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Thread: Ralph Wright, Jr. - Florida

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    Ralph Wright, Jr. - Florida


    Paula O'Connor and her son, 15-month-old Alijah




    Former Air Force sergeant faces trial in mom and baby murder

    Victoria Christopher is gearing for one of the biggest challenges of her life after her mother and baby brother were murdered six years ago.

    St. Petersburg police say a former Air Force sergeant, 44-year-old Ralph Wright, Jr., strangled the life out of her mother and suffocated her brother when word got out that he was married. Wright is not Victoria's father.

    Day two of jury selection continues in Wright's death penalty case on Tuesday. Meanwhile, with tears streaming down her cheeks, Victoria said, "I'm a girl. I need my mom."

    She said of her little brother, "He was my heartbeat and I feel my heart doesn't beat the same without him."

    Victoria was just 18 when they were murdered. She's 24 now and said her mom, 37-year-old Paula O'Conner, has missed out on so much, like her wedding day.

    "She missed out on me growing up and becoming the woman that I am."

    Victoria believes her mother would be proud of her for taking the stand against the man accused in the killings. Victoria and her best friend, Cayla Lincoln, are both key witnesses against Wright.

    O'Conner had mounting medical bills for her baby boy, who had a serious heart defect. Investigators say she was trying to get the court to get Wright, the child's father, to take responsibility for their son.

    When O'Conner and Wright were dating, Wright was a sergeant, a reservist, called to active duty at MacDill Air Force Base. O'Conner hoped to gain access to his military medical benefits, but when he denied fathering the baby and disappeared from her life, she hired a private investigator and learned he'd been married all along to a woman in Orlando.

    She sued for child support and, three weeks later, was found strangled. Her son, Alijah, was also found suffocated in their St. Petersburg home, according to police.

    Now Victoria is gearing up to face Wright at his double murder trial. While clutching her best friend's hand, she admits she's scared, but believes her mother will be with her in spirit. "I'll get through it. I'll be okay."

    http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/292...nd-baby-murder
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    Opening statements begin in trial of former USAF Sgt. in death of his ex-lover, baby

    Just one man, the prosecutor said, had a motive to kill Paula O'Conner and her 15-month-old child.

    Ralph "Ron" Wright Jr., then an Air Force sergeant, wanted desperately to maintain his life as a bachelor and to avoid thousands in childcare costs, according to Assistant State Attorney Jim Hellickson. During his opening statements in Wright's murder trial, the prosecutor described the defendant as a chronic liar who maintained multiple relationships despite being married.

    Wright and O'Conner's son, Alijah, suffered from numerous medical problems that she couldn't afford to treat on her own. Three weeks before the murders, she had Wright served with papers in the MacDill Air Force Base parking lot informing him that she was suing for child support.

    That, Hellickson said, triggered the murders.

    "Alijah was a burden on him because Alijah was his son," the prosecutor said. "He did not want the responsibility."

    On July 6, 2007, Hellickson said, Wright entered O'Conner's home and strangled his ex-girlfriend before smothering the toddler facedown in his crib.

    Authorities say Wright met O'Conner in January 2004. She was single and working as an insurance underwriter. He said he was divorced with a 10-year-old son. She never met his family, and he often left her to go on what he called a "secret assignment" for the military.

    When she became pregnant in 2005, O'Conner later wrote, Wright disappeared.

    Alijah was born on April 9, 2006.

    O'Conner, who later detailed her problems with Wright on a website, hired a private investigator to find him. Then she learned Wright was married. Soon after, he was served with the papers.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the complex case, which is expected to last three weeks and possibly host more than 70 witnesses. It took the better part of two days to pick a jury, with selection wrapping up at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...of-his/1270765
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    DNA evidence not a slam dunk in case against former MacDill sergeant accused of murder

    A hair. A blood drop. A skin fleck.

    When investigators on TV shows find those bits of evidence at crime scenes, it means one thing: case closed.

    Real-life investigators found such evidence after the July 2007 killings of Paula O'Conner and her 15-month-old son, Alijah. A left-handed black glove — covered inside and out with DNA — was found on a couch near the front door of O'Conner's St. Petersburg home. Detectives have said Ralph "Ron" Wright Jr. wore the glove during or just after the killings.

    That glove and its DNA was discussed, dissected and argued about for nearly seven hours Wednesday during Wright's capital murder trial, and the testimony of two forensic experts called by prosecutors left the case feeling anything but closed.

