Director of the Family Crimes and Sexual Assault Unit, Superior Court Prosecutor and Lead Prosecutor for Lawrence District Court’s Domestic Violence Unit. She has also served on the Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Advisory Group for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Tuttman graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in 1974 and received her law degree from Suffolk University Law School, cum laude, in 1988.

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Freed Mass. Killer Charged In Double Murder

Police: Killer 'Insulted' Over $50 Debt