Torres, Holly cases show cost for defense

NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Mauricio Torres is taken Tuesday from the Benton County courtroom in Bentonville after being sentenced to death for the murder of his six-year-old son in Bella Vista.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Mauricio Torres is taken Tuesday from the Benton County courtroom in Bentonville after being sentenced to death for the murder of his six-year-old son in Bella Vista.

BENTONVILLE -- The last two capital murder cases that have gone to trial in Benton County have run up a combined tab of almost $275,000, with the majority of the money going to defense teams trying to spare their clients from death row.

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Mauricio Torres, 47, of Bella Vista was found guilty of capital murder and first-degree battery in November in the death of his son, Maurice Isaiah, 6.

About death row

There are 34 men on death row in Arkansas. Four are on death row as result of murders in Benton County.

Don William Davis is one of eight men scheduled to be executed next month. Davis was found guilty and sentenced to death for killing Rogers resident Jane Daniel in her home on Oct. 12, 1990. Davis’ execution is scheduled for April 17.

Brandon Lacy, Zachary Holly, and Mauricio Torres are the other the other three convicted murderers on death row for Benton County crimes. Their cases are in the appeal process.

Source: Staff report

Cathy Lynn Torres, 45, the boy's mother, took a plea deal March 8 that spared her a possible death sentence if she was convicted at trial. Her plea agreement was life imprisonment without parole and 20 years for first-degree battery. Isaiah died March 30, 2015, at a Bella Vista hospital.

The total cost for the Mauricio Torres case -- the defense, prosecutor's expenses and juror expenses -- was $102,904.

Gregg Parrish, executive director of the state Public Defenders Commission, said the commission spent $78,263, including $51,912 for attorneys, in the Torres case.

Zachary Holly of Bentonville was tried in May 2015 and was found guilty of capital murder, kidnapping and rape in the killing of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman in November 2012.

Holly's trial rang up $171,979 in expenses for the defense, prosecutors and jurors.

The Public Defenders Commission paid $147,617, including $108,089 for attorneys, in that case.

There were conflicts so Maurico Torres and Holly were not represented by local public defenders or attorneys with the commission in Little Rock. The two were represented by private attorneys.

Prosecutors spent a little over $32,400 combined in Holly's and Mauricio Torres' cases.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Cathy Torres of Bella Vista arrives Wednesday with one of her attorneys, Tony Pirani, at the Benton County Courthouse annex in Bentonville.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Zachary Holly is escorted out of the Benton County Court Annex on Wednesday by Benton County Sheriff’s Office deputies. Holly was found guilty and sentenced to death in the 2012 murder of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman.

LAWYERS ON THE CASE

Laurent Sacharoff, associate professor of law at the University of Arkansas School of Law, said there has not been a good study done in Arkansas about the cost of prosecuting capital murder trials.

But studies conducted in other states and on the federal level estimate the cost at $500,000 to $1 million to prosecute a capital case, Sacharoff said.

The Public Defenders Commission wants at least two lawyers on death penalty cases, Parrish said. Death penalty cases can be handled by local public defender's offices, the commission's capital conflicts lawyers or the commission will appoint private attorneys. A person who faces a possible death sentence can hire any lawyer to represent him, but public defenders and private attorneys paid by the commission must be death qualified, Parrish said.

Jeff Rosenzweig, Bill James and George Morledge, all private lawyers, were appointed to represent Mauricio Torres, who was declared indigent by the court.

Holly, 32, who also was declared indigent, was represented by private attorneys Kent McLemore and Robby Golden and the Public Defenders Commission paid for his defense.

MITIGATION A MUST

Mitigation can run up the cost in defending someone in a death penalty case. Mitigation involves an investigation of the accused's background, childhood, education and work history.

McLemore also was a member of the defense for Broderick Laswell, who faced a death sentence in connection with the robbery and murder of Randall Walker. A jury found Laswell guilty of capital murder, but recommended he serve life imprisonment without parole.

"We are required to do a socio-family history and talk with as many people as we can find to learn about our clients," McLemore said of mitigation.

That task often involves interstate travel, McLemore said.

Defense attorneys want to have face-to-face meetings with their witnesses. That could mean a trip to El Salvador or Mexico, said Jay Saxton, Benton County's chief public defender, who once spent a week in San Antonio working on a death penalty case.

The commission spent $6,131 for defense mitigation in the Torres case and $1,570 for the services in the Holly case.

Defense experts, who are used in mitigation, cost $2,415 in the Torres case and $24,801 in the Holly case.

The commission pays for expert witnesses for the defense, Saxton said.

A mitigation investigation begins even before the accused's birth, Saxton said. Attorneys want to know if there were any prenatal issues or if the accused's mother abused drugs or alcohol while she was pregnant. It's also an investigation of the accused's life through childhood and into their adult life.

"You have to know more about that person that they even know about themselves," Saxton said. "That's only one facet in a death penalty case.

WORKING THE CASE

Saxton said jury selection is also a important stage of any death penalty trial.

"Attorneys try to get a jury that's going to be fair and give their client the benefit of doubt," Saxton said.

Saxton said death penalty cases are "very time consuming" for any office. There are at least two attorneys assigned to the case, along with an investigator and mitigation expert.

McLemore said the hours a lawyer will spend working on a death penalty case far exceed the hours he will work on other criminal cases, including murder cases where prosecutors don't seek the death penalty.

Saxton has represented at least a half dozen people who faced the death penalty, but only two of the cases went to trial.

"It's difficult to do these cases, because you see them in a different light from the crimes they are accused of committing," Saxton said. "You get to see the good side of them."

Death penalty cases are emotionally draining. There are emotional low points but also some lighter moments with clients when they may share a laugh, Saxton said.

Benton County Prosecutor Nathan Smith said pursuing the death penalty is a serious matter.

"It is emotionally taxing on the victim's family, jurors who hear gruesome evidence, investigators who testify about troubling facts and even prosecutors who try the case," Smith said. "Emotionally, a death penalty case is draining on everyone involved. The law rightly places a high bar before the state when it seeks the death penalty. Despite the difficulty associated with a death penalty case, there are some murders so vile that no punishment other than the death penalty is just."

Mauricio Torres and Holly are being held at Varner Supermax's death row in Lincoln County.

NW News on 03/19/2017

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