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Wayne Adam FORD
Classification:
Serial killer
Characteristics:
Rape - Necrophilia - Mutilation
Number of victims: 4
Date of murders: 1997 - 1998
Date
of arrest:November 4, 1998 (surrenders)
Date of birth:
December 3, 1961
Victims profile: Patricia
Tamez, 29 / Lanett Deyon White, 25 / Tina Renee Gibbs, 26 / An
unidentified woman whose torso was found in a slough
Method of murder: Stabbing with knife
- Strangulation
Wayne Adam Ford
(born December 3, 1961) is an American serial killer.
He was arrested after he walked into
the Humboldt County Sherrif Department in Eureka,
California in November 1998 with a woman's severed
breast in his pocket. He confessed to having killed four
women, and is thought to have killed others.
He was found guilty of four counts of
first-degree murder on June 27, 2006, and was sentenced
to death on August 11.
Further
reading
Smith, Carlton (2001). Shadows of
Evil. St. Martin's Press. ISBN
0-312-97887-1.
Wikipedia.org
Wayne Adam Ford (4)
On 4 November 1998, Wayne Adam
Ford made headlines when he walked into the Sheriff's station in
Northern California, pulled from his pocket a Ziploc bag with a severed
breast inside it and admitted to killing four women.
Ford, 36, of Arcata, was being held on murder charges in
the Humboldt County Jail on $1 million bail. Sheriff Dennis Lewis said
Ford walked into his department, said he had some evidence, and pulled
out the baggied bag breast. According to the Sheriff the emerging serial
killer, "was remorseful and apparently had reached a point in his
life where he wanted to talk about what he'd been involved in."
Investigators in Eureka said the four
victims he mentioned were female hitchhikers and/or prostitutes who had
been sexually assaulted before they were slain and mutilated post
mortem. One of the slayings dated back to 1997, when the torso of a
woman 18 to 25 was found floating in a channel near Eureka.
Investigators found six or seven body
parts of the unidentified woman based on information Ford provided, said
Sheriff Lewis. The breast he brought to the Sheriff's station was from
another victim. Authorities said Ford implicated himself in two other
recent slayings, in San Bernadino and San Joaquin counties.
The first body found, discovered in
October 1997, had been so thoroughly dismembered that her identity
remains unknown. Believed to have been a hitchhiker whom Ford picked up,
her mutilated torso was found in a marsh near Eureka. One of her arms
was later found on a beach. Her head, other arm and parts of her legs
are still missing. Ford stored other body parts in the freezer of his
Arcata trailer for a year, and according to laboratory analysis,
apparently tried to cook some of them.
On June 2, 1998, the nude body of a
Las Vegas prostitute, Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, was found in a Kern County
aqueduct. She had been strangled. Four months later, the nude body of
Lanett Deyon White, a 25-year-old prostitute from Fontana, was found
floating in a San Joaquin County irrigation canal. The precise cause of
death remains undetermined.
Patricia Ann Tamez's nude body was
found floating in the California Aqueduct in San Bernardino County in
October 1998. She had been strangled and one of her breasts removed--the
one Ford carried in his coat pocket more than a week later when he and
his brother walked into a sheriff's station in Humboldt County.
After confessing to killing the four
women, Wayne told authorities he turned himself in so he wouldn't kill
his ex-wife and leave his son an orphan "`He said he was ashamed of
what he was doing and his anger was mostly directed against his wife and
he was getting more angry at her every day"' for keeping him from
seeing their son, Humboldt County Coroner Frank Jager Jr. said.
People who knew Ford have said he
regularly complained that since his separation and divorce from his wife,
he has been frustrated in his efforts to see their son. Their divorce
decree gave him limited visitation.
In a 3 1/2-hour interview with
investigators just before his arraignment, Ford disclosed the location
of the head of a woman's headless torso that was found el 26 de Octubre
de 1997, in a channel outside Eureka. Pathologists hope to use knife and
saw marks on bones from five body parts Ford led them to at a campsite
outside Trinidad to match them with the still-unidentified torso. Ford
had kept the body parts in a freezer in his Airstream trailer in Arcata
for the past year but hid them in a hole at the base of a tree just days
before turning himself in.
Wayne's arrest has led officials to
identifying el cuerpo de Patricia Anne Tamez, a 29-year-old Victorville
woman discovered dead two weeks ago in the California Aqueduct near
Interstate 15 outside Hesperia. San Bernardino County officials said the
body was missing a breast.
Ms. Tamez may have been working as a
prostitute at truck stops, officials said. A friend, Deborah Reck, said
Ms. Tamez was an upper middle class college student who dropped out
because she liked to party too much and was "really into crystal
meth."
Authorities identified another of his
victims como Tina Renee Gibbs, a prostitute Las Vegas, 26, whose body was dumped in an aqueduct in Kern County. Ford admitted
killing Gibbs, saying that she died during rough sex that included
bondage. Two other victims remain unidentified.
Born in Petaluma, Ford told friends he
served in the military and bounced around the West, living in Big Bear
and San Clemente before moving with his wife and son to Las Vegas. After
breaking up with his wife he moved to the Northern California coast,
where he started working as a long-haul trucker.
Mayhem.net
Wayne Adam
Ford
February 12, 1999
San Bernardino County will
seek the death penalty for Arcata trucker Wayne Adam Ford, who has
confessed to killing women in four California counties. Deputy District
Attorney David Whitney filed two death-penalty murder counts against
Ford. Whitney said it's also possible all four murder cases including
those in Humboldt and Kern counties may be tried in San Bernardino
County. Under a new state law, the cases of serial killers can be
consolidated for trial in one county. Kern County District Attorney John
Somers confirmed it has been decided that if the Ford case qualifies for
a single-jurisdiction prosecution, it would be in San Bernardino County.
In Humboldt County, where Ford allegedly committed the first of the four
killings, a gag order has been imposed on attorneys.
Wayne Adam
Ford
March 12, 1999
Confessed serial killer
Wayne Adam Ford has been scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 21
to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial. Ford,
37, confessed to killing four women in four different counties while
working as a trucker. Authorities have discussed trying all four cases
in one county under a new state law that allows consolidating the trials
of serial killers. Deputy District Attorney David Whitney, who is
handling the Ford case in San Bernardino County, said he will be filing
death penalty charges on the San Bernardino and San Joaquin cases and
may also be handling the Humboldt and Kern matters.
