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Thread: Marlin Larice Joseph - Florida Death Row

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    Marlin Larice Joseph - Florida Death Row







    Trial set for man accused of killing West Palm mom, daughter

    By Hannah Winston
    Palm Beach Post

    WEST PALM BEACH - The man accused in the December 2017 killings of a 36-year-old woman and her 11-year-old daughter in West Palm Beach is scheduled to go to trial early next year, court records show.

    Marlin Larice Joseph, 28, appeared in court Friday, where Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo denied his attorney’s motion to release him on bond. During the same hearing, the judge set his death-penalty trial in the fatal shootings of Kaladaa Crowell, and Kyra Inglett, for Feb. 10, 2020

    Joseph’s case has bounced between criminal court and mental-health court since August 2018, several months after his arrest. In September, Circuit Judge Laura Johnson ruled was competent to stand trial after months of treatment and observation at a mental-health facility, according to court records.

    This came after Joseph punched his attorney, Fredrick Susaneck, in the nose during a jail visit. In an emergency motion filed in August, Susaneck wrote the punch came “without warning and clearly in spite of the alleged finding of competency in this case.”

    On Dec. 28, 2017, Joseph was arguing with Crowell, his mother’s girlfriend, about her daughter’s “bad attitude.” Joseph, who lived in the home on the 800 block of Third Street, just three blocks north of Clematis Street and west of the Palm Beach County Courthouse, fled the scene after shooting Crowell in the home and Kyra just outside it.

    Earlier in the day, neighbors said they say the “spunky” and “artisitic” fifth-grade Northboro Elementary School student riding her purple bicycle outside the home.

    Crowell became a “second mom” to her patients Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health in West Palm Beach, where she was a case worker.

    https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/2...m-mom-daughter
    "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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    Trial begins for man charged with killing woman, daughter

    By Gary Detman and Al Pefley
    cw34.com

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — The trial of a man accused of killing his mother's girlfriend and her daughter is now underway with opening statements being given by prosecutors and the defense.

    West Palm Beach Police said 28-year-old Marlin Joseph shot and killed 36-year-old Kaladaa Crowell and 11-year-old Kyra Inglett in 2017.

    “This man pulled the trigger and he killed those people and you’re not going to hear a justification for it,” said Prosecutor Richard Clausi, Jr.

    Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if Joseph is convicted.

    Parice Joseph testified he heard gunshots and saw his younger brother, Marlin, run from the house with a gun in his hand.

    “He had a gun, he was running with a gun, he came outside with a gun in his hand," Parice said.

    He said, however, that he didn't see Marlin fire the shots.

    In his opening statement, the prosecutor told jurors Joseph is the killer and he called the crimes “deliberate and senseless violence.”

    The prosecutor says Joseph was upset that his daughter was being mistreated by Kyra Inglett and that’s what led to the murders.

    “Who could expect that this type of thing would happen over something so trivial," Clausi told the jury.

    He says Joseph shot and killed Crowell inside the home he shared with her and then he chased the 11-year-old girl outside and shot her.

    “One of the last things she’s experiencing that you’re gonna learn from the facts and evidence is running in fear from her own home because this man is trying to kill her," Clausi said.

    In his opening statement, the defense attorney called the shootings tragic but he said it’s also tragic that Marlin Joseph has been charged with the crimes because he didn’t do it.

    “They have no witness who saw the actual shooting," Joseph's attorney Fred Susaneck said. "My client did not do this. There’s no evidence that he did it."

    Joseph’s mother testified she was there that night but she didn’t see who fired the fatal shots.

    “I want to see Marlin get some help, he needs help. I’ve been stressing that to everybody for two years. He's already mentally tormented in his own mind," said Robin Denson, the defendant's mother.

    The trial is expected to last two weeks.

    http://cw34.com/news/local/trial-beg...woman-daughter
    "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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    Man guilty in 2017 West Palm fatal shootings of mom, daughter

    By Hannah Winston
    Palm Beach Post

    WEST PALM BEACH — When Marlin Larice Joseph shot Kaladaa Crowell twice in the head as she called for help, suffering from several previous gunshot wounds by Joseph, his acts were heinous, atrocious and cruel, Assistant State Attorney Jo Wilensky said.

    And when he chased Crowell’s 11-year-old daughter, Kyra Inglett, out the door of the West Palm Beach home they shared in 2017, shooting her five times, include three times in the head, it was much of the same.

    Shortly after the 12-person jury found Joseph guilty of two counts of first-degree murder Monday afternoon, Wilensky explained during her opening statements of the death penalty phase of his trial that these were some of the aggravating factors as to why they should send the 28-year-old to death row.

    “There is not mitigation that can outweigh these crimes,” she said.

