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Thread: Derek Tyler Horton - Alabama

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Grand Bay woman 'did not deserve her fate,' judge says in sentencing killer to death

    Ruling that a Grand Bay woman who died from gunshots from her own weapon “did not deserve her fate,” a judge this morning affirmed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced convicted killer Derek Tyler Horton to death.

    Reading from his written order, Mobile County Presiding Circuit Judge Charles Graddick recited a series of factors weighing for and against the death penalty and found that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating ones.

    “In fact, the court finds the aggravating circumstances far outweigh the mitigating circumstances,” he said.

    Graddick’s ruling sets off multiple rounds of automatic appeals. If Horton is unable to persuade state appellate courts to overturn his conviction or sentence, he will have the ability to raise constitutional objections in the federal courts.

    Defense attorney Greg Hughes said he was disappointed by the judge’s decision.

    “You never like these things,” he said. “We gave it our best shot, and the judge did what he thought was right.”

    Samantha Alspaugh, the daughter of victim Jeannette Romprey, expressed conflicted feelings after today’s hearing.

    “I really don’t know what to feel,” she said. “I don’t want to say I’m happy with the decision, but I’m very pleased with the way things turned out.”

    Newcomer to death row

    The same day that Graddick sentenced Horton, a judge in another Mobile County courtroom was changing the death sentence of another defendant to life in prison without parole, so the number of Mobile County defendants on death row remains at 14

    A jury in August convicted Horton of capital murder during the course of an arson, burglary and robbery. According to testimony, Horton had exhibited odd signs of obsession with religion in the weeks leading up to the murder. On the night before April 10, 2010, slaying, he was at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church about three miles from Romprey’s Grand Bay home.

    After asking to see a priest and finding out one was not available, according to testimony, Horton went to a Chevron station less than a mile and a half from the victim’s trailer home.

    Later, Horton came across Romprey’s trailer. The 59-year-old woman recently had returned home, where she lived alone, after visiting friends.

    By all accounts, Horton had never met the victim. According to trial testimony, he used Romprey’s gun to shoot her twice in the head and then, in the judge’s words, set a fire to the home that “burned her beyond all recognition.”

    Someone saw flames shooting from the structure at about 1:30 a.m. on April 10.

    Police later found Romprey’s television, jewelry, computers and other items hidden behind an embankment. Horton also drove off in her Chrysler PT Cruiser.

    A Capitol police officer later found Horton wandering on Interstate 65 near Brewton. Police found his palm print on Romprey’s abandoned car, which contained her gun. His DNA was in a white knit cap found off of the highway. Surveillance footage from the previous night showed him wearing the cap.

    Horton turned directly to Romprey’s family this morning and apologized.

    “I know there’s probably nothing I can say to make you feel any different,” he said. “I just want you to know that my family and I are praying for you.”

    Horton also apologized to his own family and thanked them for their support.

    Alspaugh said afterward that she was not moved by Horton’s apology because he did not admit to his actions. “He still did not accept responsibility,” she said. “It didn’t mean anything to me.”

    'Callous and cold-blooded act'

    Graddick said that he considered a number of factors offered by the defense, including his age -- he was only 18 at the time, barely old enough be executed -- his lack of previous significant criminal conduct and extreme mental or emotional disturbance.

    The judge noted that Horton left his grandmother’s home when he was 14 and went to live with his mother, a longtime drug addict. In that environment, according to testimony, he began using drugs, himself, and got into trouble with the law.

    Graddick said that he found Horton’s upbringing to be a mitigating factor but added that it was “not a license to commit and act of senseless rage or murder directed at an innocent person.”

    And Romprey, the judge said, did nothing to invite the “callous and cold-blooded act” against her.

    “She was in her own home when the defendant shot her in the head and burned her beyond all recognition,” he said. “Jeannette Romprey did not deserve her fate.”

    http://blog.al.com/live/2012/12/gran...ot_deserv.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  2. #12
    yellowrose41
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    So glad for the Romprey family that this sentence was confirmed!

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Convicted murderer to represent himself at retrial

    By Jason Johnson
    Lagniappe Weekly

    A Mobile County man sentenced to death for capital murder plans to represent himself at a retrial next year after an appellate court overturned his conviction in 2016 because prosecutors improperly introduced evidence at his initial trial.