    Kristen Lehman of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told jurors her analysis couldn't "exclude" Wright as a contributor to the "DNA mixture" of skin cells she discovered on the glove. She also couldn't exclude Alijah, but O'Conner was a match.

    Wright, she acknowledged, is among thousands of people whose DNA would have been consistent with what she found. Lehman told jurors she would expect one in 83 African-Americans and one in 35 Caucasians to fit that DNA mixture.

    The next witness offered even less support to the prosecution's case. Amy Jeanguenat is a forensic expert from Washington, D.C.-based Bode Technology. She examined a portion of the glove that she believed was previously untested: the interior material around the knuckles.

    Lehman had collected DNA with a damp swab, so Jeanguenat tried a different technique. She ran a scalpel over the fabric, believing that might free new cells. Her test could not exclude O'Conner or Alijah — but it did exclude Wright.

    Assistant State Attorney Glenn Martin asked Jeanguenat if her findings should cast doubt on those made by Lehman.

    "My results don't negate FDLE's and FDLE's don't negate my results," she said. "Our results are independent of each other."

    If only for the jury, defense attorney Nathaniel Kidder walked her through the findings again during his cross-examination.

    "So there was DNA there?" he asked.

    "Yes," she said.

    "It just wasn't Ralph Wright's DNA?"

    "That is correct."

    Still, investigators have said the glove's origin provided the key clue. It is identical to a small number issued to Wright's police unit at MacDill Air Force Base, where he then served as a sergeant. Those gloves, made of a flame-resistant material called Nomex, were kept in a locked storeroom at the base.

    Wright had access to that storeroom, and investigators say a security video showed him visit that area three to four hours before the slayings. That video hasn't been presented at trial yet.

    Much of the prosecution's argument has focused on Wright's alleged motive.

    Wright, now 44, met O'Conner in January 2004. She was single and working as an insurance underwriter. He said he was divorced with a 10-year-old son.

    When she became pregnant in 2005, Wright disappeared. O'Conner hired a private investigator to find him. Then she learned Wright was married.

    The boy was born on April 9, 2006. He had medical problems that O'Conner couldn't afford to treat on her own. Three weeks before the killings, O'Conner had Wright served with papers at MacDill informing him that she was suing for child support.

    During his opening statement last week, prosecutor Jim Hellickson described Wright as a habitual liar who wanted to maintain his bachelor lifestyle and avoid thousands of dollars in child care costs.

    The trial is expected to continue for at least another week.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...sed-of/1271978
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    Jury to begin deliberating in St. Petersburg double-murder case

    A jury is scheduled to begin deliberating Wednesday in the trial of Ralph Wright, the former MacDill Air Force sergeant accused of strangling his lover and asphyxiating their 15-month-old son.

    Wright faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Paula and Alijah O'Conner.

    If convicted, Wright could be sentenced to death. The same jurors that will decide whether or not he is guilty would come back on Thursday to weigh whether he deserves the death penalty. A judge would make the final decision after considering the jury's recommendation.

    At the time she died on July 6, 2007, in her St. Petersburg home, O'Conner was trying to get Wright to pay child support and help out with Alijah's medical bills. Born with congenital heart defects, the boy had undergone three surgeries and had a shunt in his head helping drain fluid from his brain.

    But Wright long denied being the father, suggesting at one point O'Conner might have drugged and then raped him. During the trial, though, his defense attorneys acknowledged that he was the father. A DNA test showed that he was.

    In their closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors said Wright was the only one with the motive and means to kill the O'Conners.

    If they lived, he would have had to support Alijah and paid alimony and child support to his wife, Jodi, who had told him they were through if the boy was his, Assistant State Attorney Jim Hellickson told jurors.

    Wright's attorneys cast suspicion on O'Conner's daughter, Victoria Christopher; she received more than $500,000 in life insurance benefits after her mother and half brother were slain. But she wasn't even aware the policies existed, Hellickson said.

    After the slayings, Wright left behind a black military-style glove with his DNA on it, prosecutors said, but defense attorneys disputed that and introduced expert witnesses who said the DNA match wasn't necessarily his.

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/military-ne...-mu-ar-625795/
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    Jurors convict former MacDill sergeant of murder

    A jury has just convicted a former MacDill Air Force sergeant in the deaths of his former lover and their 15-month-old son.

