Court Roundup

Colorado
Mexican man faces U.S. murder trial after ­acquittal in Mexico
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A Mexican national suspected in a 1989 slaying in Colorado can be put on trial in the United States, even though he was acquitted of the same killing in Mexico, a U.S. judge ruled.
The judge said trying Rafael “Shorty” Aguilar Garcia on a first-degree murder charge would not violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of double jeopardy, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel newspaper reported Sunday.

Garcia, now 67, is accused of fatally shooting Charles Porter in the western Colorado town of Palisade. Authorities said it appeared to be a love-triangle dispute.

Garcia returned to Mexico before he could be arrested and was apprehended there in 2009.

The Mexican government is reluctant to extradite citizens charged with serious crimes in U.S. states such as Colorado that allow the death penalty, so it put Garcia on trial in Mexican Federal District Court. Despite the assistance of prosecutors from Colorado, Garcia was found not guilty in 2012.

Authorities learned last year that Garcia had returned to Colorado. Authorities said he was in the U.S. legally, although the reason for his return was not clear.

The original arrest warrant on suspicion of murder was still valid, and he was arrested.

Garcia’s lawyers contend that trying him in the U.S. after he was acquitted in Mexico amounts to double jeopardy because prosecutors in Mesa County, which includes Palisade, requested Mexican authorities put him on trial and helped with the prosecution.

Mesa County District Judge Lance Timbreza disagreed, saying Mexico was an independent authority and had not acted merely as a part of Colorado government.

He said there was no dispute that Colorado authorities had requested the trial and helped Mexican authorities.

“The request and cooperation, however, are not the sources of Mexico’s power to prosecute. The source of Mexico’s power is Article IV of its own penal code. A penal code adopted by the People of Mexico is the source of authorities,” Timbreza said.

Garcia is next scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 16.


Georgia
AG: Prosecuting sex crimes on kids a priority
ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says one of his top priorities is investigating and prosecuting sex crimes against children even though technology has made it easier for criminals to avoid detection.

Sessions spoke to law enforcement agencies on Tuesday at a conference in Atlanta, where he warned predators that they will be found and prosecuted. Sessions, a former prosecutor, said predators have an easier path to reach children through phones and tablets.

Sessions didn’t address President Donald Trump’s criticism of the Department of Justice’s legal strategy to defend a travel ban before the Supreme Court. Trump made the comments Monday on Twitter.

Pennsylvania
Man charged with attempted murder in stabbing of councilman
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man has been charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of a Philadelphia city councilman during an attempted robbery last week.

Twenty-four-year-old Shawn Yarbray was arraigned Sunday on the charge as well as aggravated assault, robbery, reckless endangering and a weapons count in the stabbing of Republican Councilman David Oh. His bail was set at $750,000.

The councilman said he was approached Wednesday night near his home by a man who demanded his car keys and then stabbed him. Officials said he was hospitalized overnight and returned to work Friday. Yarbray turned himself in to police Saturday.

Defense attorney Joseph Capone said his client denies the allegations “and we’ll see what the evidence shows.”

Oh, elected in 2011, is the first Asian-American elected to office in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania
Death penalty trial to begin for inmate in guard’s slaying
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Opening statements are scheduled Monday in federal court in the death penalty trial of an inmate charged in a Pennsylvania federal prison guard’s death more than four years ago.

Jessie Con-ui, 40, is charged in the February 2013 stabbing death of corrections officer Eric Williams at the Canaan federal prison in Waymart. Williams, 34, was working in a housing unit at the prison when he was attacked. Con-ui was angry after the guard ordered a search of his cell the previous day and stabbed the victim more than 200 times, authorities allege.

Prosecutors are expected to show jurors surveillance video they say indicates the attack was premeditated. They allege that Con-ui stopped the attack to walk over to a shower, clean a cut on his hand and wrap it before continuing the attack. They say he also paused to chew a piece of gum he took from the dying guard’s pocket before returning to his cell.

Defense attorneys haven’t disputed their client killed the victim but are opposing the death penalty. They say the stabbing was retaliation for mistreatment by guards, not the calculated slaying prosecutors contend.

A judge also ruled Friday that jurors can hear most, but not all, of the defendant’s alleged statements after the slaying. Officers who followed a bloody trail to Con-uji cell reported seeing him holding a clear, plastic knife and asked if he killed Williams, and they said he responded “Yes, disrespect issue.”

The judge said he will allow that and similar statements allegedly made inside the cell, but blocked prosecutors from using a statement about the defendant’s demeanor as well as statements to a prison psychologist.
Should Con-ui be convicted of first-degree murder, the trial would move to a penalty phase in which jurors would decide whether he should spend life in prison or be executed.

Since the slaying, Con-ui has been at a super-maximum security prison in Colorado where he’s serving 25 years to life for a 2002 gang initiation murder in Arizona.


Vermont
State Supreme Court upholds ban on assistant judge
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont Supreme Court has upheld a ban prohibiting a former assistant judge from holding a judicial office for life.

The former Windham County side judge, Paul Kane, was reprimanded by the Vermont Judicial Conduct Board this spring for misusing the finances of his uncle’s second wife. Kane had control over her finances after he was granted power of attorney in 2010. She died in 2014.

The Rutland Herald reports that the Vermont Supreme Court said Kane violated at least four judicial canons or laws.

Kane resigned from his term as assistant judge earlier this year.

His attorney did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.