114 replies to this topic

[Kelly]

http://www.omaha.com...&u_sid=10042750

Sheriff wants Edwards jailed for life for not saying where body is

Published Thursday June 14, 2007 BY TODD COOPER WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning thinks state lawmakers should make it a mandatory life sentence for anyone convicted of murder who doesn't lead authorities to the victim's body.

Several attorneys, however, say such a law would be unconstitutional.

Dunning floated the idea this week, as Christopher Edwards prepares to be sentenced Friday afternoon for the murder of Jessica O'Grady. A jury convicted Edwards in March of second-degree murder for killing O'Grady in May 2006. Her body still hasn't been found.

Edwards faces 20 years to life in prison. But Dunning thinks a convict like him should be required to reveal a body's location or receive a life sentence.

"All the grief he could have avoided by cooperating and telling the family where the body is," Dunning said, adding his contempt for such killers: "To hell with them guys."

Several attorneys shot down Dunning's idea this week noting that body-less murder cases are rare, that lawmakers rarely craft laws to address individual cases and that, most important, it denies a defendant's basic constitutional rights.

The right to remain silent. The right to maintain his innocence.

"There's a little thing called the Constitution," said Edwards' attorney, Steve Lefler. "Last I checked, that still trumps whatever someone might want to put into law."

O'Grady's relatives, frustrated and desperate to find her body, said they would back such a change. O'Grady's aunt, Shauna Stanzel, noted that a defendant might have more incentive to come clean if he knew he faced a mandatory life sentence.

"Maybe then, you're not going to roll the dice and see if you get 20 years instead of life," Stanzel said. "Does it happen very often? No. But when it happens, it sure is devastating for the families."

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said he would support anything that helps a victim's family find a body. He said, however, that he didn't know if a law like that would pass constitutional muster.

"I share the sheriff's concerns," Kleine said. "Obviously, we want to do anything we can to help a family find their loved one.

"But when you're saying that the defendant has to tell me something, that gets into serious constitutional issues."

Other attorneys noted that prosecutors still have an avenue to try to ensure a life sentence: charge the defendant with first-degree murder.

But Dunning said the decision on charges is made more complicated by the lack of a body.

A body can help reveal premeditation, if there are multiple gunshot wounds or strangulation marks.

Edwards wasn't charged with first-degree murder because prosecutors weren't sure they could prove whether he planned the murder. Second-degree murder involves an intentional killing that isn't premeditated.

Although Douglas County had only one previous murder charge in which there was a missing body and the defendant led authorities to that body before trial Dunning said such cases could become more prevalent with DNA advances.

Though investigators couldn't find O'Grady's body, they found her blood on everything from Edwards' bedroom ceiling to his clock radio to an 8-foot section of his mattress to his car trunk.

"I think we would have had a harder time proving first-degree because you have to prove premeditation," Dunning said. "Otherwise, it was an overwhelming case."

[Kelly]

http://www.ketv.com/...526/detail.html

Edwards Gets 80-Years to Life for O'Grady Murder
Omaha Man Sentenced in 2006 Killing of Jessica O'Grady

POSTED: 1:39 pm CDT June 15, 2007 UPDATED: 2:17 pm CDT June 15, 2007

OMAHA, Neb. -- A Douglas County judge Friday sentenced Christopher Edwards to 80-years to life in prison for the 2006 murder of Jessica O'Grady.

O'Grady disappeared in May of last year, and her body has never been found.

Under the judge's sentence, Edwards will not be eligible for parole until he serves 50-years of the sentence.

Before the sentence was issued, Robert Edwards, Christopher's father, said his son could not tell authorities where the body of Jessica O'Grady is, because Christopher doesn't know. Shauna Stanzel, O'Grady's Aunt, said afterwards she did not believe that.

Edwards turned himself into authorities one-year ago, and was convicted of second-degree murder in March, 2007. Edwards also was found guilty of using a weapon to commit a felony.

