Juanita Luciano and Yvonne Bustamante
June 8, 2010
Woman's dying statement can be heard during trial
BARTOW - A Circuit Court judge ruled Monday that the dying statements of one of the women who died after being burned during an attempted robbery can be admitted in next month's murder trial of Leon Davis Jr.
The jury will hear that Yvonne Bustamante identified Davis as her assailant when neighbors arrived at the Lake Wales insurance office to help her.
Davis is facing the death penalty on five-counts of first-degree murder from two incidents a week apart in December 2007. It was the worst slaying spree in Polk County history.
Bustamante and Juanita Luciano, who worked at Headley Nationwide Insurance agency in Lake Wales, both died from their injuries.
Authorities charge that Davis, 32, attempted to rob the agency where he was a customer, and when the clerks said there was no money, he bound them with duct tape, doused them in gasoline and set them on fire.
Jurors will know what Bustamante said, but they won't hear comments Luciano made to investigators, according to Circuit Judge Michael Hunter's ruling Monday.
Though paramedics and police officers who saw Luciano said they didn't think she would survive her burn injuries, the state couldn't produce evidence that she knew she was going to die and stated that, Hunter said.
Both women told authorities that Davis attacked them, according to police reports.
Before police arrived, Bustamante asked a neighbor who was helping her to pray for her because she didn't think she was going to make it.
Lawyers in the case, along with Hunter, said legal issues related to dying declarations are rare, and this instance is among the few times it's been argued in Polk County.
http://www.newschief.com/article/20100608/NEWS/6085031/1021/news01?Title=Judge-Woman-s-dying-statement-can-be-heard-during-trial
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