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Thread: Kenneth Ray Jackson - Florida

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    Kenneth Ray Jackson - Florida


    Cuc Thu Tran




    Accused killer of Seffner mom slated for trial

    Cuc Thu Tran left her Seffner home at about 5:30 a.m. in September 2007 to go for her usual morning jog.

    She had pink rollers in her hair.

    The burnt body of the mother of three was found 2 1/2 hours later in the smoky hulk of a stolen van 13 miles away.

    Details of what happened in the interim are expected to come out in the next two weeks as the man accused of killing Tran faces trial.

    Jury selection is slated to begin today in the trial of Kenneth Ray Jackson, 29.

    Jackson has been held without bail since his arrest two weeks after deputies found the remains of the 1993 Dodge minivan in a vacant lot on Bullfrog Court in Gibsonton.

    Jackson is charged with first-degree murder, sexual battery with a deadly weapon, second-degree arson and grand theft. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if jurors convict Jackson. Lawyers in the case expect the trial to last two weeks.

    Deputies said Tran was stabbed and then set ablaze in the van, which was stolen from a parking lot where it was being offered for sale. The body was so badly burned it took authorities time to identify the victim's race or gender.

    Tran's blood-soaked cloths were discovered on the grounds of a Seffner church by a lawn maintenance worker.

    Witnesses, the clothes and other physical evidence led authorities to Jackson, deputies said.

    Investigators traced their suspect to Carabelle, in the Florida Panhandle, where he had family and friends.

    Deputies linked Jackson to Tran's death with a DNA sample they say he agreed to provide.

    The attack occurred weeks after Jackson was released from prison. He had served four years on grand theft charges from Franklin County.

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-ne...thi-ar-242906/

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    Attorneys don't seat jury in slaying of Seffner mom

    TAMPA -- Lawyers were unable to seat a jury in the trial of a man accused of raping, killing and then torching a Seffner mother in 2007.

    There weren't enough potential jurors left in the trial of Kenneth Ray Jackson after three days of jury selection.

    Attorneys and Circuit Judge William Fuente will meet Monday to decide the next step. Fuente told attorneys today that Jackson must be tried within 90 days.

    Jackson is charged with first-degree murder, sexual battery with a deadly weapon, and second-degree arson in the death of Cuc Thu Tran. He also is charged with grand theft in connection with the burnt stolen van in which Tran's body was found.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Jackson is convicted.

    Jury selection began Monday with 60 potential jurors. But questioning about their feelings on the death penalty, the way Florida applies the punishment and other matters reduced to pool to less than the required 12 jurors and a number of alternates.

    Thu Tran left her Seffner home at about 5:30 a.m. in September 2007 to go for her usual morning jog. The burnt body of the mother of three was found 2 1/2 hours later in the smoky hulk of a stolen van 13 miles away.

    Deputies said Tran was stabbed and then set ablaze in the van, which was stolen from a parking lot where it was being offered for sale. The body was so badly burned it took authorities time to identify the victim's race and gender.

    Deputies linked Jackson to Tran's death with a DNA sample they say he agreed to provide.

    The attack occurred weeks after Jackson was released from prison. He had served four years on grand theft charges from Franklin County.

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/j...mom-ar-243656/

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    Murder trial gets jury restart

    TAMPA -- Court officials ran out of juror candidates two weeks ago when they first attempted to try Kenneth Ray Jackson on charges of raping, killing and torching a Seffner woman in 2007.

    After starting with 60 people, prosecutors and defense attorneys fell one short of the dozen needed to sit on the jury, let alone those to serve as alternates in case a substitute was needed.

    When the jury selection process picks up again from the beginning on Monday, they plan to start with a pool of 75 to 80 potential jurors.

    Last time, it took four days before the smaller jury pool was exhausted.

    Jackson is charged with first-degree murder, sexual battery with a deadly weapon, and second-degree arson in the death of Cuc Thu Tran. He also is charged with grand theft in connection with the burnt stolen van in which Tran's body was found.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Jackson is convicted. It is that potential punishment that is drawing out the selection process.

    Susan Rozelle, a criminal law professor at Stetson University College of Law who is an expert in jury selection in death penalty cases, said it takes more time for lawyers to ferret out potential jurors' attitudes about the death penalty.