    Derek Tyler Horton was 18 when he was arrested for the 2010 murder of Jeanette Romprey, a 59-year-old Grand Bay resident whose body was found in her burned trailer home with two gunshot wounds to the head. Indicating a robbery, several items from inside Romprey’s home were scattered at the edge of a nearby lake and her car was missing.

    The same day Horton was found walking along Interstate 65 not far from the Brewton exit where Romprey’s missing PT Cruiser was eventually located. Horton quickly became the prime suspect in the South Mobile County murder and, after a trial, was found guilty and recommended for the death penalty by a unanimous jury in 2012.

    That’s when the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) got involved. A nonprofit organization, EJI provides legal representation to defendants believed to have been denied a fair trial. After reviewing Horton’s case, EJI filed an appeal based on some of the evidence presented at trial.

    Specifically challenged were disclosures that Horton had been investigated for an alleged domestic assault on his mother as well as testimony from his girlfriend, who told jurors he’d violently assaulted her and used cocaine in the past. Prosecutors also presented additional testimony suggesting Horton used marijuana and sold drugs.

    According to EJI, introducing those types of “collateral bad acts” is prohibited in criminal trials to prevent “convictions based on a jury’s belief that the defendant is a ‘bad’ person’ or ‘prone to commit criminal acts.’”

    The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals agreed that the introduction of those “collateral acts” was prejudicial to Horton and likely contributed to the jury’s decision to convict and sentence him to death. In a unanimous opinion last March, Judge J. Elizabeth Kellum wrote that the evidence presented against Horton at trial “was not ironclad, or even overwhelming.”

    Arguably, the most compelling pieces of physical evidence were Horton’s palm print and DNA, which were recovered from Romprey’s car. However, prosecutors produced no witnesses or direct evidence placing Horton at Romprey’s home at the time of her murder, and his fingerprints weren’t detected on a number of items found near her vehicle, including the murder weapon.

    “To buttress its weak case, the state presented substantial evidence regarding multiple collateral crimes and acts that, as already noted, painted Horton as a drug-using, drug-dealing, violent criminal,” Kellum wrote. “The state then emphasized some of that evidence during opening statements and closing arguments, even arguing that Horton’s strange behavior was ‘not unusual for criminals.’”

    The court concluded there was “no doubt” the improper admission of those collateral acts had “an almost irreversible impact on the minds of the jurors,” distracting them from facts presented during the trial and most likely tainting their impression of Horton.

    EJI, which takes a heightened interest in death penalty cases, posted a press release announcing its successful appeal of Horton’s conviction in March 2016, but that’s about all the organization did for Horton. Emails asking EJI about its involvement with clients following an overturned conviction did not receive an immediate response.

    Headed for a second capital murder trial in 2018, Horton appears to literally be on his own after telling the court at the status hearing last week he intends to act as his own attorney at trial — something Circuit Judge Michael Youngpeter strongly and repeatedly advised against.

    Horton told Youngpeter he’d discussed the pros and cons of self-representation with Carlos Edward Kennedy, whose 2013 conviction and death sentence for sexually assaulting and beating a Mobile woman to death with a clawhammer was overturned because he initially was prevented from acting as his own attorney.

    At a retrial last year, Kennedy — acting as his own attorney — called no witnesses, presented no evidence and spoke only a few times to say “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” He was convicted of capital murder a second time, but avoided the death penalty. Kennedy was also charged with indecent exposure after exposing his genitals to a female corrections officers at Mobile Metro Jail after he’d been transferred there for his retrial.

    Addressing the court, Horton said he’d discussed self-representation with Kennedy, though he didn’t specify how that communication took place. He said Kennedy was provided a thumb drive containing all the court files from his case so he could prepare — something retired prosecutor Jo Beth Murphree agreed to do for Horton as well.

    Though Horton has no legal experience, Youngpeter determined after a brief evaluation that he was competent and familiar enough with his case and appeal to represent himself going forward. Youngpeter also denied Horton’s request for bond so he could prepare his defense.

    Murphree is retired from the Mobile County District Attorney’s office but still takes on cases to assist the office from time to time. While she was the lead prosecutor in Horton’s original trial, she said that wasn’t a motivating factor for taking on his retrial as much as it just made sense.