    Ralph Wright, now 44, faced two counts of first-degree murder in the 2007 deaths of Paula O'Conner, 37, and their son, Alijah. Now, the same jury that convicted him will recommend to Circuit Judge Thane Covert whether he should receive the death penalty.

    Jurors deliberated for 12 hours Wednesday and then resumed discussions this morning.

    Prosecutors say Wright on July 6, 2007, strangled O'Conner in her St. Petersburg home and asphyxiated Alijah by pushing his face into the mattress in his crib.

    O'Conner had been pressuring Wright to acknowledge he was the toddler's biological father and to start paying child support and help out with Alijah's medical bills. Born with congenital heart defects, Alijah had three heart surgeries and a shunt inserted into his skull to drain fluid from his brain.

    O'Conner contacted Wright's wife and wrote to the secretary of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Rep Bill Young to complain about Wright. She even created a website, militarydeadbeatdads.com, which provided a chronology of her problems with him.

    But it wasn't until June 12, 2007 24 days before the murders that a "death clock" started ticking, making the O'Conners' deaths imminent, Assistant State Attorney Glenn Martin told jurors in his closing argument Tuesday evening.

    That's when a private investigator working for O'Conner served Wright with a paternity suit, dragging the fight between O'Conner and Wright into court. Wright was under pressure to respond within 20 days or he would lose the case, along with his wages.

    Wright's wife, Jodi, who lived in Orlando, told him that if he didn't take a paternity test – or that if the test proved Alijah was his son – their marriage was over, Martin told jurors.

    That meant Wright was looking at paying child support for two children. He long had denied being Alijah's father, and at one point suggested Paula O'Conner had drugged and raped him before conceiving the child. But Wright's lawyers conceded during the trial that the child was his.

    The only piece of physical evidence linking Wright to the murders was a black size 8 Nomex glove, typically worn by military pilots. Investigators found it at O'Conner's house, and prosecutors say Wright accidentally left it there.

    A shipment of 25 of the same gloves were delivered to MacDill five months before the slayings, and Wright had access to them, Martin said.

    Inside the glove was a mixture of DNA, prosecutors say – Alijah's, Paula's, and Wright's. But matching Wright's DNA to what was found in the glove was not a slam dunk. One out of 35 people in Florida have the same DNA, jurors were told at one point by a Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory analyst.

    That's a far cry from the statistic usually bandied about when single-source DNA is discussed: one out of more than a quadrillion people.

    Bill Bennett, one of Wright's defense attorneys, told jurors two other DNA analysts had excluded Wright's DNA from the mixture, though Martin questioned the validity of those results.

    "This is the biggest piece of evidence they have and it doesn't amount to anything," Bennett told the jurors.

    In his closing argument, Bennett suggested an array of alternative suspects, including O'Conner's daughter, Victoria Christopher, who was 18 at the time and received $540,000 in life insurance benefits after the death of her mother and half-brother. She also inherited her mother's house.

    Bennett also cast suspicion on three of Christopher's then-current or former boyfriends, as well as Paula O'Conner's mailman.

    But none of those people had a difficult relationship with Paula O'Conner, as Wright did, Martin argued. And there was no reason for anyone else to have killed Alijah, who was too young to have been an effective witness.

    Wright was the only one with a reason to kill the toddler, Martin said.

    "There's no doubt it's the defendant who committed the murder," Assistant State Attorney Jim Hellickson told jurors in his closing arguments. "He was the top suspect from the very beginning."

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-ne...der-ar-628164/
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    Jury recommends death for former MacDill sergeant

    Jurors have recommended that former MacDill Air Force Base sergeant Ralph Wright be executed for murdering his former lover and their 15-month-old son.

    The same jury convicted Wright, 44, Thursday of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2007 deaths of Paula O'Conner and their 15-month-old son, Alijah. That vote was unanimous, as required by law. Today, jurors split 7-5 in recommending the death penalty for Wright instead of life in prison, the only other sentence available.

    Circuit Judge Thane Covert is required to give the recommendation "great weight" before sentencing Wright.

    On July 6, 2007, Wright strangled O'Conner in her St. Petersburg home and asphyxiated the boy by shoving the toddler's face into the mattress in his crib.

    O'Conner had filed suit to force Wright to acknowledge he was the boy's father. She wanted child support, and she wanted help with the child's medical bills. Born with congenital heart defects, Alijah had three heart surgeries and a shunt inserted into his skull to help with fluid in his brain.

