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Thread: Anthony Edward Sowell - Ohio

  1. #21
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    Sowell Cash: more money from tax payers

    A lot more money approved to help defend accused serial killer Anthony Sowll. An entry filed by Judge Dick Ambrose outlines approval of more than $40,000 more dollars. The money will go for more mental health testing, more research of his military records and an analysis of the evidence from the crime scene. Sowell is facing the death penalty. He is accused of killing 11 women. The bodies were found at and around his home on Cleveland's east side. The case is already setting records for tax money allotted to the case.
    Sowell's trial is scheduled to start in June

    http://www.woio.com/Global/story.asp?S=14379298

  2. #22
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    Enough!: Prosecutors furious over Cleveland Strangler defense team funding

    More hard questions about the amount of tax dollars being spent to defend accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.

    Cuyahoga County prosecutors filed a motion Thursday complaining defense attorneys for the accused Cleveland Strangler keep requesting more money in sealed motions—in effect in secret.

    Sowell stands accused of killing 11 women. He faces the death penalty.

    Prosecutors say the defense has already spent more than $500,000 preparing the Sowell case.

    Other defense teams in a sample of death penalty cases have spent between $11,000 and $32,000. Prosecutors are asking a judge to make the Sowell legal request money in public documents. Sowell's lawyers have said he is entitled to a fair trial with the best defense possible.

    The trial set for June, and costs are likely to continue to soar.

    http://www.woio.com/Global/story.asp?S=14447890

  3. #23
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    Cuyahoga County prosecutors request end to 'secret' funding requests for Anthony Sowell's defense

    Cuyahoga County prosecutors have asked a judge to stop lawyers for suspected serial killer
    Anthony Sowell -- whose publicly funded defense has cost nearly $600,000 -- from using "secret pleadings" to request more money, forcing the public to issue a blank check for the cost of his defense.
    Since June, Sowell's attorneys, Rufus Sims and John Parker, filed 28 funding requests under seal for Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose to review without prosecutors' scrutiny.

    The court typically allows funding motions filed under seal to protect the defendant's trial strategy as long as it does not infringe on the state's right to evidence.

    But Assistant County Prosecutor Rick Bombik says Sowell's attorneys and the court are abusing what should be an extraordinary measure. And the practice has excluded the state from the exchange of evidence while keeping the public in the dark on why the additional money is necessary, he said.

    In a recently filed motion, prosecutors demanded Ambrose unseal all funding requests, allow the state access to motions filed from now on and provide transcripts of all hearings that excluded prosecutors.

    Lawyers from both sides met Friday but the issue of the sealed requests was not discussed in open court. The judge will decide the issue in the coming weeks.

    Sowell, 51, is accused of killing 11 women whose remains were found in 2009 at his home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. He is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, abusing a human corpse and tampering with evidence.

    He could receive the death penalty if convicted. His trial, which already has been postponed several times, is scheduled for June 6.

    The case claims the record for the most expensive publicly funded criminal defense in the county's history. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have paid for lawyer's fees, a full-time paralegal, psychologists, a military records expert, mitigation specialists, forensic experts and people who have reviewed thousands of hours of video surveillance footage shot from the property next door to Sowell's home.

    Prosecutors argue that Sowell is the only defendant in any pending capital murder case whose sealed funding requests have been granted.

    Sowell's attorneys, in a motion filed Tuesday, countered that the proceedings protect their client's right to make a case for additional funding without publicly divulging trial strategy. Prosecutors have no business knowing who the defense team is consulting, they said.

    "The State is not entitled to know the defense strategy and investigation just because the defendant is poor and must rely on state appointed counsel," the lawyers argued in their motion. "If the defendant were wealthy, the State would not be allowed to know who the defendant had hired or consulted in preparation for his defense."

    The lawyers also blasted the state for its own untold spending on the case, which has drawn upon the resources of several law enforcement agencies and continues to be investigated.

    Sowell is due back in court May 10.

    http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011...cutors_de.html

  4. #24
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    Anthony Sowell's lawyers seek to delay trial in serial killings

    CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Attorneys for serial killings suspect Anthony Sowell asked a judge to day to again postpone his trial, saying they need more time to prepare his defense.

    Sowell, 51, is scheduled to go to trial next month in connection with the deaths of 11 women whose remains were found in and around his Imperial Avenue home in 2009. He faces the death penalty if convicted. He is to appear in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for a hearing on Tuesday.

    Sowell's attorneys filed a motion asking Judge Dick Ambrose to grant them more time. Sowell's trial already has been rescheduled three times. It originally was scheduled to begin last June.

    It is unclear exactly why Sowell's lawyers need more time to prepare for trial. The full text of the request was filed under seal. Only a one sentence filing was available to the public.

    He is charged with several counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence.

