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Thread: Michael Shane Bargo, Jr. - Florida Death Row

  1. #61
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    New rulings in Seath Jackson murder case could change fate of convicted killers

    Several new rulings in the Seath Jackson murder case mean two of the five people convicted may not spend the rest of their lives in prison.

    Seath Jackson was 15 years old when he was ambushed, beaten and shot to death in April 2011.

    Five people, some of them his friends, were tried and convicted of killing Jackson and then burning his body. On Friday, the Florida Appeals Court ruled that one of the defendants, Amber Wright, is entitled to a new trial.

    "At first I couldn't speak. I started crying. I was so excited for Amber," said Tracey Wright, the mother of Amber Wright and Kyle Hooper.

    The three-judge panel says there was a problem with the way she was informed about her rights against self-incrimination.

    In a separate ruling, the court said Hooper must be re-sentenced in the wake of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Hooper was just 16 years old at the time of the murder.

    The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that judges must consider a juvenile's age and age-related characteristics before sentencing him to life in prison without the chance of parole.

    "I just don't want it to be the rest of their life. They're young, they were in bad situation, bad choices of friends and these are what parents need to watch out for 'cause it can happen to anybody," Tracey Wright said.

    Jackson was lured into a Summerfield home where law enforcement officials said he was beaten, shot, tied up in a sleeping bag and burned in a fire pit outside the home.

    "I remember a large fire that we saw from our window," said Jullie Cunningham, who testified during the teens' trials. "I certainly don't want to have to go through it again, but I understand it's a child and a child has rights just like any adult."

    The appeals court has asked the Florida Supreme Court to decide how Hooper's sentence should be determined.

    The triggerman in Jackson's killing, Michael Bargo, is currently the youngest man on Florida's death row.

    Tracey Wright said getting a new trial is not a victory.

    "I look at it, as I said before, no one has won in this," Tracey Wright said. "Families have been destroyed, it has taken a toll on everyone else too."

    http://www.wesh.com/news/new-rulings...#ixzz33Hjc4epQ
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  2. #62
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    Murder defendant Amber Wright's new trial set for early December

    By April Warren
    The Ocala Star-Banner

    Amber Wright’s first-degree murder retrial for the 2011 death of 15-year-old Seath Jackson will begin in early December, attorneys trying the case and the judge decided on Tuesday.

    “The trial will be reset to commence Monday, Dec. 1, with jury selection,” said Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti during a hearing on the case.

    The crime involved the brutal murder of Seath — Wright’s former boyfriend — who was lured to a Summerfield home where he was shot and beaten before his body was burned in a backyard fire pit and the remains were scooped into paint buckets and thrown into a limerock quarry.

    Charlie Ely, 22; Justin Soto, 23; and Kyle Hooper, 20, — Wright’s brother and fellow juvenile co-defendant — were all sentenced to life in prison. Ringleader Michael Bargo, 22, is now the youngest person on Florida’s death row.
    Hooper was 16 when Seath was killed. Wright was 15.

    Wright, now 18, was found guilty in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison for her role in the murder. In May, however, the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that she is entitled to a new trial because she was not read her Miranda rights before making incriminating statements to a detective.

    The appellate court called the error “an honest mistake,” but ruled that certain statements should not have been used against Wright, whose young age at the time also made her inexperienced with the legal system. Therefore, certain statements will be suppressed during the retrial.

    Even if Wright is found guilty the second time around, she is likely to find some relief at her sentencing.

    On the same day the appellate court ordered Wright a retrial, it also ruled that Hooper is likely entitled to a new sentence and asked the Florida Supreme Court for guidance. His sentence clashes with a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for defendants who committed a crime as a juvenile. A possible sentence could be life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

    Hooper’s resentencing is pending a resolution of the sentencing conflict by the court.

    As for Wright, when her case goes to trial again she will be represented by the same attorney who represented her the first time, Junior Barrett of the regional counsel office.

    During Tuesday’s hearing, Barrett told Tatti he would waive the 90-day retrial period because he needs more time to investigate and because he has a death penalty trial coming up this fall.

    The first time around, Wright and Hooper were tried at the same time, but with different six-person juries. During the re-trial, six jurors will also likely be selected to hear the case, despite defense objections.

    Assistant State Attorney Amy Berndt, who is prosecuting the case with Robin Arnold, told Tatti the trial should not take longer than one week.

