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Thread: Ethan Johns Sentenced To LWOP in 2008 SD Murder of Officer Chad Mechels

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    Ethan Johns Sentenced To LWOP in 2008 SD Murder of Officer Chad Mechels

    State To Seek Death Penalty In Deputy Killing

    PIERRE, SD - Authorities say they intend to seek the death penalty in the shooting of a Turner County deputy last year.

    Attorney General Marty Jackley and Turner County State's Attorney Tiffani Hoeke announced the state's filing of the Notice of Intent to Request the Death Penalty in the shooting of Officer Chad Mechels.

    Twenty-year-old Ethan Johns is charged with first-degree murder, accused of shooting Mechels last March. The officer was sent to Johns' rented farmhouse to check on him after he reportedly threatened to kill himself during a fight with his girlfriend.


    http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,96983

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    Lines drawn for evidence in Johns trial

    PARKER - Judge Steven Jensen spent Monday morning in a Parker courtroom deciding which bits of evidence jurors in Turner County will and won't hear when the murder trial of 21-year-old Ethan Johns begins in August.

    Johns could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Turner County sheriff's deputy Chad Mechels last year at a Marion farmhouse.

    The story of a physical altercation between Johns and his girlfriend is in as potential evidence. His marijuana use - before and after the killing - is out.

    The Turner County Sheriff's Department's policy manual might make the cut. Mechels' personnel file from his time with the Lake County Sheriff's Department will not.

    Defense lawyers think that opening the deputy's employment history to juror scrutiny will help show that Johns acted in self-defense. They argued that Mechels had a history of disregarding policies - such as one that requires a deputy to call for backup before approaching a suicidal subject - and that the deputy was forced to resign from the Lake County department in 2008.

    Mechels didn't call for backup on March 15, 2009, when he performed a well-being check on an armed, suicidal man who turned out to be Johns. This shows a reckless disregard for policy, lawyer Jeff Cole said Monday.

    "Who has ever heard of a law enforcement officer serving a warrant with one deputy?" Cole said.

    Cole told the judge that there had been a break-in at Johns' residence months before the encounter with the deputy, and that he shot in self-defense because he didn't know the man at his door that March morning was a deputy.

    Prosecutors scoffed at that notion.

    "Deputy Chad Mechels is not on trial here - Ethan Johns is on trial," prosecutor Patricia DeVaney said. "Ethan Johns' intent is relevant; Deputy Mechels' intent is not."

    Most of Mechels' employment history and personnel records will not be admissible, Jensen said, but he will review one case from Lake County and consider admitting the Turner County Sheriff's Department policy manual.

    Prosecutors successfully lobbied to admit into evidence a series of text messages sent by Johns to his girlfriend, her father and her sister in the hours leading up to the shooting. Johns reportedly assaulted his girlfriend and threatened to shoot anyone who came to his house.

    The reason for the fight and Johns' marijuana use, however, will not be considered admissible evidence.

    "I don't think that marijuana use is relevant and would be more prejudicial than anything else," the judge said.

    The trial is set to begin Aug. 23.

    http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100511/NEWS/5110307/1001/rss01

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    Johns Trial Moved To Sioux Falls

    SIOUX FALLS, SD - The murder trial of a man charged with killing a deputy sheriff in Turner County is being moved 30 miles to Sioux Falls.

    The judge approved a change-of-venue request from attorneys for 21-year-old Ethan Johns. They said it would be hard to seat an impartial jury in Turner County because Johns and Deputy Chad Mechels have ties there and many potential jurors have formed an opinion. The judge tells the attorneys there's a "reasonable apprehension" that Johns would not receive a fair and impartial trial there.

    Johns is accused of shooting the 32-year-old Mechels when the deputy was sent to check on Johns' well-being in March 2009. The state plans to seek the death penalty if Johns is convicted of first-degree murder.

    http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,101124

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    Johns' Lawyers Challenge Death Penalty

    SIOUX FALLS, SD - Attorneys for Ethan Johns want a judge to declare South Dakota's death penalty unconstitutional.

