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Thread: Dawud El Spaulding - Ohio Death Row

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Dawud El Spaulding - Ohio Death Row




    Eyewitness in Akron murder trial threatened

    Prosecutors produced an eyewitness Thursday who identified a 30-year-old Akron man accused in the shooting deaths of two people and the attempted murder of a man only hours earlier.

    The shootings were at a home in the 1100 block of Grant Street on Thursday morning, Dec. 15 — during a period described by veteran police investigators as one of the most violent in the city’s history.

    Nine people were shot, six fatally, during a six-day span, police said.

    Dawud Spaulding of East Buchtel Avenue is facing the death penalty in the slayings of Ernie Thomas and Erica Singleton, the mother of Spaulding’s 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, and the shooting of Patrick Griffin that same day.

    Griffin, who fell in a doorway leading to a side driveway of the orange-painted home, was so badly hurt responding officers who found him there said he could not speak a word.

    “He was trying to talk, moving his mouth, but couldn’t,” one Akron officer told the jury Thursday morning.

    Griffin is paralyzed.

    The state contends that Spaulding went to Ernie Thomas’ home, looking for Singleton, shot Griffin first in the early morning darkness, about 2 a.m., and fled.

    Some six hours later, prosecutors say, Spaulding returned and fatally shot Singleton and Thomas moments after they left the steps of his front porch.

    Singleton, who was carrying an overnight bag at the time, had a protection order against Spaulding and was trying to hide when she was killed, prosecutors say.

    After the lunch break Thursday, with no jury in the courtroom, Summit County Assistant Prosecutor Tom Kroll informed Judge Paul Gallagher that the eyewitness had received threats on his life in phone calls he received earlier in the day.

    Kroll said the threats came from someone who had been “inside the courtroom” at some point — presumably as retaliation by a person close to the defendant.

    Gallagher then resumed the proceedings, ensuring there were no spectators in the defendant’s section of the gallery, and the eyewitness took the stand.

    He identified himself as a 41-year-old married father with children, who moved to Portage County in 1999 from Massachusetts.

    The man said he moved from Portage to a home near Grant Street, where he had lived for about a year, and was on his way back home on the morning of Dec. 15 after dropping off one of his children at school.

    While stopped at the corner of Stanton and Grant, the man said, he saw a man and woman walking down the front steps of the orange Grant Street home.

    The woman, he said, “looked like she was carrying an overnight bag.”

    A third person, a man walking down Grant with a dark-colored jacket and shoulder-length, tightly braided hair, then approached the home, he said.

    When the woman with the overnight bag saw that man, the eyewitness said, “she stopped like dead in her tracks.”

    At that point, he said, there was a heated argument between the two men near the driveway, and the man who had approached the home suddenly reached for something in his waistband, the eyewitness said.

    It happened in maybe 15 seconds, he said.

    As the eyewitness pulled away from the stop sign, he said he was about 50 feet down the road when he heard “a pop, pop.”

    Some three minutes later, he said, “there were police cars just poring down Grant Street from all directions.”

    Asked by Kroll if he could identify the person reaching toward his waistband, the eyewitness said he was sitting at the defense table between his two lawyers.

    “He looks different, but I think it’s the gentlemen between [those] two,” the eyewitness said. “I don’t remember him wearing glasses.”

    Spaulding was in court wearing silver-rimmed glasses, a white shirt, dark tie and dark slacks. And his hair is now short and closely trimmed.

    Kroll later produced a police photo of Spaulding, with long braided hair, taken after his arrest.

    When the eyewitness was shown a copy of the police photo on the witness stand, he said: “That’s the gentleman I saw that day.”

    In an attempt to discredit the testimony, defense lawyer Doc Walker questioned the man at length and got him to admit he was a former heroin and marijuana user and, in fact, had been getting intensive treatment for heroin about a month before the shootings.

    It is the defense’s position, confirmed by Walker and co-defense counsel Jason Wells, that police and prosecutors have the wrong man.

    The Grant Street area, Walker said, is infested with illegal drug activity and other crimes.

    There is so much criminal activity in that area, Walker said during a break in the proceedings, “you can’t really tell what might have happened there that day.”

    The trial continues today. Closing arguments could be presented by the middle of next week.

    http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/...tened-1.345182
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  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Akron man guilty in capital murder trial

    An Akron man will face the death penalty next month after being convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, one count of felonious assault and other crimes in the fatal shootings of two people and another shooting late last year that left a man paralyzed.

    Dawud Spaulding, 30, of East Buchtel Avenue, showed no emotion as Summit County Common Pleas Judge Paul Gallagher read the verdicts Friday.

    Spaulding now will face the death penalty phase of the trial for killing Ernie Thomas and Erica Singleton, the mother of Spaulding’s 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, and shooting Patrick Griffin hours earlier the same day.

    Gallagher scheduled the mitigation phase of the trial to begin Dec. 4.

