Post by sclcookie on May 31, 2006 2:24:15 GMT -5
Cop killer would be 18th on death row----Execute Jason Wheeler, Lake jury says
Jason Lee Wheeler would become the 18th Florida cop killer on death row if a judge follows a jury's recommendation and sentences him to die for the shotgun slaying of Lake County Deputy Sheriff Wayne Koester.
Wheeler, who turns 31 today, also would be the 5th paralyzed inmate on the state's death-row roster, which has 371 inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Jurors voted 10-2 on Wednesday for the death penalty, apparently unswayed by a defense lawyer's argument that life in prison in a wheelchair is punishment enough. Wheeler was shot and paralyzed during his capture when he ignored deputies' orders and reached for a shotgun.
The jury last week convicted Wheeler of 1st-degree murder in Koester's killing Feb. 9, 2005.
Lake County Sheriff Chris Daniels praised the jury's opinion, saying he regarded Wheeler as a special danger -- a felon who chose to fight it out with armed officers rather than flee.
"If this did not deserve the death penalty, I don't know what does," Daniels said.
Wheeler could join other cop killers such as Paul Johnson, who gunned down Polk County Deputy Theron Burnham after the deputy stopped the suspicious man walking down the street in 1981, and William Cruse, who opened fire in 1987 at 2 Palm Bay shopping centers, killing 6 people -- including 2 Palm Bay police officers.
Wheeler gazed expressionlessly at the courtroom floor from his wheelchair as a clerk announced the jury's recommendation. His mother, Janice, and the slain deputy's family wept.
Outside the courtroom, the deputy's daughter, Amber, hugged Wheeler's aunt Vicky Thornsburry, who said she prayed daily that both families could heal and find peace.
Amber Koester, 14, said, "We've all lost something."
Wheeler was convicted of killing Koester, 33, and wounding fellow Deputy Sheriffs Thomas McKane and William Crotty in an ambush at his home in Paisley.
The deputies went to the hurricane-ravaged trailer on Hilda Avenue to look into a report that Wheeler beat and sexually battered his longtime live-in girlfriend, Sara Heckerman.
Koester's family expressed relief at the jury's recommendation.
"My husband can rest in peace now," said the deputy's widow, Ashley Koester, 32, who today begins a deputy-in-training program with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
She said she could not forgive Wheeler -- "he will have to look higher for that."
Vic Koester said death was the sentence his brother would have wanted.
But Wheeler's stepfather, Raymond, said he was hopeful Circuit Judge T. Michael Johnson might disregard the jury's suggestion and impose life in prison without parole.
"I believe there was a lot the jury didn't consider," Raymond Wheeler said.
He repeated part of Assistant Public Defender William Grossenbacher's appeal for a life sentence, which blamed methamphetamine abuse, sleeplessness and a volatile home life for inspiring the crime.
Wheeler's family also blamed Heckerman for agitating him.
Grossenbacher had insisted the shooting wasn't a cold, calculated and premeditated crime -- contrasting it with killings linked to serial rapist Ted Bundy or a Mafia boss.
"Things snap. That's what happened to Jason Wheeler," he said.
But State Attorney Brad King, who urged jurors to recommend death unanimously, said Wheeler knew what he was doing that day but ignored what was right.
"Wayne Koester chose to put on the uniform, pin on a badge, to make a difference in his community," King said in final remarks to the jury. "Jason Wheeler made the choice -- 'if she [Heckerman] ever calls the cops on me' to take them [law officers] out."
As the lawyers presented their arguments, Amber Koester sat between her stepmother, Ashley, and mother, Ginger Bevirt, often focusing on her left knee, where she had written "Waddle, Waddle, Quack, Quack," a refrain from a children's song. Amber said it helped remind her she could shrug off painful details like a duck sheds water from its back.
She and her brother, Ryan, 12, who had pestered their mother for permission to attend the trial, finally persuaded her Wednesday, pointing out that the graphic testimony was over.
The judge ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers to submit written sentencing memos to him by July 10, after which he would schedule a final mandatory, mitigating hearing. The defense can argue a final time at that hearing for a sentence of life.
Johnson could set aside the jury's recommendation, but the judge is required by law to give it "great weight" when he decides whether to impose life in prison or a death sentence.
