Washington
Supreme Court rules for Arizona inmate in death penalty case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a man on Arizona’s death row should be resentenced because jurors in his case were wrongly told that the only way to ensure he would never walk free was to sentence him to death.
The 5-4 decision, in an opinion by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said John Montenegro Cruz should get a new penalty phase of his trial where it is made clear to jurors that he is ineligible for parole if he is sentenced to life in prison, instead of death.
The case is important not only for Cruz, but also for other Arizona death row inmates whose juries received similar misinformation. Arizona currently has approximately 100 people on its death row. It was not clear how many of those might be eligible for a new sentencing hearing.
Cruz had argued that the jury should have been informed he would be ineligible for parole if spared from death and given a life sentence. A judge rejected that request and the state said Cruz failed to make the precise requests he needed to under Supreme Court precedent.
At least one juror has said that had she known that a “life sentence without parole” was an alternative to death, she “would have voted for that option.”
Cruz was convicted of the 2003 murder of a Tucson police officer, Patrick Hardesty. Hardesty and another officer were investigating a hit-and-run accident that led them to Cruz, who attempted to flee and shot Hardesty five times.
A 1994 Supreme Court case, Simmons v. South Carolina, says that in certain death penalty cases, jurors must be told that choosing a life sentence means life without the possibility of parole. That’s required when prosecutors argue that the defendant will pose a threat to society in the future.
Arizona courts refused to apply the decision. In a 2016 case, Lynch v. Arizona, the Supreme Court told Arizona directly that it needed to comply with Simmons. Cruz says Arizona has continued to defy the high court.
The case is Cruz v. Arizona, 21-846.
Mississippi
Accused mass shooter charged with capital murder
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Authorities have announced an additional charge against the man who they say went on a deadly shooting rampage last week, killing six people that included his ex-wife and stepfather in a tiny rural community in northern Mississippi.
Richard Dale Crum, 52, was jailed Friday hours after carrying out the shootings at multiple locations in Tate County, near the Tennessee state line. In a statement Monday night, Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance said that Richard Crum had been charged with one count of capital murder for the death of his ex-wife, Debra McNally Crum.
Richard Crum had already been charged with one count of first-degree murder for the death of Chris Eugene Boyce, 59, a Florida resident who was shot and killed while sitting in a pickup truck outside a convenience store in Arkabutla.
Besides Boyce and Crum’s ex-wife, authorities identified the others killed as Charles Manuel, 76; John Rorie, 59; George McCain, 73; and Lynda McCain, 78. As of Tuesday, Crum had not yet been charged in the shooting deaths of Manuel, Rorie and the McCains. George McCain was Crum’s stepfather and Lynda was McCain’s sister.
Norma Washington, Boyce’s aunt, told The Associated Press that Boyce and his brother had been in town cleaning up a property they inherited from their deceased uncle. It was unclear whether Richard Crum knew either of the brothers.
The fatal shooting of 60-year-old Debra Crum in the home she shared with boyfriend George Drane in Coldwater came a little more than four years after Richard and Debra Crum’s divorce. Drane said the two had been separated for five or six years before they divorced. Drane said he hadn’t seen Richard Crum in seven or eight years.
“I thought it was a random act. I don’t know about the rest of it,” Drane said. “He left us alone. We left him alone.”
Drane said Richard Crum busted into their home and smashed him in the head with the butt of a gun before shooting Debra Crum in the head.
Richard Crum went to the home after he killed Boyce at the convenience store in nearby Arkabutla where, according to the sheriff, he had shot Boyce.
Ashley McKinney, a 38-year-old from Memphis, Tennessee, dated Debra Crum’s son, Sid Furniss, when the two were teens and said Richard Crum had displayed signs he was troubled.
After the divorce, Debra Crum grew uncomfortable working her overnight shifts at the Waffle House restaurant alone, unsure what her ex-husband would do because of his troubling behavior, and asked McKinney to keep her company, McKinney said.
McKinney said Richard Crum largely worked odd jobs, like cutting firewood.
Richard Crum’s initial appearance was held at the Tate County Jail Monday due to “security concerns” connected with the case, Lance said. The judge ordered Richard Crum to be held without bond and set his preliminary hearing for Thursday morning at the Tate County Justice Court.
It was not immediately known if Richard Crum had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Illinois
Former girls gymnastics coach gets 96 years for sex assault
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A former suburban Chicago girls gymnastics coach has been sentenced to 96 years in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage gymnast about a decade ago, prosecutors said.
Jose Vilchis, 72, was sentenced Tuesday by a Will County judge after a jury convicted him last year of eight counts of criminal sexual assault, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The Will County’s State’s Attorney’s office said Vilchis sexually assaulted a teenage girl in Channahon in 2013 and 2014, when he was a coach at I&M Gymnastics. He was charged in 2018.
During his four-day trial last June, jurors also heard evidence that Vilchis had engaged in sexual crimes against three other teenage girls going back as far as 1997.
Two of the girls gave statements at Vilchis’ sentencing hearing, and one told the court Tuesday that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Vilchis in the 1990s while he was her gymnastics coach.
“Jose Vilchis is a reprehensible sexual predator who calculatingly used his position of trust and authority to take advantage of innocent girls,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said in a statement. “He repeatedly preyed upon young gymnasts in private under the guise of being a caring coach.”
