Tag: capital murder

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Gene Washington’s lawyers want grand jury records

Capital defender Jennifer Stanton wants to check out the makeup of the grand jury that indicted Gene Washington. Staff photo

Attorneys for the man charged with the capital murders of a beloved teacher and her daughter in 2014 asked a judge for the grand jury records for the past four years in Charlottesville Circuit Court today.

The slayings of Robin Aldridge, 58, a special education teacher with Albemarle County, and 17-year-old Mani, a junior at Charlottesville High, shocked the area after neighbors reported their Rugby Avenue home ablaze December 5, 2014, and their bodies later discovered in the smoldering ruins.

Three days later, police arrested Gene Everett Washington, 31, after Robin Aldridge’s Toyota was found in the parking lot of his Barracks West apartment complex and bloody clothing, a knife and Aldridge’s new iPhone 6 was found in the dumpster there.

Washington sat in court for the brief hearing during which his capital attorneys from Norfolk sought the records. “The defense does not have to make a showing there’s been a deficit in the grand jury process,” said lawyer Jennifer Stanton.

“They need to show some reason,” argued prosecutor Libby Killeen. She cited the confidentiality that’s given to grand jurors and asked if there was a concern with the demographics of the jury that indicted Washington.

“Your sole point in getting this information is to look at the racial disparity?” asked Judge Rick Moore.

“To help determine if there’s a pattern,” replied Stanton.

Moore noted that the grand jury lists he sees generally only provide names, addresses and phone numbers. He agreed to allow the defense to see the list of jurors who indicted Washington in June 2015, and said there would be a protective order to keep the names from being shared with anyone other than Washington’s defense, which was not permitted to contact the jurors.

Five to seven jurors are called each month to serve on the grand jury from a pool of 120, and at least one is usually African-American, said Moore.

Legal expert Dave Heilberg said, “As far as makeup and selection, that’s something that can be examined. Obviously in a capital case with that much at stake, you’ve got to look at that. They could find something they could leverage.”

After the hearing, Stanton said, “In other jurisdictions, the grand jury process has been found to be hugely deficit.” And she said such a request for grand jury information was standard in a capital case.

 

 

 

 

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Dollar disadvantage: Gene Washington’s attorney says money matters

Gene Everett Washington. Photo: Charlottesville Police Department

The man charged with brutally beating to death special education teacher Robin Aldridge and her daughter, Mani, and then setting their Rugby Avenue home on fire in December 2014, appeared before a judge for a motions hearing April 21. One of his three attorneys argued that he’s at a disadvantage because, in her words, he’s “poor.”

Defense attorney Faith Winstead asked that Gene Everett Washington, an indigent defendant, have the same privileges as more affluent defendants in his psychiatric, psychological and medical health evaluations.

According to Winstead, defendants who can afford their own attorneys are able to choose from a larger list of health professionals to complete their assessments, but the list for defendants who have an appointed attorney is narrow. Likewise, those with their own lawyers have more autonomy over how to report and present their assessment results to the prosecutors.

Those like Washington are required to report the results with no alterations and disclose all documents relating to the assessments, says Winstead.

“Does this set him up to be in a different position because he doesn’t have money?” she asked Judge Richard Moore in Charlottesville Circuit Court. “Is he in a different position because he is poor?”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman said he doesn’t believe that a nonindigent defendant is free from disclosing all health assessment results to the prosecutors, but he would ask the court for all provisions to apply to both types of defendants moving forward.

Moore said he’d need more time to review the submitted documents and he’d make a decision about the health assessments at a later hearing. Washington is scheduled to appear for his next hearing on May 23, and his trial, which could take three weeks, is scheduled for May 2017.

The attorneys also discussed jury selection at the hearing. Moore said a panel of 20 jurors usually answers general questions together, and then jurors may be questioned individually. Most likely, he said, the defense will want to speak one-on-one with jurors about death penalty qualifications.

Defense attorney Katherine Jensen raised concerns about the potential for police to not provide all of the exculpatory evidence found in the case, though there’s no doubt, she said, that the commonwealth has provided them with all the evidence it has.

Moore said police, by law, must make all exculpatory evidence available.

Charlottesville Police Captain Gary Pleasants says all evidence, including anything believed to be exculpatory (also known as Brady material), is documented and provided to the prosecutor’s office where it is available to defense attorneys.

“This is the open-file policy that both the police department and commonwealth attorney’s office adhere to,” Pleasants says.

Both city and county courts also abide by open-file policy, though it’s not required.

Gene Washington

Courtesty of the Charlottesville police department

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Legal expert speaks to Jesse Matthew’s anticipated guilty plea

Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. Photos courtesy Charlottesville Police Department and Virginia State Police

Jesse Matthew is set to enter a plea deal in the abduction and murder of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington in Albemarle Circuit Court on March 2.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci issued a letter February 29 stating that although it is anticipated that Matthew will plead guilty and resolve both cases, Tracci’s office will not provide any additional details or comments before the hearing.

Legal expert David Heilberg says most capital murder cases now end in plea bargains, and he expected this as the likely outcome for Matthew and his defense attorneys, Doug Ramseur and Michael Hemenway.

“It would take the death penalty off the table,” which Heilberg says is likely Matthew’s motivation. “At this point, it can’t get any worse.”

Last summer, Matthew was given three life sentences for abducting and sexually assaulting a Fairfax woman in 2005. “You only have one life to serve,” Heilberg adds.

Matthew is accused of capital murder in the death and abduction of Graham, an 18-year-old UVA student who disappeared September 13, 2014, and was found dead several weeks later on Old Lynchburg Road. He has also been indicted by a grand jury for the 2009 murder and abduction of Harrington, a Virginia Tech student, who was last seen at a Metallica concert at the John Paul Jones Arena that October. She was 20 years old at the time.

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Gene Washington appears for last motions hearing of the year

Gene Everett Washington. Photo: Charlottesville Police Department

The man charged with brutally beating a mother and daughter to death before setting their Rugby Avenue home on fire one year ago appeared in Charlottesville Circuit Court December 7 for a motions hearing.

Gene Washington faces capital murder charges for the death of special education teacher Robin Aldridge and her daughter, Mani.

Judge Rick Moore denied a request by Washington’s defense attorneys—Katherine Jensen and Lloyd Snook—that called for the commonwealth’s attorney to not be present while the defense views evidence, instead asking for supervision by an evidence technician or police officer.

“We shouldn’t have someone looking over our shoulder,” Jensen said. “We’re just asking for the playing field to be even.”

According to Jensen, prosecutors gauge the defense’s reactions to each piece of evidence and  take note of how long they spend looking at specific pieces. The defense is not allowed in the room while the prosecuting attorney views evidence.

“I don’t think I can take that right away from [the prosecutors],” Judge Moore said, denying the motion. Two other motions, which were granted, were procedural.

Some of the evidence in Washington’s trial includes a bent knife, rubber gloves, blood-stained sneakers potentially belonging to him and bloody towels or sheets he allegedly used to wrap the Aldridges’ bodies after he beat them and before he set their home on fire.

Washington’s trial is in May. His next motions hearing is set for February.