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Lesbian couple confesses to torture, murder of college student www.privateofficer.com
Cochranton PA July 30 2012 A lesbian couple admitted to luring one of the women’s former lovers into the woods, beating her and strangling her, and finally burying her in a shallow grave as she took her last breaths.
Pennsylvania prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty for Jade Olmstead and Ashley Barber, the Erie Times-News reported.
Their victim, Olmstead’s 20-year-old ex Brandy Stevens, suffocated on the dirt they shoveled into the grave they’d dug in advance of the horrific crime, autopsy results showed.
On May 17, the two women told police, Olmstead convinced Stevens to come see a fort she was building in the woods outside their home near Cochranton.
Barber, Olmstead’s new girlfriend, was lying in wait at the scene. They savagely beat Stevens, stuffing a cap into her mouth because “they were freaking out from her screams,” state police Trooper Eric Mallory testified.
Barber strangled Stevens with a rope as Olmstead continued to bludgeon her, and head-butted her so hard that she bruised her own forehead.
Olmstead and Barber rolled Stevens into the makeshift grave, they said. When they saw that she was still breathing, they slammed a rock into her face and poured water into her nose and mouth before piling on the dirt that eventually killed her.
Both women face charges of homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide, as well as evidence tampering for burning some of Stevens’ belongings and their own blood-soaked clothes, according to the Times-News.
Crawford County District Attorney Francis Schultz will determine if he will pursue the death penalty before their Aug. 24 arraignment.
San Antonio security officer captures armed robbery suspect www.privateofficer.com
The man is fighting for his life after he was shot in the stomach for refusing to hand over his laptop.
The victim was near his car outside the Oaks on Bandera apartments, in the 1200 block of Bandera Road, when he was approached a man with a gun around 2:30 a.m., San Antonio police said.
The victim refused to give the gunman his laptop and was shot in the abdomen following a brief struggle, police said.
The suspect than tried running away but was quickly caught by the apartment’s security guard.
The security officer was able to take the man into custody until police could arrive.
The victim was taken to University Hospital in critical condition.
Georgia police searching for hair extensions thief www.privateofficer.com
Mike Petchenik, the owner of PD&K Beauty Supply, told WSB-TV ( http://bit.ly/OvshqY) that thieves threw bricks through the front door of his store Friday and took a supply of human hair extensions. He estimates the theft took about 10 seconds.
He now plans to install security cameras and reinforced glass to deter future break-ins.
Roswell police said they have no suspects but are investigating whether the theft may be related to two similar crimes at a Sandy Springs store.
Disorderly person arrested at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Racetrack www.privateofficer.com
A 28-year-old Elizabethtown man was charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct after an incident at the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Racetrack early Sunday.
State police at Penn National said security officers asked Phillip Lee Kiser to leave the casino around 1:25 a.m. after he showed signs of being intoxicated.
Kiser refused to leave.
State police were contacted and upon meeting with Kiser, he again refused to leave and became combative upon being arrested, police said.
Security officer faces more surgeries after violent attack www.privateofficer.com
She prepared to take her last breath, but thanks to 19 year old security guard Jalen Farmer she survived.
“With blood streaming from one eye and blind, and glass in another, he never retreated. He kept putting himself in harm’s way, to serve as bait or a decoy so the attacker would be focused and isolated at the front of the daycare center until help arrived, “Minor says.
While Minor and others called 911 for help, Farmer kept taking blows from the suspect identified as 26 year old Mickel Tyrone Young. Young eventually grabbed an employee’s car keys and fled.
Farmer lost the sight in his right eye during the vicious attack. A gash above his left eye needed 20 stitches to close , and he has numerous other facial fractures and injuries.
He says he never thought about backing down.
“No, I didn’t, ” Farmer says. ” I did what any responsible person would have, I did my job. My job was to protect everyone at the daycare center.”
Eighty kids and 20 staff members were inside at the time.
His mother, Chanell Gray, says seeing her oldest son suffer has been tough.
” I say to him all the time, you really did a good job, and he always says, “I’m not a hero”. I tell him, you were a hero to a lot of people that day because you don’t know what could have been,”Gray says.
The daycare center held an appreciation dinner at the Jaycees Community Center in Waldorf for Jalen .
They’re trying to raise money to help his mom, who has six other kids, pay for his upcoming eye surgery and other medical needs There’s a 60 percent chance he’ll get at least some of his vision back.
“Everybody’s kept coming by, and I’ve gotten a lot of support from friends and the parents at the daycare center. I feel so blessed for that,” Jalen says.
