Alstory Simon Released from Prison after Serving 15 Years for Double Murder

 

Alstory Simon, who confession to a 1982 double homicide that helped free an inmate from death row in 1999, was released from prison last month. Simon was in prison for 15 years for the double murder, the same case in which Anthony Porter, an alleged neighborhood gang banger, was convicted and later freed.

The double homicide occurred 32 years ago and involved two teenagers, Jerry Hillard and Marilyn Green, being shot to death in a South Side park in Chicago. Porter was convicted, but two days from his scheduled execution, he was freed after Simon confessed, saying he did it in self-defense. Soon after being sentenced to prison, Simon said he was hoodwinked into confessing by a journalism professor, a private eye, and a defense attorney.

State’s Attorney, Anita Alvarez (above), said that after a year-long investigation they realized that Simon's case is so deeply corroded and corrupt that restoring his freedom is the right thing to do. During a press conference, Alvarez said that Simon was victimized by former Northwestern journalism professor David Protess and private investigator Paul Ciolino, who hired an actor to pose as a supposed eyewitness to the murders.

“This investigation by David Protess and his team involved a series of alarming tactics that were not only coercive and absolutely unacceptable by law enforcement standards, they were potentially in violation of Mr. Simon’s constitutionally-protected rights,” said Alvarez. Simon’s attorney, Terry Ekl (above), voiced his opinion publically about who he thinks killed the two teens. “It is my opinion that the killer is Anthony Porter,” he said.

ABC 7 was unable to reach Protess, but they received a written statement from Ciolino who wrote that Simon didn't just confess to him, but also confessed to others, confessed in court, so, “explain that.” Whoever killed the two teens will likely remain a mystery. “I can't definitely tell you if it was Porter or Simon,” Alvarez said. “I’m just saying that based on the totality of the circumstances and the way I think Simon was coerced, in the interest of justice, this is the right thing to do.”

However, the evidence does lean heavily toward Porter (above in Falcons hat). Six eye witnesses gave statements to police and testified at trial that they saw Porter murder Green and Hillard, firing the gun with his left hand. Not one of those witnesses was interviewed by Protess team. Those same witnesses testified in Porter's wrongful conviction trial the exact same way. They saw Porter commit the murder firing a gun with his left hand. The judge ruled against Porter. The ruling, over forty pages long, states Porter was not wrongly convicted of murder.

Amanda Knox Now A Reporter for Her Local Newspaper

According to several sources, Amanda Knox has found a job as a writer for the Westside Weekly newspaper in her hometown of Seattle. Westside Weekly publisher, Ken Robinson, confirmed to AOL News that Knox has been a freelance arts reporter at the publication since the summer. Robinson said that Knox has written about 10 articles for them, even though she has flown under the radar for several months.

“I understand who she is, but it’s no big deal,” said Robinson. Knox works mostly from home, Robinson said. He has never actually met her in person. “I only have contact with her through email,” he added. When asked whether he thought the hire would cause controversy, Robinson replied: “I didn’t have those thoughts; she’s just a contributor to me.”

 

Sollecito Asks for “Separate” Trial

With just a few months to go before their final appeals, Raffaele Sollecito drops a bomb on the Knox camp. Sollecito allegedly demanded that his and Knox’s cases be tried separately. Sollecito’s legal defense team is reportedly lobbying to Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation to overrule his case and order a retrial.

Even more shocking, Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, announced that Sollecito has once again changed his alibi. Sollecito is now claiming that he was NOT with Amanda Knox the whole night when Kercher was murdered—contradicting the statement of Knox that they were together, which means their alibis no longer match. In Sollecito’s own words he says, “She gave me an alibi. I had nothing to do with it.”

 

Bongiorno (pictured above) claimed that her client’s statement last January, saying that he was with Knox the whole night, when they were convicted, was “unfairly influenced” by Knox’s statement. The legal team of Raffaele Sollecito has filed a 342-page document to petition the high court to judge him separately from the Amanda Knox murder case, particularly on the “false confession.” The document said that if Amanda Knox’s confession about being at the scene when the crime took place (which she later retracted as false) really occurred, it actually cleared Raffaele Sollecito. “It is clear from this document that Raffaele Sollecito was not present in the house on Via della Pergola where and when the crime was carried out,” the legal counsels of Sollecito wrote.

