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Miguel Padilla Pennsylvania Death Row

Miguel Padilla was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for a shooting that left three people dead. According to court documents Miguel Padilla was upset that he was turned away from an after hours club and would return later with a gun shooting to death the owner, a bouncer and a patron. Miguel Padilla would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Miguel Padilla 2022 Information

Parole Number: 576HI
Age: 42
Date of Birth: 11/20/1979
Race/Ethnicity: HISPANIC
Height: 5′ 08″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: UNKNOWN
Complexion: MEDIUM
Current Location: PHOENIX

Miguel Padilla More News

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will not hear the appeal of death row inmate Miguel A. Padilla in his pursuit of funds for a Spanish-speaking investigator to travel to Mexico to gather more evidence in his case.

Blair County Senior Judge Hiram A. Carpenter recently denied a request by Padilla and his defense attorneys for $10,000 so that an investigator could travel to Padilla’s hometown of Colima, Mexico.

Padilla came to the United States as a child with his mother and siblings, who, as testimony in his trial showed, were fleeing a violent home life in Mexico.

The family traveled to California, then to Chambersburg. They ended up living in nearby Gallitzin.

Padilla, however, was living in Altoona on Aug. 28, 2005, when he and friends were denied entry to the UVA Club, an after-hours club on Union Avenue.

He obtained a handgun and murdered the club’s owner, Al Mignogna, doorman Fred Rickabaugh and patron Stephen Heiss.

Padilla was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006, and since then has been appealing his case.

After his initial appeals were rejected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and a further hearing was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, the defense filed an appeal with the U.S. District Court in Johnstown.

That appeal, however, has been administratively closed by the Chief Judge of the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mark R. Hornak, pending disposition of further post-conviction appeals filed in Blair County.

The federal judge overseeing the case has ordered the defense and prosecution to file status reports on the Blair County case every six months.

On Tuesday, Assistant Public Defender for the Capital Habeas Unit of the Western District of Pennsylvania, Marshall L. Dayan, filed a status report in which it was noted that Judge Carpenter had denied a request for a Spanish-speaking mitigation specialist to travel to Mexico in an effort to gather information about Padilla’s violent childhood and an alleged sexual assault by an uncle.

Judge Carpenter denied the funding request by the defense because the childhood abuse and violence Padilla experienced was aired during the penalty phase of his Blair County trial.

His mother and brothers provided testimony to the jury about Padilla’s early years, but the jury, despite finding three mitigating circumstances, still sentenced him to death.

Attorney Laurence S. Shtasel of Philadelphia filed a petition for an investigator in an effort to bolster the defense argument that Padilla was under extreme stress at the time of the shooting stemming from the sexual abuse he experienced and the domestic violence he witnessed.

Carpenter concluded that the jury heard from family members who lived with Padilla and knew him best and that the prosecution did not challenge defense claims of a traumatic childhood.

The defense sought to appeal Carpenter’s ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Pennsylvania’s highest court allowed the defense to file an answer to objections by the prosecution, but last week denied the petition for appeal, according to the status report filed Tuesday.

Padilla, 40, presently is an inmate in the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix

https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2021/06/high-court-wont-hear-padilla-appeal/

Ricardo Natividad Pennsylvania Death Row

Ricardo Natividad was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the kidnapping, robbery and murder of a man. According to court documents Ricardo Natividad and an accomplice would carjack the victim who was later robbed and murdered. Ricardo Natividad would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ricardo Natividad 2022 Information

Parole Number: 9323V
Age: 52
Date of Birth: 02/24/1969
Race/Ethnicity: BLACK
Height: 5′ 10″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PHOENIX

Ricardo Natividad More News

At 2:00 a.m. on November 9, 1996, Michael Havens was preparing to unlock his car, a dark blue Lincoln, when two men, one of whom Mr. Havens later identified as Appellant, approached him. Appellant faced Mr. Havens while pointing a stainless steel revolver at him, as his cohort approached him from behind. Mr. Havens surrendered his wallet and keys to Appellant, who then ordered Mr. Havens into the car and threatened to kill him when Mr. Havens initially hesitated. Mr. Havens sat in the backseat, and Appellant sat in the front seat, facing and pointing his gun at Mr. Havens while Appellant’s cohort drove. Appellant repeatedly demanded cash from Mr. Havens, and when he found the cash Mr. Havens had on hand unsatisfactory, he threatened to shoot Mr. Havens unless he withdrew more cash from an automatic teller machine. Mr. Havens, however, convinced Appellant that he had no available cash in his bank account, so Appellant and his cohort abandoned him on the side of a road and drove off.

