A second man accused of brutally stabbing a taxi driver, robbing him and then setting him on fire near
Jury selection begins Monday morning in the capital murder trial of
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty in the attack that left
If convicted, Stephens will receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole.
“”It’s very, very disappointing that the DA is not seeking the death penalty,”” said
Beck said that in the appropriate case prosecutors would seek it.
In November, a
According to testimony in the Whitehead trial, Vatanpour, 56, who worked 12- to- 14-hour days to support his family, was lured by Whitehead and Stephens to a field near
Vatanpour had picked up the defendants near a
Whitehead told a sheriff’s investigator that he stabbed Vatanpour twice in the heart and hit him once with a beer bottle and several times with his fist, but he would not admit to cutting his throat or to the other stab wounds.
Whitehead said the latter was Stephens’ doing.
A third co-defendant,
Vatanpour, a former Iranian air force helicopter pilot, moved his family to
More than 4,000 people attended Vatanpour’s funeral.