codi17
Master
Posts : 148
Points : 4780
Reputation : -1
Join date : 2011-11-26
Age : 29
Location : under your bed
 |  Subject: News Headlines 3  Wed Nov 30, 2011 3:28 am | |
|  Mother flies banner for dead son justiceThe people of San Francisco won’t forget Brandon Lee Evans - his mother won’t let them.
Last weekend, for the fourth time since her son’s death, Christine Evans flew a banner over the city with his picture and the question “Who Killed My Son?”.
On November 29, 2008, 20-year-old Brandon was shot in the back by a long-range bullet during a trip to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California.
Three years on, the murder mystery is no closer to being solved, but his mother has refused to give up hope of justice.
Ms Evans and Brandon’s two brothers have been working desperately to find answers, but the $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest remains unclaimed and police are out of leads, NBC Bay Area News reported.
In 2009 Christine was banned from distributing flyers at a music festival, so she decided to fly her message over the event on a banner.
"It's been three years, I know there are a lot of people out there who know who did this. We just need more information," Ms Evans told NBC.
She said her son had moved to San Francisco from their home town of San Diego just weeks before his death to attend college and pursue his interest in music.
On the night he was killed Brandon was socialising with friends at the Golden Gate Park, a public park near the city over 5 kilometres long, and had returned to his car to get his mobile phone when he was shot.
He made it back to his friends before he collapsed, unable to speak.
Paramedics were called immediately, but Brandon died en route to the hospital.
The Evans family has since been fundraising to continue their efforts to find the killer, visiting California regularly to hand out flyers and advertise their website www.justiceforbrandon.comJackson doctor given maximum sentenceThe doctor convicted in the death of Michael Jackson has been sentenced to the maximum four years behind bars by a judge who denounced him as a greedy, remorseless physician whose gross negligence killed the pop star.
Dr Conrad Murray sat stoically with his hands crossed on Tuesday as Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor repeatedly chastised him for what he called a "horrific violation of trust" while caring for Jackson.
"Absolutely no sense of fault, and is and remains dangerous" to the community, Pastor said as he delivered a nearly half-hour tongue lashing in the Los Angeles court.
Pastor said Murray sold out his profession for a promised fee of $US150,000 ($A150,000) a month and accused Murray of committing a "horrific violation of trust" when he agreed to give Jackson a powerful anaesthetic every night as an unorthodox cure for insomnia.
Murray will likely serve less than two years in county jail, not state prison, because of California's overcrowded prisons and jails.
Sheriff's officials said he will be housed in a one-man cell and be kept away from other inmates.
The tall, imposing Murray, who has been in jail for three weeks, was allowed to change into street clothes - a charcoal grey suit and white shirt - for court. But he wore prison issue white socks and soft slippers.
Jackson's family said in a statement read in court that they were not seeking revenge but a stiff sentence for Murray that served as a warning to opportunistic doctors.
Afterward, they said they were pleased with the judge's sentence.
"We're going to be a family. We're going to move forward. We're going to tour, play the music and miss him," brother Jermaine Jackson said.
After sentencing, Murray mouthed the words "I love you" to his mother and girlfriend in the courtroom.
Murray's mother, Milta Rush, sat alone on a bench in the courthouse hallway.
"My son is not what they charged him to be," she said quietly. "He was a gentle child from the time he was small."
A probation report released after sentencing said Murray was listed as suicidal and mentally disturbed in jail records before his sentencing.
However, Murray's spokesman Mark Fierro said a defence lawyer visited the cardiologist in jail last week and found him upbeat.
"That time is behind him," Fierro said.
"He's a resilient man."
Murray, 58, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a six-week trial that presented the most detailed account yet of Jackson's final hours, a story of the performer's anguish over being unable to sleep.
Pastor was relentless in his bashing of Murray, saying the physician lied repeatedly and abandoned Jackson when he was at his most vulnerable - under the anaesthesia that Murray administered in an unorthodox effort to induce sleep.
"It should be made very clear that experimental medicine is not going to be tolerated, and Mr Jackson was an experiment," Pastor said.
Propofol is supposed to be used in hospital settings and has never been approved for sleep treatments, yet Murray acknowledged giving it to Jackson then leaving the room on the day the singer died in June 2009.
As for defence arguments that Jackson tempted his own fate when he demanded propofol, Pastor said, "Dr Murray could have walked away and said no as countless others did. But Dr Murray was intrigued with the prospect of this money-for-madness medicine."
Pastor said Murray was motivated by a desire for "money, fame and prestige" and cared more about himself than Jackson.
The doctor was deeply in debt when he agreed to serve as Jackson's personal physician for $US150,000 a month during his comeback tour. The singer, however, died before Murray received any money.
"There are those who feel Dr Murray is a saint and those who feel he is the devil," Pastor said.
"He is neither. He is a human being who caused the death of another human being."
The judge said one of the most disturbing aspects of Murray's case was a slurred recording of Jackson recovered from the doctor's mobile phone.
His speech was barely intelligible and Murray would say later Jackson was under the influence of propofol.
Pastor suggested Murray might have been planning to use it to blackmail Jackson if there was a falling out between them.
"That tape recording was Dr Murray's insurance policy," Pastor said.
Defence lawyers never explained in court why he recorded Jackson six weeks before his death.
In the recording, Jackson talked about the importance of making his shows on the comeback tour "phenomenal".
Jackson's death stunned the world, as did the ensuing investigation that led to Murray being charged in February 2010.
Murray declined to testify during his trial but did participate in a documentary in which he said he didn't consider himself guilty of any crime and blamed Jackson for entrapping him into administering the propofol doses.
Murray's lawyers presented 34 letters from relatives, friends and former patients to win a lighter sentence.
They described Murray's compassion as a doctor, including accepting lower payments from his mostly poor patients.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors cited Murray's statements to advocate for the maximum term.
They also want him to pay restitution to the singer's three children - Prince, Paris and Blanket.
The exact amount Murray has to pay will be determined at a hearing in January.
In the meantime, sheriff's officials said Murray will serve a little less than two years behind bars.
A recent change in California law requires Murray to serve his sentence in county jail rather than state prison.
District Attorney Steve Cooley said he was considering asking Pastor to modify the sentence to classify the crime as a serious felony warranting incarceration in state prison.
"This is going to be a real test of our criminal justice system to see if it's meaningful at all," Cooley said. all images phrases and words belong to ninemsn | |
|
