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Thread: Joseph Michael Nissensohn - California Death Row

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    Joseph Michael Nissensohn - California Death Row


    Tammy Lynn Jarschke and Tanya Jones


    Joseph Michael Nissensohn


    Jury selection begins in Nissensohn case

    Jury selection in the case against a man accused of killing three teenage girls in the 1980s began in South Lake Tahoe Tuesday.

    Prosecutors have charged Joseph Michael Nissensohn, 62, with murder counts in the 1989 death of South Lake Tahoe 15-year-old Kathy Graves and the 1981 killings of Tanya Jones, 14, and Tammy Jarshke, 13, in Monterey County.

    Nissensohn faces the death penalty if convicted of murdering the girls. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Jury selection in the case is expected to take place this month and next, with the commencement of the trial scheduled for July 23, according to information given to potential jurors Tuesday. The trial is likely to last into October.

    Dozens of potential jurors filled the upstairs courtroom at El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe Tuesday morning, spilling out into the courthouse’s lobby. A line of people, many carrying jury summons, stretched out the front door of the building at one point Tuesday morning.

    During an afternoon hearing in the case, El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Kingsbury said problems with the court’s telephone system led some potential jurors to arrive at the courthouse at the wrong time, crowding the proceedings. She said she expected the problem to be fixed in time for additional juror screenings Wednesday and Thursday.

    Nissensohn has been in custody in El Dorado County Jail longer than any other inmate currently in custody. He has been held in county jail awaiting trial since April 6, 2008, according to online court records.

    El Dorado County prosecutors filed the murder charge against Nissensohn in the Graves’s death in January 2008, just days before he was set to be released from custody in Washington state, where he was serving time for a second-degree murder conviction. The Monterey County killings were added to the charges against Nissensohn later that year.

    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/sou...ohn-case-court
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    Joseph Nissensohn in prison


    Sex, Drugs, And Murder: Help Cops ID Unknown Women

    Cops say it all started on May 5, 1989 when Joseph Michael Nissensohn, a drifter with an extensive rap sheet for armed robbery and drug possession, murdered a Tacoma, Wash. prostitute named Sally Jo Tssagaris. The murder went down while Nissensohn and his then-girlfriend, Cheryl Rose, were engaged in a bondage-style, drug-fueled sex romp with the victim. Police tell AMW that immediately following the murder, Nissensohn fled Washington with Rose ending up in Lake Tahoe, in California, but cops say Nissensohn's appetite for drugs, sex, and murder had yet to be satiated.

    In August 1989, police say Nissensohn and Rose met up with a 16-year-old girl named Cathy Graves. Cops say that the trio did drugs and had sex in Nissensohn's van, but Nissensohn and Cathy later headed off into the woods on their own. Cathy told authorities that when Nissensohn returned to the van he said that he was upset with the teenage girl because she didn't want to continue having sex with him. It was the last time anyone ever saw Cathy Graves alive.

    Nissensohn, trying to prevent Cheryl from later testifying against him, arranged a Mexican marriage ceremony not long after they left California. From there, the pair took off to Florida where they attended a truck driving school and started doing cross-country hauls. In June 1990, the pair met a prostitute named Theresa Pillow, a.k.a. "Brandy," in Ontario, Calif.

    The trio traveled together until Rose had enough and returned to Florida. But Nissensohn soon met another woman to fulfill his penchant for sex and drugs. Cops only know her by the name Sherry, but numerous photos were taken of this unknown young woman during her stint traveling with Brandy and Nissensohn. Brandy later told authorities that one day, Sherry simply disappeared during the trip, and Nissensohn merely said, "She took off."

    On August 22, 1990, Cathy Graves' skeletal remains were discovered near a hiking trail in South Lake Tahoe. Pierce County, Wash. detectives had already identified Rose and Nissensohn as suspects in the murder of Sally Jo Tsaggaris, and enlisted the help of Florida authorities to locate the former couple.

    Cheryl Rose ultimately confessed to the details of Tsaggaris' murder and also told authorities about Cathy Graves. Nissensohn was arrested in Atlanta, Ga. for the murder of Tsaggaris and was convicted of second degree murder in Tacoma, Wash. But police are still trying to piece together a few last pieces of a puzzle that Nissensohn left behind: a photo album with a number of women that cops still want to identify.

    Police fear that Sherry and the two unknown bikini-clad women have fallen prey to Nissenshohn's predilection for dangerous rough sex and drugs.

    Girls On Film

    During his road trip with Brandy, Cheryl Rose and "Sherry" in the summer of 1990, Nissensohn documented his debauched journey with a number of photos. While police have spoken with Brandy and Rose, they still have yet to identify the young woman known only as Sherry.


    This photo of Brandy and Sherry was found in one of Nissensohn's photo albums at the time of his arrest.


    Cops believe that Sherry was 18 to 22 years old at the time she was with Nissensohn. She is described as 5'10", 125 lbs., with long blond hair, a butterfly tattoo on her left shoulder, and an unknown tattoo on her right shoulder. Police say she could have been from Colorado, and it's not known if she was another one of Nissensohn's many victims or if she left of her own volition.

    Authorities are also hoping to identify two young women in another photo. Nothing is known about either of the bikini-clad women who appear to be at a beach.

    While Nissensohn served a 15-year-sentence for the 1989 murder of Sally Jo Tsaggaris, authorities are hoping to keep him behind bars for the Cathy Graves case and the 1981 murders of two teenage girls in Monterey, Calif. New information has been developed in the Graves case that has resulted in an arrest warrant pending the outcome of a civil commitment hearing in Tacoma, Wash. A California District Attorney is awaiting DNA test results in the Monterey murders before filing a complaint in their case.

    Police fear that Sherry and the two unknown bikini-clad women have fallen prey to Nissenshohn's predilection for dangerous rough sex and drugs. Police in multiple states have come forward with nine other unsolved murder involving young girls that occurred between 1970 and 1980 that fit Nissensohn's M.O.

    http://www.amw.com/features/feature_...il.cfm?id=2682
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    Triple-murder trial begins

    Attorneys entered opening statements Tuesday in a long-delayed triple homicide case at the South Shore.

    Joseph Michael Nissensohn is accused of killing 14-year-old Tanya Jones and 13-year-old Tammy Jarschke in Monterey County in 1981. He is also charged with murder in the death of South Lake Tahoe 15-year-old Kathy Graves in 1989.

    He faces the death penalty if convicted of the crimes. He has pleaded not guilty.

    El Dorado County Deputy District Attorney Dale Gomes began the trial by providing a “road map” to jurors about what evidence he expected to enter at the trial, detailing Nissensohn’s alleged sexual proclivities, including fixations on young girls and sexual violence. He also showed jurors a potential witness list, which included more than 70 names.

    The trial is expected to last into October. Nissensohn has been held in El Dorado County Jail awaiting trial since 2008.

    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/new...ssensohn-death
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    Jury finds Nissensohn guilty of three murders

    Joseph Michael Nissensohn, 62, could be sentenced to death after being convicted Thursday of three counts of first-degree murder.

    Nissensohn will be sentenced Nov. 12 in El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe.

    Nissensohn was charged with the murder of 15-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident Kathy Graves in 1989 and the 1981 murders of 13-year-old Tammy Jarschke and 14-year-old Tanya Jones in Seaside, Calif.

    He had already served 15 years for second-degree murder in Washington state prior to his Thursday conviction.

    Due to California’s special circumstance laws, because Nissensohn was found guilty of multiple murders and convicted of murder once before, he is eligible for the death penalty.

    He waived the second deliberation to have the jury decide whether his ex-wife, Cheryl Rose, was an accomplice in the murders. Rose implicated Nissensohn in the three murders shortly after his first sentence ended.

    She died in 2011 in Ocala, Fla., according to court documents.

    The jury trial has been ongoing since May, and the jury had deliberated for three days since Oct. 24.

    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/sou...hn-jury-murder
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    Penalty phase in murder case postponed

    The penalty phase in the case of convicted murderer Joseph M. Nissensohn has been postponed until December.

