Free Republic

Ex-prof gets life in prison for meeting rampage HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A former university professor has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing three of her colleagues and wounding three others during a faculty meeting. The jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before convicting Amy Bishop on Monday. Amy Bishop, a former professor at the University of Alabama in Hunstville, showed no reaction as the verdict was read. Circuit Judge Alan Mann then imposed the life sentence. Bishop did not speak in court. The Harvard-educated biologist avoided a death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this month to...

There was some head-scratching a couple of days ago over the Justice Department’s indictment of Jared Lee Loughner in the Tucson shootings case because he was not charged with the murders of Chief Judge John Roll and Gabriel Zimmerman, a legislative aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Instead, the indictment charges only the attempted murders of Representative Giffords and her two other aides, Ron Barber and Pamela Simon. (My column a few days back explained that there is no federal jurisdiction to charge murder or attempted murder in connection with the victims who were not federal officers.) I was interviewed by...

LANSDOWNE, Va. - Prosecutors say it seems gang members are beginning to attack innocent people after the arrests of four people in the brutal beating of a Lansdowne woman and the murder of her husband in March. Rushing from the Loudoun County courthouse too upset to speak, the family of accused killer Darwin Bowman went to hire him an attorney. Bowman could face the death penalty for the murder of William Bennett and the attack on his wife Cynthia. In court via closed circuit feed from jail, Bowman wore an orange jumpsuit and a grim expression. He and three other...

CORPUS CHRISTI — A Nueces County jury sentenced John Henry Ramirez to death in his capital murder trial Monday. The jury began deliberations at 10:30 a.m. and came back with its decision just after 2 p.m. On Friday, the same jury deliberated about an hour and 15 minutes before finding Ramirez guilty of capital murder in the stabbing death of 45-year-old Pablo Castro. The convenience store clerk was stabbed 29 times in the neck and back and robbed of $1.25 on July 19, 2004, as he was taking out the trash at the Times Market on Baldwin Boulevard. Prosecutors...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Prosecutors trying Charles Allen McCoy Jr. for a string of sniper shootings in the greater Columbus area reminded jurors Thursday of the effect those shootings had one their own lives. "The choice of driving routes drastically changed for many drivers here in central Ohio," Franklin County First Assistant Prosecutor Ed Morgan told jurors during his opening statement in McCoy's capital murder trial. "The evidence will show that this change in driving routes was due in large part because someone in possession of a 9 mm Beretta pistol was choosing not to fire at a range target, but...

Man charged in area girls' deaths Ohio child killer suspected in '80s slayings of Christi Meeks, Christie Proctor and Roxann Reyes 05/22/2003 By TIM WYATT and ROY APPLETON / The Dallas Morning News Plano police on Wednesday charged a convicted child killer in Ohio with capital murder in connection with the abduction and slayings of three Dallas-area girls more than 15 years ago. The trail in the strangulation deaths of Christi Lynn Meeks, 5, of Mesquite; Christie Diane Proctor, 9, of Dallas; and Roxann Hope Reyes, 4, of Garland had gone cold. But police revived the cases by bringing three...

Escapee captured in Dallas faces capital murder charge 02/12/2003 By DAVID SEDEÑO / The Dallas Morning News A prison escapee was back behind bars Tuesday and is expected to face a capital murder charge in the slaying of a Madison County man whose pickup truck was used in a getaway to Dallas, authorities said. Demitrius Tyrone Holloway, 22, a convicted burglar and robber from Dallas County, escaped Monday from the Ferguson Unit in Madison County. He was a prison trusty and had stuffed his bed bunk to make it appear that he was asleep. Farmer Edward Pearson, 57, of...

Guilty verdict in 'bathtub slaying' trial 01/08/2003 By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News FORT WORTH - Dale Devon Scheanette was found guilty of capital murder on Wednesday in the 1996 slaying of an Arlington woman, who was found lying face down in the bathtub of her Arlington apartment. Jurors spent about 1 1/2 hours deliberating on Mr. Scheanette's fate before returning the guilty verdict. The sentencing phase of the trial was set to begin Wednesday afternoon in Fort Worth. Dale Devon Scheanette Family members of the murdered woman, Wendie Prescott, 22, expressed relief at the verdict. "We've...

DNA ties man to '87 slaying 12/20/2002 Associated Press HOUSTON - Advances in DNA technology gave authorities the breakthrough they needed to arrest a Houston man in the stabbing death of his sister-in-law 15 years ago. Harris County authorities arrested Gregory Glenn Markwardt, 50, on capital murder charges Wednesday at his home. Mr. Markwardt is accused of killing Kathryn Louis Odom on March 3, 1987. Her battered body was discovered in her Spring home with her two young children. Investigators describe the crime as a "lust murder," saying Mr. Markwardt made romantic advances to Ms. Odom, but she rejected...