JESSIE DOTSON: LESTER STREET KILLER MIGHT GET DEATH

Accused killer Jessie Dotson appeared before a judge Monday, March 10 to face charges of six counts of first degree murder

Alan Spearman / The Commercial Appeal
Jessie Dotson appeared in Judge Ann Pugh's General Sessions Division 7 courtroom this morning.

Death Penalty Sought for Lester Street Murder Suspect Jessie Dotson
Contributor: Shane Myers

Email: smyers@myeyewitnessnews.com

Last Update: 12/29/2008 10:58 am

MEMPHIS, TN -- The Shelby County District Attorney says he will pursue the death penalty against Jessie Dotson, the man accused in the murder of six people -- including two children -- in a home on Lester Street.

The District Attorney's Office made the announcement after a grand jury indicted 33 year-old Dotson on six counts of first degree murder, three counts of attempted first degree murder and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, Thursday morning, December 4, 2008.

According to authorities, four adults and two children were found dead inside a home in the 700 block of Lester Street in March 2008. Police say three other children, who were stabbed, were taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition. All six of the murder victims were either stabbed or shot to death.

(snip)

The following statement was issued by the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office:

“In the case of Jesse Dotson, we have identified seven different factors which qualify him for the death penalty under our state law. That’s pretty extraordinary. The correct course of action is to give the jury in the trial of Jesse Dotson the option of imposing the death penalty,” said District Attorney Gibbons.The seven specific aggravating circumstances under state law include:

1. The murders were committed against victims less than 12 years of age and the defendant was 18 or older;

2. The defendant was previously convicted of one or more felonies involving use of violence (Jessie Dotson pleaded guilty to second degree murder on November 21, 1994 and was sentenced to 18 years in prison);

3. The defendant knowingly created great risk of death to two or more persons, other than the victims murdered, during the act of murder;

4. The murders were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that they involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond necessary to produce death;

5. The murders were committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant;

6. The murders were knowingly committed by the defendant while he had a substantial role in committing the other crimes (attempted murders);

7. The defendant committed “mass murder,” which is defined as the murder of three or more persons.

First degree murder is a charged covered by the D.A.’s “No Deals” policy on violent crimes. Exceptions are made to the policy for legal or ethical reasons. First degree murder is punishable by life in prison with the possibility of parole after 51 years, life in prison without parole, or death.

WHAT WILL BE JESSIE DOTSON'S FATE?

http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story/Death-Penalty-Sought-for-Lester-Street-Murder/4aDFhpG1YEOAA-gsr9bcsw.cspx

GEORGIA: FRIENDS HONOR MEREDITH EMERSON WITH HIKER'S FOUNDATION

MEREDITH EMERSON

ELLA, MEREDITH EMERSON'S FAITHFUL FRIEND AND HIKING BUDDY

MISSION STATEMENT
Right To Hike, Inc. is dedicated to celebrating the life of our friend, Meredith Hope Emerson through raising funds and awareness for causes close to Meredith's heart. We hope to honor her memory by sharing her courage, love of the outdoors and belief that all people have the right to live without fear.

http://www.righttohikeinc.com/Home.6.0.html

One Year Later, Georgia Hiker's Murder Inspires Better Rescue Methods
Saturday, January 03, 2009

Associated Press

ATHENS, Ga. — Friends of Meredith Emerson were distraught when she disappeared while hiking in north Georgia on New Year's Day a year ago. They were devastated when the 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate was found murdered one week later.

But Emerson's many friends were determined to make sure she will never be forgotten. In the year since she and her dog vanished Jan. 1, 2008 near Blood Mountain, they have raised $35,000 for causes important to former resident of Longmont, Colo.

Friends who started the Right to Hike Foundation raised money through a restaurant promotion, a 5K race and a banquet. The foundation donated $5,000 to the university to help endow a scholarship to study in France, as Emerson did. The group also bought 15 GPS units and distributed them to hiking outposts in north Georgia, paying the $99 annual subscription fee for each. Lost hikers can use the GPS to signal rescuers.