    The 21-year-old Johns is charged with killing Turner County Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels last year. Prosecutors will ask for the death penalty if he's convicted of first-degree murder. Defense lawyers say in court papers that the death penalty law is vague, broad and denies due process. A judge will hear their arguments at a motions hearing Wednesday.

    Johns' trial is scheduled to begin August 23 in Sioux Falls. His lawyers say he acted in self-defense.

    http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,102179

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    Johns' lawyers want two juries in murder trial

    Lawyers for a Marion man facing capital murder charges in the death of a Turner County sheriff's deputy last year think parts of South Dakota's death penalty law are unconstitutional.

    If Judge Steven Jensen doesn't agree, they want him to seat two separate juries at the trial, which is set to begin Aug. 23 in Sioux Falls.

    Ethan Johns, 21, is accused of shooting Deputy Chad Mechels on March 15, 2009. He's charged with alternate counts of first-degree murder and second-degree murder.

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    Prosecutors announced their intention to seek the death penalty in February.

    The decision significantly complicates the trial.

    Death penalty cases in South Dakota involve one trial to determine a suspect's guilt or innocence and a second to decide on the death penalty. The jury for the first trial ought to be open to those who are morally opposed to the death penalty, according to Johns' lawyers, Jeff Cole and Sid Strange.

    The second trial wouldn't be necessary if they are granted the first motion they filed in Turner County this week. For a murder charge to carry a possible death sentence in South Dakota, there must be an aggravating circumstance. In the Johns case, prosecutors allege that the killing occurred to avoid, prohibit or interfere with a lawful arrest.

    Strange and Cole say that standard is so broad that it allows for the law to be applied in an "arbitrary and capricious manner" and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

    Such arguments generally are not effective in or out of South Dakota, according to Richard Dieter, head of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., but defense lawyers in capital cases make them anyway because their client's life is on the line.

    "In a death penalty case, you have to challenge just about everything," Dieter said. "As an attorney, your first job is to keep your client alive."

    The Supreme Court has ruled that an aggravating circumstance defined too broadly is unconstitutional, Dieter said, and he expects Strange and Cole to make a similar point during a court hearing Wednesday in Sioux Falls.

    Cole and Strange also have said Johns acted in self-defense when he shot at 32-year-old Mechels from a bathroom window.

    They've hired an eye doctor to testify that Johns couldn't see who he was shooting at from his window. The lawyers argue that Mechels shot at him while he hid in the bathroom, then fled the house.

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    Prosecutors have pointed out that Johns called a friend within minutes of the killing and said, "I just shot a cop."

    On Wednesday, his lawyers also will argue for two juries - another step that rarely is successful, Dieter said. Still, the idea has gained traction. During jury selection, prosecutors screen potential jurors for those who are morally opposed to the death penalty, which often results in a more conservative jury, he said.

    In New Mexico, all death penalty cases have two separate juries.

    "That's not normally granted, it's not required constitutionally, but at least one state has adopted it as a standard," Dieter said.

    Johns' lawyers will argue that separate juries will further preserve their client's right to a fair trial.

    Judge Jensen already moved the trial from Parker to Sioux Falls because he agreed that Johns would be unlikely to get an impartial jury there. Both he and Mechels were well-known in Turner County, and the case has received plenty of pretrial publicity.

    http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100709/NEWS/7090331/1001/rss01

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    Motions Hearing Set In Murder Case

    Issues involving the death penalty and jury selection will be argued by attorneys at a motions hearing Wednesday in the Ethan Johns' murder case.

    The 21-year-old is charged with killing Turner County Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels in March 2009. Johns goes on trial in August and could face the death penalty for a first-degree murder conviction.

    Johns' attorneys are challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty law. They say Johns acted in self defense when Mechels went to check on Johns' well-being.

    http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,102428

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    New Trial Date Set In SD Deputy Shooting

    Trial has been set January 18 for a man charged in the fatal shooting of a South Dakota deputy sheriff.