If Jalen’s next eye surgery goes well, he’ll apply for college admission. His dream is to be the star safety for the Virginia Union football team. He’d like to major in Sports Communications.
There are two ways you can help Jalen Farmer’s family with his medical bills.
You can send donations to:
Jalen Farmer
P.O.Box 215
Brandywine, MD 20613
You can also drop off donations at :
It’s a Family Affair Childcare Center
310 Garrett A Morgan Blvd
Landover, MD 20785
Source:www.myfoxdc.com
Police Abuse Reporting wants to take over police complaints www.privateofficer.com
Randy Newingham, 26, of Jacksonville helped form Police Abuse Reporting, a grassroots movement, last fall.
“I would like to see more oversight of police and more police training in communication skills,” Newingham said.
“I have sent Chief [Tony] Grootens lists of types of training that PAR would like officers to undergo. We are on the side of police, but we believe we are all equals as humans and should be treated fairly. We should be treated the way a police officer would wanted to be treated.”
Jacksonville Police Chief Tony Grootens believes the process for handling complaints about police is already in place.
“We don’t need a police oversight board for several reasons,” Grootens said. “First of all, if it is a criminal allegation against a police officer, that complaint is forwarded to the Illinois State Police to investigate and if it is an allegation of excessive force, the FBI has jurisdiction over civil rights violations.”
A movement to create citizen oversight of the police in the United States began in the 1970s, with citizen oversight in some form established in 80 percent of the country’s 50 largest cities and in more than 100 municipalities, according to the Police Assessment Resource Center in Los Angeles.
“Efforts to create external or citizen oversight of the police have traditionally been fueled by public concerns that exclusively internal mechanisms to investigate and track police misconduct have not always resulted in unbiased, thorough and timely investigations of citizen complaints of police misconduct,” the Police Assessment Resource Center said.
Proponents of enhanced civilian oversight believe that, even where internal processes have been adequate, police agencies benefit by the increasing scrutiny and transparency citizen oversight provides.
Urbana is one Illinois city that has civilian oversight of its police.
“To my knowledge, there was no precipitating incident or incidents that led to the establishment of the Civilian Police Review Board,” said Todd Rent, human relations officer for the city of Urbana. “It was something that the mayor believed to be important.”
Urbana’s seven-member Civilian Police Review Board was formed in April 2008 to oversee internal police investigations of citizens’ complaints against police officers.
“Since the inception of the review board, there has only been one appeal to the board,” Rent said. “In the end, the board supported the police department’s decision in that case.”
Rent said the majority of the complaints made to the Urbana Police Department deal with police procedures, rudeness and conduct. “There haven’t been a lot of complaints about police use of excessive force,” he said. “I think the review board is a very positive and important process because it gives the community a systematic way of achieving oversight of the police department.”
Newingham said PAR members are collecting complaints about police, including those alleging verbal and physical abuse and harassment.
“We will act as witnesses, or mediators, when people interact with police,” Newingham said. “And people have the right to file a complaint without fear of retaliation from police. Furthermore, the whole police complaint process is biased, in that the police are the ones investigating the complaint against them. What we are trying to do is to step in and create our own oversight system. Right now, we can’t be effective because state law won’t allow us to audio record police interactions with the public.”
Newingham has had a number of conflicts with Jacksonville police over the years. He has a record of misdemeanor offenses dating back more than 10 years, including cannabis possession, alcohol-related crimes and charges of resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
“I have had interactions with police and I know how some officers can abuse their authority,” Newingham said. “I know many of the officers approach situations with respect for the person they are investigating, but there are certain officers who treat certain people in our community without respect.”
Grootens said Newingham and all citizens should realize that police handle many difficult situations, including some that require physical restraint.
“What Randy Newingham and other PAR members may not understand is that police officers often have to deal with people in a situation where emotions are high and logic is non-existent,” Grootens said.
“Police have to quell potentially hostile situations the best they can at the time. Police don’t have the luxury of devoting an inordinate amount of time to quell certain situations. Citizens involved in hostile situations are often given the choice to leave immediately or be arrested. And more often than not parties involved are heavily intoxicated. If you look at the scenario, the officers’ job is to not allow the hostilities to escalate. Oftentimes, you can’t do that in a nice way.”
Newingham said that PAR is an outgrowth of several incidents in which police were accused of using excessive force, including the Dennis Lancaster case in 2009.
