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Thread: Steven Edward Crittenden - California

  1. #21
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Prosecutors haven’t shown Crittenden could get fair trial in Butte County, venue expert says

    By Andre Byik
    Chico Enterprise-Record

    OROVILLE — Prosecutors have not met their burden showing Steven Crittenden, the previously condemned man whose murder convictions were overturned in the 1987 deaths of a prominent Chico couple, could receive a fair trial locally, a change of venue expert testified Tuesday.

    The defense expert, retired Chico State University professor Edward Bronson, said he did not believe the prosecution, which filed a reverse change of venue motion seeking to hold Crittenden’s retrial in Butte County, has shown that conditions present at Crittenden’s original trial have been “sufficiently abated” for him to receive a fair trial locally.

    Bronson conducted a formal survey gauging Butte County residents’ familiarity with the more than 30-year-old case, and he also analyzed news coverage of Crittenden’s retrial process in the last several years.

    Butte County Superior Court Judge Tamara Mosbarger could rule where Crittenden’s retrial is held in January, after Crittenden’s defense team and Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey submit written arguments.

    Crittenden, who previously waived his appearances for pretrial motions, was not present in court Tuesday.

    Bronson found that 49 percent of survey respondents recognized Crittenden’s case. He also found that of those who responded that Crittenden was either “probably guilty” or “definitely guilty,” a higher percentage of people answered “definitely guilty.” The finding posed an unusual and problematic case of prejudgment among potential jurors

    In his analysis of news coverage about Crittenden’s case and retrial process, he pointed to an article published by this newspaper in August that included an interview with Crittenden’s half-brother, Bryant Jones.

    Jones said Crittenden confessed to the January 1987 killings of Dr. William Chiapella, 68, and Katherine Chiapella, 67, before he was arrested as a suspect the same month. Jones also called Crittenden a “psychopath” who led a troubled life.

    Bronson said the article could be prejudicial to Crittenden’s presumption of innocence at trial.

    Crittenden, now 51, was convicted in 1989 of murder and sentenced to death in the slayings of the Chiapellas. Crittenden was a Chico State University student at the time, and the high-profile killings shocked the community.

    Crittenden’s convictions were later overturned by a federal district court that found the original prosecutor, Gerald Flanagan, was substantially motivated by race when he excluded the only potential black juror at Crittenden’s trial.

    Crittenden is black.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the district court’s ruling in 2015. Crittenden has remained in custody on death row at San Quentin as he awaits his new trial.

    Crittenden’s original trial took place in Placer County instead of Butte County in part because of extensive pretrial publicity

    Ramsey has filed a motion seeking to hold Crittenden’s new trial in Butte County, arguing in part that the passage of time, a relative lack of recent publicity and population changes in the county would allow Crittenden to receive a fair trial locally.

    He previously argued Nov. 1 that anyone under the age 44 would have been in grammar school or not born at the time of the Chiapellas’ deaths, giving the defense and prosecution a large pool of potential jurors to draw from.

    Ramsey said with careful questioning, an impartial jury selection in Butte County is not only possible, it’s probable.

    https://www.chicoer.com/2018/12/11/p...e-expert-says/
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  2. #22
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    Steven Crittenden admits guilt in 1987 killings of Chico’s William, Katherine Chiapella, before victims’ family in Placer County court

    Crittenden sentenced to 63 years to life in prison, will be taken off of death row as part of plea deal

    By Will Denner
    Enterprise-Record

    ROSEVILLE — A case lasting more than three decades reached a more resolute conclusion Friday morning when Steven Crittenden, 53, whose 1987 murder convictions in the killing of a Chico couple were overturned before the Butte County District Attorney’s Office prepared to retry Crittenden, was sentenced in based on a plea deal struck between Crittenden’s defense team and the prosecution, led by District Attorney Mike Ramsey.

    Crittenden was a 19-year-old Chico State student when he was accused of killing well-known Chico doctor William Chiapella and his wife Katherine Chiapella in an apparent burglary and robbery at their Downing Avenue residence on Jan. 13, 1987.

