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Thread: Tyrone Levoid Harts - California Death Row

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    Tyrone Levoid Harts - California Death Row


    Brandi Morales-Rael, 34, pictured with one of her six children





    MORENO VALLEY: Hearing reset for man charged with killing

    A preliminary hearing has been rescheduled in the death-penalty case of a man accused of shooting and then setting fire to his ex-girlfriend in front of her six children.

    The woman, 34-year-old Brandi Morales-Rael, was killed in the attack.

    The hearing, set for today, was moved to April 12 to give defense attorneys for Tyrone Harts, 39, of Riverside, more time to review newly disclosed material, counsel told Riverside County Superior Court Judge Christian Thierbach, who set the new date.

    Prosecutors also filed an amended complaint against Harts during a brief hearing, changing an assault charge to attempted murder.

    Prosecutors said Harts returned to the Moreno Valley home of Morales-Rael, his former girlfriend of three years, one night in February 2010. The couple had recently separated.

    Investigators said he shot her once in the back, then set her on fire. Four of the children, ages 6-11, put out the fire.

    During the assault, sheriff’s investigators said, Harts allegedly fired one shot from a handgun at Morales-Rael’s eldest son when he tried to intervene. That was the charge revised Tuesday from assault to attempted murder.

    If convicted of the murder charge, which includes special allegations of torture and murder during the commission of a burglary, Harts faces the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and the special circumstances.

    http://www.pe.com/local-news/breakin...th-killing.ece
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    Trial date set for man accused of setting woman on fire

    A February trial date has been set for a Moreno Valley man charged with killing a woman and setting her on fire in front of her children.

    Tryone Harts, 40, appeared in Riverside Superior Court on Friday where a judge set a Feb. 24 trial date in the death penalty case.

    Harts is charged with eight felonies including murder, attempted murder and five counts of child endangerment in the 2011 killing of his ex-girlfriend. He is also charged with a special circumstance of torture, which makes him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole

    Brandi Morales-Rael was fatally shot and her body was set ablaze in her Moreno Valley home Feb. 22, 2011. Four of the children, ages ranging from 6 to 11 tried to put out the fire with cups of water from the kitchen sink.

    Harts is set to return to court Dec. 6 for a pretrial scheduling hearing.

    http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...i-Morales-Rael
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    Trial opens in 2011 slaying of mother

    To a 911 dispatcher, the call was surreal: A child on the phone saying, "My mom was on fire,” a piercing smoke detector sound in the background and the boy saying he wasn’t sure if the “robbers” were still in the Moreno Valley home.

    “This call was horrific,” testified Lt. Timothy Martin, recalling in Riverside County Superior Court a smell like burning flesh, smoke rising from the body of victim Brandi Morales-Rael and the sound of water running in an upstairs bathroom.

    Witnesses set the scene Thursday as the trial opened for Tyrone L. Harts, 41, accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, setting her body ablaze, and of attempted murder for allegedly firing a shot at the victim’s eldest son, who awoke to her screams and ran to her upstairs bedroom armed with a steak knife in the early-morning hours of Feb. 22, 2011.

    If convicted of killing Morales-Rael, Harts could be sentenced to death.

    Prosecutor Jared Haringsma said in his opening statement that Harts told another friend, “I just committed my first murder.”

    Deputy Public Defender Aimee Vierra said in an opening statement that Harts killed the victim. “What this case is about is what led a man to do it,” she said, and what his intent was when he was in the bedroom.

    The victim’s son, Koby Rael, 19, testified, “I didn’t want to believe it was him,” but despite a mask, Rael in hindsight knew the man that shot at him was Harts. He recognized his sweatshirt and work boots.

    Rael then went downstairs, fetched his younger brother and ran to get away and call for help. Four other younger siblings awoke, ages 6-11, and they used cups of water to extinguish their mother’s body, which had been set ablaze. One dialed 911 and the dispatcher coached the youngster to get his siblings and escape through the garage.

    Harts was not the father of the children but was like a father figure, and even after he moved out two months before Morales-Rael’s death, he still regularly called and spoke with the children by phone, including hours before her death.

    Authorities have said he was upset that Morales-Rael had a new man in her life. Rael testified Harts asked questions about his mother’s new male friend and told him to “stab him with a knife and run off,” a remark Rael said Harts made in a serious tone, not joking.

    Harts had been in a relationship with Morales-Rael for about three years, and after the breakup he moved in with a friend and fellow asphalt truck driver in Riverside. There was testimony that Harts borrowed another friend’s car hours before the slaying and returned it the next day.

    Romeo Sanchez Jr., who let Harts stay on his apartment couch, testified that Harts was “very quiet” that day and said something to the effect that “the girlfriend was deceased.”

