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Thread: Gabriel O'Neill Acquitted in 1989 CA Slaying of Sheila Lorraine Hatcher

  1. #1
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Gabriel O'Neill Acquitted in 1989 CA Slaying of Sheila Lorraine Hatcher




    Cold case murder defendant told to hire his own attorney

    By Michelle Durand
    The Daily Journal

    The Brisbane man arrested for allegedly raping and killing a woman in 1989 appeared in court Friday on the potentially capital charges but put off entering a plea until he tries hiring his own attorney.

    Gabriel O’Neill, 45, was denied a court-appointed attorney because he recently sold some property in Brisbane and a judge decided he did not meet the financial criteria. Judge Barbara Mallach gave O’Neill, who is in custody without bail, phone call privileges to contact lawyers and ordered him back Monday.

    O’Neill is charged with murder and three special circumstances which could leave him facing the death penalty: murder during kidnapping, murder during sexual assault and murder during oral copulation. He is not charged with raping Sheila Lorraine Hatcher, 27, because the statute of limitations has expired.

    Two hikers found Hatcher’s body March 12, 1989, in a ravine on San Bruno Mountain. She had been sexually assaulted and died from blunt force trauma.

    No suspect was identified at the time but after the case was reopened in 2013 a DNA sample matched O’Neill. His genetic marker was entered into the DNA database after a 2005 conviction for felony unlawful sexual intercourse.

    O’Neill and Hatcher knew each other but authorities have not released further details about how her body ended up in the ravine.

    O’Neill was arrested Monday as he was driving in the 3000 block of Bayshore Boulevard in Brisbane.

    http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articl...425124966.html

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    May 23, 2017

    Jury finds Brisbane man not guilty in 1989 cold-case murder

    REDWOOD CITY — A jury has ruled that a Brisbane man is not guilty in the 1989 slaying of a young woman on San Bruno Mountain, a decision that closes the decades-old case, according to the district attorney’s office.

    Gabriel Ray O’Neill was found not guilty Monday on all charges in the killing of 27-year-old Sheila Lorraine Hatcher, who lived in Daly City and was a mother of three at the time of her death, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Tuesday.

    The case was cold for 25 years until 2013, when a DNA test of bodily fluid from the crime scene led investigators to arrest O’Neill, a registered sex offender.

    However, O’Neill’s attorney, Geoff Carr, argued during the trial that O’Neill did not kill Hatcher and instead pointed the finger at another person, Wagstaffe said. Carr argued there was sufficient reasonable doubt as to who killed Hatcher.

    Carr could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

    Prosecutors said Hatcher and three other people drove to the mountain on March 12, 1989. Prosecutors told the jury that O’Neill and Hatcher walked away from the group, at which point the defendant sexually assaulted and bludgeoned her.

    Carr previously told this newspaper that O’Neill was accompanied by his wife and her two brothers the night of the murder, and the siblings provided conflicting accounts of what happened. The attorney said one of the brothers, who has since been deported for attempted rape, was likely responsible for Hatcher’s death.

    Wagstaffe said the brother is long gone, “somewhere in the mountains of Central America.”

    “We continue to believe we had the evidence to support a conviction,” Wagstaffe said. “The jury didn’t feel the evidence was sufficient.

    “We respect the jury’s decision, because that’s how our system works.”

    http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/2...d-case-murder/

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