Special Jury Trial-January 8,9 and 13, 2009

[believe09]

William Walker aka Alonzo Fernandez is finally facing a jury for some of the elements associated with the death of Tawni Lee. Judge Janna Vanderpool is presiding over a preceding that will determine if she can lengthen his sentence from the remainder of time he was to serve after he skipped the state.

The trial is taking place in Pinal County Superior Court. The jury was picked on 1/8/2009 at the conclusion of motions regarding what is relevant to this hearing: prior convictions, subsequent convictions, whether the jury would be seeing the photos of poor Tawni's broken body from both the hospital and the morgue, and whether or not her family members would be allowed to testify to the emotional harm inflicted.

On January 9, the witness testimony took place. Det. Mike Lancaster and Suzi Dodt the Medical Examiner were among people giving information. Testimony concluded with Deb O'Sullivan's statement regarding the day her child disappeared from her life.

Closing arguments, jury instruction and jury deliberation will take place on January 13, 2009 at 130PM. The jury needs to come back with a single decision; were there aggravating circumstances that warrant an extended sentence for William Walker.

The family and the world pray and wait....:blowkiss:

 

[cali_mommy]

Praying for some long overdue justice.

 

[Gypsy Road]

Same here. My prayers continue to go out to this family. I hope they receive justice for Tawni.

 

[rccook555]

Thank you for the update Believe09. I had been wondering if anything was going on. Out of habit, i still look to Tawni's forum every single time i log on to WS. Her and her family was on my mind alot over the Holidays. Praying that Tawni and her family will finally be able to have some justice.

 

[BeavisMom62]

Thanks for always staying on top of things for us, believe!

 

[believe09]

so we wait.....

 

[believe09]

The defendant is guilty of aggravating factors and the judge will be sentencing him shortly...

 

[Cubby]

TY believe..

Just awesome.....

Man...

Oh man!

Awesome!

Ruling... please....

when you have an update!

 

[believe09]

the judge's hands were tied at 3.75 years.

I want to take a moment to thank, most sincerely, the jurors, the attorneys, Suzi Dodt and Det Mike Lancaster for the work they put into this case. You spoke for all of us who were so invested in this outcome, but most importantly you spoke for Tawni Lee Mazzone, dead too soon at 17.

Peace to all of you!!!

 

[BeavisMom62]

I'm speechless.

 

[Babyslims]

I'm speechless.

me too

 

[thefragile7393]

Ugh...the law needs help.

On the other hand, at least he got the maximum that he could and a measure of justice has been served for this girl and her family.

 

[believe09]

Start writing your legislators folks-this doesn't seem like a big deal until it happens to you.

FWIW and as I see it-

WW was paper pushed from the get go-did they get any priors on the dude when they ran his prints in 1999? How is is possible for someone who has served time in the prison system in the Pacific NW to be able to create a new ID and destroy lives in AZ, and no one seems to care/notice?? He was on parole when he committed this offense. PAROLE-in another state. Why wasn't he sent back? Why was he given a plea deal that included waiving all future charges??? Manna from heaven for a guy like this who is a serial offender.

Tawni didn't have a chance, but she went down swinging and lived for one whole day when medical science indicated she should have died.

Let's all pray that during the next 3.75 years, young women that actually survived his attentions start to come forward and that there are no other iron clad plea deals in his past to contend with....

 

[rccook555]

It is heartbreaking to have to have something like this happen before people realize the Laws are flawed. And it is sickening what WW has been allowed to get away with. Tawni will have justice, whether it be here on earth or someplace higher.

Thank you again Belive for the updates.

 

[snowflakeinorlando]

I'm new here at this site. I just have one question. This man's only getting 3.75 years for committing this murder?!!

 

[believe09]

I'm new here at this site. I just have one question. This man's only getting 3.75 years for committing this murder?!!

Welcome!! In a nutshell, when the event occurred, Walker had a defender and a County Attorney (the equivalent of a DA) who made a deal that included a clause that Walker would never be prosecuted for any other charge associated with the incident if he would sign the deal which made him guilty of leaving the scene of an accident rather than the manslaughter/possession charges he was facing. What none of them knew at the time was that Walker was using an alias and was on probation in Washington State for felony level crimes at the time he tossed Tawni from the car. Walker was let out of jail after serving 4 months of his sentence and fled the state.

The key to the actual crime was ID'ing the victim. Once that happened last year, detectives could work backwards and discovered not only the alias (one of many the perp used) but also that Tawni was killed within hours of being taken from the home by the perp. SOOOOO, the judge's hands were tied by the previous plea deal-HOWEVER, in AZ she could take into consideration "aggravating factors" such as the aliases and the depravity of the offense, and extend his sentence to the maximum allowed by AZ law...an additional 1.45 years.

As hard as this is to believe on the surface, just the fact that the victim's advocate attorneys and the new County Attorney were able to convene a Special Jury Trial to discuss the aggravators was a MIRACLE-given the expense being put forth for an extra less than 2 years, there was big incentive to just ignore it. As a side note, the jury for the special trial were unaware of the time that the perp was facing-they assumed it would be a substantial sentence. I was told that they stayed to watch him be sentenced after returning the verdict and they were horrified.

 

[BeavisMom62]

It is horrifying believe! I'm still stunned by it all. And all of the hard work you and others have done on this case. Its sickening. I guess there is no new news, huh? So the is actually in jail as we speak, right?

 

[believe09]

It is horrifying believe! I'm still stunned by it all. And all of the hard work you and others have done on this case. Its sickening. I guess there is no new news, huh? So the is actually in jail as we speak, right?

He is in jail...wondering if there are other young women out there who have been terrorized by him?