Trucker
suspected of killing 4 women
Alleged serial killer
mutilated victims
By Mike Cruz - DailyBulletin.com
March 12, 2006
More than seven years have passed since Wayne Adam
Ford walked into a sheriff's station in Northern California with a
woman's severed breast in his pocket and a confession in his heart.
A truck driver from Arcata, Ford called authorities
and asked if he could surrender because he had "hurt a lot of people.''
Humboldt County sheriff's deputies said they soon
learned what a horrible understatement that was. By the end of their
interview with Ford, he had confessed to killing four women --
including one from Fontana and another from Hesperia -- whose bodies
were found in 1997 and 1998.
Prosecutors today are expected to begin laying out
the evidence against Ford before San Bernardino Superior Court Judge
Michael A. Smith. Ford faces the death penalty if he is convicted of
four counts of first-degree murder and a special circumstance of
multiple murders.
Similarities between the slayings compound and
confound. Authorities said Ford told them the four women died during
sex, and all were lost despite his efforts to revive them. The victims
all were discarded nude into nearby waterways.
Two of the victims had been dismembered --
including Patricia Anne Tamez, of Hesperia, whose breast he cut off
before dumping her body in the
California Aqueduct, police said. Ford put the
breast in a Ziploc plastic bag and tucked it in his pocket when he
turned himself in to Humboldt County authorities.
Prosecutors fought, and succeeded, in having the
cases consolidated into one in San Bernardino County under a new law
that allows connected crimes to be prosecuted in a single trial.
Authored by state Sen. Richard Rainey, R-Walnut
Creek, the law, sometimes called the serial-killer law, went into
effect two months after Ford turned himself in.
After years of investigation, hearings and delays,
a jury will begin hearing testimony today from 60 to 80 witnesses,
detectives and experts about the four women who died and their
connections to Ford.
"It's good to finally be in trial,'' said Deputy
District Attorney David Mazurek. "It seems like you can see an end
coming.''
That end is still several months away, however.
It took two months to compile a jury of 12 plus six
alternates from a panel of 900 prospective jurors. The guilt phase of
the trial is expected to last about four months.
If the jury convicts Ford, that same panel will
spend another two to three weeks hearing evidence in a penalty phase
and deciding whether to recommend capital punishment.
"It's been a major undertaking, I think for both
sides, actually,'' said Deputy Public Defender Joseph Canty, who is
representing Ford.
Bizarre circumstances
At the time of Ford's arrest, his unusual surrender
catapulted the case into the national spotlight, became the subject of
television shows and news broadcasts, and was even detailed in a
paperback book by Carlton Smith.
The news media in Eureka, the seat in a 3,000-square-mile
rural county, have begun publicizing the trial, but the circumstances
surrounding the case remain in the minds of local law enforcement.
Like any community, homicides are not unusual in
Humboldt County, said Brenda Godsey, a Sheriff's Department
spokeswoman.
"What was so horrific about this case, perhaps, was
the number of victims to find,'' Godsey said. To have an alleged
serial killer that may have killed four women, she said, "that was
certainly remarkable here in Humboldt County.''
To this day, she said, when people talk about so-called
big cases in the area, they still return to Ford, whose family
continues to live in his native Northern California.
The people vs. Ford
Though he confessed to police, Ford eventually
pleaded not guilty to charges against him on procedural grounds. He
has blamed his behavior on a brain injury received in a 1984 traffic
collision in Irvine. Prosecutors have expressed skepticism.
Ford said he suffered the injury during his years
in the Marines when he stopped to help another motorist. He told media
outlets he was in a coma for nine days.
Both Mazurek and Canty said they couldn't discuss
the specifics of the case. Details have been released through
investigative reports and court hearing transcripts.
The deaths attributed to Ford include:
An unidentified woman whose torso was found in a
slough near Eureka in October 1997 -- more than a year before Ford
surrendered. The head, arms, legs and breasts had been cut off, and
the torso had been stabbed 27 times and cut down the middle, according
to authorities.
Ford told authorities he picked up the woman in
Eureka and that she later died during sex in his trailer in Arcata.
The nude body of Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, was found
in an aqueduct near the town of Buttonwillow in Kern County in June
1998. A known prostitute in Las Vegas, Gibbs died from strangulation
but was not dismembered.
Ford had sex with Gibbs at a Las Vegas motel and
later in his truck at a truck stop, he told investigators.
Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana, was found
nude and floating in an irrigation canal near Lodi in San Joaquin
County in September 1998. The cause of death was "homicidal violence
of unknown etiology.''
In interviews with detectives, Ford said he picked
up White at an Ontario truck stop and that her death occurred in San
Bernardino County, before he drove to Phoenix with her body tied up in
his truck. He later drove to Lodi, where he dropped the body in a
canal.
Tamez's body was found in the California Aqueduct,
near Hesperia, in October 1998. White picked up Tamez, 29, by a
convenience store near Victorville, he told authorities.
Tamez's neck had been broken below her shoulders,
and her cause of death was ruled strangulation, with a thoracic spine
fracture and possible drowning.
The cost of it all
When all is said and done, the prosecution in San
Bernardino County is expected to cost taxpayers significantly, Canty
said.
Experts and witnesses from three other counties
have to take time off from work, travel to San Bernardino and stay in
hotels while testifying in the case, he said.
Attorneys and investigators from here also have had
to travel to Humboldt, Kern and San Joaquin counties to prepare for
trial.
While Canty would not discuss any of the evidence
against his client, he did say that Ford had a conscience that led to
turning himself in. Authorities have described Ford as a depressed and
emotionally unstable man who cries at times.
After more than seven years in jail, Ford is ready
for a jury to determine his fate. But, Canty said, "nobody looks
forward to facing capital murder charges.''
*****
TIMELINE: WAYNE ADAM FORD
Oct. 14, 1997 - Allegedly picked up his first
victim, who was only identified as Jane Doe. She was estimated to be
18 to 25 years old, a nonsmoker and had given birth.
Oct. 26, 1997 - A human torso, later determined to
belong to victim No. 1, was found in a slough at the end of Park
Street in Eureka in Humboldt County.
February 1998 - Started driving a long-haul truck.
May 1998 - Allegedly picked up his second victim,
Tina Renee Gibbs, a Las Vegas prostitute.
