Thread: Killer of Jamiel Shaw Jr. Sentenced to Death (update)

Jamiel Shaw case: Jury recommends death sentence for Espinoza

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Miriam Hernandez

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Jurors reached a verdict Wednesday in the penalty phase of the murder trial of Pedro Espinoza, convicted of murdering Jamiel Shaw. The jury deliberated for less than two and a half hours before recommending the death penalty for Espinoza.

Espinoza spoke to Eyewitness News in an exclusive phone call after the jury returned its recommendation Wednesday.

"To the Shaw family, yeah, I do, I actually understand their pain. I understand their grief. I understand all that perfectly. But I'm not the one that did that to their son," Espinoza said.

Espinoza was convicted of fatally shooting Jamiel Shaw II, a 17-year-old star football player at Los Angeles High School. On March 2, 2008, Espinoza confronted and shot the teen in the abdomen and the head just a few doors away from Shaw's Arlington Heights home, thinking Shaw was a rival gang member.

Espinoza, now 23, was convicted on May 9 of first-degree murder with a gang enhancement. Espinoza's gang affiliation made him eligible for the death penalty.

Espinoza's defense contended there was no weapon connecting him to the crime and there was no witness.

Shaw's parents spoke to reporters after court Wednesday. Jamiel Shaw Senior said he talks to his deceased son.

"'We did it. Your life wasn't in vain,'" said Shaw's father. "I always tell him, 'Sorry about what happened. Sorry about that, man. Under the circumstances, this is the best that we could do.' We can't do no more than the conviction with the death penalty."

"That's why we've got so many bad people, because they don't fear the punishment," said Anita Shaw. "If you fear the punishment, then you won't do the crime."

The same jury was retained for the penalty phase of the trial to determine whether Espinoza received life in prison or a death sentence. It took the jury only four hours to find Espinoza guilty in the murder trial.

"I believe that the lord Jesus Christ has a big deal in the verdict because I believe that people used their conscience, and they voted by their conscience," said mother Anita Shaw.

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The jurors had already indicated their feelings toward the death penalty on a separate questionnaire filled out during jury selection. Four said they were neutral, six moderately favored the death penalty and two strongly favored it.

Prosecutors asked for the death penalty. The defense sought life in prison without parole.
Motions have been scheduled for September 17. Sentencing is scheduled for September 21.

source: Jamiel Shaw case: Jury recommends death sentence for Espinoza | abc7.com

(KABC)
Miriam Hernandez

LOS ANGELES -- Jurors reached a verdict Wednesday in the penalty phase of the murder trial of Pedro Espinoza, convicted of murdering Jamiel Shaw. The jury deliberated for less than two and a half hours before recommending the death penalty for Espinoza.

Espinoza spoke to Eyewitness News in an exclusive phone call after the jury returned its recommendation Wednesday.

"To the Shaw family, yeah, I do, I actually understand their pain. I understand their grief. I understand all that perfectly. But I'm not the one that did that to their son," Espinoza said.

Espinoza was convicted of fatally shooting Jamiel Shaw II, a 17-year-old star football player at Los Angeles High School. On March 2, 2008, Espinoza confronted and shot the teen in the abdomen and the head just a few doors away from Shaw's Arlington Heights home, thinking Shaw was a rival gang member.

Espinoza, now 23, was convicted on May 9 of first-degree murder with a gang enhancement. Espinoza's gang affiliation made him eligible for the death penalty.

Espinoza's defense contended there was no weapon connecting him to the crime and there was no witness.

Shaw's parents spoke to reporters after court Wednesday. Jamiel Shaw Senior said he talks to his deceased son.

"'We did it. Your life wasn't in vain,'" said Shaw's father. "I always tell him, 'Sorry about what happened. Sorry about that, man. Under the circumstances, this is the best that we could do.' We can't do no more than the conviction with the death penalty."

"That's why we've got so many bad people, because they don't fear the punishment," said Anita Shaw. "If you fear the punishment, then you won't do the crime."

The same jury was retained for the penalty phase of the trial to determine whether Espinoza received life in prison or a death sentence. It took the jury only four hours to find Espinoza guilty in the murder trial.