    Calls to District Attorney Ashley Rich seeking comment about the state’s second attempt to convict Horton weren’t immediately returned, though Youngpeter indicated during last week’s hearing that prosecutors would again seek the death penalty if Horton is convicted in April.

    http://lagniappemobile.com/convicted...esent-retrial/
    Last edited by Moh; 10-05-2017 at 08:06 AM. Reason: Forgot to include name of publication

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Closing arguments could come soon in capital murder retrial of Derek Horton

    By Lawrence Specker
    AL.com

    By Thursday a jury could begin deliberations in the capital murder retrial of Derek Horton, sentenced to death in 2012 for the 2010 killing of a woman in Grand Bay.

    Volunteer firefighters extinguished a fire at the residence of Jeanette Romprey, 59, and found her body inside. She had been shot twice in the head. Some of her belongings had been scattered along the edge of a nearby lake and her car was missing. The car was later found abandoned on I-65 near Brewton. Horton was found walking along the interstate in muddy clothes.

    Prosecutors said Horton's palm print and DNA evidence was found inside the car; the defense argued that no evidence directly linked him to the crime scene.

    On Aug. 31, 2012, a Mobile County jury recommended the death penalty pm a 10-2 vote, and that December Mobile County Presiding Circuit Judge Charles Graddick sentenced him to death. However, in March 2016 the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the verdict and remanded the case for a new trial. The appeals court held:

    "The State's circumstantial evidence was minimally sufficient to warrant sending the case to the jury on the issue of Horton's guilt ... To buttress its weak case, the State presented substantial evidence regarding multiple collateral crimes and acts that, as already noted, painted Horton as a drug-using, drug-dealing, violent criminal. ... After thoroughly reviewing the record, we have no doubt that the improper admission of the collateral-act evidence had an almost irreversible impact on the minds of the jurors, drawing their minds away from the main issue, and leaving them with the impression that Horton was a dangerous career criminal who must have committed the murder."

    As preparations for a new trial took shape, Horton notified Circuit Court Judge Michael Youngpeter via handwritten letter than he intended to defend himself. "After much prayer and consideration I feel the Lord Jesus Christ is leading me to make the very difficult decision to invoke this right," he wrote. "This is nothing personal against my court-appointed attorneys, but, at 25 years old, I am at a point where all the personal responsibility for my death needs to rest solely on me."

    In an October 2017 order, Youngpeter found that "the Court is satisfied that the Defendant is knowingly, understandingly, and voluntarily waiving his right to the assistance of counsel in the defense. Consequently, the court permits the Defendant to represent himself." Youngpeter allowed Horton to keep court-appointed attorneys "as shadow counsel only." The order further said that "at any stage of the proceedings" Horton could opt to have them take over.

    Horton's retrial began last week, with the first witnesses heard on Friday. Witness testimony continued until about 3 p.m. Discussion between prosecutors Youngpeter indicated that testimony had gone somewhat faster than expected, and the prosecution had gone through all the witnesses it had scheduled for the day.

    Further discussion suggested that testimony could be concluded as soon as Tuesday, depending on how the defense presents its case, that closing arguments could be presented on Wednesday and the jury might be able to begin deliberations by early Thursday.

    Testimony will resume Tuesday morning.

    https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/20...ld_come_s.html
    "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

  5. #15
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Derek Horton capital murder retrial goes to Mobile jury

    By Lawrence Specker
    AL.com

    At times, during closing arguments in the capital murder retrial of Derek Horton, it seemed that the concept of circumstantial evidence itself was on trial.

    The verdict may soon be known. Jurors began deliberations late Wednesday afternoon after four days of testimony. After less than an hour of initial discussions, they opted to take a break until Thursday morning.

    During closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon , no one disagreed that the case was built upon circumstantial evidence. That was no minor point. Horton faces three charges of capital murder in the 2010 death of Jeanette Romprey, a 59-year-old Grand Bay woman: one for murder committed during a robbery, one for murder committed in conjunction with arson, one for murder committed during a burglary. Yet prosecutors lacked any evidence putting him at the scene.

    What they did have was evidence that on the evening of the crime, Horton had been seen at a church and a gas station about a mile and a half from Romprey's home. Her trailer home later was found engulfed in fire, and her body was found inside. Within hours, the victim's car was found up I-65 near Brewton, out of gas. Still later, Horton was found walking along the interstate in the same general area.