    Prosecutor Jared Haringsma said in his opening statement that Harts told another friend, “I just committed my first murder.”

    Haringsma said Morales-Rael died from the gunshot, which hit an aorta, and she fell on the stairway landing, where Harts “doused her,” possibly with lighter fluid, and set her afire before he left.

    The trial will resume Monday.

    http://www.pe.com/articles/harts-752...l-morales.html
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    Jury deliberating case involving mother's death

    A prosecutor told jurors that Tyrone L. Harts had a plan when he entered his ex-girlfriend’s Moreno Valley home in February 2011: that she would die a brutal death.

    Harts, 41, persuaded the youngest of Brandi Morales-Rael’s six children to leave a sliding glass door unlocked, and brought a revolver and probably lighter fluid when he entered her upstairs bedroom about 12:30 a.m. when everyone was asleep, according to testimony in Harts’ death penalty trial.

    “They woke up to a nightmare,” Deputy District Attorney Jared Haringsma said of her children in his closing argument Wednesday in Riverside County Superior Court.

    The jury began deliberating Wednesday.

    Harts is accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and setting her body ablaze, and of attempted murder for firing a shot at her eldest son, who awoke to her screams and ran to her upstairs bedroom armed with a steak knife.

    The prosecutor described a scenario of planning and premeditation.

    Harts’ defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Melissa Hale, did not dispute that Harts killed Morales-Rael, but suggested his intent was at issue and that the prosecutor had not presented evidence to prove her client’s actions were deliberate and premeditated.

    Harts faces a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, which could make him eligible for the death penalty, if convicted.

    If a jury convicts Harts, the same jurors will hear evidence to determine whether he should receive the death penalty.

    Harts is also charged with child endangerment. While Morales-Rael’s eldest son and a second son escaped to call for help, her four younger children awoke to find her body smoking and in the way of their escape route down stairs as a smoke detector sounded. Some of the children used cups of water to extinguish the body.

    Harts and Morales-Rael had been in a relationship for about three years and her children, ages 6 to 15 at the time, accepted him as a father figure. Even after he moved out about two months before their mother’s death, he talked to them by phone – the last time hours before the crime.

    Haringsma reminded jurors of testimony that Harts came to the house uninvited and in one incident had wrapped his hands around Morales-Rael’s neck and squeezed until she told someone later that “she saw stars.” Her eldest son testified that Harts questioned him about the new man in his mother’s life.

    In the hours after the incident, Harts told several friends what he had done, including a friend since childhood who reported what Harts said to police.

    Investigators found three bullets at the scene, including one fired at Morales-Rael’s eldest son that hit a door within inches of his head and ricocheted through walls into a bathtub and one that hit the victim’s aorta and lodged in her heart, killing her within minutes.

    The prosecutor said a reasonable explanation for the third one found on the floor was that the defendant “fired at her as she ran away.” Her body was found on a stairway landing.

    Defense attorney Hale suggested, “How much more broke could a person’s life possibly be?” She described her client as a man who wanted to return to the home, and who had been sleeping on a friend’s couch, without a car, no steady job, a man who “doesn’t show his emotions.”

    She suggested Hale wanted to confront Morales-Rael and noted he didn’t pull out the gun until the victim’s eldest son peeked into the bedroom.

    She said the son’s 2011 videotaped interview showed him demonstrating that Harts turned and fired a shot from the hip at the teen, “clearly showing he wasn’t intending to shoot him.”

    The teen’s more recent testimony referred to the teen standing and headed into the room, within inches of one gunshot.

    http://www.pe.com/articles/harts-753...rales-son.html
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    MORENO VALLEY: Ex-boyfriend convicted of murder

    Jurors found Tyrone L. Harts guilty of all charges Thursday, Oct. 30, in the murder of his former girlfriend, attempted murder of her eldest son and endangerment her five other children.

    The jury delivered its verdicts Thursday morning, a day after deliberations began, according to John Hall, spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney's office.

    The penalty phase begins Monday, when the same jury will hear evidence about which penalty to recommend: life in prison without chance of parole or the death penalty.

    Harts, 41, of Riverside, was convicted of fatally shooting Brandi Morales-Rael, 31, early Feb. 22, 2011, in her Moreno Valley home, then shooting at her son Koby Rael, who was 15 at the time.

    Koby testified that he ran upstairs armed with a steak knife after being awakened by his mother screaming in an upstairs bedroom.

    A man Koby later identified as Harts fired a shot at him but missed. He ran downstairs, and he and a younger brother escaped out a side door to summon help.

    Meanwhile, four younger children, ages 6 to 11, woke up and found that their mother had been set afire by Harts on a stairway landing before he fled, according to testimony.

    A Riverside County pathologist testified Morales-Rael was already dead before she was set on fire from a bullet that struck an aorta and lodged in her heart.

