GUILTY FL - Steven & Michelle Andrews, both 28, murdered, Fort Myers, 27 Dec 2005

[RiverRat]

http://news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081004/NEWS01/810040477/1075

"Deputy Osvaldo Gamez was the third on scene and testified deputies did two sweeps of the house — the first was quick and the second more deliberate to look for any suspects who might still be in the house. Then paramedics came in to check the victims for a pulse.

“You could clearly see he had expired,” Gamez said of Steven Andrews. “He was in a pool of blood. It was obvious there was no pulse.”

Jurors saw gruesome photos of Michelle Andrews lying on the floor of her bedroom, with her legs spread apart and wearing a nightgown that covered the top half of her body.

Crime-scene technicians testified about several pieces of evidence analyzed and collected at the scene — a pink rag found outside the house, a pair of jeans found in the master bedroom, Michelle Andrews’ nightgown and analysis of blood, fingerprints and other materials at the scene.

Medical Examiner investigator Brett Harding said Steven Andrews was lying face down when he arrived, but that he turned over the body to see that Andrews’ right hand was across his chest and in the form of holding a gun. Harding demonstrated it from the stand.

Other than another question about that by Cooper’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ken Garber, there was no other mention of that fact.?

 

[Bobbisangel]

Is Tru TV going to have this trial on this week now that OJ's trial is over? I hope they do show it.

I wonder who is raising the little boy now...Michelle's family?

 

[RiverRat]

Is Tru TV going to have this trial on this week now that OJ's trial is over? I hope they do show it.

I wonder who is raising the little boy now...Michelle's family?

I believe so as far as little Luke goes, but OJ still has TruTV's attention right now. The NewsPress is running a live feed though:

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

 

[DaisyBelle]

Is Tru TV going to have this trial on this week now that OJ's trial is over? I hope they do show it.

I wonder who is raising the little boy now...Michelle's family?

Stevens Family has Luke.. From the interview transcripts, her family is a little "out there"

 

[RiverRat]

Stevens Family has Luke.. From the interview transcripts, her family is a little "out there"

I stand corrected! Thank you for helping clear that up.

 

[stillwaiting]

Stevens Family has Luke.. From the interview transcripts, her family is a little "out there"

I thought Michelle's sister has little Luke. I also thought Steven's family seemed out there in the interview tapes, not Michelle's. Steven's mom was very very strange.

 

[DaisyBelle]

Stevens dad was asked questions about How Luke was doing on the stand, and if he still had the guitar Steven had given him for Christmas (so sad) it was implied he was with the Andrews's so I can't be 100%. To be fair they all sounded a little out there in the tapes (understandable given the situation)

I really don't think Fred did it, just a gut feeling.

 

[rccook555]

I really don't think Fred did it, just a gut feeling.

:waitasec:

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

:waitasec:

I second your :waitasec:.

 

[RiverRat]

I'll third it....Motion Passed.

Nothing personal, but I do have faith in the SAO's team as they have never given me a reason to doubt their dedication and hard work.

 

[stillwaiting]

I'll third it....Motion Passed.

Nothing personal, but I do have faith in the SAO's team as they have never given me a reason to doubt their dedication and hard work.

I did have faith, but they dropped the ball on this case. (unless he is innocent and they dropped it on purpose) I kept waiting for proof of things. The biggest proof I wanted was MOTIVE. They took the computers, they took the phones, and they took cell phones. They leaked to the press that through these records they would show where Cooper was that night. They would show when he went on the computer, and if he looked at the emails between Kellie and Steven. They never mentioned them in court. They NEVER proved motive. Motive is a biggie. I know, and we all know, Steven was having an affair with Kellie Lynn Balew. Did Fred know? They never proved that, in any shape, form, or fashion. They proved the affair, but they did not prove Cooper knew it. It is not a motive if the LCSO or the SAO knows it, the suspect has to know it.

The DNA is not even DNA the way we know it. They found no real DNA from Cooper. They did have a small Y STR segment that they could fit him into. The could fit a LOT of males in that. The numbers were astronomical with the real DNA. It read something like one in 20 Billion chance of it being anyone but Steven Andrews. When it came to Fred Cooper, it was one in ten chance for a white male, one in ten for a Hispanic, and down the line. That is not evidence. Even Dr. Julia who did the Jan. tests says it can not id him. The State has a very weak case. To compensate, they used that poor Mr. Andrews to tug at the heart strings of the jury. They also used the little boys clothes with his mother's blood on them. They were doing a show hoping to make the jury angry enough to make SOMEONE pay.

They should have stuck with showing evidence, not emotions. Let's see what this coming week brings.

 

[RiverRat]

Deliberations continue this morning.

http://news-press.com/article/20081015/NEWS01/810150390/1075&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

"After more than three hours of deliberating Tuesday, Fred Cooper's jury will return this morning to determine whether the Bonita Springs man is guilty of murder.

Attorneys gave closing arguments for more than two hours and the jury got the case around 3:30 p.m.

Around 7 p.m., the jurors asked to leave for the day and were sequestered in a local hotel overnight.

Cooper, 30, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed burglary in the killings of Steven and Michelle Andrews in their Gateway home in December 2005.