Prosecutors detailed extensive blood evidence found in Edwards bedroom. DNA experts testified that the blood belonged to Jessica O'Grady.

[Kelly]

http://www.omaha.com...8&u_sid=2400921

BREAKING NEWS: Edwards sentenced to 100-to-life for murder

Published Friday, June 15, 2007  BY TODD COOPER

Christopher Edwards likely will die in prison.

Douglas County District Judge J Russell Derr ensured that today when he sentenced Edwards to a term of 100 years to life for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Jessica O'Grady.

The means Edwards must serve at least 50 years under state sentencing guidelines. He would be eligible to apply for parole at 69 years of age.

Derr's sentence capped an emotional hearing - and an unusual case.

Edwards killed O'Grady - investigators believe with a sword - after she informed him that she believed she was pregnant and that he was the father.

Though her body hasn't been found, her blood was found on an 8-foot section of Edwards' mattress, his headboard, bedroom walls, clothes basket, television, bookcase, in the trunk of his car and on the sword.

Investigators, who also found a broken-handled shovel in his car, said Edwards then hid her body. Investigators tested the shovel blade and determined the dirt left on it was consistent with the silt of a river valley.

After an eight-day trial, a jury deliberated nearly 11 hours before convicting him of second-degree murder. It was the first case tried without a body in Douglas County.

Edwards, who said nothing during the sentencing hearing, plans to appeal - in part arguing that the state shouldn't have been able to prosecute him without a victim's body.

O'Grady's family and friends have conducted several searches for O'Grady, but have turned up nothing.

O'Grady's aunt, Shauna Stanzel, said she wasn't counting on Edwards having a sudden burst of conscience Friday.

She said her family is still desperate to find O'Grady, so they can give her the funeral, burial and memorial she deserves.

[Kelly]

http://www.omaha.com...&u_sid=10220585

Jessica's story was chosen as one of the top stories of 2007 by the Omaha World Herald.

9. Justice for Jessica

The disappearance and death of Jessica O'Grady would have made news justfor its tragic nature.

A 19-year-old woman - an energetic, sensitive college student - on the cusp of life.

Her killer: Christopher Edwards, a 19-year-old man she had fallen for and had a fling with - a fling she believed had resulted in pregnancy.

But Edwards' trial in March exposed much more.

There was the presumed murder weapon: a Bangkok battle sword. The callous, calculated way in which Edwards hid her body and refused to reveal its location.

And the bumbling way Edwards cleaned up - or didn't clean up - the crime scene, leaving a trail of O'Grady's blood in his bedroom and a massive bloodstain on his mattress.

In June, Edwards was sentenced to 100 years to life in prison. He sits at the State Penitentiary in Lincoln and insists on his innocence - unwilling to tell O'Grady's family where he hid her body.

[Kelly]

http://www.ketv.com/...559/detail.html

New Tip In O'Grady Case Under Investigation
Anniversaries Of Disappearance, Conviction Near

POSTED: 10:23 pm CDT March 27, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. -- Douglas County investigators are researching a new tip about the disappearance of a 19-year-old University of Nebraska-Omaha student.

essica O'Grady disappeared almost two years ago and her killer, Christopher Edwards, 19, was convicted of second-degree murder on March 31, 2007.
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O'Grady made a call from her cell phone just before midnight on May 10, 2006, saying she was headed to the 120th and Blondo streets area. That was the last she was heard from, her family said.

Investigators said spring brings renewed hope of finding O'Grady's body because the ground is thawing and more people and animals are out and about. Sgt. Eric Sellers of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department said finding the body will help make certain Edwards stays behind bars.

"I think once we do find her, we'll all be assured the case is over," Sellers said.

In February, Edwards' attorney Steve Lefler filed an appeal with the Nebraska Supreme Court. Lefler said he doesn't expect oral arguments until the end of the year or early next year.

