DAY TWO

Gwinnett murder prosecutions

(ENLARGE)

Danny Porter

District Attorney: Danny Porter

Party: Republican; Served: 1992 to present

In his own words

"The one thing I don't have is a criteria or checklist that I use [to decide whether to seek death]. The second thing I don't have is an office committee to assist me in deciding. I think that the law provides that the district attorney shall decide, and I decide."

Record: Porter sought death for 10 of the 32 eligible defendants. Three were sentenced to death. The seven others were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Analysis: Porter made Kelly Brookshire Gissendaner the only woman on Georgia's death row. But he has had high-profile disappointments, including a deadlocked jury in sentencing Wesley Harris, who executed Whitney Land, 22, and her 2-year-old daughter. The case prompted an unsuccessful effort to allow non-unanimous verdicts in death cases.

THE CASES

Death Sentences

Joaquin Arevalo, 23
In 1998, Arevalo was fired from his restaurant job after he refused to take out the trash. A week later, he robbed the restaurant and killed manager Marc Ratthaus and cook Adolfo Gonzales with gunshots to the back of the head.

Kelly Gissendaner, 28
Gissendaner persuaded her lover, Gregory Owen, to kill her husband in 1998, so they could be together and collect on her husband's insurance. Owen kidnapped Douglas Gissendaner, led him into a wooded area and beat and stabbed him.

Michael Wade Nance, 32
Nance robbed a bank in 1993, ordering the staff not to put dye packs in with the money. They did. When the packs exploded in his car, he ran to a nearby parking lot, shot a bystander, Gabor Balogh, and tried to steal his car.

Life with parole (Death sentence sought)

Michael Harold Chapel, 32
Chapel, a Gwinnett County police officer, met Emogene Thompson, 53, in 1993 when she reported that someone had stolen half of her $14,000 cash insurance settlement. He told her to bring the remaining cash to a muffler shop so he could compare serial numbers; instead, he shot her and took the money. Jury trial.

Todd Michael Clinton, 25
Clinton was angry because Roy Cole, a homebuilder who was his uncle by marriage, wouldn't lend him money. He shot Cole in 1996 and stole his car, money and watch. Cole identified his killer before he died. Plea bargain.

Byron Fleming, 32
In 1998, Fleming stood screaming about God and the devil outside his apartment. Kenneth Wimberly, a sheriff's deputy who worked security at the complex, calmed Fleming and sent him back to his apartment. But Fleming ran out, grabbed Wimberly's gun and shot him in the neck. When police arrived, Fleming emerged from his apartment and said, "What's all the commotion? I'm trying to read my Bible." Jury trial.

Gregory Bruce Owen
At the urging of his lover, Kelly Gissendaner, Owen kidnapped her husband, led him into a wooded area and beat and stabbed him in 1998. Gissendaner wanted to be with Owen and to collect on her husband's insurance. Owen negotiated a plea bargain and testified against Gissendaner.

Nathan Perry Sliger, 19
Chady Abou Zeidan, 18
Sliger and Zeidan bought marijuana from dealer Daniel West in 2001. Later in the day they returned to rob him. They beat him in the head with a hammer and stole several hundred dollars. Plea bargains.

Walter Louis Thompson, 37
Thompson lured his neighbor, Marvin Roper, out to Roper's barn near Lawrenceville, where he beat him to death with a claw hammer in 1998. Thompson also attacked Roper's wife, Donna, leaving her for dead, and looted their home. Donna was found alive three days later but suffered brain damage. At the time, District Attorney Danny Porter said he accepted a plea bargain because a key witness was believed to be dead. "It was the best I could do under the circumstances," he said.

Life in prison (Death not sought)

Phillip Daniel Adams, 31
In 1995, Adams stabbed Curtis Cleghorn, a man who had raised him since he was 14, and stole about $300. He told his girlfriend he did it because Cleghorn had called her a whore. A deer hunter found Cleghorn's body almost a year later. Jury trial.

Christopher Blackstock, 21
Terry Lynn Coe, 35
Blackstock and Coe met Shannon Morris and a friend at the Pink Pony strip club in 1995 and offered them a ride. The group went to buy drugs, but Blackstock and Coe instead demanded money and attacked the two men. Blackstock stabbed Morris nine times, and Coe hit and kicked him as he lay dying on the ground. The other man escaped. Jury trial.

