Antonio Sanchez was seventeen years old when he shot and killed nineteen year old Madison Finch in Illinois. According to court documents Madison Finch was hosting a New Years Eve party at her parents home when Antonio Sanchez walked up to the door and fatally shot Madison. The teen killer would plead guilty to murder in exchange for a lighter sentence. Antonio Sanchez would be sentenced to twenty years in prison
Antonio Sanchez 2023 Information
Parent Institution:
LAWRENCE CORRECTIONAL CENTER
Offender Status:
IN CUSTODY
Location:
LAWRENCE CORRECTIONAL CENTER
Admission Date:
09/13/2018
Projected Parole Date:
12/29/2034
Last Paroled Date:
Projected Discharge Date:
01/01/2038
Antonio Sanchez More News
Madison Finch was the primary victim when Antonio Sanchez shot and killed her during a New Year’s Eve party in La Harpe, Illinois. But she wasn’t the only one.
“You changed our lives forever, and not just us,” Finch’s mother, Carrie Finch, told Sanchez during a court hearing Wednesday. “Because of you, an entire community lost its innocence that night.”
Sanchez probably will lose at least 16 years of freedom as a result.
Inside a packed courtroom, Hancock County Circuit Judge Raymond Cavanaugh sentenced Antonio Sanchez, 18, to concurrent 20-year state-prison sentences for second-degree murder and home invasion.
Sanchez’s guilty plea was negotiated. The Hamilton, Illinois, resident had been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery in the death of Finch, 19, who was killed early Jan. 1 at her La Harpe residence.
“Your family is affected by this, and my heart goes out to them,” said Cavanaugh, who struggled to maintain his composure as he addressed Sanchez. “Because they never intended to raise a murderer. And they have.”
During a hearing in April, Sanchez pleaded not guilty. Jury selection for his trial began Monday.
But Tuesday, with eight jurors selected and potential ones being interviewed, the prosecution and defense agreed to substitute charges that carried a lesser penalty. The previous maximum was tantamount to a life sentence.
“The facts of this case required the careful consideration of the loss of life to Maddie based on the irreparable acts of the defendant,” Hancock County State’s Attorney Rachel Mast stated in a news release she issued following the hearing.
Sanchez waived his right to a trial. Clad Wednesday in a two-toned-gray, horizontal-striped jail jumpsuit, he sat unemotional and mostly silent during the hearing. It lasted about 70 minutes.
Based on sentencing guidelines and time already served, Sanchez probably will be about 34 when he’s eligible for release.
“I was able to tell him, ‘You have a life to live when you’re done,’” said Sanchez’s attorney, Quincy-based Drew Schnack. “If you go to trial and lose … assuming you live that long, you’re not going to have any life to live.”
In front of Cavanaugh and at least 100 others gathered on the third floor of the Hancock County Courthouse, Sanchez appeared to realize that.
“I have not done much with my life,” he said in remarks that took less than a minute to deliver. “A man has to take responsibility for his life. From now on, I have to make the best of a bad situation.”
The situation apparently has been beyond horrible for Finch’s family since the morning Madison Finch, a freshman at Illinois State University, was shot in the back of her head.
Carrie Finch addressed the court following a victim statement from her other child, daughter Josie. Husband and father Jason Finch spoke afterward.
The Finches extolled their slain daughter’s virtues, including a love for animals, big trucks, sushi, false eyelashes and the downtrodden in life.
“She had a future,” said Carrie Finch, who sobbed almost constantly through her testimony. “She was going to make a difference.”
Jason Finch’s address was direct and defiant. He said the contrast with his wife’s statement was a good-cop, bad-cop situation.
“You don’t know the meaning of tough,” Jason Finch told Sanchez. “Tough? Hell, you’re looking at three of the toughest people you’ll ever see in your life.”
The case had been publicized heavily in Hancock County, where murders are rare. Much of the community in La Harpe, home to about 1,200 people, had rallied around the Finches.
Save for five apparent members of Sanchez’s family, almost the entire gallery Wednesday consisted of Finch supporters. That was typical attendance for Sanchez’s hearings.
In June, Schnack had requested a change of venue for the trial. That request was denied. Schnack suggested no trial and the plea bargain were for the best.
“The community didn’t need to go through this,” he said. “Nobody did.
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two teen killers who were raised in households full of love and money however the two would attempt to pull off the perfect murder. In this article we are going to take a closer look at Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb and the murder of Bobby Franks.
