King's Lawyers file death penalty appeal
SARASOTA -- Attorneys for Michael King have listed 21 reasons why he should not be put to death, including that the death penalty is "unconstitutional" and the state should not have used eyewitness 911 calls as evidence during his trial.
On Dec. 21, King's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Carolyn Schlemmer, filed a motion to the Attorney General Criminal Appeals and the Clerk of the Florida Supreme Court appealing a judge's decision to sentence King to death.
Last year, King was found guilty in the kidnapping, rape and murder of 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee.
King held Lee at gunpoint when he took her from her North Port home on Jan. 17, 2008. Her remains were found two days later, buried in a wooded area of Toledo Blade Boulevard.
After a three-week trial at the Sarasota County Courthouse that ended in September, all 12 jurors recommended a death sentence.
During the December sentencing, 12th Circuit Judge Deno Economou became emotional while reading into the record what King did to Lee. He agreed with the jury, sentencing King to death.
Florida law requires an automatic appeal in all capital murder cases such as King's.
In Schlemmer's appeal, she calls the death penalty -- reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 -- unconstitutional. The appeal states the defense counsel should have been allowed to further interview jurors, and criticizes a unanimous decision needed for the jury to conclude in the penalty phase of the trial, as well as "unreliable and misleading evidence" from a state Department of Law Enforcement firearms analyst.
It goes on to state the 911 call Lee made while trapped inside of King's Camaro should not have been allowed in court, as well as another 911 call played in court made by witness Jane Kowalski, who saw King's car on the evening Lee was taken. Kowalski reported someone -- now known to be Lee -- screaming and slapping the window in the back seat of the Camaro, stopped at a traffic light next to her.
The prosecution's use of bullet casings, voice identification and allowing state doctors to evaluate King during the trial is also being appealed. Schlemmer being denied a motion for a mistrial and an acquittal are also listed as grounds for an appeal, according to the attorney.
Schlemmer wrote that King was denied a change of venue outside Sarasota, therefore, he was not given a "fair trial." The suppression of certain evidence and the court's finding of King's competency during the trial are also listed.
Schlemmer noted there were "errors" made in the sentencing order, as well as "the court's error" in allowing "certain portions of victim impact statements during the penalty phase" of the trial.
However, before the trial, Schlemmer filed motions to have some evidence suppressed -- such as King's demeanor when he was arrested and early evidence collected in a police raid of King's North Port house where Lee was raped -- and won.
Schlemmer could not be reached for comment.
Assistant State Attorney Lon Arend said he believed King, who stared straight ahead and was emotionless through most of the trial, faked a mental illness.
"He was competent to stand trial," Arend said. "We had tapes from the night he was arrested showing Michael speaking and moving around. They were suppressed, so the jury never saw them."
Arend said an appeal is the appropriate step in King's case.
"It is important that each and every issue brought up by the defense in the trial be included on the notice of appeal so that they can be reviewed by the Supreme Court," he said. "In order for a just, true sentence to be carried out, everyone has to be ensured that the defendant received a fair trial, and the Supreme Court review is an automatic part of the process.
"The fact that his attorneys have so thoroughly documented every possible argument is a testament to their professionalism, and should assist the Florida Supreme Court in what hopefully will be a thorough yet expeditious review of the trial," he said.
Arend said that if King's appeal is not overturned, he could be executed -- most likely by lethal injection -- in five years.
"It should not take 15 years," he said. "Laws have changed to make executions more speedy when appeals have been exhausted."
E-mail: eallen@sun-herald.com
By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
North Port Community News Editor
http://sunnewspapers.net/articles/pnnews.aspx?NewsID=450595&a=newsarchive2/011110/ew2.htm&pnpg=0
Showing posts with label Judge Dino Economou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Judge Dino Economou. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Saturday, December 5, 2009
articles in today's paper December 5, 2009
Herald Tribune
It's death for the man who killed Denise Lee
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091205/ARTICLE/912051043/2416/NEWS?Title=It-s-death-for-the-man-who-killed-Denise-Lee
Paying the price
Justice in Denise Lee case, but harsh realities remain
Published: Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8:10 p.m.
There are crimes so heinous, with guilt so certain, that they melt opposition to the death penalty.
The 2008 abduction, rape and murder of North Port mom Denise Lee is one such crime.