    The jury will return Tuesday morning before Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo to continue the death-penalty portion of the trial. If the jurors reach a unanimous decision of death, Joseph will be the first person sentenced to death in Palm Beach County since John J. Chamberlain in 2002. He later was resentenced to life in prison.

    West Palm Beach police say Joseph fatally shot of Crowell, 36, and Kyra, on Dec. 28, 2017. Investigators say Joseph’s mother and Crowell were dating and living in the same home on the 800 block of Third Street, three blocks north of Clematis Street and west of the Palm Beach County Courthouse.

    Joseph’s case bounced between criminal court and mental-health court since his 2018 arrest. In September, a judge ruled Joseph was competent to stand trial. Joseph, who broke the nose of one of his attorneys, spent months in treatment and under observation at a mental-health facility, according to court records.

    During his opening arguments for the death penalty phase of the trial, defense attorney Sean Wagner told the jurors that no law book or answer on a computer could make this final decision for them when it comes to Joseph’s life.

    Instead, he said they will make their own decisions after hearing about Joseph’s childhood, his promising athletic career cut short by dwindling grades and learning disabilities, a caring family and the mental illnesses that gave him delusions in the weeks leading up to the fatal shootings.

    He said the decision they make is not only a legal one, but also a moral one.

    “The only way Marlin Joseph gets out of prison is in a pine box,” Wagner said, referring to a casket. “The way he gets put in that pine box is why we’re here.”

    During the three-day trial, prosecutors argued Joseph was upset that Crowell’s daughter had ongoing issues with his daughter. Defense attorneys said there was no physical evidence pinning the crime on him and no eyewitness to the shooting.

    During his closing arguments Monday morning, defense attorney Fredrick Susaneck reminded the jury about several questions prosecutors didn’t answer for them:

    Where is the murder weapon? Where are the fingerprints that put him in Crowell’s car he allegedly fled in? Where is the witness testimony saying anyone in the home even saw the 28-year-old shoot anyone?

    “They put a lot of speculation on this case,” Susaneck said. “But they didn’t prove my client committed this crime.”

    Assistant State Attorney Richard Clausi Jr. asked the jury during his rebuttal: Who else could have shot the mother and daughter? Who else was seen with a gun just days before the shooting? Who else had a motive?

    One by one, he listed off each person who was at the residence on Dec. 28, 2017.

    Joseph’s mother, Robin Denson, and one of his brothers, Cordarious, testified they were standing outside the home and didn’t see anything when they heard the shots go off. He put an “X” over their names.

    The teen who testified Friday that she was in the shower when she heard shouting and then gunshots couldn’t have fired the gun, Clausi said. Another “X.”

    One brother, Patrick, denied ever being in the home that evening when he testified last week. Initially, he told police he heard a gunshot and went out of his room to see Crowell on the ground. Clausi marked his name off, too.

    Another brother, Parice, testified he saw Kyra run out of the home followed soon afterward by Marlin, who he tackled to the ground.

    “We know it’s not Parice. He’s trying to stop (Marlin Joseph) from killing that girl. Parice was the only one who tried to do something,” he said.

    Additionally, Clausi told the jury, it could rule out Crowell or Kyra harming themselves. He asked again, “unless bullets rained down from the sky,” who could have shot and killed the mother and daughter?

    “Who is the only one left?” he asked the jury, holding up a piece of paper. Only Marlin Joseph’s name remained.

    https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/2...f-mom-daughter
    "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 recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing woman and her daughter

    By Gary Detman, Sabrina Lolo
    CBS12 News

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — The jury has unanimously recommended the death penalty for a man convicted of killing a woman and her 11-year-old daughter.

    This decision comes on Wednesday for the second day of testimony in the death penalty phase of Marlin Joseph's trial. However, the judge has the final say.

    The judge set a sentencing hearing for April 23 to see if Joseph will pay for his crimes with his own life.

    https://cbs12.com/news/local/jury-to...ouble-murderer
    "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

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Wow! Its been 18 years since a jury was unanimous for the death penalty in this county.
    "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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    Senior Member Member DStafford's Avatar
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    I’m all for the death penalty, but I don’t understand how someone who was mentally ill when they committed the crime to the extent that the COURTS deem them too unstable to go to trial can be tried months to years later after they’ve been put on medication to treat their mental illness.

    -Dawn

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    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    Because it has not been ruled unconstitutional at any level to execute someone with a mental illness

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    After jury recommends death penalty for Marlin Joseph, families speak to judge once more

    Marlin Joseph, found guilty in a 2017 double murder, had another hearing before Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo will decide whether to impose the death penalty as a jury recommended in February

    By Hannah Winston
    Palm Beach Post

    WEST PALM BEACH – As he sat in the witness box behind Plexiglas on Friday morning, Kenneth Crowell told the judge he missed his daughter's dimpled smile and contagious laugh. He missed his smart and happy granddaughter. Then, he turned his attention to Marlin Larice Joseph.