    The court has already provided nearly $600,000 for Sowell's defense. The case is the most expensive publicly funded defense in the county's history.

    http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011...rs_seek_t.html

  5. #25
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    Anthony Sowell's trial will not be delayed

    A Cuyahoga County judge has rejected a request to delay the trial of Anthony Sowell.

    Sowell, 51, of Cleveland, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and related offenses in connection with the remains of 11 women found at his house on Imperial Avenue. He faces additional charges stemming from claims of other women who said they survived attacks by Sowell.

    Sowell's lawyers, Rufus Sims and John Parker, filed a request on Monday to delay the trial by four months. They said they needed more time to prepare his defense -- especially the case to spare him from the death penalty should he be found guilty of the serial killings.

    The trial, which is to begin June 6, has already been delayed three times.

    Prosecutors said any further delay is unnecessary. Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose agreed.

    http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011...t_to_dela.html

  6. #26
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    Cleveland Heights police failed to test rape kit linked to serial-killing suspect Anthony Sowell

    Five of the 11 women whose bodies were found at the Imperial Avenue home of serial-killing suspect Anthony Sowell went missing after Cleveland Heights police failed to test a rape kit that Cuyahoga County prosecutors now say matches Sowell's DNA.

    About a month before Sowell's trial is set to begin in Common Pleas Court, prosecutors announced during a hearing this week that they intend to use the testimony of a woman who said Sowell abducted her from a bus stop in April 2009 and raped her repeatedly in his home.

    Sowell, 51, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence in the deaths of the 11 women. He faces the death penalty if convicted. He also is accused of attacking several other women who survived.

    The Cleveland Heights woman, who at the time could identify her attacker only as "Tony," was treated at Hillcrest Hospital. DNA evidence was collected in a rape kit and passed on to Cleveland Heights police. But investigators did nothing with the evidence.

    The remains of the Imperial Avenue victims were found in late October 2009.

    State officials were unsure Thursday if Sowell's DNA would have been in the statewide database authorities began building in 2002 using samples collected from prisoners. Sowell served 15 years for attempted rape before his release in 2005, but not all prisoners were forced to submit to testing.

    Cleveland police came under criticism in the months following his arrest after two women came forward to say they also had reported attacks by Sowell but their cases were not properly investigated.

    Sowell eventually was charged in the attacks.

    In January, the Cleveland Heights woman came forward again with her story, this time to Cleveland police, who alerted prosecutors of the possible Sowell connection.

    Assistant County Prosecutor Rick Bombik said the DNA from the rape kit matches Sowell. It's unclear whether prosecutors will seek an indictment against Sowell for the attack, but the woman could be called to testify in Sowell's capital murder trial.

    According to the Cleveland Heights police report, the woman showed signs of trauma, including numerous scratch marks on her neck and hands, and had areas of her scalp where hair had been ripped out during a struggle. The report also noted that the woman's voice was raspy "due to strangulation." Most of the Imperial Avenue victims were strangled.

    The woman said she was waiting for a bus near Glenmont Road and Superior Avenue on the east side when a car pulled up beside her. The passenger, a woman she recognized from an old neighborhood, asked if she needed a ride.

    The driver was a man about 50 years old who matched Sowell's description -- about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with a slight build, shadowy beard and receding hairline. He answered to the name Tony.

    The driver dropped off the passenger at a Walgreens pharmacy on Mayfield Road and began traveling in the opposite direction from the victim's house. Then he struck the woman in the face, knocking off her glasses and disorienting her as he drove to his house several miles away, which she described as a three-level duplex, possibly brown with wood texture.

    The attacker dragged the woman from the car by her hair and neck and then into the house, which she said had a terrible odor.

    The attacker sexually assaulted her repeatedly over the course of two days, the woman reported, and bragged that he had been a Marine. Sowell served in the Marine Corps. At one point, she recalled, he tied her up with several neckties and went to the store to buy Cobra beer, cheap wine and cigarettes. Then he forced her to take a pill, washed down with a mixture of alcohol, and he raped her again until she passed out.

    When she woke up, she fought her way out of the house.

    The report indicates that police did some investigation. And they logged the victim's rape kit, which police would have sent to the Lake County Crime Lab for analysis.

    But Lake County Prosecutor Charles Coulson confirmed Thursday that Cleveland Heights police never sent the kit to be tested. Police Capt. Martin Lentz said Wednesday that the department sends all rape kits for testing. And he initially said there were no records of any sexual assaults reported in April 2009.

    In response to a public-records request in March, Cleveland Heights police provided The Plain Dealer with records also indicating that only seven sexual offenses were reported during that entire year and none in April.

    The case, however, is clearly labeled "rape/kidnapping."

    When provided with the case number, Lentz said he could not comment on why the rape kit had not been sent for testing because the case file had been passed on to county prosecutors. He said the department's record-keeping system had recently changed, and he was uncertain if he could track down the incident report.