Friday, a Sarasota judge sentenced Lee's killer, Michael King, to the ultimate punishment. The sentence followed the unanimous recommendation of the jury that found King guilty of first-degree murder and other horrible offenses.
By most measures, the sentence is just. But any satisfaction that may be taken from it must be weighed against harsh realities.
The first and most tragic of these is that King's execution will not bring back the murdered woman, nor restore the normal life that her husband and two young children once had.
The second is that a death penalty automatically triggers procedures that could delay execution for years, putting the family on an agonizing merry-go-round of appeals.
The third is that this and dozens of other capital cases drain the resources of Florida's criminal justice system.
Because of heightened constitutional requirements, death penalty cases are far more expensive than murder trials in which life with no possibility of parole is sought.
In Florida, the difference between death-penalty and life-without-parole adds up to tens of millions of dollars per year, studies indicate.
It is wrong to put a price tag on justice. But at a time when recession has forced serious budget cuts on law enforcement agencies and the courts, who can feel good about spending so much on a punishment that does so little for crime prevention?
Studies indicate that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to violent crime, especially in comparison with the less expensive life-without-parole option.
The millions spent on death-penalty pursuits could pay for important crime prevention measures. They could fund additional police, probation and corrections officers, investigators and prosecutors.
They could fund additional crime labs to process large backlogs in DNA samples and evidence.
They could fund substance-abuse programs and facilities for handling severe mental illness.
The dollars could even fund better 9-1-1 emergency communications -- a critical lifesaving link that was disastrously mishandled in Lee's case, causing a missed opportunity to save her.
Budgets aside, the trial and conviction of Michael King stand as proof that, even amid cuts and shortages, the justice system worked. Law enforcement found, analyzed and preserved crucial evidence; the killer was caught; and a jury of his peers convicted him.
Jurors, the judge, and probably the vast majority of Southwest Florida residents agree that King deserves the death penalty.
The punishment fits the crime. It's the cost -- not the penalty -- that is out of line.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091205/OPINION/912051031/2198/OPINION?Title=Paying-the-pricee
From the Sun
King sentenced to death
SARASOTA -- Sobs reverberated across the courtroom Friday as family members of Denise Amber Lee reacted to Michael King getting the death penalty for her murder.
An elderly man sitting in front of King's parents at the Sarasota County Courthouse, who wore a button of Denise smiling, raised his fists in the air twice and grinned as 12th Circuit Judge Deno Economou read from his 45-page decision.
A clean-shaven King stared ahead and didn't move.
The 38-year-old also showed no emotion when the judge read how, on Jan. 17, 2008, King kidnapped Lee from her North Port home at gunpoint. He brought her to his home for about three hours, raped her, then drove her to his cousin's house to borrow a shovel, a flashlight and a gas can to dispose of her body. He promised to let the 21-year-old mother of two young sons go, but then shot her and buried her remains in a wooded area off Toledo Blade Boulevard.
Denise's widower, Nathan, was joined by his parents, Mark and Peggy, as well as her parents, Rick and Susan Goff, and other family members. At times they cried as the judge read graphic details of the rape and spoke of her bruising and the fatal gunshot wound above her eyebrow.
Economou's voice cracked several times as he read Denise's words from her desperate 911 call. He said Denise managed to call 911 without King knowing. She gave the operator valuable information, such as her address and that she was bound and could not see where she was. She repeatedly begged for King -- who was a stranger to her -- to let her go.
The judge said King's "words and actions" revealed a crime that was "conscienceless, pitiless and unnecessarily tortuous with an utter indifference to Denise's suffering.
"His telling her that he would let her go as soon as she gave him the cell phone was a lie, knowing full well that he was going to take her to a secluded area and murder her," Economou said.
The judge weighed little consideration for the arguments that King had a low IQ, suffered an alleged brain injury when he was 6, and was paranoid, which may have been contributing factors to him killing Denise.
Assistant State Attorney Lon Arend said Denise's actions helped solve the case.
"She was the best witness we had," Arend said of Denise leaving her heart-shaped ring and strands of her hair in King's Camaro for investigators to link her to her killer.
Arend said he didn't buy King's bizarre, catatonic-like behavior during his three-week trial.
"I think he faked a mental illness," Arend said.
