A judge has suppressed "devastating evidence" in Atlanta's only federal death-penalty case -- a chilling interview with Brian Richardson boasting about killing his cellmate and vowing to kill again.
Richardson, 46, is serving more than 60 years in prison for bank robbery. He is charged with stabbing and strangling Steven Obara at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta in July 2007. Obara, of Madison, Conn., was serving a 10-year federal sentence for possessing child pornography and had pleaded guilty to sexual assault in state court.
During an April 7, 2008 interview with FBI agents and federal prosecutors, Richardson described how he stabbed Obara with a metal pin for being a pedophile. He says he also strangled him by stepping on his throat and wrapping a sock around his neck "real, real tight."
He slapped Obara a couple of times to revive him before finally killing him, Richardson said.
During the interview, Richardson lamented over conditions in the federal prison system and said he hoped Obara's killing would land him on death row or in the maximum security prison known as Supermax in Florence, Colo.
If not, he said coldly, he would kill again -- a fellow inmate or a guard. "Somebody else is gonna get skinned up bad," Richardson said. "First chance I get, I'm gonna kill somebody else. I promise you that."
In his Jan. 4 ruling, U.S. Magistrate Christopher Hagy suppressed the statements because Richardson had initially asked how he could get a lawyer. Richardson previously confessed to killing Obara, but video of the interview, Hagy noted, could be "devastating evidence" in Richardson's yet to be scheduled death-penalty trial.
Richardson "admits on the videotape to stabbing others, threatens to kill again if that's what it takes to get a more desirable prison placement and shows no remorse for killing Obara," Hagy noted.
At the outset of the interview, Richardson told the agents and prosecutors, "I want to talk about how I get a lawyer."
FBI Special Agent Joseph Fonseca replied by telling Richardson they would talk about that. Then Fonseca read Richardson his rights and secured his agreement to answer questions without a lawyer present. Minutes later, the agent was asking Richardson about Obara's murder.
Even though Richardson did not make an unequivocal request for a lawyer, what he said was enough for a reasonable official to consider the statement a request for counsel, Hagy wrote, citing a number or U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
For this reason, Hagy said, any answers Richardson gave after asking about a lawyer must be suppressed. Hagy's recommendation now goes to Senior U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper, who is to preside over Richardson's trial.
Richardson, a former Marine who was raised in Alabama, has numerous tattoos -- a swastika, skulls, a meth monster, a gargoyle and the initials CWA. ("Cracker with attitude," Richardson told agents.) He had recently been transferred to the penitentiary in Atlanta for stabbing an inmate at a Florida prison.
In the interview, Richardson said he wouldn't hesitate to kill another child molester. "If I get a chance to get one, I'm gonna get ‘em," he said, according to a transcript.
One of Richardson's lawyers, federal defender Stephanie Kearns, said her client's initial discussions with agents show he killed Obara because he was a child molester, not because he wanted better placement in the prison system.
"According to the Bureau of Prisons psychiatrist who testified at the [suppression] hearing, Mr. Richardson suffers from paranoid schizophrenia," Kearns said. "At the time the FBI agents and assistant U.S. attorneys interrogated him, Mr. Richardson was not medicated. He is now properly medicated and is much more rational."
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
