{"id":3119,"date":"2012-11-14T23:44:45","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T04:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2012-11-14T23:50:53","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T04:50:53","slug":"coatesville-murderer-gets-rare-death-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=3119","title":{"rendered":"Coatesville murderer gets rare death sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jury imposed penalty for fatal shooting, dismemberment of 16-year-old<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Laquanta Chapman received the death penalty for the murder of Aaron Turner.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Coatesville man convicted last week of fatally shooting his 16-year-old neighbor, dismembering the body with a chainsaw, and stuffing the carnage into garbage bags, remained impassive as he was sentenced to death tonight.<\/p>\n

After about three hours of deliberations, the jury concluded that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones in the murder of 16-year-old Aaron Turner at the hands of Laquanta Chapman, 33.<\/p>\n

The panel\u2019s decision, which marked an infrequent occurrence in Chester County, prompted an outpouring of gratitude from half a dozen of the victim\u2019s relatives.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThank you, thank you\u201d they repeated, making eye contact with some of the jurors.<\/p>\n

The verdict capped an emotionally-charged day and a half of testimony in the death-penalty phase of the trial, which was prompted by Chapman\u2019s first-degree murder conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is so good,\u201d said Angeline Blaylock, the victim\u2019s mother. \u201cWe fought and we fought for our baby, and we finally got justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy District Attorney Patrick Carmody said the justice was well-deserved. He said the family\u2019s grief was repeatedly compounded \u2013 from the agony of determining why Aaron had disappeared to revelations about the viciousness of the killing to delays in bringing the case to trial.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys J. Michael Farrell and Evan Kelly left the courthouse without comment, but Kelly said earlier that the first-degree murder conviction would be appealed, regardless of the outcome of the penalty phase.<\/p>\n

In his closing argument, Carmody explained that Chapman\u2019s criminal history \u2013 two previous convictions for aggravated assault \u2013 constituted an aggravating factor.\u00a0 Unless the jury found that mitigating factors existed, the \u201cverdict must be death,\u201d he said. And if any juror accepted the presence of a mitigating factor, then it must be weighed against the impact of Turner\u2019s death on his family.<\/p>\n

Farrell argued that \u00a0\u201ctraumatic, toxic effects of adverse childhood experiences\u201d shaped his client\u2019s behavior. He pointed out that Chapman grew up in a violence-ridden section of Newark, N.J., known as \u201cBrick City.\u201d Chapman\u2019s father was imprisoned for assaulting his infant son, who was placed in foster care because his mother was a drug addict, Farrell said.<\/p>\n

Although Chapman experienced affection and stability from his foster parents, he eventually ended up back with his mother, who had moved to Coatesville after continuing to battle drugs, Farrell said.\u00a0 Chapman had a chance to turn his life around, but he returned to Brick City.<\/p>\n

The violent death of his drug-dealing cousin, Michael Chapman – \u00a0killed in a shootout with police \u2013 also had a negative impact, Farrell said. Referencing the testimony of Kenneth Weiss, a forensic psychiatrist, Farrell said Chapman\u2019s \u201cadverse childhood experiences\u201d impaired his brain development.<\/p>\n

Carmody reminded the jurors that Barbara E. Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist, questioned Weiss\u2019s findings, calling them controversial. Ziv characterized Chapman as a charming, manipulative sociopath.<\/p>\n

The planning before, during and after the murder reinforced the extreme indifference to human life that Chapman showed when he pointed guns at other victims when he was 18 and 20 years old, Carmody said. Chapman\u2019s systematic approach to Turner’s murder included buying chainsaws – even though he had no trees on his property \u2013 diapers to soak up blood, and bleach to clean the crime scene, Carmody said, adding that Chapman used the same saw to cut up a dog\u00a0 \u201cso he has a built-in excuse\u201d if he were ever questioned by police.<\/p>\n

According to testimony, the case began Oct. 30, 2008, when Turner, who had been working to get back on track after detouring into the drug trade, failed to show up at the community center to perform some court-ordered community service. Suspicion turned to Chapman after police executed a search warrant Nov. 15, 2008, and found weapons, drugs, drug-selling paraphernalia, blood-stained clothing, and trash bags with mutilated pitbull remains.<\/p>\n

Investigators, later aided by DNA evidence, concluded that Chapman shot and killed Turner over a drug dispute. Despite searches of the landfill where the bags would have been taken by trash haulers, the body was never found.<\/p>\n

One of two men inside Chapman\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Although the jury did not accept the argument presented by Kelly that Byrd committed the murder and deflected blame by cooperating with authorities, Chapman\u2019s mother, Cynthia Chapman Graves, believes police got it wrong.\u00a0Speaking before the penalty-phase deliberations, she acknowledged that sitting through testimony about her son\u2019s difficult childhood and her own drug use was painful, but she said her son gave her strength. \u201cHe kept telling me to have faith,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Carmody credited many people in law enforcement with what he viewed as a\u00a0 positive result, including Assistant District Attorney Michelle Frei, the Chester County Detectives, and the Coatesville Police Department. Carmody also thanked the jurors \u201cfor their remarkable citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of proceeding is not very common,\u201d\u00a0 said Judge William P. Mahon, who thanked the jurors for their service. \u201cThis is as difficult and important a decision as any.\u201d<\/p>\n

District Attorney Tom Hogan said the last defendant to be sentenced to death in Chester County was Derrick Hall for a 1993 murder in Coatesville.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very pleased with the outcome,\u201d said Coatesville Det. Ryan Wright, the affiant in the case. \u201cI think justice prevailed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jury imposed penalty for fatal shooting, dismemberment of 16-year-old By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times The Coatesville man convicted last week of fatally shooting his 16-year-old neighbor, dismembering the body with a chainsaw, and stuffing the carnage into garbage bags, remained impassive as he was sentenced to death tonight. After about three hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1054,1132,917,1066,785,1133,1050,1120,1130,1052,1131],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-aaron-turner","tag-angeline-blaylock","tag-assistant-district-attorney-michelle-frei","tag-chief-deputy-district-attorney-patrick-carmody","tag-coatesville-police-department","tag-death-penalty","tag-evan-kelly","tag-j-michael-farrell","tag-judge-william-p-mahon","tag-laquanta-chapman","tag-the-chester-county-detectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}