Outside the courthouse, Nathan joined the Goffs to thank everyone who has been supportive. He said he made "lifelong friends" through the process.
"I want to thank Denise," he said. "She was the most awesome person I've ever known. She was a wonderful wife and mother."
Rick Goff, a 26-year veteran with the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, agreed, adding several longtime friends from out of state came to support them in court. For some of them, it was the first time hearing the judge's overview of the murder.
"We wouldn't have found Denise or him (King) if it weren't for Denise leaving behind clues," Goff said. "I could not have done what she did. She was a great detective."
Goff said he understands there will be appeals -- but said he cannot wait until King is executed.
"I will rent the bus for us to go up there and watch that man die," he said. "I may have to go in a wheelchair (following years of appeals), but myself and my family will be there."
Several jurors, who have formed a bond with each other and have met with Nathan and his sons, Noah and Adam, following the trial, were in court Friday.
"I'm so happy that he is going to pay for what he did to that beautiful girl," said Pat O'Quinn, who was one of 12 jurors who recommended the death penalty for King in September.
O'Quinn says she has been following Nathan's fight against the CCSO in a wrongful death lawsuit he filed in October. Nathan contends the CCSO was negligent in not sending any deputies to Toledo Blade Boulevard on the night Denise was kidnapped, despite receiving a 911 call from Jane Kowalski saying there was a person screaming and banging on the window in the back seat of the Camaro next to her.
Reached by phone Friday night, Kowalski, of Tampa, said she was pleased with the judge's decision.
"If there was any case for the death penalty, this was one," she said. "It shouldn't be anything else."
After most left the courthouse Friday, North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis returned to Nathan the ring and necklace -- that was marked as "evidence" for nearly two years -- that Nathan had given to Denise.
Sun staff writers Carol Sakowitz and Anne Klockenkemper contributed to this report.
E-mail: eallen@sun-herald.com
By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
North Port Community News Editor
http://sunnewspapers.net/articles/tsnews.aspx?ArticleID=448590&pubdate=12/5/2009
Case Ends, Appeals Begin
SARASOTA -- Twelfth Circuit Judge Deno Economou handed down the death penalty Friday for convicted killer Michael King in the 2008 murder of young mother of two, Denise Amber Lee.
For those connected to the case, one question remains.
What's next?
* King's death sentence automatically will be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, according to Dennis Menendez, spokesman for the 12th Judicial Circuit. The process could take at least three years, and if upheld, there is a likelihood that it will be 15 years before King is executed.
There are 387 inmates currently on Florida's death row. King makes it 388.
* King himself will wait in a Sarasota County Jail cell until he is transferred to a state penitentiary, according to Maj. Jim Lilly, who oversees county corrections operations. No date has been scheduled for the transfer.
* Denise's younger sister, Amanda Goff, answered, "Yes and no," when asked Friday if the judge's decision puts the case to rest for her.
"(There's an) end in the sense that the trial is completely over," she said. "But it's not over until the day he dies."
For now, she said, "I can put it out of my mind."
Amanda will return to the University of Central Florida, where the school semester will end next week. She also holds two jobs in Orlando.
Friends at school have been great, she said, and added one of them came to the Sarasota County Courthouse to support the family.
She had one final thought before leaving the courthouse: "I want to thank the jury. They were great."
* North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis said his department is starting to prepare for the Coralrose Fullwood murder trial, scheduled to begin in April. Patrick Murphy, 28, is accused in the 6-year-old's 2006 slaying.
"We'll move to the next case and, sadly, the next case is Coralrose," he said.
Preparations will involve up to five detectives, he said, and the department has been given "incredible assistance" almost daily by members of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
Looking over to where journalists waited for a press conference by the Lee and Goff families, a somber Lewis said they "are now part of the North Port police family."
"That's not a cliché," he added.
* In October, Nathan filed a wrongful death suit against the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. He contends the CCSO was negligent for not sending any deputies to Toledo Blade Boulevard on the night Denise was kidnapped, despite receiving a 911 call from the area saying a man driving a dark Camaro had a person screaming and banging on the window for help in his back seat. Last month, the CCSO filed a motion to dismiss the suit. A judge will determine if the case will continue.
* David Garofalo, North Port City Commission chair, attended Friday's hearing. Garofalo has been part of the local movement to set standards for 911 operators.
