Q101 The Alternative
Q101 (formerly on Chicago radio @ 101.1 FM) The Alternative - Chicago's New Rock Alternative - Everything Alternative - Chicago's Alternative - Gen X - Generation X
Life or death, that is the question. A paperwork technicality is what made the difference when the California Supreme Court last week tossed out the death sentence of a man convicted of murdering rock guitarist Dave Navarro’s mother and her friend nearly 30 years ago. This ruling that could affect the cases of Scott Peterson and other death row inmates.
The unanimous court said the trial judge presiding over the trial of John Riccardi improperly dismissed a prospective juror because of her conflicting written responses in a questionnaire asking her views of the death penalty.
In 1984, a narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that reversal of the death penalty is automatic when potential jurors are dismissed because of their written answers to questions about their views on capital punishment.
The state high court upheld Riccardi’s murder conviction. Once a noted body builder, he was convicted of killing former girlfriend Connie Navarro in a jealous rage. Her friend Sue Jory also was killed. Navarro’s son played guitar for the band “Jane’s Addiction.”
Riccardi was arrested in Houston eight years after the killings when “America’s Most Wanted” aired a segment on the 1983 crime. A tipster recognized him and alerted authorities.
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They ran. They hid. They even changed their identities. They got away with it for a dozen years. Acting on a tip received from a viewer of”America’s Most Wanted” the previous night, U.S. Marshals from Arizona made the arrest of an Illinois couple wanted for running a Ponzi scheme that targeted friends, the elderly, and even family members, authorities said last week.
As fugitives, Nelson Grant Hallahan, 65, and wife Janet Hallahan, 54, lived in several states in the Southwest and had used a number of aliases, the Marshals Service said Sunday.
The two were arrested by deputy marshals Saturday afternoon in Tonopah, a desert community 50 miles west of Phoenix. Officials believe they hid in Arizona for the past couple years.
“The 12-year run from justice of the Hallahans, also known as the ‘Mini Madoffs,’ has come to an end,” U.S. Marshal for Arizona David Gonzales said in a statement.’
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-illinois-ponzi-scheme-fugitives-caught-in-arizona-20120507,0,678632.story
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