Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Charles Reese Conner - Nevada

  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Charles Reese Conner - Nevada




    Facts of the Crime:

    A District Court jury convicted Charles Conner of first-degree murder and two counts of sexual assault for raping and beating to death 23-year-old Beth Lynn Jardine with a claw hammer in 1985. The jury of 11 women and one man handed down the death sentence after about four hours of deliberation. Beth Jardine's murder had gone unsolved for 22 years before a Las Vegas cold case detective in 2007 matched DNA recovered from the crime scene with records from a national database. The DNA matched Conner, who was convicted in 1996 of raping and kidnapping a 10-year-old girl.

    The murder trial, which began more than two weeks ago, featured graphic photos of Jardine's bloodied face. Crime scene photos showed blood spatters on the apartment's floor, walls and ceiling.

    On June 3, 1985, Jardine, an airman second class stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, was found nude and beaten to death in her northeast Las Vegas apartment by maintenance workers. Conner had hit Jardine more than 20 times in the head, according to testimony from a Clark County medical examiner.

    While the death penalty verdict was read, Conner stood stoically with his attorneys.

    Conner was sentenced to death on July 26, 2010.

  2. #2
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    July 27, 2010

    LAS VEGAS COLD CASE: Jury sentences man to death in 1985 murder

    Family of victim in '85 claw hammer slaying thankful for verdict

    A 61-year-old Arkansas man convicted of committing murder 25 years ago was sentenced to death Monday.

    A District Court jury last week convicted Charles Conner of first-degree murder and two counts of sexual assault for raping and beating to death 23-year-old Beth Lynn Jardine with a claw hammer in 1985.

    The jury of 11 women and one man handed down the death sentence after about four hours of deliberation.

    Afterward, Jardine's parents and one of her brothers, who attended every day of the trial and the subsequent penalty phase, said they felt justice was served.

    "It is a relief," said the victim's mother, Linda Jardine. "I still feel a little staggered by the evidence we saw in the trial. I think we knew all the facts of her death. But seeing them in living color was pretty shocking.

    "I'm really thankful for the jury," said the mother, whose testimony during the penalty phase brought at least four jurors and the defendant to tears.

    David Jardine, the victim's father, said "justice has been done at long last."

    Beth Jardine's murder had gone unsolved for 22 years before a Las Vegas cold case detective in 2007 matched DNA recovered from the crime scene with records from a national database. The DNA matched Conner, who was convicted in 1996 of raping and kidnapping a 10-year-old girl.

    The murder trial, which began more than two weeks ago, featured graphic photos of Jardine's bloodied face. Crime scene photos showed blood spatters on the apartment's floor, walls and ceiling.

    On June 3, 1985, Jardine, an airman second class stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, was found nude and beaten to death in her northeast Las Vegas apartment by maintenance workers. Conner hit Jardine more than 20 times in the head, according to testimony from a Clark County medical examiner.

    While the death penalty verdict was read, Conner stood stoically with his attorneys. He was in tears throughout most of the penalty phase as his friends, family members and daughter asked the jury to spare his life.

    During a tearful three-minute allocution earlier Monday, Conner told the jury that what he did seemed like a bad dream.

    "I know you must think I am a monster. I accept that," Conner said.

    Trembling, his voice cracking, the frail-looking man who has thyroid cancer apologized to the Jardine family.

    "There are no words to express the remorse I have for this heinous crime I have committed. Words cannot express how deeply sorry I am for the pain I have caused you. I am not asking for forgiveness. I don't deserve it," he said.

    Conner said he should have come forward years ago and taken responsibility for the crime.

    "But I was a coward. I was afraid of losing my family and my friends," he said. "I do not expect to be released from prison, nor should I be. I can only hope that God can give me some peace now."

    During closing arguments, Conner's defense attorneys asked the jury to consider circumstances that might explain, but not excuse, what he had done. They said Conner was physically, mentally and sexually abused as a child.

    But prosecutors said Conner did not deserve mercy. Until Monday, Conner had not shown remorse, they said.

    Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly described Conner as a "sexual predator and a violent person."

    Weckerly said Conner's siblings were also victims of abuse, "but none of them have sexually assaulted anyone or murdered anyone."

    Weckerly said Conner has "already gotten a lot of mercy from the criminal justice system."

    "He got to live a lifetime" during those 22 years after Jardine's slaying, Weckerly said. "Justice demands more than his time. Time isn't good enough."

    Deputy public defender Andrea Luem asked the jury to show both justice and mercy by sentencing Conner to life in prison without the possibility of parole. By choosing life over death, Luem told the jury, "you can be better than him."

    Prosecutors commended jurors for their service and for what they believe is the appropriate sentence.

    "It's been a long time coming," said prosecutor Joshua Tomsheck.

    Defense attorneys are expected to appeal the verdict as is done in all capital cases. The appeals process in death penalty cases can take more than a decade.

    Conner will be sentenced for the sexual assault convictions at a Sept. 27 hearing before Judge Elissa Cadish.

    http://www.lvrj.com/news/jury-senten...-99299739.html

  3. #3
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    August 2, 2010

    Lawyers call jurors' death penalty decision costly, unnecessary

    The jury already had convicted Charles Conner of first-degree murder and two counts of sexual assault in the death of Beth Lynn Jardine, a 23-year-old woman he raped and beat to death with a claw hammer in 1985.

    Now it was time to determine if Conner should die.

    For a week, jurors in the Clark County District Court case had listened to prosecutors present aggravating circumstances to support their case for death by lethal injection. Jurors were told that Conner's crimes were not isolated acts. He had been convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl.

