Crime Time

Jury still out on punishment in Hurst shootout case

12:30 update: After deliberating for almost two hours on the punishment for James Tesi, convicted in connection with a Hurst shootout last year, the jury broke for lunch. Earlier Wednesday, defense counsel Ronald Harden presented six character witnesses in the penalty phase of the trial.

On Tuesday, the jury convicted Tesi of aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon, for the shootout with Colleyville warrant Office John Fossett last July. After testimony concluded, the judge read the charge to the jury. Punishment could range from probation to life in prison. - Steve Norder

Defense questions validity of warrants for Hurst man accused in shootout

1:30 Monday update: Colleyville Judge James Ames said the city warrants for James Michael Tesi's were valid when Officer John Fossett tried to stop Tesi. Fossett, who is a Colleyville warrant officer, saw Tesi while driving on Precinct Line Road on July 21. He decided to make a stop, but Tesi evaded Fossett and instead drove to his home in north Hurst. Fossett followed him there. They subsequently exchanged as many as 15 gunshots resulting in Tesi being shot in the leg and face. Fossett was not hurt.

Tesi is on trial in state District Court for aggravated assault on a public servant. The maximum penalty is life in prison.

This morning, Tesi's attorney, Ronald Hardin, questioned municipal court Judge Ames on whether or not an appeal to the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would suspend the validity of the city's arrest warrants.

Tesi, skipping the state court, had attempted to get the federal District Court to take up his dispute with the city. Instead, the federal court sent it back to the city.

Ames said that making an appeal to an appellate court is not the same as having a judgment on that appeal.

"Until notice of action by the appellate court, I will work under the [federal] judge's remanded ruling," Ames said.

Tesi first appeared in Ames' courtroom on Feb. 3 to make pleas on two traffic citations. In December, he had been stopped by Colleyville police for speeding. He also was cited for not having a driver's license.

When Tesi refused to enter a plea, Ames entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. When Ames asked Test to sign the pleading, he also wrote "under duress."

Ames had set Feb. 25 for an pre-trial hearing. However, Tesi failed to appear. Ames then issued the warrants. - Steve Norder

 

 

 

 

In testimony this morning in the trial of "sovereign citizen" James Tesi, more details came out about how a speeding ticket issued to him in Colleyville may have led to July's shootout. Tesi was supposed to show up for a pre-trial hearing last February on the speeding ticket. Instead, Tesi went to Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 for a judgment against the city, according to documents presented in court this morning. Because Tesi did not show up in municipal court for his scheduled hearing, Municipal Judge James Ames issued warrants for Tesi's arrest. Those warrants eventually led to a shootout between Tesi and Colleyville warrant officer John Fossett on July 21, when Fossett tried to arrest Tesi.

Tesi's attorney, Ronald Hardin, introduced a document from JP court 3 stating a finding against Colleyville and a wrecker service for towing and booting Tesi's car after the traffic stop.
However, Judge Ames said from the stand this morning that he was unaware of that judgement at the time he issued the warrants. - Steve Norder

Hurst man warned police that it was unlawful to stop him for any traffic offense

James Michael Tesi warned any police officer who stopped him for any traffic offense that the officer's actions would be "unconstitutional and unlawful." Such a stop could result in Tesi taking the officer to an "appropriate" court. That document was found in Tesi's truck following his shootout with Colleyville warrant officer John Fossett on July 21. It was read to the jury by prosecutor Jim Hudson on the fourth day of Tesi's trial. He is charged with aggravated assault on a public servant.

The five-page, legal-sounding document says Tesi, as a free and sovereign citizen does not need anyone's permission to drive on the streets. He does not need a driver's license, license plates or insurance. If an officer requests those its of him, Tesi's affidavit states that officer would be "in ignorance of the law."

Tesi's attorney, Ronald Hudson, countered that the document merely stated Tesi's beliefs. "Has this country suspended our rights to believe what we want?" he asked. "We are free to state our opinion whether someone likes it or not."

Hurst crime scene investigator Officer Ryan Rider said on the stand that the document was seized as evidence since it "identified the individual involved" in the shootout. Rider was on the stand at Hardin's request. He was grilled this morning on whether or not he collected all the available evidence following the July shootout between Tesi and Fosset that resulted in Tesi being shot in the leg and face. Fossett was not injured.

Hardin, asked Rider why he did not take blood and bone samples from inside Tesi's Ford Ranger truck, why he did not remove bullets from inside Tesi's garage wall or even find all the bullet holes and why he did not lift fingerprints off Tesi's gun. "In this case, we don't have a complete preservation of all evidence from the scene, do we?" Hardin asked Rider. The officer replied "I believe we do."

"You don't have the physical evidence from behind the wall," Hardin said.

"The evidence is in the wall," Rider replied. He explained that he did not want to further damage the wall digging out the bullets that he already knew were .40-caliber rounds from Fossett's service weapon.

At one point, Hardin tried to introduce into evidence a boogey board that he said came from the garage and had a bullet hole. But prosecutor Jim Hudson objected after Rider said he could say for sure that board came from the garage. -- Steve Norder

 

Attorney: Hurst man was defending himself from police officer's attack during shooting

James Tesi of Hurst was defending himself from an attack by Colleyville Office John Fossett during last summer's shootout, so the judge should direct a verdict of not guilty in Tesi's trial for aggravated assault on a public official, Tesi's attorney said this morning. But Judge Everett Young denied the motion, made as prosecutors rested their case. Young said that the jury can hear the defense's case and determine if Tesi is guilty. The Hurst man, who has claimed to be a sovereign citizen not subject to U.S. laws, was driving on Precinct Line Road when Fossett spotted him and turned on lights in his squad car to signal Tesi to pull over. Fossett intended to arrest Tesi on outstanding traffic warrants. Instead, Tesi drove to his Hurst home, where the two men engaged in a shootout. Yesterday, jurors heard a tape where Tesi said he drove home because Fossett was trying to kidnap him, and that he wanted to die at home. - Steve Norder

Testimony: Killer did nude painting of deputy warden's wife

A deputy warden's wife found living at a Texas chicken farm with an escaped killer is now on trial in Oklahoma on charges that she aided in the escape. Defense lawyers say she was kidnapped and forced to live with the man for more than 10 years. But at her trial Tuesday, a prison worker testified that he saw a nude painting of her, apparently by convicted killer Randolph Parker Dial, among other paintings by him found in the garage of her home after the escape, The Oklahomam reported   

'Ladies' man' convicted for infecting women with HIV

Defense attorneys said Philippe Padieu was "ladies man" being prosecuted for his lifestyle.

A North Texas jury on Wednesday said he was guilty of infecting several women with the virus that causes AIDS.

Padieu, a Frisco martial arts instructor (shown right in this nbcdfw.com photo) was convicted Wednesday in a Collin County court on six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to The Associated Press.

Prosecutors say Padieu recklessly and intentionally exposed the women to HIV without telling them. They contended his infected bodily fluids were the deadly weapon.

Defense attorneys argued it wasn't against the law for someone with HIV to have unsafe sex.

Padieu, 53, faces five to 99 years in prison on each of the six counts.

Dallas jury convicts man in rape, killing of UNT student from Arlington

From The Dallas Morning News:

A Dallas County jury today found Ernesto Reyes guilty of capital murder in the death of a University of North Texas sophomore.

Reyes, 21, receives an automatic life sentence.

Reyes was convicted of killing Melanie Goodwin in September 2007. The young woman was raped and strangled, and her body was set on fire.

Goodwin, 19 and a 2006 graduate of Bowie High School in Arlington, was a radio, television and film major at UNT.

Judges aren't mind readers

WEATHERFORD _ You can change your mind about a guilty plea. But if you don’t tell the judge about it, you can still go to prison.

That’s what a Weatherford man learned recently when a state appeals court denied his request for a new trial because the trial judge didn’t withdraw his guilty plea after he changed his testimony during his 2008 trial.

  A Parker County jury sentenced Everett Salinas to 13 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in January 2008 to an indecency with a child charge.

During his sentencing hearing, however, Salinas testified that he did not touch the 13-year-old girl’s breasts for more than a brief moment in 2006 and did so to push her away from him, not for sexual gratification.

 Salinas' ’ attorney argued that the 36-year-old man should get a new trial  because District Judge Graham Quisenberry didn’t withdraw his guilty plea when his testimony contradicted his plea.

Appellate judges disagreed, saying Salinas should have withdrawn his own plea. Because he didn’t, he forfeited his right to a new trial, the Second District Court of Appeals ruled.

- Martha Deller

Sudoku-playing jurors force trial to be abandoned

You may have thought sudoku was so 2006, but evidently in Australia it's still more interesting than paying attention during a criminal trial, according to this report in the Sydney Morning Herald. The trial, which was almost over, was abandoned after 105 witnesses had testified at a cost of more than $1 million. The jury forewoman admitted to spending more than half her time playing the game.

-- Richard Stubbe