Nathan Leopold Early Life
Nathan Leopold was born in Chicago on November 19, 1904 to Florence and Nathan Leopold. His parents believed that their son was a prodigy as he allegedly spoke his first word at just four months old. Nathan Leopold would study a number of languages and claimed to be fluent in five of them. Nathan Leopold was also well versed in Ornithology, the study of birds,
Richard Loeb Early Years
Richard Loeb was born on June 11, 1905 to Anna Henrietta and Albert Loeb who was a lawyer and a former vice president of a bank. Richard Loeb who would become the youngest person to graduate University of Michigan at seventeen years old. Loeb also enjoyed to socialize, play tennis and read detective novels.
Nathan Leopold And Richard Loeb Beginnings
Even though Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb met at a young age as they both grew up in the same wealthy neighborhood they did not real become acquainted until years later when the began to interact at the University of Chicago. Turns out they both had a deep interest in crime and soon they would begin their experimenting in the criminal lifestyle.
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would start out small with incidents of vandalism and theft. The two would break into a frat house at the University of Chicago where they would steal a penknife and a typewriter. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would move on to arson but when they did not get noticed for their crime they decided to plan and pull off the perfect murder
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb – Bobby Franks Murder
Bobby Franks
Bobby Franks was a fourteen year old boy who attended the Harvard School For Boys and was from the same neighborhood as Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb as well was a second cousin to Richard and had been over to the Loeb household on a number of occasions.
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would pick up Bobby Franks as he was walking home from school. The two teen killers began to pull off their plan. Bobby Franks was sitting in the front passenger seat when he was struck several times by Richard Loeb with a chisel. Nathan Leopold would drive to a prearranged destination near Wolf Lake in Hammond Indiana.
Once it was dark Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would take Bobby Franks body and throw it in a culvert before dousing it with hydrocloric acid which they believed would make his identity that much harder to figure out. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would drive back to Chicago
Nathan Leopold would call Bobby Franks mother and would tell her that her son was kidnapped and to follow a number of instructions if she wanted to see her son alive. The instructions which were typed on the typewriter they had stolen earlier and sent to the Franks residence. However before the instructions could be completed the body of Bobby Franks was found.
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would destroy the typewriter and other pieces of evidence that tied them to the crime however a pair of glasses belonging to Nathan was found at the crime scene. Turns out only three people in the Chicago area had that particular pair of glasses with a unique hinge. Soon police were questioning Nathan Leopold about the murder of Bobby Franks. Nathan would tell police that he and Richard Loeb were driving around Chicago and picked up two women however their chauffeur denied this and the two were arrested.
Richard Loeb would confess first and attempted to blame the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks on Nathan Leopold. Nathan Leopold would later write a book in which he blamed the murder on Loeb. It has never been clear who struck the fatal wound that would kill Bobby Franks
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb Trial
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would go on trial in Chicago and their lawyer would be famed attorney Clarence Darrow who was reportedly paid $70,000 (equivalent to a million dollars now) to defend the teen killers. Even Clarence Darrow was not able to get Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb off however he did save them from the death penalty. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would be sentenced to life in prison plus ninety nine years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks
Clarence Darrow Speech At The Nathan Leopold And Richard Loeb Trial
This terrible crime was inherent in his organism, and it came from some ancestor. Is any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche’s philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it? It is hardly fair to hang a 19-year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university.
Now your Honor I have spoken about the war, I believed in it. I don’t know whether I was crazy or not. Sometimes I think perhaps I was. I approved of it; I joined in the general cry of madness and despair. I urged men to fight, I was safe because I was too old to go. I was like the rest. What did they do? Right or wrong, justifiable or unjustifiable – which I need not discuss today; it changed the world. For four long years the civilized world was engaged in killing men. Christian against Christian, barbarian uniting with Christians to kill Christians; anything to kill. It was taught in every school, aye in the Sunday schools. The little children played at war. The toddling children on the street. Do you suppose this world has ever been the same since? How long your Honor, will it take for the world to get back the humane emotions that were slowly growing before the war? How long will it take the callused hearts of men before the scars of hatred and cruelty shall be removed?
We read of killing one hundred thousand men in a day. We read about it and we rejoiced in it—if it was the other fellows who were killed. We were fed on flesh and drank blood. Even down to the prattling babe. I need not tell you how many upright, honorable young boys have come into this court charged with murder, some saved and some sent to their death, boys who fought in this war and learned to place a cheap value on human life. You know it and I know it. These boys were brought up in it. The tales of death were in their homes, their playgrounds, their schools; they were in the newspapers that they read; it was a part of the common frenzy – what was a life? It was nothing. It was the least sacred thing in existence and these boys were trained to this cruelty.
It will take fifty years to wipe it out of the human heart, if ever. I know this, that after the Civil War in 1865, crimes of this sort increased, marvelously. No one needs to tell me that crime has no cause. It has as definite a cause as any other disease, and I know that out of the hatred and bitterness of the Civil War crime increased as America had never seen before. I know that Europe is going through the same experience today; I know it has followed every war; and I know it has influenced these boys so that life was not the same to them as it would have been if the world had not made red with blood. I protest against the crimes and mistakes of society being visited upon them. All of us have a share in it. I have mine. I cannot tell and I shall never know how many words of mine might have given birth to cruelty in place of love and kindness and charity.
Your Honor knows that in this very court crimes of violence have increased growing out of the war. Not necessarily by those who fought but by those that learned that blood was cheap, and human life was cheap, and if the State could take it lightly why not the boy? There are causes for this terrible crime. There are causes as I have said for everything that happens in the world. War is a part of it; education is a part of it; birth is a part of it; money is a part of it—all these conspired to compass the destruction of these two poor boys.
Has the court any right to consider anything but these two boys? The State says that your Honor has a right to consider the welfare of the community, as you have. If the welfare of the community would be benefited by taking these lives, well and good. I think it would work evil that no one could measure. Has your Honor a right to consider the families of these defendants? I have been sorry, and I am sorry for the bereavement of Mr. and Mrs. Franks, for those broken ties that cannot be healed. All I can hope and wish is that some good may come from it all. But as compared with the families of Leopold and Loeb, the Franks are to be envied—and everyone knows it.
I do not know how much salvage there is in these two boys. I hate to say it in their presence, but what is there to look forward to? I do not know but what your Honor would be merciful to them, but not merciful to civilization, and not merciful if you tied a rope around their necks and let them die; merciful to them, but not merciful to civilization, and not merciful to those who would be left behind. To spend the balance of their days in prison is mighty little to look forward to, if anything. Is it anything? They may have the hope that as the years roll around they might be released. I do not know. I do not know. I will be honest with this court as I have tried to be from the beginning. I know that these boys are not fit to be at large. I believe they will not be until they pass through the next stage of life, at forty-five or fifty. Whether they will then, I cannot tell. I am sure of this, that I will not be here to help them. So far as I am concerned, it is over.
I would not tell this court that I do not hope that some time, when life and age have changed their bodies, as they do, and have changed their emotions, as they do—that they may once more return to life. I would be the last person on earth to close the door of hope to any human being that lives, and least of all to my clients. But what have they to look forward to? Nothing. And I think here of the stanza of Housman:
Now hollow fires burn out to black, / And lights are fluttering low: Square your shoulders, lift your pack / And leave your friends and go. O never fear, lads, naught’s to dread, / Look not left nor right: In all the endless road you tread / There’s nothing but the night.
I care not your Honor, whether the march begins at the gallows or when the gates of Joliet close upon them, there is nothing but the night, and that is little for any human being to expect.
But there are others to consider. Here are these two families who have led honest lives, who will bear the name that they bear, and future generations must carry it on.
Here is Leopold’s father – and this boy was the pride of his life. He watched him and he cared for him, he worked for him; the boy was brilliant and accomplished. He educated him, and he thought that fame and position awaited him, as it should have awaited. It is a hard thing for a father to see his life’s hopes crumble into dust.
Should he be considered? Should his brothers be considered? Will it do society any good or make your life safer, or any human being’s life safer, if it should be handed down from generation to generation that this boy, their kin died upon the scaffold?
And Loeb’s the same. Here are the faithful uncle and brother, who have watched here day by day, while Dickie’s father and his mother are too ill to stand this terrific strain, and shall be waiting for a message which means more to them than it can mean to you or me. Shall these be taken into account in this general bereavement?
Have they any rights? Is there any reason, your Honor, why their proud names and all the future generations that bear them shall have this bar sinister written across them? How many boys and girls, how many unborn children will feel it? It is bad enough as it is, God knows. It is bad enough, however it is. But it’s not yet death on the scaffold. It’s not that. And I ask your Honor, in addition to all that I have said to save two honorable families from a disgrace that never ends, and which could be of no avail to help any human being that lives.