At 7:00 p.m. that same evening, Appellant picked up his friend, Byron Price, in a blue Lincoln, which Mr. Price had never seen Appellant drive before. Appellant pulled the car into a nearby gas station and instructed Mr. Price to wait in the passenger seat. Mr. Price testified to hearing a gunshot, then seeing Appellant run back to the car with a chrome revolver in his hand. Mr. Price observed a man, later identified as Robert Campbell, lying on the ground next to a gas pump, at which point Appellant sped away from the gas station. When Mr. Price asked Appellant why he shot the man, Appellant replied, “He drew on me.” Commonwealth v. Natividad, 565 Pa. 348, 773 A.2d 167, 172 (2001) (Natividad I) (Opinion Announcing Judgment of Court), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 1099, 122 S.Ct. 2300, 152 L.Ed.2d 1056 (2002). The Johnsons, who lived across the street from the gas station, further testified that they saw the victim raise his hands in the air and fall backward right when they heard gunshots. The Johnsons indicated that they saw the shooter run into the driver’s side of a dark Lincoln while wearing a lumberjack-style jacket, although they were unable to identify Appellant specifically as the shooter.

On November 11, 1996, police recovered the charred remains of a dark blue Lincoln. They found a lumberjack-style jacket in the car, and Mr. Havens identified the car as his. He also identified the jacket as his, claiming that he had left it in his car at the time of the robbery.

Several of Appellant’s acquaintances indicated that he took credit for the gas-station murder the day after the incident. In December 1996, Keith Smith gave a .357 revolver to his attorney, who immediately surrendered it to homicide detectives. Carl Harris testified that he saw Appellant approach Mr. Smith several weeks after the murder and take Mr. Smith to a private area. When Appellant left, Mr. Harris noticed Mr. Smith carrying a chrome .357-Magnum gun. Police arrested Appellant in March 1997, and Mr. Havens identified him from a photographic array. Mr. Havens also identified the .357 gun as similar to the one used to rob him of his vehicle. Tests revealed that the fatal wound to Mr. Campbell at the gas station was consistent with injuries caused by a .357 Magnum.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1033434.html

Hubert Michael Pennsylvania Death Row

Hubert Michael was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the murder of a man. According to court documents Hubert Michael would pick up the victim where he then drove to a remote location and fatally shot the fifteen year old girl three times. Hubert Michael would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Hubert Michael 2022 Information

Parole Number: 7998O
Age: 65
Date of Birth: 08/06/1956
Race/Ethnicity: WHITE
Height: 5′ 09″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PHOENIX

Hubert Michael More News

On July 12, 1993, Michael pulled up alongside 16-year-old Trista Eng, who was walking to her summer job at a Hardee’s restaurant, and offered to drive her to work. She got into the car, and Michael drove to the State Game Lands in York County, Pennsylvania. He forced Eng out of the vehicle, shot her three times with a .44 magnum handgun, and concealed her body.

In late August 1993, Michael was charged with first-degree murder. In September 1993, he was transferred to the medical housing area of the Lancaster County Prison for “closer observation” because he fell down the stairs in a possible suicide attempt (though Michael has denied that he was trying to kill himself). In November 1993, Michael assumed the identity of an inmate who was about to be released, and he escaped from prison. In the spring of 1994, he was apprehended in New Orleans and returned to Pennsylvania.

In October 1994, jury selection on the murder charge began in the Berks County, Pennsylvania, Court of Common Pleas. Michael pled guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping. He tried to withdraw that plea six days later, but the Court denied his plea-withdrawal request.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-3rd-circuit/1052604.html

Landon May Pennsylvania Death Row

Landon May was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for a double murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Landon May and three other broke into a home believing the owners were on vacation however they were wrong. Landon May and the three accomplices would murder the two home owners before fleeing. Landon May would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Landon May 2022 Information

Parole Number: 850DV
Age: 39
Date of Birth: 07/04/1982
Race/Ethnicity: WHITE
Height: 5′ 08″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PHOENIX

Landon May More News

Judge Lawrence F. Stengel responded in detail to each of May’s complaints, concluding in a 52-page opinion that every step of May’s case — from his initial discussions with police to the final imposition of the death penalty — was handled legally and fairly.

