2021 | Page 10 of 422 | My Crime Library

Carlos Hallowell Teen Killer Murders Adopted Mother

Carlos Hallowell was seventeen years old when he would murder his adopted mother with an axe. According to court documents Carlos Hallowell would get into an argument with his adopted mother, Denise Hallowell which ended with the teen killer striking the woman in the back of the head with an axe while she was sleeping. Due to his age Carlos Hallowell was not eligible for the death penalty however he would be sentenced to life in prison.

Carlos Hallowell 2023 Information

DC Number:	I81369
Name:	HALLOWELL, CARLOS A
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	12/10/2001
Initial Receipt Date:	12/28/2021
Current Facility:	CALHOUN C.I.
Current Custody:	CLOSE
Current Release Date:	SENTENCED TO LIFE

Carlos Halloway is still in county jail and has yet to enter the Florida Department Of Corrections

Carlos Halloway More News

A Florida man has been sentenced to life after murdering his adoptive mother in her bed.

Nineteen-year-old Carlos Hallowell, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was found guilty of killing Denise Hallowell in their Inverness, Florida home, according to the Citrus County Chronicle. On July 13, 2019, Hallowell attacked his mother with an ax while she slept.

Because Hallowell was a minor at the time of the murder, he was not eligible for the death penalty.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, Hallowell addressed the court.

“Although she’s not with us, I know she’s listening,” he said, according to the Chronicle. “Mom, I’m so very sorry. Words can’t describe how I feel right now, how much I miss you, how sorry I am for what I’ve done and everything I’ve done throughout my entire life with you. … I love you so much.

Hallowell also addressed the judge.

“Your Honor, the only thing I ask is for justice for my mom and mercy for me,” he said.

Denise adopted Carlos from Guatemala when he was 4 years old, according to the Chronicle. Beginning at age 11, Hallowell became dependent on alcohol and drugs, including experimentation with ecstasy, methamphetamines, and cocaine.

“The defendant chose, on his own volition, to begin taking increasing amounts of alcohol and a veritable witches’ brew of controlled substances,” said Citrus County Circuit Court Judge Richard Howard, according to The Chronicle.

After the murder, Carlos Hallowell told detectives that dogs barking woke him from a nap and he found his mother dying, according to the Citrus County Chronicle.

“Here we had a mother, who was brutally murdered in her bedroom during the night by her son,” Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast said in a press release. “All the forensic evidence and interviews pointed to the only other person inside Denise’s home that night, her own son.”

In the subsequent investigation, divers searched a nearby lake and found Denise Hallowell’s iPhone and three security cameras taken from the home.

Though he initially denied killing his mother, Hallowell finally confessed to the murder. The teenager claimed his mother planned to cut him off financially when he opted to enroll in a technical college instead of a four-year school and verbally scolded him over his decision.

“That really hurt,” Hallowell told investigators, according to the Chronicle. “She let me have it, big time … telling me I’m a worthless piece of s–t because of what I want to do.”

Hallowell told investigators that he took the ax into his mother’s room and blacked out.

“I remember sharping [sic] the ax, and now, all of [a] sudden, it’s in the back of her head,” Hallowell said, according to the Chronicle. “It was kind of on the fly. … I didn’t intend for it to happen.”

At sentencing, Judge Howard referred to Hallowell as an “incorrigible offender” with no hope for rehabilitation.

“The defendant’s murder of his mother was not a result of any sudden outburst of emotion or aberrant thought,” Howard said. “Rather, it is and was the culmination of his desire to acquire his mother’s real state, cars, and other property.”

Howard said the attack was premeditated.

“The defendant took a long time to plan his attack … until [the] victim had taken a nap,” Howard continued. “All the while, quietly sharpening the ax in his room.”

The judge referred to the testimony of psychologists hired by both the state and defense, according to the Chronicle. He cited the expert witnesses’ findings that Hallowell met 16 out of 20 criteria required to determine psychopathy.

“There is no rehabilitation for a psychopath,” the judge said.

