Post by ex member on May 18, 2005 6:30:10 GMT -5
Wolfe rset to die for robbery-slaying of woman
05/18/2005
By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press
DNA testing was in its infancy 13 years ago when authorities in Beaumont used it to link the robbery-slaying of an 84-year-old woman to Bryan Wolfe, a convicted robber on parole from Louisiana.
"People just didn't quite necessarily believe in it yet," said Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Ed Shettle, who prosecuted Wolfe for capital murder in the fatal stabbing of Bertha Lemell at her Beaumont home. "But we now know it is a very, very good technology."
Wolfe, 44, was set for execution Wednesday evening for the death of the woman who lived nearby and babysat his children while his wife went to work.
"I'm glad it's coming to an end," said Leo Lemell, 80, the victim's cousin. "I'm not too much on the death penalty. I would rather see him day by day suffering. But that's the way the law is so we go by the way of the law."
Wolfe, from Houma, La., would be the seventh Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year. Another execution was set for Thursday evening.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review Wolfe's case.
Lemell's body, along with her change purse, a few coins and some black-eyed peas she carried for good luck, were found on the floor of her home by a nephew. She had been stabbed 26 times.
Wolfe was seen in her neighborhood shortly before and after the Feb. 15, 1992, slaying, according to court documents. When he was picked up by police two days later, he had deep cuts on his right hand. He said they were from a broken beer bottle. Authorities believed he cut himself with the knife while he was stabbing the woman.
DNA from blood samples on a door knob, the floor and towels at Lemell's house, plus on the black coin purse and a knife found at the scene matched Wolfe's DNA.
Wolfe already had been to prison after confessing to an armed robbery in Louisiana while serving in the Army in 1983, then another robbery in Houma in 1989.
He was released from a Louisiana prison in 1991 after serving one year of a three-year sentence. Court records also showed he fled a work-release center. Less than three months later, Bertha Lemell was killed.
"I have a long rap sheet," Wolfe recently acknowledged to The Beaumont Enterprise. He blamed his problems on a cocaine habit.
Earlier appeals rejected by state and federal courts contended Wolfe's court-appointed trial lawyer was incompetent and ill-prepared.
"Wolfe is just a story about how dumb lawyers are," said Michael Jamail, his appeals attorney. "Since DNA looks like he's guilty, no judge will look at the case."
Shettle, however, said Wolfe's case had been reviewed "through every appellate court at least twice."
"It's time that sentence be carried out," he said.
Thursday evening condemned prisoner Richard Cartwright, 31, was to go to the death chamber for the 1996 robbery and fatal shooting of a man in Corpus Christi.
___
On the Net:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice execution schedule www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm
05/18/2005
By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press
DNA testing was in its infancy 13 years ago when authorities in Beaumont used it to link the robbery-slaying of an 84-year-old woman to Bryan Wolfe, a convicted robber on parole from Louisiana.
"People just didn't quite necessarily believe in it yet," said Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Ed Shettle, who prosecuted Wolfe for capital murder in the fatal stabbing of Bertha Lemell at her Beaumont home. "But we now know it is a very, very good technology."
Wolfe, 44, was set for execution Wednesday evening for the death of the woman who lived nearby and babysat his children while his wife went to work.
"I'm glad it's coming to an end," said Leo Lemell, 80, the victim's cousin. "I'm not too much on the death penalty. I would rather see him day by day suffering. But that's the way the law is so we go by the way of the law."
Wolfe, from Houma, La., would be the seventh Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year. Another execution was set for Thursday evening.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review Wolfe's case.
Lemell's body, along with her change purse, a few coins and some black-eyed peas she carried for good luck, were found on the floor of her home by a nephew. She had been stabbed 26 times.
Wolfe was seen in her neighborhood shortly before and after the Feb. 15, 1992, slaying, according to court documents. When he was picked up by police two days later, he had deep cuts on his right hand. He said they were from a broken beer bottle. Authorities believed he cut himself with the knife while he was stabbing the woman.
DNA from blood samples on a door knob, the floor and towels at Lemell's house, plus on the black coin purse and a knife found at the scene matched Wolfe's DNA.
Wolfe already had been to prison after confessing to an armed robbery in Louisiana while serving in the Army in 1983, then another robbery in Houma in 1989.
He was released from a Louisiana prison in 1991 after serving one year of a three-year sentence. Court records also showed he fled a work-release center. Less than three months later, Bertha Lemell was killed.
"I have a long rap sheet," Wolfe recently acknowledged to The Beaumont Enterprise. He blamed his problems on a cocaine habit.
Earlier appeals rejected by state and federal courts contended Wolfe's court-appointed trial lawyer was incompetent and ill-prepared.
"Wolfe is just a story about how dumb lawyers are," said Michael Jamail, his appeals attorney. "Since DNA looks like he's guilty, no judge will look at the case."
Shettle, however, said Wolfe's case had been reviewed "through every appellate court at least twice."
"It's time that sentence be carried out," he said.
Thursday evening condemned prisoner Richard Cartwright, 31, was to go to the death chamber for the 1996 robbery and fatal shooting of a man in Corpus Christi.
___
On the Net:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice execution schedule www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm
