John Maloney

In 1998, John Maloney’s wife under the influence of alcohol, attempted to commit suicide, didn’t succeed, but then died in an accidental fire.

Due to a group of corrupt right-wing investigators and attorneys ( including a defense attorney who threw both the trial and the appeal ) John Maloney was convicted of murder and is in prison, sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years.

More detail at this 2013 blog https://malcontends.blogspot.com/2013/12/wrongfully-convicted-innocent-green-bay.html

Proposal Post

Allee Boone

Gerald Green was shot four times and robbed by a man who requested a ride from him.

Green did not identify Boone as his assailant in three photo lineups, and it was not until a fourth lineup that Green identified Boone as the man who shot him.

At trial, Brain Hoover testified that he heard the gunshots and saw a man, not Boone, running away from the area of the shooting.

The jury did not hear from four other witnesses who testified at a post-conviction hearing that another man, of similar appearance to Boone, was likely responsible for the shootings.

In June 1997, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the denial of Boone’s request for a new trial following the post-conviction hearing.

Subsequently the Wisconsin Innocence Project took up the case and filed motions for DNA tests to be performed which could establish Boone’s innocence.

Discussion

 

Todd Kendhammer

Todd Kendhammer was accused of murdering  his wife Barbara, who died on 17 September 2016. The previous day deputies responded to a crash on County Road M near Bergum Coulee Road around 8:10 a.m. where they found Kendhammer and his wife Barbara. Todd Kendhammer told investigators they were headed north when a pipe fell from a southbound truck and went through the windshield striking Barbara.

Todd was arrested nearly three months later on 6 December, on what appears to be very weak circumstantial evidence. Authorities suggested that Barbara’s injuries were inconsistent with the pipe coming through the windscreen, citing healing abrasions and contusions on bilateral hands and irregular torn fingernail margins on two fingers, that the windscreen had been struck more than once, and some confusion over Todd’s statements that he was on his way to pick up a truck that he was going to repair.

For this apparent accident to be murder, Todd would have to have first rendered his wife unconscious, then carried out an elaborate staging to make it appear to be an accident, but without causing immediate death – which makes very little sense.

According to a report, the family does not believe he is responsible for his wife’s death.

News Report

News

December 17, 2016 Released from jail after posting $250,000 bond

Re the windscreen damage, it’s interesting to compare a report dated 17 December by Anne Jungen which stated :

“A crime lab analyst also found at least four impact points to two areas of the windshield: two inflicted from the inside and one from the outside that damaged the glass before the pipe penetrated the windshield, according to the complaint.”

with complaint ( see this report by Molly Prescott, wxow.com ) where there is no mention of “two inflicted from the inside and one from the outside”, although it does state that the windscreen bulged outward.

Discussion

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan Yang

Dylan Yang was a 15 year old Wausau High School student when he and some friends got into an argument on Facebook. Sometime after this argument, a vehicle drove up to the front of Dylan’s home, driven by a 19 year old girl. Dylan and two of his friends were standing on the front porch of their home and one of the boys in the car, a 13 year old named Isiah Powell, shot at them with a BB gun, which was later recovered at the scene. In addition to the driver and Powell, there were six other people in the car. Some of the occupants of the car were carrying knives.

When the occupants of the car began fighting with one of Dylan’s friends, Dylan ran into the house and got a kitchen knife. When he returned to see where his friends were, he saw his friend wrestling with the shooter, 13 year old Isiah Powell, on the pavement. Dylan then stabbed Powell twice in the back with the kitchen knife, Powell released Dylan’s friend, and all three boys ran into the house. The driver of the car drove Powell to the local hospital where he would later die of his wounds.

Dylan turned himself into authorities after the incident and was interrogated without an adult or attorney present.

At trial, the defense argued Yang stabbed Powell to protect his own life and the life of his friend because he believed Powell’s gun was real. The prosecution argued Yang stabbed Powell because he felt he was disrespecting him.

In March 2016, Dylan was convicted of first degree reckless homicide.

Discussion | Proposal Post

Brendan Dassey

After Steven Avery was wrongly accused of murdering Teresa Halbach, Brendan Dassey was coerced into making a false confession, due to his being an alibi for Avery.

Brendan was convicted in March 2007 for the murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach on Halloween in 2006. Dassey was sentenced to life in prison, with a chance for early release in 2048.

Featured case #124 | Proposal Post

News

August 12, 2016 Conviction overturned | Ruling available from here | Copy : Dassey-Order

Extract:

Consequently, the court finds that the confession Dassey gave to the police on March 1, 2006 was so clearly involuntary in a constitutional sense that the court of appeals’ decision to the contrary was an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law.