Sellers said investigators are currently following up on the most recent tip in the case. He can't say what it is, but called it promising.

"We always hold the case open, if you will, as far as -- we want to find the body and we'll always look for that body," Sellers said. "A lot of people here, our office, all the investigators here have worked so many hours on this personally they want to find Jessica."

Shauna Stanzel, O'Grady's aunt, said the family is thankful that justice was served but that they are in a constant state of unrest. She said finding the body would help ease their anxiety.

"That would be the last thing we would do for her is put her to rest in a respectful manner," Stanzel said. "It's no easier for our family today than it was two years ago, knowing we don't know where she is in the physical sense."

There is still a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the discovery of O'Grady's remains.

[Kelly]

Jessica has been missing for 2 years today. We hope that her killer will have the decency to finally tell what he did with her remains.

[Denise]

http://www.omaha.com...&u_sid=10478005

Convicted killer Edwards argues for new trial

BY TODD COOPER  WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN- An attorney for Christopher Edwards said the Omaha man should receive a new trial in the murder of Jessica O’Grady because DNA experts could not establish when their DNA testing machine was last calibrated, serviced or repaired.


Christopher Edwards and Jessica O'Grady

That testing machine became the centerpiece of arguments this morning before the Nebraska Supreme Court in large part because of the results it rendered: That the blood that was found throughout Edwards' bedroom in May 2006 - the blood that soaked his mattress and dotted his ceiling - belonged to O'Grady.

Prosecutors say Edwards, then 19, killed O'Grady, 19, with a sword because she had told him she believed she was pregnant by him.

Denise Frost, an attorney for Edwards, argued that the lack of answers about the DNA testing machine means Edwards, convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 100 years to life in prison, should receive a new trial.

Nebraska Supreme Court judges sharply questioned whether Edwards' defense team could have and should have challenged those processes at trial - or even before trial.

"Your client had a chance to independently test the evidence," Chief Justice Michael Heavican told Frost.

While that's true, Frost said, she and Edwards' defense team had no idea that the University of Nebraska Medical Center experts who did the DNA testing would say that they didn't know when their machine had been calibrated, repaired or what its margin of error was.

"We were in the position where once these witnesses started testifying, we found that toads started hopping out," Frost said, referring to issues that popped up. "We didn't know they were going to say they had no clue."

But judges suggested Edwards and his defense team could have found out the answers to those questions before trial, through depositions of the experts or through an evidentiary hearing.

Kim Klein, an assistant state attorney general, pointed out that Edwards' attorneys did not request such a hearing.

Frost's response: "It's the state's burden of proof, not ours."

Klein defended the UNMC lab, noting that testimony at trial demonstrated that it is nationally accredited and follows precise, thorough protocols when conducting DNA tests.

In written arguments, Edwards' attorneys also suggested that the state hadn't met its burden of proof that O’Grady had died. They pointed out that no expert could quantify how much of her blood was found or that it was enough to cause her death.

Prosecutors say Edwards hid O'Grady's body after killing her. The body has not been found.

Klein noted that this case is the first time that the Nebraska Supreme Court has addressed a murder conviction without a victim's body - though courts across the country have upheld convictions in similar cases.

Klein said there was ample circumstantial evidence of O'Grady's murder, including her disappearance, her complete cutoff of contact from friends and family, the fact that one of her last phone calls was to Edwards and, of course, her blood.

"There was literally blood all over the bedroom," Klein said. "The mattress speaks volumes. It's absolutely soaked with blood."

[Denise]

http://www.nebraska.....asp?S=10708803

Neb. AG applauds court ruling upholding murder conviction

Associated Press - July 10, 2009 6:25 PM ET

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning says the state Supreme Court's ruling today in an Omaha murder case served the interests of justice.

The court upheld Christopher Edwards' murder conviction in the 2006 disappearance of his girlfriend, Jessica O'Grady. Edwards has been sentenced to 100 years in prison for the crime even though O'Grady's body was never found.

