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Thread: Eric Lawson Sentenced to LWOP in 2012 MO Triple Murder

  1. #1
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    Eric Lawson Sentenced to LWOP in 2012 MO Triple Murder



    Breiana Ray, Gwendolyn Ray and Aiden Lawson




    May 6, 2012

    Man Charged In Shooting, Fire That Left 3 Dead


    SOUTH ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) - A man is behind bars after confessing to killing his ex-girlfriend, her mother and his own son.

    Firefighters found two women, a mother and her daughter, shot to death inside a burning south St. Louis home, Saturday. A 10-month-old boy also died from smoke inhalation. Authorities charged his father with their murders Sunday. The boy’s sister, 3, was hospitalized in critical condition.

    Police identified the victims as Aiden Lawson, 10 months; his grandmother, Gwendolyn Ray, 50, and Aiden’s mother, Breiana Ray, 22. Breiana Ray was Gwendolyn Ray’s daughter. Breiana was Gwendolyn’s daughter. The two women and two children lived together in the upstairs apartment of a 3 unit building in the 2100 block of South Jefferson.

    “It was everything I had. It was all I had. It was all I had,” said Malika Ray, Breiana’s sister, sobbing at the scene Sunday morning.

    Neighbors noticed flames and smoke around 10 o’clock Saturday night.

    “We just saw the flames, so we called 911. It was kind of scary. We knew there were people living there,” said Orlando Hidalgo, who owns the Fritanga restaurant across the street from the Rays’ home.

    He said there were reports of gunshots before the fire, but no one had any clue they might have come from the same building.

    Breiana Ray’s daughter, McKenzie Ray, 3, survived. She was hospitalized in critical condition for smoke inhalation, but relatives said doctors expected her to recover.

    The Rays’ was the only unit to burn. No one else was hurt. But the landlord told the other tenants the building would be condemned and they would have to move immediately. There wasn’t much worth keeping from the

    Rays’ burned apartment beyond a couple of soot-covered photos relatives retrieved. Gwendolyn Ray was supposed to visit her dear friend, Debra Darrough, shortly before she died.

    “She was on her way to my house. She never made it. She just celebrated her 50th birthday on [May] 4th,” Darrough said.

    “Just nice people. They stay upstairs. I talk with him for awhile. They looked happy every day,” said Randy Carter, who lived below the Rays.

    “It’s very bad. I feel very bad. I’m going to miss them. I always saw them. I always say the girl. I always see the lady. I’m going to miss them a lot,” Hidalgo said.

    “She [Gwendolyn] will be missed – that smile,” Darrough said, breaking down in tears and walking away.

    Police said Eric Lawson, 23, of St. Louis confessed.

    Authorities charged him with 12 counts Sunday, including 3 counts of murder, arson, armed criminal action, and endangering the welfare of a child.

    http://fox2now.com/2012/05/06/three-...shooting-fire/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    St. Louis prosecutor says conflict caused handoff of 3 death penalty cases to attorney general

    By Joel Currier
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    ST. LOUIS - Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's office has handed off at least three death penalty murder cases to the state attorney general to avoid a conflict because a public defender who had been assigned to them now works for Gardner.

    On Wednesday, St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer approved Gardner's motion for a special prosecutor.

    One of Gardner's top assistants, Robert E. Steele, is a former public defender who recently withdrew as the defense counsel for Dominic Arrington, Eric Lawson and Antonio Muldrew.

    A spokesman for the Attorney General Josh Hawley this week confirmed the office would take over the Lawson trial. Prosecutors here had already announced their intent to seek death in those cases, but it was not clear Thursday if Hawley's office would pursue capital punishment.

    Lawson, 28, was charge in 2012 with murdering his ex-girlfriend, her mother and his 10-month-old son. Police have said that in May 2012, Lawson shot Gwendolyn Ray, 50, and her daughter, Breiana Ray, 22, and set an apartment fire that killed his son, Aiden.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...6cfddefc3.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Jury selection begins in triple murder case, the first death penalty trial in St. Louis since 2011

    By Joel Currier
    St. Louis Post Dispatch

    ST. LOUIS — Jury selection has begun in St. Louis Circuit Court in a triple murder trial for Eric Lawson, who was charged in 2012 with fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her mother, and setting a fire that killed his 10-month-old son.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Lawson, 30, of St. Louis. He has been jailed for more than seven years on the charges. Police have said that in May 2012, Lawson shot Gwendolyn Ray, 50, and her daughter, Breiana Ray, 22, and set an apartment fire that killed his son, Aiden Lawson. Another of Ray’s children — McKenzie Ray, 3 — was trapped inside but survived.