The court does not reach this conclusion lightly. The present decision is made in full appreciation of the limited nature of the habeas remedy under AEDPA and mindful of the principles of comity and federalism that restrain federal intervention in this arena. See, e.g., id. at 15.

However, the high standard imposed by AEDPA is not a complete bar to relief. Cockrell, 537 U.S. at 340. While the circumstances for relief may be rare, even extraordinary, it is the conclusion of the court that this case represents the sort of “extreme malfunction[] in the state criminal justice system[]” that federal habeas corpus relief exists to correct.

 

 

Steven Avery

Sometime during the day on October 31, 2005, photographer Teresa Halbach was scheduled to meet with Steven Avery, one of the owners of Avery Auto Salvage, to photograph a maroon Plymouth Voyager minivan for Auto Trader Magazine.

On November 11, 2005, Steven Avery was charged with the murder of Halbach. Avery protested that he had been framed.

Brendan Dassey was an alibi for Steven, he was not charged until March ( five months later ), it’s clear the alibi was true but his confession was false ( in fact the final prosecution case was totally different to the coerced confession ). Every thing Brendan volunteered in his confession was false (contradicted by the forensic evidence ).

The framing was rather extensive, involving the planting of blood, a bullet with DNA, a car key and burnt bone fragments. Planting DNA and blood shows sophistication and planning. Also, the key (for the victim’s car) was scrubbed before Steven’s DNA was placed on it. No DNA from the victim was found on the key – which is inexplicable.

A blood stain found near the ignition in the RAV 4 appears to have been planted – a drop has been placed (say with a cotton swab) and then drawn out. [ Episode 3, 7 minutes in ]

Nothing adds up : for example the bullet with the victims DNA was eventually found months later in a garage, but there was no trace of blood in there – impossible if the victim was shot there, as the prosecution eventually claimed.

The defence implied police planted the key, however this makes little sense, surely the person who murdered Holbach had possession of her car key, not the police [ unless it was a spare key? ].

In December 2015, Netflix released a long film about the case “Making A Murderer”. In the film Edward Wayne Edwards is apparently seen in a court building in 2006 in Wisconsin (man in blue top in background ).  Correction: on Jan 31, 2016, it was discovered that the man is someone else.

Edwards is overweight man in blue top standing behind the figures in the foregound.

Edwards murdered Halbach and framed Avery.

Published on 12 Jan 2016
Did Edward Wayne Edwards Kill Taresa Halbach and set up Steve Avery?
Edwards, a misguided boy, vowed to be the best criminal ever. He killed scores and scores of people of all ages over a sixty-six-year period, and was never caught (for murder). Included are some of the most famous murder cases in the past century.

News

A Cold Case Expert Thinks ‘Making A Murderer’ May Be Tied To One Of The Most Prolific Serial Killers Ever Yahoo.com, Jan 21, 2016

Montana author ties serial killer to ‘Making a Murderer’ greatfallstribune.com, Jan 26, 2016

The man in the blue shirt in Making a Murderer has been indentified and it is not Ed Edwards Jan 31, 2016

Note: the “y” in Avery has been written as an upper-case “X”. Edwards used a cross as his signature many times, for example the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note, which ends “S.B.T.C” standing for “Signed By The Cross”.

Case review by John Cameron February 9, 2016

Update April 23, 2016. A police report of a witness who heard a “woosh” and smelt a “very vile smell”. This could be Edwards incinerating the body of Teresa Halbach.

Another Anonymous Note

A second mysterious letter sent to the Manitwoc County Sheriff in the Steven Avery case. References the Winnebago Mental Health Institute (located in Wisconsin), which has this logo. How would this appeal to Edwards? “EE” but also “14” in here, his birth date (c.f. the Halloween card sent to Paul Avery), 33, and somehow a 6 to give 6/14/33, Ed’s birth date.

 

Timeline

Featured case #117 | Proposal Post | Petition | Facebook Page

Chris Jacobs

A reclusive family of 4 older unmarried siblings and two younger adults lived on a small farm in Central Wisconsin. Their last name was Kunz. On the morning of July 5, 1987, one of the young adults, Kenney Kunz, returned home and found three of the adults and his younger brother fatally shot. His mother Helen Kunz was missing but her body would be found a year later in a swamp.

They were known to keep cash in their home. Chris Jacobs III, age 21, was arrested for their murder. There was no physical evidence tying him to the crime but one tire track left near the crime scene was indicative of a specific type of tire. Chris liked to fix old cars so he had a tire like that on his farm. Chris had also bought an old car from the Kunz family shortly before their death. Chris was charged with the murder of all five people and also kidnapping, for transporting one of the victims to the swamp before killing her.