Now, I must say a word more and then I will leave this with you where I should have left it long ago. None of us are unmindful of the public; courts are not, and juries are not. We placed our fate in the hands of a trained court, thinking that he would be more mindful and considerate than a jury. I cannot say how people feel. I have stood here for three months as one might stand at the ocean trying to sweep back the tide. I hope the seas are subsiding and the wind is falling, and I believe they are, but I wish to make no false pretense to this court. The easy thing and the popular thing to do is to hang my clients. I know it. Men and women who do not think will applaud. The cruel and thoughtless will approve. It will be easy today; but in Chicago, and reaching out over the length and breadth of the land, more and more fathers and mothers, the humane, the kind and the hopeful, who are gaining an understanding and asking questions not only about these poor boys, but about their own – these will join in no acclaim at the death of my clients.
These would ask that the shedding of blood be stopped, and that the normal feelings of man resume their sway. And as the days and the months and the years go on, they will ask it more and more. But, your Honor, what they shall ask may not count. I know the easy way. I know the future is with me, and what I stand for here; not merely for the lives of these two unfortunate lads, but for all boys and all girls; for all of the young, and as far as possible, for all of the old. I am pleading for life, understanding, charity, kindness, and the infinite mercy that considers all. I am pleading that we overcome cruelty with kindness and hatred with love. I know the future is on my side. Your Honor stands between the past and the future. You may hang these boys; you may hang them by the neck until they are dead. But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past. In doing it you are making it harder for every other boy who in ignorance and darkness must grope his way through the mazes which only childhood knows. In doing it you will make it harder for unborn children. You may save them and make it easier for every child that sometime may stand where these boys stand. You will make it easier for every human being with an aspiration and a vision and a hope and a fate. I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man.
I feel that I should apologize for the length of time I have taken. This case may not be as important as I think it is, and I am sure I do not need to tell this court, or to tell my friends that I would fight just as hard for the poor as for the rich. If I should succeed, my greatest reward and my greatest hope will be that for the countless unfortunates who must tread the same road in blind childhood that these poor boys have trod—that I have done something to help human understanding, to temper justice with mercy, to overcome hate with love.
I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar Khayyam. It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all:
So I be written in the Book of Love, I do not care about that Book above. Erase my name or write it as you will, So I be written in the Book of Love.
Richard Loeb Death
Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold would be reconnected at Statesville Prison in Illinois and the two would improve the school curriculum by adding both a high school and junior college aspect to the program. In 1936 Richard Loeb would be murdered in prison with a straight razor by James Day who would claim that Loeb had propositioned him. Later James Day was deemed to have acted in self defense in the murder of Richard Loeb and was acquitted.
Nathan Leopold Death
Nathan Leopold would serve over thirty years in prison before he was released in 1958. Leopold who had written a book entitled Life Plus Ninety Nine Years would eventually move to Puerto Rico where he would marry and would eventually die in 1971 from a heart attack.
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb FAQ
Nathan Leopold Death
Nathan Leopold died of a heart attack in 1971
Richard Loeb Death
Richard Loeb was murdered in prison in 1936 by James Day
Dakota Wall would tell police she just wanted to scare her half sister Sidnee Stephens so she arranged for four of her friends Robbie Mueller, James Glazier, Chad Bennett, and Carl Dane who would force their way into the home and kidnap the fifteen year old girl. Sidnee Stephens would be forced into the trunk of a car and driven to a remote location where her she would be choked and stabbed repeatedly.
Police in Illinois would soon arrest the teen killers as well as Dakota Wall. All four of the teenage killers would be found guilty and sentenced to length terms in prison however Carl Dane on the day he was suppose to leave for prison would take his own life. Dakota Wall would escape murder charges however she was sentenced to twenty six years in prison for her involvement in the initial home invasion
Dakota Wall 2023 Information
Admission Date:
05/29/2014
Projected Parole Date:
05/11/2023
Last Paroled Date:
Projected Discharge Date:
05/11/2026
Parent Institution:
LOGAN CORRECTIONAL CENTER
Offender Status:
IN CUSTODY
Location:
LOGAN
Dakota Wall More News
Twisted Sisters is investigating the death of high school teenager Sidnee Stephens who was kidnapped from her home in Pinckneyville, Illinois, before being shot dead by a creek.
Her killers were four local thugs called Robbie Mueller, James Glazier, Chad Bennett, and Carl Dane, who had invaded her home and stuffed the teenager in a car trunk.
But one of the most disturbing aspects of this case is that the killers were aided by Sidnee’s half-sister Dakota Wall.
The four men were Wall’s friends, and she purposefully left the door open to their home, so her four friends could kidnap her younger sister.
On July 19, 2010, 15-year-old Sidnee Stephens was reported missing from her home. Six days later, fishermen spotted her remains floating in the Beaumont Creek. An inspection of the corpse revealed she had been choked and shot with a handgun.