    On Friday, Placer County Superior Court by Judge Jeffery F. Penney reviewed the terms of the deal and ultimately sentenced Crittenden to a 63-years-to-life term, also waiving all credit for time Crittenden served until 2015, in lieu of a potential retrial. Ramsey also confirmed that Crittenden, who had been on death row at San Quentin State Prison, will be moved off of death row.

    Crittenden will not have a chance at a parole hearing until 2035 under current California law.

    Surviving members of the Chiapella were in the courtroom Friday and read victim impact statements, all of them addressing Crittenden directly as the defendant looked straight ahead, listening. The Chiapellas’ grandchildren, Geoffrey Chiapella, Will Chiapella and Danielle De Lanoy all spoke, as well as the Chiapellas’ children, Beth Reil, Anne De Lanoy and Joseph Chiapella.

    “Your statements were very articulate, meaningful and heartfelt, and I’m sure they had an impact on the defendant,” Penney said.

    As part of the arrangement, Crittenden also wrote a confession letter to the family, which was read into the record by Jeffrey Thoma, one of Crittenden’s attorneys. According to fellow defense attorney Robert Marshall, Crittenden handwrote the letter and edited it before his attorney’s typed it.

    Crittenden was arrested eight days after the gruesome killings, and his trial took place in Placer County in 1989, a change of venue decision that was based on the publicity in the case as well as the admiration and sympathy for the Chico husband and wife in the local community, Ramsey said.

    While awaiting trial, Crittenden attempted to escape from the Butte County Jail multiple times. On May 11, 1987, he freed himself from the jail and coerced a resident in a nearby neighborhood to drive him to Sacramento. He was then recaptured in Sacramento.

    A Placer County jury convicted Crittenden in a 1989 trial for the murders of the Chiapellas, counts of robbery and the use of knives in the killings, as well as escape and kidnapping charges for when he fled to Sacramento.

    The jury also returned a death penalty verdict, finding various “special circumstances” of multiple homicide, murder during a robbery and torture to be true.

    With a long list of twists and turns in the three decades to follow, the case was far from over.

    The California Supreme Court upheld the death penalty verdict in December 1994. However, a federal judge overturned Crittenden’s convictions in 2013 on the basis that the original prosecutor in the case, Gerald Flanagan, was substantially motivated by race in excluding the only prospective Black juror at Crittenden’s trial. Crittenden is Black.

    The prosecution appealed the decision in the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in favor of the the lower court decision to overturn the verdict in a split, 2-1 decision in 2015. That decision led the Butte County District Attorney’s Office to prepare to retry Crittenden with the death penalty.

    In early 2019, Crittenden’s defense team and the prosecution, led by Ramsey, appeared to have a deal that Crittenden would agree to be tried in Butte County in exchange for the prosecution agreeing to no longer seek the death penalty.

    Yet shortly after Gov. Gavin Newsom took office, he announced a moratorium on the death penalty at San Quentin State Prison, where Crittenden was being held pending his retrial, as long as Newsom remained in office. As a result of that decision, Crittenden would no longer agree to a Butte County trial.

    Another round of negotiations between the defense and the prosecutor Ramsey was launched. The end result was a plea deal that spared Crittenden of a potential death sentence, however, he was required to plead guilty to all the counts the earlier Placer County jury convicted him of in the 1989 trial.

    Additionally, Crittenden was required to write letter to the Chiapella family fully confessing to the crimes. The DA’s Office noted that could be used if Crittenden ever attempted to deny his responsibility for the crimes in the future.

    “Basically, this is a long slog we have done to make sure that justice is done,” Ramsey said. “I’ve talked quite a bit to the surviving Chiapella family (who) agree that this isn’t perfect justice, but it is as close to justice as they can get, particularly with the confession that was written to them.”

    https://www.chicoer.com/2021/04/16/s...ach-plea-deal/
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