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  1. #1
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    Joshua Graham Packer Sentenced in 2010 CA Slayings of Brock and Davina Husted


    Brock and Davina Husted


    Joshua Graham Packer


    Details of Husted killings revealed in search warrant documents

    The armed intruder demanded cash and jewelry when he burst into the Husted home in Faria Beach the night of May 20, 2009.

    Davina and Brock Husted’s 9-year-old son told sheriff’s detectives he helped his parents get cash for the man wearing the black motorcycle helmet. The boy later also got his mother’s purse to give to the intruder in hopes to get him to go away.

    But by then the man had grabbed a knife from a kitchen butcher block and was stabbing the Husteds in a back bedroom while their son hid behind the living room couch.

    The man then fled the same way he came into the house, via the beach, not harming the boy and his sleeping 11-year-old sister. The parents had urged him not to hurt the children and he had agreed, the son told detectives.

    Details surrounding the slayings of Brock and Davina Husted and their unborn child were in affidavits in support of search warrants that were unsealed last week by Judge Bruce Young.

    Joshua Graham Packer, 20, was arrested in April after his DNA was linked to the Husted killings.

    Packer was indicted July 22 on three counts of first-degree murder along with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of first-degree burglary. Packer is charged with three special allegations of using a knife to commit the three murders. Also, Packer was indicted for three counts of using a firearm to commit the robberies and the burglary.

    He is charged with three special allegations which make him eligible for the death penalty, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Frawley. “By late October we are planning on having a decision,” Frawley said Thursday.

    Frawley has said there are no other suspects.

    Sources have told The Star that DNA was found on the visor of a motorcycle helmet found under Brock Husted’s body. DNA was also found under Brock’s fingernails, the source said.

    Packer’s DNA was collected following his January arrest on suspicion of a Santa Barbara gas station robbery under a new California law that allows collection of DNA samples in all felony arrests.

    Judge Edward Brodie set the trial for March 1 with pre-trial motions set to begin on Feb. 1.

    There were 18 search warrants served after the stabbings. Detectives served searched warrants to collect evidence like telephone records, blood stains, fingerprints, DNA, clothing, human hairs, fibers, documents and clothing.

    In the affidavit to support the search warrants, detectives said the Husteds’ son told them he was sitting on the couch watching the news after he and his parents had just finished watching the season finale of “American Idol” TV show. Detectives said the show ended about 10:15 p.m.

    The suspect came into the home from the beach and demanded money and jewelry, and Davina Husted told her son to get her wallet from her purse and take the cash out of the wallet, according to the affidavit. The boy got his father’s wallet and gave it to the suspect along with the cash from his mother’s wallet, court records show.

    “(He) did as he was told and placed Davina’s cash and Brock Sr.’s wallet on the floor near the suspect,” the affidavit states, adding that the suspect picked up the money and Brock’s wallet.

    His parents made the suspect promise not to hurt their children, and he promised he wouldn’t. The boy said he saw his father “run hurriedly” down the hallway toward their bedroom with his mother running behind him and the intruder following them.

    The boy told his aunt that he thought he could defuse the situation by bringing his mother’s purse and offering it to the suspect, which he began to do, according to the court affidavit.

    “(The boy) told her as he was walking toward the master bedroom, he heard Davina scream and dropped her purse and hid again,” the aunt told a detective, according to an affidavit.

    There was a purse on the kitchen floor of the beach house that appeared to have been knocked off the counter, a homicide sergeant stated in a court document.

    After the intruder left the house, the boy went to the bedroom where he saw his parents’ bodies. He then woke up his sister from her bedroom and told her what had happened.

    After both children checked on their parents, they locked themselves into their parents’ room and then climbed out a bathroom window and ran to a neighbor’s house.

    The boy who gave a detailed description of the suspect’s clothing and said the suspect was a “dark-skinned African American with blue eyes and a deep voice.”

    Packer is white.

    “ He noticed the suspect’s eye color when the suspect looked directly at him,” according to court documents.

