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Thread: Death Penalty Pursued for Pamela Marie Hupp in 2011 MO Slaying of Betsy Faria

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    Death Penalty Pursued for Pamela Marie Hupp in 2011 MO Slaying of Betsy Faria





    Prosecutors vow to seek death penalty in Pamela Hupp murder trial


    By Robert Patrick
    The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Prosecutors here said Thursday that they would seek the death penalty if Pamela Hupp is convicted of murdering a 33-year-old disabled man last year.

    Hupp, 58, faces charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the fatal shooting of Louis Gumpenberger on Aug. 16.

    At a press conference Thursday afternoon, St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar called the death penalty an “extraordinary remedy” but said the crime qualified as “one of the worst of the worst.”

    It is also extraordinarily rare for a woman. The last woman to be executed in Missouri went to the gas chamber in 1953. Lohmar said he could not recall a death penalty case against anyone in St. Charles County in at least a decade.

    There are 17 “aggravating circumstances” that can qualify someone for the death penalty, and at least one must be present. In the case of Hupp, prosecutors said that the murder was “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved depravity of mind.”

    Under questioning by reporters, Lohmar declined to go into detail about what made the killing merit the death penalty but did say that the victim had been chosen at random and cited “the wanton disregard for human life” in Gumpenberger’s “execution.”

    In a court filing, prosecutors said the factors that supported Hupp’s “depravity of mind” were that Hupp’s choice of Gumpenberger as her victim “was random and without regard to the victim’s identity” and “thereby exhibited a callous disregard for the sanctity of all human life.”

    Lohmar said Gumpenberger’s family supported the decision to pursue a death penalty.

    Hupp’s attorney Nick Williams released a brief statement that said: “Another press conference. The prosecutor is doing his best to make it impossible to seat an impartial local jury.”

    Among the mitigating factors that would have to be considered by a judge or jury would be Hupp’s lack of a criminal record and her mental state.

    Lawyer Rick Sindel, who estimates that he’s handled more than 20 state and federal cases involving prosecutors seeking the death penalty, called the aggravating factor selected by St. Charles County prosecutors “kind of a stretch” for the circumstances of the Hupp case, but said that “you can probably shoehorn anything into it.”

    He said that juries, who will ultimately make the decision about whether an aggravating factor applies, were often “most worried about … ‘Is this person dangerous to my family and my friends?’ ” But before deciding that, they also may hear about any other “bad acts” by Hupp.

    Sindel said very death penalty sentence would be reviewed by the Missouri Supreme Court, where it would be compared with others that cited the same aggravating factor.

    He also said Lohmar’s move could be a tactic to win a guilty plea from Hupp.

    “Everything is a negotiating tactic in a death case,” Sindel said.

    If convicted and sentenced to death, appeals would delay any execution for years. Mark Christeson was executed on Jan. 31, almost exactly 19 years after he killed a woman from south-central Missouri and her two children.

    The last woman to be executed in Missouri was Bonnie Brown Heady, on Dec. 18, 1953, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections. But Heady’s death sentence was a federal one — for the kidnapping and killing of 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease Jr.

    No women are currently facing a death sentence in Missouri. In recent decades, one woman who was once sentenced to death died, apparently of suicide, while her case was being retried, according to the department. Four women who were facing death were re-sentenced to life without parole. Two are still alive.

    There is also no “death row” in Missouri. Inmates facing death are integrated in the general population. A woman sentenced to death would be held at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, the department said.

    A complicated plot

    Police and prosecutors claim that Hupp shot Gumpenberger on Aug. 16 in her home in O’Fallon, Mo., as part of a complicated plot to divert attention from herself in a reinvestigation of the death in 2011 of Hupp’s friend Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria outside of Troy, in Lincoln County.

    Prosecutors speculate that Hupp posed as a producer for NBC’s “Dateline” who was seeking someone to re-enact a 911 call. Two other people say Hupp approached them with some variation of that ruse six days before Gumpenberger was killed.

