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Thread: Pablo Fernando Maldonado - Georgia Death Row

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Pablo Fernando Maldonado - Georgia Death Row



    The death penalty case against 24-year-old Pablo Fernando Maldonado is scheduled to be heard in the courtroom of Judge Horace Johnson, Jr beginning Feb. 25.

    Maldonado is accused of acting as ringleader in the 2009 murder of Conyers landscaper Timothy Clements. He, along with three others - Christian Caldwell, 19; Brittney Beasley, 20; and Katria McClain, 18 - are accused of kidnapping Clements, robbing him and then killing him, dumping his wrapped body in Snapping Shoals Creek. They reportedly stole his truck and fled to Alabama. According to McClain, who took a plea deal last year, the group planned the murder out the night before.

    A request from Maldonado's attorneys - who are also from the Capital Defender's Office - for a change of venue in October was denied.

    http://www.covnews.com/section/1/article/24602/

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    The death penalty case against 24-year-old Pablo Fernando Maldonado was originally scheduled to be heard in the courtroom of Judge Horace Johnson Jr beginning Feb. 25. It has been continued until April 23.

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    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Death penalty trial of 2009 murder expected to start this week

    COVINGTON -- The death penalty trial of a Covington man charged in the 2009 murder of a Conyers landscaper is expected to begin Wednesday.

    Pablo Maldonado, who was 22 at the time of his arrest in June 2009 and whose last known address was 12641 Brown Bridge Road, was charged with the murder of 55-year-old Timothy Clements.

    Clements' body was found by two fishermen in Snapping Shoals Creek on Ga. Highway 212 in early June after he and his truck were reported missing.

    Maldonado also was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated battery, armed robbery, concealing a death, false imprisonment, theft by taking and forgery.

    Lithonia residents Christian Caldwell, who was 17 at the time, and Maldonado's girlfriend Brittney Beasley, who was 18, also were arrested. Caldwell was charged with murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, armed robbery, concealing of a death, false imprisonment and theft by taking, while Beasley was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

    A 16-year-old female juvenile also was arrested in connection with the murder.

    Their charges are still pending.

    Robbery was said to be the motive, but the cause of death wasn't released.

    Jury selection for the trial took place last week.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Prosecutor: Landscaper's murder 'the ultimate betrayal'

    The death penalty trial of a Covington man charged with the 2009 robbery and murder of a Conyers landscaper began Wednesday in Newton County Superior Court.

    Pablo Fernando Maldonado, now 25, of 1738-B Kirkland Road, Covington, is charged with malice murder, two counts of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, concealing the death of another and forgery in the second degree.

    He is facing the charges in connection with the murder of 55-year-old Timothy Clements, a Conyers landscaper who was beaten with a metal baseball bat and hammer, tied up with a telephone cord and a grocery bag placed over his head and his body thrown into Snapping Shoals Creek near Ga. Highways 212 and 81 in June 2009 during a robbery. Clements left behind a wife, Barbara, and two children.

    "It was the ultimate betrayal," District Attorney Layla Zon told the jurors in the courtroom of Judge Horace Johnson during opening statements Wednesday morning.

    She told them how Maldonado met Clements in church, and Clements took him under his wing by providing him a job with his company, starting him in a rental home he owned on Kirkland Road and helping him purchase two vehicles, the second after he wrecked the first.

    Zon said that Maldonado "took advantage of those opportunities."

    "That friendship ended violently in a brutal murder," she told jurors.

    She said that evidence and witnesses will prove that Maldonado was the mastermind who led and manipulated three others to conspire to murder Clements.

    Lithonia residents Christian Caldwell, who was 17 at the time, and his pregnant girlfriend Brittney Beasley, who was 18, also were arrested in connection with the murder. Caldwell was charged with murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, armed robbery, concealing of a death, false imprisonment and theft by taking, while Beasley was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

    Their charges are pending, and they are expected to testify during Maldonado's trial.

    A 16-year-old female juvenile, who was Maldonado's girlfriend, also was arrested in connection with the murder and has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder but has yet to be sentenced.

    Zon plans to use evidence found at the scene, officials from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, telephone experts and witness statements to show that Maldonado conspired with his friends to rob Clements, kill him and sell his possessions for more money.

    "The motive was simple, the motive was money," Zon told jurors. "Maldonado never had money. The man never had money, no matter how much Mr. Clements loaned him."

    After discussing a plan at least several days prior with multiple individuals and then backing out on a first attempt, Zon accused Maldonado of luring Clements to his rental duplex on June 11, 2009, saying there was a water leak.

    Inside, the home was covered in sheets, and the windows and doors were nailed shut.

    When Clements walked in, Zon said Caldwell hit him with a metal baseball bat and then, after Clements fell to the ground in pain, Maldonado beat him in the back of the head with a hammer. Then they tied him up with a phone cord, placed a bag on his head to contain the blood and placed him in the closet.

    "They all had roles," Zon said of the alleged conspirators.

    Zon said that Beasley forged Clements' signature on a check and was ordered to clean up the mess alone, after the 16-year-old failed to participate out of fear. Meanwhile, the two men tried to cash Clements' check and got rid of his truck and equipment and later his body that they covered with sheets from Maldonado's bed and fabric that was found in the home.

    "This is not a rocket science kind of plan," Zon said.

    In the meantime, Clements' wife and others were looking for him, calling hospitals and law enforcement. The next day, two boys who were fishing found Clements' body in the creek.

