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Thread: Angelo Michael Melendez - California Death Row

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    Angelo Michael Melendez - California Death Row


    Angelo Michael Melendez


    Facts of the Crime:

    On December 13, 2000, Melendez murdered Stagg High School athletic standout Koi Wilson and left Ricky Lee Richardson paralyzed after a robbery of money and drugs.

    On New Year's Day 2007, in Stockton, California, Lynette Denney died, "for the second time," reports Sara Cardine in the Stockton Record. In 1980, when she was 22, Angelo Michael Melendez shot her in the head and left her for dead. Lynette had refused to have sex with Melendez, and he shot her "at point-blank range under each eye." Miraculously, she didn't die, but complications following surgery "caused her to fall into a permanent, semi-vegetative state." As described in the story, her family cared for her for the next 27 years. Melendez got seven years for this crime, and he was released on parole after five.

    Melendez was sentenced to death on August 18, 2003 in San Joaquin County.

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    Murder conviction of Stockton man reversed

    Appeals court finds defendant had ineffective representation


    By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
    The Stockton Record

    A California appeals court has reversed the murder conviction of a Stockton man charged with the beating death of a 48-year-old woman on grounds the defendant had ineffective representation.

    James Andre Gorman in 2011 was sentenced to 15 years to life for the second-degree murder of Frankie Fisher Todd, found inside her home bludgeoned and with bite marks on her body.

    The Third Appellate District sided with a petition that says Gorman's trial defense attorney, Ralph Cingcon, failed to attempt to locate three available witnesses who could have made a difference in the outcome of the trial.

    "Two of whom could have bolstered Gorman's alibi, and one who could have identified another plausible killer, the victim's daughter," the petition says.

    The court granted the reversal Wednesday based on ineffective assistance of counsel.

    Gorman alleges Todd's daughter, a drug dealer, had made incriminating admissions to one of her customers.

    It's a claim Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau says has "zero" evidence to support.

    Should he retry the case again, he said, "I will prosecute it the exact same way I did it before."

    "This woman, Frankie Todd, was beaten brutally with a blunt object," Himelblau said. "That blunt object was not in the home."

    Gorman, 49, had a reputation for carrying a bat and assaulting people with it, Himelblau said, adding that DNA evidence and witness accounts support a conviction.

    Cingcon declined to comment on the appellate court decision.

    Todd was beaten to death with a baseball bat March 25, 2005, at her home in the 2400 block of Ophir Street.

    The home was a known drug house that had people coming in and out in the late night and early hours, court documents say.

    Gorman, who admitted to providing drugs to the victim in exchange for sexual favors, was arrested in 2006.

    Saliva in at least one bite mark on Todd's body matched Gorman's DNA. One witness testified to riding with Gorman to the victim's home and seeing him enter it with a bat.

    Gorman's petition challenges the reliability of witnesses who were substance users.

    Himelblau, who prosecuted the case, said in 2011 that he believed Gorman attacked Todd because she had disrespected him weeks earlier by hitting him in front of other people.

    Gorman's murder trial wasn't the first time Himelblau had crossed paths with Todd. The previous time, however, she was a witness to her other daughter's slaying.

    Five years prior, Todd's 19-year-old daughter, Koi Wilson, was shot to death when someone opened fire in a home and stole a large amount of marijuana. That killer, Angelo Melendez, is now on California's death row.

    Himelblau on Thursday said the District Attorney's Office plans to retry Gorman if the attorney general does not appeal the high court's decision to reverse the case.

    http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.d...NEWS/403070318

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    That's terrible he only got five years for shooting a woman twice in the face at point blank range. He should have been put away forever for doing that to her.

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    Melendez's direct appeal has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since November 2, 2015.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S118384

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    On October 5, 2016, oral argument will be heard in Melendez's direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/c...rs/SOCT516.PDF

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    On October 19, 2016, Melendez filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

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

    On December 8, 2016, the California Supreme Court AFFIRMED Melendez's death sentence on direct appeal.

    http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S118384.PDF

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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Melendez's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
    Case Numbers: (S118384)
    Decision Date: December 8, 2016
    Rehearing Denied: February 1, 2017

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/17-5125.html

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