 

Then Sollecito (pictured above on left, his father on the right) made a bizarre statement that could only come from this surreal trial: “Only a madman or a criminal would change versions, and I’m neither mad nor criminal. There’s proof that I was at my place and I was watching Japanese cartoons,” Sollecito said; this coming from a man who has changed his version of events numerous times and has played along with Knox for seven years. The only question that now remains is: Is he a criminal, a madman, or both? After all, in his book, which came out recently, he said that Knox "may have" left his place, but that he couldn't remember. His memory has apparently cleared up as of late.

Despite seemingly throwing Knox under the bus and jeopardizing her case, Sollecito believes that Knox is innocent, “I always believed, and still believe, that Amanda Marie Knox is innocent.”

 

Missing Realtor, Beverly Carter, Found Dead: Suspect in Custody

It all started last Thursday when Arkansas real estate agent, Beverly Carter, went missing. Beverly went to show a home near Little Rock, but never returned home. By 8pm that night her husband, Carl Carter, became suspicious when Beverly had not returned. So, Carl went to the home she was showing and found her car in the driveway with her purse inside, but no sign of his wife. Nothing was missing from her purse, and the door of the home was left open. Carl received texts from Beverly’s phone that night that did not sound like they came from her.

Carl called to check on his wife, but she didn’t answer. Instead she sent him a text, “I’m fine, I’m out with the girls having drinks.” However, Carl and one of Beverly’s friends said “Beverly doesn’t even drink.” Jane Carfagno, a close friend of Beverly said that Beverly didn’t know who the client might be, but said another friend drove by the home and saw a gray truck in the driveway along with Carter’s car before she went missing. The friend gave the police that info.

Arron Lewis, 33, was captured by the Little Rock Police Department and was transferred to the Pulaski County Investigations Division for questioning. Lewis, who was on parole, was in a traffic accident Sunday, and police arrived to find his automobile on top of a concrete culvert, according to an accident report from the sheriff's office. Lewis told police that a vehicle, which he couldn’t describe, had run him off the road. But a witness told police that he was behind Lewis before the accident, and “Lewis was traveling at a high rate of speed prior to the crash,” the report says. Another witness told police that “the Lewis vehicle was going 'so fast' prior to the curve and she further stated that she observed the Lewis vehicle 'fishtail' around the curve, going into the ditch,” according to the report.

Paramedics took Lewis to Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock. A deputy followed the ambulance to the hospital to issue Lewis a citation for careless driving as well as not wearing his seat belt, because there was evidence Lewis hit the windshield during the crash, the report says. At that time, Lewis was a person of interest in the Carter investigation, but he was not under arrest, Lt. Carl Minden said.

The warrant charging him with kidnapping was issued later Sunday. Police haven’t said how they linked Lewis to Carter or how they tracked him down, but they say Lewis left the hospital Sunday without notifying police while he was a person of interest in her disappearance. Meanwhile, Beverly Carter’s lifeless body was found in a shallow grave near Cabot, about 20 miles northeast of central Little Rock, the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office said early yesterday.

Lewis pled not guilty to the charges yesterday only because his lawyer told him to. He said he wanted to plead guilty because he just wanted "this to be over with." Authorities think Lewis was a stranger to Carter before her abduction. They believe they have the right man in custody and are not currently seeking any other suspects. As Lewis was being led away by police in shackles and dark prison scrubs, a CNN affiliate reporter asked, “Why Beverly?”

“Because she was just a woman who worked alone, a rich broker,” Lewis responds. Asked whether he has anything to say to Carter’s family, he twice says, “Sorry.”

