Drew Peterson Conviction Hinged On Hearsay Evidence, Juror Says

JOLIET, Ill. -- The final juror to agree to convict Drew Peterson of murder in the death of his ex-wife says he "barely slept" one night during the proceedings because the same nagging questions kept popping into his head.

Even after joining fellow members of the panel by casting the last vote for guilty, Ron Supalo remains troubled by the prosecution's reliance on hearsay, statements not based on a witness' direct knowledge.

Peterson, the former suburban Chicago police officer, faces a maximum 60-year prison term after his first-degree murder conviction in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. It was the first case in Illinois history to permit the use of hearsay evidence, based on a 2008 state law specifically tailored to Peterson's case.

"I needed time to think it through," Supalo, a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, said in a telephone interview Friday evening.

Supalo said he believes the hearsay law might be unconstitutional, but he eventually realized his duty as a juror was only to assess the evidence, not the laws.

"We (the jurors) weren't the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "Right or wrong, this was the hearsay law, and we had to use it in this case."

Other jurors acknowledged that comments Stacy Peterson, Peterson's fourth wife, made before her 2007 disappearance played the decisive role in convincing them to convict her husband of killing his ex-wife.

The prosecution's strategy grew largely from a lack of physical evidence collected in the case after investigators initially deemed Savio's 2004 death an accident. Prosecutors claimed the hearsay would allow Savio and Stacy Peterson – who is presumed dead – "to speak from their graves" through family and friends.

It worked.

Jury foreman Eduardo Saldana, 22, said the women's comments were "extremely critical" in deliberations and in his decision to convict Peterson. He said he was one of four jurors who initially had reservations given a lack of physical evidence tying the former police officer to Savio's death. But Saldana said the more he thought about hearsay testimony from Stacy Peterson's pastor, the more compelling he found it.

But Supalo said he had some doubts about the credibility of Stacy Peterson's statements to the Rev. Neil Schori.

During the trial, Schori testified that Stacy Peterson told him weeks before she went missing that her husband got up from bed and left the house about the time of Savio's death and then returned to stuff women's clothing in their washing machine. Peterson also coached his wife for hours on how to lie to police, Schori told jurors.

"When it was the 11 for guilty and just me holding out, I told them, `You all believe Schori's testimony is gospel because he is a man of God,'" Supalo said. "They said, `It is.' And I said, `No, it's not!'"

Supalo also said he had difficulty coming to terms with convicting someone based on what others claimed someone else said.

"I'm uncomfortable with the Illinois law that allowed hearsay," Supalo, who briefly studied law. "They made the law just for Drew Peterson – applied it to him retroactively. If there was no hearsay in his case – Drew Peterson goes free."

Defense lawyers have said the presentation of hearsay undercut Peterson's constitutional rights because he couldn't directly confront his accusers – namely, his third and fourth wives.

They tried to discredit Stacy Peterson by having attorney Harry Smith testify that she asked him if she could squeeze more money out of Peterson in a divorce if she threatened to tell police he killed Savio. But Saldana and other jurors said Smith only ended up stressing that Stacy Peterson knew her husband had, in fact, murdered his ex-wife.

As he realized Smith was starting to hurt Peterson's case, the defense attorney questioning him, Joel Brodsky, began shouting at Smith, accusing him of lying.

Juror Teresa Mathews, 49, said Friday that Smith had nothing to gain by making up testimony.

"We believed he was a credible witness," she said.

Although thoughts about the evidence cost Supalo some sleep, by Thursday afternoon, just before the verdict was read in court to gasps and tears, he'd resolved several issues in his mind. Among them was accepting Schori's and Smith's testimony as credible, he said.

"It was the totality of the evidence that convinced me," he said.

Peterson is to be sentenced Nov. 26.

Neighbors found the 40-year-old's body in the bathtub of her suburban Chicago home – a gash on the back of her head. Investigators initially thought she drowned after slipping in the tub, but reopened the case after Stacy Peterson disappeared.

Peterson also is a suspect in that case, and Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said Thursday that charges could be forthcoming.

Peterson's personality had seemed to loom large over the trial, at least to outsiders.

Before his 2009 arrest, the glib, cocky Peterson seemed to taunt authorities, joking on talk shows and even suggesting a "Win a Date With Drew" contest. His behavior inspired a TV movie starring Rob Lowe.

But jurors said Friday that Peterson's crude and unsavory reputation didn't factor into their deliberations.

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'THE EPITOME OF DANGER': Doctor Charged In Homeowners Shooting

Mahmoud Yousef Hindi (R) appears for his arraignment on charges of murder, assault and wanton endangerment, along with defense attorney Todd Lewis.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A Louisville man accused of opening fire at a homeowners association meeting, killing one and critically wounding another, was ordered held on a $1 million bond Saturday at an initial court hearing where a prosecutor called him "the epitome of danger to the community."

