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Thread: DeJac’s trial rife with hazards, more prison time

  1. #1
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    DeJac’s trial rife with hazards, more prison time

    All previous Dejac postings on SUWNY have disappeared.

    This will be a major media issue as DA Frank Clark moved toward re-election next fall . . . as an obviously fragile woman attempts to move her life forward.

    Archives chronicalling past developments are especially valuable for accurately framing issues in such an important justice battle.

    http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregio...ry/253716.html

    DeJac’s new trial rife with hazards
    DA’s filing poses risk of more prison time


    By Matt Gryta and Dan Herbeck, Updated: 01/17/08 6:59 AM


    Lynn M. DeJac’s efforts to clear her name in an upcoming state court trial could backfire and result in more prison time for her, prosecutors said Wednesday.

    The Erie County district attorney’s office has asked the case judge to allow them to prosecute DeJac on three different felony charges — including second-degree depraved indifference murder — in connection with the 1993 strangulation of DeJac’s 13- year-old daughter.

    “If the judge finds in our favor, second-de g r e e murder is back on the table,” District Attorney Frank J. Clark said. “If she is convicted of that charge, she could wind up going back to prison for another 12 years.”

    DeJac’s attorney, Andrew C. Lo- Tempio, said DeJac is “confused and upset” by Clark’s latest actions in the case.

    “If the judge goes along with this, the stakes in this trial get a lot higher,” LoTempio said. “As a defense attorney, I just roll with the punches. But Lynn is very upset. She feels she is being singled out.”

    State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia is expected to rule on the prosecutors’ request sometime after Feb. 4. DeJac is scheduled to go to trial in her daughter’s death in late April.

    DeJac, 44, has already spent 13z years in prison on her 1994 conviction in the Feb. 14, 1993, strangulation of her daughter, Crystallynn Girard. She has been free since Nov. 28, when another judge set aside the conviction because of newly discovered DNA evidence that implicates her former lover in the killing.

    DeJac was convicted of seconddegree depraved indifference murder in the 1994 trial. When Erie County Senior Judge Michael L. D’Amico set aside the verdict, Clark indicated that his office would seek a retrial, but only on manslaughter charges.

    “At that time, we did not think we could pursue a Murder 2 case at the retrial, because the state courts the retrial, because the state courts have redefined the elements of a depraved indifference murder since 1994,” Clark said late Wednesday.

    “We’ve since done further research, and now we believe we can pursue Murder 2. And if [DeJac] is convicted of that, she could get more prison time,” Clark said. “You have to pay to play. . . . She was the one who wanted a new trial.”

    Prosecutors Thomas M. Finnerty and Kristen Carney now hope to prosecute DeJac on charges of second-degree depraved indifference murder, first-degree intentional manslaughter and second-degree reckless manslaughter.

    If convicted of depraved murder or intentional manslaughter, DeJac could face life in prison or a minimum of an additional 11 years behind bars, Clark said.

    “She thought she had nothing to lose by going to trial again, but if the judge rules in our favor, that may not be the case,” Clark said. “It’s up to the judge.”

    That is true, LoTempio said, but the defense attorney hopes Buscaglia will reject the attempts by prosecutors to pursue the two stronger charges.

    Prosecutors are trying to pursue the case “based on an antiquated definition of elements of the crime, . . . a definition that is no longer in effect,” LoTempio said, arguing that such a prosecution would be unfair to DeJac.

    Since DeJac’s 1994 conviction, the State Court of Appeals has redefined the definition of depraved indifference murder, saying depraved indifference refers to an act such as shooting into a crowd or blowing up a building with people inside.

    But in Clark’s view, there have also been recent decisions that would indicate that, in De- Jac’s case, the crime should be defined as it was when she first went to trial.

    If DeJac were convicted only on the charge of second-degree reckless manslaughter, she would serve no more jail time. She already has served more time on that count than is currently legally necessary.

    She and her supporters have said she wants a new trial so she can clear her name.