Friday, Garofalo said he has 411 letters ready to send to other Florida municipalities asking them to support legislation making its way to law in Tallahassee.
That legislation, he said, could "pave the way for the rest of the country."
* Bonnie Turgeon of Sarasota is a stranger to the Lee and Goff families but she was in court Friday, just as she had been for King's trial.
Turgeon said she was there to support the man who sold her and her family a TV set at Best Buy in January. When she went home, she saw the salesman -- Nathan Lee -- on that TV.
During the trial, Turgeon said she met Nathan's mother, Peggy, and learned of a cookbook that she and Denise's mother, Susan, were compiling as a fundraiser. Turgeon said she bought one.
Turgeon spoke Friday of Denise's two young sons. She said Peggy told her the 2-year-old, Noah, remembers the last words his mother said to him: "Goodbye ... and I love you."
E-mail: csakowitz@sun-herald.com
By CAROL SAKOWITZ
North Port Assistant Editor
http://sunnewspapers.net/articles/pnnews.aspx?NewsID=448608&a=newsarchive2/120509/ew5.htm&pnpg=1
It's death for the man who killed Denise Lee
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091205/ARTICLE/912051043/2416/NEWS?Title=It-s-death-for-the-man-who-killed-Denise-Lee
Paying the price
Justice in Denise Lee case, but harsh realities remain
Published: Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8:10 p.m.
There are crimes so heinous, with guilt so certain, that they melt opposition to the death penalty.
The 2008 abduction, rape and murder of North Port mom Denise Lee is one such crime.
Friday, a Sarasota judge sentenced Lee's killer, Michael King, to the ultimate punishment. The sentence followed the unanimous recommendation of the jury that found King guilty of first-degree murder and other horrible offenses.
By most measures, the sentence is just. But any satisfaction that may be taken from it must be weighed against harsh realities.
The first and most tragic of these is that King's execution will not bring back the murdered woman, nor restore the normal life that her husband and two young children once had.
The second is that a death penalty automatically triggers procedures that could delay execution for years, putting the family on an agonizing merry-go-round of appeals.
The third is that this and dozens of other capital cases drain the resources of Florida's criminal justice system.
Because of heightened constitutional requirements, death penalty cases are far more expensive than murder trials in which life with no possibility of parole is sought.
In Florida, the difference between death-penalty and life-without-parole adds up to tens of millions of dollars per year, studies indicate.
It is wrong to put a price tag on justice. But at a time when recession has forced serious budget cuts on law enforcement agencies and the courts, who can feel good about spending so much on a punishment that does so little for crime prevention?
Studies indicate that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to violent crime, especially in comparison with the less expensive life-without-parole option.
The millions spent on death-penalty pursuits could pay for important crime prevention measures. They could fund additional police, probation and corrections officers, investigators and prosecutors.
They could fund additional crime labs to process large backlogs in DNA samples and evidence.
They could fund substance-abuse programs and facilities for handling severe mental illness.
The dollars could even fund better 9-1-1 emergency communications -- a critical lifesaving link that was disastrously mishandled in Lee's case, causing a missed opportunity to save her.
Budgets aside, the trial and conviction of Michael King stand as proof that, even amid cuts and shortages, the justice system worked. Law enforcement found, analyzed and preserved crucial evidence; the killer was caught; and a jury of his peers convicted him.
Jurors, the judge, and probably the vast majority of Southwest Florida residents agree that King deserves the death penalty.
The punishment fits the crime. It's the cost -- not the penalty -- that is out of line.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091205/OPINION/912051031/2198/OPINION?Title=Paying-the-pricee
From the Sun
King sentenced to death
SARASOTA -- Sobs reverberated across the courtroom Friday as family members of Denise Amber Lee reacted to Michael King getting the death penalty for her murder.
An elderly man sitting in front of King's parents at the Sarasota County Courthouse, who wore a button of Denise smiling, raised his fists in the air twice and grinned as 12th Circuit Judge Deno Economou read from his 45-page decision.
A clean-shaven King stared ahead and didn't move.
