January 2012
Hanford, California
A Kings County Court Clerk, in October 2011, received a call from attorney Michelle Winspur who said she would be late for her client's trial that day. Because Winspur sounded intoxicated, the 45-year-old lawyer was given a breath-alcohol test when she finally arrived at the court house. The booze test registered more than twice the legal alcohol limit for driving. In December, Winspur failed a sobriety test as she left the court house after representing a client at a hearing. In 2010, she had been professionally disciplined for being drunk during a trial in Montgomery County.
In January 2012, the state of California suspended Winspur's law license, and the Kings County district attorney charged her criminally with appearing in court drunk. I had no idea that lawyering under the influence was a crime. I can see charging wasted operating room surgeons with drinking while cutting, and airline pilots with flying under the influence. But don't you think this is a little harsh? In the Lindbergh kidnapping case, defendant Bruno Richard Hauptmann's attorney was drunk throughout the six weeks trial. Although Hauptmann went to the electric chair, I think his attorney did a fine job. I would be a lot more concerned if the jurors had been drunk.
February 2012
Gaston, North Carolina
In 2009, Danny Robbie Hembree, Jr. was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Heather Catterton. A judge, in November 2011, sentenced Hembree to death. The 50-year-old is currently on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. In March, Hembree is scheduled to go on trial for the murder of 30-year-old Randi Dean Saldana whose burnt remains were found near Blacksburg, South Carolina in 2009. He has also been accused of murdering a third woman named Deborah Ratchford. Hembree, after confessing to all three murders, recanted with the absurd story he had confessed to these homicides to cover-up a series of robberies he had committed.
This month, Hembree pulled a stunt that reveals just how arrogant and sadistic a sociopathic serial killer can be. He wrote a taunting letter to his hometown newspaper, "The Gaston Gazette." Lest the community and members of his victims' families thought he was being punished for his murders, Hembree wrote: "Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the A.C. [?], reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced hot meals a day. I'm housed in a building that connects to the new 55 million dollar hospital with around the clock free medical care...." The death row prisoner assures his readers that the chance of him being executed within the next 20 years is "very slim." Hembree closes his letter with: "I laugh at you self righteous clowns and I spit in the face of your so-called justice system. The state of North Carolina has sentenced me to death but it's not real."
Perhaps, but what is real is this: Hembree is not free, he has killed his last woman, and he will die behind bars, one way or another.
January 2012
Seattle, Washington
In July 2010, police in the Bahamas captured 20-year-old Colton Harris-Moore, the so-called "Barefoot Bandit" who had eluded the authorities for two years. The Barefoot Bandit had escaped arrest in stolen cars, boats, and even a plane he crashed in the Bahamas. To taunt the police, he once left chalk outlines of bare footprints at one of his crime scenes.
In December 2011, Harris-Moore pleaded guilty in Seattle to burglary, car theft, identity theft, and a variety of other property crimes. (He had committed more than 30 residential burglaries.) Under his plea agreement, he will give up profits from book or movie deals stemming from his larger than life crime spree. That money will go to his victims. In January 2012, a federal judge sentenced the Barefoot Bandit to 6 1/2 years in prison. According to his attorney, he will be out in 4 1/2 years at which time he plans to enter college to study aviation. (He's already proven he can take off and fly, he just needs to work on his landings.) A movie is already in the works with 20th Century Fox. By the time he walks out of prison, Colton Harris-Moore will be a celebrity, and an American hero--a modern day Charles Lindbergh.
January 2012
Santa Barbara County, California
Late in 2009, 51-year-old Eugene Darryl Temkin, asked a friend if he knew someone who would kill Temkin's former business partner, his partner's wife, and one of their business associates. The friend alerted the police who arranged to have an undercover cop, posing as a hitman, meet with Mr. Temkin.
In a series of meetings in June and July 2010, Temkin furnished the undercover office with details regarding the identities and habits of his intended targets. He also gave the officer $3,000 in cash as a down payment on the $30,000 murder contract. Temkin instructed the "hitman" to extort $15 million from his victims, money to be deposited into a special bank account in Uruguay. Once the money got into the mastermind's bank account, the hitman was to torture the two men, rape the woman, then murder all three.
Shortly after Temkin's final meeting with the undercover cop, the police took him into custody. Found guilty in federal court, the judge, in January 2012, sentenced Temkin to 6 years in prison. I've looked at hundreds of cases like this one, and this is the lightest sentence I've seen for a murder for hire solicitation mastermind. Over a business deal gone wrong, Mr. Temkin wanted to kill three people. He wanted to torture them first. Al Capone would have been impressed. The fact this mastermind was talking to a cop instead of a real hitman does not, in my view, mitigate the seriousness of his crime. In cases like this, 35 years is the typical sentence.
January 2012
Syracuse, New York
Nicole Osbourne was in criminal court as a defendant in a felony assault case. Theodore Murphy, her boyfriend, the victim who had reported the assault, was in the courtroom as well. At Murphy's request, an order of protection prohibiting Osbourne from making any kind of contact with him had been issued by the presiding judge. At the hearing, the prosecutor asked the judge to lift the protection order so that the assault victim could ask the defendant to marry him. The judge lifted the order, the victim popped the question, and the assault defendant accepted the marriage proposal. It's enough to make you puke.
I don't think you have to be Nostramdamus to predict a bleak future for this couple.