    The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting Lawson’s case after Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner handed off this and other murder cases in 2017 because her then-first assistant, Robert E. Steele, previously counseled Lawson as a public defender.

    Opening statements in Lawson’s trial are set for Nov. 11 before Circuit Judge Michael Noble.

    On Tuesday and Wednesday, Noble, two assistant attorneys general and Lawson’s public defenders questioned and eliminated some jurors regarding scheduling conflicts that could arise from a trial expected to last more than two weeks.

    Jury selection continues through next week.

    Lawson’s trial is expected to wrap up by Thanksgiving. The 12 jurors and six alternates ultimately picked will be sequestered.

    The last time a death penalty case went to trial in St. Louis Circuit Court was in 2011. The Circuit Attorney’s Office sought the death penalty against Fredrick Barnes in the 2007 stabbing death of his friend Dwoyne “Pooh” Ammons and the rape and stabbing of Ammons’ girlfriend. A jury could not decide between life in prison or the death penalty, leaving the decision to a judge, who sentenced Barnes to life without parole.

    The most recent death sentence assessed in St. Louis was in October 1995 for Martin Link, convicted in the 1991 rape and murder of 11-year-old Elissa Self. Link was executed in February 2011.

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...6e6004f1f.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Edited:

    St. Louis-area death penalty trials loom as courts look to reopen

    By Joel Currier
    St. Louis Today

    As state courts across the St. Louis region begin to reopen as COVID-19 vaccination rates rise, at least two circuit courts are preparing to summon thousands of potential jurors for four separate death penalty trials.

    About 3,500 jury summonses and questionnaires will soon go out to St. Louis residents ahead of the triple murder trial of Eric Lawson, which is scheduled to begin April 12 and wrap up in the first week of May.

    "We have never sent out this many," Jury Supervisor Joanne Martin said. Before the pandemic, she said, her office would mail an average of 1,300 to 1,500 summonses for all trials scheduled in a given week.

    Martin said the circuit has been averaging a 17 to 21% response rate on jury summonses during the pandemic, which has suspended all jury trials for nearly a year. Before COVID-19, the typical response rate to jury summonses in St. Louis was closer to 30%.

    Trials are tentatively scheduled to resume the week of March 15.

    She also expressed concern over widespread delays in mail delivery that could affect responses to summonses and questionnaires. Just this week, her office received a batch of responses dating back to early December.

    "It might end up being a real problem," Martin said.

    Lawson, 31, is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Breiana Ray, 22, and her mother, Gwendolyn Ray, 50, and setting an apartment fire that killed his 10-month-old son Aiden in 2012. In 2019, prosecutors and defense lawyers spent two weeks trying to sit a jury for Lawson's case but were unable to find enough from a pool of hundreds either because of scheduling conflicts or because of their views on the death penalty.

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...40e40bb9c.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Jury selection begins in death penalty trial in St. Louis

    by Joel Currier

    Jury selection began Monday in St. Louis Circuit Court in the death penalty trial of a man accused of killing three people

    Potential jurors will be questioned this and next week for the trial of Eric Lawson, 32, accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, Breiana Ray, 22, and her mother, Gwendolyn Ray, 50, and setting an apartment fire that killed his 10-month-old son Aiden in 2012.

    Jurors will be sequestered for the duration of the trial, which is expected to conclude in early May.

    It's the second time Lawson's case has come to trial. In 2019, prosecutors and defense lawyers spent two weeks trying to sit a jury for Lawson’s case but were unable to find enough from a pool of hundreds either because of scheduling conflicts or because of their views on the death penalty.

    The Missouri Attorney General's Office is trying Lawson's case because of a local conflict of interest.

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...fd05-0f59-55bd

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    COVID-19 concerns raised at St. Louis death penalty trial

    By Jim Salter, AP

    The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday declined to pause a capital murder trial for a St. Louis man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, her mom and his baby boy, despite two positive COVID-19 tests for potential jurors who had appeared in court.

    The court’s one-sentence ruling was issued two days after attorneys for Eric Lawson requested a two-week delay, citing concerns that coronavirus infections could spread to other potential jurors, trial staff and lawyers.

    Jury selection began last week. Lawson is accused of fatally shooting 22-year-old Breiana Ray and 50-year-old Gwendolyn Ray before setting an apartment fire that killed his 10-month-old son, Aiden. Lawson, 32, has been in pretrial detention since his arrest nearly nine years ago. The case is being prosecuted by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.

    Attorneys for Lawson sought a continuance in January and again in March, citing concerns about COVID-19. Circuit Judge Michael Noble denied both requests.