June 2, 1998 - Gibbs' naked body found in the
California Aqueduct, near the town of Buttonwillow in Kern County. An
autopsy determined she died of strangulation.
September 1998 - Allegedly picked up his third
victim, Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana, near an Ontario truck
stop. Ford told detectives he paid her for sex, during which she died.
Sept. 25, 1998 - White's naked body was found in an
irrigation canal near Lodi in San Joaquin County.
October 1998 - Allegedly picked up his fourth
victim, Patricia Anne Tamez, 29, of Hesperia, by a convenience store.
Ford told detectives he paid her for sex, during which she died.
Oct. 23, 1998 - Tamez's naked body was found in the
California Aqueduct near Hesperia.
Nov. 2, 1998 - Ford reportedly called his brother,
Rodney Calvin Ford, for help.
Nov. 3, 1998 - Ford walked into Humboldt County
sheriff's station with his brother and told deputies that he had done
"bad things.'' Over the next few days, Ford reportedly told detectives
about the four dead victims.
Gruesome
details fill opening of trucker serial killing trial
By Mike Cruz - DailyBulletin.com
March 13, 2006
SAN BERNARDINO - Grisly crime scene photos and
graphic details about the deaths of four women two from San Bernardino
County filled a prosecutor's opening statement Monday in the trial for
Wayne Adam Ford.
A truck driver from Arcata, Ford could face the
death penalty if convicted of charges that he killed four women across
the state in 1997 and 1998. Testimony from witnesses is expected to
begin today before Judge Michael A. Smith in San Bernardino Superior
Court.
But while prosecutor David Mazurek may have shocked
jurors with the gravity of the crimes the self-described serial killer
is accused of committing, defense attorneys described Ford as a man
who knew he had mental problems and sought help when he surrendered to
police.
Ford was depressed and desperate when he walked
into a Humboldt County sheriff's station on Nov. 3, 1998, with a
Hesperia
woman's severed breast in his jacket pocket and
told police it was "just the tip of the iceberg," according to Joseph
Canty, deputy public defender.
Ford had a conscience, explained Canty, and he
turned himself in "because he decided the killings had to stop."
The jury of six men and six women listened intently
as Canty explained the root of Ford's problems, complicated by a
failed marriage and dwindling chances to see his son, Max. Canty
showed the jury a photograph of a pleasant time between father and
son, when they visited a pumpkin patch in October 1997.
"And, in fact, this is the last time that Wayne
Ford saw his son Max," Canty said.
Canty said Ford cried, felt shame and showed moral
courage when he turned himself in to sheriff's deputies and gave up
details about the deaths of the four victims. At the time, detectives
had not solved the deaths, and Ford was not a suspect, said Canty.
But while Ford, 44, offered a lot, one of the few
things he couldn't tell detectives was exactly how each woman died.
The victims were prostitutes that Ford reportedly
picked up while on his truck routes, and he told police that he liked
to have sex with them, according to the defense. But when the women
would talk about their children, it would upset him.
Faced with the grief of his ex-wife not allowing
him to spend time with Max, Ford told detectives every time he sees a
baby, "I just lose it," Canty told the jury.
The defense also spoke of Ford's rough upbringing,
with photos and descriptions of his mother as "cold" and his father,
Gene Ford, who was always gone and "struck fear" when he was home.
Despite the mental problems, Canty made it clear
that Ford was not seeking an insanity defense because he could tell
the difference between right and wrong. Crippled inside and a broken
man, Ford turned himself in because he wanted to do the right thing,
Canty said.
However, prosecutors point to the deeply depraved
way the four women were killed. Each was raped, tortured and used for
the defendant's own sexual gratification, Mazurek said.
Each of the victims was then coldly discarded with
no identification, no way to inform police and loved ones of their
deaths, according to the prosecution.
"Wayne Adam Ford know's what he's done," Mazurek
told the jury. "And he knows what he is."
During his opening statement, Mazurek used an
electronic presentation to show the jury photographs of the severed
breast that belonged to Patricia Tamez, 29, of Hesperia.
The prosecution also showed the jury crime scene
images of Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana, whose decomposing, nude
body with a blackened head, was found floating in an irrigation canal
off Highway 12, near Lodi, in San Joaquin County in Sept. 25, 1998.
"He had killed her a couple of days before, and he
had driven around with her in his truck for a while," Mazurek said.
White's head turned black because lying against the truck's hot
floorboards, it decomposed faster, he explained.
Blood evidence was later found on the floor of
Ford's truck, Mazurek said. Swabs, which tested positive for sperm
content that linked to Ford, were taken from Tamez and Tina Renee
Gibbs, 26, who was a known prostitute from the Las Vegas area.
Gibbs' nude body was found in an aqueduct near the
town of Buttonwillow, in Kern County, in June 1998. She died of
strangulation but was not dismembered.
Ford's first victim was not as lucky. Identified
still as Jane Doe, the woman's torso devoid of a head, arms, legs and
breasts was found in a slough near Eureka, in Humboldt County, on Oct.
26, 1997.
The torso had been stabbed 27 times in the back and
buttocks and cut down the middle, according to authorities.
The unidentified woman's thighs and boiled breasts
were found at a campsite where Ford lived after he left his Arcata
trailer. Evidence of the woman's body parts, and the bathtub in which
they were cut, were found at the trailer, Mazurek said.
A coffee can with rendered fat from the woman's
breasts was also found at the trailer.
"The evidence will show none of these girls died
accidentally," Mazurek told the jury.
Defense
to present case in Ford trial
April
24,
2006
Defense
attorneys for confessed serial killer Wayne Adam Ford are expected to
begin laying out their side of the case today when they take the reins
in the Arcata man's murder trial.
Prosecutors wrapped up their case April 12, and San Bernardino Superior
Court Judge Michael A. Smith granted a break for the defense to schedule
witnesses and prepare.
Ford is
charged with killing four women in 1997 and 1998. Ford, a truck driver,
surrendered to Humboldt County sheriff's deputies after walking into a
sheriff's station Nov. 3, 1998, with a woman's severed breast in his
jacket pocket.
He is
accused of killing Lannett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana; Patricia Tamez,
29, of Hesperia; Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas; and an unidentified
woman whose torso was found in a slough near Eureka.
