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Michael King incompetent? Give me a break.
Some people will try anything to delay things.
Defense wants hearing on King’s competence
By Todd Ruger
Published: Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 12:27 a.m.SARASOTA COUNTY – The man accused of kidnapping Denise Lee from her North Port home and killing her may be incompetent to stand trial, his attorney says.
Michael King’s attorney has asked for a competency hearing to determine if King has the ability to help in his own defense. No hearing date has been set.
“Conversations with defendant reveal an irrational thought process on the part of the defendant,” assistant public defender Carolyn Schlemmer wrote in the motion.
Defendants are required to show an understanding of the charges against them and facts behind the charges so they can help in their defense.
The charges are not dropped if King, 37, is determined to be incompetent, and he is not considered not guilty by reason of insanity.
A defendant who is declared incompetent is sent to a state hospital for treatment until doctors determine the person meets the legal criteria for competency.
The motion comes six months after a judge ordered an examination to see if a past head injury has affected King’s brain function.
Attorneys for King said in a motion that he had suffered a head injury and they wanted doctors to do a test known as a PET scan.
Experts say such injuries can change a person’s personality and behavior later in life.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for King, who is charged with kidnapping, rape and murder.
Lee, 21, was reported missing from her North Port home on the afternoon of Jan. 17.
Her body was found two days later in a shallow grave six miles from her home.
King was arrested on a kidnapping charge the night of the abduction and was charged with murder after the body was found. He is being held in solitary confinement at the Sarasota County jail.
A lab has matched King’s DNA to DNA found on Lee’s body, according to court documents filed by the prosecution.
Spare me the agony. Michael King is perfectly competent. He knew exactly what he was doing. He somehow managed to target Denise, get her out of her house without anyone seeing him. He was competent enough to know that what he did was wrong, and that he somehow had to cover his tracks. That’s why he borrowed the shovel and gas can from his cousin. He knew that Jane Kowalski knew that something was wrong with the situation in his car, and to turn off the highway while she was in another lane and could not continue to follow him. He knew that he had to kill Denise in order to silence her, and he did so. He knew enough to bury her, not just leaving her out in the open, making it more difficult to locate her. He knew enough to dispose of her clothing, his clothing, and the gun. He knew enough to HIDE the gun, which as far as I know, has not been located. He even took the time to think up a story about being kidnapped himself (a stupid story, I will admit….but if he didn’t know right from wrong, didn’t know that he needed to try to cover his tracks, why would he have bothered with even a stupid story?). Michael King is perfectly aware of what he did, and is, in my own opinion at least, competent to stand trial. This is just a delay tactic. If Michael King were any kind of man (which obviously he is not), he would go ahead and admit to what he did, and put this whole awful incident to rest. Let the family have some closure. But no, let’s just delay things, and make the family have to continue to dread the upcoming trial (which WILL come). He’s just continuing to behave like the jerk he clearly is. Honestly, I’m not surprised.
He is obviously an incompetent human being. But that does not excuse his behavior and actions!!!! The public defender tries this card with all her cases. I guess that is standard process when you are defending sickos. Do a little research on her cases and it will make you sick. Richard Henderson Jr for example, the jurors convicted Henderson of killing his parents, grandmother and brother. But Carolyn Schlemmer had a long list of why she thought he wasn’t competent. How do these people sleep at night? Honestly,? I just do not understand. Justice will prevail one way or another.
Unbelievable! I know she has to represent her client to the best of her ability, but she has to live with herself too, maybe someone should test her competence.
This may be a little insight as to what we could expect.
FYI Carolyn Schlemmer You may “like the battle”
But the victims and families that you hurt while defending these heinous monsters do not like the battle. The victims didn’t choose to have their lives ended the way they were. I truly believe that everyone deserves a fair trial. But when you adamantly defend someone you KNOW IS GUILTY- then there is definitely a battle going on there, and one I wouldn’t be too proud of. {just my opinion of course}
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Schlemmer represents notorious
By NATALIE NEYSA ALUND
nalund@bradenton.com
Joseph Smith.
Darrell Mitchell.
Blaine Ross.
Richard Henderson Jr.
It’s a roll call of some of Florida’s most infamous killers in the past five years. Speak their names and most feel a chill down their spines.
But not Carolyn Schlemmer.
She touches them.
She speaks to them.
She speaks for them.
She defends them.
It’s her job to stand by them as the state brings all it has to convince judge and jury that they should die for their crimes.
Last month, Schlemmer successfully argued that Henderson should not be executed for killing four family members Thanksgiving Day 2005. Instead, the jury recommended, and the judge concurred, that he should spend the rest of his life in prison.