The state's first closing argument - by chief assistant state attorney Randy McGruther - focused on Cooper as the only logical killer.

McGruther said Cooper is the only person who was identified as having a motive to kill the couple and who had just learned his girlfriend, Kellie Ballew, was leaving him for Steven Andrews. Nothing was stolen from the house and there were no signs of forced entry.

"There was only one reason that this person committed these murders - it was a crime of passion," McGruther said."

 

[RiverRat]

Twenty-one hours is a long time for a dozen strangers to be stuck together.

Yet that is how long the eight women and four men deciding Fred Cooper’s fate have spent looking through documents and evidence trying to figure out if Cooper, 30, murdered Steven and Michelle Andrews in their Gateway home in December 2005.

Thursday at 7 p.m. signaled the second full day they have spent trying to decide. They will return at 9 a.m. today.

On Thursday, jurors asked to hear Cooper’s second taped statement to detectives for a third time. They also listened to his third taped statement for a second time since testimony began Oct. 3.

The amount of time the jury has deliberated in the case exceeds several local high-profile murder cases in the last few years. In six cases since 2004, four ended in mistrials and two ended with guilty verdicts.


http://news-press.com/article/20081017/NEWS01/81017001/1075&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

 

[RiverRat]

Twenty-one hours is a long time for a dozen strangers to be stuck together.

Yet that is how long the eight women and four men deciding Fred Cooper’s fate have spent looking through documents and evidence trying to figure out if Cooper, 30, murdered Steven and Michelle Andrews in their Gateway home in December 2005.

Thursday at 7 p.m. signaled the second full day they have spent trying to decide. They will return at 9 a.m. today.

On Thursday, jurors asked to hear Cooper’s second taped statement to detectives for a third time. They also listened to his third taped statement for a second time since testimony began Oct. 3.

The amount of time the jury has deliberated in the case exceeds several local high-profile murder cases in the last few years. In six cases since 2004, four ended in mistrials and two ended with guilty verdicts.


http://news-press.com/article/20081017/NEWS01/81017001/1075&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

2:39 p.m. update
The jury has now requested to listen to Fred Cooper's testimony in court.

They will be able to listen to what Cooper said to defense attorneys and prosecutors on Monday.

The jury just took a 15-minute break and one juror showed signs she had recently been crying.

 

[RiverRat]

2:39 p.m. update
The jury has now requested to listen to Fred Cooper's testimony in court.

They will be able to listen to what Cooper said to defense attorneys and prosecutors on Monday.

The jury just took a 15-minute break and one juror showed signs she had recently been crying.

"Fred Cooper’s eight-day murder trial crept into four days of sluggish deliberations and then it ended in a flash at 9:11 p.m. — with a mistrial.

After more than 30 hours into deliberations Friday night, eight women and four men said they couldn’t come to a unanimous verdict in determining the guilt of Fred Cooper — forcing Lee Circuit Judge Thomas Reese to declare a mistrial. He will be retried, prosecutors said.

Cooper, 30, was on trial starting Oct. 1, facing two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed burglary. Testimony and evidence lasted six days and jurors deliberated starting Tuesday afternoon for 32 1/2 hours before handing in a note saying they can’t come to a unanimous verdict. The trial covered three calendar weeks.

As Reese declared a mistrial, Cooper had no reaction. His sister, Angela Cox, wept as she sat beside family members with her head in her hands, sitting. Just five feet away, Steven Andrews’ mother, Barbara Andrews, fell to her seat and sat quietly as family members stood around her, seemingly in disbelief.

“We are extremely disappointed; the Andrewses and the Kokoras are extremely disappointed,” assistant state attorney Anthony Kunasek told a horde of reporters in the hall. “We are going to start preparing the case and getting ready for another trial.”

What’s next?

“We’re actually going to go home and get some sleep,” Kunasek said.

Jurors offered no comment as they were escorted out of the courthouse and onto a bus back to their cars. Some covered their faces to avoid cameras and others didn’t acknowledge reporters’ questions. They labored longer than any Lee County jury in recent memory.

No family members of Cooper or the Andrewses wanted to comment after the trial ended.

Assistant deputy public defender Beatriz Taquechel had no explanation for what hung up the jury.

“I have no idea,” she said. “It’s really hard on everyone.”

Cooper will remain in custody at the Lee County Jail until his second trial, whenever it happens."

 

[MeoW333]

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20081018/BREAKINGNEWS/81018006/1086

Mistrial declared in case of dead couple in S. Fla.

 

[RiverRat]

http://news-press.com/article/20081018/NEWS01/310180003/1075&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

Fred Cooper will be back in court Tuesday as prosecutors prepare to retry him on charges of murdering a Gateway couple in December 2005 after a jury came back deadlocked late Friday.

The judge didn’t ask each juror which verdict he or she favored before he dismissed the panel.

 

[MCDRAW]

The judge didn’t ask each juror which verdict he or she favored before he dismissed the panel. Isn't that odd?

 

[SeekingJana]

I believe he did it, and I believe that if they retry with a more educated jury pool, he will be convicted for 2 counts of murder.
There's no doubt in my mind but that he did it.

I really would like to have seen juror statements or polls.

 

[Searching101]

I believe he did it and feel terrible about the mistrial.