    She said some people are so opposed to the death penalty in principal that they would not convict in fear such a punishment could be imposed; others who could find a defendant guilty would not impose death.

    "The government is entitled to a panel that is willing to consider death as a possible punishment," Rozelle said. "But the defense is equally entitled to a jury willing to consider a life sentence."

    Rozelle said studies show so-called "death qualified" juries are more prone to convict and more likely to impose a death sentence. She said there are two reasons.

    The first, Rozelle said, is the jury questioning is better at identifying and removing anyone who wouldn't impose a death sentence — those who generally are more sympathetic to defendants.

    The second reason is more subtle.

    Rozelle said repeated questioning about whether a person would impose a death sentence implies the defendant is guilty.

    "The psychological effect to focus on the possibility of guilt undermines the constitutionally protected right that a defendant must be presumed innocent," she said.

    Rozelle said recent studies show the process is excellent at identifying those unwilling to impose a death sentence, but significantly lags behind in finding those who balk at imposing life.

    "The law requires finding jurors willing to consider both," she said.

    Bob Dekle, a retired prosecutor and former public defender who is now a professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, said jurors in death penalty cases can't be stereotyped; that questioning has to be "intense and extensive" to delve into a person's beliefs.

    "I used to look for a juror who was intelligent and displayed good judgment," he said, "and who had the ability to make the hard cold decision that, yes, this person deserved to die — not a decision anyone enters into lightly."

    Tran left her Seffner home at about 5:30 a.m. in September 2007 to go for her usual morning jog. The burnt body of the mother of three was found 21/2 hours later in the smoky hulk of a stolen van 13 miles away.

    Deputies said Tran was stabbed and then set ablaze in the van, which was stolen from a parking lot where it was being offered for sale. The body was so badly burned it took authorities time to identify the victim's race and gender.

    Deputies linked Jackson to Tran's death with a DNA sample they say he agreed to provide.

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/j...art-ar-247474/

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    Murder trial may not begin until 2012

    TAMPA -- The lead prosecutor in the Kenneth Ray Jackson murder trial voiced concern in court Friday that the trial might not get started before the end of 2011.

    Jackson is accused of raping and murdering a jogger and setting her body on fire. If he is convicted, he could face the death penalty.

    Opening statements in the capital murder case were supposed to begin by mid-July, but there were problems with jury selection. After going through a pool of 60 potential jurors, attorneys on both sides could only agree on 11. They needed 12 jurors and several alternates.

    A new trial date has not been set.

    Friday, lead prosecutor Scott Harmon told the court he would need six more weeks to prepare after the defense informed him they would be offering a new expert witness.

    The court set status hearings for Sept. 2 and Sept 12.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/murder-...l-2012/1184424

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    Prospective Juror Faces Jail For Ignoring Judge's Warning

    A prospective juror may have picked the worst possible judge to defy by ignoring the judge's written warning not to research a death-penalty murder trial getting started this week and not to talk about the case with other jurors.

    Would-be juror Vishnu P. Singh did all that. And when Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente found out Wednesday, he clearly was out of patience and out of leniency. He angrily told Singh to leave a valid address with the bailiffs and prepare to go to jail when he is called back.

    He then ordered Singh thrown out of the courthouse.

    The judge is presiding over the first-degree murder trial of Kenneth Ray Jackson, 30, charged with raping and fatally stabbing a 50-year-old Seffner mother of three in 2007. The trial is expected to last a month because of the state's intention to seek the death penalty.

    Fuente's previous attempt to try Jackson failed last year when lawyers couldn't find 12 acceptable jurors out of a pool of 60. Many were discharged because they said they could not impose the death penalty under any circumstances.

    The same judge presided over another failed high-profile murder trial in August. That trial was to be the first of four trials for Dontae Morris, who is accused of committing five murders in 2010, including those of two Tampa police officers.

    The August trial was stopped and 80 prospective jurors were dismissed after Fuente learned that some had gossiped about Morris' multiple charges during rest periods and lunch.

    But although 16 admitted they had either gossiped or listened, Fuente charged none of them with contempt of court.

    The judge took extra precautions when the current trial for Jackson started on Monday. He recruited a pool of 200 prospective jurors and gave each of them a written order not to research the case or talk to anyone about it. Before every break, he reminded them about the order and warned them not to talk about the case.

