Court Roundup

Arkansas
Court orders new trial for man in quintuple killing
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court says a man convicted in the 2009 shooting deaths of five people deserves a new trial.
Samuel Lee Conway had been convicted of five counts of capital murder, plus other charges, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. But the high court on Thursday reversed his convictions and sentences and ordered a new trial.
Conway argued that he deserved a new trial because a judge didn’t get rid of a juror who said he couldn’t be fair to Conway.
The high court sided with Conway, saying that the judge abused his discretion in failing to dismiss that juror.
The justices also said Conway didn’t have a fair and impartial trial last year.

Texas
Teen’s alleged confession questioned
NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) — A judge in Bowie County is deciding whether law enforcement legally obtained an alleged confession from a teenager accused in a triple killing.
The Texarkana Gazette reports that District Judge Leon F. Pesek Jr. heard testimony Wednesday on statements made by 18-year-old Rachel Pittman.
Pittman is charged in the 2011 deaths of 34-year-old Amanda Doss and her two children, 11-year-old Guinevere Doss and 8-year-old Texas Johnson.
Sheriff James Prince testified Wednesday that Pittman called police and said she had information about the killings. The sheriff testified that when he met with the teen, she said, “I killed Amanda.” Prince said he then read Pittman her Miranda rights.
Pittman’s attorneys are challenging the confession. Pittman is set for trial Jan. 14 in Rusk County.

Louisiana
Appeals court upholds man’s murder conviction
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — An appeals court has upheld the murder conviction of a man accused in a 1989 beating that left a woman in a coma until her death in 2001.
Louis Joseph George is serving a life sentence in the death of Michelle Steven.
The Advocate reports the investigation became a “cold case” for several years until a fresh review of the case linked George’s fingerprints and DNA to the crime.
A Lafayette jury convicted him last year on a second-degree murder charge.
He appealed the conviction, arguing that the judge should have delayed the trial to allow George’s DNA expert to testify and accused the judge of mishandling the jury selection process.
A three-judge panel with the state’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal set aside those arguments and upheld the conviction in an opinion released Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged the attack was sexually motivated and that George gained access into Steven’s home on Cobb Road through a bathroom window and attempted to force Steven to have sex with him.
George beat her and strangled her when she refused, according to prosecutors.
A DNA expert testified at trial that George could not be excluded from a bloodstain found on Steven’s pants, and a fingerprint expert testified George’s fingerprints were found on a bathroom window outside Steven’s home.

Louisiana
Woman sentenced to 40 years in child cruelty case
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Baton Rouge judge labeled a 25-year-old woman “sinister and despicable” before sentencing her to 40 years in prison in a 2009 child cruelty case involving her then-20-month-old stepson.
The Advocate reports an East Baton Rouge Parish jury deliberated just 15 minutes Oct. 25 before unanimously finding Charlotte Staggs guilty of second-degree cruelty to a juvenile.
The boy, who will celebrate his fifth birthday next month, was rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in August 2009 after ingesting fingernail polish remover. Medical personnel testified at Staggs’ trial that the child was severely malnourished and dehydrated, had bruises and scrapes on his body and a distinctive burn mark from a fork on his right thigh.
State District Judge Mike Erwin, who presided over the trial, said Wednesday he tried to find a reason why he should not give Staggs the maximum possible 40-year sentence.
“For the life of me, I couldn’t come up with any,” Erwin told Staggs, adding that she engaged in “one of the most despicable behaviors” he has ever seen as a judge.
Trial testimony indicated that after the boy’s biological mother died in an accident in 2008, a structured settlement of $225,000 was placed in trust for the child for his benefit when he turned 18.
Erwin charged that Staggs “systematically starved” the boy in hopes that she could get her “greedy hands” on the money intended for the child.
“You’re one of the most sinister and despicable persons I’ve ever been involved with,” he stated.
Staggs previously turned down offers to plead guilty in return for a 25-year prison term, prosecutor Charles Grey said.
The boy’s father — Steven Staggs, 29, of Baton Rouge — also is charged with second-degree cruelty to a juvenile. He failed to appear in Erwin’s courtroom Wednesday for a scheduled status hearing, so the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

California
Man must stand trial for cemetery attack on his son
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A man charged with trying to kill his 8-year-old son during a bizarre ritual at a San Diego cemetery has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial.
City News Service says a judge ruled Wednesday that 31-year-old Joseph Ramirez can be tried next May for attempted murder and child abuse. If convicted, he faces up to 13 years in prison.
At an earlier hearing, witnesses say Ramirez took his three kids and their mother to Mount Hope Cemetery in April to visit his uncle’s grave.
Once there, Ramirez allegedly had the family drink sangria and eat energy bars, calling it “the last supper,” then slashed his son’s forearms with a broken candle holder and cut himself.
Ramirez reportedly said he was sending the children to Jesus.

Maine
Prostitution suspect faces new allegation
YORK, Maine (AP) — The former Kennebunk Zumba instructor facing prostitution charges has been accused by the father of her 7-year-old son of posing for “inappropriate pictures” with the boy.
The allegations were made by Benjamin Hopkins in a court complaint seeking civil protection and full custody of the child he has with Alexis Wright. Wright has custody.
Hopkins says in the complaint that Wright is nude in the pictures while the boy was covered from the waist down with only a sheet.
The case was dismissed by a judge on Wednesday when neither Hopkins nor Wright showed up for a court hearing on the matter.
Lawyers for both had no comment on the alleged photographs when contacted by The Portland Press Herald, but Hopkins’ lawyer confirmed his client is trying to obtain custody.