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Thread: David Gulbrandson - Arizona Death Row

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    David Gulbrandson - Arizona Death Row




    Facts of the Crime:

    Gulbrandson and the 45-year-old female victim operated a photography business, and also were involved in an intimate relationship. The victim ended their personal relationship in January of 1991, and Gulbrandson physically assaulted her on February 14, 1991. The victim sought and obtained a protective order against Gulbrandson as a result.

    On March 9, 1991, Gulbrandson threatened to kill the victim during a telephone conversation. Sometime late in the evening of March 10, 1991, or early in the morning of March 11, 1991, Gulbrandson entered the victim's home, and brutally tortured and killed her while her two children were sleeping. Despite the victim's intense struggle, Gulbrandson inflicted 33 incision-type injuries over her body, a puncture wound to her liver, and at least 10 blunt force injuries.

    In addition, he cracked the victim's teeth, fractured her nose and seven of her ribs, embedded part of a wooden salad fork in her leg, and attempted to burn her by lighting her hair on fire. Gulbrandson killed her by either strangling her or by inflicting a blow to her neck which caused her to suffocate. Gulbrandson left the victim in the master bedroom clad only in her panties, with her ankles and one wrist bound with electrical cords, and he left three knives, one razor knife, and one pair of scissors, all of which were bloodstained, in the kitchen sink.

    Gulbrandson left the scene in the victim's car. Gulbrandson's fingerprints were found at the scene, and bloody clothing was found at his residence. The victim's car was located in Montana on April 1, 1991, and Gulbrandson was arrested there two days later.

    Gulbrandson was sentenced to death on February 19, 1993.

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    Oral arguments in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit were held on June 14, 2012.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    GULBRANDSON V. RYAN

    In today's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinions, the court AFFIRMED the district court's denial of Gulbrandson's habeas corpus petition challenging his conviction and death sentence, and denied his request for a second or successive petition.
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    Federal court rejects death-row inmate’s appeal in 1991 Phoenix murder

    A federal appeals court Monday upheld the murder conviction of David Gulbrandson in the brutal 1991 stabbing and beating death in Phoenix of his business partner and one-time girlfriend Irene Katuran.

    A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Gulbrandson’s claims that his trial attorney was ineffective and that the judge should not have considered inflammatory victim-impact statements from Katuran’s family at sentencing.

    In a partial dissent, Judge Dorothy Nelson said the Arizona Supreme Court should have granted Gulbrandson a hearing on his claim that his attorney erred by failing to call a psychiatric expert to testify at his sentencing.

    Tim Gabrielsen, the attorney representing Gulbrandson in his appeal, pointed to the dissent and said he planned to appeal Monday’s ruling.

    But Susanne Blomo of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office said she was not surprised by the appeals court decision, which she believes “was the correct ruling.”

    According to court documents, Gulbrandson and Katuran ran a photography business in Phoenix, and were romantically involved for about a year in 1990. But that relationship ended in January 1991, and their business relationship began to fall apart.

    On Valentine’s Day, a drunken Gulbrandson tried to strangle Katuran in front of two friends, to whom he later said: “I’m going to kill her. I’m going to kill the business. I’m going to kill everything.”

    Katuran got a restraining order against Gulbrandson, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections, but he was at her house on March 10, 1991, when they got into an argument. Katuran threw a pair of scissors at Gulbrandson during the argument and he “snapped,” according to court documents.

    Police found Katuran the next day in her blood-stained house, with her ankles and one hand bound with electrical cords, clumps of hair ripped out, 34 stab and slicing wounds, and blunt-force injuries.

    Four knives and a pair of scissors were found in the kitchen sink covered in blood and a tine from a wooden salad fork was embedded in her leg. Gulbrandson’s bloody fingerprint was found on a soda can in the house.

    Katuran’s nose and seven ribs were broken and the thyroid cartilage in the front of her neck was fractured. Documents said she died from the multiple stab wounds in her back, one of which hit her liver, and the neck injury. Most, if not all, of the injuries were inflicted before death.

    After the murder, Gulbrandson took Katuran’s car and drove to Nevada where he gambled in a hotel casino before heading to Montana, where he was arrested on April 3, 1991.

    At trial, the defense called Dr. Martin Blinder, whose report, in part, showed that Gulbrandson had bipolar disorder, alcoholism and personality disorder – primarily narcissistic, with antisocial traits.

    But a jury convicted Gulbrandson on Dec. 15, 1992, of premeditated first-degree murder and theft. He was sentenced to death on Feb. 19, 1993, after a separate hearing before a judge.

    Gabrielsen said Blinder should have been called back to testify during the sentencing, when he could have spoken to Gulbrandson’s state of mind during the murder and also his potential for rehabilitation. The prosecution likely would have objected to that testimony at trial, but in a sentencing hearing it could have meant the difference between a death sentence and life in prison.

    “The trial lawyer should have called back the doctor at sentencing to give those opinions that would not have been relevant at the guilt phase,” Gabrielsen said.

    But Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote for the appeals court that the state Supreme Court reasonably determined Gulbrandson was not harmed by his attorney’s decision to not recall Blinder. She agreed with lower courts that the sentencing judge already knew Blinder’s opinion from his previous testimony and 1992 report, and did not need him to testify again at sentencing.

    “Counsel had already adequately apprised the sentencing court of Dr. Blinder’s opinions regarding Gulbrandson’s state of mind at the time of the murder,” Ikuta wrote.

    The court also rejected the argument that the sentencing judge might have been prejudiced by statements from Katuran’s parents and daughters, all of whom urged the death penalty. Ikuta wrote that, unlike a jury, a judge is presumed not be be swayed by such emotional appeals when applying the law.

    http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2013/0...hoenix-murder/
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    Court denies appeal for Arizona death-row inmate

    A federal appeals court has turned down an Arizona death-row inmate's appeal.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling upholds a trial judge's earlier decision to deny an appeal on behalf of David Gulbrandson.

    The appeal was based largely on complaints about Gulbrandson's legal defense during his trial in Maricopa County Superior court.

    Gulbrandson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the 1991 fatal stabbing of a business partner, Irene Katuran.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/...te-4934466.php
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    Yesterday's decision is an amended version of the March 18, 2013 decision made by the same three-judge panel. In other words, Gulbrandson has yet to file his petition for a rehearing en banc.

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    I read that yesterday on the opinion yesterday, but it was all over the news this morning so I posted it!
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Gulbrandson's petition for certiorari.

    Appeals exhausted. Ruling could result in an execution date.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (07-99012, 09-72779)
    Decision Date: October 28, 2013
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Denied re-hearing at SCOTUS on 8/11/14 - should really result in an execution date now.

    13-9631
    GULBRANDSON, DAVID V. RYAN, DIR., AZ DOC REHEARING DENIED

  10. #10
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Gulbrandson's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County
    Case Nos.: (CR 1991-090974)
    Decision Date: November 10, 2014
    Rehearing Denied: April 9, 2015
    Discretionary Court
    Decision Date: July 13, 2016

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....es/16-7083.htm

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