Jordan Shapiro - Southwest Journalist

Lawyer: Wendy Davis’ stature made her client’s sentence harsher

The attorney of a man who broke into the house of Texas gubernatorial hopeful Wendy Davis said Thursday she thinks her client would have gotten a lighter sentence if the homeowner was not a public figure.

Davis was sleeping at her Fort Worth home in April 2013 when Donnell Dickerson intruded and stole her car. He pleaded guilty to those charges and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Davis testified during a short sentencing trial in January, three months after launching her campaign.

Fort Worth attorney Mamie Johnson said Dickerson had no idea last spring whose home he was breaking into, but that ultimately the owner’s status affected how much time her client will serve.

“When it was all said and done, he ended up with an extra year or two because it’s a public official,” Johnson said. “Not because it was Wendy Davis, but because it was a public official.”

Dickerson had a past criminal record that jurors were allowed to consider, she said, and although she could not recall his previous arrests she said none were felonies. A Davis spokesman said the Democrat was grateful to police but referred questions about Dickerson’s sentence to prosecutors.

Tarrant County District Attorney Joe Shannon said his office handled the case like any other burglary. He said Johnson offered prosecutors a five-year sentence but refused to negotiate further after they countered with a six-year deal.

“Obviously, the jury believed the defendant’s conduct warranted more time in prison,” Shannon said in a statement. “The defendant received a fair trial and the victim was satisfied with the outcome.”

According to a Fort Worth police report, Davis’ then-boyfriend Will Wynn, a former Austin mayor, told police he was doing yard work when he went inside and was confronted by an intruder. Dickerson allegedly told him, “I must be in the wrong house” before going to the garage, where he got in Davis’ car and drove off.

Johnson said Dickerson ended up circling back around to the house and was stopped by police.

Despite being sentenced to eight years, Dickerson could be eligible for parole much sooner, Johnson said. She described her client as being satisfied with the sentence even though she believes it could have been shorter.

“My goal was to get nobody on that jury was a Wendy Davis lover,” Johnson said. “I felt like it could harm him in the long run.”

Man with gun arrested after seen entering school

ABILENE — Abilene police arrested a man after he was reported carrying a gun and walking into an elementary school.

Police received a 911 call Thursday morning that a man with a gun in his waistband had entered Jane Long Elementary School. The school was placed on lockdown but police were not able to find the intruder.

Police Sgt. Lynn Beard said a man was arrested in the incident and was also involved in a child custody disagreement.

District Superintendent Heath Burns said he is confident there was no immediate threat to students or staff on the campus. School officials said parents were allowed to retrieve their children if they felt it was necessary.

Sex offender accused in plot to kill judge

WACO — A convicted sex offender was indicted on attempted capital murder charges for what prosecutors said was a $30,000 offer to have a Waco judge killed.

William Ray Phillips was indicted Wednesday by a McLennan County grand jury. Prosecutors said the 63-year-old Phillips was plotting the murder-for-hire scheme against State District Judge Matt Johnson. Phillips has been in custody since February and Johnson presided over two of his previous trials.

A 10-month investigation showed Phillips also had McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna and U.S. District Judge Walter Smith on his hit list but was willing to pay only for Johnson to be killed.

Conviction on the attempted capital murder charge could get Phillips a life sentence.

3 relatives ousted from South Texas school board

PROGRESO — Two brothers and the wife of one of them were removed from the school board in a small South Texas town in a fallout over conspiracy and bribery schemes.

Brothers Omar and Orlando Vela and Orlando Vela’s wife, Ana, were all unanimously voted off the Progreso school board. Omar Vela was Progreso’s mayor and the school district head of truancy. He is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal conspiracy and bribery charges.

Orlando Vela was school district risk manager and former city mayor pro tem. He is pleaded guilty to stealing money for buying supplies that were not sold.

Ana Vela has not been charged but was the school district’s business manager. Trustee Juan Garcia said she should not have signed off on fraudulent payments.

— Associated Press

Missouri considers state laboratory to create execution drugs

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Missouri should establish its own laboratory to produce chemicals for use in executions rather than rely on an “uneasy cooperation” with medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies, the state’s attorney general said Thursday.

Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat, spoke to the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis during the group’s meeting at Lake of the Ozarks.

“For Missouri to maintain lethal injection … it is my belief the Legislature should remove market-driven participants and pressures from the system and appropriate funds to establish a state-operated, DEA-licensed, laboratory to produce the execution chemicals in our state,” said Koster, according to a transcript provided by his office. Continue reading Missouri considers state laboratory to create execution drugs

US: Russia withdrawing troops from Ukrainian border in bulk

LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT — U.S. defense officials said Thursday that Russia has pulled most of its forces away from the Ukraine border, a withdrawal the U.S. has been demanding for weeks.

They said about seven battalions remained, amounting to a couple thousand troops. U.S. officials had estimated as many as 40,000 Russian forces had been aligned along the border with a restive eastern Ukraine that has been wracked with violence between government security forces and pro-Russian separatists.

