Adept, Proficient, Skilled, Expert.
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Dadeville Missouri mayor charged with "Possession Of Child Pornography.
05/01/2010
{ Felony C RSMo: 573.037 }. The charges were filed on April 29th 2010 in Dade County Missouri on James Toler (63/64 years of age). Barry County Missouri Sheriff's office was documented on CASENET as the arresting agency. The defendant James Toler appears and charges are read to defendant. Defendant was informed of rights. Court grants defendant 10% cash bond. Case continued to May 18th 2010 at 1:00PM.
Waynesville Missouri April 16th 2010
A judge heard a third straight day of testimony and attorneys’ arguments on Friday over what evidence should be allowed in the trial of a man accused of killing his stepdaughter. David Spears’ trial is set for July for the rape and murder of Rowan Ford in November 2007.
Defense attorneys are trying to exclude from the trial a statement that Spears made to detectives before he was charged. Detectives say Spears admitted in an interview with them that he and his friend, Chris Collings, raped and killed the 9-year-old girl. Collings is scheduled for trial in January in Rolla.
On the witness stand on Friday, Shane West, a friend of Spears, painted a picture of David Spears the night before Rowan's body was found in cave several days after she disappeared from her home in Stella. Law enforcement officers and volunteers mounted an intense search for Rowan during those days. West described how Spears felt intimidated by the police.
"He needed to vent to somebody; he'd been rattled by his interviews with the authorities,” said West.
West said he tried to calm Spears.
"I offered up the idea of going somewhere, play a game of pool, just get away from the house for a while, some place where we could all hang out, and he didn't want to do that. He said he was afraid he was going to get beat up or hurt," said West.
Antoinette Cavanaugh, a forensic psychologist, also testified that Spears was under a tremendous amount of pressure from law enforcement officers.
"They were hostile toward him and it was clear that they were very insistent that he was not being honest and forthright with them,” said Cavanaugh. "They got mad at him, called him a derogatory name and again made the comment about a need is going to get stuck in his arm if they found out that he did it."
Cavanaugh conducted several evaluations of Spears and concluded he has a very high risk of being coerced or led into a situation where he lets other people fill in blanks of his story, especially from people he looks up to.
"I think his words were, to the effect of, 'they filled my mind with these horrible scenarios,'" she said.
She describes him as submissive.
"As Mr. Spears described his relationship with Mr. Bridges (a detective), it's almost like he idolizes him, so therefore he is going to be more likely to please him,” said Cavanaugh.
Cavanaugh went on to say Spears didn't understand about waiving his constitutional rights against self-incrimination to authorities when he didn't ask for a lawyer and continued to talk.
"This reinforces Mr. Spears' belief that you don't ask for an attorney if you are cooperating, and he wanted to be cooperative,” the psychologist said.
Defense attorneys argue that, when Spears made his confession, he was not in the right frame of mind, and felt pressured to admit something he didn't do, to please others. Furthermore, they argue, because Spears didn't request an attorney and continued to speak, Spears also couldn't be held accountable for waiving his rights. "It was my clinical opinion that he was not able to provide a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver," said Cavanaugh.
When it came time for prosecutors to take their turn with the defense witness, the hearing came to a screeching halt. They found out that notes taken by the expert witness were not given to prosecutors.
"Is everything that Mr. Spears told you in your report?” a prosecutor asked.
“I'm not sure. I wouldn't say that everything is. I try to take notes the best of my ability,” said Cavanaugh.
“Your honor, we have a problem,” the prosecutor said. "This is a very rare occurence where, after we have testimony in, then we go into the discovery issues. If it would have been the other way around, it would have been a lot easier."
That problem took Cavanaugh off the stand. The judge scheduled her to return for another pre-trial hearing on May 27, this time with her notes.
A judge moved both Collings' and Spears' cases out of Barry County to try to ensure fair trials because of extensive publicity about Rowan's disappearance and murder.
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Loveland, Colorado
May 2008
A 45 yr old male, James Whitler arrested on suspicion of killing a process server who had handed him divorce papers was also strangling his two children when deputies burst into his home.
Stephen Allen a Fort Collins, Co 57 year old process server delivered divorce papers and a restraining order to James Whitler.
Allen was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed with a kitchen knife, the sheriff's office said. He died from multiple blunt force trauma and sharp force injuries, according to the Larimer County coroner.