    An extra 100 jurors will be asked to report to jury duty that week to help select an unbiased panel to hear the high-profile murder case.

    The case is currently set for another status conference at 3 p.m. Nov. 12.

    During Tuesday’s brief hearing, Wright sat next to Barrett and answered Tatti in a soft voice when appropriate. In the audience, her parents, Tracey Wright and Duane Hooper, watched the proceedings and then stayed afterward to talk with Barrett.

    http://www.ocala.com/article/2014090...ws09?p=2&tc=pg
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #63
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    Amber Wright in court for hearing before her new murder trial

    During a court hearing Wednesday, the State Attorney's Office argued it should be allowed to use Amber Wright's recorded confession during her re-trial in the 2011 murder of 15-year-old Seath Jackson.

    The recording was at the center of the Fifth District Court of Appeal's decision to grant Wright a new trial. In their May ruling, the DCA found that statements made by Wright should not have been used at trial because she was not read her Miranda rights during one of two interviews in which she made incriminating statements to Marion County Sheriff's Office detectives.

    Further, the court ruled, not enough time transpired between the two interviews to consider them separate.

    During Wednesday's hearing before Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti, Assistant State Attorney Amy Berndt, who is prosecuting the case with Robin Arnold, argued that some of the facts given to the appeals court were not accurate, including that parts of the interviews in question were used as evidence.

    “The facts that they relied on are not actually the facts of the case,” Berndt said.

    The state used parts of an initial recording made before Wright was in custody. During a second interview, when she was in custody, she was not read her Miranda rights. The state did not use any of that recording. On the same night, a third interview was done, but this time Wright was read her rights. Portions of that interview, including her confession to her role in Jackson's killing, were used at trial.

    “They are saying the second one was no good and there was only a short time between the third so (they are) going to treat that as one long interview,” Berndt said. “What we're saying is there was three hours between the second and third interview.”

    While Tatti did note that the DCA was presented with erroneous facts about the initial trial, he made it clear he had no plans for reversing the ruling.

    “I have no intention of reversing the Fifth District Court of Appeal. That is not my function and I am sure they would not appreciate it if I did,” Tatti said.

    What he did say he was likely to do is enter an order with the findings of facts of the case. Tatti said it could take him a week to prepare the order.

    If the motion is denied, Berndt said, she would appeal the decision to the very same court that issued the ruling.

    Even without Wright's recorded confession, Berndt said, the case will continue.

    “We will still go forward with it. We believe we have enough evidence to proceed to trial,” she said.

    Wright was found guilty of murder in 2012 along with four others who lured Jackson to a Summerfield home where he was beaten and shot, and his body was burned in a backyard pit. His remains were then dumped into a water-filled limestone quarry.

    Wright was 15 at the time of her arrest. Wright, now 18, was in the courtroom during the hearing Wednesday, as were her parents Tracey Wright and Duane Hooper. At the end of the hearing Wright looked back at her parents and gave a quick smile before she was led away.

    Also convicted in the case were Charlie Ely, 22; Justin Soto, 23; and Wright's brother, Kyle Hooper, 20. All were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Michael Bargo, 22, was sentenced to death for his role in the killing.

    Wright's re-trial was tentatively scheduled for December. But, with the state's motion and likely appeal over the confession video, the trial will not start until January at the earliest.

    http://www.ocala.com/article/2014111...9865?p=2&tc=pg
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  4. #64
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    A year later, Bargo wants conviction, sentence tossed

    Michael Bargo, Florida's youngest death row inmate, was sentenced one year ago today. He has filed an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court, arguing that his trial was unfair and thus his judgment and sentence should be vacated.

    Bargo is now represented by court-appointed attorney Valerie Linnen of Atlantic Beach, who blames Bargo's mistreatment on his defense team at trial, prosecutors, the judge, and a state law that she says is unconstitutional.

    In his 108-page reply, Assistant Attorney General James Riecks argues the appellate court should uphold the conviction and death sentence.

    At trial, the state presented evidence that Bargo was the ringleader of the 2011 murder of Seath Jackson, 15. Prosecutors say Bargo fired rounds from his own gun into Seath's body, which was then burned in a backyard fire pit. The ashes were discarded in a lime rock quarry.

    Co-defendants Amber Wright, 18, Charlie Ely, 22, Justin Soto, 23, and Kyle Hooper, 20, are all serving life prison terms for first-degree murder. James Havens, 41, was charged as an accessory after the fact and his case is still pending.

