Monroe County State’s Attorney Dennis Ward and Chief Assistant State Attorney Joe Mansfield joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Mansfield actually started in Cleveland.
He said, “When I got out of law school, I came to Miami Dade and worked for Kathy Rundle. She recruited me down there, and I did my first 16 years as an Assistant Attorney Miami Dade. Then I got appointed by Rick Scott to the bench. And then when that ended, I got a phone call from Dennis Ward about coming further south and maybe working down here. So I came down here for an interview and never left.”
Ward said, “One of the big cases that Joe and I have been working on is a gruesome triple homicide that took place back in the 90s in the Upper Keys. Thomas Overton, he’s been on death row for about 30 years, and I think Joe knows all the graphic details of that one. I think he’ll share that with you.”
Mansfield said, “Probably one of the worst homicide cases I’ve ever looked at, and I’ve tried, probably up around 40 or 50 homicides to jury now. A young couple, and in Key Largo area, she was pregnant, I think, eight months pregnant with their first child, and they get this home intruder, who knew her from the local mechanic shop where she had her car worked, he hatches his plan to go into the house, and it’s a pretty devious plan. He cuts the electric to the house and the phone line so that they can’t call for help, makes his way into the house and then just commits horrific acts, I mean, rapes the pregnant wife, and describes in detail how he feels the fetus moving while he’s raping her, and he puts his hand on the baby and the stomach and can feel the baby moving, ties the husband up and tapes his head, but leaves his nose open so he remains alive, and the husband’s essentially witnessing this attack on his wife while it goes on, a pretty prolonged attack, and then the husband attempts to try to do what he can to save her, but that’s to no avail, and the guy ultimately strangles the husband. I think he puts a detail in there, something to the effect of I taped his eyes shut so I wouldn’t see his eyes bulging when I strangle them, and strangles the husband to death, continues to attack and assault the female. She dies with her hands clenched. I mean literally, hands clenched. And when she dies, that’s the position of her hands, and I think she was strangled to death, ultimately, but severe wounds to her as well. And the baby, as the medical examiner pointed out, was viable and appears to have lived for about half an hour after the mother’s death. And the baby had attempted to breathe on his own, and it was a baby boy, and even the baby evidently fought to live. But unfortunately, this animal made sure that all three of them died that day. So he’s, I mean, just one of the most brutal cases, never really a clear reason why, other than he wanted to. I mean, just an evil guy, and he wanted to. If she ignored him one day when she picked up her vehicle or something, and he was aggravated or annoyed, but he butchers all three of them, pretty involved case. He gets death row, and he’s been on death row now for, I think, almost 30 years. So Dennis and I have been really involved in trying to petition the governor to bring this to its natural conclusion and to finish this execution, because he was given the death penalty at the punishment phase of his trial, and we’re trying desperately to try to get the governor to get this to the finish line and get some closure for this case, because it’s not just a bad murder case from Monroe County, probably one of the most horrific murder cases for any county. I would challenge it’s just as bad as anything I saw in Miami Dade. I wasn’t here when it was tried. Dennis had asked me to take a look at it. And I pulled the old dusty box files, literally covered in dust, and pulled them out of the file room. And with each file, with each piece of document I read it just became more intense, more gruesome, just horrific. So, yeah, I mean, there’s a big motivation to, I think, not just for the people of this county, but this guy needs and deserves the death penalty.”
It seems like the governor has been signing more death penalties lately.
Mansfield said, “I think he’s going to exceed his predecessor as far as the number of inmates who he’s able to put to death. But Dennis, I think has even approached the Attorney General to talk to him directly about trying to get this one to the finish line, and we’ve been pretty aggressive about keeping up our campaign to try to get this one done before this governor leaves.”
Is there any possibility for an appeal on the Overton case?
Mansfield said, “There’s always a pitch made. There’s various organizations that are designed to continue to make the push. But all of his official legal appeals have been surpassed now. He’s failed with every one of them, so he doesn’t have any more official legal hurdles. But like I said, up until the day of execution, there will be various groups that will push to halt his execution, but he has no legal basis left anymore.”
What’s the difference between pursuing prosecutions in Miami Dade and Monroe County?
Mansfield said, “It’s night and day from what we get down here. We’re more aggressive down here. We get more punishment on the times that we prosecute down here, stiffer sentences, more state prison on drug cases than we ever got in Miami Dade. We don’t waive minimum mandatory sentencing down here, so our drug dealers go away for the prescribed sentences, whatever the minimum mandatory, whether it’s three, five, ten, fifteen years, we enforce those religiously. We are very cautious when we waive any kind of mandatory sentencing or even fines, we impose everything that we’re able to do under the law, which is very different from Miami Dade. Violent crimes, Miami Dade does a nice job. They get a pretty good sentence on violent crimes, but we also have our share, unfortunately of violent crimes, and we’re very successful prosecuting those, and we’ve had a lot of success in the last, four or five months, we’ve had three big violent crime cases go to a jury, and we convicted on all of them. Monroe County juries are very intent on doing something about crime in this county. So it’s very gratifying to try a case down here in front of a Monroe County jury, because by and large, the jury seems to be very receptive to the presentations that we make and we meet with a lot of success down here.”
