Courts - Arizona Daughters' rights as victims complicate murder case

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) -- A murder mystery that has horrified and captivated the Prescott area from Day One is being complicated by two sisters who want their father released from jail in the killing of their mother. Prosecutors contend Steven Democker savagely beat his ex-wife, artist Carol Kennedy, in her Williamson Valley home nearly two years ago. But their daughters, Katie and Charlotte Democker, say their dad is not guilty, a position that puts them at odds with prosecutors in a legal battle over their rights as victims. "My father, my dad, is the most compassionate, supportive, brilliant man I know," Charlotte, now 18, wrote in a prepared statement to the judge in the case, provided to The Arizona Republic by her attorney. "If there is one thing I just know, it is my father is not capable of what he is accused of." Under the Victim's Bill of Rights, a constitutional amendment adopted by Arizona voters in 1990, the young women are entitled to confer with prosecutors about decisions in the case. But because the sisters are aligned with the defense, the Yavapai County Attorney's Office pressed them to renounce their rights, then declined communications with them. The daughters were blocked from contact with their father for weeks after his arrest, according to court documents. Prosecutors declined to comment. Chris Dupont, the sisters' attorney, said state lawyers feared they might be a conduit of information to the defense. Keli Luther, senior counsel for the nonprofit Arizona Voice for Crime Victims, said there are occasional cases where children of defendants are at odds with the state's attorney. Unlike other witnesses, victims are entitled to attend court proceedings, receive police reports and request information from prosecutors. "It makes it more challenging," Luther said. "But they still have a constitutional right to protect, whether it's awkward or not." Tucson attorney Richard Lougee Jr. said prosecutors take advantage of the law when victims are gung-ho for a conviction. "But when the victim backs off and doesn't want blood," he added, "very often a prosecutor will simply cut them out of the process." Meanwhile, Steven Democker's trial is now in its third week of jury selection in Prescott. Testimony is expected to last three months, with more than 100 witnesses scheduled. None of the witnesses will place Democker at the scene. Neither his fingerprints nor DNA was found, and the murder weapon is missing. On July 2, 2008, Kennedy had been talking to her mother for 20 minutes when, at 7:59 p.m., Kennedy exclaimed, "Oh no!" and the line went dead. Soon after, a deputy found Kennedy's body. Her skull had been fractured in 50 or more places by at least seven blows, consistent with the strike of a golf club. Detectives say Democker told them he and Kennedy had gone through a difficult divorce. He was paying $6,000 a month to Kennedy, plus most of a 401(k) valued at $190,000. They had exchanged text messages earlier in the day, disputing the finances. Detectives also found Democker was the beneficiary of Kennedy's life-insurance policies, worth $750,000. Still, Democker told them he and his wife had chatted amicably over coffee a few days earlier, and were talking about starting to date again. "I loved Carol," he told them. Asked where he'd been at the time of the killing, Democker told deputies he had gotten a flat tire while mountain biking on dirt trails, starting 1? miles from his wife's house, at 6:30 p.m., ending 10 miles away and three hours later. Detectives say they took impressions of footprints near the house leading to bicycle tracks that stopped about 100 yards away. They later contacted experts who said the tracks were similar to treads on Democker's bike tires, but not a conclusive match, and learned that the shoe prints were of the same type as a pair Democker once owned. On the day of the killing while Democker was being interviewed, investigators went to his house a couple of times. Pictures taken during their first visit showed a a golf-club cover on a shelf in the garage. But when they returned hours later, the cover was gone. The investigation dragged on for months, and on Oct. 23, 2008, detectives arrested Democker in Phoenix at his UBS Financial Services office, where he worked as a financial adviser, taking home $300,000 to $500,000 a year. Democker, who had no history of violence, asked how deputies could believe he "just suddenly erupted in a blind rage after 5? years of relatively amicable separation." Asked about the missing golf-club cover, Democker said he didn't take it from the garage but found it a day later in a friend's car and gave it to his attorney. During the arrest, detectives told him they knew he'd applied for a replacement passport by claiming the original was lost, when in fact he had surrendered it to authorities. They asked him to explain his purchase of books with titles such as "How To Disappear Until You Want To Be Found," and wondered why his motorcycle was packed for travel, with a map of Mexico. Democker said he had no alibi and feared arrest, so, in a time of panic, he made plans to abscond. "It was stupid, fear-based stuff," he said. Defense lawyers say police and prosecutors blindly focused on Democker and didn't investigate a tenant of Kennedy's who was involved with drug trafficking. Published: Tue, May 25, 2010

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