A former drifter, Gary Michael Hilton, is serving a life term for killing Emerson. Hilton coldly described to investigators how he had kidnapped her, beat and eventually killed her. He also faces a murder charge in the killing and decapitation of a nurse in Florida.

(snip)

The 20 or so friends who began the Right to Hike Foundation have also gotten a trail named for her: Meredith's Trail, at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center. Karrenbauer said Emerson, who lived in Gwinnett County, often hiked there with her dog, Ella.

READ THE STORY...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,475567,00.html

CHOMP RECOMMENDS THIS FOUNDATION.

THERE IS SO MUCH ON THIS SITE TO HONOR AND TO REMEMBER MEREDITH EMERSON. WE WILL NOT LET HER BE LOST AGAIN. PLEASE, CHECK THE "RIGHT TO HIKE" WEBSITE BELOW. BECOME A MEMBER, BECOME A SPONSOR, READ ABOUT MEREDITH AND HER BELOVED DOG, ELLA, JOIN IN HIKING ACTIVITIES.

In celebrating the life of Meredith Hope Emerson, friends and family have founded Right to Hike, Inc., a non-profit organization that plans to support causes that were close to Meredith's heart, including hiking safety.

http://www.righttohikeinc.com/Home.6.0.html

TEXAS: ERIN CAFFEY, 17, GETS PLEA DEAL, ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE AT 59

Alba, Texas: Listen to father's 911 call for help from neighbor's house.

At 16 Erin Caffey murdered her mother and two brothers. At 17 Erin Caffey is sentenced to two life sentences plus a 25 year third sentence. "As for Erin Caffey, two life sentences, will she ever parole out? I can't answer that," said Rains County Attorney, Robert Vititow. "And if she did, she would still have another 25 year sentence to serve and so the odds are that she may never get out."


Teenage girl gets 2 life terms in family slayings
Associated Press
Jan. 3, 2009, 11:43AM

EMORY — A teenage girl has been given two life sentences and an additional 25 years in prison for her role in the murders of her mother and two young brothers in the family’s home.

Erin Caffey, 17, could be eligible for parole when she’s 59 under a plea agreement reached Friday, said defense attorney William McDowell. Her trial was scheduled for next month in nearby Hopkins County, and prosecutors had said they didn’t plan to seek the death penalty against her.

(snip)

Authorities said the murder plot was hatched because Erin Caffey’s parents didn’t want Wilkinson to date their daughter, who was 16 at the time of the crime.

In November, Wilkinson and Waid avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty for their involvement in the killings. McDowell said both will most likely receive life sentences with parole. All four defendants were initially charged with three counts of capital murder.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THIS TEENAGE KILLER?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6192597.html

TEXAS: ERIN CAFFEY AT 16 KILLED FAMILY WITH HELP FROM "FRIENDS"

Erin Caffey, shown in her booking photo, was 16 at the time her mother and two brothers were found slain in their Alba, Texas home. (AP Photo/Rains County Jail)

Courtesy Rains County Sheriff / Waid, Johnson, and Wilkinson helped Erin Caffey kill her family.

Caffey Murder Trial Moved, Date Set
By COSHANDRA DILLARD / TYLERPAPER.COM Staff Writer
Friday, December 05, 2008

EMORY -- The capital murder trial of a Rains County teen allegedly involved in the deaths of her mother and two young brothers has been moved to Hopkins County, officials said Thursday.

Eighth District Court Judge Robert Newsom officially transferred the trial, as the prosecution and defense agreed.

The jury selection for Erin Caffey, 17, will be Feb.2-5. Newsom also scheduled the trial to begin Feb. 9 and said it is expected to last until Feb. 17.

In November, Charles Allen Waid, 20, and Charlie James Wilkinson, 19, pleaded guilty to capital murder for their involvement in the killings.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty for Ms. Caffey, a minor at the time she allegedly helped kill her family. Prosecutor Lisa Tanner indicated that was the only reason they were not asking for the death penalty.

Ms. Caffey's father, Terry Caffey, 41, was shot five times but got out of his burning house and reached his neighbors, still conscious enough to tell them he recognized Wilkinson shooting him and his wife in their bed, sheriff's officials said. He has since recovered from his gunshot wounds.

