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Thread: Alexander Rashad Hamilton - California Death Row

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    Alexander Rashad Hamilton - California Death Row




    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in Contra Costa County on November 3, 2007 for the April 23, 2005 shooting death of Pittsburg police Officer Larry Lasater. Andrew Moffett, who was not the shooter but was convicted under California's felony murder rule, was 17 on April 23, 2005, when he and co-defendant Alexander Hamilton, 18 at the time, had a friend steal a car for them and went into the Raley's supermarket in Pittsburg wearing gloves, masks and carrying semi-automatic pistols. At the supermarket, Moffett pressed his gun to one of the cashier's ears, demanded cash and threatened to kill her. He and Hamilton threatened to kill at least two other cashiers and tellers at the Wells Fargo branch bank inside the store before fleeing with the cash, witnesses testified during trial. As the two teens were making their getaway, they crashed the stolen car and took off on foot through backyards and over fences.

    Eventually, they ended up on the Delta De Anza trail as police closed in on them. Moffett jumped a fence and kept running, but Hamilton was too tired and hid in the bushes. He started shooting when he saw Lasater, 35, the first officer to arrive on scene. Two bullets struck him and he went down. When two more police officers, who happened to be identical twins, went to help Lasater, Hamilton fired at them, too, but missed. According to prosecutor Harold Jewett, Hamilton kept firing until he ran out of bullets and was forced to surrender.

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    Killer of Pittsburg officer said death penalty is no problem

    The killer of a Pittsburg police officer said in court Friday that he was fine with being sentenced to death but had no interest in hearing from the slain man's family, telling a judge, "Let me get on my way."

    "I'm not asking for sympathy," Alexander Hamilton, 20, said in a Martinez courtroom before formally being sentenced to die for killing Officer Larry Lasater after robbing a bank in 2005. "I got the death penalty. I ain't got no problem with that."

    But he told Judge Laurel Brady of Contra Costa County Superior Court that he didn't see any point for testimony by the slain officer's family. "Let me get on my way, plain and simple," he said.

    Lasater's widow, Jo Ann Lasater, blasted Hamilton for showing no remorse, adding that she would never be able to forgive him for killing her husband and the father of her young son, Cody, who was born two months after the officer was killed.

    "My son has to grow up in a world where there are people out there like you," she said in addressing the court. "Cody now has to grow up without his father to guide him. You are simply an evil man not worthy to be in society."

    Larry Lasater's mother, Phyllis Loya, said she thinks constantly about the sacrifices made by her son and Pittsburg police Inspector Ray Giacomelli, who was gunned down in 2003 while investigating a homicide.

    When her son and Giacomelli pinned on their badges to go to work, "that's an act of courage," Loya said. "It's an act of courage because of people like Alexander Hamilton, who feels a sense of entitlement that leads him to go into a bank, wave a gun and threaten a teller and take money instead of earning it."

    Loya said Hamilton "assassinated, executed and ambushed my son."

    Hamilton did not look at Loya or Lasater as they spoke in a hearing attended by several Pittsburg police officers, including Chief Aaron Baker.

    A jury convicted Hamilton of 1st-degree murder and robbery Aug. 13. Hamilton's attorneys, Robin Lipetzky and Kim Kupferer, argued unsuccessfully Friday for him to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    In sentencing Hamilton to die by lethal injection, Brady said Hamilton committed a "cold, calculated act." Rejecting claims by the defense that Hamilton's age should spare him the death penalty, the judge said his actions "belied his chronological age."

    Lasater had been with the Pittsburg Police Department 3 years when he was shot to death April 23, 2005, as he chased Hamilton and Andrew Moffett. The men had just robbed a Wells Fargo branch in a Raley's supermarket in Pittsburg.

    The 2 crashed a stolen getaway car and hid along the Delta de Anza Regional Trail. Lasater came across Moffett in a field but didn't see Hamilton lying in the brush and armed with a 9mm Glock semiautomatic pistol.

    Hamilton fired 4 shots, with the first hitting the officer in the neck.