    Harts and Morales-Rael had been in a relationship for about three years, but broke up about two months before her death. The children considered him a father figure. She was seeing another man and that upset Harts, according to testimony.

    Harts, a truck driver who used to haul asphalt, admitted to friends and former co-workers what he had done.

    His defense attorneys acknowledge he killed Morales-Rael, but contended it was not premeditated.

    Jurors disagreed. They also convicted Harts of a special circumstance allegation, making him eligible for the death penalty.

    http://www.pe.com/articles/murder-75...ey-moreno.html

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    MORENO VALLEY: Jurors hear testimony in murder penalty phase

    A defense attorney described how her client, convicted last week in a capital murder case, grew up in an abusive home environment, then a series of foster homes before moments of success as a high school athlete and as an adult tried to help others get jobs.

    Deputy Public Defender Aimee Vierra's remarks came during opening statements Monday, Nov. 3, in the penalty phase of the trial for Tyrone L. Harts, who was convicted last week of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Brandi Morales-Rael, and burning her body, attempting to kill her eldest son, and endangering five of her six children in the Feb. 22, 2011, Moreno Valley incident.

    It will be up to the Riverside County Superior Court jury to recommend whether Harts, 41, of Riverside, faces life in prison without possibility of parole or the death penalty.

    "The decision you are making is whether he has any value as a person," Vierra said, and asked jurors to keep an open mind, give weight to mitigating factors and recommend he spend the rest of his life in prison.

    Prosecution and defense attorneys are expected to present witnesses into next week before the case is presented to jurors.

    Vierra said she intends to call family members, friends, experts and others, including social workers and teachers.

    While her children watched, Harts' mother wrestled a gun away from his abusive stepfather and killed him, Vierra said. The attorney said his crack-using mother would put Harts in the Murphy bed drawer or, when he outgrew that, lock him in a closet while she was working as a prostitute in South Los Angeles.

    For a time, he lived with his father, who was also abusive, manufactured crack and had prostitutes in the apartment who almost burned the place down with Harts inside, Vierra said. By age 14, he wound up in foster care and ended up living in Norco.

    Prosecutor Jared Haringsma said Harts "deserves our most extreme punishment," the death penalty, because of the circumstances of the crimes, a past felony carjacking conviction in 1994 and past violence some years ago against the mother of his child.

    Haringsma told the jury he will call the victim’s friends and family, including some of Morales-Rael's children "so you can understand the enormity of what he did" and the suffering he caused.

    Morales-Rael, 31, was the mother of six children, none of them fathered by Harts. But during their three-year relationship, her children came to consider him a father figure.

    The jury found Harts guilty of shooting Morales-Rael to death around 12:30 a.m. and attempting to shoot her son, who awoke to her screams and came upstairs to investigate before fleeing with a brother to call for help.

    Four younger children awoke and some used cups of water to try to put out their mother's body, which had been set on fire by Harts before he fled, according to testimony.

    http://www.pe.com/articles/murder-75...y-charges.html

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    Deliberations begin in death-penalty case

    Tyrone L. Harts chose a gun to kill and lighter fluid to set afire his ex-girlfriend’s body in the middle of the night so her children would discover her, facts that show “the depth of his evil,” a prosecutor told jurors Thursday, Nov. 20.

    For the pain and suffering those survivors must live with, Deputy District Attorney Jared Haringsma said Harts “deserves to die,” and asked Riverside County Superior Court jurors to recommend the death penalty.

    Deputy Public Defender Aimee Vierra asked jurors to consider mitigating factors of his upbringing in an extended South Los Angeles dysfunctional family. “The crime is terrible, but it’s an aberration from the rest of his life,” she said, and he is not beyond redemption.

    The trial is in its fifth week as jurors deliberate after hearing closing arguments from both sides. In the courtroom of Judge Christian Thierbach, sniffles and muffled sobs among family and friends of victim Brandi Morales-Rael punctuated the prosecutor’s presentation.

    Harts, 41, of Riverside, was convicted last month of murdering his ex-girlfriend and burning her body, attempting to kill her eldest son, and endangering five of her six children in the Feb. 22, 2011, Moreno Valley incident.

    The younger children in testimony described their mother’s assailant as a “robber,” but her eldest son recognized Harts by his clothing. Her six children, ages 6 to 15 at the time, accepted him as a father figure although he was not their biological dad.

    Harts had moved out about two months earlier but kept in touch with the children, including a phone call hours before the incident where he asked one of the boys to leave a sliding door unlocked, telling the child there would be a surprise for them, according to testimony.

    “He sentenced Izzy to a life of guilt and remorse,” said the prosecutor, and for that, the agony, terror and pain he inflicted, Harts doesn’t deserve leniency.