    Buscaglia said Wednesday that he will hold a Feb. 6 hearing on prosecution efforts to use some statements DeJac allegedly made to Buffalo Detectives Reginald Minor and Mark Stambach about the death of her daughter.

    In the statements, DeJac allegedly asked the detectives how much time the killer of her daughter would serve in prison “if that person didn’t mean to do it.” LoTempio said those statements were not disclosed in the trial 14 years ago.

    Two months ago, D’Amico set aside DeJac’s second-degree murder conviction based on new DNA evidence showing that DeJac’s former boyfriend, Dennis P. Donahue, had been in the girl’s bedroom and had sex with the girl sometime before her murder.

    Though the DNA belonging to another man was found on the victim’s sheets, prosecutors said further testing has not led to the identification of that person. They said that only the DNA of Donahue, now jailed and facing trial for the similar murder of another girlfriend, was found in the girl.

    Buscaglia told LoTempio on Wednesday to decide whether he wants a jury trial.

    LoTempio argued that Clark’s decision to pursue a murder case against DeJac is only “a tactical move” designed to force DeJac to plead guilty to a lesser manslaughter charge to avoid further jail time.

    Such a plea “ain’t going to happen,” LoTempio said, because DeJac “didn’t do it” and is convinced that Donahue is the killer. Donahue cannot be prosecuted for the slaying because he was granted immunity by a grand jury for testimony against DeJac.

    During Wednesday’s court session, Finnerty and Carney told Buscaglia that DeJac told a friend in a bar after her daughter’s murder that she had “lost it and choked her daughter and blacked out.”

    DeJac, who came to court Wednesday with her husband and twin teenage sons, declined to comment as she left.


    mgryta@buffnews.com and dherbeck@buffnews.com

  2. #2
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    Major Twist in Case Against Lynn DeJac

    I just discovered this disconcerting new information from Joseph Maruzak Esq, the former prosecutor of DeJac, who is so upset with media reporting on the Crystallyn Dejac murder that he has started his own website.

    The website is reported by WIVB in DeJac coverage below.

    http://www.murderofcrystallynn.com/

    THE UNREPORTED DEJAC MURDER TRIAL EVIDENCE:
    A TRAVESTY OF THE TRUTH

    Joe Maruzak
    http://www.wivb.com/global/story.asp?s=7734904

    Major Twist in Case Against Lynn DeJacUpdated: Jan 17, 2008 08:45 AM CST

    (Buffalo, NY, January 17, 2008) - - There's a major twist in the case against Lynn DeJac, who was recently released after spending years behind bars for the murder of her daughter. News 4's George Richert has the latest developments.

    Assistant District Attorney Thomas Finnerty: "This will be a murder trial, thank you."

    Prosecutors are sounding confident that the judge may allow them to put Lynn DeJac on trial for murder after all.

    Last month, the district attorney believed the charge of murder with depraved indifference couldn't be used because the definition of that law has changed, but now the district attorney says he's found recent case law showing otherwise.

    Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark: "We should be able to proceed based on the law as it existed back in 1993."

    But its still up for debate.

    Lynn DeJac's attorney Andrew Lotempio: "Ya know, if we had a witchery statute, you wouldn't apply the witchery statute, and to be less obnoxious in my analogy, if this was a death penalty case in 1993, we wouldn't be facing the death penalty now if we re tried the case."

    The trial is still three months away, and now the former prosecutor is weighing in on the case.

    Joe Maruzak, who helped convict DeJac in 1993, is now in private practice, but has launched his own web site (**), highlighting testimony from the original trial which says has been ignored by the media, and which proves her guilt.

    Joseph Maruzak: "In the over twenty years that I've been practicing law, I have never seen a more one sided manipulation of public opinion."


    (**) http://www.murderofcrystallynn.com/

    THE UNREPORTED DEJAC MURDER TRIAL EVIDENCE:
    A TRAVESTY OF THE TRUTH

    Joe Maruzak

  3. #3
    Unregistered bigpoppapuff's Avatar
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    very,very interesting......reality is...no matter what the outcome of the new trial....dejac is /was a less than stellar human being....living feces,imho...

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