Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 9, 2006 19:37:49 GMT -5
Mike Tobin, Cleveland Plain Dealer
The man who pointed police to Joe D'Ambrosio and Tom Keenan 18 years ago for the murder of Tony Klann had a motive himself for killing the Cleveland teen, according to a federal judge. But lawyers for the two men were never told.
And an "eyewitness" - who took a plea bargain and then testified how D'Ambrosio and Keenan slashed Klann's throat and stabbed him - described a scenario that is contradicted by police conclusions that were never disclosed to defense lawyers.
Those and other facts were concealed from the defense by former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Carmen Marino, according to U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley, who ordered a new trial for death-row inmate D'Ambrosio in March.
Keenan's attorneys are using the facts as well, in efforts to overturn his conviction and death sentence for the murder of Klann, whose body was found in Doan Creek in September 1988.
The story involves a cast of hard-drinking, hard-drugging teens and twentysomethings, all of whom spent their time partying in the bars along Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights.
Police got a tip suggesting that Klann's co-workers at Keenan's landscaping company might be responsible for his death. Three days later, Keenan and employees D'Ambrosio and Edward Espinoza were arrested.
Espinoza struck a deal with Marino, pleading to manslaughter (he was paroled in 2001, after serving 12 years) in return for testifying against D'Ambrosio and Keenan.
Here, in essence, is what Espinoza said:
After a night of drinking at Coconut Joe's, Keenan discovered that cocaine was missing from his work truck and immediately suspected another associate, Paul "Stoney" Lewis, who lived in the same apartment building as Klann.
Espinoza, D'Ambrosio and Keenan got a baseball bat and a knife and went looking for Lewis. They encountered Klann - who had been drinking with them earlier - walking up Mayfield Road and demanded that he lead them to Lewis.
When Klann told them he didn't know where Lewis was, Espinoza said, they took him to Doan Creek, where Keenan slit his throat, D'Ambrosio stabbed him in the chest, and the trio left him in the water to die.
More than a decade passed before D'Ambrosio's lawyers learned in a court hearing that the first two homicide detectives on the scene came to conclusions that directly contradicted Espinoza's story.
Since no grass or weeds in the area were disturbed, and since no blood was found, Cleveland Detectives Melvin Goldstein and Ernest Hayes were convinced that Klann was killed elsewhere and his body dumped at Doan Creek.
Their conclusion was never revealed at trial.
The detectives had other reasons to believe Klann was killed somewhere else: He wasn't wearing any shoes or underwear.
This information, contained in a coroner's report but never turned over to defense lawyers, was another key factor in O'Malley's decision in March to grant D'Ambrosio a new trial.
"It is simply not logical that Klann would have been walking along Mayfield Road heading towards his home after a night of drinking in bars with neither his shoes nor his underwear," O'Malley wrote. Those facts indicate instead that Klann "was killed in a more familiar surrounding."
Noting that Espinoza also seemed confused about the timing of the murder, O'Malley wrote that defense attorneys could have used evidence that the murder took place elsewhere to further undermine the prosecution's key witness.
In an interview last month, Marino insisted he never concealed any evidence from defense attorneys. "I'm not afraid to try any case based on the same information being had by both parties," he said.
And he noted that any coroner's report would be available to defense lawyers upon request at the coroner's office, whether he wanted them to have it or not.
O'Malley also concluded that Marino concealed important information about Lewis, another prosecution witness.
Defense attorneys were never told that Lewis had made an anonymous phone call to Cleveland police in which he revealed information about the still unidentified victim that had never been made public, such as a tattoo of a cross on his body, the judge wrote. It was also Lewis who later directed police to D'Ambrosio and Keenan as possible suspects.
Defense lawyers also were not told that Lewis may have a stronger motive to kill Klann than did anyone on trial: At the time of his murder, Klann was a witness in an unresolved rape case against Lewis. The victim was a legally blind man who lived in the same apartment building.
When he heard that Klann had been killed, the rape victim called
authorities.