Hallowell’s public defender says his client plans to appeal the ruling

https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/carlos-hallowell-gets-life-for-killing-denise-hallowell

Carlos Hallowell Now

Carlos Hallowell is currently incarcerated at the Calhoun Correctional Institute

Carlos Hallowell Release Date

Carlos Hallowell is serving a life sentence

Jacob Brighton Teen Killer Murders Parents

Jacob Brighton was sixteen years old when he would murder his parents in Florida. According to court documents Jacob Brighton in 2007 would fatally shoot his mother and father in Fort Pierce Florida. According to documents Jacob Brighton had planned the double murder for days before it took place. Jacob Brighton would be sentenced to life without parole for the double murder. This teen killer would go up for resentencing however due to the brutality of the crime his sentence did not change.

Jacob Brighton 2023 Information

DC Number:	C05884
Name:	BRIGHTON, JACOB A
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	07/25/1991
Initial Receipt Date:	09/06/2011
Current Facility:	Cross City C.I.
Current Custody:	CLOSE
Current Release Date:	SENTENCED TO LIFE

Jacob Brighton More News

After describing Jacob Brighton’s 2007 crimes of fatally shooting his parents as committed “in cold blood,” a judge Monday ordered he should keep serving two life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

Brighton, who was 16 on Aug. 2, 2007 when he gunned down his father, Richard Brighton and his mother Penny inside their home west of Fort Pierce, has been serving life since his trial convictions in 2011 of two counts of first-degree murder.

Because he was a minor when he killed, prosecutors could not seek the death penalty.

Richard Brighton, 47, was a self-employed drywall finisher and Penny Brighton, 46, was a varied exceptionality teacher, working with students who had physical, mental and learning disabilities in several grades at St. Lucie Elementary School

“Just before the murders there were no arguments, no conflict, no violence between Jacob Brighton and either of his parents,” St. Lucie County Circuit Judge William Roby said Monday as a dozen family relatives of Brighton’s parents looked on.

“The court finds that the actions taken by Mr. Brighton were atrocious, heinous and cruel … In earlier times, he would have been subject to the death penalty. In fact, for some 229 years this was the law.”

Roby’s ruling followed a resentencing hearing held last week to determine if a life term sentence was still appropriate for Brighton, 30, who was granted a sentencing do-over in 2014.

An appeals court found that based on a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned mandatory life prison terms for minors who kill, Brighton’s punishment violated the dictates of that opinion.

The appellate ruling noted the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case Miller v. Alabama concluded a judge isn’t prohibited from imposing a lifetime sentence for a juvenile offender “as long as the trial court takes into account the various factors which demonstrate how juveniles are different and how these differences counsel against irrevocably sentencing juveniles to a lifetime in prison.”

Under Florida law, juveniles convicted of murder must serve a minimum of 40 years, up to life, and are eligible for a sentencing review after serving 25 years.

In court, Brighton, who was chained and handcuffed as he entered court, remained seated and silent as supportive maternal relatives sat behind him.

Other Brighton relatives, including his brother Jerimiah Brighton, were seated behind state prosecutors.

In his ruling, Roby detailed Brighton’s actions before, during and after the homicides, including that he knew how to wield a gun because his father taught him how to shoot.

He noted too, that Brighton had pondered killing his parents “over a period of time immediately before the murders, and at different times before the day of the murders.”

“Just before the murders, Jacob Brighton was watching TV and joking around with his dad. (He) waited to shoot his mom and dad until after they ate dinner,” Roby said. “Jacob Brighton shot his dad because he knew he could not kill his mom without shooting his dad first.”

Brighton, Roby said, had loaded his father’s 9 mm. handgun and hid it in the edge of his bed by a doorway looking into the kitchen, where they were “both defenseless and vulnerable.”

“He grabbed the 9 mm. pistol, aimed at his father, shot him three times in the back. Dad immediately fell,” Roby said. “His mother tried to run when she heard the shots. Jacob Brighton fired at his mother two times, she collapsed and was instantly paralyzed. At least one of his parents bled out. He then took the time to smoke a joint of marijuana.”