    "Those bullets you fired, Mr. Marlin (...) Look at me. I wish you would look at me. Those bullets are still moving. They didn’t stop in the bodies of our own children," he said. "You destroyed multiple lives. Even those in your own family."

    He paused for a moment, staring directly at Joseph.

    "Why?" he paused, waiting for an answer.

    "Why? he said again louder.

    "You deserve nothing less than what is coming your way," Crowell said.

    On Friday, Joseph and his lawyers had another chance to present more evidence and testimony to Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo before she imposes a sentence for the 29-year-old convicted of killing Kaladaa Crowell and her 11-year-old daughter, Kyra Inglett, in 2017. The 12-person jury who found him guilty in February unanimously recommended the death penalty for Joseph.

    If Caracuzzo follows the jury's recommendation, Joseph will be the first person in Palm Beach County to be sentenced to death since 2002. Joseph's case has been back and forth between mental-health court and criminal court, but he was found competent to stand trial, again, in September, according to court documents.

    The judge did not set a date for sentencing, but said she expected it to be in the next three to four weeks after she reviews the trial evidence.

    Each time Caracuzzo asked Joseph a question as to whether he wanted to put on any evidence or speak on his own behalf, the father of three leaned up to the mic and repeated:

    "I didn't kill anybody. I plead the Fifth Amendment."

    On Dec. 28, 2017, police say, Joseph shot Kaladaa Crowell several times, and as she asked for help, he shot her twice in the head. Then, investigators said, he chased Kyra out of the home as she fled and shot her five times, including three times in the head.

    Witnesses told police that Joseph was upset about an issue between his daughter and Kyra, though those in the shared West Palm Beach home said that before the shooting, the girls were playing around like they normally did.

    Friday's hearing also gave time for Joseph and Crowell's family to speak about their loved ones and ask the judge either to spare his life or, as Crowell's father, Kenneth Crowell, said to Joseph directly, "you deserve nothing less than what the state of Florida allows."

    Florida is one of 25 states that still have the death penalty, according to the national nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

    Caracuzzo reminded those speaking that while she appreciated what they all had to say, she cannot weight their testimony when making her decision about the sentencing.

    "But clearly, two families' lives have been destroyed," she said.

    One by one, each of Joseph's children went up in front of the judge, rose their small hands to take the oath and march up to the witness box. One son looked over at the deputy, confused when the clerk asked if he would swear to tell the truth. Caracuzzo translated the formality and asked if he promised to tell the truth. He agreed.

    In timid, and sometimes whispered words, each child explained how much they loved their father and wanted him home. Each kept their eyes to their hands as their father watched on from the far side of the room, shackled in place.

    Robin Denson, who had been through the entirety of the trial as did Crowell's parents, immediately broke down in tears. She said she asked God why he chose Marlin out of all of her children to be in this situation. She said he was a football player who understood how important school was, but when he had his daughter in high school, his No. 1 priority was to be a father.

    "I just want to say no one knows Marlin better than me or God, other than his name and why we are here today.

    "Many people have said they want me or Marlin to die or rot in hell," she said. "But I’m still here. I’m still standing. I’m still fighting. And I will continue to fight."

    She turned her attention to Crowell's parents and spoke to them directly She said she wouldn't wish what happened to their daughter and granddaughter on anyone and that she is still in pain from what happened as well. Denson and Crowell shared the home together with their children, police said.

    "Whether you believe it or not, I pray for you all more than I pray for my son," she said.

    Lajunia Crowell said when Joseph fired the first bullet into her daughter in 2017, she knew that he meant to kill her but that, "God said no."

    "When he fired a second bullet, God again said no. She was still alive," she said. "(Joseph) took a third bullet and he shot Kaladaa, he executed Kaladaa in the head. ... I know he wanted to make sure that Kallada didn’t exist."

    She said the way he then went after her granddaughter and killed her devastated the family even more. She said she believes the jury "got it right" with the death penalty.

    "If I smell a fragrance, see a child, or see someone who looks like my daughter or my granddaughter, it comes down like a brick. It is so heavy," she said.

    Kenneth Crowell let Joseph know every feeling he had from the moment he learned the news to sitting Friday across from him in the courtroom.

    "You just don’t know what I want to do. Or what I want to say," he said. "I’m going to say one thing: You are an evil person. An absolute evil person in its purest form."

    But, he said, he did not hate Joseph, because he was a Christian and a deacon. He admitted to want to track him down after the fatal shootings, but "the God in me wouldn’t let me do what I had in my mind."