    There were more "circumstances" enumerated by assistant district attorneys Jennifer Wright and JoBeth Murphree. Among them: Horton's palmprint was found on the driver's door of the car, and his DNA on the steering wheel. A cap bearing traces of his DNA was found among items apparently discarded from the car. The gun used to shoot Romprey twice in the head before her home was set afire was found near the car, though no identifiable DNA or fingerprint evidence was found on it. Horton's stories about how he got to the Brewton area were vague and inconsistent.

    Horton's girlfriend at the time testified that when they spoke by phone after his initial disappearance, he said he needed money "to get away." When he returned home, he was in a disordered state, speaking about carrying out judgments for God. Later, in a jailhouse phone call played during the trial, he became angry at friends and family for failing to bail him out and threatened to shoot them and burn their houses down.

    Horton originally was convicted in 2012. The appeals court that kicked it back in 2016 commented that "The State's circumstantial evidence was minimally sufficient to warrant sending the case to the jury," and that prosecutors had improperly been allowed to bolster their case with evidence of unrelated "collateral crimes and acts" by Horton.

    This time around, prosecutors seemed determined to push the evidence they had as far as it would take them. During her closing, Murphree referenced the fact that the gun was at the scene "with his DNA and his palmprints."

    This drew an objection from Horton, who said -- correctly -- that his DNA had not been found on the gun.

    Murphree apologized for an error of phrasing that might have suggested his DNA was on the gun. "I'm glad somebody caught that," she told the jury, reiterating that his palmprint and DNA were on the car, his DNA was on the cap found in the debris field, and the gun (sans DNA) also was found in or near the debris field. "I do apologize," she said.

    Murphree drew another objection a few minutes later when she mentioned that the two shots that had been fired at a downward angle. She suggested that Romprey had been on her knees praying as Horton executed her. When Judge Michael Youngpeter sustained an objection from Horton's attorneys, Murphree didn't entirely let it go. "I think you should consider the angle of the bullets," she told jurors.

    Glenn Davidson, representing Horton, said the state's presentation did not rule out other scenarios, such as the possibility that someone else had robbed and killed Romprey. The evidence didn't show when he had come into contact with her car, Davidson said, only that he had.

    Davidson said the prosecution was stacking one inference on top of another: That because he'd been in contact with the car, he must have stolen it; that because he'd stolen it, he must have been the one who robbed Romprey; that because he'd robbed her, he must have been the one who shot her and set her home on fire.

    Wright and Murphree said they were doing nothing of the kind, that they were merely using pieces of circumstantial evidence, like pieces of a puzzle, to put together a picture. To the extent that picture was messy, Murphree said, that was because Horton wasn't very organized or effective at carrying out the crime and making a getaway. "He didn't do a good job of pulling it off," she said.

    "Each piece of the puzzle, each piece locks him there," said Wright.

    Judge Youngpeter finished his instructions to the jury at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. At a little after 5 p.m., jurors agreed to break for the night and resume deliberations Thursday morning.

    https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/20...rt_river_index
    "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

  6. #16
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Jury gives former death row inmate life without parole

    By Jason Johnson
    Lagniappe

    Throughout a five-day retrial, a man once sentenced to death for murdering a 59-year-old woman in her Grand Bay home managed to convince a jury his life should be spared.

    On Thursday, 25-year-old Derek Tyler Horton was convicted of capital murder for his role in the death of Jeanette Romprey, who was found deceased from two gunshot wounds to the head in her burned down home in April 2010.

    After six years on death row, Horton’s original conviction was overturned because prosecutors improperly introduced into evidence “prior bad acts” he committed. It was one of a handful of local cases that have been overturned with assistance from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).

    Though he strongly encouraged him not to, Judge Michael Youngpeter granted Horton’s request to act as his own attorney last October. Ultimately, court-appointed shadow council Glenn Davidson handled most of the testimony.

    At trial, Davidson asked witnesses a few questions at Horton’s direction, including some about Romprey’s activity before she was murdered. None of the answers the defense received provided much information, and some of state’s forensic experts were not cross examined at all.