    Bargo took the stand in his own defense and told the 12-member jury he wasn't at the home on the night Seath died and, if anything, was merely an accessory after the fact.

    But several independent witnesses testified that Bargo confessed to them his role in Seath's murder. A juror who spoke with the Star-Banner after the trial said it was evident to the panel that Bargo lied on the stand.

    Linnen argues that Bargo's former defense counsel didn't do enough to create reasonable doubt in the jurors' minds when they became aware that Hooper had stated he intended to blame the murder on Bargo.

    Linnen also takes issue with Bargo's former attorney arguing his client's innocence in his opening statement but then, during closing arguments, stating Bargo was “guilty, guilty as hell.”

    In reply, Riecks argues Linnen hasn't met the heightened standard of review that must be met to receive relief on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. To successfully win such arguments, the defense must prove Bargo's trial counsel made errors that were so serious they were no longer acting as counsel which is guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment.

    Second, Bargo would have to prove the errors were so serious that they deprived him of a fair trial.

    Riecks also points to the trial record, which shows Bargo's decision to testify limited his attorney's trial strategy.

    As for the prosecution: Linnen argues it presented a flawed case where any “rational trier of fact” couldn't have found all the elements of first-degree murder with a firearm had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

    According to Linnen some of the state's facts contradict each other and there's a lack of evidence solidifying Bargo's role in the scheme.

    The state presented no evidence of how Bargo's blood ended up on the kitchen ceiling; a firearms expert couldn't say for sure the projectile recovered from Seath's remains matched the .22-caliber revolver in evidence that belonged to Bargo; and no testimony ever address a .22-caliber rifle found in Ely's home after the murder.

    Riecks argues not only was there sufficient evidence to support the murder conviction, but Bargo's own testimony verified all of the state's evidence that Seath was killed by Bargo's gun, inside a home where the defendant was living.

    Bargo also testified that Seath's body was burned in a backyard fire pit and that he, along with his male co-defendants, dumped the remains at a quarry — a location known only to Bargo. He also testified leaving after the murder and traveling to Starke.

    As for the trial judge, Linnen argues that Circuit Judge David Eddy unlawfully denied the defense's right to appoint a crime scene investigator, and that the judge abused his discretion by excluding from the trial evidence of violent threats Seath had made against Bargo and his family members.

    She argues these facts would be relevant as to whether the murder was committed “without any pretense of moral or legal justification.”

    Riecks states the defense never showed a need for the crime scene expert, and its reasons for appointing one were over generalized and speculative.

    Riecks says the judge was correct to exclude testimony of any threats Seath might have made.

    “Even if (Seath) Jackson's alleged threats played a part in Bargo's motive to kill Jackson, such was based on Bargo's interest in getting revenge for Jackson's threats, not fear,” the lawyer wrote.

    Lastly, Linnen takes issue with Bargo's death sentence. The state presented two aggravating factors and the defense presented 52 mitigating factors for the judge to consider when deciding a life or death sentence.

    “Given that the trial court found the existence of 53 mitigating factors but only two aggravators, and given that the appellant's co-defendants received life sentences, the death penalty in this case violated the 8th Amendment's requirement of proportionality,” the appeal argues.

    Linnen also says the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment.

    Riecks calls Bargo's sentence “proportionate” and points out the trial judge gave weight to the state's aggravating factors: The crime was cold, calculated and premeditated and the crime was heinous, atrocious and cruel.

    http://www.ocala.com/article/2014121...9900?p=3&tc=pg
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  5. #65
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    At the proverbial last-minute of the guilt/innocence phase of his Capital murder trial, Michael Shane Bargo chose to take the stand in his own defense. Watch him get chewed-up on cross-examination at 44:03 :


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    Closing Arguments of the guilt/innocence phase of the trial. The Prosecution's Closing Argument begins at 28:40 .


  7. #67
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    Prosecution's closing arguments in the Penalty phase of the trial.


  8. #68
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    Prosecutors ask court to reconsider ruling on evidence for Amber Wright's new trial


    Prosecutors have filed paperwork asking the appellate court to reconsider its ruling barring the state from introducing certain incriminating statements made by murder defendant Amber Wright during her upcoming re-trial for the 2011 death of her former boyfriend, Seath Jackson.