    An officer in the department's record unit eventually provided it.

    http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011...ice_faile.html

  7. #27
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    OH judge won't move or delay trial in 11 slayings

    A judge has rejected a renewed defense request to move or delay the June 6 Cleveland trial of a man charged with killing 11 women and dumping their bodies around his property.

    Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose ruled Tuesday after meeting with attorneys in the case against 51-year-old Anthony Sowell (SOH'-wehl).

    The defense says what it calls "inflammatory, saturating and prejudicial" news coverage make it impossible for Sowell to get a fair trial in Cleveland.

    The defense asked to delay the trial as an alternative to moving it.

    Assistant Prosecutor Richard Bombik says both sides must try to select an impartial jury before moving the trial is contemplated.

    Sowell, who has pleaded not guilty, could face the death penalty if convicted.

    http://www.westport-news.com/default...gs-1383392.php

  8. #28
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    Lawyers question rulings in Ohio serial killing case

    CLEVELAND -- Lawyers for a Cleveland man charged with killing 11 women have asked the judge to review decisions made by a previous judge thrown off the case because of alleged bias.

    The request and other motions in the upcoming trial of 51-year-old Anthony Sowell came Wednesday morning during private meetings between the judge and attorneys. There were no immediate rulings.

    Sowell is accused of killing the women and hiding their remains in his home and on his property. His trial is scheduled to start June 6.

    He has pleaded not guilty. Sowell could get the death penalty if convicted.

    The defense said any case before a biased judge is fundamentally unfair. The prosecutor's office said it would respond in court.

    http://www.newarkadvocate.com/articl...WS01/105260342

  9. #29
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    Cleveland Heights cites Sowell gag order to deny release of public records

    CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Lawyers for the city of Cleveland Heights have asked the judge presiding over the case of serial-killing suspect Anthony Sowell to prevent The Plain Dealer from inspecting records that show how sexual assault cases were handled in that city.

    In a motion filed Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, city Law Director John Gibbon told Judge Dick Ambrose that divulging information to reporters might jeopardize the case against Sowell and would undermine the judge's May 2010 gag order, prohibiting public disclosure of evidence that could be used at trial.

    Lou Columbo, an attorney at Baker-Hostetler law firm who is representing The Plain Dealer, said the city's two-page motion fails to cite any authority for denying the reporters' request except for a gag order that is irrelevant to the public records in question.

    "We are mystified by why they would file this," Columbo said today. "The Plain Dealer's request is for records regarding Cleveland Heights' investigation of rapes -- not records regarding Mr. Sowell."

    Sowell, 51, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence in the deaths of 11 women whose bodies were found in and around his Imperial Avenue home in October 2009. His trial is scheduled to begin June 6. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

    He also is accused of attacking several other women who survived.

    Reporters had requested records from the city after a series of stories about a woman who told Cleveland Heights police that she had been raped in April 2009 by a man who county prosecutors say was Sowell.

    Cleveland Heights police failed to submit for testing all the evidence collected from the woman at the hospital, as part of her rape kit. City officials, citing the still-open case, have declined to explain in recent weeks why the evidence was not sent.

    Even if it had been tested, it might not have led them to Sowell at that time because his DNA -- which prison officials said they collected while he was serving a sentence for an attempted rape -- was never entered into a national database.

    The reporters, however, also noted that the woman's report had not been counted by the city in statistics they had provided for sexual assaults and were trying to determine why.

    In a letter dated May 25, Gibbon denied the newspaper's requests for police policies relating to how they investigate sex crimes, statistics about the number of rape or sexual assault kits submitted to a crime lab and the number of sexual assault cases classified in each of several categories.

    After each denial, Gibbon wrote, "The City is unwilling to produce these records at this time in light of the 5/7/2010 Order of Judge Richard Ambrose in the case of State of Ohio v. Anthony Sowell."

    The city did provide access to some general police orders and information about how cases are classified.

    http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011...es_sowell.html

  10. #30
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    'House of Horrors' Trial Begins Monday

    A Cleveland judge has once again denied a defense motion to delay the trial of a man accused of killing 11 women and burying them around his home. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose denied Anthony Sowell's motion to give his attorneys more time to prepare for his murder trial.

    Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the death-penalty case.

    In the final pretrial hearing before the trial begins Judge Ambrose also denied a motion from the defense to renew all motions decided in the case by a previous judge.

    The defense wanted to resubmit all motions filed when Judge Shirley Strickland Safford was presiding. She was the second judge in the case.

    Defense Motions Denied

    She was removed from the case after posting opinions of the case on a blog at the Cleveland Plain Deealer's website. She refused to recuse herself and was removed.

    The first judge in the case, Judge Timothy McGinty recused himself after it was discovered that he emailed the newspaper a psychiatric report on Sowell.

    Judge Ambrose denied all defense motions, however, and cleared the way for jury selection next week.

    http://crime.about.com/b/2011/06/02/...ins-monday.htm

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