Court Digest

Texas
Prosecutors drop murder charges against 2 of 3 people in fatal stabbing
DALLAS (AP) — Texas prosecutors have dropped murder charges against two people in the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old Seattle woman as a trial continues with the third defendant.

The 2020 killing of Marisela Botello-Valadez drew international attention last year when two of the people arrested in her killing cut off their ankle monitors and left the country while free on bond. The dismissal of charges comes only days after a Texas man who cut of his ankle monitor went on a shooting rampage, drawing renewed attention to questions about the use of technology in freeing people ahead of their trials.

The trial of Lisa Dykes, who still faces murder charges, began last week and continued Monday. But newly public court records show that a judge approved prosecutors’ Friday motions to dismiss the murder charges against the other woman and a man also charged in Botello-Valadez’s killing “in the interest of justice.”

A Dallas County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson did not respond to a call and email Monday about why they dropped the murder charges against Nina Marano and Charles Anthony Beltran. They each still face a charge of tampering with evidence connected to the death of Botello-Valadez, whose remains were found in the woods months after she was reported missing in Dallas.

Lawyers for the pair and for Dykes did not respond to calls and emails from The Associated Press seeking comment. An attorney who represents Marano, 52, and Dykes, 60, told The Dallas Morning News that he expected the dismissals because Beltran’s account of events has been inconsistent.

Beltran, 34, testified Friday that he lived with Marano and Dykes. He said he met Botello-Valadez at a nightclub and the two went to his house, where they had sex. He said he fell asleep and awoke to screaming as Dykes stabbed Botello-Valadez. Under questioning by Dykes’ lawyer, Beltran acknowledged that he initially lied to investigators about what happened.

The trio were arrested six months after Botello-Valadez went missing in October 2020. Marano and Dykes were released on $500,000 bonds but last Christmas they simultaneously removed their GPS trackers and left the country, according to court records. They eventually turned up in Cambodia, where they were arrested by local police with help from the FBI.

Another Dallas killing last year prompted Texas lawmakers to enact a law making it a felony to cut off an ankle monitor. The new measure came into effect in September, weeks after authorities in San Antonio received a call about a man who had earlier cut off his ankle monitor having a mental health crisis.

Sheriff’s deputies didn’t arrest the man, Shane James Jr., during the August encounter and he has now been charged with capital murder in a series of shootings that left six people dead in Austin and San Antonio this month.

Alabama
Family of man who died after police used a stun gun on him file lawsuit
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — The family of an Alabama man who died after police used a stun gun on him filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Monday against the city of Mobile.

The family of Jawan Dallas, 36, alleges that Mobile police used excessive force that led to his death. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Mobile, names the city and two unnamed officers as defendants. It seeks $36 million in damages.

Dallas, 36, died July 2 after he was shocked with a stun gun while police were trying to subdue him.

“He was assaulted multiple times, struck multiple times and tasered multiple times,” attorney Harry Daniels said during a Monday news conference announcing the lawsuit.

The district attorney announced last month that a grand jury cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing and said Dallas died of underlying medical conditions that were exacerbated by drug use and the struggle with officers.

Attorneys for the family said the body camera footage, which was viewed by the family last month, shows that officers used excessive force. Family attorneys urged the police department to publicly release the video.

The lawsuit also contends that officers had no reason to try to detain Dallas and that he was under no suspicion of criminal wrongdoing at the time of the confrontation.

Officers approached Dallas after they responded to a possible burglary report at a trailer park when a 911 caller reported that a “homeless guy” was in his yard. Police approached Dallas, who was in his vehicle at another trailer, and another man who was in the yard at the home. According to the lawsuit, an officer demanded Dallas get out of the car and produce his identification. Dallas had told the officers that they were violating his rights, and he attempted to flee on foot at some point but was tackled by an officer, the lawsuit said.

Attorneys said Dallas can be heard in the body camera video screaming, begging for help and at one point saying, “I can’t breathe. I don’t want to be George Floyd.”

The Dallas family is represented by attorneys Daniels, John Burrus, Ben Crump and Lee Merritt, who have represented families in a number of high-profile cases where Black people have died during confrontations with police.

The lawsuit accuses the city’s police chief of trying to present a “false narrative to the public” in a press conference to justify officers questioning Dallas.

The city of Mobile sent out a statement late Monday saying the chief relayed information that had been provided by the 911 caller. The city released a transcript of the 911 call reporting a possible burglary in which the caller said the person was wearing a red shirt or pants and had walked up the road to what “looked like trailer 27.” The city said Dallas was wearing red shorts and was near trailer 27 when police approached him.