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/02/details-of-husted-murders-revealed-in-search/?partner=yahoo_feeds#ixzz0yQOcuDGy

  2. #2
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    Packer had hand cut, says affidavit

    Joshua Graham Packer showed up for work as a security guard the day after Davina and Brock Husted were killed last year looking uncharacteristically disheveled, with a gash on his hand, co-workers told detectives.

    He said he had been in a motorcycle crash, but his co-workers joked “with Packer about him being the person involved with the murders at Faria Beach,” a sheriff’s deputy wrote in an affidavit supporting a search warrant served on Packer.

    “(A co-worker said) Packer didn’t noticeably respond to the comments,” the deputy wrote.

    Packer, 20, was arrested 11 months later and charged with the stabbing deaths of the Husteds and their unborn child. The stabbings occurred May 20, 2009.

    DNA found underneath Brock Husted’s fingernails and on a motorcycle helmet visor left at the crime scene linked Packer to the stabbings, according to the affidavit.

    But police are puzzled about why Packer targeted the Husted family, who lived in a beach house inside the quiet Faria Beach community, which was shaken by the slayings.

    “Although we do not believe this murder was the result of a home invasion robbery, we are still unclear as to why this suspect targeted Brock and Davina Husted, who lived in an isolated gated community on the beach,” a Ventura County Sheriff’s Department detective stated in the affidavit filed July 29.

    The killer came into their home through the sliding doors facing the beach and demanded money and jewelry, court records show.

    An autopsy shows that Brock and Davina Husted died from multiple stab wounds. Davina Husted had been stabbed 30 times and Brock Husted more than 20 times.

    Packer was indicted July 22 on three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of first-degree burglary. Packer is eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors have not decided whether to seek it.

    The arrest came after DNA collected from Packer after an arrest in Santa Barbara County was matched to the DNA from the Husted scene.

    According to an affidavit filed in July 2010, on the Friday after the Husted slayings Packer’s security guard co-workers joked among themselves that Packer was the person involved. He said he had crashed his motorcycle and came to work with a large cut on his hand that looked like a gash.

    A female co-worker said Packer was always on time for work, very neat and professional. He never missed work and had his boots shined. The day after the slayings, she said, Packer appeared unkempt and his boots were a mess, according to the affidavit.

    A co-worker who had tried to talk Packer out of buying a motorcycle said that day he was limping and had scratches on his helmet and a “big cut” on his hand. The co-worker said Packer was “all messed up.” Packer told him that he had “hit some sand.”

    The male co-worker said Packer spoke often about motorcycles, jiu-jitsu, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and martial arts.

    A female co-worker described Packer as a “kid right out of high school” who was nice and always tried to get her attention at work by saying hello.

    There were 18 search warrants served after the stabbings. Detectives served search warrants to collect evidence like telephone records, blood stains, fingerprints, DNA, clothing, human hairs, fibers, documents and clothing.

    This year, detectives searched Packer’s girlfriend’s house. He had called her numerous times on the day of the stabbings. His girlfriend told a detective that she had bought a motorcycle for Packer and that he was going to pay her back over time. She also purchased a black helmet for him, according to the detective.

    She told detectives in April that she and Packer were no longer dating but remained friends.

    Detectives searched Packer’s Ventura residence April 11. A detective observed several books in a shelf relating to mass murder investigations, unsolved crime mysteries and criminal law.

    In the affidavit filed with the 2009 search warrants, detectives told the court they were exploring leads at that time that were linked to a Brock Husted business in Pismo Beach and to a woman whom a friend identified as a longtime mistress of Brock Husted.

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/03/faria-beach-suspect-looked-disheveled-day-after/?partner=yahoo_feeds#ixzz0yYqXHNnl

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    Joshua Packer convicted of battery in VCMC altercation

    A jury this week convicted Joshua Packer of misdemeanor battery for a 2009 altercation with security guards at Ventura County Medical Center but deadlocked on a felony assault charge.

    Jurors returned the guilty verdict Monday afternoon in Ventura County Superior Court. Packer, 21, of Ventura is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

    Packer also is accused of killing Brock and Davina Husted and her fetus at their Faria Beach home in 2009. He is facing three counts of murder and the death penalty in that case, scheduled to go to trial Sept. 12. Packer has pleaded not guilty, court records show.