    In May 2014, the 5th District Court of Appeal threw out the life prison sentence that Wright, now 18, is currently serving for Jackson's murder and ordered a new trial on grounds that the girl, who was 15 at the time of her arrest, was not properly read her Miranda rights before she confessed her role in the murder to a detective.

    The state is arguing the issue should be reexamined "… because the appellate court has relied upon erroneous information in reaching its decision suppressing the third interview," wrote Assistant Attorney General Pamela Koller in a brief filed with the appellate court Feb. 19.

    Wright was one of five youths charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jackson, 15, of Belleview.

    Co-defendants Charlie Ely, 22; Justin Soto, 23; and Kyle Hooper, Wright's brother, were all sentenced to life prison terms. Ringleader and triggerman Michael Bargo, 22, is currently the youngest person on Florida's death row.

    At trial, the state presented evidence that Wright lured Jackson to Ely's Summerfield home where the young men beat, restrained and shot Jackson before they burned his body in a backyard fire pit and placed the ashes in paint cans that were discarded in a limerock quarry.

    On May 30, 2014, the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that Hooper should receive a new sentence and Wright a new trial. In Wright's case, the court took issue with the timeline of her three separate statements given at the Marion County Sheriff's Office. She was read her Miranda warning just before the third statement.

    The appellate court took issue with the statements because, it said, Wright's statements were given within a small window of time from one another.

    When the case returned to Marion County, a hearing was held Nov. 12, 2014, during which prosecutors presented witnesses to the trial judge. The testimony proved a clear time line was not given to the appellate court.

    While the appellate court took the second and third statements as one continuous interview, the testimony proved there were about three hours between the second and third statements.

    The judge acknowledged the errors and gave the state time to file an appeal back to the 5th DCA.

    Koller argued in her brief that the appellate court was also unaware that between the second and third interviews, Wright spoke with her co-defendants, including Hooper, who told her to tell the truth. Based on the reasons outlined in her brief to the appellate court, Koller "prays this honorable court remand for a new trial allowing the state to introduce the third interview."

    http://www.ocala.com/article/2015022...ws09?p=2&tc=pg
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #69
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    Charlie Ely challenges murder conviction, says attorney was ineffective


    Charlie Ely, shown in court in this June 8, 2012 file photo, is seeking to overturn her conviction for murder.

    A judge has denied seven of 11 claims by convicted murderer Charlie Ely that she is entitled to post-conviction relief because her attorney failed to properly represent her at trial. He ruled that an evidentiary hearing is needed to resolve the other four.

    That hearing is scheduled for this summer. At issue: Ely’s claim that her attorney should have done things differently in regards to her interview with law enforcement.

    Ely, now 22, is serving a life prison sentence for her role in the 2011 murder of Belleview resident Seath Jackson, 15.

    Her co-defendant Justin Soto, now 24, is also serving a life term. Ringleader Michael Bargo, now 23, is on death row. The youngest co-defendants, Amber Wright, now 19, and her brother Kyle Hooper, now 20, were juveniles at the time of the murder but were tried as adults and each sentenced to life in prison. Recently, the 5th District Court of Appeal awarded Wright a new trial and Hooper a new sentencing. The state has appealed those decisions.

    The case against James Havens, 41, an alleged accessory to the murder, is still pending.

    During the trials, prosecutors argued Ely and Wright sought to lure Seath to Ely’s Summerfield home, where the men ganged up on him and beat and shot him, before wrapping his body in a sleeping bag and burning it in a backyard fire pit. The next day, the ashes were placed in paint buckets and discarded in a pool at the bottom of a lime rock quarry.

    Ely was the first of the co-defendants to proceed to trial because her attorney chose not to waive her right to be tried within 90 days. Given the publicity of the case in the media and in the community, Ely argued the outcome would have been different if her defense attorney, Jonathan Bull, would have waived her speedy trial right and delayed the trial in order to allow the community time to cool down.

    Circuit Judge David Eddy disagreed, writing in his order Ely didn’t prove the time constraints placed on Bull prejudiced her. Additionally, he struck down several of her arguments that jury selection left her with a panel that included four possibly biased jurors.

    “Jury selection was done in such a way as to expose any juror with prior knowledge of the case and excuse any juror who indicated they could not be fair or impartial,” Eddy wrote in his order. Any jurors who did admit to having some prior knowledge of the case from the media were questioned individually and all said they could put whatever that had heard aside and focus just on the evidence presented at trial.