Hanford, California
A Kings County Court Clerk, in October 2011, received a call from attorney Michelle Winspur who said she would be late for her client's trial that day. Because Winspur sounded intoxicated, the 45-year-old lawyer was given a breath-alcohol test when she finally arrived at the court house. The booze test registered more than twice the legal alcohol limit for driving. In December, Winspur failed a sobriety test as she left the court house after representing a client at a hearing. In 2010, she had been professionally disciplined for being drunk during a trial in Montgomery County.
In January 2012, the state of California suspended Winspur's law license, and the Kings County district attorney charged her criminally with appearing in court drunk. I had no idea that lawyering under the influence was a crime. I can see charging wasted operating room surgeons with drinking while cutting, and airline pilots with flying under the influence. But don't you think this is a little harsh? In the Lindbergh kidnapping case, defendant Bruno Richard Hauptmann's attorney was drunk throughout the six weeks trial. Although Hauptmann went to the electric chair, I think his attorney did a fine job. I would be a lot more concerned if the jurors had been drunk.
February 2012
Gaston, North Carolina
In 2009, Danny Robbie Hembree, Jr. was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Heather Catterton. A judge, in November 2011, sentenced Hembree to death. The 50-year-old is currently on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. In March, Hembree is scheduled to go on trial for the murder of 30-year-old Randi Dean Saldana whose burnt remains were found near Blacksburg, South Carolina in 2009. He has also been accused of murdering a third woman named Deborah Ratchford. Hembree, after confessing to all three murders, recanted with the absurd story he had confessed to these homicides to cover-up a series of robberies he had committed.
This month, Hembree pulled a stunt that reveals just how arrogant and sadistic a sociopathic serial killer can be. He wrote a taunting letter to his hometown newspaper, "The Gaston Gazette." Lest the community and members of his victims' families thought he was being punished for his murders, Hembree wrote: "Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the A.C. [?], reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced hot meals a day. I'm housed in a building that connects to the new 55 million dollar hospital with around the clock free medical care...." The death row prisoner assures his readers that the chance of him being executed within the next 20 years is "very slim." Hembree closes his letter with: "I laugh at you self righteous clowns and I spit in the face of your so-called justice system. The state of North Carolina has sentenced me to death but it's not real."
Perhaps, but what is real is this: Hembree is not free, he has killed his last woman, and he will die behind bars, one way or another.
January 2012
Seattle, Washington
In July 2010, police in the Bahamas captured 20-year-old Colton Harris-Moore, the so-called "Barefoot Bandit" who had eluded the authorities for two years. The Barefoot Bandit had escaped arrest in stolen cars, boats, and even a plane he crashed in the Bahamas. To taunt the police, he once left chalk outlines of bare footprints at one of his crime scenes.
In December 2011, Harris-Moore pleaded guilty in Seattle to burglary, car theft, identity theft, and a variety of other property crimes. (He had committed more than 30 residential burglaries.) Under his plea agreement, he will give up profits from book or movie deals stemming from his larger than life crime spree. That money will go to his victims. In January 2012, a federal judge sentenced the Barefoot Bandit to 6 1/2 years in prison. According to his attorney, he will be out in 4 1/2 years at which time he plans to enter college to study aviation. (He's already proven he can take off and fly, he just needs to work on his landings.) A movie is already in the works with 20th Century Fox. By the time he walks out of prison, Colton Harris-Moore will be a celebrity, and an American hero--a modern day Charles Lindbergh.
January 2012
Santa Barbara County, California
Late in 2009, 51-year-old Eugene Darryl Temkin, asked a friend if he knew someone who would kill Temkin's former business partner, his partner's wife, and one of their business associates. The friend alerted the police who arranged to have an undercover cop, posing as a hitman, meet with Mr. Temkin.
In a series of meetings in June and July 2010, Temkin furnished the undercover office with details regarding the identities and habits of his intended targets. He also gave the officer $3,000 in cash as a down payment on the $30,000 murder contract. Temkin instructed the "hitman" to extort $15 million from his victims, money to be deposited into a special bank account in Uruguay. Once the money got into the mastermind's bank account, the hitman was to torture the two men, rape the woman, then murder all three.
Shortly after Temkin's final meeting with the undercover cop, the police took him into custody. Found guilty in federal court, the judge, in January 2012, sentenced Temkin to 6 years in prison. I've looked at hundreds of cases like this one, and this is the lightest sentence I've seen for a murder for hire solicitation mastermind. Over a business deal gone wrong, Mr. Temkin wanted to kill three people. He wanted to torture them first. Al Capone would have been impressed. The fact this mastermind was talking to a cop instead of a real hitman does not, in my view, mitigate the seriousness of his crime. In cases like this, 35 years is the typical sentence.
January 2012
Syracuse, New York
Nicole Osbourne was in criminal court as a defendant in a felony assault case. Theodore Murphy, her boyfriend, the victim who had reported the assault, was in the courtroom as well. At Murphy's request, an order of protection prohibiting Osbourne from making any kind of contact with him had been issued by the presiding judge. At the hearing, the prosecutor asked the judge to lift the protection order so that the assault victim could ask the defendant to marry him. The judge lifted the order, the victim popped the question, and the assault defendant accepted the marriage proposal. It's enough to make you puke.
I don't think you have to be Nostramdamus to predict a bleak future for this couple.
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