Jacob Carl England (left) and Alvin Lee Watts
Lawyers for one of two defendants charged with murdering three people in Tulsa on Good Friday filed court challenges Wednesday to a death penalty request and also to the sufficiency of the evidence presented at a preliminary hearing.
Jacob Carl England’s position is that a motion to suppress his statements to Tulsa police should have been sustained, and therefore evidence from the custodial interrogation should not have been considered in determining whether England should have been bound over for trial, according to a document filed by the defense.
“Even if the statement could be considered admissible, the evidence was insufficient as to establish probable cause,” says a brief filed by defense attorney Rob Nigh.
Tulsa County prosecutors will have an opportunity to file a response before this motion and others are argued at a Feb. 25 hearing.
No trial date is yet set.
England, 20, and Alvin Lee Watts, 33, are each charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of shooting with intent to kill, and five counts of malicious intimidation or harassment.
When arraigned Wednesday, England and Watts declined to enter a plea.
District Judge James Caputo entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of both defendants.
England and Watts are accused of shooting five black people at random at four north Tulsa locations on April 6, 2012.
At the 2012 preliminary hearing, defense attorney Clark Brewster asserted that a Tulsa police detective, in assuring England that a recorded statement was
confidential, contradicted a previous Miranda warning that anything England said “can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
At the preliminary hearing, Special Judge David Youll denied the motion to suppress England’s statements, but the issue can be raised again before the trial judge, Caputo.
Prosecutors allege that both England and Watts deserve the death penalty.
In court Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler read aloud the charges and the alleged “aggravating circumstances” that support the death penalty requests.
Another defense filing asserts that the bill of particulars filed in support of the death penalty request is deficient and should be stricken as “it does not satisfy the demands of due process.”
The defendants face murder counts linked to the fatal shootings of Dannaer Fields, 49, Bobby Clark, 54, and William Allen, 31.
Counts of shooting with intent to kill pertain to two victims, David Hall and Deon Tucker, who survived.
Shena Burgess, one of Watts’ public defenders, said she will soon file a motion seeking to have Watts and England tried separately.
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