May, 21, of Narvon, was convicted of killing Lucy and Terry Smith in their Ephrata townhouse in September 2001. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting Mrs. Smith before she died, plus a number of other crimes.

When May was sentenced to death, he made history by joining his father, Freeman May, 55, on death row — the first father and son to be sentenced to death for separate murders in Pennsylvania.

In his post-conviction appeal, May’s new defense attorney, Christopher Lyden, raised numerous issues, including that Stengel was wrong to exclude the testimony of a defense-hired psychiatrist, Dr. Neil Blumberg.

The psychiatrist concluded Landon May was genetically predisposed to commit criminal acts. He came to the conclusion after reviewing Freeman May’s convictions for murder and sexual assault, and the case of Sidney May — Freeman’s father and Landon’s grandfather — who was convicted of sexually assaulting his daughters.

But Stengel noted that during the trial, he and attorneys for both sides agreed that Blumberg’s testimony was irrelevant because May had never met his grandfather, and he was 6 months old when his father, Freeman, was imprisoned.

“Dr. Blumberg’s attempt to relate Landon May’s actions to his family history was speculative at best and would have been misleading and distracting to the jury,” Stengel wrote.

Stengel also rejected Lyden’s points that the pictures of the murder scene were too graphic to be shown to the jury and that the prosecution gave credibility to other convicted criminals who testified against May.

“In this case, the evidence against May was overwhelming. May admitted to actively participating in the double murder in a signed statement to police. Specifically, he admitted to cutting the throats of Lucy and Terry Smith. Additionally, May’s semen was found in Lucy Smith’s mouth,” Stengel wrote.

“Any “error’ in reference to the testimony or credibility of (Steven) Estes or Navarro Perez was harmless,” the judge wrote.

As for the pictures, Stengel added: “Without these photographs, it would have been impossible for the jury to grasp fully the severity of the wounds inflicted upon these two people.”

Lyden’s attorney argued that May’s confession to police should never have been entered into evidence.

Stengel noted that detectives repeatedly explained to May, “in a complete, clear and legally sufficient manner,” his legal rights.

In fact, when police transcribed the statement into writing and May read it, Stengel wrote, “May noted that he left something out and several sentences were added in handwriting. May also corrected one grammatical error and then signed the statement.”

May received the death penalty, in part, because of the sexual assault on Mrs. Smith, a 51-year-old elementary school principal. Terry Smith, 49, was president of a small manufacturing company.

Michael Bourgeois — Mrs. Smith’s son and May’s co-defendant — received a sentence of life in prison for participating in the murder, as did the so-called mastermind of the murder plot, Drenea Rodriguez.

Prosecutors said Rodriguez feared the Smiths would separate her from Bourgeois, her 18-year-old live-in lover.

May is being housed at Graterford, the state’s largest, maximum-security prison facility, which is 31 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania houses its death-row inmates in two facilities, Graterford and Greene, in southwestern Pennsylvania. May’s father is being held at Greene.

Landon May’s case has only just started the appellate process. Death penalty cases are reviewed for years, and the case of his father, who was convicted in 1989, is still in the appeal process.

In addition, Landon May still faces a charge in Lancaster County Court in connection with the shooting of a bicyclist near Fivepointville.

As police investigated the Smith murder, they learned that May and his cohorts allegedly were involved in a series of unrelated crimes, including the attempted robbery//shooting of the bicyclist.

One of May’s friends, Steven Estes, 20, admitted to participating in the bicyclist’s shooting, but said he was driving the truck and May shot the man. May told police it was Estes who shot the man.

