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Parents charged in 2-year-old son's shooting death
Court Feed News | 2008/09/17 14:00
State police on Wednesday arrested the parents of a 2-year-old boy who died last month after accidentally shooting himself with a gun he found in the family's home.

Jason Matteau, 27, and Rebecca Matteau, 24, of Jewett City, turned themselves to police in Montville after being told authorities had arrest warrants for them. They were freed on $50,000 bonds and ordered to appear in court Oct. 1.

Their son, Wyatt, died Aug. 28, about two hours after being shot in the head when the gun accidentally fired, state police said. The Matteaus were at their apartment with their son and infant daughter at the time, but Wyatt was alone in a room when the gun went off, troopers said.

Connecticut law makes it a crime to store loaded firearms in an area where the owner reasonably should know that someone under 16 could find them.

Jason and Rebecca Matteau are both charged with risk of injury to a minor. Jason Matteau is also charged with criminally negligent storage of a firearm.

Both charges are felonies. Risk of injury to a minor carries up to 10 years in prison, and the firearm charge carries up to five years in jail.



4 Calif. Tree-sitters plead not guilty in court
Court Feed News | 2008/09/12 15:37
Four tree-sitters who ended their occupation of a University of California at Berkeley oak grove this week have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges.

The four face charges of trespassing and illegal lodging for taking part in the 21-month protest. The group had aimed to stop the campus from cutting down trees to make way for a new athletic training facility.

But after the campus got a court order allowing the construction, workers cut down most of the trees scheduled for removal.

The protesters climbed down Tuesday after authorities surrounded the remaining tree with scaffolding.

One of the tree-sitters is set to be released after posting bail. The other three remain in custody. The four return to court for a pretrial hearing Monday.



Texas appeals court stop scheduled execution
Court Feed News | 2008/09/11 15:25
Attorneys for a killer who had been scheduled to die Wednesday say he should get a new trial because his trial judge and the prosecutor admitted having a secret sexual relationship that began years before his murder convictions.

Charles Dean Hood won a reprieve Tuesday, but not because of the alleged affair.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said it will reconsider its previous dismissal of an appeal by Hood that challenged jury instructions. The court said developments in the law regarding jury nullification instructions made reconsidering its ruling prudent.

At the same time, the court dismissed claims by Hood's attorneys that he was denied a fair trial because of the alleged relationship between retired Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell. O'Connell and Holland gave depositions under a court order Hood's attorneys won on Monday.

The reprieve came around the time Hood's lawyers sent Gov. Rick Perry a letter saying that Holland and O'Connell "admitted under oath that they had an intimate sexual relationship for many years."

Attorneys for Holland and O'Connell said they were under court order not to discuss their clients' testimony.

"The intimate sexual relationship between the judge and the district attorney began several years prior to the trial of Mr. Hood," lawyer Greg Wiercioch said in his letter to the governor re-emphasizing his earlier petition for a 30-day reprieve.



Judge: Pa. mass killer too unstable to be executed
Court Feed News | 2008/09/09 16:16
A man who killed 13 people in a 1982 shooting rampage in northeastern Pennsylvania can't be executed because he suffers from a major mental illness, a judge ruled Monday.

George Banks, 66, is psychotic and unable to comprehend his sentence or participate in his defense, making him incompetent to be put to death, Judge Michael Conahan said.

Banks, whose victims included five of his own children, "has a hopeless prognosis and will not improve to any acceptable degree," the judge said.

Defense experts testified at a hearing last month that Banks believes his sentence has been vacated by God or Jesus, that he is no longer under the threat of death, and that he is being held in prison as part of a conspiracy to get him to renounce his religious beliefs.

Defense attorney Al Flora said Monday that prosecutors should stop their decades-long pursuit of the death penalty for Banks, saying it is no longer worth the time and expense.

"I think it's about time that this community really gets beyond the George Banks case," Flora said. "The man is dying in isolation. He's severely mentally ill, and I think each day he's tormented by his own mind."

Prosecutors said they have no intention of dropping the case.

Assistant District Attorney Scott Gartley said that even though Banks is mentally ill, he "comprehends the reason for his sentence and its implications" and thus meets the legal standard for execution. He said the district attorney's office will appeal the ruling.

Banks, a former prison guard, picked up a semiautomatic rifle on Sept. 25, 1982, and began shooting at two houses in Wilkes-Barre and nearby Jenkins Township. He killed a total of seven children; his three live-in girlfriends; an ex-girlfriend; her mother; and a bystander in the street.

Banks, who is biracial, has maintained that he shot his children to spare them the racial prejudice he endured in Wilkes-Barre, a city 100 miles north of Philadelphia. Prosecutors noted his history of abusing women and said he had been involved in a nasty custody battle with one of the victims.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court halted Banks' execution in December 2004 and ordered a hearing to determine Banks' mental competency.

Conahan ruled in early 2006 that Banks couldn't be put to death, but the state Supreme Court ordered a fresh hearing to determine Banks' mental state after finding that the judge improperly barred a prosecution psychiatrist from testifying.



Judge limits questioning of O.J. Simpson jury
Court Feed News | 2008/09/08 14:46
The judge in O.J. Simpson's Las Vegas robbery-kidnap trial has rejected a bid by Simpson's lawyers to ask prospective jurors if they consider him a murderer.

Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass turned down the request Monday during a hearing on motions before prospective jurors were summoned for questioning.

The judge says questionnaires filled out by prospects asked whether they were familiar with Simpson's other trials, and she is not going to relitigate those cases.

Simpson and a co-defendant are accused of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel last year.

Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 slayings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, but was found civilly liable for their deaths.



Wash. rampage suspect in court: 'I kill for God'
Court Feed News | 2008/09/06 17:47
"I kill for God. I listen to God," a man accused of a northwest Washington shooting rampage said Friday at a hearing where six charges of first-degree murder and four of first-degree assault were filed against him.

Isaac Zamora made the chilling comment twice at the brief hearing in Skagit County District Court while investigators wrapped up their work at eight crime scenes. The 28-year-old is being held on $5 million bail in the wake of Tuesday's rampage, which left six people dead and four injured.

District Court Judge Warren Gilbert read each charge and the penalties, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. That doesn't mean the death penalty is off the table, according to the Skagit County prosecutor.

"Do you talk about it? Sure you talk about it," Prosecutor Rich Weyrich told the Skagit Valley Herald. "Where it goes, it's way too early to decide that."

Zamora was not required to enter a plea Friday. The charges filed in District Court allow Zamora to be held in custody for 30 days. He will later be formally charged in county Superior Court.



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