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Thread: Curtis Marco Wilson Sentenced to LWOP in 2012 FL Murder of Jamie Seeger

  1. #1
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    Curtis Marco Wilson Sentenced to LWOP in 2012 FL Murder of Jamie Seeger


    Jamie Seeger


    Curtis Marco Wilson


    Lawrence Vickers


    Marrio Williams


    Attorneys pick jury for final Seeger murder trial

    By Buster Thompson
    The Citrus County Chronicle

    Curtis Marco Wilson, the last of Jamie Seeger’s three accused murderers to answer to his charges, is ready to stand trial this week.

    Attorneys and Citrus County Circuit Court Judge Richard “Ric” Howard worked Monday to assemble a 12-person jury to preside over Wilson’s trial for the July 2012 shooting death of Seeger, a former Citrus County Sheriff's Office informant.

    Wilson, 34, of St. Petersburg, was one of three men charged in connection with the first-degree murder of Seeger, whose 27-year-old body was found slumped and lifeless in the driver's seat of a Chrysler Crossfire July 25, 2012, near the Crystal River-area intersection of West Cyrus Street and North Reynolds Avenue.

    Following a lengthy investigation, authorities in December 2012 apprehended Wilson, 50-year-old Lawrence James Vickers of Crystal River and 32-year-old Marrio Demetric Williams of Dunnellon.

    Investigators allege Vickers and Williams, who were also accused earlier in 2012 of selling cocaine to Seeger while she was undercover, paid Wilson to kill Seeger before she could testify against them in court, according to prior reports.

    During the late hours of July 24, 2012, Williams drove to St. Petersburg to pick up Wilson and drive back to Crystal River to murder Seeger during the early hours of July 25.

    Following the shooting, Williams and Wilson allegedly drove back to St. Petersburg and threw the murder weapon off the Howard Frankland Bridge. Dive teams later recovered the firearm.

    Expected to last at least week, Wilson's trial could see 190 witnesses testifying, according to attorneys.

    Prosecutors Pete Magrino and Rich Buxman and Wilson’s defense team of Candace Hawthorne and Brenda H. Smith on Monday surveyed a panel of 50 prospective jurors, with questions focused on circumstances relating to Seeger's murder.

    Wilson’s case will be the first death-penalty case in Citrus County in which jurors, not Howard, will impose a death sentence if Wilson is found guilty of first-degree murder.

    Florida lawmakers resisted and changed the state’s death-penalty sentencing procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2016 ruled in Hurst vs. Florida to strike down the state’s prior method, which then allowed judges to impose death.

    If Wilson is convicted following his trial, all 12 presiding jurors must then unanimously decide at a separate hearing if Wilson is eligible for death, if at least one aggravating circumstance is proved in Wilson’s alleged offense is present.

    “That verdict comes from the jury, no longer from the judge,” Howard told the jury panel.

    Magrino and Hawthorne said they understood the new post-conviction procedures for capital cases.

    A few prospective jurors, however, told Howard they would be uncomfortable in sentencing someone to death.

    “I don’t believe in the death penalty,” a man on the panel said.

    Jurors found Williams guilty as charged in November. Williams, who was not eligible for death due to his intellectual disabilities, was sentenced to life in prison.

    Vickers on Aug. 14 pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Attorneys on Sept. 22 will schedule Vickers’ sentencing date, when Howard will impose a sentence no more than 30 years.

    Vickers and Williams are both listed as witnesses in Wilson's trial, Magrino said.

    http://www.chronicleonline.com/news/...50bf821c2.html

  2. #2
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    Murder case moves to next phase

    By Buster Thompson
    Citrus County Chronicle

    Jurors who presided over Curtis Wilson’s trial will reconvene in mid-October to decide if the St. Petersburg man should be put to death for the murder of former sheriff’s informant Jamie Seeger.

    On Thursday, Circuit Court Judge Richard “Ric” Howard set aside Oct. 10-13 for when a dozen jurors will review more evidence to decide if 34-year-old Wilson is eligible for the death penalty.

    These same 12 jurors found Wilson guilty as charged late Wednesday night for the July 2012 first-degree murder of Seeger, whom Wilson was paid $1,000 to gun down for his two convicted cohorts, who wanted Seeger dead.

    Wilson’s upcoming hearings will be the first time in Citrus County when a jury, not a judge, will decide to sentence a convicted defendant to die for a capital offense. This was not case before the U.S. Supreme Court in January ruled Florida’s original death-penalty sentencing procedure was unconstitutional.