“PAR basically started with Dennis’ case,” Newingham said. “Since then, we have protested several times in front of the [Morgan County] courthouse, a few times in front of the Ferris wheel on Morton Avenue, and we even marched into the mayor’s office one time.”
In addition, Newingham and other PAR members have gone door to door with petitions, asking for police communication skills training, and attended several Jacksonville City Council meetings, requesting independent oversight of the police department.
Grootens said he is a strong advocate for police training.
“I would love to see more training for officers, but mainly training dealing with the deaf, blind and the mentally disturbed in our community,” he said.
PAR started as an online group with 228 “concerned citizens,” according to Newingham.
“We just set up the public Facebook page and that’s where a person can go to file a complaint against the Jacksonville Police Department,” Newingham said. “There is a link on the page where a person can file a complaint that we will do our best to investigate. The link asks for a person’s name, but we keep the name confidential. We don’t have subpoena power to get an officer to sit down and talk with us about the situation, but what we can do is to provide phone numbers for people to call for outside help.
“The only reason I got involved was because I saw a guy — Dennis Lancaster — who needed help getting his voice heard,” Newingham said. “I have skills in community organization that were useful in helping Dennis.”
Grootens concedes that officers handle certain situations in different ways.
“Newingham may be correct in that some officers may not treat some individuals with the utmost respect because that individual has probably created a hostile environment in which the officer has to deal with,” Grootens said. “And oftentimes alcohol is involved. You take alcohol out of the equation and, generally speaking, the situation de-escalates.
“The main message of the police department is don’t be disrespectful to the police and they won’t be disrespectful to you,” Grootens said.
Source:myjournalcourier.com
Special Olympics softball player dies during a regional tournament www.privateofficer.com
The Daily News of Longview reports that Charles T. Huff died of a heart attack.
Just minutes before he collapsed in the dugout at LBA Park Saturday, Huff had hit a single. His stepfather, Tyler Johnson, was on the field coaching when several people yelled there was a medical emergency.
Olympia Fire Department medics tried to revive Huff but were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at St. Peter’s Hospital.
Huff, who was born with Down syndrome, graduated from high school this year. His softball team had won their first game of the day and was leading their second game when Huff collapsed. The rest of the game was called off.
Mass. father shoots 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son -commits suicide www.privateofficer.com
OXFORD, Mass. July 30 2012 – A father shot his 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son before taking his own life. The 7-year-old daughter did not make it; the 9-year-old boy is fighting for his life.
A police officer pointed his gun at a mother who came home to find a crime scene at her house.
“I didn’t do anything,” she cried.
Colleen Benway was initially handcuffed by police. She was quickly released and escorted to the hospital to see her son.
Neighbors said the woman wasn’t home when an ambulance turned up to take away her husband and one of her two young children.
“I’ve been here 43 years, never seen so many police cars in my life,” said one neighbor Angelo Cascione.
Friends and neighbors watched as officers taped off the two apartment home on Main Street in oxford. People at the house next door say they didn’t hear anything unusual. They only knew there was problem when they saw all the lights outside.
“I never seen anything wrong I don’t know what the heck’s going on. I used to be over there all the time I don’t understand,” said Amanda Ahearn, a friend of the family.
Family and friends were surprised by the tragedy.
“He seemed fine when I was younger. He was a nice guy. Always nice to me. He didn’t seem like the type of person to do something like this,” said Ahearn.
Friends said the family of four lived upstairs. They shared the house with relatives downstairs. Neighbors and relatives are hoping for some kind of good news about the kids who live here.
“I know it’s serious because I’ve been here 43 years and nothing like this has ever happened,” said Cascione.
Police got a 911 call around 5p.m. about gunshots fired in the suburban oxford neighborhood.
“It’s a horrible scene, it’s a horrible situation 03:03 we have a 7-year-old girl dead, a 9-year-old boy wounded. It doesn’t get any worse than this,” said Joseph Early Jr. of the Worcester County District Attorney’s office.
The DA’s office said a 41-year-old man shot his two children before turning the gun on himself. The 9-year-old boy is now in the hospital fighting for his life.
Officials said the man had separated from his wife about a month ago. His gun license had expired in 1999.
Police are expected to be on the scene for most of the evening.
Source:www1.whdh.com
Jackson Community College replacing its campus security department with private company www.privateofficer.com
The transition is scheduled to take place Aug. 1, college officials said.
Security services on JCC’s main Summit Township campus and its soon-to-open north campus in the former Photo Marketing Association headquarters in Blackman Township now will be handled by ArmorKnight Security Inc. of Adrian.
The company also provides security for JCC’s Clyde LeTarte Center in Hillsdale.
“We are still very committed to having a safe and secure campus,” said Cindy Allen, JCC spokeswoman. “We will continue to have armed security on campus 24/7. We haven’t changed that commitment in any way.”
Students in JCC’s criminal justice program also will still be able to participate in on-campus internship programs, Allen said.
JCC also is retaining two of its own security officers. Jeffrey Whipple will stay on as full-time safety and security specialist, and Tom VanHeest will keep his 29-hour job as safety and security officer.
One full-time employee and two other part-time employees will be exercising their seniority rights to bump into other campus positions they are qualified for, Allen said. Two open full-time positions will go unfilled, she said, and the program’s 10 to 15 temporary employees will be interviewed by ArmorKnight Security for possible employment there.
The privatized service, paid at an hourly rate, is budgeted at about $400,000 as opposed to the approximately $680,000 JCC’s own department would have cost, Allen said.
JCC received 20 responses to a request for proposals for security services, Allen said. ArmorKnight Security was chosen from three finalists, and all officers will be trained in Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, she said.
JCC decided to have armed security guards on campus at all times about two years ago. It has had virtually no violent crime on campus in recent years, according to a safety report on its website.
Source:mlive.com
UNC Charlotte develops app to help police www.privateofficer.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. July 30 2012 (AP) — An app for the iPod developed by two UNC Charlotte professors and several students helps campus police respond to a mass shooting or other any other tragedy that involves multiple victims.
The app uses digital architectural files to create 3-D maps of every campus building. The maps are loaded in iPod Touches carried on the arms of SWAT team members or other first responders, The Charlotte Observer reports (http://bit.ly/LUgK6X).
SWAT officers and the command center can send the locations of officers, the victims, the shooter or other information constantly back and forth.
“The technology is pretty cool. This could definitely be a valuable tool because we could tell where injured people are — because that’s the ultimate thing, saving lives,” said Eric Cox, a SWAT team officer who participated in an exercise with the app Friday.
The app was developed by Bill Ribarsky, chairman of UNC Charlotte’s computer science department and director of the Charlotte Visualization Center, which uses visual analytics to solve complex problems in science, engineering and other disciplines. He was helped by associate professor K.R. Subramanian, graduate students and a research scientist.
The National Institute of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security funded the app’s development, and Ribarsky hopes it can be expanded to more buildings in more places.
The technology for the app was guided by guided by how doctors use high-tech tools for colonoscopies, Ribarsky said.
“The doctor has to navigate and look at each polyp,” he said. “It’s not just flying down the colon.”
Friday’s test had a few glitches — there were problems securing a wireless connection for everyone — but overall, UNC Charlotte Police Chief Jeff Baker was very pleased.
“It exceeded our expectations,” Baker said. “We want as many platforms as possible to assist seeing and sending messages without radios. It’s important to think of the future of safety.”
Death rate at Richmond jail far outpaces national average www.privateofficer.com
Richmond, Va. July 30 2012
The death rate for inmates of the Richmond City Jail over the past dozen years has been far above the national average for facilities of its size, raising the question of whether any of the deaths could have been prevented, according to an expert on medical care at the nation’s jails and prisons.
The mortality rate for inmates at the overheated and chronically overcrowded Richmond jail was 2.5 times higher than the average annual death rate at jails of similar size across the country from 2000 through 2007, the most recent years for which comparable national data were available.
And since 2007, the average number of Richmond jail deaths per year has increased, even as average death rates across the nation declined, according to an analysis by Dr. Marc Stern, a former medical director for prisons in Washington state.
“It’s a striking difference,” said Stern, a professor at the University of Washington who does consulting work for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “I think there could be excess deaths.”
There are two possible explanations for the Richmond jail’s relatively high number of deaths: Either the people being arrested and jailed in Richmond are sicker than their criminal counterparts in other American cities, Stern said, or Richmond’s prisoners are getting inferior medical care.
Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr. said a majority of the inmates come to the jail with pre-existing health problems, and many have mental-health problems.
“All we are supposed to do is provide standard treatment,” said Woody, who took office in 2006. “They get better treatment here than they do out on the street. I can’t make them take their meds.”
He added, “The medical treatment at the Richmond City Jail since I’ve been here is better than it has ever been.”
Woody’s predecessor, Michelle Mitchell, who was sheriff from 1994 through 2005, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Sixty people have died in the custody of the Richmond jail from 2000 through today, in most cases because of natural causes.
