Opinion ID: 2084452
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Cases Proposed by Public Defender to which the Attorney General Objects

Text: One night, Conley entered the eighty-seven-year-old victim's home and beat, raped, stabbed, and fatally strangled her. The victim suffered blunt force trauma and stab wounds to her face, neck, and extremities and a fracture of her nasal bones and her right zygomatic arch. The victim was found the following morning wearing a torn, pink nightgown, with a telephone line, which had been cut, draped across her body. Her stomach was oily and shiny, and a toppled bottle of baby oil rested on the night stand. Conley was apprehended nearly sixteen months later because his fingerprints matched those found on the baby oil bottle. Apparently, there was no other evidence connecting Conley to the crime. Conley was a twenty-nine-year-old college graduate who had completed thirteen credits toward a master's degree. He spent eight years in the Army Reserves. He had no prior criminal record. He worked for a rental car company and used alcohol occasionally. The State tried Conley noncapitally. A jury convicted him of purposeful-or-knowing murder, felony murder, aggravated sexual assault, burglary, and a weapons offense. The court sentenced him to an aggregate term of life imprisonment plus twenty-six years with a thirty-eight-year parole disqualifier.
Masini stopped at his eighty-five-year-old aunt's home purportedly to use her telephone. While washing out a soda glass in the kitchen sink, he saw a knife. He repeatedly stabbed his aunt in the neck, killing her. He also vaginally and anally raped her. Masini had no prior criminal history, but this was one of four fatal stabbings he committed against elderly people. In the months before this murder, Masini experienced detachments from reality. Masini pled guilty to murder and received a life sentence with a thirty-year period of parole ineligibility.
Two weeks after killing his aunt, Masini was at the home of his eighty-year-old relative. After talking with her in the kitchen, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter, grabbed the victim from behind, stabbed her repeatedly in the neck, sexually assaulted her, and stole her ring. She died from the stab wounds. Masini pled guilty to the murder and received another life sentence and thirty-year parole bar, which ran concurrently to the sentence he received for killing his aunt and to the consecutive life sentences he received for murdering an elderly couple.
Mincey broke into the home of the victim, who was seventy-three years old. He beat her severely, raped her, and strangled her. He stole two oriental dolls and a television. Mincey was arrested six years later. Mincey had sixteen prior convictions, including convictions for aggravated assault, assault and battery, burglary, auto theft, receiving stolen property, and escape. The State did not prosecute Mincey capitally, perhaps because the prosecutor believed that the statute of limitations barred a capital prosecution. A jury convicted Mincey of murder and felony murder. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole disqualifier.
Rivera lived next door and had a close relationship with the victim, who was a seventy-eight-year-old widow. She often babysat for Rivera's children, who called the victim their grandmother. While the victim was visiting Rivera and his girlfriend, Rivera went into her apartment and looked for money. The victim returned to her apartment and surprised Rivera. A struggle between Rivera and the victim ensued. Rivera struck her many times in the face, forearms, ribs, and back. He tore her vagina with either his hand or her cane. The cause of death was strangulation. Rivera had prior convictions for possessing a stolen car, entry with intent to steal, receiving stolen property, weapons possession, and eleven disorderly persons offenses. He had a history of abusing cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol. He was seen drunk shortly before the murder. A jury convicted Rivera of capital murder, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, and burglary. The jury found the c(4)(c) (torture or depravity) and c(4)(g) (contemporaneous felony) aggravating factors and the c(5)(d) (diminished capacity) and c(5)(h) (catchall) mitigating factors. It rejected the c(4)(f) (escape detection) aggravating factor and the c(5)(c)(age) mitigating factor. The jury could not agree on whether the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole disqualifier for the murder.
On May 11, 1994, a woman awoke to find James lying on the floor next to her bed. He placed his hand over her mouth, motioned for her to be quiet, and began to fondle her. The woman screamed for her daughter, prompting James to flee, knocking over the woman's daughter as she entered the room. James left through the bathroom window. While investigating the burglary, police noticed that a window in an upstairs apartment was open. The police found an eighty-two-year-old female in the upstairs apartment lying on her bed stomach-down, nude below the waist. Her legs were spread apart and a gel had been spread over her vaginal and anal area. A chair had been pulled up to the bed next to the woman's exposed genitalia. It was determined that the woman had been sexually assaulted and was killed by asphyxia due to smothering and compression of the neck. James claims he was drunk and high when he committed the offense, and only intended to steal money or property to support his drug habit. He claims not to remember sexually assaulting the eighty-two-year-old woman or noticing that she was dead. Despite participating in several substance-abuse treatment programs, he abused alcohol and cocaine daily. James apparently started drinking at age five. James never met his father and his mother died in a car accident when he was eleven. After his mother's death, James and his two siblings were raised by different relatives. James dropped out of high school after tenth grade. He obtained a truck driving certificate but was unemployed at the time of the offense. He once attempted suicide, and was subsequently hospitalized and diagnosed with depression. At the time of the offense, James was twenty-eight years old and living with his sister. He had prior convictions for robbery, burglary, attempted burglary, theft, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and shoplifting. He was on parole when he committed the murder. James was arrested on September 29, 1995, for the attempted murder of another woman. He was identified as the culprit in the May burglary and murder through fingerprints and similarities between the May and September crimes. James was charged with two counts of burglary, felony murder, murder, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, attempted sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual contact. He pled guilty to felony murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment with thirty years parole ineligibility.
Purportedly by talking to her about religion, Vasquez lured the victim, a thirteen-year-old girl, into his apartment. While in his apartment, he held her down, raped her, and fatally strangled her with a towel. While living in Puerto Rico, Vasquez was convicted of murder. He was paroled six years before this murder. He denied having mental health problems or abusing drugs or alcohol. Vasquez pled guilty to felony murder and aggravated sexual assault. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole disqualifier for the murder and to a consecutive twenty-year term with a ten-year parole bar for the aggravated sexual assault.
Desperately seeking sex, Aquino went into a neighbor's home, where the six-year-old victim and her sister were sleeping. The victim's parents were attending a party at Aquino's parents' home. Aquino rang the doorbell, but nobody answered. He broke a window, went into the home, and removed the victim. He carried her to his backyard, where he intended to have sex with her. She awoke and made noise, and his attempts to quiet her were unsuccessful. He dragged her to a wooded area behind his home. Intending to kill her because he feared getting caught for kidnapping the victim, he smashed the victim's head against a tree. Afterward, he dragged her to a nearby brook and left her. She died from a fractured skull and cerebral hemorrhage. Aquino was a nineteen-year-old student at a community college. He was placed in foster care when he was three years old after he overdosed on prescription medication. At that time, he was emotionally deprived, did not speak, and was not toilet trained. Aquino was adopted when he was four-and-a-half years old. Due to his aggressive behavior, a child study team evaluated Aquino and determined that he was emotionally disturbed and neurologically impaired. For three years, Aquino attended school at a children's psychiatric center. Thereafter, he enrolled in special education classes at public school. He graduated from high school, but needed to repeat his first-semester courses at community college. Besides attending community college, Aquino worked part-time for a fast-food restaurant. When he was seventeen years old, Aquino was convicted of three counts of aggravated sexual assault, in which he victimized his younger brother, a five-year-old girl, and a four-year-old boy. A year before the murder, Aquino was arrested twice for criminal trespass. In the second trespassing incident, Aquino was found in a girls' bathroom; he explained he was there because the sound of girls urinating excited him. Two weeks before the murder, Aquino attempted to lure a thirteen-year-old child into his home and was charged with disorderly conduct. Aquino was diagnosed with impulse control disorder. His doctor concluded that his increasingly violent sexual thoughts toward children made him dangerous and in need of constant supervision. Aquino pled guilty to purposeful-or-knowing murder, felony murder, and kidnapping. A court sentenced him to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment plus an aggregate fifty-five-year parole disqualifier.