A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of 55-year-old Mahmoud Yousef Hindi to charges of murder, assault and wanton endangerment in the Thursday evening shooting at a church.

Dressed in a blue jail outfit, Hindi showed no emotion and did not speak as he stood before a judge.

Afterward, defense attorney Todd Lewis called the case a "horrendous tragedy" and said the Hindi family's thoughts were with the victims' families. Lewis asked for patience in unraveling the case.

"We look forward to our day in court," he told reporters. "There's always another side to things."

What specifically sparked the attack wasn't clear.

Police say Hindi, a doctor educated in Jordan, had a history of disputes with the homeowners group revolving around a fence that the association said didn't meet its height or design requirements in the upscale neighborhood of Spring Creek.

The association's attorney says the organization brought the zoning violation charges to the city. Hindi wrote several letters to the attorney, expressing anger and contempt for the attorney.

In one letter that ranted about several neighbors, Hindi cited the Quran, the theory of creationism, the idea that America has gone to Communism, threatens to form his own homeowners association and accused neighbors of stealing his "no trespassing signs" in the dispute over the fence.

"You would not believe some of the crap he wrote in these letters," said Mark Wagner, a former president of the homeowners association. "It was rambling stuff."

Wagner, who used to live near Hindi, said his predecessor as association president resigned from the post and abruptly moved from the neighborhood after having property-line disputes with Hindi.

"They were so scared of him that they moved," Wagner said in a phone interview. "They dumped their house. They sold it to the first person who looked at their house ... to get away from this guy."

Police say Hindi was at the homeowners meeting for a short time before he started shooting. Some of the several people in attendance detained him until police arrived. Police did not immediately release other details such as what sort of weapon was used.

Slain was 73-year-old David Merritt, a one-time association president, who was shot once in the head and died at the scene, according to a deputy coroner.

The wounded man, whose name was not immediately released, was in critical condition Saturday at University of Louisville Hospital.

Barbara Pass, who lives down the street from Hindi, said people were intimidated by him.

"He threatened people, he would say things like, `You know I've got a gun and I just might use it.'"

Two of Hindi's brothers and one of his sons watched the brief arraignment via closed-circuit television in another room. They declined comment as they left the local jail where the hearing was held.

"The family is in a state of shock and disbelief as to what has happened," said Khalid Kahloon, another attorney representing Hindi. "This is a ... peace-loving, law-abiding family enjoying their American dream, and then it's shattered by this unfortunate and very tragic incident."

His attorneys asked the judge for a much lower bond. Kahloon called him a "complex man" who "is not a danger to the community in the sense that this crime is not a random, violent crime."

Kahloon cited another neighbor's favorable comments about Hindi. The neighbor, Marty Swiergosz, told The Courier-Journal that he got along well with Hindi and Hindi's family.

"It's real complex because they were nothing but good to me," Swiergosz said of the Hindi family. "They'd give us stuff out of their garden. He always wanted to feed our dogs. That was 98 percent of the time."

Swiergosz described Hindi as a "passionate man," but told the Louisville newspaper that he wouldn't repeat some things Hindi had said.

Prosecutor Joe Martz objected to lowering the bond.

"He is the epitome of danger to the community," Martz said at the arraignment.

The judge kept the bond at $1 million and set a pre-trial hearing for Sept. 14.

Hindi is a Jordanian-American citizen who worked in nuclear medicine, Kahloon said.

Hindi was unable to keep practicing medicine because of health problems – he recently had back surgery – and his medical license had expired, the attorney said.

Kahloon mentioned one other time when Hindi had a brush with the law, when he was given a traffic ticket in another county for exceeding the speed limit by 7 mph. Hindi had failed to appear for a hearing on the citation, resulting in a bench warrant, the attorney said.

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NYPD Fatally Shoots Knife-Wielding Man

An NYPD officer fatally shot a knife-wielding man in Queens Friday afternoon,

Police were responding to a call at 165-43 Terrace in Springfield Gardens. When they arrived they found an emotionally disturbed, 27-year-old man holding a knife to his own neck.

After pleading with him to put the knife down, the man raised the knife in the air and approached a police officer. The officer fired one shot, hitting the man in the shoulder.

The man's injuries were initially not considered life-threatening. At 7:16, however, he was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.

Kevin, a neighbor and friend of the deceased, didn't understand why the cops had to shoot him.

“Why didn’t they tase him to bring him down, calm him down and then grab hold of him to keep him under wraps?” he told CBS New York. “That man did not deserve that.”

Less than 24 hours earlier, an NYPD officer fatally shot a Bronx bodega worker, 20-year-old Reynaldo Cuevas. According to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Cuevas was fleeing from the store after a robbery when he barreled into a cop, whose gun accidentally discharged.