  

‘Walking Dead’ Guest Star Shannon Richardson Sentenced to 18 Years for Mailing Ricin to Obama

Yesterday the sentencing of Shannon Richardson, who had minor roles on TV’s ‘The Walking Dead’ and the Sandra Bullock movie ‘The Blind Side,’ took place yesterday. CBS News reports that Richardson was arrested last June for sending letters with the deadly toxin ricin to President Obama and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Richardson pled guilty last December.

Richardson reportedly mailed the letters and then went to police to claim that her estranged husband, Nathan Richardson, was responsible for mailing them. However, inconsistencies with her story, as well as an investigation into her online purchases, led to Richardson’s arrest. The investigation revealed that she had made purchases for the materials required to make ricin online. She later confessed that she lied to authorities about her husband’s involvement.

Yesterday, Richardson told the court “I never intended for anybody to be hurt. I’m not a bad person. I don’t have it in me to hurt anyone.” Regardless of her statement, the judge sentenced the 36-year-old actress from Texas, to18 years in prison on a charge of possessing and producing a biological toxin. She has also been ordered to pay $367,000 in restitution.

Oscar Pistorius Found Guilty Today

Just minutes ago Judge Thokozile Masipa found OscarPistorius guilty of “culpable homicide” after fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day last year.

The court did, however, clear Pistorius of the more serious charge of premeditated murder, saying that the state had failed to prove such a charge. In the judge’s words: “The state clearly has not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of premeditated murder. There are just not enough facts to support such a finding.”

Sentencing for Pistorius is scheduled for October, at which time he could face up to 15 year in prison for culpable homicide.
 

Italian Horror House Gets Old, Yet, Familiar Visitor

The bizarre behavior exhibited by Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito throughout this tragic nightmare has been the source of much talk and controversy. Although it pales in comparison to other peculiar actions exhibited by the two throughout, Raffaele Sollectio added to that when he brought his new love to visit the home where he was convicted of brutally murdering Meredith Kercher.

Last week La Nazione newspaper in Italy reported that Sollectio and his new girlfriend, Greta Menegaldo, were seen standing outside the cottage where he was convicted of participating in the murder of Meredith Kercher.  One local resident, Enea, told La Nazione that she saw them. Enea said, “I’m telling the truth: I couldn’t believe it…when I saw them up close, it was Sollecito.” Raffaele’s father also confirmed the visit, saying, “If Raffaele wanted to show his girlfriend the ordeal he went through, I can’t see anything wrong with that…he has absolutely nothing to do with that crime.”

It was only last September (2013) when Amanda Knox announced that she planned on attending the grave site of “her friend,” Meredith Kercher and meet with Kercher’s parents. The Kercher family, however, wants nothing to do with Knox, and have alluded to, many times, their belief that Knox and Sollecito were involved in Meredith’s murder…along with the fact that their family lawyer who has represented them during this entire process, Francesco Maresca, has been vocal about his belief in their guilt, which speaks volumes about how the Kercher family feels.

Curse of Amanda Knox: Realtor says “Italian Horror House Hard to sell”

 

 

The Italian cottage where Amanda Knox, Raffaelle Sollecito, and Rudy Guede  have been convicted of butchering Meredith Kercher was put up for sale in December of 2013. Due to the infamous circumstances, said a Perugian agent for the Tecnocasa real estate agency, which is handling the sale, “…it has not been easy to find potential buyers who are willing to overlook the fact that a brutal murder took place there.”

The owner of the Perugian villa, Italian retiree Aldalia Tattanelli, was forced to drop the price more than $100,000, from $630,000 to just over $520,000. Six years after Kercher’s murder, almost to the day, eight new tenants living in the home almost died when a carbon monoxide leak nearly poisoned them all in their sleep. This adds to the infamy of the home, and some have gone as far as saying that the home is cursed. It was this incident that prompted Aldalia to sell the home.

In the U.S., sellers are required to disclose if a murder took place in a house.  That’s not the case in Italy and the listing makes no mention of the gruesome crime that took place there. In fact, the realtor said that “The owner [Aldalia] is adamant that everything possible be done to discourage anyone in the realtor’s office from saying a word about the murder.”