The defense officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the precise numbers. Continue reading US: Russia withdrawing troops from Ukrainian border in bulk

Abbott: Texas will not reveal origin of execution drug

NOMAAN MERCHANT
Associated Press

DALLAS — Texas’ prison system does not have to reveal where it gets its execution drugs, the attorney general said Thursday, marking a reversal by the state’s top prosecutor on an issue being challenged in several death penalty states.

Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican nominee for governor in the nation’s busiest death penalty state, had rebuffed three similar attempts by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice since 2010. But, on Thursday, he sided with state prison officials who said their supplier would be in danger if identified, citing a threat they declined to release.

His decision, which can be appealed, came the same day Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said his state should consider creating its own laboratory for execution drugs rather than relying on “uneasy cooperation” with outside sources. A state-operated lab would be a first, and it was not immediately clear if Missouri could implement the change without approval from its Legislature.

Missouri and Texas are among execution states that contend compounding pharmacies that provide them with drugs should remain secret to protect the suppliers from threats of violence. Lawyers for death row inmates said they need the information to verify the drugs’ potency and to protect inmates from cruel and unusual punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to halt an execution based on a state’s refusal to reveal its drug supplier. The secrecy argument also was used ahead of a bungled execution last month in Oklahoma, though that inmate’s faulty veins, not the execution drug, were cited as the likely culprit.

The opinion from Abbott’s office Thursday cites a threat assessment prison officials submitted from the Texas Department of Public Safety that said drug suppliers face a substantial threat of physical harm. However, state agencies did not make the assessment available publicly Thursday.

Abbott’s office said that “in this instance and when analyzing the probability of harm, this office must defer to the representations of DPS, the law enforcement experts charged with assessing threats to public safety.”

A Houston-area compounding pharmacy was previously identified as the state’s execution supplier. State and local law enforcement said last month that they were not investigating any threats against that pharmacy, although its owner complained of “constant inquiries from the press, the hate mail and messages.”

In Missouri, Attorney General Koster said he thinks his state’s Legislature should remove market-driven participants from the system and appropriate funds to establish a state-operated, DEA-licensed, laboratory to produce the execution chemicals.

“As a matter of policy, Missouri should not be reliant on merchants whose identities must be shielded from public view or who can exercise unacceptable leverage over this profound state act,” he said.

Death penalty states have been scrambling to find new sources of drugs after several drugmakers, including many based in Europe, refused to sell drugs for use in lethal injections. That led several states to compounding pharmacies, which are not as heavily regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as more conventional pharmacies.

Unlike some states, Texas law does not specifically say whether prison officials must disclose where they get their lethal injection drugs.

Abbott’s latest decision stems from an open records request filed before the April executions of serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells and convicted murderer Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas. Texas prison officials used a new supply of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative, but they refused to name the supplier.

Defense attorney Maurie Levin, called Abbott’s decision deeply disturbing.

“Serious questions surround this about-face, including why our attorney general, who once championed transparency, is suddenly now supporting secretive government practices,” Levin said in a written statement.

Associated Press writer Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.

Google reveals lack of diversity in its workforce

MARTHA MENDOZA
Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Google has had more trouble diversifying its workforce than its computer scientists have had writing programs that respond to search requests in the blink of an eye or designing cars that can navigate traffic without a human behind the wheel.

When the Silicon Valley giant issued a gender and ethnic breakdown of its workforce this week, it showed that of its 26,600 U.S. employees, 61 percent are white, 30 percent Asian, 3 percent Hispanic and 2 percent black. Thirty percent of its employees are women.

Blacks and Hispanics make up about 30 percent of the the nation’s population. Continue reading Google reveals lack of diversity in its workforce

Government dings Southwest for deceptive advertising

A Southwest Airlines jet plane lines up for a landing at Love Field in Dallas, where the company is headquartered.

Associated Press
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines is being fined $200,000 for advertising a fare sale too good to be true.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday that in TV ads last October the airline promised flights from Atlanta to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles for just $59 — but didn’t make any seats available at that price.

The government said Southwest’s ads were deceptive and violated advertising rules. Continue reading Government dings Southwest for deceptive advertising

Westbrook, Thunder pounce on Spurs to tie series

Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook matched his second-highest playoff total Tuesday against San Antonio. He scored 43 points in the 2012 NBA Finals. (Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press)

Cliff Brunt
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — Russell Westbrook had 40 points and 10 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-92 on Tuesday night to tie the Western Conference finals at two games apiece.

It matched the second-highest playoff point total of Westbrook’s career, falling short of the 43 he scored in the 2012 NBA Finals. He also had five rebounds and five steals.

“I think I did all right. Coming out with a win is most important,” Westbrook said in a postgame interview with TNT. “I just try to come out and give maximum effort. My teammates ask that of me and that’s what I try to do on both ends of the floor.”

Continue reading Westbrook, Thunder pounce on Spurs to tie series