    Defense attorneys argued mitigating circumstances, including Conner's history of childhood physical, mental and sexual abuse.

    Now, alone in the jury room, they took a vote: Seven for life in prison without parole. Four jurors -- including foreman Dino Carpenello -- for death. One was undecided.

    But those supporting the death penalty "were convincing," Carpenello said.

    A second vote came back 8 to 4 for the death penalty.

    After four hours of agonizing debate, the vote last Monday was unanimous: Death.

    •••

    Unbeknownst to the jury, the trial didn't have to happen at all, Conner's lawyers said.

    Since his arrest in 2007, Conner, 61, had been willing to plead guilty to all charges and accept a life term with no opportunity for parole. His lawyers say that offer, rejected by prosecutors, would have had the same effect as the death penalty.

    Conner has thyroid cancer and "is going to die in prison," Clark County Public Defender Philip Kohn said. "And he's going to die of natural causes" well before he comes close to receiving a lethal injection.

    The appeals process in death penalty cases can take more than a decade, and Kohn's team already is working on Conner's.

    "We are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars litigating this forever,'' Kohn said. "I think it's an incredible waste of money, since he would have taken life without (parole) and never gotten out."

    Kohn acknowledged that there are some cases that "shock the conscience of the community" -- such as mass or serial murders, for example -- where consideration of the high cost of a death penalty trial would likely fall on deaf ears. But he argues that prosecutors too often seek the death penalty, which has put more than 85 convicts on death row at Ely State Prison.

    "We should save it for the very worst cases, and he (Conner) is not it," Kohn said.

    District Attorney David Roger couldn't disagree more.

    "The death penalty is reserved for people exactly like this defendant,'' Roger said. "He raped a girl and murdered another. He deserved the death penalty. Period."

    Because the murder happened more than two decades ago and Conner was living in Arkansas when he was arrested, investigators and attorneys for both sides had to travel to numerous states, including Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, to prepare for trial.

    Many of the witnesses who testified at trial and in the subsequent penalty phase also had to come from out of state at taxpayer expense.

    Among the witnesses flown in by prosecutors were a woman Conner raped and kidnapped in 1994, when she was 9, and the two men who saved her.

    Jardine's parents, who also live in Arkansas, were brought in to testify about their grief over the death of their daughter, who was a 23-year-old airman 2nd class stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, and their anguish during the 22 years that her murder went unsolved.

    Defense attorneys flew in Conner's family and friends to testify that his life was worth saving. Conner's siblings testified that he was the victim of physical, mental and sexual abuse as a child. His siblings exposed family secrets about their abusive father, secrets some hadn't even told their spouses.

    The district attorney's office said $25,224.45 was spent on air fare, hotel rooms and standard witness fees for its witnesses.

    The public defender's office said it did not know its total costs.

    Roger said those costs shouldn't matter, and dismisses Kohn's criticism of prosecutors who file death penalty cases.

    Those who cite cost in opposing death penalty cases are the same people who drive up taxpayer costs, Roger said. Defense attorneys "bleed the system dry" and then try to convince the public that the death penalty is too expensive, he said.

    "All the courts have to do is to stop entertaining these endless, frivolous appeals, rule in a timely manner and execute people on death row. Once that happens the wishes of the people of the state of Nevada will be fulfilled," Roger said.

    The district attorney disagreed that cost should have played a factor making a plea deal with Conner.

    "So we brought some people in from out of state," Roger said. "Does that form a basis for giving a killer a chance for parole or life without the possibility of parole? In my book it doesn't."

    Regardless of the maximum penalty, defendants will always want a lesser sentence, he said. And because state law requires a jury to determine punishment in first-degree murder cases unless both sides agree to a sentence, the added cost of the penalty phase would remain, he said.

    Determining the fate of Charles Conner was draining for the jurors, said Carpenello, a 50-year-old dealer at a Strip casino. He said that being able to talk about the case has helped him recover emotionally.

    "The whole thing took a toll. I couldn't sleep at night," he said.

    The jury was subjected to myriad graphic and gruesome images and testimony. Carpenello said it was hard to repeatedly see crime scene photos and to hear the testimony from some witnesses. He described waking from his sleep one night during the trial and calling out for a court bailiff.

    When asked if he would have voted differently had he known that Conner was willing to plead guilty and take the life prison term, Carpenello paused before answering.

    "After seeing all the stuff he'd done, and that there were other victims, it wouldn't have made much of a difference to me," Carpenello said.

    "The brutality of this murder ... he deserved what he got."

    http://www.lvrj.com/news/lawyers-cal...-99744024.html

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Nevada high court overturns death penalty conviction in Las Vegas rape, slaying case from 1985

    The Nevada Supreme Court has overturned the death penalty conviction of a 65-year-old man found guilty in 2010 of raping and bludgeoning a woman to death with a hammer in 1985.

    The court ruled 4-3 that a Clark County District Court judge should have allowed defense attorneys to argue against excusing a black prospective juror during Charles Reese Conner's trial in the slaying of 23-year-old Nellis Air Force Base service member Beth Lynn Jardine.

    It will be up to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson to decide whether to seek a new trial or a plea deal.

    Jardine was an airman second class whose nude body was found in her northeast Las Vegas apartment.

    Conner was linked to the slaying through DNA.

    He was arrested in 2007 in Arkansas.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...nalty-Reversed
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    2,740
    He appears to have been resentenced to life.

    http://167.154.2.76/inmatesearch/form.php

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •