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Thread: Joseph Francois Jean - Texas

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Joseph Francois Jean - Texas


    Chelsey Lang, and her 16-year-old cousin, Ashley Johnson






    Harris Co. juries hearing 2 death-penalty cases today

    By Brian Rogers
    The Houston Chronicle

    Prosecutors beginning Tuesday will seek the death penalty for two men — one accused of bludgeoning two Baytown teens before leaving their bodies in a burning house, the other accused of two north Houston robberies that turned into fatal shootings.

    Jurors have been selected to hear weeks of testimony in two Harris County courtrooms before deciding the fates of Joseph Francois Jean and Teddrick Batiste.

    In opening arguments Tuesday, prosecutors are expected to tell jurors that Jean, 38, told police that he had used a baseball bat to kill two teenage girls after sneaking into his ex-girlfriend's home in April 2010.

    Jean said he went through an unsecured window of Victoria Wiley's townhouse, according to court documents. Jean said he was dousing the hallway with gasoline when one of the teens came out of a bathroom, startling him. He knocked that girl down and got a baseball bat.

    He told police he "blacked out" and did not remember anything after that, investigators said.

    Wiley's 17-year-old daughter, Chelsey Lang, and her 16-year-old cousin, Ashley Johnson, were found in the home after firefighters extinguished the blaze.

    The girls were home alone for a sleepover. Wiley and her 15-year-old son, Naquiel, stayed with friends and family.

    Jerald Graber, one of Jean's attorneys, said Jean maintains his innocence and will plead not guilty.

    "He says he didn't do it," Graber said. He said Jean is anxious about the two-week trial.

    "For anyone facing a trial, it's nerve-wracking, but especially for someone who's looking at the death penalty if the jury convicts him," Graber said.

    Investigators said Jean stalked and harassed Wiley for years after she ended their two-year relationship in 2006.

    That harassment included Jean taking clothes, jewelry and purses from Wiley's house and burning them, just after the relationship ended.

    Days later, Jean beat Wiley for calling the police, according to police reports.

    He later pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and retaliation in exchange for a three-year prison sentence. He was behind bars about a month before being released on mandatory supervision.

    Wiley told police he soon began harassing her with text messages and phone calls.

    Jean later pleaded guilty to "harassing communications" and was sentenced to 10 days in jail. His parole also was revoked. He was sent back to prison.

    Nine months before the double homicide, he was again let out early.

    Jean has been charged with more than 25 crimes, including drug possession and assault, beginning in 1990. His capital murder trial is expected to last about two weeks.

    On June 6, Teddrick Batiste is expected face a three-week death penalty trial, accused of shooting Horace Holiday and stealing his Cadillac for the chrome rims.

    Batiste, 23, is accused of killing Holiday at a gas station near Aldine Mail Route and Eastex Freeway about 3 a.m. April 19, 2009.

    Driving the victim's car, Batiste led police on a chase north on Eastex Freeway before the vehicle was stopped with spike strips, authorities said.

    Batiste also was implicated in the robbery and shooting death of a tattoo parlor owner a month earlier.

    Batiste and Leon Thompson III, 21, were charged with capital murder, accused in the April 8, 2009, fatal shooting of parlor owner Steve Robbins at the Black Widow in the 2000 block of Mangum.

    Charges against Thompson are pending. He remains in the Harris County Jail without bail.

    If Batiste is convicted of Holiday's murder, jurors could hear evidence about the tattoo parlor shooting in the punishment phase, said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Traci Bennett.

    Batiste's attorneys did not return calls for comment.

    Five people have been sentenced to death since Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos took office in January 2008.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1NvYlOuh5

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Guilty verdict in Baytown double murder case

    A Harris County jury has returned a guilty verdict in the trial of a man accused in the murders of two Baytown teenagers.

    Joseph Jean was charged with capital murder in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend's daughter, Chelsey Lang, 17, and her cousin, Ashley Johnson, 16.

    The jury deliberated Monday for about four hours before arriving at the guilty verdict. The trial moved into the punishment phase. Jean faces the death penalty.

    Baytown police say in April of last year, the teens caught Jean pouring gasoline inside the home of Lang's mother. Then Jean beat the girls to death with a baseball bat and set the home on fire.

    Prosecutors say Jean had threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend. Jean said he did not commit the crime.

    http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...cal&id=8186957

  3. #3
    Joseph Jean sentenced to death by a Harris County jury

    http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...rticle-8197069

    I never have my doubts about a death sentence being imposed by a Texas jury, they always do the right thing! Don't mess with Texas!

  4. #4
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    I wish Germany had a justice system like Texas' too. It´s not perfect, but from an outside view I have a good impression of the system.

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    New state office handling convicted Baytown murderer’s death-sentence habeas appeal

    The capital murder conviction of a Baytown man is a new case for a relatively new state office charged with habeas corpus appellate representation of death-sentenced convicts.

    The Texas Office of Capital Writs, which will mark its first anniversary Sept. 1, advocates on behalf of indigent individuals sentenced to death in Texas, and Joseph Francois Jean is one of them.

    A jury convicted Jean on June 17 in the Harris County 230th District Court. Criminal District Judge Belinda Hill gave him the death penalty on the same day, eight days prior to Jean’s 39th birthday.

    Jean was convicted for the April 11, 2010, murders of Ashley Johnson and Chelsy Lang, each 17 years old, by using, according to the indictment, “a deadly weapon, namely a blunt object.”

    While extinguishing a residential fire, Baytown firefighters found the victims’ bodies.

    The court appoints the OCW, in accordance with the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. In Jean’s case, Hill appointed the OCW after the court determined that the convict was indigent.

    OCW director Brad D. Levenson said that his office provides solely habeas representation; it does not handle direct appeals. There is a difference. Jean and anyone else in his situation would have another attorney for the direct appeal.

    Jean had a statutory right to both forms of appeal.

    “Every person that is convicted of a capital murder gets an appeal, which is based on the record, and a habeas, which is an outside-the-record litigation,” Levenson said. “A direct appeal is based on the record at trial. So anything that happens at trial that is in the transcript would be subject to a direct appeal. You’re just appealing anything that happens specifically at trial.

    “A habeas will look at things necessarily that might not have happened at trial.”

    Speaking generally and not specifically about Jean’s case or about any other case, Levenson said that a habeas appeal might examine whether an investigation was incomplete or whether evidence should have been turned over, among numerous possibilities. He re-emphasized that those matters apply to habeas appeals in general and not to Jean’s matter, an ongoing investigation on which the OCW does not comment.

    The office is in the early phase of its investigation of Jean’s case, which consists of document collection.

    “This is really a new case—really new,” Levenson said. “So, at this point, we’re just collecting documents to review. It takes really months to get records. You collect trial counsel’s file. You collect investigator files. Anyone from the defense team, you collect their files. Any experts who might have testified, you collect any files that they may have. Then you also wait for the transcript to be prepared because you need to read the transcript. And that takes three to six months to get.”

    There were no impediments to the OCW representing Jean.

    “Now, under the statute, the judge must appoint the Office of Capital Writs for a post-conviction proceeding,” Levenson explained. “We can decline the representation if we have a conflict with the case or workload issues. We don’t have a workload issue at this point, and we didn’t have a conflict, so we accepted it.”

    The OCW follows a different appellate path.

    “When we file an application, it will go back to the convicting court, so it will go back to the trial court,” Levenson said. “Then, once the trial court is finished with it, it will go to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The direct appeal goes directly to the Court of Criminal Appeals.”

    Levenson came to the OCW attuned to the office’s area of representation. He served as a deputy federal public defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the federal public defender’s Los Angeles office. He was a California deputy attorney general in the Appeals, Writs, and Trials Unit beforehand.

    Levenson has confidence in his staff.

    “I feel great about it; we’ve put together a really wonderful staff,” Levenson said. “It’s small, and we have a lot of work. But it is a very dedicated staff, a very smart staff, and I am very pleased with it.”

    http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/lake_...80285942f.html

  6. #6
    Jan
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    Name: Jean, Joseph Francois
    TDCJ Number: 999566
    Date of Birth: 06/25/1972
    Date Received 06/23/2011
    Age (when Received): 38
    Education Level (Highest Grade Completed): 08
    Date of Offense: 04/11/2011
    Age (at the time of Offense): 38
    County: Harris
    Race: Black
    Gender: Male
    Hair Color: Black
    Height: 6'03"
    Weight: 178
    Eye Color: Brown
    Native County: Christead
    Native State: Virgin Islands

    http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_ro...eanjoseph.html

  7. #7
    Jan
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    NO oral argument

    Oral argument on direct appeal set for 04/17/2013
    Last edited by Jan; 04-02-2013 at 02:17 PM.

  8. #8
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    TCCA is reviewing Jean's case.

    SET FOR SUBMISSION ON 4/17/2013

    No Oral Argument

    AP-76,601 JEAN, JOSEPH FRANCOIS
    Capital Murder
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  9. #9
    Senior Member Member nmiller855's Avatar
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    This happened pretty close to me. I hope he is executed soon & may he rot in hell for what he did.

  10. #10
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    JOSEPH FRANCOIS JEAN

    In an order dated June 26, 2013, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals AFFIRMED Jean's conviction and sentence of death on direct appeal.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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