New York bouncer Darryl Littlejohn found guilty in 2006 slaying of student Imette St. Guillen

From Chris Kokenes

CNN
Thursday, June 4, 2009

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Manhattan nightclub bouncer was found guilty of murder Wednesday in the slaying of a 24-year-old graduate student from Boston, Massachusetts, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said.

Darryl Littlejohn, 44, could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison for the death of grad student Imette St. Guillen in 2006.

Darryl Littlejohn, 44, could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of Imette St. Guillen, a criminology student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 8.

"We're going to appeal," Littlejohn's lawyer, Joyce David, told CNN after the conviction. "We're disappointed. I'm hoping this gives the family of the victim some closure. But I think that the wrong man was convicted."

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The verdict came several hours into the first day of deliberations by the jury. Before the verdict, David stressed to CNN that she believed in the innocence of her client, saying that Littlejohn was framed and that another person was a likely suspect.

"He was a convenient scapegoat who has a long criminal record," David said.

FindLaw: Read the indictment

During the trial, witnesses said they saw Littlejohn and St. Guillen leaving The Falls bar in lower Manhattan together early on February 25, 2006. Hours later, St. Guillen's nude body was found in an isolated lot in Brooklyn.

Her face was covered with strips of packing tape, and a sock was stuffed in her throat. She died of asphyxiation. Investigators determined she had been raped.
Littlejohn was charged with murder after investigators linked his DNA to blood found on plastic ties used to bind St. Guillen's hands behind her back.

Littlejohn is already serving a term of 25 years to life for the October 2005 kidnapping of a 19-year-old college student in Queens. (She saved herself by hurling herself out of his van with plastic cuff ties around her wrists that also matched those on Imette, and ones found at Littlejohns home.)

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This guy doesn't deserve to draw air. What's the worst prison in New York State? That's where he needs to exist.

40 years after Manson murders, Susan Atkins makes a bid for parole

Carey Bodenheimer

CNN.com
June 5, 2009

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The woman who stabbed pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death will be considered for parole from prison a month after the 40th anniversary of the killings that cast a shadow of fear over southern California.

Susan Atkins, 61, has been denied parole in 17 previous hearings, but the former "Manson Family" member now is terminally ill with brain cancer and is paralyzed.

Charles Manson used his hypnotic powers to direct Atkins and other "family" members to kill seven people, including the pregnant Tate, in a two-night rampage that terrorized the city of Los Angeles, California, in August 1969.

Atkins -- who was initially sentenced to death along with Manson and three others -- will have her 18th parole hearing on September 2, according to a spokesman with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

In July of last year, Atkins -- California's longest-serving female inmate -- was denied a compassionate release in a unanimous decision by the California Board of Parole Hearings.
She has repeatedly been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings, and she now shuns Manson.

By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy and stabbed the pregnant woman 16 times. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate "asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her."

After stabbing Tate to death, according to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home at the time, but three of Tate's house guests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage.

A Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, says Atkins is now paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and cannot sit up in bed or even be moved into a wheelchair.

However, despite her declining condition and her impressive prison record, the site says, "there is still a very real chance the Parole Board will nonetheless insist her release would be a danger to society."

Atkins' compassionate release was opposed by Tate's sister, Debra, Los Angeles County prosecutors and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others. However, the former prosecutor who won her conviction, Vincent Bugliosi, said he supports Atkins' request for release.

"She has paid substantially, though not completely, for her horrendous crimes," Bugliosi told the Los Angeles Times last year. "Paying completely would mean imposing the death penalty."
Bugliosi is the author of several books on the Manson case, including "Helter Skelter."

Debra Tate told CNN in an e-mail in March that she does not believe any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were "so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back."

"The 'Manson Family' murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated," Debra Tate said. "They should all stay right where they are -- in prison -- until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the 'Manson Family.' Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do."

In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins, who was known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz, wrote that "this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day."

"Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can't think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that's not 'neat,' and that's not 'cool.'"

Atkins was housed in the California Institution for Women at Frontera until May 2008, when her declining health caused her to be moved to Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla.
Manson and those convicted along with him in the murders -- Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles "Tex" Watson -- have been in California prisons for more than three decades.

All were initially sentenced to death, only to have their sentences commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court struck down death penalty laws in 1972, establishing a four-year moratorium on executions. Van Houten was released for six months after her conviction was overturned, but was reconvicted.

Drew Peterson bail reduction is denied

Associated Press
Chicagotribune.com
June 6, 2009

CHICAGO - A lawyer for Drew Peterson says an Illinois appeals court has denied a petition to lessen Peterson's $20 million bail.

Attorney Joel Brodsky expressed disappointment in the ruling from the Illinois Third District Appellate Court in a statement late Friday. Brodsky says there may be another chance to request a reduction in bail.

He says what he calls "the weakness of the State's case" will become clear...

Vigil Planned For Anniversary Of Caylee's Death

Event Slated For June 16June 1, 2009

wesh2.com

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Some of the many people who helped search for slain toddler Caylee Anthony are planning a vigil to mark the one year anniversary of her death.

