DEATH PENALTY RULED OUT IN 1999 SLAYING.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer LANCASTER - Reversing an earlier decision, prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against a 22-year-old Palmdale man accused of murdering his girlfriend. Adrian Chaparro's attorney said he asked for a reconsideration of the 1999 decision to seek the death penalty after District Attorney Steve Cooley Stephen Lawrence ("Steve") Cooley (born May 1, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) is a veteran prosecutor who was elected as Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney on November 7, 2000. He was sworn in for his second term on December 6, 2004. appointed a new panel of prosecutors who review potential death penalty cases. ``Mr. Cooley had promised me and everyone that voted for him that he would appoint a committee of people who were experienced and seasoned death penalty trial attorneys,'' Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Manual Martinez said. Chaparro is charged with shooting 20-year-old Patricia Ayala after a New Year's Eve argument, then driving the wounded woman to a remote desert location and shooting her again, this time fatally. The decision in 1999 to seek the death penalty was made after a review of the case by the special circumstance committee of the District Attorney's Office, then under former District Attorney Gil Garcetti Gilbert "Gil" Garcetti (b. August 5, 1941) served as Los Angeles County's 39th District Attorney for two terms, from 1992 until November 7, 2000. Background Gil Garcetti received a bachelor's degree in Management from the University of Southern California and a Juris . Chaparro is charged with murder and a special-circumstance allegation of kidnapping kidnapping, in law, the taking away of a person by force, threat, or deceit, with intent to cause him to be detained against his will. Kidnapping may be done for ransom or for political or other purposes. that made him eligible for the death penalty. He now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. ``This was not a person who deserved the death penalty. I think the death penalty should be reserved for the 'worst of the worst,' and typically in my experience, the death penalty is sought on people who are involved in multiple homicides, where the killing is totally gratuitous Bestowed or granted without consideration or exchange for something of value. The term gratuitous is applied to deeds, bailments, and other contractual agreements. , and this case was one that was emotionally charged as a result of a very dysfunctional relationship,'' Martinez said. Ayala's body was found Jan. 3 under a bush in the desert near 90th Street West and Avenue L, a day after sheriff's homicide detectives arrested Chaparro on suspicion of murder. Detectives began looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. Ayala after receiving a tip that she had been killed after getting into a fight with Chaparro on New Year's Eve. The couple had engaged in a series of arguments that started at a New Year's Eve party, investigators said. Martinez said earlier that they were arguing about whether each had been talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to other men and women at the party. After leaving the party, the defendant and victim ended up at a friend's house, where Chaparro shot Ayala, then took her to the desert and shot her again, investigators said. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion