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Thread: James Wayne Ham Sentenced to Life in Prison in 2013 TX Murder of Postal Worker Eddie “Marie” Youngblood

  1. #1
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    James Wayne Ham Sentenced to Life in Prison in 2013 TX Murder of Postal Worker Eddie “Marie” Youngblood


    Eddie "Marie" Youngblood





    Man accused of Coldspring postal worker’s murder facing second indictment

    James Wayne Ham, 36, has been indicted in San Jacinto County for the May 17 shooting death of postal carrier Eddie “Marie” Youngblood.

    Ham also faces a federal indictment for Youngblood’s murder. He is currently being held in prison without bond for the federal indictment.

    “I followed up with an indictment for murder to be certain he’s put away for the rest of his life,” said Richard Countiss, District Attorney in San Jacinto County.

    Ham is alleged to have murdered Youngblood after she delivered mail to his home in Holiday Shores #4 Subdivision.

    She was shot multiple times at close range and then set on fire inside her Jeep Cherokee, which was found a short distance from Ham’s home.

    According to documents from the subsequent law enforcement investigation, Ham was angry with Youngblood because he felt she was holding his mail and rerouting it to his estranged wife, who is also a mail carrier.

    Ham’s federal trial is not expected to take place prior to February 2014. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, according to Countiss.

    The federal court has set a trial schedule that has final motions filed by Jan. 7, 2014; a pretrial conference on Feb. 3; jury instructions filed by Feb. 4; and jury selection and trial to begin on Feb. 11, 2014.

    “If something goes wrong with the federal case, then we have an indictment under which we can seek a life sentence,” said Countiss.

    http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/easte...2e8a3c21e.html
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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    PRESS RELEASE

    U.S. seeks death penalty in USPS worker murder case

    HOUSTON – The United States has filed a motion of its intent to seek the death penalty upon the conviction of James Wayne Ham for the murder of a mail carrier with the United States Postal Service (USPS), announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson along with Inspector in Charge Robert Wemyss of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and San Jacinto County District Attorney Richard Countiss.

    A grand jury sitting in Houston returned a two-count indictment against Ham, 37, of Coldspring, on June 13, 2013. He is charged with one count of murder and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence.

    The indictment alleges that on or about May 17, 2013, Ham committed premeditated murder of a USPS employee while she was engaged in the performance of her official duties and that he intentionally carried, brandished and discharged a firearm in the commission of that murder.

    The investigation began shortly following the receipt of a 911 call from the son of the now deceased USPS worker on Friday, May 17. He indicated he had been speaking with his mother via cell phone and heard two loud noises. His mother allegedly told him she had been shot. Shortly thereafter, the phone was disconnected, according to the complaint.

    Court documents allege the victim was shot on Friday, May 17, 2013, shortly after delivering mail at Ham’s residence. The victim was on her normal rural delivery route in her personal vehicle. Ham allegedly shot her multiple times at close range with a .30/30 caliber rifle.

    Ham then allegedly drove the vehicle to a nearby secluded area and set it on fire.

    According to the complaint, the victim’s body was discovered in her burning vehicle in San Jacinto County. Firefighters extinguished the flames and found the woman inside.

    The investigation eventually led to Ham after it was discovered he had allegedly complained previously about not getting his mail delivered properly, according to the complaint.

    Ham was located after an extensive manhunt and arrested without incident Sunday, May 20, 2013, near his home in San Jacinto County.

    If convicted, he now faces the death penalty.

    A variety of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been and will continue to work together in furtherance of the investigation and prosecution of this matter to ensure the proper administration of justice.

    The case is being investigated by the USPIS, San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Rangers, San Jacinto Constable Precinct 4, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, Texas Parks and Wildlife, San Jacinto County Fire Marshall and the San Jacinto County District Attorney’s Office. Also providing assistance was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the volunteer fire departments in Point Blank and Cape Royale. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joe Magliolo, Casey MacDonald and Suzanne Elmilady are prosecuting.

    An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence.

    A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.

    http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/pasad...684af3a46.html

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    He murdered her because he had complaints about the way his mail was delivered? This has got to be one of the most trivial excuses I've read on this website for murdering someone. I guess there are the robberies of trivial amounts of money, too, and there was the guy who killed his wife or girlfriend for not giving him more money to buy alcohol. Such a waste in all these cases.

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    In federal courtroom, rare death penalty case involves slaying of postal employee

    Lawyers for accused postal-worker killer James Wayne Ham say he will agree to "live in a box for the rest of his life" to avoid a death penalty trial, but Justice Department officials say they will continue to pursue a capital case against the San Jacinto County man.

    The 38-year-old has been awaiting trial for nearly two years to face allegations that he fatally shot rural mail carrier Eddie "Marie" Youngblood as she made deliveries in Coldspring in May 2013. The community is about 60 miles north of Houston.

    Ham, who appeared in court on Monday during a pretrial conference wearing forest-green prison garb, is charged with one count of first-degree murder of a federal employee and discharging a firearm in relation to a violent crime resulting in death.

    In a 6½-page document explaining why the government is seeking a capital conviction, prosecutors alleged that Ham's ongoing pattern of violent acts - years of shooting at people and animals as well as setting fires - converged in the crime against the postal worker.

    Ham had an ongoing dispute with Youngblood, who he believed was commiserating with his estranged rural mail carrier wife to tamper with his mail and reroute deliveries to her.

    The government's notice of intent to seek the death penalty said Ham had been charged with raping a female relative and sexually assaulting a woman he met in a bar. He's threatened to kill at least one wife, shot and killed his estranged wife's goats and another family's pair of dogs, fired weapons at other people and has stolen guns, the document said.

    Seen as future danger

    "Ham also has a propensity to set things on fire when he feels he has been wronged," the filing said, noting that he has set puppies on fire, started a blaze in a national forest and lit up a mobile home.

    In the Youngblood case, Ham is accused of firing at least two gunshots at Youngblood, then burning her Jeep Cherokee and his clothes.

    The government also mentioned future dangerousness to others - including two of Youngblood's sons who are both letter carriers - as more reasons for seeking a capital conviction.

    Federal prosecutors announced last October that they intended to upgrade the murder case. Since then, Ham's lawyers have tried to avoid the effort and expense of a death penalty trial.

    "We have somebody who is willing to take a life without parole," said Katherine Scardino, who was appointed to represent Ham with Robert Morrow.

    After Monday's hearing, Scardino said she is working on a "deauthorization" in which prosecutors could agree to take the death penalty off the table.

    "I think it's just because he killed a postal worker that the government is seeking death," she said. "He's willing to plead to life and they want to kill him, and I find that repulsive."

    U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes approved the defense counsel's budget nearly two months ago, but 5th Circuit Court of Appeals administration has yet to accept the planned expenses.

    "What we are looking at is under $1 million. Maybe," Scardino said. "But we're just getting started."

    'Swift justice'

    After Scardino and Morrow said they couldn't hire experts to review evidence or proceed much more with the case until the budget is approved, Hughes canceled his setting for an October 2015 trial. Lawyers on both sides agreed to a tentative trial time frame of February 2016.

    Assistant U.S. attorneys Joseph Magliolo and Suzanne Elmilady, based in the Southern District of Texas, are prosecuting the case.

    Late Monday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas declined to comment about the death penalty designation.

    "I want it done right, but there is something to be said for swift justice, and if the government changed its mind, we wouldn't have to go through all this," Hughes said.

    Federal prosecutors rarely seek the death penalty nationwide and have pursued the punishment in Southeast Texas only a handful of times.

    The only other unresolved case, according to prosecutors, was announced as a capital prosecution in 2012. Wilmar Rene Duran-Gomez, a Salvadoran smuggler, is accused of ordering the fatal beatings of two undocumented Honduran immigrants whose bodies were stashed in an abandoned pickup in rural Fort Bend County in November 2006. Nicknamed "El Gordo," he allegedly ran two transportation companies that shuttled unauthorized migrants from the Texas-Mexico border to a southwest Houston warehouse where they were held until relatives or friends paid for their release. The trial for Duran-Gomez and his co-defendants is set for January 2016.

    There have been three death-penalty case verdicts in federal courts in Southeast Texas over the last two decades. One was handed down against marijuana kingpin Juan Raul Garza in 1993 for killing three other drug traffickers in Brownsville. He was executed in 2001.