The police subsequently learned that Robbie Mueller, James Glazier, Chad Bennett, and Carl Dane entered the house and attacked Sidnee, and they choked the teenager until she lost consciousness on two occasions.
They then took her to a remote area by the Beaumont Creek, where Dane shot her at least two times. Mueller and Glazier then pushed her remains into the water.
Dakota Wall kept her silence about her horrific role in her sister’s murder for 27 months before the police fully ascertained all the details.
Wall tried to defend herself by saying she had just left the door open for her friends to scare her sister and had never expected them to kill Sidnee. However, the police didn’t buy her story, and she was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, home invasion, and burglary.
The twisted sister eventually pleaded guilty to home invasion, and the other charges were dropped. In 2018, she was sentenced to 26 years in prison, but she should eligible to attend a parole hearing in 2023.
Dane was sentenced to 60 years in prison for murder, but he committed suicide inside his cell while waiting to be transferred to federal prison. Glazier was also sentenced to 60 years and remains in prison.
Meanwhile, Mueller was given 37 years for his role in the murder.
Hi! I’m Dakota, but everyone calls me Kota. I’m 27, I’ll be 28 in September. I work as a dog trainer for the Helping Paws Program. My favorite dog is a border collie. I love video games and anime. I love horror movies. My favorite bands are Nirvana and Avenged Sevenfold.
I think that’s all for now. If you want to know more, write me.
Dakota Wall is currently incarcerated at the Logan Correctional Center
Dakota Wall Release Date
Dakota Wall is eligible for release in 2026
Dakota Wall Interrogation Video
Chad Bennett 2023
Admission Date:
07/23/2018
Projected Parole Date:
07/31/2026
Last Paroled Date:
Projected Discharge Date:
08/01/2029
Robbie Mueller 2023
Admission Date:
10/26/2012
Parole Date:
10/19/2022
Projected Discharge Date:
10/19/2025
James Glazier Photos
James Glazier is currently going through the resentencing process and is not in the Illinois Department Of Corrections database. The photo above was taken at the time of conviction. He was sentenced to 60 years
Carl Dane Suicide
Illinois State Police are investigating the death of a 19-year-old prisoner who pleaded guilty to murdering a Pinckneyville teen.
Carl Dane, 19, of Pinckneyville was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. in his cell at the Perry County Jail in Pinckneyville Friday.
Carl Dane’s Attorney Brian Trentman says, he was told they believe Dane killed himself.
An autopsy was conducted Friday afternoon. The Perry County Coroner says he is awaiting those results.
A corrections officer found Dane’s body in his cell at the Perry County Jail early Friday Morning. Investigators say they don’t suspect foul play.
Today Dane was set to be taken to Menard Correctional Center to begin serving a 60-year-sentence for the murder of 15-year Sidnee Stephens.
Dane pleaded guilty in June 2011 to a charge of 1st degree murder in the 2010 death of Stephens. The Perry County State’s Attorney says as part to plea deal, Trentman asked Dane stay in the county jail until August 5th.
Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman tells Heartland News he’s never had this type of incident in the jail during his more than ten years in office.
Meanwhile Trentman says it’s an extremely sad day. He adds in the year of representing Dane, there was no indication he would cause harm to himself.
The incident is current under investigation by Perry County Coroner’s Office and the Illinois State Police.
Doctor Ronald Mikos was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the murder of a witness who was set to testify against him in a Medicare fraud case. According to court documents Ronald Mikos had billed Medicare for thousands of surgeries that he did not perform. When Mikos was notified that he was going to be brought to court he attempted to convince a number of elderly patients to lie for him. When one of the patients would not cooperate and threaten to go to the police Mikos had her killed. Ronald Mikos was convicted and sentenced to death and remains on Federal Death Row 2021.
Medicare does not cover the costs of routine medical procedures. Ronald Mikos, a podiatrist, performed nothing but routine procedures, such as trimming the toenails of people unable to clip their own. Yet he billed Medicare for thousands of surgeries. When officials became suspicious, Mikos arranged for some of his elderly patients (many of whom were not mentally competent) to submit affidavits stating that surgeries had indeed occurred (though at trial Mikos’s secretary of seven years testified that he had never performed a single surgery during her time in his employ, and medical specialists who examined these people found no signs of surgery). Other patients were less obliging, so Mikos wrote affidavits for them and had their signatures forged. A grand jury issued subpoenas to seven of Mikos’s patients. He visited them, trying to dissuade each from testifying. None appeared to testify-whether because of Mikos’s persuasiveness or because of their own mental and physical limitations, the record does not show. But we know why one of the seven did not show up. Joyce Brannon, who by then was cooperating with the investigators, had been shot six times at close range. After concluding that Mikos had slain her, the jury sentenced him to death.
