Dr. Ingram testified that, in 1987 and in 1988, White used a lot of cocaine, Dilaudid, and alcohol. White subsequently put a bag over Vosika's head, lined the trunk of his car with a shower curtain, wrapped Vosika's body in a mattress cover and put Vosika's body in the trunk of the car. at 455, 755 P.2d at 905. 2d 255 (1990); Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231, 244, 108 S. Ct. 546, 554, 98 L. Ed. Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board; Mar 11, 2022 Mar 11, 2022 Updated Mar 11, 2022; 0; Facebook; . at 259-60. The People opposed this on the grounds that White did not have an absolute right to an appointment of a psychiatrist of his own choosing. In the documentary, you can see the police bodycam footage during their visit to the Watts' home before Chris was a suspect. Six men are on death row in Colorado. White's attorney stated that he did not have any reason to believe that White was not competent. By its failure to acknowledge White's essential role in developing the prosecution's case, the majority provides a powerful disincentive to every individual who is considering whether to confess and cooperate with the police. (6) For the purposes of this section, aggravating factors shall be the following factors: . "The place on Bonnymede would cost about $600 a month in Denver," says White. [23] White specifically contends that White entered Woods' apartment and read magazines while Woods went to another part of the apartment. The district court then asked White whether he still wished to enter a plea of guilty, to which White responded affirmatively. Although the serial killer was initially reluctant to talk about his crimes, he soon realized that law enforcement officials had enough circumstantial and forensic evidence to send him to death row. . White's second contentionthat no person can waive the right to be competent does not take into consideration the fact that White had already been found competent by Dr. Sundell, and had been examined by Dr. Ingram for the express purpose of evaluating competency, when he waived the right to have a third competency evaluation performed by Dr. Morall. On May 7, 1988, Officer Gomez responded to a telephone call wherein Officer Gomez learned that a skull had been discovered in Rye Mountain Park, in Pueblo County. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Police responded to reports of a student possibly having a gun at a Colorado Springs high school. 01/06/23. 16-11-103(2)(a)(I), (3), (6); People v. Tenneson, 788 P.2d 786, 791 (Colo.1990). [2909,] 2935 [49 L. Ed. In the case before us, however, a full day passed between the victim's death by gunshot wound to the head and the mutilation of the body. "He was someone you certainly did not want mad at you," says Pueblo County Sheriff Dan Corsentino. "The district court subsequently found the following mitigating factors: (1) White was thirty-two years of age in August of 1987; (2) his capacity to appreciate wrongfulness was significantly impaired; (3) White's statement that he was enraged and did not know beforehand that he would kill Vosika that night; (4) the extent of White's cooperation with police officers in making several confessions; (5) White was both a drug and alcohol addict at the time of Vosika's murder; (6) White believed that his acts were morally justified; (7) sworn testimony exposed the brutal conditions at the DOC; (8) White does not want the death penalty imposed any more than any other individual; (9) White twice stated that he feels bad about killing Vosika; (10) White has reestablished ties with the Christian church; and (11) White has a good relationship with his parents. The prosecution proved that White had twice been convicted of first-degree murder, and thus proved a statutory aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt. These standards further *436 provide that the decision will be the result of the application of objective standards and not arbitrary and capricious. The suppression of mitigation evidence by the trial court, and its refusal to consider critical mitigation evidence, violated the death statute and denied Mr. White his rights under the Cruel and Unusual Punishment and Due Process Clauses of the federal and Colorado Constitutions. may "reweigh" the aggravators and mitigators and determine whether death is appropriate. 3d 829, 248 Cal. [1] In Davis and Rodriguez, the "especially heinous, cruel, or depraved" aggravator was not properly narrowed when the jury was instructed. Id. Only three of those pages discuss the prior violent felony aggravator. The district court noted that this was a crime of violence pursuant to section 16-11-309 for which White received a sentence of life imprisonment. Based on White's plea of guilty as accepted by the district court at the close of the providency hearing, and the lengthy testimony presented regarding conditions at Centennial at the sentencing hearing, White's contentions do not persuade us that the district court's actions in excluding the proffered testimony were manifestly unreasonable or arbitrary. Section 16-11-103(6)(b) states: Defendant's intent was to bury the body, and he therefore brought a shovel. They agreed to go to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to execute the robbery. "As early as the 1800s, the United States has seen killers who murdered on a massive scale. function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} While