After the shootings, he called a cousin in California and told him what happened. Brighton then flagged down deputies and turned himself in.

After his arrest, Brighton admitted shooting his parents but at his trial, his defense team told jurors the shooting was in self-defense after he’d been victimized by his father’s repeated sexual abuse.

Brighton testified his mother knew about the assaults and failed to do anything to protect him or stop the attacks. His lawyers argued he suffered from battered child syndrome.

State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl on Monday said defense experts who testified last week said Brighton recanted his claims of sexual assault. Roby in court clearly rejected the opinions offered by Brighton’s mental health experts.

“The majority of the defense experts’ direct examination testimony has essentially been eviscerated by the cross-examination of the state,” Roby said. The state’s cross-examination severely diminished the credibility of the vast majority of the defense witnesses.”

Roby concluded Brighton did not kill because of immaturity, impetuosity, peer pressure or other attributes of youth.

“His parents were on him to do chores, that he had been grounded for disciplinary reasons and they wanted him to get a job,” he said. “Jacob Brighton essentially could not do what he wanted to do at age 16. He did not like having his parents control him. He felt that his parents pushed him to be someone he was not, so he killed them.”

After court, Brighton’s lawyer Assistant Public Defender Usha Maharajh said they were “disappointed” in the sentence and plan to file an appeal.

“The court clearly did not properly consider the substantial mitigation with evidence of Jacob’s very dysfunctional home life,” Maharajh said.

Pamela Roberts Smith, 60, Penny Brighton’s twin sister, who sobbed in court and told her nephew she loved him as he left court, later said she’ll continue to stand by him.

“What happened in that house was horrible and I love Jake. This has caused a huge division in our family.,” she said. “And I will continue to support Jake and I love Jerimiah.

Still, Bakkedahl, who noted the inconsistent version of events told since 2007, could only guess why Brighton stopped disparaging his father as part of his defense

“Ultimately maybe pangs of guilt or conscience tugged at him to some degree because he couldn’t live with the fact that he’s calling his father a child rapist,” Bakkedahl said.

“If we did anything successfully, I think we partially restored the character of Rick Brighton and have established without question that he was not a child molester as portrayed by his son in the original trial.”

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/st-lucie-county/2021/10/11/juvenile-killer-jacob-brighton-serve-life-parents-2007-murders/6057215001/

Jacob Brighton Now

Jacob Brighton is currently incarcerated at the Central Florida Reception Center

Jacob Brighton Release Date

Jacob Brighton is serving a life sentence

Rudy Esquivel Texas Execution

Rudy Esquivel was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of an undercover police officer. According to court documents Rudy Esquivel would fatally shoot an undercover police officer who was attempting to arrest him for heroin possession. Rudy Esquivel would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Rudy Esquivel would be executed by lethal injection on June 9 1986

Rudy Esquivel More News

Without a display of remorse or fear, Rudy Ramos Esquivel was executed by injection today for the murder of an undercover narcotics officer, calmly telling his friends to ‘be cool’ and ‘stay close.’

Esquivel, 50, died at 12:21 a.m. CST, becoming the third man executed in Texas in as many months. He was the 14th person put to death in Texas since it resumed capital punishment in 1982 and the 59th in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen an individual as calm and cheerful and peaceful when he was about to meet his maker,’ said Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, who spoke with Esquivel before watching him put to death.

Esquivel was convicted of killing Houston police officer Timothy Hearn, 28, on June 8, 1978, during a shoot-out. He claimed police officers had tried to plant heroin on him and said he felt no remorse for the shootings.

Esquivel invited four friends to his execution. ‘Be cool,’ he told them. ‘Thank you for being my friends. Give my love to everybody.’

The witnesses told Esquivel they loved him, and he replied, ‘I love you all. Stay close. Everything’s going to be all right.’

