Dallas Defense Attorney Blog

A Michigan man shot and killed a pro-life activist. Harlan James Drake, 33, was charged Friday with first-degree murder in the deaths of James Pouillon, 63, and Mike Fuoss, 61, said Shiawassee County Prosecutor Randy Colbry.

“The defendant had ill will toward these three individuals — not for the same reason necessarily, but had a grudge,” Colbry said.

Before classes were to begin Friday, Pouillon was protesting across the street from Owosso High School about 70 miles northwest of Detroit. Drake then drove by the school and shot Pouillon several times in front of horrified students and parents, officials said.

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Court records show that a Baltimore man charged in a kidnapping and fatal shooting has been arrested and charged at least 37 times previously.

Thirty-two-year-old Sherman Anderson is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and more than a dozen other offenses in the death of 24-year-old Qonta Waddell.

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The defense hammered away at a Crime Scene Unit detective in court today, questioning why he did not voucher blue jeans and a bag that were found in the bedroom of an Oakwood Fire marshal allegedly murdered in his home by his wife.

Detective Charles Reiss testified he did not believe the jeans or bag, which contained several items — possibly a towel and sock — were of “forensic significance” to the probe into the slaying of Supervising Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau.

Mercereau was found shot to death in bed in his Tarring Street home on Dec. 2, 2007.

His wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, 40, is on trial in state Supreme Court, St. George, for his murder.
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Woman’s habit of inviting homeless addicts into her West Side home may have led to her death, relatives say

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah | Tribune reporter
April 8, 2009

Relatives believe that an 83-year-old West Side woman’s habit of inviting homeless drug addicts into her home may have contributed to her brutal death.

On Tuesday, police ruled the death of Flora Thompson of the 600 block of North Ridgeway Avenue a homicide. She was found dead Monday evening on the kitchen floor of her East Garfield Park apartment from blunt trauma to her head and a stab wound to her neck.

“She just wanted somebody to come and talk to her,” said Pearlene Ward, 68, who lived downstairs from Thompson and warned her about inviting strangers into her home. “I’d tell her, ‘Don’t befriend homeless drug addicts. Don’t let them be the death of you.’ ”

Ward, whose late husband was Thompson’s nephew, said Thompson lived on the second floor of the two-flat with a female roommate in her 60s. Police said they had no suspects.

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POMONA, Calif.—A 27-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to more than 400 years in prison for a September crime spree that included carjacking, burglarizing and shooting a psychologist during a robbery.

Anthony Hislar must serve at least 85 percent of a 93-year prison sentence before beginning a separate term of 429 years to life, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Hislar was convicted of 33 felony counts last month in Superior Court, including robbery, burglary, carjacking and evading police. His crime spree was carried out in Hermosa Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles and parts of the San Gabriel Valley before he was arrested leaving Disneyland on Sept. 24.

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Robert Lomas, 53, of Redwood City, got his nickname in the spring of 2007 during a series of bank heists he committed in the midst of a downward spiral in his personal life, defense attorney Richard Keyes told a jury Thursday during opening statements in his client’s murder trial.

The crisis for Lomas began with a domestic violence conviction for battering his wife Linda in a jealous rage, continued with the loss of his job at an auto-parts store, and further escalated as he tried to win his wife back from the arms of other men, both real and imagined, with thousands of dollars he stole from more than half a dozen area banks, Keyes said.

The defense attorney played the jury video footage of Lomas’ confession from the night of the murder to underscore the man’s affection for his murdered wife, Linda.

“She was my star, she was my life,” Lomas tearfully told investigators. “Everything I did was to keep her happy.”

What Lomas did to keep his wife content ranged from cleaning the couple’s studio apartment to cooking meals and, according to evidence, robbing banks and handing a good deal of the proceeds over to her, Keyes told the San Mateo County Superior Court jury. Read the rest of the article

The defense in Phil Spector’s murder retrial rested its case Thursday with the testimony of a memory expert summoned to undermine a key prosecution witness.

UC Irvine professor Elizabeth Loftus summarized research suggesting that certain circumstances — including stress, fear and exhaustion — can lead witnesses to misremember events. Loftus spoke generally about the limits of human memory, but questions by a defense attorney referenced the circumstances in which Spector’s former driver, Adriano de Souza, says he heard the music producer admit to shooting actress Lana Clarkson in his home. Read the rest of the article