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Man faces death penalty in two murders - FOX41.com Louisville News Kentucky Indiana News Weather Sports
A deaf man is facing the death penalty after police say he killed two Louisville men. Gruesome details about the two murders were revealed in court Wednesday.
Prosecutors showed jurors graphic pictures of the murder victims in court, and they want the death penalty for just one of the men accused of the murders -- Jeston Murray.
Prosecutors say it all started in December 2008, when two deaf friends -- Michael Knights and Jeston Murray -- killed 72-year-old Darrel Spencer at the Army-Navy Surplus Store where he worked in downtown Louisville.
"They left him to die in a pool of his own blood," said prosecutor Tom Van De Rostyne, "they killed him with a hatchet, three times to the head."
Police say the two men stole items from the store, including a knife used to kill another deaf man, Marcus Penney just 8 days later. "They stabbed him once under the left armpit," said Van De Rostyne, "and then they watched him bleed to death, and then left."
Prosecutors say Knights was mixed up in a love triangle with Marcus Penney over a woman, and that Murray watched Penney die.
Knights pleaded guilty to two counts of complicity to murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. But Murray pleaded not guilty and is now on trial, facing the death penalty.
His defense team says he is no murderer, and is instead an eyewitness who went to police and told them everything. "He didn't participate," said David Mejia, Murray's defense attorney, "he was frozen with fear and horror as he watched Marcus Penney die. He was at the store not to see or witness, but to learn later of what happened and what Michael Knights, a person he thought was his friend, had done."
Interpreters work constantly in the courtroom to translate for the defendant, and for the many deaf witnesses who are expected to testify.
A deaf man is facing the death penalty after police say he killed two Louisville men. Gruesome details about the two murders were revealed in court Wednesday.
Prosecutors showed jurors graphic pictures of the murder victims in court, and they want the death penalty for just one of the men accused of the murders -- Jeston Murray.
Prosecutors say it all started in December 2008, when two deaf friends -- Michael Knights and Jeston Murray -- killed 72-year-old Darrel Spencer at the Army-Navy Surplus Store where he worked in downtown Louisville.
"They left him to die in a pool of his own blood," said prosecutor Tom Van De Rostyne, "they killed him with a hatchet, three times to the head."
Police say the two men stole items from the store, including a knife used to kill another deaf man, Marcus Penney just 8 days later. "They stabbed him once under the left armpit," said Van De Rostyne, "and then they watched him bleed to death, and then left."
Prosecutors say Knights was mixed up in a love triangle with Marcus Penney over a woman, and that Murray watched Penney die.
Knights pleaded guilty to two counts of complicity to murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. But Murray pleaded not guilty and is now on trial, facing the death penalty.
His defense team says he is no murderer, and is instead an eyewitness who went to police and told them everything. "He didn't participate," said David Mejia, Murray's defense attorney, "he was frozen with fear and horror as he watched Marcus Penney die. He was at the store not to see or witness, but to learn later of what happened and what Michael Knights, a person he thought was his friend, had done."
Interpreters work constantly in the courtroom to translate for the defendant, and for the many deaf witnesses who are expected to testify.
