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Competency hearing of Baby Gabriel's mom is postponed by Laurie Merrill - Aug. 11, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic Maricopa County Judge Paul McMurdie, having been told "both parties need additional time," on Tuesday postponed the competency hearing of Baby Gabriel's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, from today to Aug. 25. At issue is whether Johnson, a 25-year-old Tempe resident charged with kidnapping, conspiracy to commit custodial interference and child abuse, is competent to ever participate in her defense and understand the proceedings. Four of five doctors who evaluated Johnson found her to be incompetent. Of those, three determined she could be restored to competency with medicine and counseling. If McMurdie finds Johnson unrestorable, she will likely be sent to the Arizona State Hospital instead of trial, undergoing release hearings every two years, officials said. Johnson first said she smothered her baby, then said she gave him to a couple in a park under the direction of Tammi Smith, also charged in the case.
Baby Gabriel case: Judge denies motions to release mother, remove prosecution by Michael Kiefer and Laurie Merrill - Aug. 26, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic The judge in the case of missing Baby Gabriel on Thursday denied motions that would have removed the Maricopa County Attorney's Office from the case and allowed defendant Elizabeth Johnson to be released on house arrest with a monitor. The judge set a final hearing on whether Baby Gabriel's mother is competent to stand trial Sept. 16. Johnson, 25, charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference has been held without bond at Estrella Jail since January 2010. Her blond-haired, blue-eyed then-8-month-old baby, Gabriel, was last seen alive with her in December 2009. Johnson first said she smothered her son and put him in the trash because the baby's father talked to girls. The Tempe resident later recanted, saying she gave him to an anonymous couple in San Antonio partly under the direction of Scottsdale resident Tammi Smith, 39, who is also charged in the case. Defense attorney Dan Raynak argued before Judge Paul McMurdie in Maricopa County Superior Court that Johnson was so tainted by a jailhouse visit from a San Antonio detective that she is neither able to cooperate with them nor is competent to stand trial. Four of five doctors who have examined Johnson agree, but three said she could be restored to competency with medication and therapy. In the motion to remove Maricopa County prosecutors from the case, Raynak said it would erase a "perception of impropriety." That impropriety, he argued, stems from allowing Detective Jesse Salame to conduct an illegal interview with his client. "It's gone on long enough," Raynak said as his client, as well as Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary, looked on. Johnson sat next to attorney Marci Kratter while McQueary watched the proceeding from public seats. Deputy County Attorney Brad Astrowsky, working with Deputy County Attorney Angela Andrews, said it was not improper but a "harmless error." "These aren't mistakes," Raynak responded. "These are calculated tactics." In another motion that McMurdie denied, Raynak argued Johnson should be released to house arrest with an ankle monitor or to Desert Vista Behavioral Health Center in Mesa. Once again, Raynak referred back to Salame, whose interference, he said, made it impossible for her to work with former attorneys Adam Feldman and Nick Alcock. They withdrew from the case, they said, because Johnson no longer trusted them after Salame reportedly told her that he was the only one she could trust. If Feldman were still on the case, it would have been tried long ago, Raynak said. "Give her a monitor. Put her on house arrest. She has been in custody way too long," he said. He later added, "She would either be in prison, on probation or out because she would have gone to trial." "Given her track record, I am not inclined to put her in an unsecured facility," McMurdie said, referring perhaps to both Johnson's behavior at Estrella and her December 2009 flight with Gabriel to Texas. He offered to move Johnson to Desert Vista for the purpose of restoring her to competency, which would possibly speed the pace of justice. "Are you willing to send her to restoration now?" McMurdie asked. Raynak said he wants to stay the course with the competency hearing. Johnson, who has waived her presence at many of her hearings, must attend the Sept. 16 competency hearing, McMurdie said. Turning to Johnson, he pointed to Maricopa County sheriff's deputies and said, "When I say you need to be here, if you wake up that morning and don't want to come, those gentlemen will bring you."