The 38-year-old also showed no emotion when the judge read how, on Jan. 17, 2008, King kidnapped Lee from her North Port home at gunpoint. He brought her to his home for about three hours, raped her, then drove her to his cousin's house to borrow a shovel, a flashlight and a gas can to dispose of her body. He promised to let the 21-year-old mother of two young sons go, but then shot her and buried her remains in a wooded area off Toledo Blade Boulevard.
Denise's widower, Nathan, was joined by his parents, Mark and Peggy, as well as her parents, Rick and Susan Goff, and other family members. At times they cried as the judge read graphic details of the rape and spoke of her bruising and the fatal gunshot wound above her eyebrow.
Economou's voice cracked several times as he read Denise's words from her desperate 911 call. He said Denise managed to call 911 without King knowing. She gave the operator valuable information, such as her address and that she was bound and could not see where she was. She repeatedly begged for King -- who was a stranger to her -- to let her go.
The judge said King's "words and actions" revealed a crime that was "conscienceless, pitiless and unnecessarily tortuous with an utter indifference to Denise's suffering.
"His telling her that he would let her go as soon as she gave him the cell phone was a lie, knowing full well that he was going to take her to a secluded area and murder her," Economou said.
The judge weighed little consideration for the arguments that King had a low IQ, suffered an alleged brain injury when he was 6, and was paranoid, which may have been contributing factors to him killing Denise.
Assistant State Attorney Lon Arend said Denise's actions helped solve the case.
"She was the best witness we had," Arend said of Denise leaving her heart-shaped ring and strands of her hair in King's Camaro for investigators to link her to her killer.
Arend said he didn't buy King's bizarre, catatonic-like behavior during his three-week trial.
"I think he faked a mental illness," Arend said.
Outside the courthouse, Nathan joined the Goffs to thank everyone who has been supportive. He said he made "lifelong friends" through the process.
"I want to thank Denise," he said. "She was the most awesome person I've ever known. She was a wonderful wife and mother."
Rick Goff, a 26-year veteran with the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, agreed, adding several longtime friends from out of state came to support them in court. For some of them, it was the first time hearing the judge's overview of the murder.
"We wouldn't have found Denise or him (King) if it weren't for Denise leaving behind clues," Goff said. "I could not have done what she did. She was a great detective."
Goff said he understands there will be appeals -- but said he cannot wait until King is executed.
"I will rent the bus for us to go up there and watch that man die," he said. "I may have to go in a wheelchair (following years of appeals), but myself and my family will be there."
Several jurors, who have formed a bond with each other and have met with Nathan and his sons, Noah and Adam, following the trial, were in court Friday.
"I'm so happy that he is going to pay for what he did to that beautiful girl," said Pat O'Quinn, who was one of 12 jurors who recommended the death penalty for King in September.
O'Quinn says she has been following Nathan's fight against the CCSO in a wrongful death lawsuit he filed in October. Nathan contends the CCSO was negligent in not sending any deputies to Toledo Blade Boulevard on the night Denise was kidnapped, despite receiving a 911 call from Jane Kowalski saying there was a person screaming and banging on the window in the back seat of the Camaro next to her.
Reached by phone Friday night, Kowalski, of Tampa, said she was pleased with the judge's decision.
"If there was any case for the death penalty, this was one," she said. "It shouldn't be anything else."
After most left the courthouse Friday, North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis returned to Nathan the ring and necklace -- that was marked as "evidence" for nearly two years -- that Nathan had given to Denise.
Sun staff writers Carol Sakowitz and Anne Klockenkemper contributed to this report.
E-mail: eallen@sun-herald.com
By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
North Port Community News Editor
http://sunnewspapers.net/articles/tsnews.aspx?ArticleID=448590&pubdate=12/5/2009
Case Ends, Appeals Begin
SARASOTA -- Twelfth Circuit Judge Deno Economou handed down the death penalty Friday for convicted killer Michael King in the 2008 murder of young mother of two, Denise Amber Lee.
For those connected to the case, one question remains.
What's next?
* King's death sentence automatically will be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, according to Dennis Menendez, spokesman for the 12th Judicial Circuit. The process could take at least three years, and if upheld, there is a likelihood that it will be 15 years before King is executed.
There are 387 inmates currently on Florida's death row. King makes it 388.
* King himself will wait in a Sarasota County Jail cell until he is transferred to a state penitentiary, according to Maj. Jim Lilly, who oversees county corrections operations. No date has been scheduled for the transfer.
