Interesting article in the Ocala paper. http://www.ocala.com/article/20131004/ARTICLES/131009829?p=1&tc=pg "The items in question are letters six of them that the prosecutor's office received over a month-and-a-half period in 2011. The letters are all about a brutal murder and seem to be written by someone who had first-hand knowledge of the crime or had at least spoken with someone who did."
Michael Bargo becomes youngest man on death row for killing teen
Bargo, 21, was convicted of the 2011 murder of 15-year-old Seath Jackson in Marion County.
The teen girl who was convicted of luring her ex-boyfriend to his death and sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder will get a new trial after an appellate court deemed her taped confession inadmissible because of the way police read her her Miranda rights...
Wright apparently confessed to police twice. The first time, she wasnt read her Miranda rights as required by law. However, she was read those rights before her second taped confession.
Even though the trial judge did not allow that first taped confession to be used in the trial, the second one was allowed in. On Friday, three appellate judges ruled that second confession -- before which deputies did read Wright the Miranda warning and asked her to repeat her previous confession -- should never have been used in court. They granted Wright, now 18, a new trial.
On May 30 the court also ruled that Wright's brother and co-defendant, Kyle Hooper, should receive a new sentence because his current life term is at odds with a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting a life sentence without the possibility for parole for a defendant who was a juvenile at the time the crime was committed.
Hooper was 16 at the time of the murder.
Hooper and Wright's stepfather, James Havens III, was charged as an accessory after the fact in Seath's death; his case is still pending.
Ely, now 22, is serving a life prison sentence for her role in the 2011 murder of Belleview resident Seath Jackson, 15.
Her co-defendant Justin Soto, now 24, is also serving a life term. Ringleader Michael Bargo, now 23, is on death row. The youngest co-defendants, Amber Wright, now 19, and her brother Kyle Hooper, now 20, were juveniles at the time of the murder but were tried as adults and each sentenced to life in prison. Recently, the 5th District Court of Appeal awarded Wright a new trial and Hooper a new sentencing. The state has appealed those decisions.
The case against James Havens, 41, an alleged accessory to the murder, is still pending.
Amber Wright’s new trial is set to begin Jan. 11, when Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti will oversee jury selection in the 19-year-old’s second first-degree murder trial...
Her brother, Hooper, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2012. He is currently awaiting resentencing after an appellate court found that minors cannot be sentenced this way. Had Wright not been granted a new trial, she would have been eligible for a resentencing, as well.
http://www.gainesville.com/article/...mber-Wright-guilty-in-murder-of-Seath-JacksonAmber Wright is guilty of first-degree murder for her part in the 2011 slaying of 15-year-old Seath Jackson, a jury decided on Thursday afternoon.
Wright took the news stoically, staring straight ahead, just as she had for much of the week. Her mother, who had been in the gallery behind the defense table since Monday, cried outside the courtroom after hearing the verdict.
The jury deliberated for approximately two hours before reaching their verdict around 1:30 p.m. After dismissing the jurors, Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti set Wright’s sentencing for 10 a.m. Feb. 23.