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Chocolate Penis May Save Death Row Inmate

Marcus Wellons, now 57, was convicted of murder in 1993.

The lawyer for a Georgia death row inmate says a penis-shaped chocolate could play a crucial role in setting her client free.

Marcus Wellons, now 57, was sentenced to death in June 1993, after his conviction in the 1989 rape and strangling murder of 15-year-old India Roberts.

Wellons' trial cannot be considered fair, argues his lawyer, Mary Elizabeth Wells, because the judge and bailiff received gifts of erotically-shaped chocolate from jurors, according to the Atlantic Journal-Constitution.

Juror Mary Jo Hooper told the paper she had ordered a box of chocolates to share with jury members and courtroom employees. The candy store employee, a friend of Hopper's, included one piece of chocolate shaped like a penis in an attempt at humor.

Hooper, now 63, claims Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley expressed her curiosity after hearing about the candy phallus, the Seattle Times reported. Hooper then gave it to her as a gift when the trial was over.

Additionally, bailiff Loretta Perry allegedly received a piece of chocolate shaped like women's breasts. Hooper maintains that there were no breast-shaped chocolates in her order, and no other juror has owned up to such a gift.

Wells says the whole ordeal indicates the jury was not taking the murder trial seriously.

"This is even embarrassing to discuss in open court," she told judges on Friday. "This is not dignified."

Wells also alleges that the gifts were "evidence of the jury's racial bias" against the black Wellons, according to the Los Angeles Times. The candy penis was made out of white chocolate, according to the Associated Press.

Appeals for Wellons were initially rejected by several courts. In 2010, however, the Supreme Court ordered a federal review panel to take another look at the case, noting that a death penalty case "must be conducted with dignity and respect."

11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta is expected to announce its decision in upcoming months.

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Arnold Gets Off Scot-Free

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A Sacramento County superior court judge ruled Friday that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't break any laws when he cut the manslaughter sentence for the son of a political ally just hours before leaving office last year.

Judge Lloyd Connelly called Schwarzenegger's decision to reduce Esteban Nunez's sentence from 16 years to seven years distasteful and "repugnant to the bulk of the citizenry of this state," but within his executive powers as governor. Nunez is the son of the governor's onetime political ally, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.

Esteban Nunez pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in a 2008 attack on an unarmed group of young men after he and some friends were turned away from a fraternity party in San Diego. Three others pleaded guilty to various charges in the attack that killed 22-year-old college student Luis Santos.

Santos' family and the San Diego district attorney sued, claiming that Schwarzenegger violated the voter-approved Marsy's Law, which requires families be notified about cases involving their loved ones.

"The attorney general's office fought for corruption, and they won," said Kathy Santos, Luis' mother, outside court. "They defended a backroom deal, you know? They got away with it for today, but we're very disappointed. Where's the justice for our son? He was murdered. Two conniving politicians got away with it."

The family said the judge's words were not enough. They want the reduced sentence for Nunez thrown out.

Connelly sided with the attorney general's office in ruling that Marsy's Law does not specifically address the governor's power of pardons and commutations, which may have been an oversight when it was drafted.

He said that other laws cited by the plaintiffs' attorneys also did not place a specific obligation on the governor to notify the family or the district attorney, even if that had been the practice in Schwarzenegger's office for other pardon and commutation applications.

"Based on the evidentiary records before this court involving this case, there was an abuse of discretion," Connelly said. "This was a distasteful commutation. It was repugnant to the bulk of the citizenry of this state. ... It is outside the normal realm, the normal circle of fundamental justice."

But, he said, it was not illegal.

San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said her office will appeal the judge's decision. The Santos family said they were considering their options.

Schwarzenegger said in his commutation notice that he believed the sentence was excessive given Nunez's "limited role in the killing." He said evidence showed that Nunez's friend delivered the fatal blow, yet both men received the same 16-year-sentence.

The former governor told Newsweek in April 2011 that his office made a mistake in not notifying Santos' parents, but he defended the decision, saying: "I mean, of course you help a friend."

Dumanis and attorneys for the Santos family said Schwarzenegger blatantly violated the state constitution with his last-minute decision, ignored the victims' due process rights and acted "in an arbitrary and capricious manner."

There was evidence that Schwarzenegger generally required that his office follow the provisions of Marsy's Law, which voters approved while he was in office in 2008, when he considered other clemency cases, Deputy District Attorney Laura Tanney wrote in a brief filed this week.

"Schwarzenegger knew the law, he knew exactly what was required of him, and yet he defied the oath of his office," Tanney wrote.

Esteban Nunez, now 23, is incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, about 50 miles southeast of Sacramento, and is scheduled for release in 2017. His father is a political consultant in Sacramento.