* Denise's younger sister, Amanda Goff, answered, "Yes and no," when asked Friday if the judge's decision puts the case to rest for her.
"(There's an) end in the sense that the trial is completely over," she said. "But it's not over until the day he dies."
For now, she said, "I can put it out of my mind."
Amanda will return to the University of Central Florida, where the school semester will end next week. She also holds two jobs in Orlando.
Friends at school have been great, she said, and added one of them came to the Sarasota County Courthouse to support the family.
She had one final thought before leaving the courthouse: "I want to thank the jury. They were great."
* North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis said his department is starting to prepare for the Coralrose Fullwood murder trial, scheduled to begin in April. Patrick Murphy, 28, is accused in the 6-year-old's 2006 slaying.
"We'll move to the next case and, sadly, the next case is Coralrose," he said.
Preparations will involve up to five detectives, he said, and the department has been given "incredible assistance" almost daily by members of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
Looking over to where journalists waited for a press conference by the Lee and Goff families, a somber Lewis said they "are now part of the North Port police family."
"That's not a cliché," he added.
* In October, Nathan filed a wrongful death suit against the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. He contends the CCSO was negligent for not sending any deputies to Toledo Blade Boulevard on the night Denise was kidnapped, despite receiving a 911 call from the area saying a man driving a dark Camaro had a person screaming and banging on the window for help in his back seat. Last month, the CCSO filed a motion to dismiss the suit. A judge will determine if the case will continue.
* David Garofalo, North Port City Commission chair, attended Friday's hearing. Garofalo has been part of the local movement to set standards for 911 operators.
Friday, Garofalo said he has 411 letters ready to send to other Florida municipalities asking them to support legislation making its way to law in Tallahassee.
That legislation, he said, could "pave the way for the rest of the country."
* Bonnie Turgeon of Sarasota is a stranger to the Lee and Goff families but she was in court Friday, just as she had been for King's trial.
Turgeon said she was there to support the man who sold her and her family a TV set at Best Buy in January. When she went home, she saw the salesman -- Nathan Lee -- on that TV.
During the trial, Turgeon said she met Nathan's mother, Peggy, and learned of a cookbook that she and Denise's mother, Susan, were compiling as a fundraiser. Turgeon said she bought one.
Turgeon spoke Friday of Denise's two young sons. She said Peggy told her the 2-year-old, Noah, remembers the last words his mother said to him: "Goodbye ... and I love you."
E-mail: csakowitz@sun-herald.com
By CAROL SAKOWITZ
North Port Assistant Editor
http://sunnewspapers.net/articles/pnnews.aspx?NewsID=448608&a=newsarchive2/120509/ew5.htm&pnpg=1
Friday, December 4, 2009
Michael King Sentencing Order
http://www.heraldtribune.com/assets/pdf/SH18992124.PDF
My heartfelt thanks to Judge Economou for his fairness, diligence, professional and thoroughness. My heartfelt thanks to Lon Arend and his prosecuting team. My heartfelt thanks to all the jurors. My heartfelt thanks to the North Port Police Department.
Job well done.
Oh, sweet Denise, you brave brave girl. The world needs more people like you. Let God know that. Miss you, baby.
My heartfelt thanks to Judge Economou for his fairness, diligence, professional and thoroughness. My heartfelt thanks to Lon Arend and his prosecuting team. My heartfelt thanks to all the jurors. My heartfelt thanks to the North Port Police Department.
Job well done.
Oh, sweet Denise, you brave brave girl. The world needs more people like you. Let God know that. Miss you, baby.
the sentencing
was truly hell on earth.
For those of you who have never witnessed something like this, let me tell you, I've had quite a few truly horrific days in my life and this can be counted right up there with the worst.
First the judge was awesome and yes we are very pleased with the judicial system. Justice has not been as swift has KathyK stated. It's been almost two years. But all in all justice was swift with the trial lasting only a week, the verdict coming in less than two hours, the sentencing phase of the trial only lasted a week with the jury's recommendation coming in less than 3 hours.