Petitioner was a podiatrist who performed only routine procedures, such as trimming the toenails of people unable to clip their own, that were not covered by Medicare. Yet petitioner billed Medicare for thousands of surgeries. After the authorities became suspicious, petitioner arranged for some of his elderly patients, many of whom were not mentally competent, to submit affidavits stating that he had performed surgery on them. When some patients declined to do so, petitioner prepared affidavits for them and had their signatures forged. He visited seven patients who had received grand jury subpoenas in order to dissuade them from testifying. None of those patients appeared to testify, whether because of petitioner’s actions or because of their own mental or physical limitations. Pet. App. 1a- 2a.
One of petitioner’s patients, Joyce Brannon, cooper ated with the authorities and was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. Brannon was partially disabled, walking with canes due to arthritis and obesity. Gov’t C.A. Br. 11-12.
On January 27, 2002, four days before she was to tes tify, Brannon was shot to death in her basement apart ment in the church where she worked as a secretary. She was shot six times; the bullets were .22-caliber, brass-coated rounds fired from long-rifle, rim-fire car tridges. The lack of shell casings led the police to be lieve that the killer had used a revolver, which does not eject spent cartridges after firing. Brannon’s valuables were undisturbed, and there was no sign of robbery. Pet. App. 2a; Gov’t C.A. Br. 11-12, 15-16.
Three weeks before Brannon’s murder, the police in Skokie, Illinois, had been called to the house of one of petitioner’s four girlfriends, where they discovered that petitioner kept multiple firearms and ammunition. Be cause petitioner could not produce a current firearm owner’s identification card, the police confiscated the guns and ammunition and gave petitioner a detailed in ventory. After renewing his firearm owner’s card, peti tioner retrieved the guns and ammunition. Pet. App. 3a; Gov’t C.A. Br. 9-10 & n.3.
Following the murder, the police searched the stor age unit to which petitioner had transferred the guns and found every firearm and round of ammunition on the inventory-except for one .22-caliber Herbert Schmidt revolver. They also found an empty leather holster. De spite an extensive search of homes, offices, forest pre serves, and the waters of Lake Michigan, that revolver was never found. A search of petitioner’s car turned up a box of Remington .22-caliber, brass-coated, long-rifle, rim-fire rounds consistent with the bullets that had been used in the murder. Twenty shells were missing from the box. The car also contained one spent .22-caliber casing, consistent with the 80 unfired rounds, on which the firing pin had left a hemispherical mark. A govern ment expert test-fired another Herbert Schmidt .22-cali ber long-rifle revolver, which left a similar hemispheri cal mark on spent casings. Pet. App. 3a; Gov’t C.A. Br. 11, 16-17.
A member of the staff of the church where Brannon lived saw petitioner or someone who looked like him in the church a week before the murder. The witness de scribed the person’s hair as gray. Although petitioner does not have gray hair, the police found a bottle of gray hair coloring in his car. The car also contained hand written details of the church’s schedule. The details re vealed when a person could enter Brannon’s apartment without being seen. Data on petitioner’s smart phone showed that he placed and received calls that went through cell towers near the church at approximately the time that petitioner was identified as being in the church the week before the murder, and again one or two days before the murder.
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown were two serial killers who would go on a crime spree through six states that included the murder of eight people. Eventually Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would be sentenced to death in three separate States. Alton Coleman would be executed in Ohio and Debra Brown will spend the rest of her life in prison. In this article on My Crime Library we will take a closer look at Alton Coleman and Debra Brown.
Alton Coleman And Debra Brown Early Years
Alton Coleman was born in Illinois on November 6, 1955. Alton Coleman mother worked multiple jobs and Coleman was raised by his grandmother. During his middle school years he would drop out and would be arrested six times for sex related crimes between 1973 and 1983. Ultimately two of the cases would be dropped. Two of the cases he was acquitted. Alton was scheduled to go on trial in Illinois for the sexual assault of a fourteen year old girl when the multi state crime spree began
Debra Brown was born in Illinois on November 11, 1962. She has a borderline intellect and suffered a severe head injury as a child. At the time she met Alton Coleman in 1983 she was engaged to another man however she would leave him to go with Alton. Debra Brown before the crime spree had no criminal record.
Alton Coleman And Debra Brown Murders
The multi state crime spree began in Wisconsin. Alton Coleman had befriended a single mother and soon after her nine year old daughter, Vernita Wheat, went missing on May 29, 1984. A few weeks later the little girls body would be found she had been sexually assaulted, tortured and strangled with a ligature.
Soon after in Gary Indiana Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would abduct two little girls, nine year old Annie and her seven year old niece Tamika Turks, who would be sexually assaulted. Annie would survive the brutal assault however seven year old Tamika would not.
Donna Williams was reported missing the same time as the little girls were abducted. Her body would be found in a river in Detroit Michigan a month later. The woman had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a ligature.
In Michigan Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would break into the home of an elderly couple who were badly beaten and robbed.
In early July 1984 a woman in Ohio family became concerned as she stopped communicating with them. When the family went to her home they would find her body along with her nine year old son hidden in a crawlspace of the home. Both had been strangled with ligatures.
Later that same day Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would force their way into the home of a couple who were brutally beaten and robbed. Oddly Alton and Debra would stay at a local Revered home and attended church services.
The next week Alton and Debra would abduct a fifteen year old girl, Tonnie Storey, whose body would be found eight days later. Police would discover an item stolen earlier in the crime spree under the teenagers body which would lead the FBI to place Alton Coleman on their Top Ten Most Wanted List
A day after the abduction of Tonnie Storey Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would break into another home where the woman was sexually assaulted and beaten to death. The woman’s husband would survive a brutal beating and would contact police. The man would tell police that Alton and Debra came over regarding a camper for sale and soon after the attack began
The vehicle stolen from the couple was found in Kentucky days later where Alton Coleman and Debra Brown kidnapped a college professor and stole his car plus drove back to Ohio with him locked in the trunk. The college professor was later rescued.
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would head back to Illinois. Along the way way they would steal yet another vehicle and kill its owner.
Soon after arriving in Illinois Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would be arrested.
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown Trials
Due to the fact that the crimes committed by Alton Coleman and Debra Brown covered such a large area it took awhile to plan out the course of action in terms of prosecution. Michigan was ruled out pretty quickly as it did not have the death penalty.
In Ohio Alton Coleman and Debra Brown were convicted of the sexual assaults and murders of Tonnie Storey and Marlene Walters however they were not convicted of the murders of Virginia and Rachelle Temple. The two however were sentenced to death for the murders of Tonnie and Marlene. The pair would later be sentenced to twenty years in Federal Prison for transporting the college professors across state lines.
Alton Coleman Execution
Alton Coleman would be executed in Ohio on April 26, 2002 by lethal injection. For his last meal Alton had filet mignon, fried chicken breasts, salad, sweet potatoes, french fries, collard greens, onion rings, cornbread, broccoli, biscuits and gravy plus a cherry Coke.
Debra Brown Prison
Debra Brown borderline mental intellect has kept her from being executed and Ohio and Indiana no longer include her on their list of death row inmates. As of 2020 Debra Brown is in prison in Ohio
n the words of prosecutors here, Alton Coleman is a “poster child” for capital punishment, a cold-blooded killer whose murder spree in the summer of 1984 terrorized the Midwest, leaving eight people slain and Coleman with death sentences in three states.
But to his defenders, Coleman is exactly the kind of killer who should be spared: a man whose mother left him in a garbage can as an infant and whose grandmother subjected him to physical and sexual abuse–a history that coupled with brain damage prompted one doctor to describe Coleman’s mind as a “damaged container with damaged contents.”
Sitting in one of the low-slung buildings that house Death Row here, his hands and legs shackled with steel chains, Coleman looks back on both sides of his life and views it as something of a waste. His gaze is firm, his words are measured.
“I think I was doomed,” Coleman, now 46, said in an interview at Mansfield Correctional Institution. “Perhaps I should have died at birth.”
Instead, Coleman is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Friday morning. On Wednesday, Gov. Bob Taft denied clemency, saying no court has questioned Coleman’s responsibility for the slaying of the suburban Cincinnati woman–the case leading to Friday’s execution.
But as the execution nears, nagging questions about Coleman’s cases are unresolved, especially in Ohio, suggesting that even death penalty cases where guilt and innocence are clear–and where the crimes are truly horrible–can leave troubling legacies.
Last year, a panel of judges from the federal appeals court in Cincinnati reversed the death sentence in one of Coleman’s cases in Ohio–the murder of teenager Tonnie Storey–because his defense attorneys did no investigation of his upbringing.
That investigation, the appeals court said, would have uncovered a background so horrific that there was a strong likelihood that at least one juror would have been swayed to spare Coleman from a death sentence.
