Posted on 04/05/2002 8:59:46 PM PST by freespeech1
Frank Zito says he shot police because they broke his door
* Outburst comes during evidence suppression hearing; ruling due today
By: BRIAN HAAS, Staff Writer April 04, 2002
FRANK ZITO ... faces death penalty
SALISBURY - "If they didn't break into my door, I wouldn't have shot them," Frank Zito blurted out Wednesday at a hearing to suppress evidence in Zito's murder trial.
Attorneys for both sides argued in Wicomico County Circuit Court whether several pieces of evidence, including several alleged admissions by Zito, should be allowed in the jury trial. Circuit Judge Donald C. Davis said he should issue a ruling on the motion to suppress evidence sometime today.
Zito, 41, of Centreville, faces the death penalty on two first-degree murder charges and several other felony and misdemeanor charges.
Police allege that he shot and killed Centreville Patrolman Michael S. Nickerson and Dfc. Jason Schwenz, of the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office. The two officers went to investigate a noise complaint in February of 2001 when police say Zito shot both officers with a shotgun.
Zito has pleaded not guilty and not criminally responsible to the charges against him.
Judge Davis heard testimony from several police officers and Wicomico County Detention Center employees as to what happened Feb. 13 and Feb. 14, 2001.
Maryland State Police Trooper Corey Skidmore was the first officer to testify and the only witness to the shooting. Skidmore said he arrived to back up Nickerson and Schwenz who were trying to get Zito to come out of his house.
After being threatened, the officers got a key to Zito's trailer from his mother, Betty Zito, who was also Zito's landlady, Skidmore said. He said Zito's mother told the officers to get Zito out "by any means necessary."
After the three officers broke through a storm door and entered Zito's screen porch, Schwenz opened the front door with the key, Skidmore said.
As the door opened, Schwenz was hit with the first shotgun blast, followed by Nickerson, who was thrown backward, Skidmore said.
Skidmore said Zito had not seen him on the porch, so he waited for Zito to come out, sprayed his eyes with pepper spray and arrested Zito.
Maryland State Police Tfc. Brian Fisher was the officer who officially arrested Zito after the shooting, Fisher said. He testified that he took Zito away from the shooting scene and back near his patrol car.
Fisher said Zito was yelling "Nazi Gestapo" at the officers and complained that someone broke into his home. Fisher said Zito also told him he had put a shotgun under his couch.
At that point, Fisher said, he arrested Zito and read him his Miranda Rights. Though one of the Miranda Rights is the right to keep silent, Fisher said Zito kept talking.
"'I thought I was protecting my home,' " Fisher quoted Zito as saying. " 'I didn't know they were police until I got outside.' "
Robert E. Williams, an investigator for the Queen Anne's County State's Attorney Office, formally interviewed Zito for about an hour that night, Williams testified. Again Zito was told he could remain silent. But Zito "just started talking," Williams said.
Williams said Zito complained that police were trying to "beat (him) up" and threaten his mother. Then, Williams said, Zito described the events leading up to the shooting.
"'When they went to the second door, I got the 12-gauge and took the safety off,'" Williams said Zito explained. Then, as the door opened, "'I just shot.'"
"'I know I snagged that bastard,'" said Zito, according to Williams.
Williams said Zito talked with very little questioning by him or two other officers present at the interrogation.
Several other officers testified that Zito admitted shooting the two officers with no questioning. Two officers at the Wicomico County Detention Center also testified that they overheard Zito admit to the shooting while talking on the jail's telephone.
Defense lawyers later called Betty Zito to the stand. Wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, Mrs. Zito was too weak to hold up her right hand to be sworn in. She lifted her right hand with her left hand as high as she could while being sworn in.
She testified that her son has his own trailer, which he rented from her. She said his rent is no different from the rent for the eight other trailers on her property.
She said Frank "wasn't so good" on Feb. 13, a condition made worse by the police breaking his storm door. She said police threatened to "tear gas" Zito's home unless he came outside.
She sobbed lightly as she described her frustration that day, trying to get someone on the telephone to help her and her son.
She said the only reason she gave the officers the key to Zito's trailer was so they wouldn't break his door and "tear gas" him.
Then she said she went around the side of Zito's trailer to peer inside and find him. That's when Mrs. Zito heard the "pop, pop" of the shotgun blasts, she said.
As defense lawyer Patricia Chappell wheeled Zito's mother past him and out of the courtroom, he gently put his hand on his mother's knee.
"Goodbye," she said as she passed from the courtroom.
In their closing arguments, defense lawyer Brian Shefferman argued that Zito's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure was violated by the three officers. He said Zito did not consent to the officers coming on his premises even though they entered his enclosed porch.
Shefferman argued that all evidence that came about because of the "illegal" entry to Zito's trailer should be suppressed during the jury trial. Most of the testimony that would be lost if this motion were to be granted would be Trooper Skidmore's description of the shooting and the events leading up to it.
Shefferman also argued that statements that Zito made to officers throughout the night should be suppressed because Zito was injured when he made them. Officers testified earlier that Zito was bleeding from a cut on his face that night. >{?
If the door is unmarked and Zito's mom did give the cops the key, then I side with the cops.
But I gotta wonder...why would the state suppress evidence to the jury?
And you wonder why nobody takes your arguments seriously...
Yes, yes, we've all seen how you pick and chose your evidence...
It's the very title of the news article, reproduced at the top of the thread.
How could you miss that?
Like the actual law and facts? Even the pseudo-statute you tried to pass off as "the law" last night didn't justify Zito's murders.
IMO, you should simply be deported before you are torn to pieces by angry citizens; such a spectacle would be traumatic for the children.
Under tort law, Zito's mother may have been entitled to be reimbursed for the damaged lock on her trailer porch door. It has exactly nothing to do with the murders Zito committed.
As to the criminal law:
b) When Provocation is adequateNone of the statutory provocation exceptions needed for a manslaughter defense are present.
i. Being subjected to a serious battery or a threat of deadly force; and
ii. Discovering one’s spouse in bed with another person.
Barking dogs don't worry me.
Forget having the paperwork "just so". How about having it, period. Where did Zito make a threat against the police? There is no evidence in this article that the police were responding to any form of threat. Do you have some inside knowledge of this case?
And yes, the police do have to fill out paperwork before they can break down doors in the absence of some immediate threat. Sorry Barney.
And you wonder why nobody takes your arguments seriously...
I could care less. Are you losing sleep over it?
You didn't read your own link?
See 274 posted on 4/8/02 2:27 AM Pacific by Hajman
The ones chewing your parts off won't be barking.
Kinky.
An imperfect self-defense claim, if successful, will knock the conviction down from 1st or 2nd degree murder to Inv. Mansl.
A perfect self defense, if successfull, means acquital.
FWIW - Given his statements (and after a day to consider the available evidence) it will be hard for the defendant (if not impossible) to prevail on a perfect self-defense theory. He is quite likely to get imperfect due to his mental incapacity - if the trial judge is not overruled on the NCR issue.
Cap'n - You are correct - the third officer showed EXTREME restraint and would have been justified in shooting Zito...and I'm not sure how I would have reacted at that moment...but I can guess.
Right then and there, while the cops were still OUTSIDE his trailer, responding to a noise complaint.
There is no evidence in this article that the police were responding to any form of threat.
It's in the article.
Do you have some inside knowledge of this case?
More than you do, apparently.
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