James Largin was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the murders of his parents. According to court documents James Largin would shoot Jimmy, 68, and Peggy, 56 multiple times causing their deaths. James Largin would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it won’t hear the appeal of an Alabama death row inmate who was convicted in the 2007 killings of his parents in Tuscaloosa.
James Scott Largin, 46, earlier this year had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court a December 2015 ruling by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upholding his conviction and death sentence.
On Monday the high court, without opinion, refused to review his case.
Largin was sentenced to death by a Tuscaloosa County judge in 2009 for his capital murder conviction in the deaths of his parents, Jimmy, 68, and Peggy, 56.
“Peggy and Jimmy Largin were at home on the night of March 15, 2007, when they were shot multiple times with a .22 caliber rifle and their bodies were thrown down the stairs leading to the cellar in their home. Autopsy results showed that both victims died as the result of close-range gunshot wounds to the head,” according to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ruling.
“This Court has independently weighed the aggravating and the mitigating circumstances as required by (Alabama law) … We are convinced, as was the circuit court, that death was the appropriate sentence for Largin’s capital crimes,” the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals stated in its order.
He was arrested after University of Alabama police found his parents’ car near the campus a few days after the murders, the Associated Press reported at the time.
A prosecutor at Largin’s original trial said Largin showed no remorse over the murders. The judge agreed with the jury’s recommendation that Largin be given the death penalty. His defense attorneys argued for life in prison without parole
Steven Petric was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Steven Petric would sexually assault and murder Toni Lim. The murder would go unsolved for nearly two decades. Steven Petric would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
A man who was convicted of the 1990 murder of a Homewood woman has been sentenced to death.
Steven Petric received the sentence today, 3 years after DNA evidence linked him to Toni Lim’s murder.
The 23-year-old woman was found dead in her Homewood apartment and thecrime when unsolved for 16 years until a national database matched DNAfrom the crime scene to Petric’s.
Petric, who is 48, has continued to maintain his innocence and said he only had consensual sex with Lim.
Shewas found hogtied in her bedroom with her throat slit and a deep knifewound to the back of her neck. She had been sexually assaulted and herwedding ring had been stolen.
Petric has been incarcerated since 1994, and was in an Illinois prison when the DNA match was found.
Justin White was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the sexual assault and murder of a teenager. According to court documents Justin White would sexually assault and strangle Jasmine Parker, 17. Justin White who would sexually assault and murder a college student Sirrea Black months later would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death for the Jasmine Parker case and would receive life without parole for the Sirrea Black murder.
Justin White, already serving life without parole for the rape and murder of a college student in 2006, was sentenced to death today for the rape and strangulation of a teenager that occurred four months before the other crime.
White, 22, was convicted of capital murder in December for the July 11, 2006, death of Jasmine Parker, 17, whose mother found her nearly nude body with a pair of jeans wrapped around her neck inside their north Birmingham apartment.
The other victim, 20-year-old Sirrea Black, was killed in a similar way on Oct. 31, 2006. The Bessemer judge in that case upheld that jury’s recommendation of life without parole instead of death in the murder of Black, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The jury in the Birmingham trial also recommended life without parole in a 9-3 vote after hearing testimony about White’s longtime struggles with and treatment for mental and impulse-control problems.
But after hearing arguments from lawyers on Monday, Circuit Judge Clyde Jones ruled today that White should die by lethal injection for the crime. Black’s murder was cited as an aggravating factor by the prosecution, along with burglary and rape in Parker’s death.
Jones said he gave great consideration to the jury’s sentencing recommendation, but decided to overrule the advisory verdict because of Parker’s age and the way she was killed.
A Jefferson County coroner testified in December that strangulation with soft ligatures such as clothing results in a slow death. Parker also had a non-lethal cut to her throat.
Timothy Boyle was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the murder of two year old Savannah White. According to court documents Timothy Boyle would beat to death the two year old little girl. Timothy Boyle would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
The capital murder conviction of Timothy Scott Boyle in the 2005 death of 2-year-old Savannah White has been upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Boyle was convicted in November 2009 and sentenced to death by lethal injection in March 2010 by Etowah County Circuit Judge David Kimberley for murdering Savannah. The jury in the trial, over which Kimberley presided, unanimously recommended the death penalty. Kimberley also sentenced Boyle to 10 years in prison for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, evidence of which was found during the murder investigation. Boyle’s attorneys had sought the appeal on multiple grounds, alleging Boyle was denied his right to a speedy trial; that the drug charge should have been separated from the capital murder charge, raising questions about jury selection; and that testimony and evidence that should have been impermissible were allowed in by Kimberley. The Court of Appeals said, “After independently weighing the aggravating circumstance and the mitigating circumstances, this Court is convinced, as was the circuit court, that death is the appropriate punishment for the murder of 2-year-old Savannah.” Savannah, the daughter of Boyle’s girlfriend, died from a series of blunt-force injuries to her head, according to testimony during the trial. Savannah’s older sister testified she saw Boyle slap the child around and throw her against a bathtub in the family’s Rainbow City home not long before her death on Oct. 27, 2005. Other witnesses testified Savannah was afraid of Boyle in the weeks leading up to her death. Bruising around Savannah’s head was discovered during an autopsy and was consistent with what would occur after repeated open-handed blows to the head during a period of days or weeks. “Because of the distribution, those were multiple strikes — I don’t know exactly how many — over half of her skull or more,” said forensic pathologist and key witness James Lauridson, who examined Savannah’s body after her death. “I cannot imagine how this could have been an accident.“ Brain swelling resulting from the blows was the official cause of death, Lauridson testified. “The defendant’s actions in the brutal murder of this helpless child clearly fit within the parameters of the aggravating circumstances found by the jury to exist in this case,” Kimberley said in his judgment.