But in his other case–the murder of 44-year-old Marlene Walters, for which he is being executed, and the attempted murder of her husband, Harry–a different panel of judges from the same federal appeals court let the sentence stand, though the attorneys in that case also did no investigation of Coleman’s childhood.
The federal appeals court as a whole has refused to resolve the inconsistency, and the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to deal with it as well.
“Two different panels coming to contrary conclusions–that has to be resolved one way or the other,” said Dale Baich, a federal public defender in Arizona who has represented Coleman for more than a decade. “It comes down to basic fairness.”
`I wasn’t used to normal’
By virtually all accounts, Coleman’s upbringing was terrible. He never knew his father, and his mother–a drug user and prostitute who was institutionalized several times–abandoned Coleman in a trash can as an infant, court records show.
He was rescued by his grandmother, but under her care he was often neglected and subjected to physical and sexual abuse while living in Waukegan’s depressed and crime-ridden Market Street section of town, court records show. She practiced voodoo and often enlisted Coleman’s help, having him collect dirt from cemeteries and kill small animals for her potions, records show.
“I wasn’t used to normal,” Coleman said. “I didn’t know what normal was.”
Coleman also suffered brain damage–believed to be linked to his mother’s drug and alcohol abuse during pregnancy and his childhood head injuries–making it difficult for him to make rational decisions, a condition worsened by his own drug abuse. Thomas Thompson, a New Mexico neuropsychologist hired by Coleman’s attorneys, described Coleman’s brain as a “damaged container with damaged contents.”
Prosecutors dispute Coleman’s claim of brain damage.
In a plea for mercy, Coleman also pointed to prison records that show he has been a model inmate, with no violations in 17 years. Two guards offered sworn affidavits of Coleman’s good behavior behind bars–a prison record that the prosecutors ridiculed as meaningless.
Coleman’s explanation for his murder spree is simple–drugs.
“All I know, I had to get narcotics to keep going,” Coleman said. “My main goal was to use drugs. I had no other destination whatsoever.”
Coleman’s case also has been dogged by charges that Cincinnati prosecutors improperly rejected nine of 12 blacks from the jury pool. The issue has not been addressed by appeals courts because Coleman’s original appeals lawyers did not raise it, and so it was forfeited for future appeals.
Those issues are set against one of the nation’s worst crime sprees, which Coleman undertook with a girlfriend, Debra Brown. She faces a death sentence in Indiana, and long prison terms in Ohio and Illinois.
“If there is ever a case that cries out for justice, it is this case,” said Ohio’s Hamilton County prosecuting attorney, Mike Allen. “This case cries out for Alton Coleman to pay the ultimate penalty for crimes he committed.”
Said Harry Walters, who was permanently disabled by Coleman’s attack: “It’s time to do it. I sincerely mean it. Execution is the solution.”
Strangled girl was first
The spree began in May 1984 in Kenosha, where Coleman, using the name Robert Knight, befriended Juanita Wheat and earned her trust. Coleman then kidnapped and murdered her 9-year-old daughter, Vernita. Vernita’s body, strangled and bound with wire, was found in an abandoned building in Waukegan.
At the time, he had already served time for rape and deviate sexual assault, had been arrested on other occasions for sex charges, and was facing a current rape charge, records show.
“I want to see something happen to him. I want to see it happen and feel it all,” said Juanita Wheat, now 55 and a nurse’s assistant in Kenosha who plans to travel to Ohio to witness Coleman’s execution.
“Justice is for all,” she added, “and you get what you deserve.”
As police pursued Coleman, he and Brown traveled the Midwest, stealing cars to get from Illinois to Indiana and through Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky, leaving dead bodies almost everywhere they stopped.
In Gary, he was convicted of killing Tamika Turks, 7, and in Detroit, Toledo and Indianapolis, he and Brown are believed to have murdered others, though Coleman was not prosecuted.
In Norwood, a working-class suburb of Cincinnati, Coleman and Brown stopped at the Walterses’ home to try to buy a camper that the Ohio couple were selling. Inside, they beat both, tied them up and left them for dead. Marlene Walters suffered some two dozen wounds to her head. Coleman and Brown were arrested a week later as they sat in the bleachers at an Evanston park.
“His alleged tough childhood does not excuse him from suffering the ultimate punishment,” said Allen, the Ohio prosecutor. “Alton Coleman is pure evil.”
Days before his execution, Coleman, bowed his head, said that he was remorseful and that he was preparing himself to die.
“I take responsibility for what I did,” he said. “I’ve messed up terribly in this life.”
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