Chris was acquitted at trial for all five murders but before the case ended, the prosecutor removed the charge of kidnapping from the case. Years later and one day before the statute of limitations ran out on the kidnapping charge, Chris Jacobs was rearrested for kidnapping. In this second trial, Chris was convicted based primarily on the same tire track, after it had been “enhanced” by the FBI, and the new testimony of an ex-girlfriend who had been recently caught in Minnnesota as an accessory to a robbery. After her testimony, the girl was never charged in the robbery case. The girl testified that Chris had confessed to murdering the family while they were driving together one day.

At the first trial, there was exculpatory evidence. A car was seen parked at an intersection only about 100′ from the crime scene on the night of the murder. The car was facing away from the house, in the direction that Kenney Kunz would normally have come home. A woman stopped at the intersection, facing the parked car on the opposite side. As she drove through, the driver of the car blinded her with a light in her face so she couldn’t see who was in the car. As she passed the car, it turned to follow her but as she passed the Kunz house, the car slowed, did a u turn and went back in the direction of the Kunz house. The car did not match the description of Jacobs’ car.

Kenney Kunz’s younger brother, Randy, had been making extra money by occasionally selling drugs. The defense’s theory was that Randy had planned to meet his suppliers that night and give them payment for the drugs he had sold. Unfortunately, Randy had enlisted the help of his other brother, Kenney, to sell some at the cheese factory where Kenney worked. Kenney did have large amounts of cash that night because he bought some drinks at a local bar and then bought several shopping bags of fireworks. Kenney was below average intelligence and locals figured that he had stopped to buy some fireworks and the sellers, seeing all of Kenney’s cash, sold out their inventory to him. It would have been like taking candy from a baby.

Kenney, realizing too late what he had done and fearful that his brother would be angry, decided to drive back to the cheese factory and sleep the night in his car, facing his brother in the morning. Meanwhile, Randy had driven his mother, Helen, home from the fireworks show and was waiting near the house for Kenney to show up with Kenney’s share of the money needed to pay his suppliers. When Kenney didn’t show up, they took Randy and his mother, Helen, hostage and waited at the intersection for Kenney to come home. After it was clear that Kenney wasn’t coming home and losing patience and knowing that the Kunz family kept a large roll of cash in the house, the drug suppliers took Randy in with them to get it. Unfortunately, a fight broke out and the suppliers killed everyone so there would be no witnesses. Running back to their car, where they still had Helen, they drove her to a remote swamp where they killed her and left her body.

The timeframe was also exculpatory. Randy and Helen were at a nearby fireworks display that didn’t end until about 11:00. Chris’ mother was able to confirm that Chris came home that night at 11:00 and helped with the birthing of a calf. There was not enough time for Chris to have committed the murder. There was also no incriminatory evidence, other than the tire mark. The tires are remarketed by a number of tire manufacturers and were fairly common in the area under different names. There were no fingerprints or footprints at the scene, and Chris’ car had no bloodstains or any evidence that Helen or Randy had ever been in the car.

At the second trial, witnesses were reluctant to testify for the defense, after a witness at the first trial was apparently harassed by law enforcement.

Chris has always maintained his innocence. All five murders remain officially unsolved but the investigating jurisdiction refuses to add them to the state database of unsolved cases, claiming that the case was solved and that Chris is the killer, even though he was acquitted of the crime.

Due to some family history in the area and the fact that most of the family members had no contact with the community, there was little pressure to solve this murder after Chris’ acquittal. Kenney Kunz died several years afterwards. Chris was sent to prison in Wisconsin for 30 years and remains incarcerated. His requests for parole have all been denied.

Featured case #111 | Proposal Post

Eric Koula

Featured Case #43

Eric was convicted in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, after a trial based entirely on circumstantial evidence. Eric was a stable, hard-working father and husband who was very close to his parents. When his mother, Merna, did not show up for work one Monday, Eric tried unsuccessfully to reach them, then drove to their house and found them both dead. It appeared as though it was the work of professionals and that there may have been crime scene staging.

Investigators found DNA at the scene that was not Eric’s DNA and remains unidentified. Nothing at the crime scene tied Eric to the murders. The murder weapon was never forensically identified. There was no evidence of the crime found on Eric’s person, in his truck or at his home. Digital forensic evidence was improperly presented at trial as documented by trial transcripts. A neighbor testified that he had seen the couple alive in their backyard talking with two unidentified people hours after Eric was supposed to have already killed them. The judge in the case restricted the defense attorney from presenting alternative suspects. The jury convicted Eric on the basis of two incidents, both of which can be explained by past precedents and emotional reaction to his parents’ murder.

Facebook Group | Facebook Page | Proposal Post | Featured Case Post | 48 Hours

Update 11 October : Eric Koula Appeal Final