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Appeal denied for Busken’s killer |
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Tuesday, 15 December 2009 |
The parents of a Benton woman slain in 1996 in Oklahoma City say they are relieved that the man convicted in her killing has lost his first appeal.
Bud and Mary Jean Busken learned Monday that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Anthony Castillo Sanchez’s appeal of his 2006 conviction in the slaying of Jewell “Juli” Busken.
Several issues were raised in Sanchez’s appeal, but the main one was that the trial court erred in allowing him to be tried before a jury while wearing shackles.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected this and other arguments in a 23-page opinion.
Busken, 21, was found along the shore of Lake Stanley Draper in southeast Oklahoma City on Dec. 20, 1996. Investigators said she was raped, shot and bound after being abducted early in the morning from the parking lot of the Norman apartment complex where she lived.
Sanchez was identified as a suspect in 2004 when state investigators matched a DNA sample taken from him with DNA evidence collected from the crime scene. A Cleveland County jury convicted Sanchez in 2006 of first-degree murder and rape, and sentenced him to death.
“We are pleased with the court’s denial of his direct appeal and we will continue to oppose his appeals as they move through the system,” said Charlie Price, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.
Price said this is the first appeal in the process for Sanchez, who may next request post-conviction relief from the Court of Criminal Appeals before moving into the federal phase.
The Buskens had attended hearings in May when Sanchez raised issues about his conviction and had been anxiously awaiting a ruling, Mary Jean Busken said.
“It seemed like a long time since last May, and it’s been difficult waiting to hear the outcome,” she said. “Also, it’s been hard as the holidays draw near and also we’re approaching the time of year when we lost her.
“This is the second best Christmas present we could have received,” she added.
She said the family will “now gear up for the federal appeal, but we’re really grateful that this occurred. We’ll get through it like we have the others.”
Noting that the issue still isn’t finished, Bud Busken said it’s his understanding that “this was the biggie” in the process.
There were no dissenting opinions in the ruling, according to Bud Busken. “It was necessary for three of the judges to agree, but all of the five agreed, which is good.”
He said were “about 10 issues,” but the appeal was denied on all counts, he said.
“Obviously we’re happy about the ruling,” he said. “This is something that has been weighing on our minds. It will be 13 years Sunday since it happened, but at times it seems like it was yesterday.
“We just keep going forward,” he said. “We’ve been very blessed with people who have supported us and continue to do so, and the, system continues to work for us and we’re thankful for that.”
Bud Busken pointed out that the “alternative” to the court’s denying the appeal and Sanchez’s request for a new trial “was not good.”
“We had prepared ourselves that we might have to go through all of it again,” he said. “We had talked about it. We had made it through it once and we knew we could do it again. We’re still not completely done with it, but the first appeal is the toughest.”
Busken added that he’s “thankful that we live in a where a person is innocent till proven guilty, but I think they could expedite the process some.”
He added that he thinks that jurors should be informed of prior criminal acts of defendants.
“I know it was difficult for the jury to give a death sentence,” he said. “This is serious business, but several of them said after this was done and they learned that he had raped someone before, they were so glad that they had reached that decision. They said they thought they should have been given that information during the trial.
“It would have made their decision easier,” he said.
A former girlfriend of Sanchez testified that he had bound her and raped her, but he was convicted on a lesser charge as part of a negotiated plea arrangement.
Sanchez was identified as a suspect in 2004 when state investigators matched a DNA sample taken from him with DNA evidence collected from the Busken crime scene. A Cleveland County jury convicted Sanchez in 2006 of first-degree murder and rape and sentenced him to death.
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said Sanchez can next request post-conviction relief from the Court of Criminal Appeals before moving into the federal phase.
Monday’s decision comes months after jurors in the case testified at an evidentiary hearing that they never saw Sanchez wearing leg shackles. Sanchez’s attorneys were concerned that seeing him in restraints could have affected the jurors’ verdict.
Retired sheriff’s deputy Paul Bugher testified that Sanchez always was seated before the jury entered the courtroom, and any restraints wouldn’t have been visible.
In its opinion, the appeals court wrote that the district court erred in shackling Sanchez without recording whether a required factual determination that Sanchez posed a security risk had been made. Even so, the court decided that overturning the lower court decision wasn’t warranted.
Sanchez’s attorneys also appealed on the grounds that the court denied a full examination of prospective jurors’ opinions about the death penalty, and that the collection of DNA from Sanchez violated his constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
Juli Busken was killed on the day she had been scheduled to return to Benton. She had completed requirements for a fine arts degree in dance and was planning to attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for additional study.
She had planned to open a dance studio.
When her parents arrived to help her with the move, they were informed that she had been reported missing after failing to keep a lunch appointment. A few hours later, her father identified her body.
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