    Moffett, 20, was convicted of murder and other crimes but is not eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time. He faces life in prison.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

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    Judge Re-Sentences Cop Killer To Life Without Parole

    MARTINEZ, Calif. -- Family members and colleagues of a Pittsburg police officer who was killed in 2005 while chasing down two robbery suspects packed a Martinez courtroom today for a re-sentencing hearing of one of the two defendants whose sentence was overturned in an appellate court ruling.

    On April 23, 2005, Andrew Moffett, who was 17-years-old at the time, paid a friend to steal a car for him.

    Later that day, Moffett and his friend Alexander Hamilton, who was 18 at the time, drove the stolen car to a Raley's supermarket in Pittsburg.

    Wearing gloves and masks and armed with loaded guns, the two teens entered the supermarket.

    Moffett pressed his gun to the head of one cashier and ordered her to open the register or he would kill her while Hamilton went to a Wells Fargo branch bank inside the supermarket, waved his gun at two tellers and ordered them to give him money.

    The two then fled in the stolen car, but crashed it a short distance away.

    They took off on foot, hopping fences through people's backyards, until they came to the Delta de Anza trail.

    Moffett kept going, but Hamilton was hiding in the bushes as the first officers, 35-year-old Larry Lasater and his partner, got to the trail.

    As Lasater approached Hamilton, Hamilton shot him twice, dropping him to the ground.

    When other officers came to his aid, Hamilton shot at them, too, but missed.

    According to prosecutor Harold Jewett, Hamilton continued shooting until his gun was empty and he was forced to surrender.

    Moffett was arrested a short time later in a nearby backyard.

    He and Hamilton were convicted in 2007 of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree robbery, one count of car theft, multiple firearms enhancements and a special circumstances charge that they killed a peace officer.

    Hamilton was also found guilty of two counts of attempted murder for firing at the two officers who went to help Lasater and a special circumstances allegation that he killed Lasater while lying in wait.

    Hamilton was sentenced to death and Moffett, who was not eligible for the death penalty because he was 17, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

    He later appealed his sentence and, in November 2010, the First District Court of Appeal overturned the special circumstances charge of killing a peace officer.

    According to the appellate court's opinion, Moffett could not be convicted of killing a peace officer because he did not act with the required intent.

    The appeals court sent the case back to Contra Costa County Superior Court for re-sentencing.

    Pittsburg police Capt. Brian Addington, who spoke at the hearing along with Lasater's widow, mother and brother, said that he still thinks about Lasater every day and remembers the shooting every time he sends an officer out to make an arrest.

    Lasater's murder "changed the culture of the Pittsburg Police Department, it's changed our history, it's changed how officers act, it's changed how officers react. I know it's changed me," Addington said.

    Lasater's brother, James Lasater, cried and cursed at Moffett, saying that he has shown no remorse for his crimes and should never be given the possibility of parole.

    Lasater's widow Jo Ann Lasater said she was pregnant when her husband was killed. Their son is now 6 years old and talks about his father every day.

    She said she knows that Moffett was not the person who shot her husband, but he participated in the events that led to his murder.

    "The decisions they made that day destroyed my family," Jo Ann Lasater said.

    "Alexander Hamilton killed my husband, but without Andrew Moffett, that never would have happened," Jo Ann Lasater said.

    Moffett was convicted of murder under the state's felony murder rule, which holds all participants of certain felonies equally responsible when someone is killed in the commission of the underlying crime, which in Moffett's case was the hold-up at Raley's.

    Lasater's mother Phyllis Loya also said she had not seen Moffett show any remorse for his crimes and that he has continued to claim that his conviction was the result of a corrupt system rather than take responsibility for his actions.

    "I do not want my grandchild in the future to worry about going to a parole hearing and face that remorseless individual," Loya Lasater said.

    She asked the judge to sentence Moffett to life without the possibility of parole "because that's the sentence he earned and deserves."

    Jewett said that Moffett is "the person who put in motion the chain of events that led to Larry Lasater's death."