    According to those witnesses for the prosecution, Horton’s palmprint was detected on the driver’s door of a PT Cruiser stolen from Romprey’s house the night she was murdered. The car was later found, with an empty gas tank, on the side of Interstate 65.

    Investigators also found “a lot” of Horton’s DNA on the steering wheel, which they say was likely from sweating, and a toboggan he often wore was found with his blood on it nearby. DNA evidence recovered from the weapon used to kill Romprey was not sufficient enough to make a match.

    One of things highlighted in the state’s case was Horton’s behavior before and after Romprey’s murder. Sarah Adams, his girlfriend at the time, said she’d planned to stay with Horton that weekend, but he disappeared without warning and was gone for two days.

    Adams said she nor his family heard from him until he called from Evergreen. Because he’d not previously had a car, Adams said she was curious how’d gotten there. When she asked, Horton allegedly told her he’d just “gotten a car driven it until he ran out of gas.”

    “He said angels carried him the rest of the way [to Evergreen],” Adams added in her testimony.

    Over the next few days, Adams said Hoton exhibited very strange behavior, focusing on God and telling her several times that God wanted him to bring judgement on people. She also said he built a fire at his house, which he made her stand near for a long time reading the Bible.

    According to Adams’ testimony, Horton stayed up all night to keep the fire from dying, and the next day, a Tuesday, was insistent that she and his mother go to church.

    “He forced me to pray, but I didn’t do it right,” Adams said. “I prayed like a thought I was supposed to pray. I was being sincere, but to him it wasn’t sincere. I couldn’t get him to understand I was praying … you can’t make me be no more sincere than praying.”

    The next day, police took Horton to the Mobile County Metro Jail, where he made several phone calls to Adams that prosecutors also played for the jury this week. Most of the conversations centered around Horton asking Adams for the money he needed for bond.

    When Adams told him that she’d have trouble getting the money together, he got angry.

    “I don’t have anybody to give me $500 when I’m on the run from a f*cking murder charge,” he said in one of the record phone conversations. “I swear to God, everybody who said they gave a f*ck, I’m shooting them and I’m burning their f*cking house down.”

    The jury only spent around two hours deliberating before they unanimously convicted Horton on three capital murder charges.
    Afterward, Horton gave the indication that he wasn’t much interested in his sentence. He said in court that he planned to appeal his second conviction.

    Horton also briefly addressed the members of the jury, telling them they’d “made a mistake” and “I forgive you.” He also asked them to look at his family members, many of whom were in the courtroom throughout most of the trial.

    The defense argued that Horton had only just turned 18 at the time of the murder and was suffering from an extreme mental and emotional disturbance — one Davidson told the jury “probably persists to this day based on the way we’ve seen this trial happen.”

    After about 30 minutes in the jury room, seven jurors recommended sentencing Horton to life without the possibility of parole, which beat the five who wanted to sentence him to death for a second time. Alabama judges are no longer allowed to overrule a jury’s recommendation to enforce the death penalty, so it’s likely that sentence will stand.

    A formal sentencing hearing for Horton will be held June 28 in Mobile.

    After the verdict, retired prosecutor Jo Beth Murphree — who, along with the family, was wearing Romprey’s favorite color, purple — said they respected the jury’s decision even though they’d sought a second death sentence for Horton.

    “Life without parole means just that,” Murphree said. “He will spend the rest of his life in prison, and we’re very grateful for that.”

    When asked about their strategy for the retrial, Murphree acknowledged the prosecution has been meticulous to make sure they didn’t run afoul of anything that caused Horton’s first conviction to be overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

    Specifically, the first conviction because prosecutors introduced prior crimes and allegations against Horton to the jury, which the court said was improper because “collateral acts” or “prior bad acts” cannot be used against criminal defendants to bolster a case against them.

    “Even though I disagreed with some of those grounds, we did not touch any of those issues in this case,” Murphree added. “Anything they said was a reversible error, of course, we weren’t going to bring up in this case, and the jury convicted nonetheless.”

    Murphree even took a small shot at the appeals court’s 2016 ruling, telling reporters she “felt like evidence we presented was more than “minimally sufficient,” using a phrase Judge J. Elizabeth Kellum wrote about the first prosecution’s evidence in the 2016 reversal.

    https://lagniappemobile.com/jury-giv...ithout-parole/
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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