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Thread: Lanell Craig Harris - California

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    Lanell Craig Harris - California

    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in Los Angeles County on January 12, 1994 for the August 7, 1991 murder of Julian Contreras during the course of a robbery. Another man, Alfredo Calleros, saw defendant try to pull up a large pipe that was partially buried in the ground. Calleros picked up a milk crate and prepared to throw it at defendant. Defendant left, saying he would be back. Defendant returned with another man about 15 minutes later. He approached Calleros and tried to shoot him, but the handgun misfired. As Calleros ran, defendant pointed the gun skyward and pulled the trigger. This time it fired. Most of the men in the area fled, but a group playing cards remained. Defendant and his companion approached them. Defendant aimed the gun at Efren Reyes’s head and took money from his pocket. Defendant’s companion took money from Reynaldo Villatoro. Defendant approached Julian Contreras and reached for his wallet. When Contreras resisted, defendant shot him in the thigh. Contreras fell and defendant shot him twice more in the back. Defendant took Contreras’s wallet and left with his companion. Contreras died at the hospital.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    June 20, 2008

    Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence in Van Nuys Shooting

    By KENNETH OFGANG
    The Metropolitan News-Enterprise

    The state Supreme Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for a onetime San Fernando High School football standout convicted of robbing and killing a man who was playing cards in a Van Nuys park.

    Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bert Glennon Jr., in sentencing Lanell Craig Harris in 1993, called the murder of Julian Ramirez Contreras “a coldblooded, senseless killing of a man who left a wife and six children and who the defendant later referred to as a sewer rat when bragging about the killing.”

    Yesterday, Justice Carol Corrigan, writing for a unanimous court, said the conviction and sentence were untainted by any error.

    Los Angeles Superior Court jurors in Van Nuys found Harris guilty of first degree murder, attempted murder, and three counts of attempted armed robbery, with a robbery-murder special circumstance.

    A second murder charge, that Harris had stabbed an employee to death at a donut shop about seven months before the August 1991 Contreras murder, was dismissed after jurors deadlocked 10-2 for conviction. The prosecutor said there was no point to a retrial in light of the death sentence.

    Harris could still be retried for that crime, since the judge deniend the defense motion for an acquittal based on insufficiency of the evidence and there is no statute of limitations as to murder.

    The same jury returned a death penalty verdict after a sentencing phase in which jurors heard evidence that Harris had been previous convicted of robbery, burglary, and felonious assault, and that while in high school, he participated in the strong-arm robbery of another boy’s bicycle and threatened to kill a school police officer.

    The defense claimed that Harris was with his wife at the time of the park murders, and portrayed him during the penalty phase as someone who had a difficult relationship with his father and suffered from chronic depression, but did well in structured environments such as school sports and prison.

    Harris was arrested after an anonymous tipster responded to a $15,000 reward offer, two months after the shooting and just hours after a press conference at which the offer was announced. He was subsequently identified by witnesses, who said he robbed Contreras before shooting him, and that he shot at another one of the players.

    Among those questioned by police was Robert James, the grandson of Harris’ stepmother. In a taped statement, James told them that less than a month before the arrest, he and Harris walked by the park and he told Harris he wanted to play basketball, but Harris said he could not play because “I blasted this fool in the park, and there go some of his homeboys.”

    James said Harris later explained that he had seen some Mexicans gambling, went home to get his gun, and returned to the park with another person. They confronted the Mexicans and asked for money, Harris recounted, “then the sewer rat”—a term Harris often used to describe persons of Mexican ancestry—“jumped up and I shot him.”

    At trial, James said he could not recall much of what he told the detectives. Later in the trial, however, a detective who drove James home from court testified—over defense objection—that James claimed to have been threatened by a relative of the defendant.

    Corrigan, writing yesterday for the high court, said the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in admitting the testimony, subject to an instruction that it was to be considered only as an explanation of the witness’ state of mind when he testified.

    “The court was aware of the discrepancy between the statements on the tape and James’s testimony, and the relevance of the threat he received immediately before he took the stand was obvious,” the justice wrote, and Glennon reasonably concluded that the probative value of the testimony outweighed any prejudice that might have survived the limiting instruction.

    The case is People v. Harris, 08 S.O.S. 3593.

    http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/harr062008.htm

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On January 12, 2009, the US Supreme Court denied Harris' certiorari petition.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/08-7034.htm

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    On July 3, 2006, Harris filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S144756

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    Harris' habeas case has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since June 21, 2016.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S144756

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Remanded to.the trial court on an Atkins claim.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...9SUCAgCg%3D%3D

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