    A Corpus Christi jury returned a death sentence in 2004 against Alfred Bourgeois in the shaking death of his 2-year-old daughter. The most recent case was in Houston involving Tyrone Williams, the driver in a botched smuggling attempt that left 19 undocumented immigrants dead near Victoria in 2003. Jurors at his 2007 retrial sentenced him to life.

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...se-6169064.php

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    Psych testing ordered for man accused of killing postal worker

    By Cindy George
    The Housto Chronicle

    A Houston federal judge has ordered a competency exam for a man who faces the death penalty in the slaying of a postal worker.

    James Wayne Ham is accused of fatally shooting rural mail carrier Eddie "Marie" Youngblood in May 2013 as she made deliveries in Coldspring, a San Jacinto County town 60 miles north of Houston. He has been in federal custody for two years.

    The judge's order delays his capital murder trial, which was set for February.

    In October 2014, the government issued notice that they intended to seek the death penalty against Ham, 38.

    In a joint motion filed last month, Ham's lawyers and a federal prosecutor asked U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes to order competency testing for the defendant.

    After consulting with several psychological experts, the defense attorneys contend that Ham has an IQ of 65. The generally accepted threshold for intellectual disability is an IQ of 70.

    In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute people who have limited mental function. The court updated their position in 2014 by deciding that Florida's strict cutoff at 70 for determining intellectual disability in capital cases was unconstitutional.

    In January, Texas officials executed convicted killer Robert Ladd, who had an IQ of 67.

    Defense lawyers Katherine Scardino and Robert Morrow said in the filing that Ham cannot understand "the proceedings against him" or "assist properly in his defense."

    The motion, also signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Magliolo, said the government does not believe that Ham is impaired, but agreed to an evaluation on the issue.

    Writing that "the ends of justice served by this delay outweigh the interests of the public" and Ham "to a speedier trial," Hughes reset jury selection and a trial for May 17.

    According to the office of U.S. Attorney Ken Magidson, two capital cases - both involving fatalities during immigrant smuggling - are pending in the Southern District of Texas.

    Federal prosecutors rarely seek the death penalty nationwide and have pursued the punishment in Southeast Texas only a handful of times.

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...ng-6606519.php

  6. #6
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    Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty for Killer of Mail Carrier

    Justice Department lawyers at an Oct. 31 hearing rejected a plea offer from a man accused of killing and burning the body of a mail carrier.

    James Wayne Ham is on trial in a Houston court for the 2013 killing of 52-year-old postal carrier Eddie "Marie" Youngblood.

    Youngblood was working her rural route in Coldspring, Texas, about 60 miles north of Houston on May 17, 2013 when she was allegedly confronted by James Ham.

    Youngblood was sitting in the Jeep Cherokee she used to deliver mail, talking on the phone with her youngest son, Postal News reported.

    Ham fired a 30/30 rifle at Youngblood from close range, striking her several times in the chest, while Youngblood’s youngest son listened to her pleading for her life.

    According to Polk County Today, Youngblood's son hung up and called 911.

    Ham then got into the Jeep and drove to a secluded area, where he ignited the vehicle, which still contained Youngblood's body. He also burned the clothes he was wearing, hoping to destroy any evidence.

    San Jacinto County Firefighters followed the smoke plume and put out the fire, only to find Youngblood's body inside the car.

    Ham became a suspect because he had complained about Youngblood not delivering his mail properly. For some reason, Ham thought that Youngblood was conspiring with his ex-wife to divert his mail to her, the Houston Chronicle reported.

    Family Wants the Death Penalty

    Ham has repeatedly offered to accept a guilty plea if the prosecution would give him a life sentence. However, the prosecution has repeatedly stressed that Ham has committed a capital offense and must be punished accordingly.

    U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharad S. Khandelwal why the prosecution was so determined to seek the death penalty, especially since the trial had already taken so long and cost so much, and since Ham would be jailed for life if the prosecution accepted his plea.

    "It's not your money, it's everybody else's money," the judge said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "Either way he's incapacitated. He'll either be dead or in prison."

    "To the United States, this is not a question of money but of justice," Khandelwal said.