Estes is expected to testify against May when the shooting incident case goes to trial this fall.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/judge-rejects-landon-mays-genetic-claim/article_575a5a4a-d771-5184-b818-c6dc497b1231.html

Lenwood Mason Pennsylvania Death Row

Lenwood Mason was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for a woman\s murder. According to court documents Lenwood Mason was sent to jail after beating up the victim, days after being released Mason would stab the woman to death. Lenwood Mason would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Lenwood Mason 2022 Information

Parole Number: 8113S
Age: 56
Date of Birth: 03/21/1965
Race/Ethnicity: BLACK
Height: 5′ 07″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PHOENIX

Lenwood Mason More News

Viewed under these standards, the record below establishes that on March 31, 1994, police were called to the 3800 block of Clearfield Street in Philadelphia. Officer Terry Brown observed Lenwood Mason walking on Clearfield Street, with Iona Jeffries close to his side. Noting a frightened look on Ms. Jeffries’ face, the officer approached her and asked if she was all right. The officer noticed bruises on Ms. Jeffries’ forehead, shoulder, neck and mouth. Although Appellant told the officer that Ms. Jeffries had been attacked by several other women, Ms. Jeffries informed the officer that Appellant had actually caused her injuries. Ms. Jeffries explained to the officer that she was reluctant to press charges against Appellant, as she feared he would kill her. Based on his own observations and Ms. Jeffries’ statements, however, the officer placed Appellant under arrest.

Approximately three months later, on the evening of June 18, 1994, Ms. Jeffries was at a bar, Cadillac Slim’s, with Lenwood Mason and several of her friends. Appellant had been released from prison two days earlier, on June 16, 1994. When Ms. Jeffries and her friends decided to leave Cadillac Slim’s and go to another club, Ms. Jeffries asked that a male acquaintance drive Appellant home, as she did not want him to accompany her to the club. Upset by Ms. Jeffries’ plans to exclude him, Appellant yelled, “You want it like that?” and ran out of the bar.

At approximately 9:30 the following morning, Ms. Jeffries’ mother, Mrs. Wisteria Jeffries, was at her home when she heard Appellant banging on the door. As Wisteria Jeffries approached the door, she saw Appellant’s hand protruding through the screen door. When Wisteria Jeffries asked Appellant what he wanted, he replied that he needed to speak with Ms. Jeffries. Wisteria Jeffries explained that Ms. Jeffries was asleep. After Appellant insisted that he speak with Ms. Jeffries, Wisteria Jeffries told Appellant to wait outside while she got Ms. Jeffries. She locked the door and went upstairs to Ms. Jeffries’ room, where Ms. Jeffries was sleeping on a bed with her then three year-old son, Anthony. Ms. Jeffries refused to come downstairs. Wisteria Jeffries returned to the front door and told Appellant that Ms. Jeffries was sleeping and that he would have to wait to speak with her. Appellant then forced his way into the house, pushed past Wisteria Jeffries, and ran up the stairs. Wisteria Jeffries immediately called the police.

Wisteria Jeffries retrieved a knife from the kitchen and began to head upstairs, when she saw Appellant descending the steps. Lenwood Mason stated to Wisteria Jeffries, “I got her now.” At that point, Wisteria Jeffries attempted to stab Lenwood Mason, but he pushed her aside and ran outside, where a neighbor, Greg Bell, saw Appellant placing what appeared to be a knife into the waistband of his pants. Wisteria Jeffries ran upstairs to Ms. Jeffries’ bedroom and found Ms. Jeffries bleeding profusely from multiple stab wounds. Police and rescue units arrived and Ms. Jeffries was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Later that same day, Appellant surrendered to the police and was charged with murder in the first degree, burglary and possessing an instrument of crime.

At Appellant’s trial, Dr. Haresh G. Mirchandani, the chief medical examiner for Philadelphia County, testified that the cause of Ms. Jeffries’ death had been multiple (eighteen) knife wounds to the body. According to Dr. Mirchandani, Ms. Jeffries had suffered knife wounds to her head, neck, chest, back, abdomen, arm, groin and leg. Ms. Jeffries’ son, who was four years old at the time of the trial, testified that he was on the bed with his mother when Appellant entered the bedroom and stabbed his mother with a knife.

Appellant testified on his own behalf, claiming that he had been drinking and doing drugs, including PCP for the first time, at the bar on the night before the murder. He testified that after he smoked the PCP, everything went blurry and that he did not recall leaving Cadillac Slim’s or going to Ms. Jeffries’ house on the morning of her murder. He further maintained that he did not regain his senses again until late in the evening on the day of the murder, when he was already in jail. Appellant’s mother and brother also testified in Appellant’s defense. Essentially, they claimed that when they saw Appellant on the day of the murder, he was under the influence of drugs and that his condition was unlike any “high” that they had ever seen him experience.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1225055.html