    Prosecutors claim Hupp picked up Gumpenberger outside his apartment in St. Charles, drove him to her home and invited him inside. Hupp then called 911 and pretended to be the victim of a home invasion while shooting Gumpenberger, they say.

    When police arrived, she claimed that Gumpenberger had jumped into her SUV as she arrived home and held a knife to her neck while talking about getting “Russ’ money.” A note in his pocket had kidnap instructions and again referenced getting “Russ’ money,” promising a $10,000 bounty.

    “Russ,” investigators believe, is Russell Faria, who was convicted of his wife’s fatal stabbing before the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted in a retrial. The conviction was overturned in part because Faria’s attorneys weren’t allowed to present Hupp as an alternative suspect in Betsy Faria’s murder. Hupp was the last person, other than the murderer, to see Faria alive. She also became the beneficiary of a $150,000 life insurance policy days before the murder.

    After Faria’s acquittal, federal investigators began to look into the case.

    Investigators’ doubts

    Police soon began to doubt Hupp’s story about the shooting. Gumpenberger was disabled from a car crash and would have been unable to move as Hupp claimed, friends and acquaintances told the Post-Dispatch.

    The serial number on a $100 bill found in Hupp’s bedroom was sequential to four $100 bills found in Gumpenberger’s pocket, something O’Fallon police Detective Kevin Mountain described in a court document as “extremely uncommon for two people who reportedly do not know each other.”

    Surveillance video shows Hupp’s interactions with one of the witnesses who described the “Dateline” ruse.

    Investigators also believe that Hupp bought the knife, along with paper matching that used for the kidnapping instructions, eight days before the shooting, sources close to the case have told the Post-Dispatch.

    The trial, subject to change, is set to begin Oct. 3. Lohmar said the death penalty issue could delay that date.

    Hupp’s attorneys are seeking to have jurors brought in from outside St. Charles County, citing the extensive publicity surrounding Hupp and Betsy Faria. Prosecutors are opposed.

    The Faria murder was the subject of a joint Post-Dispatch-KTVI Fox 2 investigation in 2014 and has also been featured multiple times on “Dateline.”

    The death of Hupp’s mother, Shirley Neumann, 77, has also been mentioned in court and in the news. Neumann was found dead in 2013 after an apparent fall from the balcony of her apartment near Fenton. Police said that they were taking another look after Hupp was charged with Gumpenberger’s murder.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...70591a72a.html

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    Outside jurors to be brought to St. Charles County for Hupp trial

    A judge has ruled that outside jurors will be brought into a St. Charles County courtroom for the Pamela Hupp trial.

    Hupp’s lawyers had argued that it would be difficult for them to choose an impartial local jury.

    Hupp is accused of fatally shooting 33-year-old Louis Gumpenberger in August. It is believed Hupp lured him into her home by pretending to be a television producer in an effort to frame someone else.

    Hupp faces first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges. She has entered a plea of not guilty.

    Just last month, St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar announced he would seek the death penalty if Hupp is convicted.

    http://www.kmov.com/story/35096577/o...for-hupp-trial
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    Public barred from pretrial conference in Pam Hupp murder case

    By Robert Patrick
    The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    ST. CHARLES COUNTY • A St. Charles County judge held on Friday a pretrial conference in chambers in the Pam Hupp capital murder case, and declined to open the meeting.

    The “conference” was billed in court records as an informal discussion of pretrial matters. St. Charles Circuit Judge Jon Cunningham declined, via a clerk, a request by the Post-Dispatch to move the hearing into open court. A deputy sheriff said the same to a Post-Dispatch reporter and journalists from Fox 2/KTVI who were waiting outside the courtroom.

    Hupp attorney Nicholas Williams, before the hearing, said Hupp’s attorneys would not comment after it concluded.