Bruning says Edwards brutally murdered Jessica O'Grady using a sword and disposed of her body. Bruning says Douglas County prosecutors did an outstanding job getting a conviction in a difficult case that relied heavily on DNA evidence.

[Jenn]

Charley Project profile for Jessica: http://www.charleypr...ady_jessica.htm

[Kelly]

http://www.wowt.com/..._131285714.html

Updated: 6:19 PM Oct 6, 2011

Aunt Of Victim "Disappointed" With Search Result
"...probably the most difficult part of all of this is knowing that somebody knows where her body is"

With the news that the latest search for the remains of Jessica O’Grady failed to find anything, her family is again experiencing all sorts of emotions. Her aunt spoke with Channel 6 News Thursday, sharing what the family has gone through these last five years, especially the past two days.

“Yes, we are disappointed that it's not her,” said Shauna Stanzel. “From the perspective of wanting this to end, knowing that someone knows where she's at, that's probably the most difficult part of all of this is knowing that somebody knows where her body is. While we're disappointed, we're thankful to the sheriff's department for their continued diligence. They have never let us down as a family and we're thankful for that.”

Stanzel says the pain of Jessica's death has come flooding back during the recent search for new evidence. “It's been kind of a back and forth I would say emotionally, thinking could this really be it and trying not to get your hopes up.”

Stanzel was informed of the search at Robert Edwards’ home at 111th and Blondo by a detective on Wednesday. “I can't say that I was surprised. Like I said, we are just thankful that there continues to be leads and they continue to follow up on them.”

Edwards' son Christopher was convicted of Jessica's murder in 2007, a year after the 19-year-old disappeared, and is serving 100 years for second-degree murder and a weapons charge.

The family hopes recent developments in this cold case trigger someone’s memory, someone who knows where Jessica’s body is and gets them to come forward.

"There is somebody who knows where Jessica O'Grady's body is and knowing that there's a human being out there who would not have the empathy to come forward and tell the sheriff's department where she's at is probably the most difficult part to deal with, other than the loss that we deal with every day.”

Stanzel said it feels like Jessica is being held hostage. "I don't know how much closure we gain from having Jessica's body, other than knowing that she's not held hostage anymore because that's what it feels like, it feels like although she is not alive, that her remains are held hostage. That doesn't seem fair to us because we feel we should be able to bury her properly and that she not be somewhere where someone just put her to hide her.”

Stanzel says no one from the Edwards family, including Christopher or Robert, has ever reached out to her or to Jessica's family. She says she prefers it that way. "I hope not to. I probably wouldn't be the person for them to approach.”

[Kelly]

http://www.ketv.com/...017/detail.html

Latest Search For O'Grady Unsuccessful

POSTED: 11:12 am CDT October 6, 2011
UPDATED: 6:23 pm CDT October 6, 2011

OMAHA, Neb. -- The Douglas County sheriff said a search for the remains of Jessica O'Grady this week turned up nothing, and the latest search has ended.

Authorities said they have found no evidence at 111th and Blondo streets linked to the disappearance and murder of O'Grady.

The property is owned by the father of the man convicted of murdering O'Grady. Two search warrants were served on the property Wednesday.

Following up on anonymous tips and signs from cadaver dogs, the National Park Service brought a ground-penetrating radar to scan Robert Edwards' back yard.

The radar showed a mass, which would be consistent with bone. But it turned out to be just rock and concrete.

"It shows you something that is different than other pieces of ground, and it was a fairly sizable mass," Sheriff Tim Dunning said.

Two days of digging left investigators empty-handed.

Dunning said investigators combed the area five years ago, but they had no reason to dig up the earth and search under the concrete. He said they will continue to investigate tips until they ultimately find O'Grady's remains.

O'Grady, 19, disappeared in May 2006.

Christopher Edwards was convicted in March 2007 of second-degree murder after prosecutors presented detailed blood evidence found in Edwards' bedroom.