Elsewhere in the region, 15 people have died since 2006 while in the custody of the Riverside Regional Jail in Hopewell, including two hangings and one who died of car fumes while on work release. Riverside houses inmates from the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Prince George and Surry and the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg.
Henrico County’s two jails have had 12 deaths since 2006, including five suicides, a heroin overdose, and six deaths linked to illness or other natural causes.
Two people died over the same period at the Chesterfield County jail, including a suicide and the death by natural causes of a man while he was on home electronic monitoring. Two inmates of the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover County have died. One died of natural causes and the other hanged himself this year.
Stern, who examined a list of the Richmond deaths provided by the city Sheriff’s Office, said he saw nothing unusual about the causes of the inmates’ deaths. But he urged an investigation of each of the deaths to determine whether any could have been prevented.
“The difference is striking enough that it should prompt a review of the original cases,” Stern said, referring to the Richmond jail’s higher death rate.
Woody countered, “That’s just his opinion. All I know is we do all we can, and medical does a great job.”
* * * * *
Stern compared the number of Richmond jail deaths from 2000 to 2007 with national data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice. He concluded that the death rate during that period was 336 deaths per 100,000 Richmond jail inmates, compared with an average rate of 137 deaths per 100,000 at jails of similar size nationwide.
Margaret Noonan, a statistician for the Bureau of Justice Statistics and author of the report on mortality rates at jails from 2000 to 2007, agreed with Stern that the causes of death of Richmond inmates appear normal for a jail.
“Jails are always at the mercy of the population that they serve,” Noonan said. “For a proportion of inmates, the care that they get in jails and prisons is the only care that they get. A lot of that has to do with the lifestyle that sent them to jail in the first place.”
Stern’s call for an evaluation of Richmond’s jail deaths comes less than three weeks after Katrina Jones, a 19-year-old prisoner, died after she apparently strangled herself at the jail. She fatally injured herself after mental-health workers concluded she was not a threat to herself, even though she had tried to hang herself once before in front of deputies, according to sheriff’s officials.
The Sheriff’s Office also is facing lawsuits alleging inadequate care, including one involving a man who died of heat exposure at the jail, which has no air conditioning in the men’s tiers.
For several years, Woody has voiced concern about poor conditions at the facility. The jail was built in the 1960s to house 882 inmates, but the average daily population hovers at more than 1,300. A new jail is under construction and is scheduled to open in 2014, despite concerns that it will be overcrowded immediately. The new facility will have 1,032 beds.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch compiled a database listing 81 deaths of Richmond jail inmates from 1994, Mitchell’s first year in office, through the present. Fifty-one of those prisoners died during Mitchell’s administration, and 30 have died during Woody’s time in office.
The database includes deaths of inmates in the custody of other jails in the region since 2006. Those facilities house significantly fewer inmates than does the Richmond jail and they had significantly fewer deaths.
On average, about 33,000 people pass through the Richmond jail each year, said sheriff’s Maj. Jerry Baldwin.
The region’s deaths include inmates who are in the custody of the jail but die outside the facility — at a hospital, for example. The causes of death among Richmond inmates range from heart failure and chronic alcoholism to dehydration and complications of AIDS and cocaine poisoning or opiate poisoning. Since 2000, seven inmates have died from hanging or strangling themselves, according to sheriff’s officials. That includes Jones, whose cause of death is pending at the state medical examiner’s office.
Another person in custody, James Grooms III, died of injuries suffered during a shootout when he tried to rob a store in South Richmond, authorities said.
* * * * *
Jones’ death on July 9 has raised questions as to whether it could have been prevented.
On July 1, Jones used a gown as a noose and tried to strangle herself in front of deputies and was temporarily placed under stricter supervision, sheriff’s officials said.
On the same day, mental-health professionals decided she was not a threat to herself and she was returned to the general population, officials said. She was moved the next day to an isolation cell after she was found hiding in an unauthorized area, and on July 3 she was found unconscious in her cell. She remained unconscious until she was taken off life support several days later at VCU Medical Center.
Jones had been in the jail since June 21, the same day she was sentenced to serve five years in prison for her role in a home-invasion robbery. Her attorney has questioned why she was placed in isolation after she had tried to strangle herself the first time.
Woody declined to comment Friday on Jones’ death, citing the possibility of a civil lawsuit.
A spokesman for Correct Care Solutions, the Nashville, Tenn.-based company with which the Sheriff’s Office contracts to provide medical care at the jail, refused to comment on the death, citing federal privacy law. The spokesman, Patrick Cummiskey, said in an email that the company is proud of the care it provides to the Richmond jail’s prisoners.