    As for remorse, Haringsma reminded jurors there was testimony that Harts had sex with another woman in a motel room within hours of the murder.

    Vierra reminded jurors in the penalty phase they are allowed to consider compassion and whether Harts has value as a person. “Yes he committed a terrible crime, absolutely,” she said, but “killing Tyrone won’t bring Brandi back.”

    She reminded jurors how Harts’ upbringing put him “at risk” – an abusive home environment, surrounded by crack-addicted adults, prostitution and hitting the streets to hustle for food. In foster care, he excelled in football at Norco High School and was known as an adult for his caring ways and helping others get jobs.

    “He wanted to be this guy,” she said, showing a family portrait of Harts surrounded by Morales-Rael and her children. But the split with Morales-Rael, “was the breakup of the dream that caused him to unravel.”

    Harts had a misdemeanor battery involving an ex-girlfriend and served seven years in prison for a Riverside carjacking about 20 years ago.

    There are 82 inmates sentenced to death from Riverside County as of earlier this month, according to statistics kept by the California Department of Corrections.

    http://www.pe.com/articles/harts-754...-children.html
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    California jury recommends death for man who shot, torched ex-girlfriend in front of her kids

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A jury on Friday recommended the death penalty for a man who shot his ex-girlfriend and lit her on fire in front of her five children in her California home.

    Tyrone Harts, 41, of Riverside was convicted last month of murder, attempted murder and five counts of felony child endangerment in the 2011 death of Brandi Morales. The children ranged in age from 6 to 15.

    Prosecutors said Harts spoke with each of the children by phone on Feb. 21, 2011, and persuaded Morales' 7-year-old son to leave a downstairs sliding glass door unlocked that night.

    Harts later sneaked into the home with a handgun and attacked Morales in her bedroom.

    Her eldest son heard her screams, grabbed a kitchen knife and tried to help her, but Harts fired at him and missed.

    The shots woke the four younger children and they arrived at their mother's bedroom door in time to see Harts setting her ablaze, district attorney spokesman John Hall said.

    The children tried to use cups of water to extinguish the flames.

    An autopsy later found Morales had been shot once in the torso and suffered first- and second-degree burns over 50 to 60 percent of her body.

    Harts fled but turned himself in to authorities in Los Angeles the following month.

    Family members told investigators that Morales, 35, had at least a three-year relationship with Harts, but they had recently separated and he had moved out of her home.

    He had sent Morales bizarre text messages in the days before the murder and then confessed to the crime the next day to a friend in a phone conversation that was being recorded by police, according to a detective's court declaration.

    A judge will have the final say on Harts' sentence at a hearing set for Jan. 30.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/21...girlfriend-in/
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    Tyrone Harts death sentence ends a family's ordeal

    With a purple ribbon and flower on her blazer, murder victim Brandi Morales-Rael’s mother, Cindy Rael, recalled sitting for days at a time, trying to stay composed during the grueling death penalty trial of her daughter’s ex-boyfriend Tyrone Harts.

    “We finally got what we wanted. It was a long four years,” Rael said outside the Riverside Hall of Justice after Harts, 42, was sentenced to death by Judge Christian F. Thierbach Friday, Jan. 30.

    A jury convicted Harts in the Feb. 22, 2011 incident where Morales-Rael was shot by Harts and then set afire. He also was convicted of attempting to kill her eldest son and endangering five of her six children.

    In the nightmarish scene that followed her shooting, four of her children, ages 6 to 11, were left to put out the fire with cups of water after the two oldest boys, ages 13 and 15, ran to get help.

    The victim’s brother, Rozzy Rael, a Corona police officer, took in Morales-Rael’s eldest son, Kobe Rael. The brother described his own anger, but with pride shared how at the sentencing his nephew was able to “tell (Harts) that he forgave him. That is a positive stand for a 19-year-old.”

    Influenced by family in law enforcement and the rallying of coworkers after the tragedy, Rael said the teen decided to go into the field and graduated last month from correctional officer academy. Cindy Rael said her grandson isn’t quite old enough for the sheriff’s academy, but that is his next step.

    “It just brought us all together,” Isaac Martin, the father of Morales-Rael’s youngest daughter, said of the case.

    Harts was not the father of the children, but they accepted him as a father figure. The couple broke up and Harts moved out. He convinced one of the youngsters to leave a door unlocked so he could get into the house on the fateful night.

    “He is at most a wolf in sheep’s clothing for lack of a better word,” Martin said.

    The victim’s youngest sister, Roxi Rael, said the trial outcome “doesn’t change the fact that Brandi isn’t here” but she will always be in the hearts of family members.

    http://www.pe.com/articles/rael-7593...s-morales.html
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    On December 13, 2017, counsel was appointed to represent Harts on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...NTQCAgCg%3D%3D

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