Re: THA 305 THREAD
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:05 pm
Move along Paulo's boss. Nothing to see here.
http://www.reeelapse.com/
So atrocious was the murder, so overwhelming the evidence, that Friday’s jury decision felt inevitable: Joel Lebron must die.
Miami-Dade jurors recommended, by a vote of 9-3, that Lebron should be executed for the rape, kidnap and execution of Ana Maria Angel, a South Miami High senior who hoped to become a teacher.
Lebron, 34, was one of five Orlando men who kidnapped Angel and her boyfriend in 2002 as the couple finished a South Beach moonlight stroll. Four men now have been convicted in the murder. A final defendant, Hector Caraballo, is awaiting trial.
Angel’s mother, Margarita Osorio, told reporters she was satisfied with the jury’s verdict — but knew the legal saga was far from over.
“We’re going to keep fighting. There is still one more trial,” she said.
The jury in Lebron’s case deliberated two hours Friday in deciding execution over life in prison.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas will ultimately deliver the final sentence at a later date, and rarely do judges stray from a jury’s recommendation.
The brutality of the crime shocked South Florida.
In April 2002, Angel and boyfriend Nelson Portobanco had gone to dinner to celebrate their four-month anniversary. Afterward, they walked on the sand in South Beach when they were kidnapped and robbed.
Lebron and the men gang raped Angel in the back of their truck, then slit Portobanco’s throat, leaving him for dead alongside Interstate 95 in Broward County. He survived and alerted police.
Alongside the interstate in Palm Beach County, Lebron and another man marched Angel down an embankment, into the brush near a sound barrier wall. Lebron shot Angel in the back of the head as she begged for her life, her hands clasped in prayer.
The case against Lebron was rock solid. Investigators traced a phone call made by one of the men to an Orlando address, where the couple’s stolen belongings were found.
Lebron confessed in chilling detail to investigators. His boots also had been splashed with Portobanco’s blood, and his DNA was matched to semen found inside the victim.
The crime was so galvanizing that his arrest, Lebron had to be separated from other inmates who threatened to kill him.
In pretrial motions, the state said Lebron tried to arrange the killing of a witness, and also threatened to attack a prosecutor. During trial, prosecutors added an extra security officer, seated behind them at all times.
Lebron’s first trial last month ended in a mistrial after a detective mentioned that one of his co-defendants had been convicted, a “prejudicial” fact that jurors weren’t supposed to know. Last week, another jury deliberated just over an hour in convicting him of first-degree murder, sexual battery and other felonies.
This week’s penalty phase offered two contrasting life stories.
Angel, who was to graduate weeks before her demise, was the captain of her school soccer team. Her plan was to join the Air Force, attend college and become a teacher to provide for her single mother.
She loved butterflies, Osorio told jurors: “It was her desire to have strong wings to be able to achieve her goals.”
As for Lebron, he grew up in a “crime-infested” housing project in a dangerous neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico, defense lawyer Rafael Rodriguez told jurors.
He was the son of an abusive drunkard father who later was brutally murdered. As a 4-year-old, Lebron was hit by a car, damaging his head, affecting his ability to control his impulses, his lawyer said.
“He was like day dreaming,” his sister Emilia Roman testified Wednesday. “Always after the accident, he was distant. His body was present, but not his mind.”
Prosecutors, however, offered testimony from a neurologist who said a medical scan showed Lebron’s brain was fine.
Angel’s march down the embankment shows Lebron’s actions were premeditated, a “heinous, atrocious and cruel” spasm of violence deserving of the death penalty, prosecutor Reid Rubin told jurors Friday.
As Rubin spoke, he showed a graphic crime-scene video.
“He was having a good time. He enjoyed it. He wasn’t impaired,” Rubin said. “He chose to commit those crimes.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/05/3 ... rylink=cpy
Giant eyeball found on Broward beach
Anyone missing a giant eyeball?
If so, a giant blue one has come ashore in Pompano Beach.
Gino Covacci spotted the eyeball Wednesday as he walked on the sand and reported it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Does it belong to a whale or another sea creature? Is it a movie prop?