“Loss of life is always tragic and our thoughts and prayers go out to all that grieve,” Cummiskey wrote. Correct Care has been providing medical services to the jail since last year.
In June, attorneys Donna Miller Rostant and Mark J. Krudys filed a lawsuit on behalf of the estate of Grant R. Sleeper, a Richmond jail inmate who died of heat exposure in 2010. The wrongful-death suit is seeking more than $10 million and alleges that the city and the Sheriff’s Office failed to protect him from inhumane conditions in the overcrowded facility.
In February, a lawsuit seeking $31 million was filed on behalf of Sunday Lucas, alleging that in 2008 staff members delayed allowing her to get medical treatment at the jail, resulting in a stroke.
In September, a Richmond jury returned a $2.4 million verdict against Woody and the jail’s former chief physician in a wrongful-death case involving inmate James D. Robinson. He died in March 2008 after medical staff at the jail failed to diagnose or properly treat his pneumonia, according to the complaint.
Source:TimesDispatch.com
Jacksonville security officer shoots three men www.privateofficer.com
Jacksonville Fla July 30 2012 A man is in life-threatening condition after a shooting in the parking lot of Wacko’s gentleman’s club Saturday night involving a security guard, police said.
The incident began with a disturbance in the club at 3701 Emerson St., said Sgt. Jay Farhat of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Farhat said three men were asked by bouncers to leave the club about 1:40 a.m. Then there was a disturbance in the parking lot. Shots were fired, after which the men fled in a truck.
Farhat said the security guard shot all three men.
Police called to the scene spotted the truck that left the Wacko’s parking lot with the men just down the road at the Taco Bell restaurant at Emerson and Philips Highway. The men were detained there.
Farhat said all three were taken to Shands Jacksonville hospital with one in life-threatening condition.
A light blue Ford F-150 was surrounded by police tape at the Taco Bell intersection.
People standing outside Wacko’s said there was a fight in the parking lot and the security guard was called to help. Then gunfire broke out.
The guard was working at the strip mall where Wacko’s and other businesses are located, and Farhat said the investigation is looking into why he opened fire and whether it was justified.
Police were looking to examine video surveillance.
Source:Jacksonville.com
Arkansas man gets death penalty in death of police officer www.privateofficer.com
Jerry Lard was convicted Thursday of capital murder, and a Greene County judge agreed with the jury that the 38-year-old should die for killing Trumann police officer Jonathan Schmidt in April 2011.
Schmidt’s father, Donald Schmidt Sr., welcomed the decision, saying the youngest of his son’s three children, who turns 3 years old in October, will grow up not knowing his father.
“It’s given me an overwhelming sense of relief,” Schmidt said. “For some of the family members who lost their husband- the children, they’ll never get to see their father again. Only time will heal their wounds.”
Lard’s attorney, Katherine Streett, said the case will be automatically appealed and that she doesn’t comment on ongoing cases.
Prosecutor Scott Ellington, in a statement, said seeking the death sentence always involves a lot of thought and prayer, but that he saw no other option in the case of Lard, who also fired on but missed Schmidt’s partner, Sgt. Corey Overstreet, during the confrontation.
“The jury echoed the commitment of the community to protect those who protect us. I am very proud of their courage and fortitude. I know it wasn’t an easy decision, but it is one that had to be made,” Ellington said.
Lard’s attorneys didn’t deny that he killed Schmidt, but they say Lard was mentally ill or deficient and should be spared execution.
Overstreet testified that he showed up as backup last year after Schmidt pulled over a car in which Lard was a passenger.
At one point, Schmidt asked Lard his name and birthday and radioed the information back. Schmidt walked to Lard’s side of the car.
“When he opened the door, a hand reached out and started shooting Jonathan,” Overstreet said.
Overstreet went to reach for his gun, but he said Lard pointed his weapon at him, so he scrambled between the vehicles. He heard gunshots.
Video taken the night of the shooting from dashboard cameras in the police cars showed Schmidt helping Overstreet back onto his feet after he fell, The Jonesboro Sun reported.
Lard swore and shot at Schmidt, who said, “Please, don’t shoot me again.”
A medical examiner told the jury Schmidt was shot four times, in the chin, neck, right wrist and chest, though a protective vest blocked that shot.
The trial was moved from Poinsett County to Greene County at the request of the defense.
Lard becomes the 38th death row inmate in Arkansas, although the state currently can’t carry out executions since the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down its lethal injection law earlier this year.