In
opening statements to jurors in March, defense attorneys Joseph Canty
and Steve Mapes pointed to Ford's failed
marriage
with his ex-wife, his lack of opportunities to see his son and a rough
upbringing as possible causes of his behavior.
In an
earlier jailhouse interview, Ford said he suffered a head injury in a
traffic collision in Irvine in 1984 that might have affected him.
If Ford
is convicted, prosecutor David Mazurek has said he would push for the
death penalty. If Ford is convicted, jurors would then hear evidence
supporting and opposing the death penalty.
Court
proceedings resume at 9:30 a.m. today at the Central Courthouse in San
Bernardino.
Self-confessed serial killer's testimony could be limited
April
25,
2006
Family
and friends of Wayne Adam Ford might be limited in what they can say
from the witness stand about the confessed serial killer.
The issue
was raised the first day defense attorneys began to unveil their case in
Ford's murder trial in San Bernardino Superior Court.
Prosecutor David Mazurek objected Monday to possible testimony about the
defendant's upbringing after reviewing a list of defense witnesses that
included Ford's close friends and family.
"I don't
think they're particularly relevant to the guilt phase of the trial,"
Mazurek told Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith, after the jury was
released for the day.
Issues
about how Ford was raised as a child and whether his mother loved him,
which Mazurek suspects will be covered, are better suited for the
trial's penalty phase if Ford is convicted, he said.
"I don't
think I need to litigate his entire childhood," Mazurek said.
But
defense attorney Joseph Canty disagreed, saying childhood issues and
family history "are clearly relevant" because they speak to Ford's
overall psychological makeup.
Mazurek
raised the objection after testimony concluded for the day. The judge is
expected to decide on the matter today.
A truck
driver from Arcata, Ford is on trial for the deaths of four women
statewide in 1997 and 1998, including one from Fontana and one from
Hesperia.
Ford
turned himself in to sheriff's deputies in Humboldt County on Nov. 3,
1998. At the time, authorities were not looking for Ford. Deputies found
a severed female breast in a plastic bag inside his jacket pocket.
During
opening statements March 13, Canty pointed to Ford's failed marriage, a
lack of opportunities to see his son and a rough upbringing as possible
causes for his behavior. Ford also spoke of a head injury he suffered at
a traffic collision in Irvine in 1994, in a jailhouse interview.
On
Monday, defense attorneys tried to highlight Ford's religious interests
and discredit testimony from a prostitute referred to in court as Sonoma
County Doe, who testified more than a week ago about her experiences
with Ford.
Ballard
Anderson Lowery Jr., testified that he owned a Christian bookstore in
McKinleyville, near Eureka, that Ford visited monthly over a one- to
two-year period.
"He would
come in my store and talk," Lowery said. Ford, confused and concerned,
had told the store owner about his son, Max, and problems he had with
the child's mother.
"Basically, when he first came in, he didn't think he had a conscience,"
Lowery testified. The store owner told Ford he had to have a conscience
or he wouldn't be there, he said.
Occasionally, Ford would also buy items from the bookstore. Defense
attorneys revealed several weeks ago that Ford had a box of cassette
tapes of the Bible among his belongings.
But
Mazurek pointed out that Lowery told police detectives the defendant
only bought the religious items to appease the store owner for taking up
his time. Lowery testified that he didn't know if Ford ever used the
items.
The case
is one of the first in the state to be tried under a serial-killer law,
which allows murders that occurred in multiple jurisdictions to be
consolidated and tried in one court.
Ford is
accused of killing Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas; Lanett Deyon
White, 25, of Fontana; Patricia Tamez, 29, of Hesperia; and an
unidentified woman whose torso was found in a slough near Eureka.
In
interviews with police detectives, Ford said his victims had been
talking about babies just before they died. The subject depressed Ford
because it reminded him of his son.
While
having sex with his victims, Ford told detectives he would get rough. He
would squeeze their necks until they passed out, and then use CPR to
revive them.
Pentecostal pastor James C. Ray of McKinleyville told jurors Monday he
met Ford at Humboldt County Jail, while ministering, singing and praying
with inmates there.
"Most of
what we spoke about was spiritual aspects . . . conviction, remorse,
forgiveness," Ray testified. Ford would even sing some Southern gospel
hymns with the pastor, but he didn't speak about his suspected crimes,
he said.
"He asked
if I thought God would forgive him," Ray said. "And all I could do was
tell him what the Scriptures says."
Serial
killing suspect Ford rarely spent time with son
May 20,
2006
SAN
BERNARDINO - Elizabeth Ault, ex-wife of confessed serial killer Wayne
Adam Ford, dabbed at her eyes Wednesday as she testified that her young
son rarely received attention from his father.
Ault was
21 when she met Ford through a mutual friend in 1994. The couple married
-- it was Ford's second -- and made a home together in San Clemente.
They had a son, Max.
Four
years later, Ford turned himself in to Humboldt County sheriff's
deputies with a woman's severed breast in his jacket pocket.
Ford, an
Arcata truck driver, is on trial in San Bernardino Superior Court on
charges of killing four women in the state, including one from Fontana
and one from Hesperia.
In
opening statements March 13, defense attorney Joseph Canty pointed to
Ford's failed marriage, lack of opportunities to see his son and and a
rough upbringing as possible causes for his behavior.
Ault
insisted Wednesday that although she encouraged her ex-husband to spend
time with his son, Ford made little effort to see him after the divorce.
He
would hold (Max) until he cried and would give him back to me,'' she
testified.
Ford
never fed or bathed his son and only once did he change his diaper, Ault
said.
The
father-son relationship did not improve when the family moved into a
small apartment in Las Vegas in 1996. Ford was not working, and it was
not long before Ault left him, moving upstairs into an apartment with
her mother.
Ault
filed for divorce, which became final in April 1998. A custody agreement
allowed Ford to have his son one week every three months and every other
December for the holidays.
Ford did
not call his son and only visited him on his second birthday, Ault said.
She told
jurors that she once arranged to bring Max to see his father during a
California theme park vacation she had planned with her then-boyfriend
and his son.
Ford took
Max on a walk along the shore near San Luis Obispo but spent only 90
minutes with him out of a six-hour visit, Ault testified.
Ault was
barred Wednesday from talking about any discussions or incidents that
happened during the course of the marriage because Judge Michael A.
Smith ruled that information was privileged through the marriage.
She did
say, however, that she often encouraged Ford to visit their son and
denied hiding Max at any point.
Since I
left him, it was my fault he couldn't see Max,'' Ault said bitterly,
recounting Ford's response to her pleas to spend time with his son.
Kelly
Pletcher, Ford's first wife, met him on a blind date in 1980 and married
him months later.
Her
testimony Wednesday was short and focused on a car accident that Ford,
who was in the Marine Corps at the time, was involved in near Irvine a
month after they met.
Driving
home from dinner one night, the couple passed a two-car accident on the
side of the road and stopped to help. Leaving Ford behind, Pletcher
drove to the next exit and called 911.
When she
returned to the scene 15 minutes later, Ford was nowhere to be found.
Thinking he had walked back to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, where
he was stationed at the time, she returned to her dorm room at UC
Irvine.
It wasn't
until the next morning that she received a phone call from the hospital
telling her Ford had been hit by a car and was asking for her.
His
face was severely swollen. He was missing teeth. His eyes were black and
blue. His head was about twice the (normal) size,'' she said.
Ford
spoke of the head injury he received in the accident during a jailhouse
interview in 1994.
He was
conscious the entire time and was never in a coma, Pletcher testified,
though police reports say Pletcher had previously said Ford was in a
coma for his nine-day stay in the hospital.
Ford and
Pletcher married in May 1981 and divorced in August 1984.
The
cross-examination of Ault is expected to begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday
morning.
Ford trial turns a
corner
June 8, 2006
SAN
BERNARDINO - Three months of testimony in the trial of confessed serial
killer Wayne Adam Ford ended with little fanfare Wednesday.
Attorneys
on each side are set to make their closing arguments to jurors Tuesday
in San Bernardino Superior Court.
The jury
then will decide whether the Arcata truck driver is responsible for the
deaths of four women, including two from San Bernardino County, in a
sex-laced killing spree in California in 1997 and 1998.
If the
jury convicts Ford of capital murder, jurors would then determine
whether he should be put to death.
Among the
victims were Lanett Deyon White of Fontana, and Patricia Tamez of
Hesperia.
Ford had
Tamez's severed breast in a plastic bag in his pocket when he
surrendered to authorities at the Humboldt County sheriff's station on
Nov. 3, 1998, according to trial testimony.
A gag
order prevents the attorneys from commenting on the case.
On
Wednesday, defense attorneys Joseph Canty and Steven Mapes filed a
motion to throw out the testimony of Newport Beach-based forensic
psychiatrist Park Dietz because he is not licensed to practice medicine
in California, they said.
Dietz, a
graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has consulted in such
high-profile cases as Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez Brothers, John
Hinkley Jr., the New York Zodiac killer and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.
The
prosecution's final witness, Dietz testified for several days at a rate
of $650 per hour about his observations of Ford and challenged some of
the theories and testimony from key defense forensic psychiatrist Reid
Meloy.
Prosecutor David Mazurek responded to the defense motion on Wednesday by
stating that Dietz graduated from medical school, is licensed in at
least one other state and doesn't need to be licensed in California to
testify as an expert.
Judge
Michael A. Smith denied the defense's motion.
"I think
(Dietz) is qualified as an expert and qualified to render the opinions
he has rendered," Smith said.
Dietz had
testified that he disagreed with Meloy about Ford being unique in
surrendering to authorities. Dietz said he knew of eight previous cases
in which serial killers turned themselves in.
Ford
eagerly assisted his attorneys during most of the trial. He got
emotional, looking down and dabbing at his eyes, when his brother and
two ex-wives testified.
To
explain Ford's behavior, defense attorneys pointed to his failed
marriage, the loss of time with his young son, Max, and a rough
upbringing. Ford also has cited a head injury Ford received in a traffic
collision while he was in the Marines in 1984.
The
defendant's victims often were prostitutes, bound during sex or
subjected to sexual asphyxiation, then dumped in or near bodies of
water.
In
addition to White and Tamez, Ford is accused of murdering Tina Renee
Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas and an unidentified woman whose torso was found
in a slough near Eureka.
The nude
body of Gibbs was found in an aqueduct near Buttonwillow in Kern County
in June 1998. White's body was discovered nude and floating in an
irrigation canal near Lodi in San Joaquin County in September 1998.
Authorities found Tamez's nude body in the California Aqueduct near
Hesperia in October 1998. The unidentified victim, found near Eureka in
October 1997, had been dismembered, stabbed 27 times and cut down the
middle.
Confessed
Serial Killer's Trial Wrapping Up
June 15,
2006
SAN
BERNARDINO, Calif. The defense has begun its closing argument in the
trial of confessed serial killer Wayne Adam Ford.
Deputy
Public Defender Steve Mapes says Ford showed remorse after the killings,
telling jurors they need to understand his state of mind.
A
prosecutor earlier told jurors the former truck driver committed
"monstrous acts" to satiate sadistic desires when he preyed upon and
killed four women over a four-year period before turning himself in.
Ford,
accompanied by his brother, walked into a Humboldt County sheriff's
station in November 1998 with the severed breast of one of the victims.
He told authorities it represented "just the tip of the iceberg."
If
convicted, Ford could face the death penalty.
Ford
Murder Trial Ends With Taped Confession
June 16,
2006
The night
Wayne Adam Ford confessed to four grisly killings, he struggled to
remember his own address and phone number, and fumbled through the
simple task of removing his socks and combat boots.
In a
November 1998 videotape of Ford's interview with detectives, which
defense lawyers played for jurors Thursday in their closing arguments of
his serial murder trial, Ford slumped against a padded wall of the
Humboldt County Sheriff's Department after turning himself in.
Disheveled in a gray sweatshirt and dirty bluejeans, he told officers
that he had sought help for the problems in "my head," but nothing
worked.
"I didn't
want to hurt people," he sobbed as an officer patted his knee and told
him authorities weren't going to kill him as Ford feared. "I hurt
people. That's why you guys just have to keep me."
The tape
offered a dramatic end to Ford's three-month murder trial in San
Bernardino County Superior Court, where a jury of seven women and five
men is scheduled to begin deliberations on the four counts of
first-degree murder filed against the long-haul trucker from Arcata,
Calif.
Ford, 44,
is accused of killing four women whose nude bodies were found some
strangled, others dismembered in four California counties.