Judge rules Elizabeth Johnson incompetentSourceJudge rules Johnson incompetent, delays trial in baby Gabriel case Posted: Friday, September 30, 2011 3:42 pm | Updated: 6:06 pm, Fri Sep 30, 2011. By Mike Sakal, Tribune A high-profile trial involving a missing East Valley boy once again has been pushed back, as a judge ruled Friday that his mother is not competent to stand trial. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie said he believes Elizabeth Johnson’s mental state can be restored, and doctors will need to conduct further evaluations that will help him decide whether she returns to court or heads to a state mental hospital. McMurdie rendered his decision after prosecutors and Johnson’s defense attorney argued for four hours Friday over whether she understands what she’s doing. Johnson, 24, has been incarcerated in Maricopa County’s Estrella jail on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference since her December 2009 arrest in Florida following statements to authorities and her estranged boyfriend and child’s father Logan McQueary of Gilbert that she killed her son Gabriel and also that she gave him away in San Antonio. In mid-December 2009, Johnson took the boy to that city and stayed at a motel where she claimed to have given him to a couple she did not know. McQueary on Friday expressed frustration with his child’s mother. “I think Elizabeth is just playing around and not owning up to what she’s done,” he said. “It’s taken a long time to get to this point, but I know she’s capable of talking. I don’t think her attorneys know what to do, but they can’t do anything until she talks. “She’s being a coward and making the case all about her.” McMurdie’s decision is another turn in the case that has gained national attention and now has spanned six attorneys who have tried to defend Johnson, all of whom have said she is not giving them information and they cannot get anywhere with her, including current defender Daniel Raynak. She also has had six evaluations by psychologists, all of whom have made different decisions involving her competency to stand trial. “I think she’s mentally ill,” Raynak said outside the courtroom. No further court dates are pending at this time, but doctors again will have to evaluate Johnson and submit their reports to the judge within 60 days. “This woman is not restorable to competency. It’s never going to happen,” Raynak said. “She has no sense of reality and there is no sense of dealing. “Not once has she talked about a single fact of the case. Never have I had anyone with a complete lack of inability to focus in on what matters. The closest person on Earth, she won’t confide in,” he said, referring to his client’s grandfather Robert Johnson. “We can’t conduct a defense when she’s going to broadcast what we say to everyone,” referring to recorded jail conversations with relatives and apparent attempts to reach out to news media. Prosecutors argued that Johnson knows what’s going on. “She’s very fond of her attorneys until something happens that doesn’t go her way, then she gets upset,” said Maricopa County deputy prosecutor Angela Andrews. Tammi Smith of Scottsdale, a woman who once was interested in adopting Gabriel, will appear in court in February in charges of forgery, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in connection with the Gabriel case. “The case is about Gabriel,” McQueary said. “We still don’t know where he is.” Johnson, who was present in court on Friday wearing a striped jail uniform, stared straight ahead and left the courtroom with tears in her eyes after the judge’s ruling and brief meeting with Raynak. McMurdie’s decision on Friday marked the second time that Johnson was deemed incompetent to stand trial. In early June 2010, the judge first ruled that she was incompetent to stand trial, but mentally restorable through counseling and medication after reviewing psycholigist’s Dr. Thomas Russell Geen’s report he submitted to the court. Slightly more than three months later, Johnson’s restoration process was ruled complete. • Contact writer: (480) 898-6533 or msakal@evtrib.com