    Joseph's youngest brother, Cordarious, told the judge he originally didn't plan on saying anything. But as he listened to Crowell's father say over and over how his brother deserved the death penalty, he said he had to say something. He said you can't be a Christian and want death.

    "I love you forever," he said to his brother, breaking down on the stand. "No death penalty is going to change that."

    https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/...ge/3666926001/
    "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

  9. #9
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Killer sent to death row for shooting mom and 11-year-old girl in their heads

    By MARC FREEMAN
    THE SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

    A killer of an 11-year-old girl and her mother in South Florida — brutal violence his lawyers blamed on mental illness — was sentenced to death Thursday.

    Marlin Larice Joseph, 29, should be executed for the Dec. 28, 2017, murders of Kaladaa Crowell, 36, and her daughter, Kyra Inglett, said Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo.

    “There can be nothing more terrifying for a child than knowing that someone has just shot their mother multiple times and now was coming after them,” Caracuzzo said. “There is no doubt that this panic-stricken little girl experienced a level of terror that no child or no one should ever have to endure.”

    In February, a jury of six men and six women found Joseph guilty and unanimously recommended capital punishment.

    Joseph lived in the same West Palm Beach house as the victims before shooting both in the head, first the mom and then the daughter as she ran from the house.

    Joseph’s sentencing, originally set for late April, was delayed for seven months partly because of the coronavirus pandemic and also because the county’s mental health court considered defense arguments that Joseph is too mentally ill to be sent to prison or death row.

    After a review by doctors, the court found Joseph competent for sentencing.

    Despite the jury’s recommendation, Caracuzzo could have opted for a life sentence. Instead, Joseph became the first person since 2002 to receive a death sentence for a Palm Beach County murder.

    “Death is the proper penalty,” the judge said of the punishment for both killings. “Marlin Larice Joseph, may God have mercy on your soul.”

    In a Sept. 9 letter to the judge, Robin Denson, Joseph’s mother, wrote that before the trial her son turned down a plea deal because of his mental illness.

    “If Marlin were in his right mind he would of took the 60 years that the state offered him,” said Denson, who was dating Crowell before the tragedy.

    “Sentencing Marlin to death won’t change the fact that he’s not mentally well,” Denson said in her letter. “Sentencing Marlin to life in prison won’t change the fact that he’s not mentally well ... the healthy Marlin wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

    But prosecutors Jo Wilensky, Richard Clausi and Adrienne Ellis said Joseph targeted his victims because he was angry over the way Kyra was treating his then-8-year-old daughter.

    “Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable,” Clausi told the jurors, quoting from playwright Tennessee Williams. “Deliberate cruelty is what took Kaladaa’s life. Deliberate cruelty is what took Kyra’s life. And deliberate cruelty is why we’re asking you to deliver the punishment that fits the crime, with regards to what he did on that day. And that is a recommendation of death.”

    Listing factors to justify a death sentence, the prosecution said shootings were “heinous, atrocious, or cruel,” for the way Joseph fired at the victims’ heads, and the slayings were done in a “cold, calculated, and premeditated manner” without any reason.

    The judge agreed.

    “Kaladaa Crowell was well aware of her impending death,” Caracuzzo said. “She suffered and begged for help.”

    Joseph’s lawyers, Fred Susaneck and Sean Wagner, said he suffered from paranoid delusions and his fears caused him to pull the trigger. During the trial, they argued he didn’t do it.

    Following the guilty verdict, the defense implored the jury not to treat Joseph like the “worst of the worst,” such as a serial killer. They said Joseph did not make his victims suffer, contending Kyra likely was unconscious after she was shot.

    Joseph’s lawyers also presented a more favorable side of their client as a father of three young children who love him.

    efore the jury voted for death, the defense showed the panel family photos and videos, including footage from a family birthday dinner at Benihana restaurant, when Joseph sat at a table with Kyra and her mom.

    Also displayed were newspaper clippings and videotape from Joseph’s days as a local high school football player, before poor grades cut short a promising future on the field. Relatives and others shared stories about him.

    Denson said that before her son began struggling with mental illness, he “was so much into the Bible” and worked in construction.

    “Marlin was a hard worker, he was caring, he was a gentle giant,” said Wayne Monroe, his former John I. Leonard High School football coach.

    But Kenneth Crowell, father of Kaladaa and grandfather of Kyra, said the jury made the right decision.

    “It was a horrendous murder, torture, execution of our babies,” Crowell told reporters in February. “Kaladaa didn’t deserve that. Kyra did not deserve that.”

    https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/p...5le-story.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  10. #10
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo ordered Marlin Joseph to death row via Zoom.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-As6NHs_E3E
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

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