(snip)

Penny Caffey, 37, a church pianist, and sons Mathew, 13, and Tyler, 8, were shot and stabbed to death.

Their bodies were removed once firefighters extinguished the flames of the home, which burned to the ground, officials said.

READ TYLER PAPER.COM FOR UPDATES OF CAFFEY MURDER, TRIAL, SENTENCING...

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20081205/NEWS01/812050338

READ ARTICLE BY TYLER PAPER.COM STAFF WRITER, LAUREN GROVER

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080303/NEWS01/429461743

ASPEN, CO: JAMES BLANNING RUINS NEW YEAR'S EVE WITH BOMBS

James Blanning's mug shot was taken in 1996 by state corrections officials. (Department of Corrections). He was sentenced in Rio Blanco District Court in 1996 to 16 years in prison for racketeering and white collar crimes encompassing forgery of deeds and wills, fraudulent security sales and forged money, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.

Photo by Aspen Times
Surveillance video by a Vectra Bank camera in Aspen captured suspect, Jim Blanning, at 2:37 p.m. Weds.

WRITING ON ENVELOPE LEFT AT FRONT DOOR OF THE ASPEN TIMES NEWSPAPER.Photo by The Aspen Times
An envelope containing a typewritten letter was left at the front door of The Aspen Times office. This handwritten note was on the envelope containing the typed letter.

TYPEWRITTEN LETTER LEFT AT FRONT DOOR OF THE ASPEN TIMES NEWSPAPER.

Photo by The Aspen Times
An envelope containing a typewritten letter was left at the front door of The Aspen Times office. This is the typed note and is not censored.

Police cleared a 16-block area of Aspen, seen here in this file photo, Wednesday afternoon after two banks reported receiving bomb threats and packages wrapped in holiday paper. (Reuters)

Photo by Janet Urquhart/The Aspen Times
Aspen Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn offers additional details on the bomb threats that forced the evacuation of much of downtown Aspen Wednesday, during a press conference Thursday morning.

Aspen police officer Bill Linn peers from behind a wall at a sled containing wrapped packages left in an alleyway between Hopkins and Hyman Avenue in Downtown Aspen on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008. (Aspen Daily News ZACH ORNITZ )

A photo of the clear plastic boxes containing holiday wrapped packages and pizza boxes in the bottom of this black sled. (Aspen Police Department)

Bomb suspect killed self; blasted Rove, Cheney and Bush in note

Associated Press
Published January 1, 2009

ASPEN — A man who left bomb threats and homemade bombs around Aspen on New Year's Eve, shot and killed himself in his car a few hours after his threats cleared much of the resort town, Aspen Police said.

Assistant Aspen Police Chief Bill Linn said James Chester Blanning, 72, walked into two Aspen banks Wednesday afternoon and left packages wrapped in holiday paper along with notes saying the boxes contained bombs. The notes threatened "mass death" and demanded $60,000 cash, along with criticisms of President George Bush, Linn said.

The Aspen Times newspaper reported that Blanning left a typewritten note at the newspaper's offices Wednesday evening. The profanity-laced note, which appeared to match those Blanning left at banks, said "Aspen will pay a horrible price in blood" if his demands were not met.

(snip)

Sixteen blocks, nearly the entirety of downtown Aspen, was cleared of holiday revelers Wednesday afternoon. Linn said that police bomb squads detonated the bombs once the area was cleared, and that one of the packages created a fireball outside a Wells Fargo bank when police detonated it. No one was injured.

Linn said the bombs were dangerous, containing plastic bladders of gasoline, but Linn did not describe exactly how sophisticated they were.

Blanning, who grew up in Aspen, was identified by the Pitkin County sheriff on a surveillance tape from one of the banks. Linn said the suspect was well known to police and that the sheriff remembered Blanning from a 1994 suicide threat atop the Pitkin County Courthouse.

WHAT TURNED THIS ASPEN RESIDENT INTO A BOMBER?
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/01/suspect-dead-aspen-bomb-threats-last-will-sent-tim/

READ THE STORY IN "THE ASPEN TIMES" NEWSPAPER...
http://www.aspentimes.com/