    Nissensohn was convicted last week in the 1981 murders of local teenagers Tammy Jarschke and Tanya Jones and, in a separate incident South Lake Tahoe teenager, Kathy Graves, 15.

    The penalty phase of his trial, originally set for Nov. 12, has been delayed to begin Dec. 2 in South Lake Tahoe.

    Due to the state's special circumstance laws, because Nissensohn was found guilty of multiple murders and convicted of murder once before, he is eligible for the death penalty.

    Jarschke, 13, and Jones, 14, disappeared June 25, 1981. Their bodies were discovered on the Carmel Valley ridge about three months later.

    http://www.montereyherald.com/localn...case-postponed
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    Nissensohn’s health discussed in trial

    Testimony in the death penalty trial of convicted triple murderer Joseph Michael Nissensohn on Thursday focused on his mental disorders, brain damage from heavy drug use and the risk of him hurting others if sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    An El Dorado County jury is expected to decide Nissensohn’s sentence next week after two days of testimony.

    Nissensohn, 62, faces the death penalty for murdering three California teens: Kathy Graves of South Lake Tahoe in 1989 and Tammy Jarschke and Tanya Jones, both of Seaside, in 1981. The three girls ranged in age from 13 to 15 when killed.

    Nissensohn previously was convicted of second-degree murder for the 1989 killing of a Washington state woman.

    Pointing to brain scans taken last month at University of California, Davis, Dr. Douglas Taylor said Nissensohn’s brain is two-thirds the size of a normal brain and spotted with dead tissue from heavy intravenous cocaine use in his 20s and 30s.

    Taylor, a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry and substance abuse issues, was brought in to testify by the defense. He showed the jury what he described as images of “extremely dramatic” drug-induced brain damage visible to the naked eye.

    Some of that damage is in Nissensohn’s frontal lobes, a part of the brain “that makes people human” and is involved in empathy, judgment, decision-making and controlling sexual and violent impulses, Taylor said.

    Taylor testified that Nissensohn’s brain damage likely predated or coincided with the four known murders he committed and that, without the damage, Nissensohn would have been less likely to commit them.

    Deputy district attorney Dale Gomes challenged the assertions as speculation in cross-examination of Taylor.

    Testimony also touched on Nissensohn’s poor health as a factor in his risk of hurting others in prison. Taylor testified that Nissensohn has degenerative joint disease in his fingers, knees and neck, heart conditions and hepatitis C.

    Nissensohn’s defense also called on James Esten, a corrections consultant and former instructor, supervisor and inmate appeals examiner for California Department of Corrections.

    Esten testified that Nissensohn would be housed in a level four prison — the most secure facility — and that in his opinion Nissensohn could be housed without threat to other inmates or prison staff.

    “The defendant has never had an inmate-manufactured weapon, never assaulted staff,” Esten said.

    Prosecutors seeking the death penalty argued Nissensohn has a history of preying upon people who are weaker than he is, both inside and outside of prison, and would continue to pose a risk.

    Nissensohn grabbed and choked a young man in the El Dorado County Jail two-and-a-half years ago, prosecutors said.

    While serving time for second-degree murder in Washington, Nissensohn was caught corresponding with young women, asking them to engage in incestuous behaviors and other sexual activities, prosecutors said, arguing Nissensohn would continue to pose a danger to those in prison weaker than he is and those outside prison that he could correspond with.

    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/new...-prison-taylor
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    Nissensohn gets death penalty

    An El Dorado County jury has supported the death penalty for convicted triple murderer Joseph Michael Nissensohn. The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes Tuesday after two days of testimony.

    “Our thoughts are with the many victims of this man who have waited far too long for justice to be served,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said in a formal statement. “While nothing we can do can bring back their loved ones, it’s our hope this outcome gives them some small measure of closure.”

    In October, Nissensohn was convicted of murdering three California teens: Kathy Graves of South Lake Tahoe in 1989 and Tammy Jarschke and Tanya Jones, both of Seaside, in 1981.

