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Thread: Chauncey S. Starling - Delaware

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    Chauncey S. Starling - Delaware




    Facts of the Crime:

    On March 9, 2001 Starling walked into a barber shop and murdered Darnell Evans and five-year-old Damon Gist, Jr.

    He was sentenced to death on June 10, 2004.

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    Starling's direct appeal was denied on July 24, 2006. The US Supreme Court denied certiorari on April 2, 2007.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/06-8557.htm

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    On September 5, 2014, Superior Court Judge Andrea L. Rocanelli DENIED Starling's motion for postconviction relief.

    http://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/...aspx?ID=210990

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    Supreme Court grants retrial for death row inmate

    By Jessica Masulli Reyes
    The News Journal

    When Chauncey Starling was found guilty of the 2001 murder of a young boy and man in a Wilmington barbershop, the community cried out against the senseless gun violence plaguing the city.

    Now, more than a decade later, the Delaware Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence and ordered a retrial for Starling, who is accused of murdering Damon J. "DJ" Gist Jr., 5, and Darnell Evans, 28.

    "Darnell Evans and Damon Gist, Jr. were the victims of a heinous and violent crime," Supreme Court Justice Collins Seitz Jr. wrote in a 43-page decision Monday. "Starling stands accused of the murders and must face trial. Like all citizens, he is entitled to a fair trial that adheres to the procedural requirements with effective representation. Because those procedural requirements were not met, and counsel defending him was ineffective, we are compelled to reverse and remand for a new trial and proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion."

    David Fragale and Jeremy Engle, the attorneys representing Starling, praised the ruling and said there is no reliable evidence on which to retry Starling.

    "The victims and their families deserve justice. However, it was a crime that Chauncey Starling did not commit," they wrote in a statement. "The court's decision reversing Mr. Starling's conviction is consistent with his innocence."

    A spokesman for Attorney General Matt Denn's office did not say how prosecutors plan to proceed.

    "We’re evaluating the court’s decision," spokesman Carl Kanefsky said.

    On March 9, 2001, a masked gunman opened fire in the Made 4 Men barbershop at Fourth and Shipley streets. The shooter was targeting Evans but unintentionally hit DJ.

    The barbershop's owner, Lawrence Moore, pursued the shooter but ultimately abandoned the chase. No patrons in the shop could identify the shooter, and no DNA, fingerprints or murder weapon were recovered, according to court documents.

    The shooter's identity was a mystery until about a month later when Pennsylvania police discovered a gunshot victim, Alfred Gaines, in Chester, Pennsylvania. Gaines claimed Starling had shot him and had also committed the barbershop shooting, according to court documents.

    Starling was indicted on first-degree murder and other charges in November 2001.

    At his trial, the state's key witness, Gaines, testified that he and Starling were driving in Wilmington when Starling saw Evans through the barbershop window and stopped to go in.

    Prosecutors also relied on a statement in which Starling's brother, Michael, told detectives his brother was sorry for what he did to the boy, the court decision said.

    And, finally, Evans' girlfriend testified that Starling was the shooter – based solely on his eyes, which she claimed she saw beneath the mask while she was standing outside the barbershop, the decision said.

    Starling was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2004. After being sentenced, he shouted, "I'm innocent, man. I'm innocent."

    Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker said at the time that the shootings have to stop.

    "This incident shows the serious consequence of the senseless act of using a gun against someone, in that the tragedy has been expanded to include not only the victims of the shooting, but now another person is condemned to die," he said.

    The attorneys representing Starling appealed his conviction, and in October, argued to the Supreme Court that Starling should get a retrial.

    The court agreed on Monday and found that "mistakes were made that undermine confidence in the fairness of the trial," Seitz wrote.

    The court noted that Starling's trial counsel failed to examine an eyewitness to the shooting, even though that eyewitness said Starling did not appear to be the shooter after he saw a picture of him in the newspaper.