    Deputies were alerted to the fact that Clements would have been at Maldonado's home the day of his death, so they searched the house, which smelled of bleach. The GBI also found Clements' blood in the house, Zon said.

    Jurors were warned that during the trial they would see "gruesome photos" from the scene of where the body was found and from a crime lab autopsy.

    Maldonado was arrested in Alabama where he had fled with the female juvenile. After being questioned, he used Clements' friendship as a defense, saying he would have never hurt his "angel," Zon said.

    Defense attorney Stephen Yekel, with the Georgia Public Defender's office, told jurors that Maldonado was at the house at the time of the event, but that Caldwell was really the mastermind.

    "There was never any intent to harm (Clements)," Yekel said, adding that Maldonado tried to call Clements again to change his mind so he wouldn't come in the house.

    He told jurors to pay attention to codefendants' testimonies and changing statements, and that evidence would show that many people had overheard a plan but nobody called police.

    "(Maldonado) is full of crap sometimes," Yekel told jurors. "He embellishes. People don't take him serious."

    He added that while Maldonado took part in the plan and used his vehicle to transport the body, he did not inflict a blow to Clements.

    "Pay close attention to the evidence," Yekel told jurors. "The fact that someone is charged is not evidence. The fact that someone is indicted is not evidence. ... Find Mr. Maldonado guilty of what he did, not what others say he did."

    The trial is expected to continue at least until next week at the Newton County Courthouse.

    http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/news/...-the-ultimate/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Maldonado guilty on all counts

    It took eight days to try the case against Pablo Maldonado but less than an hour for a jury to convict the 25-year-old of the murder of 53-year-old Tim Clements.

    Both defense attorney Stephen Yekel and District Attorney Layla Zon thanked the jurors for the time – not just in the trial, but during jury selection, before beginning their closing statements Friday morning.

    Yekel told jurors to use their common sense, but to also take into consideraion the credibility of the witnesses, including Maldonado's co-defendant's.

    “If you have that doubt you have to acquit, the law requires that you acquit,” he told them.

    Yekel also spoke quite a bit about Jonathan Harris, the elusive “J-Dawg” that he contends was the one who actually killed Clements. He also spoke to the believeability – or lack thereof – of Christian Caldwell, Brittany Beasley and Katria McClain.

    “I don't think Christian Caldwell would know the truth if it came up and bit him... Christian Caldwell took this bat, and he beat Mr. Clements with it. And he was gonna' keep beating him until he didn't get up, because it didn't happen like he said,” Yekel said.

    “Mr. Maldonado is not totally innocent and I ask you to find him guilty of those things that he did... Pablo is not guilty of murder, he was not swinging that bat... I ask you to find Mr. Maldonado guilty of what he did do. Of robbery, of forgery, of concealing the death... he's part of that. Find him guilty for what he did... he did not murder Mr. Clements. He set him up, I don't think there's any question about that. I think he ran his mouth and got himself into something he couldn't get out of. It got overblown and nobody thought it would happen, but it did.”

    Zon told jurors there was “a dark cloud” hanging over Kirkland Road the week Clements was killed.

    “There existed a perfect storm of depraved humanity.. the perfect cast of individuals. A match made in Hell. What a disaster, these group of individuals together... When you match Christian Caldwell and Pablo Maldonado, you get what happened on June 11, 2009. That man over there is not just guilty of murder, he's guilty of robbery, and today we are here for the truth.”

    According to Zon, the motive was always money. Not only was Maldonado in debt to Clements for thousands of dollars, he was broke, his bills were due and the “gravy train was coming to a halt.”

    “He couldn't do what he wanted to do to Tim Clements on his own, so he manipulates them,” she said. Saying that Caldwell was “street smart” and would never have participated if he didn't think there was something in it for him.

    “What he is and who he is and why it wasn't hard for him to take that hammer and strike the hand that fed him... It's tough to swallow coming from these kids, seeing what they are capable of... something very evil, something much worse than them was able to get these kids to do that. And that something is right here sitting at that table. That something is Pablo Maldonado.”

    The jury went out to deliberate around 2:20 p.m. and came back with a verdict roughly an hour later, finding Maldonado guilty of malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, concealing the death of another, kidnapping and forgery. The penalty phase of the trial will begin Tuesday, when defense attorneys attempt to convince the jury not to sentence Maldonado to death for the murder of Tim Clements.

    http://www.rockdalenews.com/section/1/article/12577/

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    Jury sentences Covington man to death

    A Newton County jury handed down the death penalty Thursday for a Covington man found guilty last week in the 2009 murder of a Conyers landscaper.

    This week, witnesses testified for and against Pablo Fernando Maldonado, 25, of 1738-B Kirkland Road, Covington, during the sentencing phase of the trial. Thursday afternoon, the jury returned with a verdict, sentencing him to death.

    Last week, the jury found him guilty on all charges: malice murder, two counts of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, concealing the death of another and forgery in the second degree.

    Maldonado was charged with the murder of 55-year-old Timothy Clements, a Conyers landscaper who prosecutors say was beaten with a metal baseball bat and hammer, tied up with a telephone cord and a grocery bag placed over his head. His body was thrown into Snapping Shoals Creek near Ga. Highways 212 and 81 in June 2009 during a robbery.

    Clements left behind a wife, Barbara, and two children.

    The trial began Aug. 22 in Newton County Superior Court in the courtroom of Judge Horace Johnson.

    Maldonado was immediately transported to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison at Jackson.

    http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/news/...-man-to-death/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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