    Nissensohn was previously convicted of second-degree murder for the 1989 killing of Sally Jo Tsaggaris in Washington state and due to be released at the end of his sentence in 2008 when charged with the California murders.

    In agreement with the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office consolidated all three murders to be tried at the same time. Cold case homicide investigators from both counties began compiling all of the evidence and witnesses needed for trial.

    “Complex cases such as this require a team effort and I am very pleased with everyone who contributed in the prosecution of this case. Thousands of hours were dedicated to making sure Mr. Nissensohn was held accountable for his actions and without a doubt our community is a safer place without him in it,” Pierson said.

    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/new...rney-convicted

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    Nissensohn sentenced to death for three murders

    Joseph Michael Nissensohn was sentenced to death Thursday in South Lake Tahoe for the first-degree murders of three runaway teenage girls in the 1980s.

    Nissensohn, 62, was convicted in November for the 1989 murder of Kathy Graves, 15, of South Lake Tahoe, and the 1981 murders of Tammy Jarschke, 13, and Tanya Jones, 14, both of Seaside, Calif.

    At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, El Dorado Superior Court Judge Suzanne Kingsbury upheld a jury recommendation reached in December that Nissensohn be executed for the vicious killings.

    At least two of the murders involved kidnapping or rape or both. And Nissensohn preyed upon the vulnerable runaway girls and “subjected them to unimaginable pain and torture,” Kingsbury said, calling their disappearances and murders “every parents’ worst nightmare.”

    Kingsbury ordered Nissensohn to be executed at California State Prison in San Quentin unless his automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court proves successful, calling the death penalty a sentence no judge wants to be in a position to carry out and a sentence that brings her no pleasure. “But it is the law in California and I took an oath to carry out that law,” she said.

    The bodies of the three runaway girls were found in remote woods and at old logging sites in Monterey and El Dorado counties after their disappearances. Their remains were found tied to trees or scattered by animals.

    Several family members testified in court they are struggling with their losses decades later. They described Nissensohn as a menace to society, an “evil person” and “monster,” and a serial killer with no remorse who “probably will live out the rest of his worthless life in prison at the taxpayers’ expense.”

    In written statements read by prosecutors, Penny Jarschke said she is still praying that the needless killing of her daughter Tammy is only a nightmare. The murder also destroyed her own life, Penny Jarschke said.

    Jarschke suffered a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She said for years she could not touch duct tape because her daughter was found bound by it with a dirty sock stuffed in her taped-shut mouth and a screwdriver plunged so hard into her body it broke off the handle.

    “He took her life and that has completely destroyed mine … He killed her and gave me a life sentence,” Jarschke said about Nissensohn, who was eligible for the California death penalty because of a prior second-degree murder conviction for the 1989 killing of Sally Jo Tsaggaris, 46, in Washington state.

    Family members said they doubt Nissensohn will be executed as ordered. Their only comfort is knowing that he cannot victimize more innocent people. “That’s the only peace we can pray for,” one family member told the court.

    Sherri and Ivan Parsley, Kathy Graves’ aunt and uncle who cared for her, said Nissensohn is getting off way too easy for all of the harm he has caused. They said they are still waiting for Graves’ remains to hold a memorial service for her.

    California has not carried out an execution since July 2006 because of court rulings, bureaucratic requirements and the challenge of obtaining lethal injection drugs. The state now has 741 inmates on death row, more than any other state.

    Clarence Ray Allen was the last person executed in California. He was put to death by lethal injection for a 1980 triple murder in Fresno that he ordered from behind bars to silence witnesses in other killings. Allen was serving a life sentence for one murder when convicted in the death penalty case.

    “The justice system has ordered Nissensohn to be executed. It’s now on the backs of the gutless bureaucrats to impose the sentence,” Deputy District Attorney Dale Gomes said after Thursday’s court hearing.

    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/new...lifornia-court

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    On June 21, 2017, counsel was appointed to represent Nissensohn on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...9TUCAgCg%3D%3D

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    Opening brief on direct appeal filed on the 29th of July 2020.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....JRMCAgCg%3D%3D

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