3rd Quarter 2010 Cases

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Denny Frederick Ross was tried in Akron for the murder of 18-year-old Hannah Hill. Hill had disappeared one night and her body was found stuffed in the trunk of her Geo Prizm six days later. She had been beaten and strangled. Her body was found naked from the waist down and her bra and shirt were pushed up over her breasts. This display of her body suggested she was raped, but an autopsy found no evidence of rape and also determined that she was wearing her corduroy pants when she died. Hill had been romantic with Ross on the night of her disappearance and one theory of her murder is that her jealous and abusive boyfriend, Brad O'Born, had killed her for her infidelity. O'Born had scratch marks on his neck when police questioned him in the days following her disappearance.
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Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for the murders of his pregnant wife, Laci, and his unborn son, Connor. The prosecution argued that Scott killed Laci late on Dec. 23, 2002 or early on the morning of Dec. 24. A neighbor saw Scott in the bed of his truck, which was backed in his driveway, around 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 24. It was alleged that he was loading Laci's body into it. Cell phone records establish that he left his Modesto residence at 523 Covena Ave. around 10:08 a.m. to go to a warehouse at 1027 N. Emerald Ave., where his boat was stored. The warehouse is 9 minutes away.
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Everett Baily Malloy was convicted of the murder of 25-year-old William Smiddy. While Smiddy was in a North Houston nightclub, he saw a man, believed to be Malloy, take $20 from a waitress' serving tray and then leave the club. Smiddy followed the man outside, choked him, and took the stolen money back. However, the man fatally shot him with a .22 caliber pistol.

Malloy maintained his innocence and had witnesses testify that he was not at the club. But four prosecution witnesses identified him as the killer. They also said a woman accompanied him at the nightclub. Following Malloy's conviction, the woman described by witnesses was located and her information led to the filing of charges against a different man for the killing. Malloy was released from prison in 1984.  (Herald-Journal) (Star-News)  [8/10]

Raffaelo E. Morello, a recent immigrant to the U.S., was convicted of murdering his wife in 1918. His wife of a few months had threatened to commit suicide if he left her to answer a draft call for service in the World War, but Morello ignored her and his wife carried out her threat. Morello explained through an interpreter that he was responsible for his wife's death by his insistence on becoming a soldier. However, his remarks were misunderstood to merely mean that he was responsible for killing his wife. In prison after he learned to express himself well in English, he told his story to welfare workers who launched an investigation into his conviction. In 1926 this investigation resulted in him being pardoned of the crime.  (NY Times)  [8/10]

Gerald Burge was convicted of the murder of Douglas Frierson. Frierson had been shot to death and his body was found abandoned beneath a bridge at 4:13 a.m. on Oct. 17, 1980. It appeared that he had been killed only an hour or so beforehand.  Frierson's mother, Jean Frierson, initially told Detective Gary Hale of the Sheriff's office that at midnight on the night of the murder, Douglas came to her home in Picayune, Mississippi, where she served him a meal of pancakes. She told Hale that after he had finished eating, Douglas was picked up at her house by someone in a car, but that she saw neither the vehicle nor the person or persons who came to pick up her son. Two early suspects in the murder were Burge and another man, Joe Pearson. Detective Hale's supervisor, Lt. E. L. Hermann, Jr., questioned Burge about the murder, and then gave Hale a tape recording of the questioning. Pearson's girlfriend, Jo Ella Prestwood, initially told Hale that Pearson was with her on the night of the murder. However, about six months later she told him that Pearson admitted to her that he had murdered Douglas Frierson.

After Burge and Pearson were arrested for the murder, Pearson agreed to testify against Burge in exchange for a reduced charge of being an accessory after the fact. At Burge's 1986 trial, Pearson testified that he witnessed Burge fatally shoot Frierson. Frierson's mother, Jean Frierson, testified that she saw her son leave with Gerald Burge on the night of the murder. Since Burge's defense was not given any information to impeach Pearson's testimony or that of the victim's mother, Burge was convicted.

Immediately after Burge's conviction when Lt. Hermann and Hale were leaving the courthouse, Hermann asked Hale why Burge's defense did not have a copy of the tape that he had given Hale after he, Hermann, had questioned Burge. Hale subsequently showed Hermann certain documents relating to the murder investigation that Hale had stored in the trunk of his car, including certain original documents that Hermann believed should have been delivered to the District Attorney's Office. When Hermann asked Hale why the documents were in his car, Hale reportedly replied, “If I would have turned this in, it would have caused us to lose – it could have caused us to lose the case.”

In 1990, after evidence of Jean Frierson's original statement came to light, Burge was granted a retrial on the grounds that Jean Frierson's initial statement was exculpatory evidence that should have been produced for the defense under Brady v. Maryland. When Burge was tried a second time for Douglas Frierson's murder in 1992, he was acquitted of all charges.  (Burge v. Parish 2003) (Burge v. Parish 1999) (IPNO)  [7/10]

Kenneth Granger was convicted of murder for the shooting death of Edward Harris, a North Philadelphia taproom cook. Three eyewitnesses, including an off-duty Philadelphia police officer, testified against Granger and he was sentenced in 1982 to life imprisonment. In 2008, Granger's daughter persuaded a public defender, Karl Schwartz, to take his case. As Schwartz reviewed the case documents, he was puzzled why another eyewitness, a barmaid, was never called to testify by the prosecution. Schwartz asked Common Pleas Court Judge Earl W. Trent Jr., who was presiding over Granger's appeal, to grant him access to to the homicide detectives' case file. In an unusual move, the judge approved the request.

Within this file Schwartz found that the off-duty officer had failed to identify Granger in a photo spread – an important piece of information that could have been used to discredit the officer's critical testimony. Prosecutors then turned over from their own file the photos showing that the barmaid had identified someone else in a photo array – more information that could have helped the defense. In addition, the defense learned that the off-duty officer had problems of his own. He had been suspended for 30 days for an off-duty shooting at a liquor store and later became a suspect in another shooting.

With such information likely to come out in a new trial, the District Attorney's Office offered a deal to Granger – plead guilty to third-degree murder and be released with no parole. But Granger refused to plead guilty. So, after more negotiation, prosecutors agreed that if he would plead nolo contendere or “no contest,” meaning that he was not contesting the charges but not admitting guilt, he could get out of prison. Granger accepted the offer and was released in July 2010 after 28 years of imprisonment.  (Phila. Inquirer) (Wash. A.A.)  [07/10]