Wildlife officers placed the eyeball on ice and a lab will analyze it.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/11/3 ... rylink=cpy
Bobby starts stumbling to the door, muttering to himself, and I sidle up next to the man. He gives me a blank look — Bobby and I were introduced at least half a dozen times, but he never remembered me. “Bobby,” I said, “I’d check your jeans.”
He looked down, gape-mouthed, and then said something I will never forget. “Aw, man, I pissed myself. I hate when this happens.”
I hate when this happens. Genius.
well yeah, no mountainsZap Rowsdower wrote:Looks worse than Burning Man.
Police mugshot of Desmond Bryant.
Police mugshot of Desmond Bryant.
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By Scott Hiaasen
shiaasen@miamiherald.com
Isaac Bakar awoke early one Sunday morning last month to find a man yanking on the front door of his North Miami Beach home.
Not just any man: A 6-foot-6, 311-pound NFL defensive lineman named Desmond Bryant.
Intoxicated and incoherent, Bryant was arrested for criminal mischief for allegedly trying to break down the door to Bakar’s house, police records show.
While Bryant’s arrest was embarrassing — his slack-jawed mug shot from the Feb. 24 incident has already attained Internet infamy — it didn’t prevent Bryant from receiving a five-year, $34 million contract with the Cleveland Browns last week.
Now Bryant is facing a lawsuit from Bakar and his family, who say they were “terrified” by Bryant when he tried to bull his way into their house — even pulling off one of the door handles as Bakar tried to hold the door closed. Their lawyer said they are receiving psychological counseling.
“They were scared,” said the family’s attorney, Robert Fiore, who filed the lawsuit Monday in Miami-Dade circuit court. “My client was holding on for dear life.”
Bakar, his wife and his three children were awakened around 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 24 by the sounds of banging on their front door. When Bakar looked through a window pane in the door, he saw the hulking, shirtless Bryant come charging at the door again, the lawsuit says.
Fearing a home-invasion robbery from the muscled intruder, Bakar — a 43-year-old, 5-foot-11, 170-pound paving contractor — tried to hold the door shut against Bryant while his wife called police. Bryant was still yelling and banging on the door when officers arrived, the police report says.
Police described Bryant as “extremely intoxicated” after a night of drinking at a South Beach nightclub. Bryant arrived at the Bakars’ house after taking a cab from South Beach; he thought he had arrived at his own home — though Bryant lives in a condo in Aventura, the police report says.
The mug shot of a heavy-eyed, thick-tongued Bryant soon went viral on the Internet and became fodder for late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
“If I were Desmond Bryant I would intentionally get arrested again just so I could re-do the mug shot,” Kimmel joked.
Initial reports described the incident as a “commotion” at a neighbor’s home. But Fiore said Bakar did not know Bryant, and they are not neighbors.
Bryant, 27, previously played for the Oakland Raiders before signing with the Browns last week. He attended Harvard University before going to the NFL.
Calls to Bryant’s agent were not returned. But Bryant did talk about the incident with Cleveland reporters after signing with the team.
“I obviously made a mistake,” Bryant said, according to The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. “I apologize for everything that happened. I feel like I have learned from it and I have moved on from that.”
But Fiore says his clients have not moved on.
“We allege that Mr. Bryant made more than a simple, inconsequential mistake,” Fiore said, “and that Mr. Bryant’s conduct has significant legal consequences.”
Man attacked by alligator while fleeing deputies
The Associated Press
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -- A Florida man is recovering after being attacked by an alligator while fleeing deputies during a traffic stop.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office says 20-year-old Bryan Zuniga was pulled over for failing to maintain a single lane Thursday at about 2:50 a.m.
Deputies say Zuniga stopped the vehicle and jumped out of the passenger door. He then broke through a vinyl fence and escaped.
The Tampa Bay area man was found at a local hospital a few hours later. He was being treated for multiple puncture wounds to the face, arm and armpit area. He told deputies he had been attacked by an alligator near a water treatment plant.
He has been charged with fleeing police, driving with a suspended or revoked license and resisting an officer without violence.