ChicagoAvenger
10-01-2008, 08:22 AM
Suspect’s statements targeted
Lawyers’ remarks open death-penalty trial.
By JOE MEYER of the Tribune’s staff
Published Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Michael Dowell lied to investigators about having never met homicide victim Stephanie Hogland after DNA evidence led detectives to him 15 years after her death, a prosecutor said today as a Boone County jury began hearing evidence in a death penalty case from Lincoln County.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Sep/0929-mo_A01_dowellMUG_0929.jpg
Dowell
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Sep/0929-mo_A01_hoglandMUG_0929.jpg
Hogland
Dowell, 46, is charged with first-degree murder and forcible rape in Hogland’s death. The 18-year-old’s partially clothed body was found Jan. 7, 1991, along a rural highway in Lincoln County.
The trial was moved to Columbia on a change of venue.
In an opening statement, Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney John Richards told jurors multiple times the case against Dowell is "circumstantial," but he highlighted the defendant’s statements to detectives in December 2006.
A DNA sample Dowell gave to his probation or parole officer in an unrelated case matched DNA from a specimen on Hogland’s clothing. But Dowell told investigators he had never met Hogland, Richards said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the bottom line is the evidence in this case will establish that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murder in the first degree," Richards told the jury.
Richard did not offer a motive for Hogland’s death, saying in his opening statement that she died beyond from blunt force trauma to the head.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Sep/20080930News002.asp
Lawyers’ remarks open death-penalty trial.
By JOE MEYER of the Tribune’s staff
Published Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Michael Dowell lied to investigators about having never met homicide victim Stephanie Hogland after DNA evidence led detectives to him 15 years after her death, a prosecutor said today as a Boone County jury began hearing evidence in a death penalty case from Lincoln County.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Sep/0929-mo_A01_dowellMUG_0929.jpg
Dowell
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Sep/0929-mo_A01_hoglandMUG_0929.jpg
Hogland
Dowell, 46, is charged with first-degree murder and forcible rape in Hogland’s death. The 18-year-old’s partially clothed body was found Jan. 7, 1991, along a rural highway in Lincoln County.
The trial was moved to Columbia on a change of venue.
In an opening statement, Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney John Richards told jurors multiple times the case against Dowell is "circumstantial," but he highlighted the defendant’s statements to detectives in December 2006.
A DNA sample Dowell gave to his probation or parole officer in an unrelated case matched DNA from a specimen on Hogland’s clothing. But Dowell told investigators he had never met Hogland, Richards said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the bottom line is the evidence in this case will establish that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murder in the first degree," Richards told the jury.
Richard did not offer a motive for Hogland’s death, saying in his opening statement that she died beyond from blunt force trauma to the head.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Sep/20080930News002.asp