Ronnie Kirksey was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the murder of a twenty three month old child. According to court documents Ronnie Kirksey would beat to death 23 month old Cornell Norwood. Ronnie Kirksey would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
A jury convicted Ronnie Lynn Kirksey of capital murder late Thursday in the 2006 death of his girlfriend’s son, 23-month-old Cornell Norwood. Jurors deliberated about two hours before reaching the verdict in the trial, which began two weeks ago. Circuit Court Judge David Kimberley ordered jurors to return at 9 a.m. today to begin the sentencing phase of the trial. Jurors will be presented evidence and make a recommendation that Kirksey be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Kimberley will consider their recommendation as he imposes Kirksey’s official sentencing. In closing arguments Thursday morning, Deputy District Attorney Carol Griffith told jurors that April 15, 2006, started out like a normal Saturday for Yolanda Norris and her family at her Colley Homes apartment on Sixth Street. “She found her baby laying on the cold floor in a puddle of blood, struggling to breathe,” Griffith said. ”(Kirksey) offered no apologies, no excuses.“ Paramedics from the Gadsden Fire Department responded to the 911 call and continued CPR. Cornell was rushed to Gadsden Regional Medical Center and soon flown to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, where he died. An investigation already was under way because the nature of the child’s injuries were suspicious. The following morning, Norris was questioned at the police department, and her statement matched that of one of her other children, Griffith said. Detectives then talked to Kirksey, looking for answers to the cause of the child’s severe injuries. Kirksey said the child had a “far-off look in his eyes, and I cleaned the blood off his mouth. I thought he was OK,” Griffith recounted for jurors. Through the course of several statements to police, Kirksey’s story changed several times as he explained the injuries. Teri Farris, a Gadsden police detective at the time of the child’s death, testified about Kirksey’s statements in which he said he hit the child and later kicked him. Then Kirksey — almost 6 feet tall and about 210 pounds at the time — said he put a foot on Cornell and stood on him with all his weight, “until his little hands started to curl and blood came out of his ears and nose.“ In one statement, he told detectives he had consumed eight beers on an empty stomach. “It’s like I was somebody else.“ In his testimony Wednesday during the trial, Kirksey told jurors he fell on Cornell that day and the fall, along with CPR, caused the injuries. The child had a linear skull fracture from one side of his head to the other, Griffith said. “It is undisputed the skull fracture was the fatal injury,” Griffith said. The child also had traumatic injuries to his stomach, heart, lungs and diaphragm, and the aorta — the main artery through his body — was torn. “He was freely bleeding into the abdominal cavity,” Griffith said, recalling testimony from the state medical examiner. “He testified that in 25 years he had never seen that kind of injury by accident,” she told jurors. Kirksey’s testimony about the fall was the first time Griffith said she and others in the courtroom had heard that version of what happened. “What he wants you to believe now is the statements to law enforcement aren’t true. That only bits and pieces are true,” she said. “He said he didn’t realize what he wrote in the statements wasn’t true.“ In those statements to police, Kirksey also told detectives, “I can’t stop seeing his face. I loved him like my very own child. I’m asking you to send me to where he is as quick as you can.“ Griffith said Kirksey said in testimony he thought he was confessing to falling on the child on the apartment’s concrete floor. “He’d have you believe it’s a twisted scheme by this police officer,” to come up with the story about what happened to Cornell, Griffith said. But Griffith asked jurors to remember Farris’ testimony. “You saw the emotion,” Griffith said. “You saw the professionalism. She looked you in the eyes and told you what he said he did to that beautiful baby.” “Did he look you in the eyes?” she asked jurors. “Put all these facts together. Do any of you believe a grown man will stand on a child and not intend to kill him? The fact that a person might regret it later has nothing to do with it.“ Chief Deputy District Attorney Marcus Reid referred to “a twilight zone case,” when talking about Kirksey’s testimony. In closing arguments, defense attorney Vince Pentecost gave a detailed outline of the hours and days following Cornell’s death and talked about the progression of the statements Kirksey gave to detectives in the 72 hours he was placed on hold in the Etowah County jail. Pentecost questioned why the interviews were done without video or audio recordings. “It’s easier to go on officer credibility than have a video of the interview,” he said. Defense attorney Paul Roberts referenced Reid’s comments in opening statements about being a fly on the wall the day Cornell was injured. “I would rather have been carpet on the floor. It might have saved that child’s life,” he said. “I would like to have been a fly on the wall during those statements.”
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