Popular Posts

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Habeas writs on Brady violations, corrupt DPS lab tech, and update on my Slave Ranch book



Fifth Circuit orders review of habeas application for notorious Austin convicted murderer
(Hill Country connection)
The Austin American Statesman reports:
Six years after a string of unsuccessful appeals, Colton Pitonyak, convicted in one of Austin’s most notorious slayings, has a chance at a new trial.
The former University of Texas student is serving a 55-year sentence for the 2005 slaying of Jennifer Cave, who was shot and found dismembered and mutilated in the bathtub of his West Campus apartment. But defense attorneys Joe Turner and Christopher M. Perri have long argued that it was Laura Ashley Hall, his friend and accomplice, who killed the 21-year-old woman out of passionate jealousy.
In the 5th Circuit petition, as in a slew of previous filings, Turner and Perri say the state withheld a jail record that could have altered the defense strategy of his lawyers at the time. The document, filled out of by a Travis County sheriff’s office employee, says two inmates said Hall confessed that she killed Cave and “was acting crazy on purpose.”
“That whore deserved to die,” an inmate is quoted. “She was just a dancer anyway.”


Kathryn Casey's book A Descent Into Hell: The True Story of an Altar Boy, a Cheerleader, and a Twisted Texas Murder shows just how twisted these two monsters are. She helped her boyfriend Pitonyak decapitate and butcher Cave, before running off to Mexico like they were a couple of outlaws. Her favorite expression was "that's just how we roll." Hall was living in a trailer park in Bandera County when she was arrested.

Major Scandal in DPS Crime Lab
Grits for Breakfast as usual is covering real news that the MSM largely ignores. Today's headline:
CCA habeas roundup: Four more free from Salvador crime lab debacle, an actual innocence writ on pot possession, and death sentence overturned.
"The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued four new habeas writs on yesterday's hand down list that will result in four more people with drug offenses from Galveston County being released whose sentences between them totaled 29.5 years because of alleged misconduct by former DPS crime lab worker Jonathan Salvador in Houston. These writs bring the total released up to 16 convictions reversed, with sentences totaling 127.5 years so far."

Update on my Slave Ranch book.
I have temporarily taken my book about the Texas Slave Ranch down from Amazon.Kindle. A reader alerted me that the format in the excerpt Kindle posted was messed up. People are starting to buy it. I got one 5 star review (the reader compared the story to Ed Gein, the real life model for Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs and the Texas Chain Saw Massacre), a 4 star review, and a 1 star from someone who said he or she couldn't believe Amazon allowed it to be published. I don't know if the one star review is a descendant of the inbred Ellebracht clan - probably not, since I doubt they can ever read.

Here's a poem that law enforcement found when they searched the ranch, probably written by Walter Wesley Ellebracht, Jr.

The Shack
I know a place where they have a shack.
When you say shack you think of a broken down building.
But this is not a broken down building at all.
This shack is commonly known as a tube shack. Why?
Because it is made of tubes. Yes, innertubes.
No your not crazey.
No your not dreaming.
Yes your wide awake.
Yes you are now in the twilite zone.
Where there is no escape.
Where your night mare become realiety.
So just relax and enjoy.
Fore here is where you will spend the rest of your life.


3 comments:

  1. I just love Jr's use of free verse for this piece.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 'How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?'

    Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said.

    'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This post is off topic.

    I read a piece in the KDT about the local Museum of Western Art. It seems nobody in Kerrville is interested in “Western Art” anymore, which is an indication the culture is changing. Western Art is one of the few, maybe the only art genre defined by the subject matter. Like any good propaganda, it must convey an idea, a mythical view of the American West, complete with sober, healthy Indians, proud Anglo cowboys, and of course the obligatory barbed wire and quail. One will never see anything thought provoking in Western Art.

    Devoting a museum to Western Art is typical of the phony, pretentiousness that dominates the Conservative, Christian culture of Kerrville, and I am glad to see changes. What I found especially galling about the Museum were the bronze plaques honoring Enron and Joe Foy for their generous contributions. Every museum in Houston removed the Enron name when it was disclosed that Enron was nothing but a criminal organization, however, Kerrville has a love affair with Enron and supercriminal Joe Foy (Enron Board Member). It seems Enron and Joe Foy passed around some MONEY in Kerrville, and that trumps everything.

    Good riddance to the Western Art scene, and I hope they find a good use for that marvelous building which housed that trash for so many years.

    ReplyDelete