Mother of Baby Gabriel found incompetent to stand trial by Weldon B. Johnson - Sept. 30, 2011 03:27 PM The Arizona Republic The judge in the case of missing Baby Gabriel ruled Friday that the baby's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, is incompetent to stand trial but asked doctors to try again to prepare her to face a jury. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie ordered a report within 60 days on whether Johnson could be restored to competency through therapy or medication. Johnson, 25, of Tempe, has been charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. She has been held without bond at Estrella Jail since January 2010. The issue Friday was whether she is competent to participate in her defense. Her attorney, Daniel Raynak, argued that Johnson was intelligent and aware of her surroundings, but she was incapable of participating in her defense in a meaningful way. He said she has not discussed the relevant facts of the case with her attorneys. He said that he didn't believe that Johnson could be restored to competency. "I don't think she'll ever be able to have a meaningful dialogue or be able to assist her attorneys at trial or in preparation for trial," Raynak said. County psychologist Thomas Geen testified that Johnson may not be cooperating with her attorneys but that there was nothing to make him believe she could not be restored to competency. The prosecution presented transcripts of numerous phone calls and letters Johnson made to her family where she discussed the case. She at times seemed to discuss strategy or complained about her attorneys. But Raynak said those letters and calls strengthened the argument that Johnson was not capable of assisting in her defense. He said the communications with family members revealed that she was focused on the wrong things. The fact that she revealed details of conversations and interactions between herself and attorneys was proof that she was not capable of assisting in her own defense, he said. "You can't conduct a defense if she goes out and tells everything that we say," Raynak said in his closing statement. The county attorneys argued that just because Johnson chose not to cooperate with her attorneys does not mean she was incompetent. "Lack of trust is not a mental illness," Deputy County Attorney Brad Astrowsky said. Baby Gabriel was 8 months old when he was last seen alive with Johnson in December 2009. She first said she smothered the child and put him in the trash because the baby's father talked to other women. She later recanted that statement, saying she gave him to an anonymous couple in San Antonio partly under the direction of Scottsdale resident Tammi Smith, 39, who is also charged in the case. Johnson tried to speak after McMurdie issued his ruling but was told to be quiet. The baby's father, Logan McQueary, attended Friday's court proceedings. He called for Johnson to simply tell the truth. "I think she's being a coward and not owning up to what she's done," McQueary said. "She's capable of helping them. She's choosing not to talk."
One problem with trying people for murder when no body is foundHere is one of the problems with trying people for murder when no body is found.Man thought slain by John Wayne Gacy alive and well Long-lost relation, thought slain by John Wayne Gacy, alive and well and living in South Florida By Steve Mills, Tribune reporter October 26, 2011 On a May day in 1977, Harold Wayne Lovell left his home on South Pulaski Road for Aurora to try to land a construction job. At 19, he was tall and thin with long sandy blond hair framing a full mouth and broad nose. He preferred to be called Wayne. Then he vanished. For years, Lovell's family believed he was a victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. A younger sister, Theresa Hasselberg, a nurse in Alabama, kept newspaper clips about Gacy. A brother, Tim Lovell, read books about Gacy and theorized that Wayne and Gacy crossed paths while Gacy did construction work at a fast-food restaurant in Aurora. Two weeks ago, they contacted the Cook County sheriff's office, which has reopened the Gacy case in an effort to identify eight long-unidentified victims, so they could submit a genetic profile for testing. But instead of finding the sad connection to Gacy that they always thought existed, they found something that shattered their expectations, brought a large measure of relief and raised a host of questions: a police booking photo online that showed their brother was alive, although sometimes in trouble with police, in South Florida. Before dawn Tuesday, the family was reunited, with Wayne Lovell getting off a Greyhound bus and stepping into the embrace of his sister and brother, an unexpected yet happy ending to their lengthy quest. "I've gone from having nothing to having all this," Wayne Lovell said in an interview. "It's awesome." Since Cook County sheriff's officials said two weeks ago that they had unearthed skeletal remains of those eight unidentified victims earlier this year, families who lived for decades with painful mysteries have come forward to see whether, with the help of advances in science, they might finally know what happened to their son, brother or cousin. For some families, the possibility of a link to Gacy has burned within them for decades, pushing them to study the serial killer and try to determine if their loved one might somehow have crossed paths with Gacy. For others, the possibility Gacy is the answer to a decades-old question is new, strange and even a little