Witness Barbara Longoria read a biblical passage from 2 Timothy, and Esquivel smiled. As a hidden executioner pumped a mixture of three poisons through an intravenous tube, the four witnesses whispered prayers. Esquivel breathed deeply six times, his chest heaving, then made a snoring sound and died.

Longoria fell into the arms of her husband, Pilo, weeping.

‘It’s OK,’ he told her, ‘He’s with the Lord. He’s at peace.’

Esquivel was convicted of shooting Hearn during a drug raid in a Houston parking lot. Hearn’s partner and Esquivel were wounded in the shoot-out.

Esquivel claimed the shooting occurred after the officers tried to plant heroin in his pocket because he had refused to become an informant. He also said he had been convicted unfairly because Hispanics were excluded from his trial jury.

‘I was set up and I have no remorse in me,’ he told reporters recently. ‘I accept what is happening. My great strength is that I know I was right.’

At the time of the killing, Esquivel was on parole from a 99-year sentence he received in 1953. He had been convicted at age 17 in the gang rape of a woman on her way to church, and served 11 years. Esquivel also had been jailed in California for assaulting a police officer and forgery.

Rudy Esquivel lost an appeal before the Supreme Court less than 10 hours before his execution. He took the news calmly and without comment, prison officials said.

Esquivel, who spent Sunday morning watching television, met with relatives, friends, his attorney and a prison minister in the afternoon.

Rudy Esquivel had won a stay of execution Friday from a federal judge, who gave attorneys 20 days to present more evidence of their claim that Hispanics were improperly excluded from Esquivel’s trial jury.

The state appealed, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reinstated the death date Saturday.

Esquivel had been on death row since 1978, and had won stays of three previous execution dates.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/06/09/Esquivel-executed-in-Texas/4434518673600/

Jay Pinkerton Texas Execution

Jay Pinkerton was executed by the State of Texas for two sexual assaults and murders. According to court documents Jay Pinkerton, who was 17 years old, would sexually assault and murder two women in two separate crimes. Jay Pinkerton would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jay Pinkerton at 24 years old would become one of the youngest people to be executed in Texas since the return of capital punishment in the 1970’s. Jay Pinkerton would be executed by way of lethal injection on May 15 1986

Jay Pinkerton More News

Jay Kelly Pinkerton, convicted of the mutilation-slaying of one woman and the murder of another, said goodbye to his father and was executed today by injection, nine months after escaping the same fate by just 26 minutes.

Pinkerton, 24, was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m., said Assistant Attorney General Monroe Clayton, just hours after federal judges rejected an appeal hand-delivered by Pinkerton’s mother.

His father, Gene, the only relative to witness the execution, gripped an aluminum rail in the death chamber a few feet from his son

″Be strong for me,″ Pinkerton told his father. ″I want you to know that I’m at peace with myself and with my God. I talked to everybody on the phone. I got to talk to Mom. Say goodbye to Mom. Keep your spirits up for me.″

Then he chanted: ″I bear witness to Allah. I ask for your forgiveness.″

″Bye, Jay,″ his father said.

″I love you, Dad,″ replied Pinkerton, who then said, ″I feel dizziness. I feel dizziness.″ He yawned, his eyes closed, and he died.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday twice refused to block the execution.

After the first rejection, Pinkerton’s mother, Margie, carried a personal appeal from her son to U.S. District Judge Hayden Head of Corpus Christi. Head, who was in Houston for a meeting, denied the appeal about 25 minutes later. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans and the Supreme Court then also refused to stop the execution.

Pinkerton, an apprentice meat cutter, was executed for raping and mutilating Sarah Donn Lawrence in 1979 during a burglary of her Amarillo home when he was 17 years old. Mrs. Lawrence, 30, was stabbed more than 50 times and her throat was slashed.

Pinkerton also was convicted of the 1980 murder of Sherry Welch, 25, of Amarillo, who was stabbed while working in an furniture store.