Deputy
Dist. Atty. J. David Mazurek told jurors that Ford was a sadistic killer
who prowled the roadways for vulnerable women he could subject to his
twisted sexual fantasies as he beat and raped them before killing them
for pleasure. Mazurek is seeking first-degree murder convictions in all
four cases and to send Ford to death row.
But
Ford's public defender, Joseph D. Canty Jr., asked jurors to look at the
teary man in the video and decide whether he was the "monster" without a
conscience whom prosecutors described.
Canty
said they should consider whether mental disorders could have prevented
Ford from forming an intent to kill the four women, which could be
critical in determining first-degree murder.
Steering
the jury toward a conviction on a lesser charge of second-degree murder
or involuntary manslaughter would make Ford ineligible for the death
penalty.
Canty
argued that Ford was mired in depression, angry at his former wife who
he claimed was preventing him from seeing his young son and struggling
with other psychological problems including borderline personality
disorder.
Those
pressures, Canty said, clouded Ford's thoughts to the point where he may
not have realized the consequences of his favored sexual ritual, which
included binding the women and strangling them during sex, which he said
was to enhance their pleasure.
Canty
said Ford's videotaped confession showed that he was aware that he could
not control his impulses.
"We know
that a person who dismembers a human being is severely disturbed," Canty
said in his closing argument acknowledging that the jury must have
been horrified by Ford's killings. "Someone who turns himself in and
wishes to stop killing must have suffered the same horror himself. He
must have had difficulty imagining that he could do these things.
"He wants
to stop . That's what gets him into that jail," Canty said.
The body
of Ford's first victim was so mutilated that she has not been identified
and is known as Humboldt County Jane Doe.
Ford is
also charged in the deaths of prostitutes Patricia Ann Tamez, 29, of
Hesperia; Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas; and Lanett Deyon White,
25, of Fontana.
The jury
will begin deliberations Monday.
Serial
killer masqueraded as quiet trucker, ideal employee
June 27,
2006
SAN
BERNARDINO, Calif. - Neighbors and co-workers knew Wayne Adam Ford was a
handsome, clean-cut trucker, a hard worker who kept his rig impeccably
clean during long hauls.
But Ford,
who often kept to himself, had a dark secret: He was a brutal serial
killer who preyed upon prostitutes and hitchhikers for sex and then left
their dismembered and mutilated bodies scattered throughout California.
On Nov.
3, 1998, Ford confessed. He walked into the Humboldt County Sheriff's
station with a severed breast in a Ziploc baggie and told deputies the
body part represented "the tip of the iceberg."
On
Tuesday, a jury unanimously convicted Ford, now 44, of first-degree
murder in the slayings of four women whose bodies - or body parts - were
found in sloughs, riverbeds, aqueducts and campsites across California.
The panel
of seven women and five men also found true the special-circumstance
allegation of multiple murders. Prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty.
The women
were Patricia Tamez, 29, of Hesperia; Lanett Deyon White, 25, of
Fontana; Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas; and an unidentified woman
whose torso was found in a slough.
"It's
what we were seeking in this particular phase of the trial but we have a
lot of work left," said Deputy District Attorney Dave Mazurek. "It's
been a long time coming to trial."
Mazurek
and Ford's defense team would not say anything further, citing a gag
order and the upcoming penalty phase of the trial, which will begin July
12. Jurors were instructed not to talk as well.
The
conviction marks one of the final chapters in a case that initially
puzzled investigators who came across a gruesome trail of crime scenes
littered with mutilated body parts. At one of Ford's old campsites,
authorities found an unidentified woman's thighs and boiled breasts
wrapped in plastic and stuffed in a tree stump.
Ford
quickly confessed to picking up a Washington state woman later
identified as Gibbs and he also said he killed White, whose body was
found near Lodi
Tamez's
body was found in late October 1998, just weeks before Ford's
confession, in the California Aqueduct near Interstate 15 outside
Hesperia. Her body was missing a breast that was later determined to be
the one in Ford's pocket.
Ford also
told investigators he killed and dismembered the unidentified woman
whose headless torso was found near Eureka in October 1997. Ford told
investigators he had buried the head in the channel of the Mad River,
but it was never found.
Ford's
trial was delayed for years while higher courts decided the
constitutionality of a state law that allows authorities to consolidate
related killings into one jurisdiction.
At the
time, Ford's arrest shocked his friends and co-workers, who knew him as
a polite former military man who was haunted by the fact that his
ex-wife wouldn't let him see his then 3-year-old son, who lived with her
in Las Vegas.
"He was
clean-cut. He always kept his truck clean. Now we know why," Dennis
Keehn, his boss at Edeline Enterprises in Arcata, said in a 1998
interview with The Associated Press. "All indications were he loved his
job. Then look what he was. God almighty."
Neighbors
from his mobile home in Arcata, on the Northern California coast, said
Ford was handsome and affable, always quick to share cigarettes and a
joke.
"I
thought he was good-looking," neighbor Shelley McCuen said at the time.
"I never had time to flirt with him."
Although
Ford confessed, defense attorneys raised questions about his state of
mind leading up to and during the killings. The defense focused on his
troubled past, which his lawyers said included a failed marriage, a lack
of time with his son, a difficult childhood and a head injury he
suffered in a 1984 traffic collision.
His
attorneys said he suffered from mental problems and was remorseful and
conflicted about the killings but decided to surrender to authorities.
A
prostitute who testified during the trial said Ford choked her during
sex and then showed her a photograph of his ex-wife and their son. She
said Ford cried and claimed his behavior was revenge against his
ex-wife.
Born in
Petaluma, Ford graduated from Arcata High School in 1980 and joined the
Marines. He was discharged in 1985 and lived in Big Bear and San
Clemente before moving with his wife and young son to Las Vegas.
The
couple split in 1996 and Ford moved back to Arcata, where he found work
driving a cement truck. He was laid off that winter, but got a job as a
long-haul trucker at Edeline Enterprises, where he impressed his
co-workers - some of whom even said they would trust him to date their
female relatives.
"If you
went down to Eureka or Arcata at night, you would see some characters
that might make you wonder about packing a firearm," Keehn said. "But
this guy, you wouldn't worry about him."
Ford guilty on all counts
Prosecutors plan to seek death
penalty
By Mike Cruz - San Bernardino Sun
June 28, 2006
SAN BERNARDINO - When confessed
serial killer Wayne Adam Ford surrendered to authorities in Northern
California more than seven years ago, he said he wanted the system to do
its job - and punish him.