unwelcome. Their loved ones disappeared, never to be heard from again, yet they never allowed themselves to imagine that they could become part of such a dark and violent story with the serial murderer at its center. With only eight unidentified bodies, most of the families who come forward will find themselves where they started, with desperate questions about how a loved one walked out the door one day and never came home. The only new information they may get is that a loved one was not a victim of Gacy. According to Sheriff Tom Dart, more than 120 families have emailed the sheriff's department or called a hotline to learn if they qualify for the testing that could link them to the DNA of one of those unidentified victims. Approximately 70 of them, Dart said, are "right in our target zone, agewise and locationwise." That is, their missing family member fits the profile of most of Gacy's victims: between 14 and 21 or so when last seen, and either living or working where Gacy was known to meet his victims. Seven families have been swabbed to obtain DNA samples, and four more are being readied; the samples will be sent to researchers in Texas doing the genetic testing. Results are expected in two or three weeks. "Some cases, you're shaking your head saying, 'This is really good,'" the sheriff said in a recent interview. Gacy was convicted of the murders of 33 young men and boys in the 1970s, all but one of them strangled, many of them found in the crawl space of his Norwood Park Township home. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994. Wayne Lovell said he left home because he was at odds with his mother. "I never felt wanted at home, so I left," he said. He soon made his way to Florida and has been there for more than a quarter-century, working in the shipyards, doing lawn work and painting, even working with horses. He has had minor trouble with the law, he said. Once, he came back to Chicago to look for his mother, but she was gone. She died in 2001. Theresa Hasselberg said her brother looks old, not unexpected after all the years. But she said she was happy to have him home. It was not the ending she anticipated — she feared the worst — but it was welcome. "After all these years," she said, "he's home." smmills@tribune.com Families seeking information can call (800) 942-1950 or go to the website cookcountysheriff.com/sheriffs_police/gacy/gacy.html#MissingForm
Baby Gabriel's mother fit to stand trial, expert says by Kevin Kennedy - Dec. 7, 2011 09:45 PM 12 News - The Arizona Republic Elizabeth Johnson, the mother of missing Baby Gabriel, is competent to stand trial, a Maricopa County psychologist said in a report discussed in court Wednesday. Maricopa County Judge Paul McMurdie read the findings of county psychologist Thomas Geen at the hearing. In October, McMurdie ruled that Johnson, 25, was "incompetent but restorable to stand trial" and ordered a medical report on her status within 60 days. At the time, Johnson's attorneys fought the ruling, saying Johnson had serious mental-health issues. "This is clearly a woman with a problem. She is not just being manipulative," defense attorney Marci Kratter said. Also on Wednesday, Johnson's defense team informed the judge that their relationship with Johnson, "is broken" and asked to withdraw from the case. "We are dealing with someone with serious mental-health problems," Kratter said. "She does not trust anyone, and we cannot work with her at this point." Outside the courthouse, Kratter called the psychologist's findings laughable and said the standard for finding someone competent in Maricopa County is "ridiculously low." Johnson, of Tempe, has been held without bond at Estrella Jail since January 2010. She has been charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in connection with the disappearance of her son, Gabriel, who was 8 months old when he was last seen alive with Johnson in December 2009. Johnson first said she smothered Gabriel and put him in the trash. She later recanted and said she gave the baby to a couple in San Antonio. Johnson, who has missed several court hearings, appeared in court Wednesday. Dressed in black and white prison garb, she wore shackles and handcuffs. She appeared calm throughout the proceedings, smiling at times, but spent most of the day looking around the courtroom with no expression. Johnson said little, nodding when McMurdie asked if she understood that her attorneys were withdrawing. McMurdie set a status conference hearing for Tuesday, which likely means a public defender will be appointed to her case. Besides Kratter's team, two additional defense teams have asked to be dismissed. Kratter said the next logical step would be for Johnson's new attorney to ask for an evidentiary hearing. During that hearing, the psychologist's findings could be refuted.
