Thread: HOUSTON:DA REJECTS ILLEGAL'S PLEA IN MURDER

THE HOUSTON NEWSPAPER CONTINUES TO QUICKLY DELETE COMMENTS THEY DO NOT CONSIDER POLITICALLY CORRECT!

Prosecutors on Saturday said the Harris County District Attorneys office has given the defense an opportunity to submit all mitigating evidence and, after reviewing that evidence, prosecutors will continue to seek the death penalty.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5733292.html

April 26, 2008, 8:46PM
DA rejects plea for illegal immigrant who shot officer


By BRIAN ROGERS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle


Just days before his death penalty trial, attorneys for Juan Leonardo Quintero said he has offered to plead guilty and be sentenced to life without parole for the 2006 shooting of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson — a deal prosecutors have rejected.

Quintero's attorney, Danalynn Recer, noted in an e-mail Friday that the 34-year-old illegal immigrant confessed to killing Johnson and cooperated with authorities. She also said Quintero regrets the toll his actions have taken on Johnson's family, as well as on his own family.

"He is profoundly ashamed and deeply sorry for the pain he has inflicted on them," wrote Recer, founder and executive director of a Houston anti-death penalty organization, Gulf Region Advocacy Center.

Prosecutors on Saturday said the Harris County District Attorneys office has given the defense an opportunity to submit all mitigating evidence and, after reviewing that evidence, prosecutors will continue to seek the death penalty.

"We trust the judgment of 12 citizens to determine the appropriate punishment for the man who executed Officer Johnson," said Assistant District Attorney Denise Bradley.

Bradley said Quintero is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity when he is formally arraigned at the opening of the trial Monday in state District Judge Joan Campbell's court.

Because Quintero was in the country illegally at the time of the shooting, the case has become a rallying cry for those advocating stricter immigration enforcement.

According to court records, Quintero was convicted of a DWI and received deferred adjudication for sexual assault of a child before he was deported in 1999. Once back in the country, Quintero's life collided with Johnson's during a routine traffic stop on Sept. 21, 2006.

Johnson arrested Quintero for not having a driver's license. As Johnson worked on a report in the front seat of the patrol car, Quintero, who was handcuffed and locked in the back seat of the police car, apparently managed to slip his hands under his legs so he could pull out a pistol from his waistband that was overlooked in a search. He shot Johnson four times in the head, police said.

Police said they found Quintero sitting in the back seat of the police car behind Johnson's bloodied body. Police said he still had the gun used to kill the officer.

Opening arguments are expected to fill the courtroom with Johnson's friends at the police department, including his wife, Joslyn Johnson, who is also a police officer. The couple had five children.

"A lot of people are going to be there," Johnson said. "He was just so well-known and well liked."

Johnson spoke about some of her husband's heroics, including pulling disabled people from a burning building, which netted him a medal of valor.

Johnson said she hopes Quintero is sentenced to die.

"It was just so senseless and tragic," she said.


Jurors to view mock cruiser
In her first public statements since she was named Quintero's attorney, Recer said in an e-mail that Quintero does not understand and cannot explain what overcame him that September day, but accepts responsibility for his actions. She said Quintero would agree to all of the evidence against him if offered life without parole.

Prosecutors are expected to confront Quintero with his full confession, videotaped hours later. Other evidence includes a life-size mock-up of the inside of a police cruiser. Two bucket seats, a police car back seat and the plastic glass wall that separates the two have been mounted on a wooden platform, which prosecutors are expected to use to illustrate how the shooting might have happened.

Recer's position is understandable as the community watches the trial begin, said Sandra Guerra Thompson, professor of criminal law at University of Houston Law Center.

"It's the defense lawyer's job to get the best deal for her client," Thompson said.

She noted that Recer was seeking two different outcomes with her legal strategies.

If Quintero were granted life without parole, he would spend his life in prison. If he is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would end up in a mental hospital.

"In a case like this, the facts suggest a mental instability," Thompson said. "It would be hard to craft a defense of any other kind."

Former District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who hadn't tried a case in years, came out of retirement to lead prosecutors against the Mexican citizen. Rosenthal's February resignation put veteran prosecutor Bradley in the first chair.

Bradley declined to comment on the evidence jurors are expected to see and hear.

Defense attorneys have worked to bury the prosecution in paper before the trial, which is expected to last one month. The team is expected to have access to national experts who oppose the death penalty.

brian.rogers@chron.com

What about the ILLEGAL EMPLOYER who facilitated the murder by not only knowingly hiring and securing the ILLEGAL a home but furnishing the ILLEGAL money to enter the United States ILLEGALY!

Not only the employer but the place the was living. Who provided that to an illegal alien?

Did he have a bank account too?

Dixie

Originally Posted by lccat

What about the ILLEGAL EMPLOYER who facilitated the murder by not only knowingly hiring and securing the ILLEGAL a home but furnishing the ILLEGAL money to enter the United States ILLEGALY!

he is being charged with harboring an illegal and other stuff.
id have to find the story but the employer also sent him the money for a plane ticket when the illegal got back into Phoenix after crossing the border, and i think he employer also helped pay the smuggler to get him back

Quintero was convicted of a DWI and received deferred adjudication for sexual assault of a child

Our criminal justice system is really doing a bang up job, huh? They give deferred adjudication to a criminal who is here ILLEGALLY for sexually assaulting a child? This fool should have been serving time in one of our prisons.