    Lawson’s attorneys asked Noble for a continuance a third time on Wednesday, this time citing the two positive cases among potential jurors. When Noble again refused to pause the case, defense attorneys asked the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene.

    “Mr. Lawson and his attorneys have been exposed to COVID-19 in the past 10 days,” the court motion states. “So have the judge, the prosecutors, courthouse staff, and prospective jurors.”

    St. Louis Circuit Court spokesman Thom Gross said a potential juror appeared in court on April 14. She tested positive for COVID-19 two days later and notified the jury supervisor on April 19, saying she didn’t know when or where she was exposed.

    Seven of the 39 prospective jurors from the April 14 session had originally been asked to return later, but Jury Supervisor Joanne Martin called each of them and told them they were dismissed, Gross said. Martin mailed letters to the others who attended that session to inform them of the positive test.

    Gross said a second prospective juror told Martin on April 16 that they had just learned that a COVID-19 test taken earlier was positive. All 40 prospective jurors from that session were dismissed.

    The court filing from Lawson’s lawyers said one of the lawyers, Julie Clark, is pregnant and thus considered vulnerable. An expert witness for the defense also “has several preexisting health conditions putting him at the greatest risk of contracting COVID,” the court filing said.

    A response signed by Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Assistant Attorney General Gregory Goodwin noted that attorneys on both sides and trial staff have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, and that Lawson has received one Pfizer dose and is scheduled to get the second shot next week.

    “This Court’s extraordinary intervention is not warranted because Petitioner Eric Lawson has understated the trial court’s protective measures, because none of Lawson’s rights are violated by Respondent’s procedures, and because this Court cannot practically delay an in-progress capital case for a ‘two-week continuance,’ the response read.

    Elyse Max, executive director of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said that moving ahead with the trial is “blood-thirsty” and creates the risk of a “superspreader” event.

    “They’re putting everyone at risk in order to move forward,” Max said. “It’s just concerning.”

    Investigators say that after shooting the two women in Breiana Ray’s apartment in May 2012, Lawson set two fires and locked the door as he exited, trapping his son and Breiana Ray’s 3-year-old daughter, who was critically injured.

    This is the second time Lawson’s case has come to trial. In 2019, prosecutors and defense lawyers were unable to find enough jurors from a pool of hundreds. Some potential jurors cited scheduling conflicts, but others cited opposition to the death penalty.

    https://apnews.com/article/shootings...df1997f4634f10

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    Jury convicts St. Louis man of first-degree murder in death of his 10-month-old son and two others

    By Robert Patrick
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis jury on Saturday convicted Eric Lawson of the first-degree murder of his own 10-month-old son as well as his ex-girlfriend and her mother in 2012.

    Jurors took less than three hours, and will return Monday for the penalty phase of the trial, which will determine whether Lawson is sentenced to die for killing Breiana Ray, 22, Gwendolyn Ray, 50, and Aiden Lawson. It is the first potential death penalty case in St. Louis in a decade.

    Several of the Ray relatives, watching from a different courtroom due to coronavirus precautions, pumped their fists when the verdicts were read. One man bent over at the waist with his head down.

    In closing arguments Saturday afternoon, prosecutors painted Eric Lawson as a heartless monster who was fed up with being a single parent. Lawson’s lawyers responded with a dual argument. They said prosecutors hadn’t presented enough evidence to prove Lawson killed the three; then said if jurors disagreed, Lawson wasn’t guilty of the three first-degree murder charges but of lesser offenses.

    The crime occured in an apartment at 2145 South Jefferson Avenue on May 5, 2012.

    Assistant Attorney General Natalie Warner said Lawson was frustrated with the obligations of being a single parent, and the resulting squabbles with Breiana Ray. He’d texted friends saying he wished he was childless and that he hated his life, she said.

    When Breiana Ray texted him telling him he needed to get baby formula, he took a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun that he’d bought in January out of a case in his closet, loaded it, and then put on jeans instead of his ubiquitous basketball shorts so he could put it in his waistband, Warner said.

    “He knowingly and willingly made the decision to kill each and every one of them,” Warner told jurors.

    He stopped at Schnucks for the formula, and then arrived around 8:50 p.m. He then paced around the apartment, acting strangely and walking in circles, until Breiana Ray’s back was turned so she wouldn’t fight back. Lawson shot her in the head as she washed baby bottles at the sink, Warner said.

    Lawson shot Gwendolyn Ray twice in the head after she came downstairs to check on her daughter, and then set a fire in two places in the apartment and locked the door behind him, so he wouldn’t have to see his son die.

    “No one sets a fire next to a 10-month-old baby without the intent of killing that baby,” Warner said.