New York
Man sues NYC after he spent 27 years in prison, then was cleared in subway token clerk killing
NEW YORK (AP) — A man who was recently cleared in the gruesome, fiery 1995 killing of a subway token booth clerk sued New York City and two detectives on Monday, saying that “a wanton and reckless” law enforcement culture subjected him to decades of wrongful imprisonment that left grave psychological damage.

Thomas Malik, who is seeking at least $50 million, is one of three men who spent decades in prison before prosecutors last year disavowed all three convictions in the death of Harry Kaufman.

“Malik seeks redress for the official misconduct that caused him to spend nearly 27 years in prison, and the mental and physical injuries he sustained while incarcerated,” lawyers Ronald Kuby and Rhidaya Trivedi wrote in the lawsuit.

The city Law Department said it would review Malik’s suit. His former co-defendants, Vincent Ellerbe and James Irons, also have sought compensation.

Kaufman, 50, was set ablaze during an attempted robbery as he worked an overnight shift in a Brooklyn subway station on Nov. 26, 1995. His attackers squirted gasoline into the tollbooth coin slot and ignited the fuel with matches.

The horrific killing became a national political talking point. Then-Senate Majority Leader and Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole called for a boycott of the the movie “Money Train,” which had been released days before the attack and included a scene that bore some similarity.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office concluded last year that the convictions of Malik, Irons and Ellerbe were built on false and contradictory confessions — the men have long said they were coerced — and other flawed evidence.

Malik was identified in a lineup with problematic procedures and a witness who earlier had insistently identified a different suspect, whom police eliminated, prosecutors said in a report last year. Malik also was implicated by a jail informant who later was found to be so prone to falsehoods that a court barred the man from ever serving as an informant again.

Former detectives Stephen Chmil and Louis Scarcella played major roles in the investigation, with Chmil as lead detective and Scarcella obtaining Malik’s confession, among other evidence.

In recent years, the now-retired partners have repeatedly been accused of having forced confessions and framed suspects. More than a dozen convictions in Scarcella’s cases have been overturned, though prosecutors have stood by scores of others.

The former detectives deny any wrongdoing. Their lawyer declined to comment on Malik’s lawsuit, which names them as defendants, alongside the city.

The suit argues that a “wanton and reckless culture” among police and Brooklyn prosecutors at the time let them violate citizens’ rights with impunity, with a heavy price for Malik.

The notoriety of his case made him a target for abuse and assaults in prison, where he arrived at 18, his lawsuit said.

Malik is now free, 46, married and living out of state. But prison left him so psychologically scarred that he can barely leave his home, and simply putting on a seatbelt reminds him of being shackled and triggers post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, the lawsuit said.

Ellerbe settled with the city comptroller for an undisclosed sum, said Kuby, who also represented him. Irons is pursuing a federal lawsuit and has filed a case with the state Court of Claims, said his attorney, David Shanies.

Washington
Adoptive parents sentenced in starving death of teenage boy
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The adoptive parents convicted in the starving death of a 15-year-old boy in Washington state have been sentenced to decades in prison.

Judge Suzan Clark last week sentenced Felicia L. Adams to 35 years in prison and Jesse C. Franks to 30 years in the 2020 death of Karreon Franks. The couple also had been convicted on charges of criminal mistreatment of Karreon’s brothers, The Columbian newspaper reported.

Attorneys for Adams and Franks said they planned to appeal the convictions and sentences.

Clark called what happened to Karreon “one of the saddest things I have seen in 37 years.” She said she had never before returned to her chambers after a trial and “had all of the jurors in tears because of what they had been through.” An alternate juror complained of being unable to sleep.

Adams, 54, and Franks, 58, were convicted by a jury in Clark County Superior Court in October.

Karreon was autistic, had developmental delays, was legally blind and used a cane. Prosecutor Laurel Smith called him “an extremely vulnerable child.”

Prosecutors said at trial that he and his brothers were accustomed to food restrictions and corporal punishment at their home in Vancouver. Karreon lost 47% of his body weight between July 2019 and his death on Nov. 27, 2020, dropping from 115 pounds to 61 pounds, prosecutors said. For much of that time, he was isolated at home due to the pandemic.

Adams, the boys’ maternal aunt, said the defense didn’t get an opportunity to put on certain evidence for the court. Franks blamed his lack of education and job training for not taking an active role in the household.