"Tuite to be retried in Crowe slaying" by John Wilkens, San Diego Union-Tribune 10/24/2012
Opening another chapter in one of San Diego County’s longest-running and most controversial legal dramas, the state Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday it will retry Richard Tuite for the 1998 killing of Stephanie Crowe.
Tuite was convicted in 2004 of stabbing the 12-year-old Escondido girl in her bedroom and sentenced to 13 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. His conviction was overturned last year by a federal appeals court, which ruled his trial was unfair because a judge limited defense cross-examination of a prosecution witness.
During a brief hearing in San Diego Superior Court, Jim Dutton, supervising deputy attorney general, told Judge Timothy Walsh that prosecutors decided to retry the case rather than release Tuite, a San Diego native with a long history of mental illness and drug abuse.
Outside court, Dutton, one of the prosecutors in the first trial, cited two reasons for the decision: “The gravity of the crime and public safety.”
Steve Crowe, Stephanie’s father, said in a phone interview from Oregon, where most of the family lives, “If we have to rehash this whole thing again, so be it. We’d much rather have him convicted of the crime again than have no one convicted and have the case be unsolved forever as far as San Diego is concerned.”
Tuite, 43, who is being held without bail, stood silently during Wednesday’s hearing. He has regrown the long hair and full beard he had around the time of the killing, a sharp contrast to the clean-shaven, preppy look he sported during his trial. His attorney, Brad Patton, said Tuite maintains his innocence and welcomes another trial.
“There’s no question that someone else did it,” Patton said.
The question of who did it has riveted the county for 14 years. Citing a lack of forced entry at the house, Escondido police concluded it was an inside job by Stephanie’s 14-year-old brother, Michael, and two of his high school friends, Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser. They were charged with murder after confessing during long interrogations that multiple judicial authorities have subsequently criticized as illegally coercive.
The case against the trio collapsed in 1999 when DNA testing found drops of Stephanie’s blood on a red shirt Tuite was wearing the night of the slaying. The transient was seen roaming the Crowe neighborhood, banging on doors, looking in windows and asking for a woman named Tracy who used to live in the area. Police interviewed him briefly the next day and confiscated his clothes before dismissing him as a bungling prowler.
Sheriff’s detectives took over the investigation and in 2002 the state attorney general charged Tuite with the murder, which they said was fueled by his “obsession” with Tracy. The trial lasted three months. Jurors heard from almost 170 witnesses and reviewed evidence that included Stephanie’s blood found on a second shirt Tuite was wearing.
The jury that convicted him cited DNA as the most compelling evidence, rejecting defense claims that the blood got on Tuite’s clothing through inadvertent police contamination. Their deliberations took eight days as at least one juror was troubled by the lack of any hair or fingerprints tying Tuite to the crime scene.
Patton said he will again argue contamination to counter the blood evidence. He also said he will point the finger again at the teens originally charged in the case, even though the first jury immediately dismissed that theory when they began their deliberations.
Michael Crowe is 29 now, married with a child and attending college in Oregon. Last year, his family won a $7.25 million settlement against various law enforcement officials. Earlier this year, in an attempt to fully clear his name, he got a rare finding of “factual innocence” from a Superior Court judge.
Treadway, also 29, was included in the finding, and although Houser was not part of the hearing, lawyers said the ruling applies to him, too. He turns 30 on Friday. All three testified in the first trial.
Patton said the “factual innocence” ruling will have no bearing on Tuite’s new trial.
Attorneys are due back in court Nov. 2 to set a trial date and discuss bail. Patton said he will ask for bail, although he also said his client has no money to pay for it.
In the new trial, the most serious charge Tuite faces is voluntary manslaughter because the first jury acquitted him of murder, concluding that he lacked the necessary premeditation or malice. If he is convicted again, he would be returned to prison until February 2017, according to Dutton, the prosecutor.
Patton, however, said he believes once good-behavior credits are calculated, Tuite is already at or near the end of his sentence.
Because of Tuite’s mental-health history — he’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia — Patton asked the court to make sure he gets examined in jail by a doctor and receives his medication.
Tuite’s sister, Kerri, who has long maintained her brother is innocent, attended Wednesday’s hearing but declined to speak with reporters.
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