"I told them that somehow I believed that the rape case and the murder case were linked together and involved the same person," the man testified in a 2004 hearing before O'Malley.
Two weeks after D'Ambrosio and Keenan were indicted for capital murder, the rape charge against Lewis was dropped.
Marino said last month that he had no knowledge at the time of Klann's role in the Lewis rape case. He said another prosecutor dismissed the case against Lewis because the victim failed to appear. And the dismissal came six weeks before Klann's murder, he said, ridiculing the notion that the rape allegations played any role.
Attorneys for D'Ambrosio say that dismissal was purely procedural - and temporary. Court records indicate the charges were refiled about two weeks before Klann was killed and weren't dropped for good until two weeks after the murder.
Martin Keenan, Tom's brother and a lawyer, said the defense team did a background check on all the witnesses in his brother's case and found Lewis' dismissed rape charge.
Martin Keenan thought it was unusual that a witness had a recent rape charge. He asked Marino if there was any possible link between the rape case and Klann's killing, but Marino ridiculed the notion.
Martin Keenan said in 2004 that Marino told him the case was dismissed because: "Witnesses didn't show up, something like that."
What was left unsaid was that Klann was one of those witnesses. He was killed two weeks before the case went before a grand jury. No indictment was returned.
O'Malley concluded that Marino's failure to tell defense attorneys about Klann's role in Lewis' rape charge was all the more significant because of the role Lewis played in implicating D'Ambrosio and Keenan for the murder in the first place.
"Had the defense been in possession of the information regarding Lewis, they could have developed an entirely different strategy of defense," O'Malley wrote.
Defense attorneys could have sown "the seeds of reasonable doubt regarding D'Ambrosio's participation in the murder by focusing on Lewis' motive to get rid of Klann and [on] Lewis' involvement in the investigation of his murder."
Surely, O'Malley wrote, the hidden evidence, if presented at trial, "would have undermined the state's ability to carry its burden of proving D'Ambrosio's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."
Source : Cleveland Plain Dealer (To reach this Plain Dealer
reporter:mtobin@plaind.com, 216-999-4128 )
www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1152299733214
The man who pointed police to Joe D'Ambrosio and Tom Keenan 18 years ago for the murder of Tony Klann had a motive himself for killing the Cleveland teen, according to a federal judge. But lawyers for the two men were never told.
And an "eyewitness" - who took a plea bargain and then testified how D'Ambrosio and Keenan slashed Klann's throat and stabbed him - described a scenario that is contradicted by police conclusions that were never disclosed to defense lawyers.
Those and other facts were concealed from the defense by former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Carmen Marino, according to U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley, who ordered a new trial for death-row inmate D'Ambrosio in March.
Keenan's attorneys are using the facts as well, in efforts to overturn his conviction and death sentence for the murder of Klann, whose body was found in Doan Creek in September 1988.
The story involves a cast of hard-drinking, hard-drugging teens and twentysomethings, all of whom spent their time partying in the bars along Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights.
Police got a tip suggesting that Klann's co-workers at Keenan's landscaping company might be responsible for his death. Three days later, Keenan and employees D'Ambrosio and Edward Espinoza were arrested.
Espinoza struck a deal with Marino, pleading to manslaughter (he was paroled in 2001, after serving 12 years) in return for testifying against D'Ambrosio and Keenan.
Here, in essence, is what Espinoza said:
After a night of drinking at Coconut Joe's, Keenan discovered that cocaine was missing from his work truck and immediately suspected another associate, Paul "Stoney" Lewis, who lived in the same apartment building as Klann.
Espinoza, D'Ambrosio and Keenan got a baseball bat and a knife and went looking for Lewis. They encountered Klann - who had been drinking with them earlier - walking up Mayfield Road and demanded that he lead them to Lewis.
When Klann told them he didn't know where Lewis was, Espinoza said, they took him to Doan Creek, where Keenan slit his throat, D'Ambrosio stabbed him in the chest, and the trio left him in the water to die.
More than a decade passed before D'Ambrosio's lawyers learned in a court hearing that the first two homicide detectives on the scene came to conclusions that directly contradicted Espinoza's story.
