TX: John Balentine - High court rejects Balentine's appeal
Tue Nov 3, 2009 12:02
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Web-posted Tuesday, November 3, 2009
High court rejects Balentine's appeal
By David Pittman
david.pittman@amarillo.com
John Balentine
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a death row inmate convicted of killing three teenagers in Amarillo almost 12 years ago.
John Balentine won a reprieve from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September, a day before he was scheduled to die in Huntsville by injection.
With Monday's decision by the Supreme Court, Balentine's defense has 30 days to file the next appeal. If nothing is filed, an execution date will be scheduled by 320th District Judge Don Emerson.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General's Office in Austin, which is handling the appellate cases, said it wasn't clear Monday specifically what part of his conviction or sentencing that Balentine was challenging.
Balentine, 40, was condemned for the January 1998 shooting deaths of Mark Caylor Jr., 17; Kai Brooke Geyer, 15; and Steven Watson, 15.
Caylor was the brother of Balentine's former girlfriend, and prosecutors said the shootings capped a feud between Caylor and Balentine. The teens each were shot once in the head.
The Supreme Court also declined to review the case of 45-year-old Gerald Cornelius Eldridge, facing execution Nov. 17 for the fatal shootings of his former girlfriend and her daughter in Houston almost 17 years ago.
The justices also rejected an appeal from 37-year-old Rigoberto Avila, sent to death row for stomping his girlfriend's baby to death nearly 10 years ago in El Paso.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/110309/new_news5.shtml
High court rejects Balentine's appeal
By David Pittman
david.pittman@amarillo.com
John Balentine
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a death row inmate convicted of killing three teenagers in Amarillo almost 12 years ago.
John Balentine won a reprieve from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September, a day before he was scheduled to die in Huntsville by injection.
With Monday's decision by the Supreme Court, Balentine's defense has 30 days to file the next appeal. If nothing is filed, an execution date will be scheduled by 320th District Judge Don Emerson.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General's Office in Austin, which is handling the appellate cases, said it wasn't clear Monday specifically what part of his conviction or sentencing that Balentine was challenging.
Balentine, 40, was condemned for the January 1998 shooting deaths of Mark Caylor Jr., 17; Kai Brooke Geyer, 15; and Steven Watson, 15.
Caylor was the brother of Balentine's former girlfriend, and prosecutors said the shootings capped a feud between Caylor and Balentine. The teens each were shot once in the head.
The Supreme Court also declined to review the case of 45-year-old Gerald Cornelius Eldridge, facing execution Nov. 17 for the fatal shootings of his former girlfriend and her daughter in Houston almost 17 years ago.
The justices also rejected an appeal from 37-year-old Rigoberto Avila, sent to death row for stomping his girlfriend's baby to death nearly 10 years ago in El Paso.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/110309/new_news5.shtml
- TX: John Balentine - High court rejects Balentine's appeal — Tue Nov 3 12:02
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