    Wright denied being the father, but his defense attorneys acknowledged he was the father during the four-week murder trial.

    The recommendation for a deathsentence came after one of Wright's attorneys, Bjorn Brunvand, tried to portray Wright as a sympathetic figure. Wright's father, who helped run a trucking company, died in an airplane wreck when Wright was 10, and the boy stepped up to become a kind of father figure for his five siblings, even though he had an older brother, the lawyer said.

    Wright became obsessed with police work, sometimes preferring to listen to a scanner rather than play with other children, family members and friends told jurors during Wright's sentencing hearing. He liked to ride around with police and point out the neighborhood drug dealers, a cooperative effort his family believed could draw some retribution from the dealers.

    Assistant State Attorney Glenn Martin, however, told jurors that the people who vouched for Wright were doing so based on their memories of him as a child not as an adult man who, while stationed at MacDill, had affairs with at least three women, including O'Conner, even though he had a wife in Orlando.

    http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-ne...s-t-ar-629099/
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    Former Air Force sergeant sentenced to death in Pinellas

    Ralph Wright Jr. was sentenced to death Friday for killing his ex-girlfriend and their baby in a way that the judge called cold, calculated, heinous and cruel.

    During a hearing Friday, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thane Covert recounted many details of the killing to explain his conclusion that "the death penalty is the appropriate sentence."

    Perhaps the most chilling part of the narrative came as Covert described how Wright came uninvited to the St. Petersburg home of Paula O'Conner, his ex-girlfriend.

    It was an early morning in July 2007, and O'Conner was getting dressed for work. She had sued Wright for failing to help support their son, Alijah, a 15-month-old with ongoing health problems.

    "She knew that her life was in danger," Covert said, because of the couple's history. O'Conner fought back but was found strangled at the foot of Alijah's crib.

    "Paula spent her last moments of consciousness not only in fear of her own death, but also in tremendous fear regarding Alijah's safety," Covert said. Alijah was smothered.

    Wright, 46, who was an Air Force sergeant at MacDill Air Force Base at the time of the killings, showed no reaction on Friday as Covert issued the sentence.

    Afterward, Victoria Christopher, O'Conner's daughter, said, "For me, justice was served when he was found guilty."

    Although Wright and O'Conner once had a romantic relationship, Wright disappeared after she got pregnant. He did not respond to O'Conner's requests that he help support the boy. O'Conner filed a paternity lawsuit and set up a website calling him a "deadbeat dad."

    Covert cited several "aggravating factors" about the crime that he said made the death penalty appropriate. Among them:

    • Using language from Florida law, Covert said the crime was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel."

    • The killings were cold and calculated because of the way Wright showed up at a time when he knew O'Conner would be preparing for work, the judge said. And he even moved her car from the driveway after killing her so that it wouldn't be immediately clear something was wrong, Covert said.

    • It was a double murder.

    • Wright murdered for financial gain so that he wouldn't have to help pay his son's medical expenses.

    As the law requires, Covert also considered mitigating factors raised by defense attorneys to argue against the death penalty. Although the defense argued that Wright suffered from brain damage, Covert said evidence did not prove it. However, he did agree with defense attorneys that Wright had made contributions to society through his Air Force work and in other ways, and had established loving relationships with family members.

    During the trial last year, prosecutors said Wright was the only person with a motive to kill O'Conner and their son. They said a glove found at the crime scene matched ones used in Wright's Air Force unit.

    Wright will join 393 other people on Florida's death row. The state has executed 88 people since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1979, including 19 under Gov. Rick Scott.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/former-...nellas/2193141
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    Why does Florida often have such long gaps between when the jury recommends a sentence and when the judge actually imposes the sentence?

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    Sometimes the court allows a few pre-sentencing hearings that don't make the news.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Florida Supreme Court Orders Release of Death Row Inmate

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A former Air Force sergeant on death row for the murders of an ex-girlfriend and their son will be set free after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that there was no physical evidence to convict him.

    The court issued the order to acquit Ralph Wright on Thursday for the 2007 murders of Paula O'Conner and their 15-month-old son Alijah in St. Petersburg. The ruling said O'Conner's daughter also had motive and opportunity to kill her mother and half-brother, but investigators never considered her as a suspect.

    In another twist, O'Conner also had a relationship with a married police officer who responded to the murder scene and a married mail carrier.

    Prosecutors built their case on the theory that Wright killed O'Conner and their son to avoid paying child support.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ath-row-inmate
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