Murder case costs taxpayers over $223K
While a plea bargain stopped them from going to trial, the murder case against three men who burned a woman to death here in 2003 still ranks as one of the costliest cases in state history.
According to records of the Administrative Office of Courts, cost of preparing the case for trial is presently at a combined $223,200 with more bills coming in even in light of the incarcerations of convicted murderers Ruben Pimentel, Luiz Gomez and Franklin De La Cruz.
The men entered guilty pleas earlier this summer with Pimentel receiving life in prison and his two partners in crime each getting 36 years at 100 percent for helping in the murder of Gina Thompson, 35. Gomez and De La Cruz have already filed petitions to get out of their plea bargains saying they did not know what they were doing.
The men entered pleas after Pimentel doused the woman with gas in 2003 as she slept on a sofa inside her home and then set her on fire.
The other two men reportedly helped restrain witnesses. The crime came after Pimentel wrongly believed Thompson had stolen the cocaine they had just smuggled here from New York. The cocaine was later found, hidden inside the car, by lawmen investigating the case.
Given the gravity of the crime, prosecutors asked for the death penalty against all three men. However, in facing the death penalty, the men were each afforded two death penalty qualified attorneys. Also fueling the high price of their representation was the fact De La Cruz and Gomez, who are half-brothers, spoke little English and had to have court-approved interpreters not only during court but also while they were visited by their attorneys in jail.
De La Cruz by far led the way in expenditures as his defense has totaled $96,174 so far as compared to Gomez at $62,472, and the ring leader, Pimentel at $64,553, even though he did not require an interpreter. The figures reflect only the defense costs and costs of holding the pre-trial hearings and do not include prosecutorial and investigative costs.
“The worst part of asking for the death penalty is that the defense gets extra attorneys, extra investigators and experts,” said District Attorney General Dale Potter, whose office will soon be seeking the death penalty against a local man accused of murdering a Centertown woman last month. “This isn’t something the state gets. If we need extra experts, we have to justify it, and juggle overtime our employees might have to work to make a case.”
Historically, the case is high on the state rankings of costs, most of which, if not all, will be charged to taxpayers.
The combined bill, ironically, ranks seventh all time, just behind the defense tab amassed by Doug Myers for the Myers Lane triple murders here in 1999 where he murdered his girlfriend and two children who witnessed the crime. He is serving life in prison after being convicted. Like the trio in the Thompson murder, Myers also at first faced the death penalty before prosecutors withdrew their request. His partner in crime, Johnny Lewis, cost taxpayers $170,608 to try and is 15th most expensive to date. Unlike the trio in Thompson, both Lewis and Myers went to trial.
Had the trio gone to trial as a death case, the logistics of a two-week trial, along with interpreters and special jury housing would have, according to most court observers, made the case the most expensive in state history, a spot presently reserved for Thomas Huskey of Knoxville, known as the Zoo-Man for his string of rapes and murders near the zoo there. His tab to the taxpayers stands at around a half million dollars.
While costs of defending the accused who are indigent has been high, it will likely get even higher as a recent state act has removed the ceiling of what attorneys can be paid to represent indigent defendants.