    In the early morning hours of July 25, 2012, Citrus County deputies found 27-year-old Seeger shot to death inside a Chrysler Crossfire near a Crystal River-area intersection.

    Lawrence Vickers, of Crystal River, and Marrio Williams, of Dunnellon, paid, transported and armed Wilson the night of July 24 to murder Seeger before she could testify against the local duo about her undercover drug buys with them from earlier in 2012.

    Williams lured a drug-addicted Seeger, who was no longer a sheriff’s informant, to a fake drug deal near the intersection of West Cyrus Street and North Reynolds Avenue, where Wilson was waiting to ambush Seeger.

    During their drive back to St. Petersburg after the shooting, the murder weapon — a .40-caliber Glock pistol — was thrown over the Howard Frankland Bridge and into the Tampa Bay. Dive teams were able to recover the weapon.

    Authorities later charged Wilson, 50-year-old Vickers, and 32-year-old Williams with first-degree murder. A jury last November found Williams guilty as charged. Williams is serving a life sentence.

    Taking a plea deal, 50-year-old Vickers pleaded guilty in August to his first-degree murder charge. Howard will sentence him to up to 30 years at future court hearing.

    Seeger’s mom, Wendy Moore, who was with Seeger moments before she was shot and has shown up at almost every subsequent court hearing, said she was happy with the jury’s decision to convict the final defendant responsible for her daughter’s death.

    “It’s the beginning of the end finally and I can finally put the pieces together and move on,” Moore said Wednesday. “I’m not really going to move on a whole lot, but I don’t have this looming over my head of what I’m going to have to keep going through.”

    Howard and attorneys handling Wilson’s case met Thursday morning to square things away for Wilson’s upcoming hearings.

    Prosecutors Pete Magrino and Rich Buxman filed a motion to compel Wilson’s attorney Candace Hawthorne to disclose all of Hawthorne’s witnesses’ mental-health evaluations of Wilson.

    In his proposed court order for Howard to sign, Magrino wanted Hawthorne’s witness, psychologist Dr. James McGovern, to release his reports of Wilson by noon on Friday in order to get his own psychologist, Dr. Greg Prichard, prepared for Wilson’s hearings.

    If McGovern fails to produce his reports, he would not be able to testify at Wilson’s hearings, according to Magrino’s order.

    “This is time sensitive,” Magrino told Howard, who agreed to signing the order.

    “Whatever you’ve got, you’ve got to give it to Pete (Magrino),” Howard told Hawthorne, who appeared by phone.

    Hawthorne objected to her quick-approaching deadline, saying she needed until Monday because McGovern has to gather a significant amount of material.

    Hawthorne added McGovern has also said he wants to send his materials directly to Prichard, not to attorneys, following Florida’s Administrative Code.

    Magrino and Howard were angered by McGovern’s “obstructiveness.”

    “That may be Dr. McGovern’s response, but the Florida Administrative Code does not trump a circuit judge’s order,” Magrino said. “The state is entitled to anything and everything that Dr. McGovern has.”

    “He can’t pick and choose who it goes to,” Howard continued. “I’m a little offended by his obstructiveness.”

    McGovern, who later appeared by phone, told Howard he is bound to his and the state’s ethical laws and won’t hand off sensitive evidence to possibly untrustworthy attorneys.

    “There are some attorneys who don’t respect it,” McGovern said, referring to evidence’s chain of custody.

    Howard explained to McGovern that his order would prevent him from being accused of any wrongdoing, criminal or civil.

    “You have absolute immunity from my order, you understand that?” Howard said.

    McGovern remained steadfast in his decision and even suggested he should get an attorney.

    On that note, Howard told Hawthorne to get McGovern’s reports to Magrino by noon on Friday or else McGovern is stricken as defense witness.

    “There’s no basis not do to this,” Howard told Hawthorne, who agreed.

    http://www.chronicleonline.com/news/...f6cd2b10a.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

  3. #3
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    Jurors explore killer’s past

    Attorneys seek to influence panel that will decide life or death

    By Buster Thompson
    The Citrus County Chronicle

    Jurors on Wednesday got to know more about Curtis Wilson, the St. Petersburg man on the verge of being sentenced to death or life in prison for the murder of Jamie Seeger.

    Wilson’s attorneys, Candace Hawthorne and Brenda Smith, brought in more witnesses at their client’s court hearing to show the 12-member jury panel how Wilson’s impaired mental health and troubled upbringing influenced his fatal shooting of Seeger in July 2012.