Trial might finally be in sight in Baby Gabriel caseSourceTrial might finally be in sight in Baby Gabriel case Posted: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 7:02 am | Updated: 1:07 pm, Tue Jan 3, 2012. By Mike Sakal, Tribune | 0 comments If alive, missing “Baby Gabriel” Johnson wouldn’t be a baby anymore. In fact, the Tempe boy, who was 7 months old when he disappeared, would now be a walking, talking toddler two years after his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, took him to San Antonio while in the midst of a custody battle. Johnson, 25, who said that she killed her son only to later say that she had not killed him, but had given him to a couple she didn’t know, is waiting to stand trial after doctors deemed her competent in December. Since early 2010, Johnson has been incarcerated in the Maricopa County Estrella Jail on a $1.1 million cash bond on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in connection to Gabriel’s disappearance. He was last seen at a Homegate Inn and Suites Motel in San Antonio on Dec. 27, 2009. Tammi Smith, 39, of Scottsdale, the woman who was interested in adopting Gabriel, will be tried with Johnson — a trial tentatively scheduled to begin in February. Smith has been charged with forgery, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in connection to the case. Authorities have maintained that Smith was not only researching possibilities to adopt Gabriel, but how to adopt an adult — Johnson — so she could obtain custody of Johnson’s child. Murder charges against Johnson coming from San Antonio seem unlikely at this time and a hearing is scheduled in Maricopa County Superior Court on Friday when Johnson’s latest attorneys are expected to support Judge Paul McMurdie’s decision that Johnson is mentally competent to stand trial. CNN Headline News’ Nancy Grace Show has billed the Elizabeth Johnson trial in its top four trials the show will be following in 2012. If convicted on all the charges, Johnson could face a sentence ranging from nine months in jail to 20 years in prison, according to information from prosecutors. “Maricopa County is the only place where Elizabeth is going to face justice,” Frank McQueary, the child’s paternal grandfather, has said throughout the court proceedings, which have included numerous reschedulings of trial dates mostly due to the uncertainty of Johnson’s mental state. “They will not charge her with murder and try her in San Antonio because there’s no physical evidence that she killed Gabriel. Unless, they come up with any evidence in San Antonio that she did kill Gabriel, they won’t try her because they know they have one shot at convicting her. They want to be damn sure they can get a conviction.” In a case that has received national media attention, the whereabouts of Gabriel have seemed to fade into the background. Most of the spotlight has been on Johnson’s refusals to leave her jail cell to attend court proceedings, debates on the status of her mental state and a parade of attorneys who have said Johnson is not doing anything to assist them in her defense, causing them to withdraw from the case. Throughout the course of the ordeal, the search for Gabriel also led authorities to Tennessee where a woman operating an adoption agency was questioned; it triggered a murder investigation in San Antonio where an extensive landfill search ensued for the boy’s possible remains; and it prompted renowned private investigators J.J. Armes and Ken Gamble to look into the case as well. Although both private investigators withdrew from the search due to lack of financial resources, they both believed that Gabriel was still alive. But the child’s father, Logan McQueary, formerly of Gilbert and now living out of state in an attempt to move forward with his life, has resigned himself to what forensic experts have believed all along: that Johnson, as she initially told McQueary during a chilling phone call on Dec. 27, 2009, suffocated Gabriel and stuck his “little blue body” in a diaper bag before tossing it into a Dumpster. Meanwhile, Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson, believes that his granddaughter has “come as clean as she can,” and did not kill Gabriel. “I don’t think she harmed the child,” Robert Johnson said. “I think she did what she said she did in the park that day in San Antonio: She gave Gabriel away and doesn’t know who she gave him to.” He added, “Her attitude right now is this: She is going to stipulate to her attorneys to support her competency and go to trial because she said she can win.” Contact writer: (480) 898-6533 or msakal@evtrib.com
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