    Packer's conviction for the hospital altercation is his second since his 2010 arrest in the unrelated homicide case. Prosecutors alleged Packer was involved in an altercation with security guards while he was a patient at the Ventura hospital.

    He was convicted in April of felony dissuading a witness, misdemeanor battery and hit and run. The charges stemmed from a 2009 hit-and-run crash. He is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on July 13.

    Packer also could face charges for a recent altercation with sheriff's deputies in Ventura County jail, officials said.

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jun/...#ixzz1Qark1Iuz

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    Judge says prosecution can have Joshua Packer's mental health records

    Prosecutors may see the mental health records of Joshua Packer, the man charged with killing a couple and their unborn child in Faria Beach in May 2009, a judge ruled Tuesday.

    That information is “extremely relevant and could be very persuasive in the penalty phase,” Ventura County Superior Judge Patricia Murphy said before granting the prosecution’s request.

    Packer is accused of fatally stabbing Brock and Davina Husted, who were expecting their third child, in their home. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Packer admitted to the killings and has offered to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison, an offer the prosecution did not accept, according to documents filed by the defense. The district attorney is seeking the death penalty.

    Before the mental health records are released, Murphy said she would review the files to ensure nothing in them threatens Packer’s privacy on issues that aren’t relevant to the case.

    Depending on what Murphy decides, Packer’s attorneys could again raise objections over why certain files should continue to be denied.

    Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Michael Frawley requested the files, arguing he could not properly prepare for the defense. He said it is clear the defense “intends to put evidence of the psychological makeup and personal psychology” of Packer into the case.

    Murphy agreed.

    “I can’t see how the defense would not present that,” she said.

    A psychologist hired by the defense is preparing a report on Packer’s mental state, based in part on what is in those files. The court has ordered that be completed by July 12.

    A readiness conference was scheduled for July 24.

    Meanwhile, the district attorney and state Attorney General’s Office submitted briefs to the court of appeals on the matter of whether Frawley should be removed from the case.

    Packer’s attorneys are trying to get Frawley removed, arguing a conflict of interest. Packer and Frawley’s children belonged to the same Christian youth group years ago.

    The defense brief is due by July 8, at which point the 2nd District Court of Appeals in Ventura will likely set a date to hear oral arguments in the matter.

    It’s not likely a new trial date will be set until that matter is settled. That could take months, as an appeal to the California Supreme Court from the losing side is imminent.

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/jun/...#ixzz2XHIkKAem
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    DA to seek death penalty in Faria Beach slayings

    The district attorney announced Tuesday that he will seek the death penalty against Joshua Graham Packer in the murders of Brock Husted, his wife Davina and the couple’s unborn baby at a beach house in the gated community in Faria Beach.

    Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Frawley said District Attorney Greg Totten made the decision to seek the death penalty after he got recommendations from his top supervisors.

    “His top managers give recommendations after reviewing all the evidence and factors involved in the case,” Frawley said. “But at the end of the day, the district attorney makes the decision.”

    Packer’s lawyer, Benjamin Maserang with the Public Defender’s Office, said a “tremendous amount of mitigation” was presented to prosecutors in late October detailing why Packer wasn’t a candidate for the death penalty if he was found to be the killer.

    “We are very disappointed in the district attorney’s decision to seek death against Joshua Packer,” he said.

    Packer, 21, was arrested on April 11 after his DNA was linked to the brutal slayings that shocked the community.

    An autopsy showed Brock and Davina Husted died from multiple stab wounds. Davina had been stabbed 30 times and Brock Husted more than 20 times on May 20, 2009.

    Packer has entered pleas of not guilty and has denied the special circumstances.

    The next hearing is set for Jan. 5, according to court records. A pre-trial hearing is set for Feb. 1.

    The case is set for trial March 1.

    “The prosecution wants to go forward on that date. We’ll be ready,” Frawley said.

    The Husteds’ families were told about the decision to seek the death penalty before a public statement was issued. Frawley declined to say how they reacted.

    Packer was indicted July 22 on three counts of first-degree murder along with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of first-degree burglary. Packer is charged with three special allegations of using a knife to commit the three murders. Also, Packer was indicted on three counts of using a firearm to commit the robberies and the burglary.