When the court clerk read the jury’s decision, Schlemmer took off her glasses and wiped tears from her eyes.
“Even Henderson is a human being,” Schlemmer said. “And if you save their life, of course you’re going to be emotional.
“You have their life in your hands.”
Henderson even voiced his gratitude for her efforts.
“I personally feel after this all has happened, if anyone would feel a spot of caring towards me, it is very surprising . . . meaningful to me,” he said in a phone call to the Herald from the Manatee County jail.
Strong through it all
In January, Schlemmer was preparing for two of these vicious cases at once: her defense for Henderson and for Ross.
That same month, her husband, Steven, died of lung disease. He was only 38.
“I don’t know how I did it, but I did it,” Schlemmer said, looking back. “There’s a strength coming from somewhere. I just wish he’d have been there. He was my best friend.”
She drew strong support from her friends in her office and from her adversaries in the state attorney’s office.
Bradenton defense attorney Colleen Glenn calls Schlemmer an incredibly strong person, particularly because she can stay focused on her cases, no matter what else is going on in her life.
“A true role model,” Glenn said.
Said Henderson from jail, “No one could have done any better.”
“I want everyone to know this woman has two kids at home that she takes care of by herself, and still is the best damn lawyer in Manatee County,” he added.
Schlemmer is the only lawyer in Manatee County who is both board-certified in criminal law and qualified to defend those facing the death penalty. She never thought she’d be an attorney defending the accused. While in law school at Stetson, she wanted to be a prosecutor.
She stumbled into the job.
“I had to take the public defender clinic while in law school because the prosecution clinic was full,” she said.
When she graduated in 1991, she first worked at a friend’s firm in St. Petersburg, then accepted a job as a public defender in the traffic division in Tallahassee.
“It really was a job at the time I had experience in,” she said.
She won her first case there and, within six months, was promoted to represent felony defendants.
In 1993, she took a job in Tampa, where she first represented a client facing the possibility of the death penalty.
In 1998, she moved to Manatee County.
The qualifying case: Smith
In December 2005, she was co-counsel on Richard Smith’s murder trial in Sarasota. Smith was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in 2004.
“She needed to have one more case in order to be qualified as first chair for capital cases, and Smith qualified her,” said assistant public defender Adam Tebrugge, who headed Smith’s defense team.
“Even more important to me, I gave her a significant portion of that case, and she wasn’t able to start working on it until a month before trial,” said Tebrugge, who works in the same office as Schlemmer. “But once I turned that part of the case over to her, I never had to worry about it again. She never needed any help.
“Jim Slater, who passed in May 2005, left behind (Jeffrey) Pompey and Ross, and Carolyn stepped right in and assumed the responsibility and took care of everything.”
Tebrugge said Schlemmer has been the most valuable member of the public defender’s office for the past two years.
“I’ve had to handle multiple homicide cases in a year, but have never had to have as many serious death penalty cases in a short period of time that Carolyn just concluded,” said Tebrugge, who has worked in the office for about 20 years.
In the fall of 2006, Schlemmer helped convince a jury to spare the life of Darrell Mitchell, convicted of murdering Briarwood resident Susan Tharp in July 2004. Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison.
In April, she represented Ross, who was convicted of killing his parents in January 2004 and is awaiting sentencing. The jury recommended he be executed.
Then came the Henderson trial.
Schlemmer mounted an insanity defense, which the jury rejected. But she did convince the same panel to recommend that he not be executed for killing his parents, grandmother and younger brother.
“I do feel that no matter guilt or innocence, everyone is entitled to good representation and a fair trial,” Schlemmer said. “Maybe that is why I can so easily represent the people accused of the worst crimes. I have a knack for separating feelings and work. You either have it, or you don’t.”
Take, for example, the case of Pompey, charged with killing two men with a single bullet fired from a rifle during an August 2002 robbery at a Bradenton Foodland supermarket.
“Prior to trial, she litigated whether he was mentally retarded and, as a result, convinced the state to no longer seek the death penalty,” Tebrugge said. “Then they go to trial not once, but twice last year.” Each time, the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
On the verge of a third trial, the state decided not to prosecute Pompey.
“That was an incredible performance by Carolyn,” Tebrugge said.
“Carolyn has really distinguished herself, not only in our office, but in our entire judicial circuit, and I’m very proud to be associated with her,” he added.
Her clients apparently agree.
Henderson, housed at the jail until he is transferred to prison, says he talks about Schlemmer with fellow inmates Ross and Davis.