    The judge also disagreed that Bull compromised his client’s rights by failing to renew motions, including one for a change of venue. Eddy said even if the motions were renewed, it would not have changed his rulings, which would be the only basis for Ely to obtain relief.

    The claims that will proceed to a hearing all involve an interview between Ely and Marion County Sheriff’s Detective Donald Buie.

    Ely first claims Bull was ineffective for failing to object to, suppress, or redact part of the interview where Buie lay on the ground, role playing the part of Seath while talking to Ely.

    Buie asked what she would say to Seath. Ely argued this technique was highly prejudicial.

    Ely also claims Bull was ineffective for trying to limit a piece of the interview played before the jury where Buie said he believed she was guilty because she failed to stop the crime from occurring.

    According to Eddy, since there is nothing in the record to refute Ely’s claims, an evidentiary hearing must be heard on these issues, plus an additional charge by Ely that the cumulative effect of these concerns led to her counsel being ineffective.

    To prove ineffective assistance of counsel a defendant must point to specific acts or omissions on behalf of the defense attorney that were so severe that the attorney wasn’t functioning as the counsel guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment.

    Second, Ely must establish prejudice by showing there was a reasonable probability that if it were not for those unprofessional errors, the outcome of the proceeding would have been different.

    Eddy has appointed attorney Norman C. Polak to represent Ely at the future hearing.

    http://www.ocala.com/article/2015051...9886?p=3&tc=pg
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  10. #70
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    High court considers new trial for Bargo

    The state’s highest court is deciding whether Michael Bargo will remain on death row or be awarded a new trial.

    On Tuesday morning the Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both the defense, which argued that Bargo, now 23, should receive a new trial for various reasons, and from the state, which argued the sentence should be upheld.

    A final decision will be handed down at an unspecified date. The process can take months.

    Bargo was sentenced to death for his involvement in the 2011 murder of Seath Jackson, 15. At trial, Bargo was cast as the ringleader within a group of co-defendants.

    Seath was beaten and shot, and then his body was burned in a backyard fire pit. The remains were shoveled into paint cans that were then discarded in a lime rock pit.

    His four young co-defendants — who, like Bargo, were charged with first-degree murder — are all serving life prison terms.

    During Tuesday’s oral arguments, Justice Barbara Pariente called the crime “horrendous.”

    Valarie Linnen of Atlantic Beach, Bargo’s court-appointed attorney, argued seven reasons why her client should be awarded a new trial. She led with her strongest argument: the sentence’s lack of proportionality to the sentence of the four co-defendants.

    “Michael Bargo was just 18 years old at the time of the victim’s death,” Linnen said. “He was one of five kids who all played some role in this murder.”

    At the time of the murder siblings Kyle Hooper and Amber Wright were younger than 18. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty cannot be sought against juveniles. Bargo’s jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of 10 to 2, and the judge followed suit.

    According to Linnen, the medical examiner concluded there were two concurrent causes of death: a blow to the head and a gunshot wound to the head.

    Trial testimony identified Bargo as the shooter and Hooper as the person who beat Seath. Hooper did admit to saying he wanted to kill Seath one week before the murder.

    “Kyle Hooper, according to the medical examiner, was equally responsible because of the blow to the head,” Linnen said.

    According to trial evidence, Seath and Bargo were feuding over Wright, who had dated Seath.

    Bargo testified during his trial he wasn’t present at the time of the murder; he merely helped dispose of the body afterwards.

    Justice Peggy Quince said there is evidence in the record that Bargo was the most culpable defendant.

    “The discussion was he wanted to kill the victim; he got Amber, the 14-year-old, to lure him to the house. Isn’t he the one who actually made the fatal shots? I’m not sure even if you compare him to the other person (Justin Soto) who was 18 and older, that he isn’t the more culpable of those two defendants,” Quince said.

    Chief Justice Jorge Labarga, referring to the facts already on the record, said: “This guy was in charge of the whole murder. He plotted it, he planned it, he ordered people around. There’s more to it than just a few months. It seems this guy was really in charge.”

    Linnen moved on, arguing that while the trial judge found 52 mitigating factors in support of a life sentence and only two aggravating factors in support of the death penalty, the judge still sentenced Bargo to die.

    Justice Fred Lewis noted those two aggravators — the crime was cold, calculated and premeditated and it was heinous, atrocious and cruel — are the most significant aggravating factors that exist.

    Linnen argued that if the trial judge had allowed the jury to hear about threats Seath had made against Bargo’s grandmother, other family members and his employer, it could have helped her case.