DNA experts testified the blood belonged to O'Grady.

Read more: http://www.ketv.com/...l#ixzz1a3jfwwrg

[Kelly]

http://www.omaha.com...EWS01/705039872

Edwards' appeal focuses on impact of alleged fake evidence

By John Ferak
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
5/3/2012


LINCOLN — An assistant Nebraska attorney general argued in court Wednesday that it’s immaterial whether David Kofoed planted blood evidence in a 2006 murder case, saying the evidence in question had no bearing on Christopher Edwards’ guilt.

Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Klein told the Nebraska Supreme Court that the blood evidence indicating O’Grady met with foul play inside Edwards’ bedroom is not being challenged.

The blood that Edwards’ defense attorney alleges Kofoed planted was used during Edwards’ trial to show that he disposed of Jessica O’Grady’s body, Klein argued.

The comments came during oral arguments in an appeal Edwards filed over whether the former Douglas County crime lab manager planted blood evidence against him and, if so, whether that violated Edwards’ right to a fair trial.

Edwards appealed to the Supreme Court after Douglas County District Judge J Russell Derr rejected his bid for a new trial or an evidentiary hearing in the case.

Attorney Brian S. Munnelly argued that Edwards’ arrest and conviction were based partially on false and improper physical evidence obtained or manufactured by Kofoed, who was then head of the Douglas County crime lab.

During the 20-minute hearing, Munnelly acknowledged he was not suggesting that Kofoed fabricated the blood spatter in Edwards’ bedroom or his blood-soaked mattress.

Rather, Munnelly argued, several visible bloodstains found in Edwards’ car trunk and a tiny speck of O’Grady’s blood recovered from a pair of hedge shears and on a sword were fabricated.

In 2007, a Douglas County jury found Christopher Edwards guilty of second-degree murder in the death of O’Grady, whose body has not been found. Derr sentenced Edwards to a term of from 100 years to life in prison.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Klein argued that even if Kofoed planted blood inside Edwards’ car trunk or on the hedge shears or sword, a jury still would have convicted Edwards.

She called the evidence on the objects in question a “very minor part of the evidence.”

The judges, however, peppered her with questions about the allegations in Edwards’ appeal.

“If evidence was planted in this case, then you would concede a due process violation?” one of the justices asked.

“Yes,” Klein replied.

Munnelly said he wants to depose several employees of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to prove his theory in hope of getting Edwards a new trial.

“We can’t have a win-at-any-cost criminal justice system,” Munnelly argued. “Give Christopher Edwards his day in court.”

In May 2006, two of Kofoed’s technicians spent several hours searching Edwards’ impounded car at the county crime lab and found no blood evidence suggesting that Edwards’ car was used to dispose of O’Grady’s body, Munnelly told the court.

The next morning, Kofoed assigned another technician to help him process the trunk of Edwards’ car again. This time, Kofoed and his partner observed a substantial amount of O’Grady’s blood inside the trunk, Munnelly told the judges.

“It is the same situation we had in Murdock,” Munnelly said.

He was referring to a Cass County case in which Kofoed was convicted of planting murder victim Wayne Stock’s blood inside a suspected getaway car. In that case, Kofoed had supervised a six-hour search of the same car a week earlier in which no blood was found.

One month after the Murdock slayings, O’Grady disappeared in Omaha. Kofoed spearheaded the investigation that led to Edwards’ arrest and conviction.

The court took the attorneys’ arguments under advisement Wednesday and will issue its ruling later.

Meanwhile, the court is still reviewing Kofoed’s appeal of his 2010 felony conviction in the Murdock case after hearing oral arguments last September. Kofoed is now in a work release program. His mandatory sentence will end in June.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.omaha.com.../NEWS/140319344

 

Convicted killer Christopher Edwards wants conviction overturned

PUBLISHED THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014 AT 2:20 PM / UPDATED AT 12:29 PM

By Todd Cooper / World-Herald staff writer

 

Eight years after Jessica O'Grady vanished — and seven years after Christopher Edwards was convicted of killing her with a sword — almost everyone connected with the case appeared in court Thursday.