    Jurors will consider these factors and others this week when deciding how to punish 35-year-old Wilson.

    This is the first death penalty case in Citrus County in which jurors, not a judge, will sentence a convicted defendant.

    In order to find death a suitable sentence for Wilson, jurors must be unanimous in their decision and find at least one aggravating — or enhancing — circumstance in Wilson’s crime.

    These same jurors in late September found Wilson guilty of first-degree murder in connection with Seeger’s death.

    Authorities found Seeger — a former confidential informant for the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office — dead with gunshot wounds early July 25, 2012. She was in a car near a Crystal River-area intersection.

    Prosecutors believe local men Lawrence Vickers, 50, and Marrio Williams, 32, paid, transported and armed Wilson the night of July 24 to murder Seeger before she could testify against the local duo about her undercover drug buys from them from earlier in 2012.

    Wilson was charged in December 2012 alongside Williams and Vickers for the first-degree murder of Seeger.

    Jurors found Williams guilty as charged in November 2016. He’s serving a life sentence in prison.

    In August, Vickers pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge. Howard will sentence him to up to 30 years at a future court hearing.

    Vickers testified Wednesday that he never gave Wilson or anyone $1,000 in connection with Seeger’s murder.

    Psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Wu testified to reviewing Wilson’s PET scan, which was taken in 2016, to see if Wilson’s brain images showed signs of abnormalities that contributed to his behavior.

    Wilson’s brain scans showed signs of damage from repeated concussions or other traumatic brain injury, resulting in memory loss and symptoms of psychosis, like hallucinations, Wu said.

    Several of Wilson’s relatives testified to Wilson playing tackle football on the streets as a child without a helmet, suffering from multiple injuries.

    Due to Wilson’s history playing football at a young age, Wu said Wilson could have a degenerative brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which is found in football players who have had long-term exposure to head injuries.

    Wu said this could result in aggressiveness, depression, impaired judgement, intelligence issues and other behavioral problems.

    “One of the worst things you can do is subject the brain to multiple concussions before the age of 12,” Wu said about how brain injuries affect development. “Football is the worst game to play for developing brains.”

    Wu said Wilson’s poor school records are also indicative of someone with symptoms of CTE.

    In his cross examination of Wu, Rich Buxman worked to point out errors in Wu’s analysis of PET scans and his findings of Wilson.

    Wu, who is not a radiologist, said not everyone who commits murder or another violent crime has a brain abnormality in their PET scan and not everyone who has brain abnormality commits an offense.

    Buxman asked Wu if PET scans were acceptable in finding traumatic brain injuries when other medical professionals instead use MRI scans.

    Disagreeing with Buxman, Wu said PET scans could be used to diagnose brain injuries along with being used to help diagnose cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

    Wu told Buxman there are peer-reviewed studies of his PET scan analysis; however, some of those studies were written by Wu and his colleagues, Wu testified.

    Wilson’s “chaotic” upbringing may have also contributed to abnormalities in his brain, Wu said.

    Buxman reminded Wu of other records of Wilson, stating he never suffered from familial abuse or had a traumatic head injury.

    Wu said it’s common for people who had a head injury to forget having them or ignore them.

    Wu said Wilson’s brain images are also similar to those who suffered with fetal alcohol syndrome.

    Carol Wilson, Wilson’s aunt, testified that Wilson’s late mother did smoke marijuana and drink alcohol while she was pregnant with her children.

    Carol Wilson said Wilson’s mother was neglectful toward Wilson, and that Wilson’s father abandoned him, and his stepfather abused him.

    “Curtis never had a father figure,” Carol Wilson said.

    Carol Wilson also spoke about Wilson’s mental health, which she said was ignored by his mother and never treated.

    “Curtis has always been misunderstood,” she said.

    Carol Wilson said the reason her nephew chose to sell drugs over getting a job was because young black men make more money that way.

    “That’s just the world we’re living in,” she said. “It’s not a choice.”

    Testifying as a rebuttal witness for prosecutors, psychiatrist Dr. Emily Lazarou said she evaluated Wilson in 2013 at the Citrus County jail to see if he had malingered, or lied, in previous mental health evaluations.

    “He was in fact malingering psychotic symptoms and that he didn’t need any psychiatric treatment,” Lazarou said, adding other mental health evaluations reported Wilson was malingering about having psychotic symptoms.

    Lazarou said Wilson also meets criteria for having antisocial personality disorder, or a disregard for social norms, which is treated with incarceration.