    “Michael did have this rage and (was) in somewhat of fear of this victim, because of the threats,” Linnen said. “(Seath) threatened to rape (Bargo’s) elderly grandmother, to burn her house down and to kill her. That’s not a high school fist fight.”

    Seath, the larger of the two teenagers, had bullied Bargo and had aspired to become a professional mixed martial arts fighter.

    Pariente noted that, as a mitigating factor, the defense pointed out Bargo has a right temporal lobe abnormality that affects his ability to regulate emotions and impulse. He also has bipolar disorder and has been prescribed three serious medications, has been committed to a mental hospital, and has suffered from drug addiction.

    Pariente said while it seems Bargo did “an inexcusable, horrendous act, along with four other individuals,” the mitigation is pretty substantial. She asked the state why the death penalty is proportionate.

    Assistant Attorney General James D. Riecks said this crime wasn’t an impulsive one consistent with the act of someone who suffers from a front-lobe abnormality; rather, it was a crime that was planned out and orchestrated.

    Riecks said Bargo wasn’t out to harm society as a whole — just one person. When Seath’s body didn’t burn all the way, Bargo pulled the teeth out of Seath’s skull with pliers. During trial, the state’s expert concluded Bargo was psychopathic. Bargo was also the only co-defendant afterward who left town and bragged about what he had done, Riecks argued.

    “It was animalistic, but it certainly wasn’t impulsive,” he said.

    Linnen said these issues, coupled with ineffective assistance of his trial counsel, combine to mean that Bargo didn’t get a fair trial.

    A videotape of Hooper after the murder telling his co-defendants the only thing left to do is “put it on Mike” was played during Hooper and Wright’s trial, but not during Bargo’s trial. Nor was Hooper pressed on the issue when he testified against Bargo.

    Linnen also admonished Bargo’s trial attorney for failing to point out inconsistencies with the ballistic evidence.

    During opening statements at trial, defense attorney Charles Holloman argued Bargo’s innocence. But during closing arguments told the jury his client was “guilty as hell” of second-degree murder.

    Linnen said this move put Bargo in the “cross hairs of a death sentence.”

    Riecks said Holloman’s strategy was actually calculated to save Bargo’s life. A death sentence can only be imposed on those found guilty of first-degree murder.

    Riecks argued during trial that Bargo took the stand and testified in a narrative format, suggesting that he was committing perjury, and thus changing Holloman’s trial strategy.

    During Bargo’s last hearing before the judge would decide his fate, Bargo waffled when given the opportunity to plead for a life sentence instead of death. Holloman then told him he had two choices: “regular or extra crispy.”

    While Pariente called the words “shocking,” she said it doesn’t necessarily mean the attorney was ineffective.

    Riecks said Holloman was merely trying to redirect his uncooperative client, telling him he had two choices — life in prison or death by lethal injection — and the words weren’t a reference to the electric chair.

    At the time of the murder siblings Kyle Hooper and Amber Wright were younger than 18. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty cannot be sought against juveniles. Bargo’s jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of 10 to 2, and the judge followed suit.

    According to Linnen, the medical examiner concluded there were two concurrent causes of death: a blow to the head and a gunshot wound to the head.

    Trial testimony identified Bargo as the shooter and Hooper as the person who beat Seath. Hooper did admit to saying he wanted to kill Seath one week before the murder.

    “Kyle Hooper, according to the medical examiner, was equally responsible because of the blow to the head,” Linnen said.

    According to trial evidence, Seath and Bargo were feuding over Wright, who had dated Seath.

    Bargo testified during his trial he wasn’t present at the time of the murder; he merely helped dispose of the body afterwards.

    Justice Peggy Quince said there is evidence in the record that Bargo was the most culpable defendant.

    “The discussion was he wanted to kill the victim; he got Amber, the 14-year-old, to lure him to the house. Isn’t he the one who actually made the fatal shots? I’m not sure even if you compare him to the other person (Justin Soto) who was 18 and older, that he isn’t the more culpable of those two defendants,” Quince said.

    Chief Justice Jorge Labarga, referring to the facts already on the record, said: “This guy was in charge of the whole murder. He plotted it, he planned it, he ordered people around. There’s more to it than just a few months. It seems this guy was really in charge.”

    http://www.ocala.com/article/2015060...ws09?p=1&tc=pg
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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