Christopher Troy Campbell, 31
Campbell picked up Rochelle Ferber at a bar in 1997, and the two went to a hotel room in Lilburn. Something went wrong between them, and Campbell hit her in the head twice with a hammer and strangled her with a headband. A Tennessee state trooper apprehended Campbell as he was speeding in her stolen car with her bloody clothes in the backseat. Plea bargain.

Junius Chenoweth, 18
Chenoweth and friends robbed three men in the parking lot of an apartment complex in 2002. Chenoweth shot one of them, Humberto Hernandez, when he turned to run. Jury trial.

Claude Emmitt Corthran Jr., 18
James L. Cothron, 20
The two men, who are cousins, hired a cab in 1995 and shot driver Adekunie Balogun, a Nigerian émigré. They stole $12 so they could pay the cover charge for a party. Jury trial for Corthran, plea bargain for Cothron.

Jamin Ariel Davis, 18
Demetrios D. Washington, 20
Washington and Davis carjacked Jinwon Lee, a student from South Korea, in the parking lot of a bowling alley in 1996 and forced him into the trunk. Both defendants claimed the other shot Lee. They dumped his body in Mississippi. Jury trial.

Manuel Francisco Escobar, 20
In 2001, Escobar and two friends went to an apartment being used as a brothel to rob its customers. They shot three of them, killing Javier Olazaba. Jury trial.

Preston Lewis Harris, 27
Harris, a drifter, was staying in 1998 with Tyrone Gay, whom he'd met at a bus station. The two had sexual contact, but later, when Gay made further sexual advances, Harris stabbed him with a butcher knife. He stole Gay's car, coat and VCR. Jury trial.

James Franklin Jeffries, 32
Jeffries followed his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Sanderson, as she returned from a date in 1998. He broke into her apartment and shot her while her two young children slept nearby. Jury trial.

Ray Parker Junior, 17
Junior and another man robbed a group of men in 2002 in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Junior shot Jorge Duque twice when he resisted as they tried to take his truck. Junior was acquitted of murder and other charges in another incident a month earlier in which Junius Chenoweth was convicted of murder. Jury trial.

Michael John Lewandowski, 37
Lewandowski, who had a history of abusing his common-law wife, Kathleen Reppen, stabbed her 19 times in 1995, stabbed their 2-year-old daughter eight times and their 1-year-old son twice. The children survived. Jury trial.

Calvin Oliver, 42
Oliver, a convicted rapist, used his master key in 1999 to enter an apartment at the complex where he worked as a maintenance man. The tenant, Melissa Jennings, returned home early from work and confronted him. Oliver strangled her with a stocking and stole her engagement ring. Jury trial.

Carlos DeAndre Parham, 17
Parham and some friends went to the home of drug dealer Eric Lott in 1997 to rob him, and Parham shot Lott on his doorstep. The thieves got $36, marijuana and a cellphone. Plea bargain.

James Lamar Parker, 28
Parker bummed a ride from John Schandera outside a convenience store in 2003, as Schandera was headed home to spend the evening with his wife on Valentine's Day. He shot Schandera three times and took his wallet containing $7. Parker also stole the car, which he later set on fire. Jury trial.

Alvaro Antonio Perez, 34
Perez stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Nidia LaVerde, 11 times in 2001, using two knives after the blade of another knife broke off. He was angry because she was with another man. Perez called 911 afterward to report the killing. Jury trial.

Jose Felix Rojas, 55
After a night of drinking and partying in 2003, Rojas got into a dispute with an acquaintance, Franklin Carreno. He stabbed him 22 times. Rojas, found sleeping in the carport with wounds to his head, hands and feet, said he couldn't remember what happened. Jury trial.

Danyel LaTure Smith, 26
Smith was convicted of shaking his 2-month-old son Chandler in 2002, causing wrist and skull fractures. Chandler was brain-dead when he was admitted to the hospital. Jury trial.

Paul Anthony Turtle, 18
Turtle stole a rifle from a Lilburn pawn shop in 1995 and shot manager Michael DePriest three times when he tried to intervene. He also tried to shoot a witness, but the gun misfired. Jury trial.