    Then Wednesday, a juror reported Singh talked over lunch about Googling Jackson's name the night before. The juror said he refused to listen, then reported the conversation to bailiffs. This time, Fuente did not dismiss the entire panel, but said Singh could count on a jail sentence.

    Reached later in the day, Singh said he hardly remembers the judge's written order. "I remember a piece of paper," he said. "I didn't read the whole thing."

    He said he shouldn't have Googled Jackson's name, but didn't learn that much, and "I never shared it with anyone." He guessed that other jurors probably Googled, too.

    As for a likely jail sentence, Singh said he can't afford a lawyer so he is mailing Fuente a letter saying, "What I did was wrong."

    http://www.theledger.com/article/201...1374?p=2&tc=pg
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  6. #6
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    Lawyers give opening statements in 2007 Seffner murder

    TAMPA — After Cuc Thu Tran, a 50-year-old Seffner mother of three, was raped and fatally stabbed in September 2007, her killer set fire to her body inside a stolen van. The fire, a prosecutor said Monday, was the killer's attempt to destroy evidence that could lead to his execution.

    But in opening statements for the death-penalty murder trial of Kenneth Ray Jackson, the prosecutor said a key piece of evidence was found "where the flames couldn't reach."

    The evidence was DNA — "the very essence" of Jackson — Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon told jurors. "It was the evidence this rapist murderer was so desperately trying to get rid of."

    So began a trial that is expected to last at least three weeks and involve about 50 prosecution witnesses. Jackson, an unemployed ex-convict who is now 30, is charged with first-degree murder, sexual battery with a deadly weapon, arson and grand theft.

    There are no eye witnesses. Tran, who was among thousands of Vietnamese "boat people" who made their way to America after the Vietnam War, was jogging in the dark at 5:30 a.m. near the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on County Road 579 in Seffner when she was attacked.

    Jackson lived about 100 yards from her trailer in the Grand View Mobile Home Park. He has denied knowing her.

    In Monday's opening statements, Jackson's attorneys did not detail their defense for jurors. But before trial, attorney Greg Hill told the judge that Tran's widowed husband could make "a viable, alternative suspect."

    Months after the murder, Tran's husband cut ties with his three sons. But he has never been charged with a crime.

    On Monday, prosecutor Harmon described painstaking detective work — and a bit of luck — that led to Jackson's arrest.

    After grass-cutters found Tran's bloodied clothing at the Catholic church, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies set up a traffic stop on County Road 579, hoping to find motorists who had seen something.

    It led to no leads. But when a tired detective stopped by a nearby BP station for a cold drink, he met a clerk who said she had heard about the murder from a frequent customer named "Kenny."

    The customer talked about a stolen van and a spot in Gibsonton where the van was found on fire, details that hadn't yet been released.

    "That is how the case broke," Harmon said.

    Detectives tracked Jackson, who had recently finished a four-year prison sentence for grand theft, to the small Panhandle town of Carrabelle, where he had moved a few days after Tran's body was found.

    In four hours of taped interviews that jurors will hear, Jackson denied any involvement. But he allowed the detectives to take a saliva DNA sample. Harmon said the DNA matched a semen sample found in Tran's body. Jackson was then brought back to Hillsborough.

    Harmon portrayed Tran as a struggling mother who worked six days a week as a nail technician at the Brandon mall. Her oldest son, 23, lived out of state, but her two youngest sons, ages 16 and 10, "were her entire life," Harmon said. Her only time to walk or jog was at 5:30 a.m.

    Harmon told jurors that Jackson was waiting for her, in a van he had stolen from a nearby auto parts store.

    Defense attorney Jennifer Bradley did not respond directly to the accusations in her opening statement, but urged jurors not to let the horrific nature of Tran's death keep them from objectively evaluating the evidence.

    "You are not to base your verdict on sympathy," she said.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...murder/1256508

  7. #7
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    Jury finds man guilty in 2007 murder of Seffner jogger

    Given damning DNA evidence the defense didn't challenge, finding Kenneth Ray Jackson guilty of the 2007 rape and murder of a Seffner jogger was the easy part for a jury Thursday.

    The hard part comes next week when the jury returns to vote on whether Jackson, 30, deserves the death penalty.

