Category : Murder-Homicide

Freed Inmate Hopes to Help Others

A man in Kansas City, Missouri, was recently released from prison and hopes that his case will help others who may be falsely imprisoned in the future.

The man was convicted in 1984 for a murder that occurred during a gas station shooting in St. Louis.

However, it was discovered that one of the key witnesses in the case lied about the convicted man’s involvement in the shooting.

Prisoner’s Innocence Proven

Darryl Burton, 46, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 50 years and was released from the Jefferson City Correctional Center last Friday when he was proven innocent.

Burton was released when his case was sent back to trial and it was revealed that witness Claudex Simmons lied about seeing Burton shoot the victim who died.

Effort to Help Other Innocent Victims

Burton is now hoping that his case will better inform the general public about the wrong imprisonment of thousands of innocent victims throughout the country.

“I come to prison thinking that this is an isolated incident, I’m the only person this has ever happened to,” Burton said. “But it does happens in more cases than we know.”

(Source: The Associated Press)

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Inmate Admits to Murder and Innocent Man Freed

An inmate in Ohio recently admitted to a murder one of his fellow inmates was being imprisoned for.

The murder took place in 1998 and took the life of a legally blind woman.

Murderer Comes Forward

Earl G. Mann, 35, recently came forward and pleaded guilty to taking part in the brutal murder of Judith Johnson, 58.

Johnson was reportedly raped and killed at her Barberton home in the early morning.

Her granddaughter, who was an unexpected houseguest that night, was also raped, but survived.

Wrong Man Sent to Jail

Clarence Elkins was accused of the rapes and murder and investigators believed Elkins drove to Johnson’s home, who was his mother-in-law, and raped and killed her, before raping his niece.

The girl claimed it was Elkins who raped her, which served as key evidence in the case.

Family Fights Back

Since his imprisonment, Elkins and his wife have fought for his release and called on another DNA testing.

Investigators found that on Johnson’s property was a cigarette with Mann’s DNA on it.

Elkins was released and Mann’s new sentence, he was in jail for several attacks on girls, is 55 years in prison.

(Source: Canton Rep)

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Ohio Man Awarded in Wrongful Imprisonment Case

A man living in Pike County, Ohio was recently awarded in a case involving the murder of his friend.

The man’s conviction was reportedly overturned when he was awarded $600,000 in damages for wrongful imprisonment.

Innocent Man Admits to Murder

Kenneth Moore, 49, admitted to a jury in 1995 that he shot and killed his friend, Darrel Benner, 44, one night while they were drinking.

Since this time, Moore has spent nine years of a 15 years-to-life sentence behind bars for the murder.

Victim Receives Compensation

Moore’s case was recently overturned by an appeals court who found that the lawyers working for him did not inform him of favorable evidence at the time of the trial.

As a result, he was tried once again and found to be innocent of the murder that took his friend’s life.

Moore was awarded statutory damages of $44, 204 for each year he spent in jail along with $106, 764 in legal fees and $80,817 for lost wages.

(Source: The Columbus Dispatch)

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Texas Man Cleared of Shootings

A jury recently decided not to indict a Texas man who shot and killed two illegal immigrants who were leaving his neighbor’s house.

The man reportedly thought the men were posing a threat to him and his neighborhood and shot them in the back.

Man Calls Authorities on Suspects

Joe Horn, 62, called authorities and declared his intention to shoot the men, who he suspected were trespassers, with his 12-gauge shotgun.

The conversation is recorded and the dispatcher told Horn multiple times that the “property is not worth killing someone over.”

However, as the tape rolled, Horn went outside and screamed at the men, “Move, or you’re dead!” before firing his weapon.

Controversy Surrounds Shootings

After the incident, 140,000 protestors flooded the city of Pasadena, near Houston, TX.

The controversy only grew when authorities revealed that the two men were illegal immigrants from Colombia.

Decision Reached

“Joe would be the first to tell you that he wasn’t acting as a vigilante,” explained his attorney, Tom Lambright, to the jury.

Horn as expressed his remorse for the shootings and claims that he felt the men were harmful.

“In this case, the grand jury concluded that Mr. Horn’s use of deadly force did not rise to a criminal offense,” says Kenneth Magidson, the District Attorney for the County.

(Los Angeles Times)

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Convicted Perpetrator in Bridegroom Murder Ready to Appeal Sentence

Fresno, Fresno County: The initial brief in the Fresno court of appeals has been filed for the murder conviction of Ted Blackmon. Blackmon, 27 years old, had his public defender state an almost identical argument that his defense counsel made during the criminal trial. David Macher, Blackmon’s court appointed attorney, claims that the real perpetrator of this murder is another man and is still at large, according to his opening brief.

Convicted of First-Degree Murder

Blackmon was convicted of murder in the first degree by a jury of his peers on February 9, 2007. He was charged with murder for the shooting death of a man at a Union Ave gas station in July of 2005. It is believed by the prosecution that Blackmon’s alleged victim, a 27 year-old by the name of Damon Moore, was gunned down for the sole fact that he was wearing a blue shirt; Blackmon assumed that Moore was a rival gang member and shot him.

Man Shot While Sleeping in his Car

Moore was an entrepreneur on a road trip with his friends, on his way to his bachelor party in Las Vegas, Nevada. Moore and his friends stopped at a gas station on Union and Brundage lane to fill their gas tank, when Blackmon allegedly shot him two times in the back of the head as he slept in the car.

The response to Defense attorney Macher’s opening brief should arrive from the Attorney General’s office by January 2nd. Macher will then have the opportunity to reply to the response before three-person panel of state justices will hear the appeal.

Justices expect the appeal to be decided before the end of next year.

Merced Woman Murdered in Drug Feud

Livingston, Merced County: Five people have been arrested for their involvement in the murder of Rosa Avila, a woman from Livingston who was allegedly killed over $750 worth of illegal drugs.

Violent Crime Related to Drugs

Four people are being charged with murder, while one other is charged as an accessory in the October 24th murder in which Avina was brutally killed by being bound, gagged, and burned alive. It is presumed that the woman was killed out of revenge for a prior incident where Avila stole marijuana and 1/8 of an ounce of methamphetamine. According to Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin, the victim was persuaded to go to a house in Turlock where perpetrators orchestrated a false home invasion. Avila was then tied up and restrained, then transported to a remote location on South Avenue in Ballico, where she was covered in flammable liquid and set on fire.

Avina survived the flames and almost walked a full mile before losing consciousness. Tragically, she passed away 48 hours later at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s burn unit. Pazin also claims that Avina had met her attackers only a few short weeks before her murder, but the act of stealing from these drug traffickers was enough to want her killed.

Drug Traffickers Charged with Multiple Crimes

Alvaro Montanez Reyes, Omar Cebrero, Luis Valencia, and Urbano Ortega were all charged with First Degree Murder, Torture, Kidnapping, Mayhem, and Criminal Conspiracy for alleged involvement in Avila’s brutal homicide. Renulfo Ortega, the fifth man, is charged with Criminal Conspiracy and Accessory to murder. Authorities have labeled these five men as participants involved in a mid-level narcotics trafficking organization that lacks central leadership.

Pazin claims that the home invasion was planned to simply get Avila out of the area and kidnap her. This process points to a premeditated plan to take the life of Rosa Avila. The increasing drug trade that can be seen in Merced County is making its way into other areas, such as Stanislaus County and even Fresno. Avila’s murder is one of a few cases in the area as of recent in which the victim was set on fire.

Voluntary DNA Sample Leads to Link in Cold Case

In trying to help Police investigators link his brother to a 1983 rape and murder case of a Campbell teen, David Pearman voluntarily submitted a DNA sample. However, detectives quickly changed their focus when Pearman’s DNA sample connected him to a crime unrelated to his brother’s; Pearman’s DNA sample connected him to the rape of an 81 year-old woman from San Jose.

Both Brothers Now Facing Possible Life in Prison Sentences

Currently, both brothers face charges that could sentence them to life in prison. The brothers reside in Santa Clara County men’s jail, without the option of bail. David Tomkins, an Assistant District Attorney, says that authorities were “lucky” to have embarked on this chain of events that led to the identification of Pearman as a suspect in the case of an elderly woman being raped in 2001, unrelated to the crime to which his brother is a suspect.

46 year-old David Pearman, a.k.a. David Leonard Holland, was taken into custody and arraigned on charges related to the 2001 rape case. Pearman also has a prior felony record for Burglary. Police investigators are claiming that the voluntary DNA sample that he contributed matches that of a sample taken from the scene of the crime of the 2001 rape of an 81 year-old woman. If it weren’t for the investigation into his 53 year-old brother on an unrelated case, Police would likely have never been able to link evidence from the 2001 crime scene to Pearman. According to Tomkins, Pearman would have gotten away with this crime if authorities in the “cold case” division hadn’t been investigating Christopher Melvin Holland (Pearman’s brother) in connection with the murder of a 17 year-old.

Details of the 1983 Rape and Murder Case

The murdered 17 year-old, Cynthia Munoz, was found partially naked and stabbed to death in her Campbell home more than 24 years ago. During those 24 years that passed, Police had leads in the case but lacked sufficient evidence to bring charges against a potential suspect. However, earlier this year investigator Michael Schembri began to focus on the Munoz murder and found out that a friend of Christopher Holland bragged that he and Holland raped and murdered the 17 year-old girl in the course of a robbery for narcotics. Just as Schembri was looking further into Holland’s involvement, he was nowhere to be found. When authorities realized that they had a semen sample from the Munoz rape/murder, they located Holland’s two brothers and asked them to give DNA samples in hopes of finding a link.

The sample from David Pearman’s brother Kenneth Holland was enough to charge Christopher Holland in Munoz’s murder, showing a link close enough to determine that it is “possible but highly improbable” that anyone but one of the Holland’s committed the crime. This provided ample evidence to put out a warrant for Christopher Holland’s arrest; Holland was arrested after police received a tip that he was hiding out in a San Jose apartment.

DNA Sample Revealed Surprises

Although police had all the evidence they needed from Kenneth Holland’s DNA sample, David Pearman’s DNA sample revealed some surprises. While Pearman and Christopher Holland are only half-brothers, making Pearman’s sample useless in the Munoz case, the procedure of entering his sample into a computer database alerted authorities to its match with the evidence taken in the 2001 rape case of the elderly woman.

Authorities now believe that they have enough evidence to charge Pearman with Burglary, Rape, and Forcible Oral Copulation. This case would have never been solved if it weren’t for the voluntary DNA sample provided in an unrelated case in which his half-brother was the prime suspect.