    The court also found that the trial counsel should have objected to Starling's brother's statement to police because the 23-year-old brother was held for hours and threatened with prosecution if he did not provide a statement.

    Finally, the court found that the state misrepresented to the defense that charges against Gaines for a violation of probation and order calling for his arrest were still pending, when in fact, the charges had been dropped, the decision said.

    "This mistake, unintentional as it was, deprived the defense of important evidence that might have been used to attack the credibility of the state's main witness," Seitz wrote.

    "The cumulative effect of each of these errors leads us to conclude that there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different without the errors," he wrote.

    Praising the decision, Starling's attorneys said there is no evidence for the state to retry the case.

    "If the State of Delaware chooses to do so anyway, we are confident that a fair trial will lead to his complete exoneration and allow Mr. Starling to return home to his family where he belongs," the attorneys said.

    The Supreme Court has in recent years overturned several death sentences and ordered retrials.

    Most recently, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction and death sentence for Isaiah McCoy, who was accused of murdering 30-year-old James Munford in the Rodney Village Bowling Alley parking lot during a drug deal. The court cited the unprofessional conduct of a deputy attorney general who has since been suspended from practicing law in Delaware.

    The top court also granted a retrial last year for Jermaine Wright, the man accused of the 1991 murder of Phillip Seifert, a disabled liquor store clerk. The court is now having to consider whether the videotaped interview of Wright should be allowed at his retrial.

    The death sentence reversals come as the debate over the death penalty heats up. Legislation to repeal Delaware's death penalty passed the Senate, but was blocked by the House Judiciary Committee in a 6-5 vote in May.

    http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...mate/77416032/

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    Judge won't reconsider former death row inmate's bail

    By Jessica Masulli Reyes
    The News Journal

    Chauncey Starling will be held without bail as he awaits a retrial for a 2001 murder at a Wilmington barbershop.

    Former death row inmate Chauncey Starling's bail will not be reconsidered as he awaits a retrial for the 2001 murder of a young boy and man in a Wilmington barbershop.

    Superior Court Judge Andrea L. Rocanelli has ruled that Starling will not get another proof positive hearing. This means a 2002 decision to hold him in prison without bail will remain.

    Starling was sentenced to death in 2004 for the murder of Damon J. "DJ" Gist Jr., 5, and Darnell Evans, 28, in the Made 4 Men barbershop at Fourth and Shipley streets.

    The Delaware Supreme Court in mid-December overturned Starling's death sentence and granted him a retrial, citing mistakes made in his first trial by both the defense and prosecution.

    Soon after the ruling, his defense attorneys requested a court hearing to determine if Starling is eligible for bail in light of his conviction being overturned.

    "The mere passage of time, albeit substantial, does not reflect the type of 'changed circumstances' reflected in Delaware Supreme Court case law that warrants reconsideration under the Doctrine," Rocanelli wrote.They argued that he should be granted the new hearing because of the passage of time, but the state opposed their request, Rocanelli wrote.

    Starling's attorneys also argued that a new hearing should be granted because of the Delaware Supreme Court's current review of the constitutionality of Delaware's death penalty statute.

    President Judge Jan R. Jurden issued a temporary stay on all pending capital murder trials as the court considers Delaware's law in light a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a portion of Florida's law.

    The court rejected the notion that the Delaware Supreme Court's review should impact his bail status.

    "Second, the fact that the state may not be able to proceed on capital charges against defendant at some point in the future – pending the Supreme Court's determination on the constitutionality of the death penalty – is too speculative to warrant a new proof positive hearing at this point in the proceedings," Rocanelli wrote.

    http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...bail/82120216/

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Former death row inmate takes plea in barbershop killings

    DOVER, Del. — A former death-row inmate facing a retrial on charges of killing a man and young boy at a Wilmington barbershop in 2001 has accepted a plea offer.