    He said that although Moffett was 17 at the time, he has long since become an adult.

    "There is no remorse in this man," Jewett said. "There is no hope for mitigation, there is no hope for rehabilitation. He shows none of those capabilities."

    "I'm innocent. I got a right to plead my innocence," Moffett, now 24, said.

    He asked the court to acknowledge that he did not get a fair trial.

    Moffett's attorney Martin Martinez argued that Moffett should be given leniency because he was a juvenile when Lasater was killed. He asked the court to sentence him to 25 years to life in prison, which would give him the possibility of parole in the future.

    "Locking up Andrew for the rest of his life does not accomplish what everyone in this courtroom wants, which is for Officer Lasater to walk into this room today," Martinez said.

    Judge Laurel Brady re-sentenced Moffett to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    http://www.ktvu.com/news/28641299cncp/detail.html

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    THE PEOPLE v ANDREW LAWRENCE MOFFETT

    Andrew Lawrence Moffett was 17 years old when he and an accomplice committed an armed robbery and his accomplice shot and killed a police officer during their attempt to escape. He appeals from a judgment sentencing him to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for his conviction of first degree murder with felony-murder special circumstances, arguing that the sentence amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a); 189; 190.2, subd. (a)(17).)

    Today the California Supreme Court concluded that Moffet's case must be remanded for resentencing in light of the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama (2012) 567 U.S. ___ [132 S.Ct. 2455] (Miller).
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  5. #5
    257mom
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    I am the mom of Officer Lasater. We were very dismayed to learn that the Court of Appeal, First District had remanded the case for resentencing in light of Miller. The California Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue yet. There was a petition for review by the California Supreme Court filed last month by the Attorney General's Office in the Moffett case. We think the California Supreme Court will hear one of the two cases or bring them both up for review given the fact that two weeks before this appellate ruling was made in Moffett, the Court of Appeal for the 4th District came out with a conflicting decision in a jlwop case out of Ventura County.

    Please pray for our family that we don't have to endure yet a third sentencing hearing for Moffett who is totally remorseless. He provided the stolen car for the robbery, he provided Hamilton with the gun and hollowpoint bullets used to ambush my son, during the robbery he held a gun to the temple of his female robbery victim so traumatizing her with his threats to kill her that two years later she was still afraid to leave her home, he threatened to shoot a citizen who tried to follow him after the car crashed, he ran with the money and hid his gun while the slower Hamilton lay in dense foliage to ambush and shoot my son twice. I heard Moffett and Hamilton on tape laughing about killing my son and shooting at the two officers who tried to render medical aid to him. Moffett tried to intimidate a witness during trial. He remains defiant and remorseless and tries to play the race card to victimize himself. My son was simply in pursuit of two armed robbery suspects and their race was not a factor in his response. My son only cared about the colors red, white and blue for the flag, green for the Marines, and blue and tan for law enforcement so this constant race card in court is infuriating. Moffett committed the crimes four days before his 18th birthday and he was an aggressive participant in this murder.

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    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    I´m really sorry for your loss and what you and your family have gone through. I hope that Moffett fails to get a reduced sentence.
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  7. #7
    257mom
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    It is infuriating to see death row prison inmates on their pen pal sites. They commonly describe themselves as good hearted. I recently came across a blog written by a woman named Holly Simmons from the U.K. who wrote an article entitled "I am Holly Simmons and I write to death row inmates". Her particular pen pal happens to be the very same Alexander Rashad Hamilton who murdered my son although you would never have known it for the pure fantasy she spun bore little resemblance to the truth. Her Alexander shot an innocent civilian caught in gang cross fire instead of the real Alexander who robbed a bank and then ambushed my police officer son during a foot pursuit. Her lies grew even bigger as she wrote how the State of California started to accellerate his execution date for political purposes before this November election. She describes how he was executed on September 11th (a holy date in my mind) after having KFC as his last meal, but being denied his request to have a Moody Blues song played. You can imagine my reaction when I read this trash, especially in light of the fact he hasn't had his first appeal yet and California not having had an execution in years. I wrote the administrator of the site and it was removed pretty quickly. I really wish we did not have to see this trash on the internet.