Gov. Jerry Brown in October signed a bill that was written in response to the controversy over Nunez's commutation. It requires the governor to give at least 10 days' notice to the district attorney in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred before acting on an application for clemency. That would give the district attorney time to notify crime victims and allow them to petition against a sentence reduction.

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OJ Simpson's Attorney Tampered With The Glove: Ex-Prosecutor

In this June 1995 photo, prosecutors made OJ Simpson put on a pair of Aris extra-large gloves as a huge piece of evidence in the trial.

Nearly seventeen years after O.J. Simpson walked away from his murder trial a free man, a prosecutor at the center of the case has alleged that the lead defense lawyer tampered with a crucial piece of evidence.

Former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Christopher Darden on Thursday accused Simpson defense lawyer, the late Johnnie Cochran, of "manipulating" one of the infamous gloves that the prosecution said linked Simpson to the grisly double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

After Simpson struggled to fit the gloves on his hands -- in one of the defining moments of the racially charged trial that captivated the nation - Cochran famously admonished the jury, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

On Thursday, during a panel discussion about the trial at Pace Law School in New York City, Darden, a member of the prosecution team, declared: "I think Johnnie tore the lining. There were some additional tears in the lining so that O.J.'s fingers couldn't go all the way up into the glove."

Darden said in a follow-up interview on Friday that he noticed that when Simpson was trying on a glove for the jury its structure appeared to have changed. "A bailiff told me the defense had it during the lunch hour." He said he wasn't specifically accusing anyone, adding: "It's been my suspicion for a long time that the lining has been manipulated."

He said he had previously voiced similar concerns in TV interviews, but could not recall the details.

Darden's incendiary charge surprised key participants in the trial and related legal action. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who was a member of Simpson's defense team, and Paul Callan, who represented Nicole Brown Simpson's estate in a successful civil trial against Simpson, said it was the first time they had ever heard the allegation.

On Friday, Dershowitz called the claim that the defense had an opportunity to tamper with the gloves "a total fabrication" and said "the defense doesn't get access to evidence except under controlled circumstances."

"Having made the greatest legal blunder of the 20th Century," Dershowitz said of Darden, "he's trying to blame it on the dead man."

Darden's remarks came after Dershowitz, a fellow panelist, called Darden's decision to have Simpson try on the glove for the first time before the jury "the most stupid thing" a prosecutor could have done.

Dershowitz said that if Darden had evidence that there had been tampering, he would have had an ethical obligation to report the alleged misconduct. He also questioned why Darden hadn't filed a grievance with the state bar association. Darden responded by saying that this would have been a "whiny-little-snitch approach to life" and that was not what he believed in because it didn't change anything.

The event was part of a "Trials and Errors" series, co-sponsored by Pace Law School and the Forum on Law, Culture & Society at Fordham Law, that examines America's most controversial cases. Also on the panel were Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, and his sister, Kim Goldman.

Derek Sells, the managing partner of Cochran's old law firm, The Cochran Firm, did not respond to requests for comment. A call to Cochran's daughter, Tiffany Cochran Edwards, who is a communications director for the firm, was not immediately returned. Cochran died in 2005 from a brain tumor at age 67.

Simpson was acquitted in the double murder case despite what prosecutors described as a "mountain of evidence" against him. The evidence included a blood-soaked glove found on Simpson's estate and a matching one found at the scene of the murder.

Questions about the lining of the gloves emerged during the 1995 trial, but they did not involve allegations of tampering by defense lawyers.

Three other members of Simpson's defense team, Robert Shapiro, Barry Scheck and F. Lee Bailey, did not immediately return requests for comment. Robert Kardashian, who also represented Simpson, is deceased.

A civil jury in 1997 found Simpson liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the murder victims' families. Simpson is currently serving up to 33 years in prison for a 2007 armed robbery in which he claimed he was trying to recover his own sports memorabilia.

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Deadly Shooting Shakes Port Moody

A 32 year-old-man is dead after a shooting in Port Moody, B.C., Saturday morning. (AP)

A 32-year old man shot Saturday morning in Port Moody has died.

Shots were heard by neighbours around 10 a.m. and police arrived on scene to a house on the 900 block of Wallace Wynd shortly after.

Police arrived at the house and found the victim suffering from gun shot wounds.

The victim was taken to hospital in critical condition, reports Global News. He succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

The home was known to police as well as the victim, said Const. Luke Winkel to News 1130.

The death has been ruled a homicide and no suspects have been identified. Vancouver Police have called in the Forensic Identification Unit and Homicide Investigation Team to take over the investigation.

The victim's name has not yet been released.

This is the city's third recorded fatal shooting since May, reports CKNW.

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