Penalty phase of death-penalty case begins tomorrow
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
Laquanta Chapman was convicted Friday of fatally shooting, dismembering 16-year-old Aaron Turner.
A Coatesville man will begin fighting for his life tomorrow in Chester County Court.
Laquanta Chapman, 33, was convicted of first-degree murder Friday in connection with the fatal shooting and chainsaw dismemberment of 16-year-old Aaron Turner more than four years ago.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Chapman, and the jury of seven men and five women, which deliberated on Friday for less than three hours before finding Chapman guilty, must now begin the penalty phase of the case.
Defense attorney J. Michael Farrell is expected to present witnesses who will argue that Chapman’s background offers mitigating factors that should spare his client from death. Prosecutors Chief Deputy District Attorney Patrick Carmody and Assistant District Attorney Michelle Frel will counter that aggravating circumstances, such as Chapman’s criminal history, warrant the death penalty.
If the jury is unable to reach a unanimous decision to impose the death penalty, Chapman will receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Carmody said he expected the proceeding to take two days.
The case dates back to Oct. 30, 2008, when Turner uncharacteristically failed to show up at the community center after school to perform some court-ordered community service. Relatives said the teen had become involved in drugs and was eager to put his “big mistake” behind him.
A missing-person investigation eventually escalated into a homicide probe after police suspected Chapman of drug-trafficking and executed a search warrant Nov. 15, 2008, at Chapman’s residence across Chester Avenue from Turner, police said.
Prosecutors said police found “a house of crime” that included stolen guns, machetes, drugs, drug-selling paraphernalia, blood-stained clothing, and trash bags with mutilated pitbull remains. Investigators, later aided by DNA evidence, concluded that Chapman shot and killed Turner likely over a dispute about drug money.
Authorities said Chapman then used a chainsaw to cut up the body, which was placed in plastic bags and left out for the trash. Despite landfill searches, the body was never found. Chapman also dismembered a pitbull in an apparent, unsuccessful effort to mask Turner’s DNA. A medical examiner who analyzed the evidence issued a death certificate for Turner, concluding that the teen could not have survived based on the tissue and blood samples that were recovered.
One of two men inside Chapman’s residence when the homicide occurred, Bryan Byrd, 23, of Newark, N.J., was a key prosecution witness. Byrd, who pleaded guilty in November 2011 to third-degree murder, conspiracy, abuse of a corpse, and related offenses, is awaiting sentencing. The other, Michael Purnell, has not been “charged here – yet,” said Carmody.
Jurors apparently did not accept the argument presented by defense attorney Evan Kelly, who suggested that Byrd committed the murder and deflected blame by cooperating with authorities.