serving time in prison, he admitted to killing Vosika and requested the death penalty, which was later set aside. [2] Later on, dropped out of the Coushatta High School shortly before his 17th birthday to join the Army. The family refused to cooperate with charges against the . White murdered Gracia by shooting him in the back of the head. Though some killers traveled around to different states to commit their sinister crimes, at least one of their murders occurred within Colorado's state lines. Rodriguez also stated that the officers handcuffed White, threw him on the floor outside of his cell, and hit White on the side of the head. White also indicated that he understood the maximum and minimum penalties corresponding to the charge. The trial court's application of the "beyond a reasonable doubt standard" of proof to mitigating factors violated the Due Process and Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clauses of the federal and Colorado Constitutions, and the death statute. at 790. June 20, 2022 7:15am. The People also contended that White did not demonstrate "good cause" for the need of a second opinion. Chris Watts isn't a serial killer but committed one of the most notorious, cold-blooded murders in the history of Colorado. White stabbed Woods in his rib area and beat Woods after toying with him for half an hour. Although, Texas also executes its serial killers. In reaching a different conclusion, the majority commits the same mistake for which it rebukes the trial court, that is, it relies almost exclusively upon the facts underlying the invalid "especially heinous, cruel, or depraved" aggravator. 2d 656 (1991), and in People v. Rodriguez, 794 P.2d 965 (Colo.1990), cert. It also included a Judgment of Conviction for Attempted Murder in the First-Degree. I disagree, first because I do not believe harmless error analysis is permissible under the Colorado statutes in resolving the death penalty issue in this case, and second because even if harmless error analysis were permissible, the record falls far short of demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that the district court would have sentenced the defendant to death in the absence of that aggravating factor. The first step is a determination beyond a reasonable doubt that certain statutory aggravating factors exist. In December 1989, he confessed to killing Paul Vosika while serving time in prison for the two prior convictions. He was surprised at the amount of blood in the bag, so he removed the head from the first bag and placed it in a second bag. People are always mesmerized by what makes murderers and serial killers tick, and how they nearly get away with their despicable deeds. Gerald Moreland (Moreland) testified that he was presently incarcerated at the Centennial Corrections Facility, and has been there for approximately six years, serving a sentence for burglary and as a habitual criminal. The majority concedes that the district court considered legally impermissible evidence and therefore erred in finding that one of the two aggravating factors it relied upon in arriving at a sentence of deaththat the defendant committed the crime in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner had been established. During their conversation, White informed Officer Spinuzzi of the manner in which he disposed of Vosika's body. While attempting to rob the Inn, White shot both Raymond Garcia (Garcia) in the back of his head, and Robert Martinez in his jaw. Id. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ronald Lee WHITE, Defendant-Appellant. The district court stated that one report (by Dr. Sundell) had previously been submitted to the district court finding White to be competent and that White understood that, by proceeding, he would not get the benefit of the second competency *459 evaluation. Richard Avery testified at the sentencing hearing that he knew of no physical evidence that connected White to the murder. Aggravator (6)(i) states that, "[i]n the commission of the offense, the defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person." See Stringer v. Black, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 112 S. Ct. 1130, 1137, 117 L. Ed. The defendant argued that the murders of victims 3 and 4 could not serve as special circumstances because he neither committed nor was convicted of those offenses before he committed the present capital offense with respect to victims 1 and 2. The very first of these alleged victims was a fellow soldier he had killed in 1970, while stationed in South Korea, supposedly during a bar fight over a woman.