"I believe that the lord Jesus Christ has a big deal in the verdict because I believe that people used their conscience, and they voted by their conscience," said mother Anita Shaw.

source: Jamiel Shaw case: Jury recommends death sentence for Espinoza | abc7.com

"I believe that the lord Jesus Christ has a big deal in the verdict because I believe that people used their conscience, and they voted by their conscience," said mother Anita Shaw.

Me too

Jury orders death penalty for killer of Jamiel Shaw II

Pedro Espinoza shot Shaw, a high school football star whom he mistook for a rival gang member, in 2008.

After hearing jurors decide he should be put to death, Pedro Espinoza looks at the ceiling of the courtroom as his lawyer Csaba Palfi holds his head. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times / May 23, 2012)

By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times May 24, 2012

A 23-year-old gang member who shot and killed a high school football star he mistook for a rival gangster in 2008 should be put to death, a Los Angeles jury decided Wednesday.

Jurors reached the verdict after about a week of testimony in the penalty phase of the trial for Pedro Espinoza, a member of the 18th Street gang. The panel was asked to decide what punishment Espinoza should receive for the slaying of 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw II.

Prosecutors said Shaw was killed execution-style because he was a young black male carrying a red Spider-Man backpack, which led Espinoza to believe he was a Bloods gang member. The same jury earlier this month convicted Espinoza of first-degree murder in Shaw's death and found true special allegations that he acted as part of a gang and personally discharged a firearm, making him subject to the death penalty.

Espinoza, hair slicked back on his once-shaved head with the tattoo "BK" — for Blood Killer — still visible behind his left ear, looked up at the ceiling just before the verdict was read and bit his lips. He showed no reaction at the verdict.

In the gallery, a smile spread across Shaw's mother's face and his father nodded his head. Most family members wore red, which they previously said was in protest of Espinoza.

"I hope he leaves prison the same way my son came into the mortuary — in a casket," the teen's father, Jamiel Shaw Sr., said outside court.

He quietly told his deceased son during the verdict: "We did it. Your life wasn't in vain."

The younger Shaw was shot down the street from his Arlington Heights home. Espinoza jumped out of a car and asked the teen for his gang affiliation and fired a shot into his stomach. He then walked around Shaw's body and fired a second time into his head, prosecutors said.

During the penalty phase, prosecutors called to the stand jail guards to attest to Espinoza's continued violent behavior even after he was arrested on murder charges. He assaulted a fellow inmate with a razor and attacked a sheriff's deputy, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bobby Grace said.

Jurors also heard testimony from probation officers from Espinoza's days at juvenile camp. One of them recalled how during an exercise in a counseling session, Espinoza was asked to choose a color. He chose his gang's color, blue, and said he would choose it even if it meant being sent to death row, according to testimony, prosecutors said.

"It shows the defendant had aspired to get where he is today," Deputy Dist. Atty. Allyson Ostrowski said after Wednesday's verdict.

Espinoza's defense attorney, Csaba Palfi, said his client was a product of a difficult, underprivileged youth. His mother came to the U.S. illegally when Espinoza was a baby to escape an abusive partner, only to end up with another who was just as abusive, Palfi said.

The attorney said that in contrast with Shaw's upbringing, it was clear what led Espinoza down the criminal path.

Shaw "had a loving family, a supportive family who made sure he made good choices, made good friends. Pedro didn't have that," Palfi said outside court.

He also painted his client as but a small piece of a larger social problem.

"Killing Mr. Espinoza in however many years ... is not going to fix anything, it's not going to stop the young men and women from joining gangs," he said.

Espinoza is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 21.

source: www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jamiel-shaw-verdict-20120524,0,1868456.story

ADDED TO ALIPAC HOMEPAGE News with amended title ..

http://www.alipac.us/content/killer-...ced-death-549/

I hope this verdict brings some sense of justice to the Shaw family. They have fought hard to warn others about the illegal alien killers that roam American streets with the aid of Globalist traitors.

W

Another young American's life cut short by a criminal alien.