Since no grass or weeds in the area were disturbed, and since no blood was found, Cleveland Detectives Melvin Goldstein and Ernest Hayes were convinced that Klann was killed elsewhere and his body dumped at Doan Creek.
Their conclusion was never revealed at trial.
The detectives had other reasons to believe Klann was killed somewhere else: He wasn't wearing any shoes or underwear.
This information, contained in a coroner's report but never turned over to defense lawyers, was another key factor in O'Malley's decision in March to grant D'Ambrosio a new trial.
"It is simply not logical that Klann would have been walking along Mayfield Road heading towards his home after a night of drinking in bars with neither his shoes nor his underwear," O'Malley wrote. Those facts indicate instead that Klann "was killed in a more familiar surrounding."
Noting that Espinoza also seemed confused about the timing of the murder, O'Malley wrote that defense attorneys could have used evidence that the murder took place elsewhere to further undermine the prosecution's key witness.
In an interview last month, Marino insisted he never concealed any evidence from defense attorneys. "I'm not afraid to try any case based on the same information being had by both parties," he said.
And he noted that any coroner's report would be available to defense lawyers upon request at the coroner's office, whether he wanted them to have it or not.
O'Malley also concluded that Marino concealed important information about Lewis, another prosecution witness.
Defense attorneys were never told that Lewis had made an anonymous phone call to Cleveland police in which he revealed information about the still unidentified victim that had never been made public, such as a tattoo of a cross on his body, the judge wrote. It was also Lewis who later directed police to D'Ambrosio and Keenan as possible suspects.
Defense lawyers also were not told that Lewis may have a stronger motive to kill Klann than did anyone on trial: At the time of his murder, Klann was a witness in an unresolved rape case against Lewis. The victim was a legally blind man who lived in the same apartment building.
When he heard that Klann had been killed, the rape victim called
authorities.
"I told them that somehow I believed that the rape case and the murder case were linked together and involved the same person," the man testified in a 2004 hearing before O'Malley.
Two weeks after D'Ambrosio and Keenan were indicted for capital murder, the rape charge against Lewis was dropped.
Marino said last month that he had no knowledge at the time of Klann's role in the Lewis rape case. He said another prosecutor dismissed the case against Lewis because the victim failed to appear. And the dismissal came six weeks before Klann's murder, he said, ridiculing the notion that the rape allegations played any role.
Attorneys for D'Ambrosio say that dismissal was purely procedural - and temporary. Court records indicate the charges were refiled about two weeks before Klann was killed and weren't dropped for good until two weeks after the murder.
Martin Keenan, Tom's brother and a lawyer, said the defense team did a background check on all the witnesses in his brother's case and found Lewis' dismissed rape charge.
Martin Keenan thought it was unusual that a witness had a recent rape charge. He asked Marino if there was any possible link between the rape case and Klann's killing, but Marino ridiculed the notion.
Martin Keenan said in 2004 that Marino told him the case was dismissed because: "Witnesses didn't show up, something like that."
What was left unsaid was that Klann was one of those witnesses. He was killed two weeks before the case went before a grand jury. No indictment was returned.
O'Malley concluded that Marino's failure to tell defense attorneys about Klann's role in Lewis' rape charge was all the more significant because of the role Lewis played in implicating D'Ambrosio and Keenan for the murder in the first place.
"Had the defense been in possession of the information regarding Lewis, they could have developed an entirely different strategy of defense," O'Malley wrote.
Defense attorneys could have sown "the seeds of reasonable doubt regarding D'Ambrosio's participation in the murder by focusing on Lewis' motive to get rid of Klann and [on] Lewis' involvement in the investigation of his murder."
Surely, O'Malley wrote, the hidden evidence, if presented at trial, "would have undermined the state's ability to carry its burden of proving D'Ambrosio's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."
Source : Cleveland Plain Dealer (To reach this Plain Dealer
reporter:mtobin@plaind.com, 216-999-4128 )
www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1152299733214