 

Edwards, 27, is seeking to have his conviction and sentence of 100 years to life in prison overturned on two grounds:

 

» That disgraced Douglas County CSI chief David Kofoed — subsequently convicted of evidence-tampering in the investigation of the slayings of Wayne and Sharmon Stock — planted evidence that led to Edwards' conviction in the O'Grady case.

 

» That Edwards' trial attorney, Steve Lefler, knew or should have known that Kofoed was “dirty'' and that he should have withdrawn from representing Edwards.

 

At the time of his 2007 trial, Edwards was a scrawny 20-year-old with a brush cut. He appeared Thursday in Douglas County District Court with long hair and a large tattoo on his right arm.

 

The hearing continues today. Kofoed, now released from prison, will resume his testimony.

 

After the hearing, District Judge J Russell Derr, who presided over Edwards' original trial, will decide whether Edwards should be granted a new one.

 

Once again O'Grady's relatives find themselves in a courtroom waiting for answers, mostly from Edwards himself.

 

Shauna Stanzel said her family is fed up that Edwards has never disclosed where he hid her niece's body, which has never been found.

 

“He was convicted, he's guilty,” Stanzel said. “I don't care what has happened since he was convicted. He's in prison. And we're in a prison of our own not knowing where she's at. We deserve to know where she's at. He could do that anonymously. He doesn't have to do that publicly.

 

“There are many ways he could give that information to us. And we deserve that.”

 

Lefler defended himself against Edwards' allegations that the lawyer had a conflict of interest because he declared during the trial that he was friends with Kofoed. Lefler testified that he often says he's friends with judges, litigants, witnesses, and that it was no different with Kofoed.

 

He said he had never socialized with Kofoed. And Lefler said he was given no inkling that Kofoed was “dirty.”

 

He learned only later that Kofoed had been accused of planting blood evidence in the car of two cousins who were wrongly jailed for months in the Stock killings. Lefler later represented Kofoed against charges that he tampered with evidence in that case.

 

Prosecutors noted that the evidence-tampering case came to light in 2008. Edwards was convicted in 2007 for the May 10, 2006, slaying of O'Grady.

 

“If I thought Dave was dirty, if I thought he had planted evidence, I would try to kill him in the courtroom,” Lefler said.

 

Lefler said he tirelessly worked to defend Edwards.

 

Though Edwards has since raised questions about whether blood was planted in his car trunk and on shears and a sword, Lefler said, there was “overwhelming” evidence against Edwards.

 

“I don't mean (spots of O'Grady's blood) that were found in the car or the garage,” Lefler said. “I mean downstairs in Christopher Edwards' bedroom.”

 

Police found O'Grady's blood had soaked Edwards' mattress, was on the ceiling, the headboard and the walls, and dotted a laundry basket, a nightstand and an alarm clock.

 

Edwards' lawyer, Jerry Soucie, had just begun to question Kofoed when the judge recessed for the evening.

 

Soucie questioned how blood had gotten in the car trunk, on the pruning shears and on the tip of the sword. Initial reviews of those items turned up nothing.

 

He also scrutinized Kofoed's assertion that he had identified a dark spot on a rubber gasket of the trunk.

 

“I said, 'Let's test it to see,' ” Kofoed testified. “It could be oil.”

 

Soucie noted that Kofoed made no such notation in his reports of initially identifying a spot, which turned out to be blood.

 

Outside court, Kofoed, 57, declined to comment on the case. He said he lives in Charlotte, N.C., with his mother.

 

He said he helps care for his mother and does some work for the nonprofit Christian organization run by his brother, former NBA player Bart Kofoed.

[Deborah]

Jessica has not been located/recovered.

 

Omaha Police Department at 444-5600