    Khandelwal said that Ham had bragged about killing Youngblood while making calls from jail before his trial. He showed no signs of remorse.

    Eddie Youngblood's surviving family - her husband, 2 sons, and daughter-in-law - attended the hearing. They all want Ham to face death.

    Youngblood's sons, Mark Youngblood, 33, and his brother George Youngblood Jr., 36, are both postal carriers. Mark was on the phone with his mother at the time of the alleged murder.

    "It completely changed my life," he told the court, according to the Chronicle. "I want justice."

    A History of Depraved Violence

    The government is apparently seeking the death penalty both to set a precedent for killing federal workers and because Ham had shown himself to be a violent, destructive man with no compassion for others.

    United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson, speaking just days after the killing, said "The safety of our workforce and, ultimately, the surrounding communities is of paramount concern to me and this office," Polk County Today reported.

    "The killing of a Postal Service worker in the course of his/her official duties is a crime that affects us all.

    "Anyone who is believed to have committed a crime against an employee of the United States will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

    In court filings, the prosecution argued that Ham should receive the death penalty because of his record, the Houston Chronicle reported.

    The prosecution pointed out that Ham had previously been prosecuted for raping a female relative and for sexually assaulting a woman he met in a bar.

    Ham had threatened to kill his wife, the one with whom he believed Youngblood was colluding with to steal his mail. He had shot and killed his wife's goats, shot at a pair of dogs that belonged to another family, and stolen firearms.

    The filing further noted that Ham had "a propensity to set things on fire when he feels he has been wronged."

    According to court records, Ham had set puppies on fire, started a blaze in a national forest, and torched a mobile home.

    Ham's defense lawyers said they would need 2 more years to prepare their case. The prosecution asked for a date in February 2019. Judge Hughes said he would consider both propositions and would probably decide on a trial date by the end of November.

    (source: theepochtimes.com)
    "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."
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    "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.”
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  7. #7
    Brett
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    Monday, December 6, 2021

    Coldspring man gets life in postal carrier death case

    HOUSTON – A 45-year-old rural Houston resident has admitted he murdered a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier while she was in the performance of her official duties, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

    James Wayne Ham pleaded guilty today. Immediately thereafter, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes handed down a life sentence.

    “Any murder against our citizens is egregious and intolerable,” said Lowery. “Even worse is someone who attacks our workforce while they are simply doing their job. This plea and sentence shows our determination to stand firm with our partners to ensure no one escapes justice for such vicious crimes.”

    At the hearing, Ham admitted he murdered a USPS employee May 17, 2013, by shooting her with a firearm and then setting her on fire.

    “USPS letter carriers are in our neighborhoods every day, delivering mail to homes and businesses across this country,” said Acting Inspector in Charge Dana Carter of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). “The investigation and arrest of Ham for his shocking and heinous crimes against a USPS letter carrier was the highest priority for the USPIS. Our thoughts continue to be with the victim’s family and all affected by this senseless crime.”

    On May 17, 2013, Ham obtained a rifle, lighter fluid and extra ammunition. He then hid in the tree line near his home. Once the mail carrier delivered his mail and began leaving the area, Ham shot her approximately four times. He soon got into her vehicle and drove a short distance away to a water supply station. There, he doused the vehicle with lighter fluid and set it on fire. The victim’s body was still inside.

    The victim’s son alerted law enforcement to the murder. He had been on the phone with the victim when Ham shot her. He advised that he had heard two loud noises, and upon questioning, she stated she thought she had been shot.

    The son also heard an unintelligible male's voice over the telephone. During the call, he heard his mother say “Please don't kill me, please don't kill me.” The call was disconnected, after which he called 911.

    Authorities later found Ham hiding in a vacant residence near the scene of the murder. They arrested him where he ultimately confessed. After the interview, Ham took law enforcement to the scene of the murder and showed them where he had hidden the gun as well as the location where he had shot the victim.

    Ham has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

    USPIS conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jill Stotts and Erin Epley prosecuted the case along with Trial Attorney Barry Disney of the Justice Department's Capital Case Section.

    https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr...ier-death-case
    Last edited by Brett; 12-27-2021 at 04:03 PM.

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