Law enforcement in Monroe County should be gratified to know that when they make an arrest, they will probably see a prosecution.
Mansfield said, “I hope that’s the feeling. I mean, we work very hard with law enforcement, and we want them to know that we take these cases very seriously, and it’s very collaborative with them. And we want that communication. We want that collaboration, because we want them to know that we want to proceed on these arrests, and we want them to know that we care, and we try to communicate with them if there’s any issue and if it’s a training issue or something that, if there’s a bad search, we try to make sure that everybody understands why and how to do it better next time. But I hope law enforcement feels our support. Obviously in the courtrooms, it looks good, because they are our main witnesses usually at trial, and they do a very nice job. Both the Key West Police Department and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, they do a very nice job. So, I hope that that’s the feeling that’s out there, that we’re here with them, not against them.”
Interacting with judges in the courtroom must be interesting, too.
Mansfield said, “One has to be careful. I don’t think any judge likes to be told how to do their job, per se, but certainly I have some perspective because of where I’ve been, and so I know when it’s time, when it’s decision time, I know what a judge is looking for. I think that helps me out, and I can help these lawyers out that if a judge is looking to make a ruling, what they need and what they want. Find the case that matches what you need, whatever. But we have a good bench here in Monroe County, and they’re very receptive to our presentations and our arguments, and we don’t win them all, but we walk away feeling pretty good about what we get.”
Incoming Assistant State’s Attorneys are trained as well.
Mansfield said, “Right now we have a fairly, I would say, a fairly green prosecution base. Most of our prosecutors are relatively new in their careers. We have a couple that are seasoned vets, but by and large, we have probably one to six year experienced lawyers who are filling these courtrooms, and they do a nice job. They’re earnest. They want to learn. They want to be good. So I do take a hand in training them, and I enjoy watching them come alive when the time is right.”
What kind of workload goes into a case like the Preston Brewer one?
Mansfield said, “We have the deposition process in Florida. I think we’re one of three states that still does depositions as a matter of rights. The deposition process entails bringing witnesses in, preparing them for their depo, sitting with them during their depo, reviewing their depo afterwards, to make sure it’s accurate and if there’s anything that needs to be updated, changed or whatever, reviewing cameras, footage, body worn cameras from Officers, surveillance tapes, reviewing testimony from the numerous pre trial hearings, motions to suppress, motions to compel, motions to dismiss. These are all sworn hearings. And then you get transcripts from every hearing, and then you have to review those with the witnesses to make sure that they’re going to be accurate. And then there’s the final prep, and that’s bringing everybody in to, once again, go over their testimony and watch videos and authenticate things for evidence purposes, and coordinate schedules so everybody will be available on a certain week that we’re going to go to trial. And on the big ticket cases, it’s quite a process.”
Ward said, “Just one example, Joe and Colleen and my victim coordinator will be flying up to Richmond, Virginia, in the Chitty case, he was the preacher in Marathon that sexually (abused a teenager).”
Mansfield said, “That’s a disgusting case. It’s a pretty egregious crime, but the three of us are going to travel to Richmond to meet with the 17 year old victim and prepare her for the depo, and then be with her during the depo. And then we’ll come back down, and then in a couple months, when it’s getting ready for trial, we’ll have to probably fly back up, sit with her, go through her deposition transcript and prepare her for testimony at trial. So I mean, there’s three of us traveling up there for at least two days to three days to get her ready to take the deposition alone.”
There was a rooster case recently that involved a firearm and it was taken seriously here.
Mansfield said, “Absolutely, watch that video. I mean, it’s hard to watch, even though some might say it’s just a rooster. I mean, this guy, what’s going through his head as he’s doing this? What’s the thought process? I mean, do we want this guy on the streets? We don’t. So we will take that case and we will prosecute it, and we will ask for state prison time on that case.”
Fentanyl cases are also taken incredibly seriously.
Mansfield said, “We have one in Key Largo that’s kind of nearing completion. I think it’ll probably go to trial in the next couple months. And it’s a dealer who provided fentanyl that subsequently caused an overdose. So the dealer is going to go to trial for murder.”
What was it that made Mansfield get into the field of law?
He said, “I grew up in a small town in Ohio, very good, both hard working parents, very conservative. I was taught from a young age, law enforcement is respected, and you respect the law, and you do what you’re told in that regard. And just as I made my way through law school, it just became clear to me that I wanted a career as a prosecutor. I did not want do defense work at all, and I did not want to do civil litigation. So I thought, boy, getting in a courtroom and advocating, prosecuting criminals would be something that would motivate me, and that’s the avenue I took.”
Ward said, “It’s really good working with Joe, and he brought a lot of experience down here. I’ve got 50 something years in the business, and his experience is just unbelievable. He was the architect of our fentanyl cases, and he’s put, I think, four or five of them together for us, and we’ve got people sitting in jail and Joe did a great job putting those things together. So it was a lucky get for us. He does an outstanding job with us and just makes our office so much better than what it’s been previously.”