    The jury deliberated two hours before convicting Jackson of attacking Cuc Thu Tran, 50, in September 2007. Tran had been among thousands of Vietnamese "boat people" who made their way to America after the Vietnam War. She worked six days a week giving manicures at a Brandon mall. A mother of three, she lived with her two youngest children in a small trailer. Her only time for jogging was before dawn.

    Tran's bloodstained jogging clothes and sneakers were found Sept. 13, 2007, on a grassy berm at the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on County Road 579 in Seffner. Her body was found in a stolen van set on fire in a field 14 miles away in Gibsonton. Her throat had been slashed.

    The bloodied clothing "were the echoes of rape, the echoes of murder," Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon said Thursday in closing arguments.

    But the most compelling evidence, Harmon said, was "the biological identity he left in her" — Jackson's DNA.

    Jackson declined to testify Thursday and never confessed to detectives, but Harmon said the suspect's "gift of gab" left him unable to resist bragging in jail about his crimes.

    The prosecution produced two former Hillsborough County jail inmates who said Jackson described the rape and murder in detail. Each had shared a jail pod with him — one in 2008, and the other in 2010.

    They said Jackson told them he had frequently watched Tran jog. He lived just a hundred yards from her trailer in the Grand View Mobile Home Park.

    They said Jackson described how he stole a van from an auto parts store parking lot, then accosted Tran as she ran by the church. It was about 5 a.m.

    They said Jackson told them he made Tran strip her clothes off, then raped her at knifepoint. When she became hysterical, they said, he cut her throat.

    According to the inmates, Jackson then loaded her body into the van and drove her to a field in Gibsonton, where he got stuck in the sand. Unable to move the van any farther, he set fire to it. He walked the 14 miles back to Seffner.

    A break in the case came a few days later when a Seffner convenience store clerk said a customer named "Kenny" had described details of the murder that the Sheriff's Office hadn't made public.

    By then, Jackson had moved to the Panhandle town of Carrabelle. Detectives tracked him there. He denied any knowledge of Tran, but gave them a saliva DNA sample that matched DNA in semen recovered from Tran's body.

    The DNA, prosecutor Harmon said, "was hard, cold science. Evidence doesn't get more absolute than DNA. Just that alone proves his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

    Jackson's defense attorney, Greg Hill, conceded that the DNA was Jackson's, but said the prosecution hadn't conclusively linked it to the murder. He offered Tran's estranged husband as a possible suspect, although the husband's DNA was tested, too, and no match was found.

    In addition to the DNA and statements by the jail inmates and store clerk, the prosecution had surveillance video that placed Jackson at a Walmart near the church just before the attack. Witnesses also testified they saw him walking in Gibsonton after the van was set afire.

    "It's a matter of evidence," Harmon told the jury. "He is a rapist and a murderer."

    In the late afternoon Thursday, the jury convicted him of first-degree premeditated murder, armed sexual battery, theft of the van and arson.

    Circuit Judge William Fuente told the jurors he would bring them back next Thursday to hear arguments for and against the death penalty. Their vote needn't be unanimous and will serve only as a recommendation for the judge. But a tie vote or anything less would require the judge to sentence Jackson to life in prison.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...jogger/1258343
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    Jurors hear testimony in death penalty case for 2007 murder

    Only hours after a jury began weighing the death penalty for convicted rapist and murderer Kenneth Ray Jackson, one juror told the judge she was overcome emotionally and begged to be excused. Testimony about Jackson's learning disabilities as a child reminded her too much of her youngest son. She couldn't take any more.

    Voting for life or death is something no one can prepare for. The remaining 13 — 12 jurors and one alternate — began hearing a history of Jackson's entire life Thursday to help them decide. On Friday, they'll give their recommendation.

    A week ago, they convicted Jackson of the 2007 rape and murder of Cuc Thu Tran, 50, a Seffner mother of three whom Jackson attacked as she jogged past the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church near her mobile home before dawn. He raped and fatally stabbed her there, then drove her body to Gibsonton in a stolen van, where he set the van on fire.

    On Tuesday, Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon told jurors that Jackson had planned every part, learned her jogging schedule, stolen the van because it had sliding doors and killed her because she lived near him and could identify him. Under the law, his actions met a required aggravating factor for the death penalty — "cold, calculated, premeditated murder."

