Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 20, 2006 19:42:52 GMT -5
Md. man charged in 1991 slaying of Houston
woman
The state will seek the death penalty against Delmar, Md., resident Gilbert E. Cannon, who allegedly stabbed a Houston-area grandmother to death more than 15 years ago.
"The state believes it has presented enough evidence to pursue this as a capital case," Deputy Attorney General Marie O'Connor Graham said at the end of a 21/2-hour Kent County Superior Court hearing Tuesday.
Proof positive hearings are conducted by the court in first-degree murder cases to determine if the court agrees the state has sufficient evidence to hold defendants without bail as the case moves forward.
Cannon, 41, a career criminal with several convictions for theft and robbery, has been charged with 1st-degree murder in connection with the June 23, 1991, killing of Dorothy M. Donovan, 70, of Killens Pond Road.
But defense attorney Robert Harpster suggested Tuesday that Cannon might not have acted alone, noting that Ms. Donovan's son, Charles Holden of Bridgeville, was a suspect in the case until the day after Cannon's Jan. 18 arrest.
While questioning Delaware State Police Detective Sgt. Keith Marvel, Mr. Harpster suggested that evidence at the crime scene and changes in Mr. Holden's statements to police supported his theory.
But Sgt. Marvel said DNA and a bloody palm print tied Cannon to the fatal stabbing.
Mr. Harpster said it was "quite a coincidence" that Cannon ended up at Ms. Donovan's home shortly after he hitchhiked a ride with Mr. Holden from a Hardee's restaurant in Harrington earlier that morning.
According to police and court reports, the hitchhiker allegedly assaulted Mr. Holden and attempted to take his truck.
Mr. Holden kicked the man out of his truck at the intersection of Killens Pond Road and Del. 14, a half-mile from his home.
Mr. Holden lived in a trailer adjacent to Ms. Donovan's home at the time of the killing. He was having "financial hardships" and Ms. Donovan recently had gotten a life insurance policy, Mr. Harpster said.
"On numerous occasions while questioning him (in January), Cannon said he acted alone and didn't know the person who he had an altercation with," Sgt. Marvel said.
"It was only when (a trooper) interjected that it was ironic that he (allegedly) had killed the mother of a person who picked him up that the story changed.
"During his statement, (Cannon) said he remembered getting a ride from an individual at the Hardee's. He described himself as cold and wet and went to Ms. Donovan's house thinking it was abandoned."
Sgt. Marvel said Cannon broke out a windowpane in the back door and entered the house, encountering Ms. Donovan.
"He said he remembered putting his hands over her mouth and pushed her back onto the bed," Sgt. Marvel said. "He said he didn't remember anything else."
Police believe Cannon stabbed the elderly woman several times in the upper torso. She died from massive hemorrhaging, the state medical examiner's office ruled.
Mr. Harpster said a pillow placed over Ms. Donovan's face - which could be attributed to an assailant who knows their victim and doesn't want to look at them - and the positioning of her body indicated that the scene was staged.
The case remained unsolved for nearly 15 years despite features on television shows such as "Unsolved Mysteries," until 2004 when police utilized an FBI DNA index system that allows law enforcement agencies to share DNA profiles electronically.
The system found a match in November 2005 between a former Maryland inmate and the 1991 Houston-area homicide.
Cannon, who was arrested Jan. 18 in a Selbyville apartment complex, is being held without bail at Sussex Correctional Institution near Georgetown.
Kent County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Young reserved a decision and is expected to issue one in the coming weeks.
(source: Newszap Delaware)
woman
The state will seek the death penalty against Delmar, Md., resident Gilbert E. Cannon, who allegedly stabbed a Houston-area grandmother to death more than 15 years ago.
"The state believes it has presented enough evidence to pursue this as a capital case," Deputy Attorney General Marie O'Connor Graham said at the end of a 21/2-hour Kent County Superior Court hearing Tuesday.
Proof positive hearings are conducted by the court in first-degree murder cases to determine if the court agrees the state has sufficient evidence to hold defendants without bail as the case moves forward.
Cannon, 41, a career criminal with several convictions for theft and robbery, has been charged with 1st-degree murder in connection with the June 23, 1991, killing of Dorothy M. Donovan, 70, of Killens Pond Road.
But defense attorney Robert Harpster suggested Tuesday that Cannon might not have acted alone, noting that Ms. Donovan's son, Charles Holden of Bridgeville, was a suspect in the case until the day after Cannon's Jan. 18 arrest.
While questioning Delaware State Police Detective Sgt. Keith Marvel, Mr. Harpster suggested that evidence at the crime scene and changes in Mr. Holden's statements to police supported his theory.
But Sgt. Marvel said DNA and a bloody palm print tied Cannon to the fatal stabbing.
Mr. Harpster said it was "quite a coincidence" that Cannon ended up at Ms. Donovan's home shortly after he hitchhiked a ride with Mr. Holden from a Hardee's restaurant in Harrington earlier that morning.
According to police and court reports, the hitchhiker allegedly assaulted Mr. Holden and attempted to take his truck.
Mr. Holden kicked the man out of his truck at the intersection of Killens Pond Road and Del. 14, a half-mile from his home.
Mr. Holden lived in a trailer adjacent to Ms. Donovan's home at the time of the killing. He was having "financial hardships" and Ms. Donovan recently had gotten a life insurance policy, Mr. Harpster said.
"On numerous occasions while questioning him (in January), Cannon said he acted alone and didn't know the person who he had an altercation with," Sgt. Marvel said.
"It was only when (a trooper) interjected that it was ironic that he (allegedly) had killed the mother of a person who picked him up that the story changed.
"During his statement, (Cannon) said he remembered getting a ride from an individual at the Hardee's. He described himself as cold and wet and went to Ms. Donovan's house thinking it was abandoned."
Sgt. Marvel said Cannon broke out a windowpane in the back door and entered the house, encountering Ms. Donovan.
"He said he remembered putting his hands over her mouth and pushed her back onto the bed," Sgt. Marvel said. "He said he didn't remember anything else."
Police believe Cannon stabbed the elderly woman several times in the upper torso. She died from massive hemorrhaging, the state medical examiner's office ruled.
Mr. Harpster said a pillow placed over Ms. Donovan's face - which could be attributed to an assailant who knows their victim and doesn't want to look at them - and the positioning of her body indicated that the scene was staged.
The case remained unsolved for nearly 15 years despite features on television shows such as "Unsolved Mysteries," until 2004 when police utilized an FBI DNA index system that allows law enforcement agencies to share DNA profiles electronically.
The system found a match in November 2005 between a former Maryland inmate and the 1991 Houston-area homicide.
Cannon, who was arrested Jan. 18 in a Selbyville apartment complex, is being held without bail at Sussex Correctional Institution near Georgetown.
Kent County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Young reserved a decision and is expected to issue one in the coming weeks.
(source: Newszap Delaware)