Even before the final appeals were rejected Gov. Mark White announced he would not halt the execution, calling the slayings ″two of the most brutal and heinous crimes imaginable.″

″After years of litigation, Mr. Pinkerton’s case has been scrutinized in detail and no errors have been found,″ White said. ″It is time that the state be allowed to carry out its lawful punishment.″

Pinkerton averted death in August just 26 minutes before he was to be taken into the death chamber. Another stay was granted in November just 10 hours before his scheduled execution.

Pinkerton’s attorney, Dean Roper, said the appeal delivered by Pinkerton’s mother was unusual but legitimate. It contended that the jury was not asked the proper questions during the sentencing phase of the trial, particularly whether Pinkerton was provoked by Mrs. Lawrence into killing her.

Randy Sherrod, the Randall County district attorney who prosecuted Pinkerton, said the appeals were merely attempts to gain time for the condemned man, and that there was no question of provocation.

The execution was the seventh in the nation this year and the third in Texas. Pinkerton was among the youngest people executed since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted its ban on the death penalty in 1976. The youngest was Jesse de la Rosa, executed in Texas in 1985 for murdering a convenience store clerk in 1979. His age initially was reported as 24, but state prison officials said today he had been 23.

The slayings terrorized the Amarillo area, prompting people to buy extra locks for doors and guns to protect themselves.

Fewer than a dozen spectators stood in a thunderstorm outside the prison while the execution was taking place. Among them was June Morgan, of New Waverly, an aunt of Mrs. Lawrence.

″I can’t believe I’m here hoping somebody dies,″ she said. ″But he’s not a people. He’s an animal.″

https://apnews.com/article/88ee539aeb84853a2f65d0927fb90348

David Funchess Florida Execution

David Funchess was executed by the State of Florida for the murders of two people. According to court documents David Funchess would stab to death two people during a robbery at a lounge. David Funchess would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. David Funchess would be executed by way of the electric chair on April 22 1986

David Funchess More News

A man who was wounded in Vietnam and convicted in the slaying of two bar employees in Jacksonville in 1974 was executed here today in the electric chair.

The convict, David Livingston Funchess, 39 years old, was executed 90 minutes after the United States Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 not to extend a five-hour stay it issued earlier today. He was pronounced dead at 5:11 P.M.

”I feel sorry for his family,” said Madge Stewart, whose father, Clayton Ragan, was killed, along with Anna Waldrop, by Mr. Funchess. ”They’re going to lose a loved one. But they got to see him 11 years longer than I got to see my loved one.”

She and Betti Shupe, the daughter of Mrs. Waldrop, hugged when told that Mr. Funchess was dead.

The execution had been set for 7 A.M. but was stayed by a Federal appeals court in Atlanta. It was later stayed again by the Supreme Court. Convicted in 1975

Mr. Funchess, diagnosed as suffering from stress stemming from duty in Vietnam, was the 56th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, and the third in eight days.

Peter Erlinder, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., who has researched the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on Vietnam veterans, said Mr. Funchess was the first veteran executed despite being diagnosed as suffering from the disorder.

Mr. Erlinger said at least two Vietnam veterans had been acquitted of murder charges after asserting that they suffered from the disorder, which was not recognized until 1980. Mr. Funchess was convicted in 1975.

Mr. Funchess was condemned to die for killing a woman and a man in a holdup Dec. 16, 1974, in a Jacksonville bar, where he worked a year earlier. Served Two and a Half Months

Mr. Funchess’s lawyer, Jeff Thompson, also a Vietnam veteran, had argued that Mr. Funchess was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, an affliction said to have affected thousands of veterans who are unable to adjust to civilian life after combat in an unpopular war.

Symptoms include experiencing flashbacks and suppressing memories of violence.

David Funchess was 19, had no criminal record and had graduated in the top third of his high school class when he was drafted in 1967. He was wounded when he stepped on a land mine after serving two and a half months and was then discharged.

Vernon Bradford, a spokesman for the State Department of Corrections, said Mr. Funchess’s parents, Wenis Funchess and Alice Roberts; his wife, Christine, and three sisters and two brothers visited him from late Monday until early today

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/23/us/vietnam-veteran-is-put-to-death-in-florida.html