    Prosecutors charged Packer with three special circumstances of committing the murders in the course of a robbery and a burglary and committing multiple murders.

    Maserang said there are serious questions about whether Packer committed these crimes.

    “I believe in the months ahead as the public becomes more aware of the deficiencies in the investigation and some of the evidence that’s been offered to the public, they will see there are some serious questions of whether Mr. Packer committed this offense or whether he was involved in it at all,” said Maserang.

    The factors involved in seeking the death penalty are outlined in the state’s penal code and include what aggravating and mitigating circumstances can be considered, Frawley said.

    “In this case, he (Totten) obviously found the circumstances of the crime were weighed hugely in favor of the aggravating circumstances and thinks we should seek the death penalty,” said Frawley. “We go beyond what they (Public Defender’s Office) present us. We want to know a lot more than they tell us. So we try to do our own background investigation.”

    Frawley said this includes finding out about the defendant’s past, including his mental and criminal history. “Even if some things are not admissible in court, we try to weigh those in our decision about what’s appropriate,” he said.

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/dec/...#ixzz18BcvoYXJ

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    Joshua Packer will not be restrained during his assault trial

    The judge denied a request by the prosecution Thursday to have Joshua Graham Packer restrained to his chair during his trial this week for assaulting a hospital security guard in 2009.

    Packer, who turned 22 on Wednesday, is also a defendant in a more serious and unrelated crime. He is charged with the 2009 murder of Brock and Davina Husted and her unborn child at their Faria Beach home.

    The Ventura County District Attorney's Office, which is seeking the death penalty in the triple murder case, said Packer should be restrained during the assault trial because of courtroom safety and security concerns. Jury selection in the assault trial began Thursday afternoon.

    Packer was convicted in June of misdemeanor battery for the 2009 altercation with a security guard at Ventura County Medical Hospital, but jurors deadlocked on the felony assault charge involving another security guard during the same incident. Packer is being retried on that case now, on charges of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.

    During the pretrial hearing Thursday, prosecutor Anthony Sabo told Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kent Kellegrew that Packer had been involved in 25 different incidents in jail involving violent behavior or attempted manipulation or deception.

    Sabo said Packer who has "cartoon-like strength" has run around inside the jail hitting his head, beating the walls with his fists and kicking the doors with his feet. Sabo said officers have used a Taser on Packer on two occasions, and during one occasion he was tased twice before he complied.

    Sabo said the restraints wouldn't be invisible to jurors during the trial.

    Packer's lawyer, Benjamin Maserang, noted Packer has been in two trials in April and June of this year without any problems, including one trial where there were two power outages. He said if the judge ordered restraints, he would ask for an evidentiary hearing.

    On Wednesday, a very pale Packer told Judge Kellegrew he didn't want to be in court to listen to the pretrial legal motions filed by both sides, including Sabo's motion to have him restrained in a chair. Packer, however, said he did want to be present during jury selection on the assault charge. The hearing was continued to Thursday.

    Maserang told Kellegrew that Judge Patricia Murphy, who presided in Packer's trial in June, rejected a request to have Packer restrained in that case. Maserang said Murphy read all the jail reports on Packer before denying the prosecution's request to restrain him.

    Maserang maintains the district attorney wants to use previous convictions to build his murder case against Packer so prosecutors can strengthen their argument for the death penalty.

    During Thursday's pretrial hearing, Kellegrew agreed to allow Maserang to call to the stand Matt Harvill, the district attorney's lead investigator in this case and supervisor of the Major Crimes Unit investigators. Maserang said he wants to ask Harvill about Senior Deputy District Attorney Michael Frawley's comment that he will be able to use Packer's previous convictions to assist him in the punishment phase of the murder case, assuming there are guilty verdicts.

    Kellegrew said he will allow "some degree of exploration" in questioning Harvill.

    He added he will tell jurors that Packer has other matters pending in court, which are "some of the most serious that we handle in this building."

    Sabo told the judge he had no intention of calling Harvill to testify, arguing there is no reason for Maserang to put him on the stand to comment about Packer's murder case.