“We have received requests for information, and many, who are probably busybodies, have already visited our web page,” the realtor said. “I hope to exclude macabre curiosity seekers because the property has a certain value.” Tecnocasa Realty is so wary about curiosity seekers that “the company requires that anyone potential buyers make an appointment and come to the sales office in person for even general information” on the two-unit property, which comes with 5,000 square meters of land and parking for seven vehicles.

“Frankly,” says the realtor, “this is a tough sell in an already tough real estate market.”

Would you live in a house with such a history?

Raffaele Sollecito now admits having questions about Knox’s behavior following Kercher’s murder

As if the Amanda Knox case could not get any more bizarre, Raffaele Sollecito has upped the ante. In a recent exclusive interview on an Italian TV news broadcast, Sollecito said he has several “unanswered questions” for his former girlfriend, Amanda Knox. This adds yet another waiver to the many different versions Sollecitoprovided over the years about the same details. In the official story, the part that remained consistent, at least, Knox and Sollecito both claimed that Knox left his flat the morning after Kercher’s murder and returned home, where she noticed the door left wide open and witnessed blood spots in the bathroom. Knox claimed that she found it odd and just assumed that one of her roommates was menstruating and left blood behind. She proceeded to take a shower and returned to Sollecito’s flat and ate breakfast. 

“Certainly I asked her questions,” Sollecito explained in his latest interview. “Why did she take a shower? Why did she spend so much time there?” When asked what responses he had for these question Sollecito replied, “I don’t have answers.” In the interview, Sollecito said Knox left his apartment to take a shower, then returned hours later looking “very agitated.” Yet, in an interview with Kate Mansey just two days after the murder, Sollecito said, “But when she went into the bathroom she saw spots of blood all over the bath and sink. That's when she started getting really afraid and ran back to my place because she didn't want to go into the house alone.” This is a far cry from what Knox said in her emailto friends and family, Knox wrote:

“…I returned to raffael’s place. after we had used the mop to clean up the kitchen i told raffael about what i had seen in the house over breakfast. the strange blood in the bathroom, the door wide open, the shit left in the toilet. he suggested i call one of my roommates, so I called filomena.” (6^th paragraph).

The discrepancies between Knox’s version and Sollecito’s version is strikingly different. Raffele claims Knox was visibly distraught when she returned and that this was the focus of discussion (i.e. being the first thing they discussed). Knox, on the other hand, claims that she did not even bring up the bizarre circumstances back at her apartment until “after” they finished mopping the kitchen floor.

 

In his latest statement, Sollecito is clearly trying to distance himself from Knox, believing that there is far more evidence against her than against him. “You all know that the focus was only through Amanda to her behavior, to her peculiar behaviour, but whatever it is, I’m not guilty for it.“Why do they convict me? Why do put me on the corner and say that I’m guilty just because in their minds I have to be guilty because I was her boyfriend. It doesn’t make any sense to me.” Sollecito forgets to mention the bloody barefoot prints at Knox’s apartment, found to be in Kercher’s blood attributed to him, the knife found in his apartment that scientists say was the murder weapon, his DNA found on Meredith Kercher’s bra that was found in her room, even though Sollecito claims that he was never ever in that room, and his own strange behavior, which includes providing a false alibi (saying he and Knox were at a party with a friend on the night of the murder) and several conflicting versions. 

But what’s there to question if you [Raffaele] were with Knox the whole day and night of Meredith Kercher’s murder? It appears as though Sollecito is alluding to the notion that he knows something far more than he is saying; yet, he is being very careful with his words—only providing us with a hint of this. His latest statement is a clear attempt to distance himself from Knox. 

Sollecito appeared on Twitter recently, for what he claimed was, to answer questions and clear his name. He was very outspoken of his innocence and had no problem in his witty, sarcastic responses to those who questioned his innocence. However, when I asked him about the Mansey interview he did claiming that he was with Knox at a friend’s party on the night of the murder, Sollecito disappeared for a couple of days, came back writing only in Italian, and ceased from responding to anymore questions.

Is it possible that Sollecito will turn on Knox all together at some point when the pressure mounts over the next year? Guess we’ll have to wait and see…