    Aiden died “coughing and wheezing. Scared,” she said.
    Lawson went home, unloaded and put away the gun, and then looked up on his phone how to remove gunpowder residue, she said.

    Defense lawyer Julie Regenbogen-Clark said that based on a fire investigator’s testimony and cell phone records, Lawson couldn’t have been in the apartment when the fire started.

    She asked: “How could Eric Lawson be responsible for setting a fire at 10 p.m. when he was home by 9:55?”

    She suggested that police may have fed details of the crime to Lawson in the two hours between when he was arrested and questioned, and said a firearms examiner only “eyeballed” a bullet recovered from the crime scene to determine that it matched Lawson’s gun.

    Pivoting to her attempt to convince jurors that the crime was not first-degree murder, Regenbogen-Clark said prosecutors made the “worst possible inferences about details” to say that Lawson was guilty of premeditated murder, saying he carried a gun for protection after almost being robbed. She also said frustrated text messages between people in a strained relationship is not unusual.

    She said Lawson’s statement to police that his “temper just took over” showed that any crime was not pre-planned.

    In her response, Christine Krug, who is also with the Attorney General’s office, said JRC was misinterpreting evidence to favor her client.

    “This defendant killed three people and every piece of evidence says it,” she told the jury.

    The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is trying the case because a prosecutor with St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's office previously counseled Lawson when he was a public defender.

    Officials tried to hold a trial in 2019 but couldn't get enough jurors due to their scheduling conflicts and their opinions on the death penalty.

    The jurors have been sequestered since the start of the trial.

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...e7c583c22.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Edited:

    Jury chooses life without parole over death for St. Louis man convicted of triple murder

    By Joel Currier
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2012 murders of his 10-month-old son, his ex-girlfriend and her mother, a jury said Thursday.

    The jurors chose a life sentence rather than the death penalty for Eric Lawson, 32. That decision in the penalty phase of the trial followed three days of testimony from the victims' relatives, who described their grief and recalled fond memories of their loved ones. Several of Lawson's relatives also testified about his upbringing in poverty, lack of family support and exposure to violence.

    St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Noble accepted the jury's recommendation Thursday afternoon, after they had deliberated about five hours. This was the city's first death penalty case in about a decade.

    On Saturday, jurors had convicted Lawson of murdering his infant son Aiden, his ex-girlfriend Breiana Ray, 22, and her mother Gwendolyn Ray, 50, on May 5, 2012, in an apartment at 2145 South Jefferson Avenue.

    After Thursday's sentencing decision, Gwendolyn Ray's brother, Vincent Ray, said he thought prosecutors made "an excellent case" in favor of a death sentence but that most of his family agrees with sentencing Lawson to life without parole.

    "The family's happy," said Vincent Ray, 56, a retired St. Louis police officer. "This is an end that we're happy with, that we're finally getting some justice for. So, nine years has been long but we're glad it's at an end."

    Lawson's lawyers declined comment Thursday.

    Jurors were sequestered throughout the trial. They declined comment Thursday as they were escorted out of the Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

    In closing arguments Thursday, prosecutors portrayed Lawson as a remorseless killer who should die for erasing three generations of a family in minutes.

    Lawson shot Breiana Ray in the head while she was doing dishes and then shot Gwendolyn Ray twice in the head when she came downstairs to check on her daughter, prosecutors said. Lawson set a fire in two parts of the apartment and locked the door behind him, so he wouldn’t have to see his son die. Aiden had crawled to his mother after she was shot and was found lying in her arms. Aiden's then 3-year-old sister, Mckenzie Ray, suffered smoke inhalation but survived.

    Assistant Attorney General Christine Krug told jurors that Lawson's actions satisfy the aggravating factors required for a death sentence and that Lawson showed no remorse. After killing the women and setting the fire, Krug said, Lawson went home, put his gun away, changed his clothes, cleaned up and starting "sexting" with a woman while police and firefighters cleaned up his mess.

    "You can grant him mercy if you see fit," Krug told jurors Thursday. "But let me ask you this: Did he grant mercy to Gwendolyn? Did he grant mercy to Breiana? Did he grant mercy to his 10-month-old son?"

    Defense lawyer Cynthia Dryden told jurors there was no legal requirement to impose a death sentence and that jurors should consider Lawson's toxic upbringing that included exposure to domestic violence, drug addiction, disengaged parents, depression, below-average IQ and developmental deficiencies.

    "You must understand that your decision today will mean his death," Dryden said. "Eric’s life in exchange will not fix this. Nothing can. It will only make things harder, longer, more complicated. Let the tragedy of this case end here today with a sentence of life and without the further loss of human life."

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...d89e2785d.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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