On Tuesday, a jury found Ford guilty of first-degree
murder in the sex-laced deaths of four women, including victims from
Fontana and Hesperia, in 1997 and 1998. His trial now moves into the
penalty phase where prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
With hands clasped and resting at his mouth, Ford
looked straight ahead as the court clerk read the verdict a few minutes
after 2 p.m. in San Bernardino Superior Court.
One by one, the clerk read each of four counts of
first-degree murder and the jury's findings: Guilty. The seven-man, five-woman
jury also found true the special circumstance against Ford for
committing multiple murders.
"We got what we were seeking, and it's on to what
this case is all about," prosecutor David Mazurek said outside the
courtroom.
Opening arguments in the penalty phase are scheduled
for July 12.
During the verdict reading, Ford turned briefly to
speak with his attorneys and then watched each juror as the judge
polled them for their individual verdicts.
The usually smiling and sometimes lighthearted jury
instead sat in the jury box with serious faces and saying little to one
another.
The 12-person jury had been deliberating for more
than a week, mulling scores of reports, evaluations, interviews and
court testimony about the truck driver from Arcata.
Ford, 44, was convicted of the deaths of Tina Renee
Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas; Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana; Patricia
Ann Tamez, 29, of Hesperia; and an unidentified woman whose torso was
discovered in a slough near Eureka.
Defense attorneys Joseph Canty and Steven Mapes
lingered in the courtroom well after sheriff's deputies escorted Ford
back to a holding cell in the Central Courthouse. They declined to
comment, citing a gag order in the case.
Ford surrendered to authorities at the Humboldt
County sheriff's station with a woman's severed breast in his jacket
pocket on Nov. 3, 1998. In interviews with detectives during the days
following his surrender, Ford confessed the details of his vicious
crimes.
The victims were killed during sexual relations with
Ford that grew rough and aggressive, sometimes including asphyxiation,
bondage, striking and burning.
Ford told authorities some of his victims would pass
out and he would revive them with CPR and continue having sex with them.
There were reportedly many other women who had sex with Ford and
survived, according to court testimony.
Defense attorneys portrayed Ford as having a rough
upbringing, including a cold, abusive father and a mother who he
believed abandoned him.
The defendant also reportedly suffered a head injury
during a traffic collision in Irvine in 1984, but records of his
hospitalization no longer exist because the hospital closed, according
to court testimony.
Later in life, Ford suffered through a difficult
divorce with his second wife and lacked opportunities to see his son,
Max, his defense attorneys said.
The defense suffered a significant blow early on in
its case when Judge Michael A. Smith refused to allow Ford's family
members and friends to testify during the trial. Their testimony, Smith
ruled, was better suited in the penalty phase.
During closing arguments, Mapes told jurors that they
had to consider the evidence in light of Ford's impaired mental state
and personality disorders.
"What we have to do in this case is put ourselves in
someone else's shoes," Mapes told the jury.
The defense insisted the jury consider what Ford was
going through at the time, his mental state and whether he had the
capacity to properly weigh the pros and cons of his actions, Mapes said.
"There's no way you can decide this case without
going into Mr. Ford's mind," Mapes said.
But Mazurek told jurors there was no evidence Ford
was mentally ill, describing him as a sadistic monster who preyed on
women to satisfy his sexual appetite.
The victims' bodies were found nude and in various
states of decomposition in bodies of water around the state. Ford's DNA
was found on some of the victims.
Mazurek described the trial as "one of the most
difficult cases I've had to deal with" in terms of lining up witnesses
and keeping track of the more than 400 exhibits.
The prosecution declined to offer any hints about
what might be coming during the penalty phase, including whether
victim's families might testify or how many witnesses could be expected.
Both sides anticipated the penalty phase would last
until the end of July or early August.
"We have a lot of work left ahead of us," Mazurek
said.
Ford,
self-confessed serial killer, guilty of murdering 4 women
June 29,
2006
SAN
BERNARDINO - When confessed serial killer Wayne Adam Ford surrendered to
authorities in Northern California more than seven years ago, he said he
wanted the system to do its job and punish him.
On
Tuesday, a jury found Ford guilty of first-degree murder in the
sex-laced deaths of four women, including victims from Fontana and
Hesperia, in 1997 and 1998. His trial now moves into the penalty phase
where prosecutors will seek the death penalty. With hands clasped and
resting at his mouth, Ford looked straight ahead as the court clerk read
the verdict a few minutes after 2 p.m. in San Bernardino County Superior
Court.
One by
one, the clerk read each of four counts of first-degree murder and the
jury's findings: guilty. The seven-man, five-woman jury also found true
the special circumstance against Ford for committing multiple murders.
"We got
what we were seeking, and it's on to what this case is all about,"
prosecutor David Mazurek said outside the courtroom.
Opening
arguments in the penalty phase are scheduled for July 12.
During
the verdict reading, Ford turned briefly to speak with his attorneys and
then watched each juror as the judge polled them for their individual
verdicts.
The
usually smiling and sometimes lighthearted jury instead sat in the jury
box with serious faces and saying little to one another.
The
12-person jury had been deliberating for more than a week, mulling over
scores of reports, evaluations, interviews and court testimony about the
truck driver from Arcata.
Ford, 44,
was convicted of the deaths of Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas;
Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana; Patricia Ann Tamez, 29, of Hesperia;
and an unidentified woman whose torso was discovered in a slough near
Eureka.
Defense
attorneys Joseph Canty and Steven Mapes lingered in the courtroom well
after deputies escorted Ford back to a holding cell in the courthouse.
They declined to comment, citing a gag order in the case.
Ford
surrendered to authorities at the Humboldt County Sheriff's station with
a woman's severed breast in his jacket pocket on Nov. 3, 1998. In
interviews with detectives during the days following his surrender, Ford
confessed the details of his vicious crimes.
The
victims, usually prostitutes, were killed during sexual relations with
Ford that grew rough and aggressive, sometimes including asphyxiation,
bondage, striking and burning.
Ford told
authorities some of his victims would pass out and he would revive them
with CPR and continue having sex with them. There were reportedly many
other women who had sex with Ford and survived, according to court
testimony.