    Jackson's actions, Harmon said, met another aggravating factor — "heinous, atrocious and cruel."

    But Assistant Public Defender Charles Traina said that how Jackson got that way — how he grew up to become a sexual predator and killer — was why he deserved a life sentence rather than death.

    The defense presented teachers who taught Jackson almost two decades ago and psychologists to portray him as a friendless child abandoned by his mother, raised by a grandmother who set no boundaries — a wild, unreachable boy who eventually formed a full-blown antisocial personality disorder.

    Rosemary Borden, his fifth-grade teacher in Gibsonton, remembered him as "the only student I ever had to Baker Act." She said he was taken to a crisis center after drawing a stick figure lying on a road. He wrote underneath "Kenny is dead. Kenny will die."

    This was a boy, she said, who had come from Texas where he had been labeled emotionally disturbed and could read only on a first-grade level. He had an IQ of 75.

    Psychologist Yolanda Leon, testifying for the defense, said Jackson told her he'd been "tortured" as a child by being ordered to strike a wood post with a baseball hat until his hands went numb.

    She said he told her he had smoked marijuana since age 5.

    But prosecutor Harmon suggested Jackson exaggerated stories of abuse. He said Jackson's grandmother loved him, and his mother stayed in his life.

    Testimony concludes Friday. Then the jury will vote on a recommendation to Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente. Their vote needn't be unanimous. By law, Fuente is required to give it "great weight."

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...murder/1259435
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Jurors began deliberating this afternoon over whether to recommend a death sentence for a man they convicted last week of raping and murdering a Seffner mother of three.

    Kenneth Ray Jackson's defense argued that his difficult childhood should weigh in favor of a life sentence, while the prosecution maintained that the brutal 2007 murder of Cuc Thu Tran justified execution.

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/n...jac-ar-552160/
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    By an 11-1 vote, a jury has recommended the death penalty for a man they convicted last week of raping and murdering a Seffner mother of three.

    The jury deliberated the fate of Kenneth Ray Jackson for about 90 minutes this afternoon before making its recommendation. Circuit Judge William Fuente will now decide the sentence.

    Jackson's attorneys argued that his difficult childhood should weigh in favor of a life sentence, while the prosecution maintained that the brutal 2007 murder of Cuc Thu Tran justified execution.

    Jackson abducted Tran during an early morning jog near her home, then raped her and stabbed her in the throat before driving her 13 miles in a stolen van and setting her and the van on fire.

    Assistant Hillsborough State Attorney Scott Harmon told jurors that the murder was cold, calculated and premeditated.

    Describing the attack and the fear the victim must have experienced in horrifying detail, Harmon said, "Imagine the fear and the terror that's going through her mind. Imagine the escalation of the fear and terror as he either strips her clothes off of her or forces her to strip her own clothes … the dread that increases as he pushes her onto the ground in this grassy area, that fear that's in her mind knowing what he's going to do … ."

    Harmon then detailed how the defendant stabbed the victim repeatedly in the throat, first trying to silence her screams and then to kill her. And he described the steps Jackson had to take to plan the murder, stealing the van because he knew what he was going to do having watched her jog in the past.

    Harmon told jurors during his closing argument Friday, "He didn't show her any pity or mercy when he murdered her."

    Defense attorney Charles Traina emphasized to jurors that no matter what they do, Jackson will never walk free. Their decision last week to convict Jackson ensured that, Traina said. The only issue is whether or not he should receive a death sentence or life in prison without parole.

    None of the arguments now being made by the defense, Traina said, are attempts to justify what happened to Tran, "who, by all accounts, was a very good mother and a valuable person for our society."

    "The evidence that's been presented to you in this matter does not justify a death penalty," Traina said. "This was a horrible event. No doubt about that. It should be hard for me to come to you and ask you for a life recommendation, but it isn't. I suggest that's because of the enormous amount of information that indicates Kenneth Jackson never really had a chance to grow up any different than he grew up.

    "Cuc Tran can't come back if you recommend the death penalty. That's not going to bring her back. And Kenneth Jackson's already gone. He's going to be in prison for the rest of his life no matter what."

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/n...jac-ar-552160/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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