    Later Friday, Cunningham issued a sealed order and set a status conference for Nov. 17, according to online court records.

    Hupp’s trial is currently scheduled to last three weeks beginning April 9. She’s accused of fatally shooting Louis Gumpenberger, 33, in her home in O’Fallon, Mo., on Aug. 16, 2016. Prosecutors said in March that they would seek the death penalty for Hupp, if she is found guilty of first-degree murder.

    She claimed Gumpenberger was trying to kidnap her, but police and prosecutors believe it was all part of an elaborate plot to divert suspicion from Hupp in a re-investigation of the 2011 murder of her friend Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria in Lincoln County in 2011.

    Investigators believe Hupp pretended to be a producer for NBC’s “Dateline” to lure Gumpenberger to her house, and told him she would pay him to help her re-enact a 911 call. She called 911 while pretending to be the victim of a home invasion, and shot Gumpenberger, they say. Gumpenberger had mental and physical injuries from a 2005 car crash.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...72e916651.html

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    Pamela Hupp defense team asks for second trial delay

    By KMOV.com Staff

    ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Defense attorneys for Pam Hupp are asking a judge to delay her trial again.

    The trial is scheduled to start in April and Hupp’s lawyers filed a motion to push that back, claiming prosecutors have not turned over all the evidence in the case.

    That's the same reasoning used when case was delayed earlier this year.

    Hupp was arrested and charged in August 2016 with first-degree murder, one week after fatally shooting a man inside her O’Fallon, Mo. home, according to officials. Police were originally called to the 1200 block of Little Brace Dr. about a burglary around 12 p.m. on August 16, 2016.

    According to police, Hupp told them she pulled up to her home and was confronted by a stranger, which was later identified as 33-year-old Louis Gumpenberger. Authorities discovered Hupp called police to report this burglary, but moments later fired multiple rounds, killing Gumpenberger. She then called police again to report a person shot.

    Hupp was also a key witness in the murder trial of Russell Faria, which Faria was convicted of stabbing Pamela Hupp’s best friend acquitted in a re-trail in 2015.

    Faria’s attorney argued that the killing was carried out by Hupp, who was seeking to collect a $150,000 life insurance policy.

    When investigators became to piece together multiple incidents, the death of Hupp’s mother, Shirley Neumann, came into question.

    Neumann’s body was found below her apartment unit’s balcony in Oct. 2013.

    Police reported several rails from the balcony were broken, and death was deemed as suspicious at the time.

    After later investigation, it was determined there was not enough evidence to charge anyone.

    News 4 Reporter Lauren Trager reported that in Oct. 2013, St. Louis County Police revealed Hupp was the last person to see her mother before her death.

    Police say they are reviewing the case, but haven't officially re-opened it.

    In response to Lohmar, an attorney for Hupp said, "Another press conference. The prosecutor is doing his best to make it impossible to seat an impartial local jury."

    Prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty.

    http://www.kmov.com/story/36797603/p...nd-trial-delay

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    Pam Hupp's lawyers win delay in her murder trial

    A judge here on Friday postponed the murder trial of Pam Hupp, accused of fatally shooting a disabled man last year. A new date will be set within 10 days.

    It was the second delay granted for the defense, which is common in murder cases, let alone cases where the prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

    The trial was originally set for Oct. 3, then April 9.

    Earlier this month, Hupp's lawyers filed a motion saying they'd been told that there was a "very large" amount of investigative material, and they had not yet received all of it.

    Jurors will be picked in Clay County, Mo., and brought to St. Charles for the trial because of defense concerns about the pretrial publicity.

    Hupp fatally shot Louis Gumpenberger, 33, in her O’Fallon, Mo., home on Aug. 16, 2016. She told police that it was a foiled kidnapping but police and prosecutors say it was actually her elaborate attempt to divert suspicion from herself in the 2011 murder of her friend Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria in Lincoln County.

    They say Hupp pretended to be a producer for NBC's "Dateline" willing to pay someone to re-enact a 911 call. Gumpenberger had mental and physical injuries from a car crash.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...fef2e3928.html
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    Pam Hupp won't answer questions about the 2011 murder of a friend

    By Robert Patrick
    The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Pam Hupp, facing a murder charge and the death penalty in a related 2016 fatal shooting here, has refused to answer questions about a 2011 murder in Lincoln County.

    Through lawyers, she successfully blocked a Jan. 18 deposition from jail, and refused to answer a series of 92 written, multi-part questions, according to court filings.

    Lawyers for Russell Faria, who was convicted of the murder of his wife Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria before being acquitted in a 2015 retrial, are now seeking a judge's order that would force some response from Hupp that could aid Faria's lawsuit against those who helped put him behind bars.

    Lawyers for both Faria and Hupp declined to comment.

    A joint motion filed Monday on behalf of Hupp, and the police and prosecutors Faria sued says the bid to question Hupp "has no support in the law," and is designed to later claim that Hupp "either killed Elizabeth Faria or was the most likely suspect" or that investigators conduct was somehow illegal.

    They say Hupp can't be compelled to answer questions, particularly since she is facing her own trial on a murder charge in September. Prosecutors say she murdered Louis Gumpenberger, 33, on Aug. 16, 2016, to divert suspicion from herself and onto Russell Faria amid a re-investigation of the death of Betsy Faria.

    Battle over deposition questions

    Betsy Faria was fatally stabbed Dec. 27, 2011, in the home she shared with Russell Faria outside of Troy.

    Faria's lawyers have pointed to Hupp as the real murderer since his first trial, including during his successful appeal.

    Hupp was not called to testify at his retrial after a series of changes in her version of the events surrounding the death of Betsy Faria.

    Faria sued police and prosecutors in 2016, claiming they “ignored the obvious suspect, (whom Plaintiff asserts is Pamela Hupp), ignored exonerating evidence, and fabricated evidence,” according to court filings.

    Hupp has denied killing Faria in interviews with the Post-Dispatch and KTVI-Fox 2, which have jointly investigated the case since 2013.

    One of Hupp's lawyers, Kim Freter, filed a motion Jan. 11 to block Hupp's jailhouse deposition, writing in part that Faria's presence during the deposition would be “an obscene intimidation tactic.” Hupp is still “terrified” of Faria, Freter wrote.

    “Subjecting Pamela to extensive questioning in a small jail room with 6-13 male lawyers and Mr. Faria would constitute an extreme hardship and cause undue mental duress that could ultimately affect her criminal case,” Freter wrote.

    Freter also said that it would interfere with Hupp's rights.

    A judge partially agreed, asking Faria's lawyers to limit the areas of inquiry or submit written questions.

    They chose a 22-page questionnaire, but Freter responded with a March 9 letter again asserting Hupp's rights “pursuant to the Fifth, Sixth, Eight and Fourteenth Amendments.”

    St. Charles County prosecutors, she writes, may introduce evidence during the trial related to Betsy Faria's murder and the trial of Russell Faria.

    “There can be no legitimate responses to argumentative questions you put to Ms. Hupp,” Freter wrote. Prosecutors could “draw an adverse inference” from “yes,” “no” or “I invoke my rights” in response to questions, she wrote.

    One question asks whether Hupp intentionally tried to point investigators at Russell Faria as a suspect, as his lawyers have long claimed. Others ask whether anyone in law enforcement asked Hupp during the investigation whether she killed Faria.

    In a March 23 filing, Faria's lawyers asked a judge to order Hupp to respond or deem Freter's letter to be equal to Hupp taking the Fifth.

    Monday's response says police and prosecutors "wholeheartedly deny" the allegations that they ignored evidence favorable to Faria or fabricated evidence, and seeks a court hearing on Faria's request.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...48510268f.html
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    Pam Hupp won't have to answer questions about the 2011 murder of a friend

    Pam Hupp, facing a murder charge and the death penalty in a 2016 fatal shooting here, will not have to answer questions about a 2011 murder in Lincoln County, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

    Lawyers for Russell Faria, who was convicted of the murder of his wife Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria before being acquitted in a 2015 retrial, were seeking a court order to clarify the legal situation after Hupp, through lawyers, declined a deposition and declined to answer a series of questions about Betsy Faria's murder.

    They asked U.S. District Judge John Ross to rule that her denial to answer questions through a lawyer was equivalent to her asserting her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in person.

    Hupp lawyer Kim Freter told the Post-Dispatch Thursday that “Judge Ross held that Pamela will be allowed to invoke her Fifth Amendment right relative to this case.”

    Russell Faria's lawyers are trying to use her refusal to aid his civil case against police and prosecutors over his conviction, but no decision has been made on that issue. Ross asked both sides for more information.

    Hupp is facing a murder charge for fatally shooting Louis Gumpenberger, 33, on Aug. 16, 2016. Prosecutors claim she was trying to divert suspicion from herself and onto Russell Faria during a reinvestigation of Betsy Faria's death.

    Faria sued police and prosecutors in 2016, claiming they ignored the "obvious suspect" in Betsy' Faria's death, Hupp, and fabricated evidence. Investigators have denied those claims.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...6c17ddb13.html
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    Pam Hupp’s lawyers file motions to avoid death penalty

    By Joe Millitzer
    Fox 2 Now St. Louis

    ST. LOUIS, MO — Attorneys representing murder suspect Pam Hupp have filed a series of motions in St. Charles Circuit Court.

    It is an attempt to take the death penalty off the table.

    Hupp is accused of killing Louis Gumpenberger in 2016.

    Prosecutors say it was part of an elaborate scheme to make it look like he tried to kidnap her over insurance money which she received after the 2011 death of her friend, Betsy Faria.

    Hupp’s attorneys filed motions to seeking to have evidence from the Faria murder trial and circumstances surrounding her mother’s death excluded from her murder trial of Gumpenberger.

    http://fox2now.com/2018/05/08/pam-hu...death-penalty/
    "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."
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    - 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.”
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    Judge allows state to continue with death penalty in Hupp case

    By Stephanie Baumer
    KMOV.com

    ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KMOV.com) – A judge has allowed the state to continue with the death penalty in the case of Pamela Hupp.

    Hupp is accused in the aUGUST 2016 death of Louis Gumpenberger, who was shot dead inside her home. Prosecutors said it was a plot to frame someone in a separate murder case.

    During a hearing Friday morning, the judge denied the motion to remove the death penalty for Hupp after her defense argued it was unconstitutional. The state is seeking the death penalty but it's ultimately up to a jury to decide.

    Hupp’s trial is set to start September 11 and for now, is on track for that date. To avoid a tainted jury pool, the jurors will be picked in Clay County and then sequestered for the trial, which will take place in St. Charles County.

    http://www.kmov.com/story/38381207/j...y-in-hupp-case
    "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

  10. #10
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Judge sets June date for Pamela Hupp murder trial

    The Associated Press

    ST. CHARLES, MO. A suburban St. Louis woman accused of fatally shooting a man to divert attention from the investigation of another killing will go to trial in June.

    The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a judge on Friday set the trial date for Pamela Hupp of O'Fallon. She could face the death penalty if convicted.

    Hupp has claimed she shot 33-year-old Louis Gumpenberger as he tried to kidnap her. Prosecutors say she staged events to make it look like a kidnapping attempt, but really killed Gumpenberger to divert attention during the re-investigation of Betsy Faria's death in 2011.

    Faria's husband, Russ, was convicted in her death, but the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted in a retrial. Russ Faria and his lawyers have blamed Huff, who denied killing Betsy Faria.

    https://www.kansascity.com/news/stat...216054695.html
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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