    Chauncy Starling pleaded no contest Friday to one count of second-degree murder. Prosecutors agreed to drop several other charges.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.54cdd4798488
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #7
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    I'm innocent, man. I'm innocent"

    Chauncy Starling pleaded no contest Friday to one count of second-degree murder.

    I hate these people. They get treated like a victim, and get on the covers of magazines and are treated like martyrs when they die. They are 99% guilty and the pro criminal filth allow these guys to waste the courts time for decades. He will go back to prison and everyone who defended him will act like his case didn't exist. These kinds of criminals deserve to be punished for wasting everyone's time, money and for killing innocent people.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #8
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    Former death row inmate gets new hearing date

    A former death row inmate accused of attempted murder in a 2001 shooting has a new status hearing set for March 11 before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard M. Cappelli.

    Chauncey Starling, 42, of Wilmington, is accused of shooting Alfred Gaines on April 7, 2001, in the area of Second and Flower streets, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Gaines later served as a key witness in convicting Starling for the March 9, 2001, shooting deaths of Damon J. "DJ" Gist Jr., 5, and Darnell Evans, 28, at the Made 4 Men barbershop in Wilmington.

    Chester Police Officer William Murphy responded to the area of Second and Flower streets for a report of shots fired at about 11:16 p.m. April 7 and discovered Gaines covered in blood on the ground behind a silver Toyota 4Runner with its lights on and drivers-side door open, according to the affidavit. He was transported to Chester-Crozer Medical Center and treated for gunshots to his neck, face and head.

    Gaines later told detectives that Starling and two other men lured him to Chester that night. He identified Starling as the gunman and also testified against him at trial in the Delaware barbershop shooting.

    Starling was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Gist and Evans, for which he was sentenced to death in 2004. He appealed and the death sentence was vacated, but later reinstated by the Delaware Superior Court in 2005.

    The Delaware Supreme Court granted Starling a retrial in 2015, which was expected to begin in May 2017. Starling instead entered a “no contest” plea to second-degree murder and was resentenced to 18 years in prison in March 2017, with time served. His probation in that case ends in July.

    Starling was transferred to Delaware County in June 2017 for the Gaines shooting under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act and was granted unsecured bail of $20,000 in October 2017 by Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Barry Dozor.

    Defense attorney Michael Lehr previously moved to dismiss the Gaines case for failure to provide his client with a speedy trial under state and federal law. While Dozor ruled on the state law claim in favor of the commonwealth, Lehr maintains no court has yet ruled on the alleged Sixth Amendment violation.

    Lehr said he had asked Dozor to reconsider his order and specifically address the Constitutional question, but the request was denied. He added Dozor found Delaware was obstructionist in refusing to release Starling for trial in Pennsylvania while he was on death row, however.

    “Whether it was Pennsylvania which denied him his rights to a speedy trial as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment or it’s Delaware which denied him his rights to a speedy trial, it doesn’t matter to Mr. Starling,” Lehr said. “One of these jurisdictions – one of our original colonies – denied him his guaranteed right to a speedy trial.”

    Lehr argued that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that eight years is too long to wait for trial, but this case represents a time period more than twice that.

    “Pennsylvania’s obligation is to try him within a certain period of time, but they can’t try him unless they have him,” Cappelli said.

    Assistant District Attorney Matt DeNucci said Monday that Dozor had granted Starling the right to appeal in 2017, which he did. The Superior Court agreed with the commonwealth that interlocutory appeal (one that comes before a case is fully settled) was inappropriate, however, and remanded the case to the Common Pleas Court. Starling also applied to have the case heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which denied his request, according to DeNucci.

    “It would appear to me that the appropriate remedy at this time would be to proceed to trial and then Mr. Starling can exercise any appellate rights he’s entitled to exercise,” DeNucci said. “But to delay this trial any further seems to go against the grain of what their entire argument is.”

    Cappelli said he would review the pleadings and appeals ahead of the March date, but did not indicate he would issue a ruling on the Sixth Amendment question.

    https://www.delcotimes.com/news/form...090491806.html
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