Hall Goes All In
A Travis County jury on July 2 sentenced Laura Ashley Hall, 26, to 10 years in prison for her role in the dismemberment of Jennifer Cave, a former UT student who was murdered by Colton Pitonyak in his West Campus apartment in 2005. Pitonyak was sentenced to 55 years for Cave’s death; Hall was originally sentenced to five years for her role but was granted a new sentencing trial on appeal. Hall rolled the dice by taking her case back to a jury, which ultimately sentenced her to the maximum allowed by law. Had Hall opted to have Judge Wilford Flowers, who presided over her original trial, decide her fate, he would have been barred from imposing more time than the five years her original jury handed down. – Jordan Smith
A Blip on Death Row
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on June 30 stayed the execution of Jonathan Marcus Green just hours before he was to be put to death for the 2000 rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl near Lake Conroe. Green was convicted of murdering Christina LeAnn Neal and burying her in his backyard. After he’d been questioned by police but before they could obtain a warrant to search his property, Green dug up Neal’s body and took it into his house, where he hid it behind a chair. The CCA stayed Green’s execution pending further inquiry into his mental health; Green is schizophrenic, his lawyer has argued, and is not sane enough to be executed, as the law requires… On July 1, however, the Texas death machine kicked back into action with the execution of Michael James Perry, who was convicted for the death of 50-year-old nurse Sandra Stotler. Perry’s attorneys sought a last-minute stay, arguing that they had new evidence that proved Perry could not be responsible for Stotler’s murder because he was in jail at the time she was killed and also that a co-defendant of Perry’s murdered Stotler. His appeals were denied. Prosecutors said they had plenty of evidence inculpating Perry, including that he had bragged about the killing before his arrest in 2001. He was the 14th inmate executed this year in Texas. – J.S.
Mental Health Money
Austin Travis County Integral Care, the county’s mental health services provider, announced last week that it’s set to receive $1.6 million in federal and state grant money to provide drug abuse treatment services. The funds, awarded through the Texas Department of State Health Services, are a portion of some $74 million in funding that will go to 89 service providers across the state. Integral Care’s portion will help treat people dealing simultaneously with mental health and substance abuse issues and provide “intensive residential and youth treatment services,” among other programs, according to a press release. The funds are definitely needed, officials say; according to a 2002 report compiled by the Community Action Network, drug abuse costs Travis County more than $812 million a year “for related health care, education, law enforcement, crime, homelessness, lost productivity, human suffering and loss of lives.” The grant funding – the vast majority of which comes from the federal government – will be distributed beginning in September. – J.S.
This article appears in July 9 • 2010.