A source told WESH 2 the vigil will be held June 16 -- the day investigators believe Caylee died...

Organizers hope to hold the event at Jay Blanchard Park in East Orange County. The event will include a balloon release and communal prayer...

As for the new member of Casey Anthony's defense team, Andrea Lyon...and her sister, Rachel, have produced controversial documentaries covering media, race and their relationship to the death penalty.

In two documentaries produced by her sister, Lyon has taken the position that the media unfairly portrays African Americans, and that stereotype contributes to people of color being dealt death sentences unfairly...

Casey Anthony is not a person of color, but her defense team has cited negative coverage as one reason to move the trial out of Orange County. Lyon said her first priority is to convince the judge the evidence is not there to warrant the state seeking death.

New Attorney: No Casey Anthony Trial By October

Judge Delays Decision On Jail Video

June 1, 2009

wesh2.com

The newest member of Casey Anthony's defense team said there is no way Anthony's trial will start in October.

Andrea Lyon, a professor at DePaul University College of Law, was introduced at a hearing Thursday. Lyon is to handle death-penalty matters.

Lyon, who has requested the time to get up to speed on the case; also said she will prove the case does not qualify for the death penalty. She said motions will be filed in the next few months showing that the state does not have sufficient evidence to prove that Anthony's case is a death penalty case. Life without parole would be ok with me, too.

Thursday morning's hearing on the release of a jail video of Anthony ended without a decision.
Prosecutors argued that they have not had enough time to review and response to the new motion. Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland also wanted to give attorneys for media outlets seven days to argue for the release under the state's public records law. Anthony’s attorney filed the motion late Wednesday laying out arguments for why the jail video of Anthony should be sealed...

Strickland also heard arguments from several people who have objected to the defense's request for their phone records, including Roy Kronk, the former meter reader who found Caylee's remains. The judge is requiring Baez to amend the motion to limit the amount of information he is seeking...

The jail video was made on the day a child’s body was found in December 2008. The child was identified later as Anthony’s daughter, Caylee.

In his motion, attorney Jose Baez argues that the videotaping was orchestrated to “get some reaction to the discovery of Casey Anthony’s remains believing that it was evidential in some way.”

Baez said the video also captured part of his meeting with Casey Anthony in jail that same day. Although there is no sound on the video, Baez claims it is a violation of Casey's right to attorney-client privilege.

Also Thursday, Baez will argue why he should be entitled to subpoena a sweeping amount of information from a number of key players in the case; much of it revolves around telephone records.

Just this week, one of the people subpoenaed, Casey's former fiancée, Jesse Grund, filed an objection in court saying Baez' subpoena is too broad and would constitute an invasion of privacy.

Others, including Casey Anthony's friend Amy Huizenga and the man who discovered Caylee's remains, Roy Kronk, have filed similar objections...

Judge limits Drew Peterson publicity

By DON BABWIN

Associated Press Writer

Chicago Tribune

June 3, 2009

JOLIET, Ill. - A judge on Wednesday sought to control publicity of the Drew Peterson murder case, after prosecutors complained the former suburban Chicago police officer and his lawyers have turned the case into a media circus.

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Will County Judge Stephen White ordered Peterson's lawyers to give him a list of family, friends and attorneys that Peterson calls from the Will County Adult Detention Facility. If Peterson wants to call somebody who is not on the list, he has to get permission, White said.

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White also ordered that all attorneys in the case must notify him and the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of any interviews and send copies of press releases. "If you are going to do an interview, I would like to be informed (beforehand) as to the time and place," White said.

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The judge's order came a week after Peterson called a radio show from jail and cracked jokes about prison showers, a "Win a Conjugal Visit with Drew" contest and the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio...

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Both Peterson and Savio's family have hired publicists. The publicity threatens the ability for a fair trial, said Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, who said he has limited speaking out on the case. "This is the place to put a cap on it," he said of pretrial publicity. "I'm trying to protect the jury pool here."

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Brodsky countered that he needs to be able to talk to the media, saying publicity might prompt potential witnesses to come forward with relevant information. Glasgow also sought to limit Peterson's contact visits after reports surfaced that he had played cards with one of his attorneys in jail. White denied the motion, but he made it clear that he didn't think playing cards was appropriate and Peterson would have to follow jail rules. "There won't be any more card games," said Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas after the court hearing.

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The judge set an Aug. 24 trial date. Brodsky, who can ask for a continuance, said it was a realistic date as long as Peterson is in custody. White also ordered the names of witnesses and potential witnesses be sealed. In some cases witness lists are public information. There are several hundred witnesses and potential witnesses, Brodsky said after court.

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Glasgow said he expects the defense to move for a change of venue because of the publicity. Brodsky did not address the change of venue, but has said the defense is considering that. He said Wednesday that solitary confinement has been difficult for Peterson, who has been held away from other prisoners after his May 7 arrest. "It has an effect on his psyche, no question about it," Brodsky said. Ahh. tsk.