Attorneys satisfied with plea agreement
Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Serafin Sandoval-Vega and Manuel Camacho, the men who pleaded guilty in the murder of Daniel Francis, will die behind bars. It is a sentence that the prosecution and defense attorneys agreed was the best compromise. It was justice.
Prosecutor Van Stone said the plea was in some ways better than a jury verdict, even though the plea did not result in the death penalty. With the guilty plea, there is no appeal and the punishment is final. The closure, Stone said, was what the family preferred instead of waiting to see if a verdict would be overturned in a higher court.
"We always discuss what the family's wishes were," Stone said. "They wanted the finality of these men dying in prison."
Stone said he would have rather seen the state put these men to death, but the result would be the same, as neither will be free from state prison until their deaths.
The defense attorneys, Stone said, approached him earlier in the week seeking a plea deal.
Attorney Louis Lim, who represented Sandoval-Vega, said the plea also offered a benefit to the defendants, giving them the opportunity to confess and ask for absolution.
Kent McLemore, one of Camacho's attorneys, said his client entered the plea largely to end the suffering of the families affected.
The plea also ended the worry of whether an unbiased jury could be found, McLemore said.
"We were quite concerned with the jury we were going to end up with," he said.
Stone, however, said a fair-minded jury would have been found, although it may have taken awhile. In the three days of jury selection, attorneys only agreed on two candidates. Circuit Judge Tom Keith said he needed 12 jurors and two alternates before he could begin the trial. What would have happened ?
With the case against Sandoval-Vega and Camacho closed, Stone was free to outline his planned arguments against the defendants.
Deputy Prosecutor Drew Miller set maps and photos on a table in his office's conference room. The story began at County Line Liquors in Springdale. Francis and his friend Tracy Stith, co-workers at J. B. Hunt, stopped there to get one beer each before going home for the day. Neither opened his bottle, Miller said.
Stith pulled onto the highway in front of the vehicle Camacho was driving. Sandoval-Vega was in the back seat. Roxanna Hernandez was in the front passenger seat. Camacho passed Stith in the left lane, pulled in front of him, and "brake checked"him, hitting the brakes and forcing Stith to avoid a collision. The defendants agreed to this point in Miller's statement of fact.
Hernandez, Miller said, was prepared to testify against Camacho and Sandoval-Vega, saying that they shortly thereafter decided to shoot at Stith's vehicle. The defendants pulled up to a traffic light in Lowell and prepared to fire but decided against it because of the proximity to the police department, Miller said.
Then they neared the intersection of Eighth Street and Pleasant Grove Road. The flow of traffic, Miller said, brought Stith in front of Camacho on the two-lane stretch. Stith then pulled in front of Camacho and performed a "brake check"of his own.
At the light, Miller said, Camacho stopped short of the intersection to ensure he would be next to Stith. Sandoval-Vega rolled down his window and fired three shots into Stith's vehicle. One struck Francis, killing him.
Police were able to locate and arrest the three suspects in the vehicle because Stith chased them until he could read the license plate, Stone said.
The suspects, before their apprehension, stopped at Wal-Mart to buy more ammunition. At that time, Camacho told Hernandez that she didn't hear or see anything, Stone said.
Much of the information the prosecution received came from Hernandez, who is still charged with being an accomplice to capital murder.
Questioning during jury selection indicated the defense would try to undermine her credibility. Attorneys McLemore and Tim Buckley, representing Camacho, asked several jurors if they would wonder why she was willing to testify and if they would consider what she was receiving from doing so.
The subject of gangs would have also come up at the trial. Stone said one expert witness would describe the shooting as "gang motivated," meaning Camacho's life as a member of Surenos 13 in California influenced the defendants' decision.
Buckley, even after his client entered a guilty plea, said gang charges were unfounded.
"It was stupid, and it was tragic, and it was not in any way a gang crime," Buckley said.
McLemore said both defendants denied any gang-related reason for the shooting, adding that Camacho left California to escape gang life and had been living a law-abiding life until the shooting. Hernandez's fate With the trial ended by the guilty pleas, Hernandez is no longer able to testify against the other two defendants. Stone said her cooperation with the prosecutors will still be considered.
"Her testimony would have been key," Stone said.
Under her current charges, Hernandez faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole, but Stone said it was possible she would instead be charged with a lesser crime because of her willingness to testify.
"She will benefit from the fact that she has cooperated in a substantial way," Stone said.
Keith has not yet set a date for Hernandez's hearing. Stone said he cannot fully discuss her case until she has pleaded.
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