David Roberson
New member
I just had to share this one. Taken from the AP wire today (5 April 00). Simply astounding.
From today's AP wire:
FAYETTEVILLE -- A sentencing hearing for a teenager convicted of killing two women and wounding a third in a gang initiation began Tuesday with his intoxicated mother led to jail.
Tuesday's hearing began with Judge William Gore Jr. sending Francisco "Paco" Tirado's mother, Alice Tirado, to jail. She showed up intoxicated to testify as a character witness for her son.
A deputy stopped her outside the courtroom, where she submitted to an alcohol-sensing test, which gave a reading of 0.27. In North Carolina, 0.08 is considered intoxicated.
Tirado, briefly put on the witness stand with the jury absent, said she had been drunk since her son was jailed and had been drinking until 4 a.m. Tuesday.
"I haven't slept in three days," Tirado said.
Defense attoryey Carl Ivarsson told Gore he was unwilling to put her on the witness stand in that condition.
"I assume you love your son," the judge said to Tirado. "The least you can do is appear sober."
He declared her a material witness, sent her to jail under a protective custody order, and instructed that she be visited by a mental health counselor and reappear in court today.
The judge learned later in the afternoon that Mrs. Tirado had been taken from the jail to a hospital for treatment. After sending jurors home for the day, he discussed her condition with a mental health counselor, a doctor and Francisco Tirado's defense attorneys.
"Paco had a very bizarre family," defense attorney Carl Ivarsson Jr. told jurors.
A Cumberland County Superior Court jury on Monday convicted Tirado, 18, and Eric Queen, 21, of first-degree murder, kidnapping and attempted murder. The same jury will decide whether the two should die for their crimes or spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Tirado and Queen randomly abducted and killed Tracy Lambert, 19, and Susan Moore, 25, in Linden on Aug. 17, 1998, as part of an initiation into the Crips gang. The killings were carried out with bullets tinted the Crips' signature blue.
Debra Cheeseborough, 42, abducted separately the same night, was shot seven times, but survived and testified against the two, the first of nine co-defendants in the case to stand trial.
Gore ordered the defendants put in leg irons after prosecutors complained that Queen balked Monday at being taken to a holding cell. They also said Tirado made threatening movements around deputies.
The judge granted a defense request to place a skirt around the defense table to shield the restraints from jurors, but said he didn't think they would influence the jury.
"In fact, these people are convicted murderers," Gore said. "I don't think it's going to come as any great surprise to the jurors that they're in custody."
From today's AP wire:
FAYETTEVILLE -- A sentencing hearing for a teenager convicted of killing two women and wounding a third in a gang initiation began Tuesday with his intoxicated mother led to jail.
Tuesday's hearing began with Judge William Gore Jr. sending Francisco "Paco" Tirado's mother, Alice Tirado, to jail. She showed up intoxicated to testify as a character witness for her son.
A deputy stopped her outside the courtroom, where she submitted to an alcohol-sensing test, which gave a reading of 0.27. In North Carolina, 0.08 is considered intoxicated.
Tirado, briefly put on the witness stand with the jury absent, said she had been drunk since her son was jailed and had been drinking until 4 a.m. Tuesday.
"I haven't slept in three days," Tirado said.
Defense attoryey Carl Ivarsson told Gore he was unwilling to put her on the witness stand in that condition.
"I assume you love your son," the judge said to Tirado. "The least you can do is appear sober."
He declared her a material witness, sent her to jail under a protective custody order, and instructed that she be visited by a mental health counselor and reappear in court today.
The judge learned later in the afternoon that Mrs. Tirado had been taken from the jail to a hospital for treatment. After sending jurors home for the day, he discussed her condition with a mental health counselor, a doctor and Francisco Tirado's defense attorneys.
"Paco had a very bizarre family," defense attorney Carl Ivarsson Jr. told jurors.
A Cumberland County Superior Court jury on Monday convicted Tirado, 18, and Eric Queen, 21, of first-degree murder, kidnapping and attempted murder. The same jury will decide whether the two should die for their crimes or spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Tirado and Queen randomly abducted and killed Tracy Lambert, 19, and Susan Moore, 25, in Linden on Aug. 17, 1998, as part of an initiation into the Crips gang. The killings were carried out with bullets tinted the Crips' signature blue.
Debra Cheeseborough, 42, abducted separately the same night, was shot seven times, but survived and testified against the two, the first of nine co-defendants in the case to stand trial.
Gore ordered the defendants put in leg irons after prosecutors complained that Queen balked Monday at being taken to a holding cell. They also said Tirado made threatening movements around deputies.
The judge granted a defense request to place a skirt around the defense table to shield the restraints from jurors, but said he didn't think they would influence the jury.
"In fact, these people are convicted murderers," Gore said. "I don't think it's going to come as any great surprise to the jurors that they're in custody."