Defense
attorneys portrayed Ford as having a rough upbringing, including a cold,
abusive father and a mother who he believed abandoned him.
The
defendant also reportedly suffered a head injury during a traffic
collision in Irvine in 1984, but records of his hospitalization no
longer exist because the hospital closed, according to court testimony.
Later in
life, Ford suffered through a difficult divorce with his second wife and
had a lack of opportunities to see his son, Max, his defense attorneys
said.
The
defense suffered a significant blow early on in its case when Judge
Michael A. Smith refused to allow Ford's family members and friends to
testify during the trial. Their testimony, Smith ruled, was better
suited in the penalty phase.
During
closing arguments, Mapes told jurors that they had to consider the
evidence in light of Ford's impaired mental state and personality
disorders.
"What we
have to do in this case is put ourselves in someone else's shoes," Mapes
told the jury.
The
defense insisted the jury consider what Ford was going through at the
time, his mental state and whether he had the capacity to properly weigh
the pros and cons of his actions, Mapes said.
"There's
no way you can decide this case without going into Mr. Ford's mind,"
Mapes said.
But
Mazurek countered defense arguments to jurors, saying there was no
evidence Ford was mentally ill, describing him as a sadistic monster who
preyed on women to satisfy his sexual appetite.
The
victims' bodies were found nude and various states of decomposition in
bodies of water across the state. Ford's DNA was found on some of the
victims.
Mazurek
described the trial as "one of the most difficult cases I've had to deal
with" in terms of lining up witnesses and keeping track of the more than
400 exhibits.
"It's
been a long time coming to trial," Mazurek said. He said he believed he
had a strong case but still was unsure how the jurors would respond.
The
prosecution declined to offer any hints about what might be coming
during the penalty phase, including whether victim's families might
testify or how many witnesses could be expected.
Both
sides anticipated the penalty phase would last until the end of July or
early August.
"We have
a lot of work left ahead of us," Mazurek said.
Jury: Death for Ford
By Mike Cruz - San Bernardino Sun
August 10, 2006
SAN BERNARDINO - Convicted serial killer Wayne Adam
Ford should be put to death for slaying four women in the late 1990s,
a jury announced Thursday after deliberating for two weeks.
Ford, whose victims included women from Fontana and
Hesperia, entered the packed, buzzing courtroom that hushed when the
jury entered. Ford sat at the defense table with his back to the
audience while the verdict was read. The room remained quiet.
After the verdict, three jurors on the case said
they didn't buy into the defense's arguments that Ford suffered from a
mental illness that led him to kill four women in 1997 and 1998.
During deliberations, the panel gave more weight to the crimes Ford
committed, the jurors said, and evidence that he may have lied about
what he recalled of those crimes.
The jury credited Ford's brother, Rodney Ford, for
making the defendant turn himself into the Humboldt County sheriff's
officials in November 1998. Ford had a severed breast in plastic bag
in his jacket pocket.
"He knew right from wrong. He knew what he was
doing," said juror Darlena Murray, a teacher at San Gorgonio High
School in San Bernardino. As for why Ford may have committed the
crimes, Murray wasn't completely sure.
"Self-gratification is all we can come up with,"
said Murray, 47, who lives in Highland.
Ford is expected back in San Bernardino Superior
Court for sentencing on Oct. 20. His case was one of the first to fall
under a state law that allowed authorities to consolidate multiple
murders into one trial.
Prosecutor David Mazurek paced anxiously in the
courtroom before the verdict, but later said he was pleased with the
jury's decision.
"If there ever was a defendant who deserved the
death penalty, this is the one," Mazurek said outside the courthouse.
The verdict brings justice to the victims' families after eight years,
he said.
The first victim in the case, a hiker, has yet to
be identified by authorities. Her dismembered torso was found in a
slough near Eureka.
Other victims -- Tina Rene Gibbs, of Las Vegas;
Lanett Deyon White, of Fontana; and Patricia Anne Tamez, of Hesperia
-- had sexual encounters with Ford that ended in their deaths,
according to court testimony.
Ford reportedly had rough sex with the victims,
often binding them and using sexual asphyxiation. If the women stopped
breathing, Ford told authorities he would revive them using CPR.
But Ford stopped short in his statement to police,
and claimed he couldn't remember exactly how the victims died.
Jurors said Thursday they doubted Ford's story, and
that his outburst in court during the testimony of Tamez's father,
Rudolfo Tamez, had a major impact on their decision.
As the father testified about the use of sexual
asphyxiation on his daughter, Ford shouted, "That's not true. It never
happened."
The incident opened jurors' eyes, they said.
"That made an impact on us," said Murray, noting
that the whole jury jumped when Ford spoke. "That told us right there
that he was lying. If he knew that, then he knew what he did with the
others. So there was no amnesia."
Witnesses at the trial testified that three of the
victims were prostitutes, but jurors said that did not factor into
their decision.
"They're people. And they didn't deserve this,"
said juror Debi Bain, 51, of San Bernardino.
Because many of the jurors have children themselves,
they found themselves relating to the victims' parents, they said.
"It's hard to think of your children going through
that," Bain said.
Jurors also gave a significant amount of weight to
the testimony of a Sonoma County woman who testified that she was
raped and strangled by Ford but survived.
The fact that Ford ate meals, made deliveries and
dumped the bodies of his victims told jurors the Arcata truck driver
felt little for his victims.
"There was no sign of remorse," said Elecia Morris,
25, who lives in Montclair and works for the Los Angeles County Public
Health Department.
During trial, defense attorneys Joseph Canty and
Steven Mapes asked jurors to put themselves in Ford's shoes, imagine
the rough childhood he endured, the failed relationships, the
difficult divorce from his second wife and the few chances he had to
spend time with his son.
The defense also asked jurors to remember that Ford
turned himself in to authorities at a time when little was known about
the victims' deaths.
Canty said after the hearing Thursday that he was
disappointed Ford's surrender did not carry more sway in jury room.
"We felt that we had the possibility of a better
verdict because of the fact that he had surrendered himself to the
police, when they had no idea who had committed the crimes," Canty
said in a telephone interview.
At Ford's sentencing in October, a judge may hear
motions seeking a new trial or a reduction in the penalty. Should
those motions fail, Ford would be entitled to an automatic appeal of
his case.
Appeals in death-penalty cases can take may years,
Canty said. Ford would get a new attorney for the appeals process.