    In that phase, commonly known as a mini-trial, prosecutors must prove the aggravated circumstances of the crimes outweigh any defense assertions that the death penalty is not warranted.

    Gallagher alone will decide if Spaulding should die at the hands of the state.

    The shootings were at a home in the 1100 block of Grant Street in the early hours of Dec. 15 — during a period veteran Akron police investigators described as one of the most violent in the city’s history.

    Nine people were shot, six fatally, during a six-day span, police said.

    Griffin was the first victim. He was shot and fell in a doorway leading to a side driveway of the Grant Street home about 2 a.m. The shooting left him paralyzed.

    About six hours later, Spaulding returned to the home and fatally shot Singleton and Thomas moments after they left the steps of his front porch, prosecutors said.

    Singleton had a protection order against Spaulding and was trying to hide when she was killed, prosecutors said.

    http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/...trial-1.348932
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  3. #3
    Jan
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    Akron jury recommends death penalty for 2011 double murder

    A Summit County jury has recommended the death penalty for an Akron man convicted in the fatal shootings of two people and a related shooting on Grant Street that left a man paralyzed.

    The decision came Thursday morning after the sequestered panel deliberated for about seven hours over parts of two days.

    Dawud El Spaulding, 30, of East Buchtel Avenue, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 15 by Common Pleas Judge Paul Gallagher.

    Under Ohio law, the judge has the authority to lower the sentence to life in prison with no chance of parole, or approve the jury’s recommendation.

    Spaulding previously was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, one count of felonious assault and other crimes in the December 2011 slayings of Ernest “Ernie” Thomas and Erica Singleton, the mother of Spaulding’s 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.

    Patrick Griffin was the first victim. He was shot hours earlier that same day and fell in a doorway leading to a side driveway of the home on Grant. The 2 a.m. shooting left him paralyzed.

    Some six hours later, after Spaulding fled, trial testimony showed that he returned to the home and fatally shot Singleton and Thomas just moments after they left the steps of Thomas’ front porch.

    Ernest Thomas Sr., the father of Ernie Thomas and the grandfather of Griffin, called the nature of the shootings a product of “jealousy” and lashed out at the senseless gunplay on city streets.

    Thomas attended Thursday’s court hearing with his ex-wife, Helen Thomas, and many other relatives and friends of the victims.

    “We’re not saying our son was an angel,” Thomas said. “He didn’t deserve this, and my grandson, Patrick, didn’t deserve it either.

    “But these kids who run around here with these guns,” he said, “don’t have any understanding of what life is about. Everything is a game to them, and life is not a game because it’s so short.

    “These kids need to wake up.”

    Erica Singleton, who was with Ernie Thomas in the hours before the shootings, had a protection order against Spaulding and was trying to hide when she was killed, prosecutors said at the jury trial.

    Helen Thomas said her son “got caught up in a situation that he knew nothing about. He didn’t know anything about the young lady that he was with, or what kind of relationship she had with the killer.”

    Not only was her son in the wrong place at the wrong time, she also said he was “with the wrong person.”

    Helen Thomas said she was “very pleased” with the jury’s findings after the panel began deliberations at about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday.

    “The punishment fit the crime, and I thank God for it,” she said.

    Ernest Thomas Sr. said he plans to address the court at Spaulding’s sentencing.

    The Grant Street slayings occurred during a period veteran Akron police investigators described as one of the most violent in the city’s history.

    Nine people were shot, six fatally, during a six-day span.

    http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/...urder-1.369449

  4. #4
    That's a shocker. A death sentence in Ohio. Death sentences have become increasingly rare in both Ohio and North Carolina.

  5. #5
    Jan
    Guest
    The jury found Spaulding guilty of:

    - Two counts of Aggravated Murder, with a specification for killing two or more people
    - Attempted Murder, a felony of the first degree, with a firearm specification
    - Felonious Assault, a felony of the second degree, with a firearm specification
    - Domestic Violence, a felony of the third degree
    - Having Weapons Under Disability, a felony of the third degree
    - Intimidation of a Crime Victim, a misdemeanor of the first degree, and
    - Violation of a Protection Order, a misdemeanor of the first degree

    http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/loc...#ixzz2Jav3w2OV

  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In the past 4 1/2 years I have only seen one instance of the judge going against the jury and that judge sentenced the defendant to death.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  7. #7
    Admiral CnCP Legend JT's Avatar
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    Alabama, I presume?

  8. #8
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Nope Ohio...it shocked both Jeff and myself. I sorta looked for the name a few minutes ago. I'm almost sure it was in 2010. We both thought Alabama and Florida were the only states where the judge could override juries and impose a death sentence.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  9. #9
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    How?? In Ohio for a death sentence to be imposed the jury must unanimously reccomend it or the three-judge panel must unanimously vote for it. Delaware, Florida and Alabama are the only three states where a judge can override a jury's recommendation for death sentences.

  10. #10
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    It was Ohio I will search for the name later...
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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