Today the judge pronounced his sentence. It took probably around 45 minutes. First he listed all the aggravating factors and then stated one by one how these were proved beyond a reasonable doubt by the prosecution. To do this he recited the entire story with graphic detail of how Denise was taken, brutally raped, sodomized, terrorized and then shot in the head. He had to state (to keep appeals at bay) how she was terrorized. He read Denise's 9-1-1 call. We had to sit and listen to it all, all over again. It was unbearably painful. Sue, me, Amanda, Nathan and most of the audience was openly sobbing.
Then the judge goes over the mitigating factors presented by the defense one by one and in this case most were given little merit.
Then the sentence.
By this time we are numb. Literally numb with emotion.
A reporter asked me if I was "happy" with the sentence and I just gave him a blank stare. Happy? What's there to be happy about?
Closure? What's closed? Today brought nothing to us but more pain. No joy.
Had he been taken out right then and there and shot, maybe there would be some closure. No happiness but maybe closure.
This man deserves what he got. All you have to do is listen to Denise's 9-1-1 call. The man had ample opportunity to let her go and allow her to live. And he made a choice.
My friends all wanted to celebrate. Celebrate? We just witnessed a man sentenced to die.
So, I told the reporter I was "satisfied" with the justice served. But, happy? I'm too damn numb to be happy.
Also, the state sentenced him to death. Not me or my family.
I have to say after listening to the judge (and he himself got choked up talking about the events) it's going to be a very long while before this man gets any forgiveness from me. He's scum.
Sorry to sound so angry. But it is what it is and I'm sorry you all have to share it. And that I've been so angry.
I posted this in a piano forum earlier this evening. I would like to add that IMHO Denise was the best witness the prosecution had. It's interesting the 9-1-1 could not save Denise but it did give King the death sentence. Judge Economou clearly stated how unusual it is to hear a victim's last words. You, Denise, were so smart and clever. I miss you dearly. Kudos to Lon Arend and the prosecuting team, the North Port Police Department, the jurors and Judge Economou. God bless you all.
For those of you who have never witnessed something like this, let me tell you, I've had quite a few truly horrific days in my life and this can be counted right up there with the worst.
First the judge was awesome and yes we are very pleased with the judicial system. Justice has not been as swift has KathyK stated. It's been almost two years. But all in all justice was swift with the trial lasting only a week, the verdict coming in less than two hours, the sentencing phase of the trial only lasted a week with the jury's recommendation coming in less than 3 hours.
Today the judge pronounced his sentence. It took probably around 45 minutes. First he listed all the aggravating factors and then stated one by one how these were proved beyond a reasonable doubt by the prosecution. To do this he recited the entire story with graphic detail of how Denise was taken, brutally raped, sodomized, terrorized and then shot in the head. He had to state (to keep appeals at bay) how she was terrorized. He read Denise's 9-1-1 call. We had to sit and listen to it all, all over again. It was unbearably painful. Sue, me, Amanda, Nathan and most of the audience was openly sobbing.
Then the judge goes over the mitigating factors presented by the defense one by one and in this case most were given little merit.
Then the sentence.
By this time we are numb. Literally numb with emotion.
A reporter asked me if I was "happy" with the sentence and I just gave him a blank stare. Happy? What's there to be happy about?
Closure? What's closed? Today brought nothing to us but more pain. No joy.
Had he been taken out right then and there and shot, maybe there would be some closure. No happiness but maybe closure.
This man deserves what he got. All you have to do is listen to Denise's 9-1-1 call. The man had ample opportunity to let her go and allow her to live. And he made a choice.
My friends all wanted to celebrate. Celebrate? We just witnessed a man sentenced to die.
So, I told the reporter I was "satisfied" with the justice served. But, happy? I'm too damn numb to be happy.
Also, the state sentenced him to death. Not me or my family.
I have to say after listening to the judge (and he himself got choked up talking about the events) it's going to be a very long while before this man gets any forgiveness from me. He's scum.
Sorry to sound so angry. But it is what it is and I'm sorry you all have to share it. And that I've been so angry.
I posted this in a piano forum earlier this evening. I would like to add that IMHO Denise was the best witness the prosecution had. It's interesting the 9-1-1 could not save Denise but it did give King the death sentence. Judge Economou clearly stated how unusual it is to hear a victim's last words. You, Denise, were so smart and clever. I miss you dearly. Kudos to Lon Arend and the prosecuting team, the North Port Police Department, the jurors and Judge Economou. God bless you all.
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