    Sabo said Harvill has no ulterior motive or reason to please anyone in the District Attorney's Office or "alter his opinions and statements" made in the assault case.

    In April, Packer was found guilty of two misdemeanors and a felony for dissuading a witness related to a vehicle crash in December 2009, seven months after the Husted murders.

    Packer crashed into a parked car and prevented the victim from calling the police, according to court testimony.

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/sep/...#ixzz1YjRvqByF

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    Court rejects appeal for evidence hearing in Faria Beach murder case

    The Second Court of Appeal refuses to allow an evidentiary hearing in the case of Joshua Packer, who continues to argue prosecutor Michael Frawley should be removed from the case. full story
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    S.C. to Hear Claim That Prosecutor Has Conflict

    By a MetNews Staff Writer

    The California Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a Ventura Superior Court judge erred in denying a motion to disqualify a deputy district attorney from a death penalty case without an evidentiary hearing.

    The justices, at their weekly conference in San Francisco Wednesday, unanimously granted Joshua Graham Packer’s petition for review. Div. Six of this district’s Court of Appeal denied Packer’s petition for writ of mandate in August.

    Packer is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the May 2009 deaths of Davina Husted, her husband Brock, and the fetus Davina Husted was carrying. The killings occurred at the Husted’s house in Faria Beach.

    Packer’s defense argues that Michael Frawley, a top deputy in the District Attorney’s Office, should be disqualified. Frawley, the defense argues, should be recused because the defense intends to call the prosecutor’s now-adult children—who participated in a youth group with the defendant—as witnesses, because his daughter once dated a potential witness in the case, and because he “appears to have known” Davina Husted through his former wife, who served on the board of a civic group when the murdered woman was its president.

    Judge Patricia Murphy ruled that none of the allegations amounted to a viable claim that Frawley had a personal embroilment in the case that would lead him to treat the defendant unfairly.

    The sole issue to be briefed, the Supreme Court said, is:

    “Did the trial court abuse its discretion by denying a motion for recusal without an evidentiary hearing on the grounds that defendant failed to make a prima facie showing that recusal was warranted?”

    The case is Packer v. Superior Court (People), B245923.

    http://www.metnews.com/articles/2013/pack122313.htm

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    New charges for alleged SoCal beach house killer

    VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - New criminal charges have been filed against a man accused of killing a couple and their unborn child at a Ventura County beach house.

    The Ventura County Star says a judge ruled Wednesday that there's sufficient evidence to hold 21-year-old Joshua Packer of Ventura for trial on charges of battery, hit & run and dissuading a witness. Authorities say he struck a parked car, confronted the owner and fled in 2009.

    The accident occurred nearly seven months after Brock Husted and his pregnant wife, Davina, were stabbed to death in May 2009 at their Faria Beach home.

    Prosecutors say Packer killed them during a robbery. He was arrested nearly a year later after DNA tests allegedly linked him to the killings. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

    http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=13794697

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    Packer found guilty in hospital assault case

    A jury Monday found Joshua Graham Packer guilty of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury in connection with a 2009 incident involving a female security guard at Ventura County Medical Center, said prosecutor Anthony Sabo.

    The judge set sentencing on the felony assault for Nov. 22.

    In June, another jury convicted Packer of misdemeanor battery involving a male security guard during the incident. Jurors deadlocked on the felony assault charge involving the female guard at that time. That led to a retrial.

    Packer was in the hospital for a brief stay after a motorcycle accident, Sabo said.

    Packer, 22, is awaiting trial on a more serious and unrelated charge, the killings of Brock and Davina Husted and her unborn child at their Faria Beach home. The district attorney is seeking the death penalty.

    In April, Packer was found guilty of two misdemeanors and a felony for dissuading a witness related to a vehicle crash in December 2009, seven months after the Husted deaths.

    Packer crashed into a parked car and prevented the victim from calling the police, according to court testimony.

    Packer's misdemeanor and felony convictions could be used against him at the murder trial if he testifies and possibly during a punishment phase if Packer is convicted, Sabo said.

    Packer's lawyer, Benjamin Maserang, who works at the Public Defender's Office, didn't return calls seeking comment.

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/...#ixzz1ZlK3Qqj6

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