Davis, set to stand trial this fall on charges he killed his mother and grandfather in 2005, is represented by Tebrugge. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
When Davis learned Henderson was spared the death penalty, he decided he wanted Schlemmer on his defense team, Henderson said.
“Even Blaine Ross, who a jury recommended get the death penalty, said she was good,” Henderson said.
Joyce Henderson, the sister-in-law of Richard Henderson Sr., declined comment about her nephew’s lawyer. Relatives of victims in other cases where Schlemmer represented the accused also declined comment, according to Susie Brown, manager of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office victim advocate unit.
More cases ahead
In recent days, Schlemmer can be found in her office, preparing for the defense of Jesus Ledezma, accused of shooting a man in the head at point-blank range in November 2006 in Bradenton.
And she is waiting for the state to decide if it will pursue the death penalty for several other murder defendants. They include Felipe Lopez, accused of shooting his estranged wife in June near Palmetto, and Thomas Fast, charged with murdering and dismembering his stepmother in late June in East Manatee.
Homicide prosecutor Art Brown relishes going against Schlemmer in court.
“I’ve enjoyed working with Carolyn,” he said. “She is very efficient the way she prepares her cases. She’s a respected colleague.”
As she prepares to defend others accused of murder, Schlemmer focuses not on the gruesome side, but on the process. That, she says, is the secret to her strength.
“I like the battle,” she said.
FWIW, this article didn’t upset me. It tells me (just as the head examination did) that she’s grasping at straws and all she’s doing is trying to save his miserable life. What upset me today was Bill Cameron’s thank you note in today’s Sun-Herald where he mentions John Davenport’s “31 years of impeccable service”. While I recognize with respect Davenport’s service, I wouldn’t call it “impeccable”. If the loss of Denise weren’t so tragic, I’d laugh.
That’s a lawyer for you.
Funny that they would quote Colleen Glenn. Certainly they could have found a good attorney to quote, not one that is a bad as she is.
I AM NOT CONDONING WHAT MICHAEL KING DID ,BUT THEY DID NOT FIND THE GUN BULLETS,AND TO BE HONEST WITH YOU THE COUSIN HAD THE SAME GUN JUST LIKE THE FRIEND HAD THE SAME GUN, AND WAS WITH BOTH OF THEM THE DAY OF THE MURDER,BOTH WHERE NOT CHARGED FOR NOT TELLING THE TRUTH,I STILL SAY THERE WAS SOME1 ELSE ,WHEN THEY PULLED MICHAEL OVER HE HAD NO BLOOD ON HIM ,STRATCHES,MARKS AND HIS SNEAKERS WERE CLEAN TO ..THEY SEARCHED FOR THE GUN AND THEY DID NOT FIND IT..AND SINCE NOBOY SEEN HIM SHOT HER AND NO GUN I DONT BELIEVE HE SHOULD GET THE DEATH PENLTY..SOME THINGS DONT ADD UP ..THATS JUST MY OPINION..
Apparently nobody saw him kidnap and rape her as well. But the evidence and his DNA is everywhere. His cousin saw him pushing her in the car! Jane Kowalski saw King pushing her down as well. so you really expect people to believe he would do everything he did and stop at murder?? did you not hear the 911 call? give me a break.
Jane did not say she seen him pushin her down ,she thought it was a
kid..as far as the dna how do we know that him and her were seein each
other ..how he got into her house she had a regular lock and a deadbolt
so why she opened the the door to a stranger ..and she watches law order
..csi..and out of all people in flordia why her ..come on something
don’t add up ..and the cousin lied threw his teeth so he would say
anything to save his own ass..
Yes Jane said while he was driving he was pushing her down. {reaching his hand and arm to the back while driving} yes she thought it was a child probably because of her size. Denise was very small and petite. the back seats of a camaro are deep. you probably would have a hard time seeing all of her.
Excuse me but what in the hell are you implying??? King’s car and Nathans looked similiar in color and style. She could of very well thought Nathan was home at a quick glance out the window. Not that any of that really matters. I have opened the door for people {I certainly don’t now!} HE HAD A GUN! He probably threatened to kill her kids so she listened to him hoping she would get back safe.
They were not seeing eachother. LOOK AT THAT PIG. she would not have been with him. I assume you must be one of the other mind warped “girlfriends” of his.
the defense is basically saying he is retarded so why believe anything he says right? cmon they know he is guilty and so do we.
I’ll tell you what doesn’t add up Doreen. The fact that people can come up with such unsubstantiated rubbish like you have. Zzzzzzzzz