  8. #8
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    Mom I am so sorry that Google led you to that utter bullshit! There are 3 pro death penalty websites. Mine and, http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/ and http://www.off2dr.com/ On all 3 sites you will not have to worry about reading that crap! The prison pen pal sites are a sign of the times. Support for the death penalty, in some minds, is taboo. I can assure you on my site as well as for-mentioned predecessors, we support justice. You are more than welcome to vent and share here. Thank you for posting on Crime and Capital Punishment!
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Police Officer

    Larry Elwood Lasater, Jr.

    Pittsburg Police Department, California

    End of Watch: Sunday, April 24, 2005

    Police Officer Larry Lasater succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained the previous day while attempting to arrest two robbery suspects on the Delta De Anza Regional Trail.

    The two suspects had just robbed a supermarket and bank branch and were fleeing from officers when they crashed their vehicle in a residential area. The two then fled onto the trail on foot.

    As the officers searched for the suspect, Officer Lasater spotted one of them hiding in the bushes near the trail. As he ordered the suspect out of the bush at gunpoint, the suspect opened fire, striking Officer Lasater in the neck and leg. Other officers returned fire and took the suspect into custody. The second suspect was arrested a short distance away.

    Officer Lasater was taken to a local hospital where he remained on life support for two days so that his organs could be donated.

    In September 2007 both suspects were convicted of first degree murder. One of the suspects was sentenced to death and the second was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    Officer Lasater was a US Marine Corps veteran and had served with the Pittsburg Police Department for 5 years. He was survived by his expectant wife, mother, and brother. His son was born 2 1/2 months after his death.

    Bio & Incident Details

    Age: 35
    Tour: 5 years
    Badge # 257
    Military veteran
    Cause: Gunfire
    Incident Date: 4/23/2005
    Weapon: Handgun
    Suspect: Sentenced to death



    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Most Recent Reflection

    Holidays are extra hard as I remember all the Christmas holidays we shared. I can even remember special outfits you wore as a small child and you were always so adorable. I remember that you always wanted UNC stuff. I remember you helping set the dinner table with our Christmas china every year and how you loved your grandmother's chocolate and walnut cake. I remember how you helped me with the toy drive for homeless children patiently wrapping the gifts and helping me deliver them. During your last Christmas in 2004, you were already looking forward to next year's Christmas as it would be your son's first Christmas. Yes, I remember and each memory is precious.

    Yesterday, I saw a memorial tribute to murder victim Teresa Del Rio and it was so moving. For the first time, I heard the song Someone is Missing at Christmas by Anne Cochran. So this is for you, Lar.

    Someone Is Missing At Christmas

    Someone I Loved All My Life
    Someone I Played With And Laughed All Night Long
    Someone I Think Of When I Hear That Song

    Someone Is Missing At Christmas
    Someone Has Left Me Alone
    Someone So Close Even Though we're Apart
    Someone Who'd Finish The Sentence I'd Start

    Someone Whose Love Is My Favorite Gift
    Someone Whose Presence Is My Christmas Wish
    Someone Who Always Was Here
    Someone Is Missing This Year

    Candlelit Snapshots Of Christmases Gone By
    You In Your Favorite Chair
    Memories Like Snowflakes Melt In My Eyes
    I Look And You're Not Sitting There

    Someone Whose Love Is My Favorite Gift
    Someone Whose Presence Is My Christmas Wish
    Someone Is Missing At Christmas
    Wait... Someone Is Touching My Heart

    Someone Has Heard Me And Answered My Call
    Someone I Love Is Not Missing At All
    Someone Is With Me At Christmas
    Someone's Right Here In My Heart
    Someone I Love Is With Me This Christmas
    and Will Be Each Christmas To Come!

    Lyrics written by John Chaffee


    You are always in my heart and I am so glad to be your mom.

    http://www.odmp.org/officer/17741-po...#ixzz2FlKZ5CFa
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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