    Wilson’s hearing resumes Thursday.

    http://www.chronicleonline.com/news/...fce9fdc19.html

  4. #4
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    Killer gets life in prison

    By Buster Thompson
    The Citrus County Chronicle

    Jurors spared Curtis Wilson the ultimate punishment and decided the St. Petersburg man should instead spend life in prison for his role in the shooting death of former sheriff’s informant Jamie Seeger more than five years ago.

    After hearing closing statements Friday morning in Wilson’s sentencing hearing, which began Tuesday, 12 jurors deliberated for roughly five hours before finding Wilson’s crime was worthy of a death sentence but outweighed by mitigating factors.

    Those factors included Wilson’s abusive childhood, his neglectful mother, involvement with the drug community and mental health issues, according to a list of roughly 50 mitigating circumstances that defense attorneys presented to the jury.

    These same jurors in late September found Wilson, 35, guilty of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Seeger, who was found early July 25, 2012, in a car near a Crystal River area intersection with fatal gunshot wounds.

    Wilson’s sentencing hearing is the first instance in Citrus County in which the jury, not a judge, decided whether someone they found guilty of first-degree murder received death or life in prison.

    Following state law, Circuit Court Judge Richard “Ric” Howard ratified the jury’s life sentence.

    Wilson said nothing in response to his sentence but wept next to his attorneys, Candace Hawthorne and Brenda Smith.

    Hawthorne said she will draft an appeal, and also shared her condolences with Seeger’s mother, Wendy Moore, who was sitting in the gallery.

    “We will send out prayers for you and your grandchildren for you to move forward,” Hawthorne said, referring to Seeger’s son and daughter. “We’re very sorry for your loss.”

    Moore told jurors she was satisfied with their decision.

    “Today’s a step forward for myself and my family,” she said.

    Moore continued to thank everyone involved in her daughter’s case for “their hard work and determination that brought this case to its fruition.”

    “My faith in the criminal justice system has been restored,” she said.

    Friday morning’s closing arguments pitted attorneys arguing their cases that Wilson should receive life or death.

    “The defendant has earned his death sentence for the murder of Jamie Seeger,” prosecutor Pete Magrino said.

    Smith said Wilson’s background did not merit the death penalty.

    “Death is final and we can’t bring them back,” Smith told jurors. “It’s reserved for the worst of the worst of the worst.”

    Magrino, however, said Williams’ co-defendants, Lawrence Vickers of Crystal River and Marrio Williams of Dunnellon, paid Williams $1,000 to kill Seeger to prevent her from testifying against them in a 2012 drug case.

    “For someone who grows up in a low-income area and is also a two-bit drug dealer, $1,000 is a lot of money,” Magrino said, arguing Wilson was paid to do “a contract hit.”

    Since Seeger’s death, narcotics investigators lost a number of confidential informants, who were worried they’d fall victims to a similar fate, hindering polices’ abilities to arrest drug dealers, Magrino said.

    Smith argued the reason for a decrease in informants was due to a recent Florida law requiring police to be more stringent in their interviews with potential informants.

    Magrino pointed out testimony this week from mental health experts diagnosing Wilson with antisocial personality disorder, a precursor to being a psychopath.

    Citing testimony, Smith said everyone is born with some degree of antisocial personality disorder. Smith said incarceration, not death is the appropriate remedy for people with this disorder.

    “We don’t execute people for things they’re born with,” Smith said.

    Wilson was Baker Acted in 2005 for suffering from psychotic symptoms, like hearing voices, but his symptoms were brought on by his heavy drug use, Magrino claimed.

    Citing prior evaluations of Wilson, Magrino also worked to discredit testimony that Wilson suffered from a traumatic head injury or intellectual disability.

    Smith said Wilson was also the victim of a drug-laced community and a neglectful mother, who did not prepare her six children for schooling or take Wilson to his psychiatric treatments.

    “He wasn’t provided the assistance he needed,” Smith said. “We shouldn’t blame children for what their parents do.”

    Wilson’s abusive childhood may have happened, but Wilson was not a child when he murdered Seeger, Magrino rebutted.

    Of the three defendants, one is still awaiting sentencing. Vickers pleaded guilty in August to second-degree murder and faces up to 30 years in prison.

    Williams was found guilty by a jury in November 2016 and sentenced to life in prison. The court ruled Williams’ intellectually disabled, making him ineligible for the death penalty.

    http://www.chronicleonline.com/news/...af2f61af9.html

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