    Attorney General Marty Jackley announced the date Friday in the case of Ethan Johns, who faces a murder charge. Johns had been scheduled to go to trial Aug. 23 in last year's shooting death of Turner County Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels. The trial is delayed while his attorneys try to find someone to replace a ballistics expert they had planned to use but who will be unavailable to testify.

    The 32-year-old Mechels was shot and killed when sent to Johns' rented farmhouse in March 2009 to check on his well-being. Johns' lawyers have said he acted in self-defense. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a first-degree murder conviction.

    http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,104523

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    Judge won't allow prison informant's testimony

    Prosecutors will not be allowed to use some evidence gathered by a jailhouse informant when the trial against the man accused of shooting a Turner County Sheriff's Deputy begins in January.

    Ethan Johns, 21, is charged with first-degree murder and faces the death penalty in the killing of deputy Chad Mechels on March 15, 2009.

    Defense lawyers argued in July that statements gathered by two inmates at the Minnehaha County Jail in summer 2009 should be suppressed because the inmates were acting as agents of the state.

    The collection of such statements amounts to a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, they said.

    Judge Steven Jensen ruled Wednesday that only some statements Johns made to informant David Walls will be admissible at trial. Every conversation the two had after June 29, 2009, is off limits.

    On that day, Walls told detectives with the Division of Criminal Investigation he'd been speaking with Johns about the Mechels case and planned to continue asking questions and passing along information.

    He began to talk up his own criminal history in an attempt to persuade Johns to open up, hoping to elicit information that would help him earn an early release.

    At that point, Jensen concluded, Walls became an agent of the state.

    That moment is an important one. Using informants to get information from unsuspecting defendants bypasses the constitutional guarantee of legal representation, according to University of South Dakota Law Professor Chris Hutton.

    "Once we appoint a lawyer to represent you, we don't let the government try to undercut that," Hutton said.

    Investigators in the Johns case said as much at a hearing on the matter in July. DCI Agent Nate Leuning testified that law enforcement is restricted in what they can ask for from informants. Leuning was working with Walls on a murder-for-hire case when the inmate first mentioned the Johns case.

    "It took me aback to hear that Walls was procuring a relationship with Ethan Johns," Leuning said.

    The first few statements Walls collected will be admissible, Jensen ruled, as will statements from Johns passed along to the DCI by Robert Jones, another inmate. Jones sent an unsolicited letter to prosecutors offering information and was not an agent of the state, Jensen said.

    Johns' trial is set to begin Jan. 18 in Sioux Falls.

    http://www.argusleader.com/article/2...314/1001/rss01

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    Change Of Plea Hearing Set In SD Deputy Shooting

    SIOUX FALLS, SD - Attorney General Marty Jackley says a man who has pleaded not guilty to killing a South Dakota deputy sheriff in March 2009 is scheduled to change his plea.

    Jackley and Turner County State's Attorney Tiffani Hoeke say in a statement that a change-of-plea hearing for 21-year-old Ethan Johns is set for Wednesday in Parker.

    A spokeswoman for Jackley says no further details are being released. Sid Strange, one of Johns' attorneys, also declined comment.

    Johns was to stand trial January 18 on murder charges in the shooting death of 32-year-old Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels at a farm west of Marion. Prosecutors were planning to seek the death penalty if Johns was convicted.

    Mechels died of a gunshot wound when he responded to Johns' rural home to check on Johns' well-being. Defense attorneys have maintained that Johns acted in self-defense.

    http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDet....cfm?Id=107133

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    Ethan Johns pleads guilty to 2nd Degree Murder

    At a hearing late Wednesday afternoon in Parker, Ethan Johns pled guilty to Second Degree Murder.

    Johns is accused of killing 32 year old Deputy Chad Mechels at a farm west of Marion in March of 2009.

    Mechels had been called to the farm to check on Johns' well-being.

    For pleading guilty, Johns is facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison, and part of the plea agreement shows that Johns was found mentally competent at the time of the killing.

    The plea agreement also means he's waiving his right to appeal and prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

    Johns will be formally sentenced Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

    http://www.ksfy.com/Global/story.asp?S=13520109

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