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
Jason Lee Wheeler would become the 18th Florida cop killer on death row if a judge follows a jury's recommendation and sentences him to die for the shotgun slaying of Lake County Deputy Sheriff Wayne Koester.
Wheeler, who turns 31 today, also would be the 5th paralyzed inmate on the state's death-row roster, which has 371 inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Jurors voted 10-2 on Wednesday for the death penalty, apparently unswayed by a defense lawyer's argument that life in prison in a wheelchair is punishment enough. Wheeler was shot and paralyzed during his capture when he ignored deputies' orders and reached for a shotgun.
The jury last week convicted Wheeler of 1st-degree murder in Koester's killing Feb. 9, 2005.
Lake County Sheriff Chris Daniels praised the jury's opinion, saying he regarded Wheeler as a special danger -- a felon who chose to fight it out with armed officers rather than flee.
"If this did not deserve the death penalty, I don't know what does," Daniels said.
Wheeler could join other cop killers such as Paul Johnson, who gunned down Polk County Deputy Theron Burnham after the deputy stopped the suspicious man walking down the street in 1981, and William Cruse, who opened fire in 1987 at 2 Palm Bay shopping centers, killing 6 people -- including 2 Palm Bay police officers.
Wheeler gazed expressionlessly at the courtroom floor from his wheelchair as a clerk announced the jury's recommendation. His mother, Janice, and the slain deputy's family wept.
Outside the courtroom, the deputy's daughter, Amber, hugged Wheeler's aunt Vicky Thornsburry, who said she prayed daily that both families could heal and find peace.
Amber Koester, 14, said, "We've all lost something."
Wheeler was convicted of killing Koester, 33, and wounding fellow Deputy Sheriffs Thomas McKane and William Crotty in an ambush at his home in Paisley.
The deputies went to the hurricane-ravaged trailer on Hilda Avenue to look into a report that Wheeler beat and sexually battered his longtime live-in girlfriend, Sara Heckerman.
Koester's family expressed relief at the jury's recommendation.
"My husband can rest in peace now," said the deputy's widow, Ashley Koester, 32, who today begins a deputy-in-training program with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
She said she could not forgive Wheeler -- "he will have to look higher for that."
Vic Koester said death was the sentence his brother would have wanted.
But Wheeler's stepfather, Raymond, said he was hopeful Circuit Judge T. Michael Johnson might disregard the jury's suggestion and impose life in prison without parole.
"I believe there was a lot the jury didn't consider," Raymond Wheeler said.
He repeated part of Assistant Public Defender William Grossenbacher's appeal for a life sentence, which blamed methamphetamine abuse, sleeplessness and a volatile home life for inspiring the crime.
Wheeler's family also blamed Heckerman for agitating him.
Grossenbacher had insisted the shooting wasn't a cold, calculated and premeditated crime -- contrasting it with killings linked to serial rapist Ted Bundy or a Mafia boss.
"Things snap. That's what happened to Jason Wheeler," he said.
But State Attorney Brad King, who urged jurors to recommend death unanimously, said Wheeler knew what he was doing that day but ignored what was right.
"Wayne Koester chose to put on the uniform, pin on a badge, to make a difference in his community," King said in final remarks to the jury. "Jason Wheeler made the choice -- 'if she [Heckerman] ever calls the cops on me' to take them [law officers] out."
As the lawyers presented their arguments, Amber Koester sat between her stepmother, Ashley, and mother, Ginger Bevirt, often focusing on her left knee, where she had written "Waddle, Waddle, Quack, Quack," a refrain from a children's song. Amber said it helped remind her she could shrug off painful details like a duck sheds water from its back.
She and her brother, Ryan, 12, who had pestered their mother for permission to attend the trial, finally persuaded her Wednesday, pointing out that the graphic testimony was over.
The judge ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers to submit written sentencing memos to him by July 10, after which he would schedule a final mandatory, mitigating hearing. The defense can argue a final time at that hearing for a sentence of life.
Johnson could set aside the jury's recommendation, but the judge is required by law to give it "great weight" when he decides whether to impose life in prison or a death sentence.
(source: Orlando Sentinel)