[6]. American murderer and suspected serial killer, "Killer's hometown wonders at news of multiple slayings", "Choice of victims made Browne especially dangerous", "Colo. killer claims creativity in slayings", "Doubt remains about claims of confessed serial killer", "Woman found stabbed to death in her Coushatta apartment", "Students questioned in hunt for girl, 13", "Girl's remains found after a 2-year search", "Suspect in murder of Black Forest girl arrested in Springs", "Did Robert Charles Browne Really Murder 48? Colorado Springs shooting suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich is facing at least five counts of murder along with five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury.. At least five . At the providency proceeding on April 24, 1991, Officer Gomez gave testimony that served as the factual basis for White's guilty plea. 2d 789 (1991) (victim died of multiple stab wounds, among which were shallow cuts indicating she was tortured), or like People v. Davis, 794 P.2d 159 (Colo. 1990), cert. The court then concluded that it was "convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all mitigating factors of record do not, beyond a reasonable doubt, outweigh proven statutory aggravating factors." See maj. op. Third, the jury must determine whether "sufficient mitigating factors exist which outweigh any aggravating factor or factors found to exist." But the logic of those cases has no place in the context of sentencing by a trial judge. The trial court's use of the "especially heinous" aggravating factor was improper since that factor violates the Cruel and Unusual Punishment and Due Process Clauses, and the application of a new definition to Mr. White violates the Due Process and Ex Post Facto Clauses. .OQ8Tzd,.nKphmK{overflow:hidden}.nKphmK{height:100%;position:relative;width:100%}.nKphmK:-webkit-full-screen{min-height:auto!important}.nKphmK:-ms-fullscreen{min-height:auto!important}.nKphmK:fullscreen{min-height:auto!important}.pvlz2w{visibility:hidden} 2022 7:53 PM ET Originally . O'Neill, 803 P.2d at 179. The plain language of many statutory aggravators set forth in subsection (6) expressly focuses on the circumstances arising from the defendant's actions which result in the death of another person. Dr. Ingram testified on cross-examination that White would "attempt to kill people in order to bring to light those things that he is unhappy with.". At the same time, those people drive development. MULLARKEY, J., concurs in part and dissents in part, and KIRSHBAUM, J., joins in the concurrence and dissent. The district court then stated: From the bench, the court explained: "I'm convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all mitigating factors of record do not beyond a reasonable doubt outweigh proven aggravating factors." Join the creepiest email list you've ever been on. His family ran a dairy farm, and his father, Ronald, later became a deputy sheriff in the Red River Parish Sheriff's Office. Gregg[ v. Georgia], 428 U.S. [153,] 195, 96 S.Ct. *437 The legal standard that the Court was required to employ in this case is, "The obligation of being convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that, upon evidence received pursuant to [section] XX-XX-XXX(a), sufficient mitigating factors do not outweigh proven statutory aggravating factors. During his particularly murderous rage in the Pueblo area, from the time he killed and dismembered Vosika in the fall of 1987 to the killings in early 1988, White says he drank at least a fifth of Jack Daniels a day and "cocaine was my God. 01/09/23. Whites death sentence was set aside in 1998 after his attorneys proved prosecutors failed to give them some sheriffs documents before trial as required. The Jurek Court concluded that "[a] jury must be allowed to consider on the basis of all relevant evidence why a death sentence should be imposed." The temptations for White began in the late 1970s, after he was out of the Navy and into life as a truck driver. That is, the trial court found beyond a reasonable doubt that White murdered Paul Vosika in the garage of White's apartment at 119 Bonnymede in Pueblo and that "the best estimate as to the date of Paul Vosika's murder [was] August 17, 1987." On August 16, White filed a request to enter a plea of guilty to the charge of first-degree murder on the condition that he be sentenced to death rather than life imprisonment. We concluded that a capital sentencer, in order to deliver a certain and reliable sentence, must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that any mitigating factors do not outweigh proven statutory aggravating factors. NOTES[1] Our jurisdiction over this direct appeal is established by 16-11-103(7)(a), 8A C.R.S. This fear caused him to strike Vosika's corpse in the face with the shovel as retribution for the consequences of the presumed discovery. One of the investigators, Tom Carney, eventually submitted them to AFIS, which got a match to Browne through the past felony convictions in Louisiana. Officer Spinuzzi corroborated the fact that White purchased two .38 caliber revolvers and a shotgun in Denver, in accord with White's statements. Said report shall be furnished to the Defendant's attorneys of record and shall be a confidential communication between Dr. Ingram and said attorneys.On the same date, the district court entered an order appointing Dr. Morall to conduct an evaluation of White and submit to the district court a report stating whether White was competent to proceed to a providency hearing. Murdered Gracia by shooting him in the late 1970s, after he was out the. 600 a month in Denver, '' says White this fear caused him to strike Vosika 's in... Whether `` sufficient mitigating factors exist which outweigh any aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt serving time in for! To enter a plea of guilty, to which White responded affirmatively 2 ] Later on, dropped out the! Updated Mar 11, 2022 Mar 11, 2022 Updated Mar 11, 2022 Updated Mar,. Application of objective standards and not arbitrary and capricious Vosika 's body, 1137, L.. A statutory aggravating factors exist. 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