4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
vEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 31,2007
》 CRIME
Deliberations begin in murder of sheriff
Sides argue ability to premeditate crime on drugs
ASSOCIATED PRESS
EUREKA — The jury has begun deliberations in the case of a man on trial in the killing of a southeast Kansas sheriff.
Scott Cheever has admitted fatally shooting Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels nearly three years ago at a house in Hilltop, but he testified that he was high on methamphetamine at the time. And during closing arguments Tuesday, his public defender, Tim Frieden, said Cheever could not have formed the forethought to commit premeditated murder because he was under the influence of meth.
"It was an instantaneous action," Frieden said, "in the moment, without premeditation."
Prosecutors countered that Cheever was capable of making decisions the morning of the January 2005 shooting. Assistant Kansas Attorney General Barry
Disney said deciding to kill someone can be considered a premeditated thought even if it happens shortly before the killing.
The law doesn't place a time limit on premediation, Disney said.
for allegedly stealing firearms from his stepfather and not reporting to his parole officer.
Cheever is charged with capital murder, four counts of attempted capital murder against two deput
ties and two state troopers, manufacturing meth and criminal possession of a firearm.
of Samuels, and attempted first-degree murder or attempted second-degree murder involving the other officers.
Jurors can consider convicting him of first-degree murder or second-degree murder in the shooting
"A minute or two is a lifetime," he said. "It was Sheriff Samuels' lifetime."
If jurors convict Cheever of capital murder, they would then decide whether to sentence him to
"He made a decision to shoot when he did.And when he stopped shooting, he made a decision to stop shooting."
Samuels was killed as he tried to vertse arrest warrants on Chevere
The level of meth that Chevera said he took would have changed his brain structure, especially the areas that command decision making, reasoning and consequences of actions, Evans said.
MICHAEL WELNER Professor of psychiatry
"It was an instantaneous action, in the moment, without premeditation."
death or to life in prison without parole.
Testimony ended Monday with pharmacology and psychiatry experts giving disparate opinions on how high on meth Cheever was the day of
TIM FRIEDEN Defense attorney
"There was no judgment at all." Evans said of Cheever's condition the day of the killing.
Lee Evans, dean of the School of Pharmacy at Auburn University in Alabama, testified for the defense that Cheever's meth use kept him from making sound decisions
But Michael Welner,
a New York
University psychi-
chary professor,
testified that Chever
the shooting.
knew what he was doing when he fired the gun.
"He made a decision to shoot when he did," said Welner, a rebuttal witness for the state. "And when he stopped shooting, he made a decision to stop shooting."
Cheever testified that he shot up meth about 30 minutes before the sheriff arrived. He said he had been cooking meth all night and was upstairs with a gun cocked and loaded.
Cheever told jurors that he fired twice, hitting Samuels in the torso both times, and continued shooting at the other officers as they tried to help the stricken sheriff.
After firing, Cheever said he retreated to a bedroom and contemplated suicide as he held off law enforcement for several hours.
State troopers then sprayed the house with tear gas and rushed inside after him.
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Children play in an orphanage in Abeche, Chad where President Deby traveled Friday. He saw 103 children were being cared for after seven plane crew members were arrested for attempting to fly children out of Chad. Deby promised punishment for anyone involved. French aid group Zoe's Art are trying to evacuate children from Sudan's Darfur region. The head of UNICEF France, Jacques Hinzty, said that many children appeared to be from Chad, not Sudan
Rescue effort ends in arrests French nationals try to fly Sudanese orphans out of Chad
N'DJAMENA, Chad — Authorities charged six French nationals with kidnapping after a failed attempt to fly 103 children to France who a charity said were orphans from Sudan's war-battered Darfur region, officials said Tuesday.
BY DANY PADIRE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Interior Minister Ahmat Bachir
A judge in the eastern city of Abebe also agreed
"We are entering difficult territory, but one that is now clearly defined."
late Monday to allow prosecutors' charges of complicity against three French journalists, said Justice Minister Pahimi Padacket Albert. . A seven-person flight crew also would be charged with complicity, he told The Associated Press.
Deby denounced it as a "straightforward kidnapping" and promised punishment for those involved. French authorities also have con-
"Now we are going to work with Chadian lawyers and contest all the elements against them, one by one," he said. "We are entering difficult territory, but one that is now clearly defined."
feared, given harsh comments by President iridex Deby about them
IDRISS DEBY President of Chad
UNICEF's representative in Chad, Mariam Coulibal Ndiaye, said authorities were interviewing the children to learn more about their origins and whether they are truly orphans.
Authorities in Chad detained 17 people — nine of them French — after the French charity tried to put the children on a plane last week.
L'Arche de Zoe, or Zoe's Arc, said it had arranged French host families for the children to save them from possible death in Darfur. More than four years of conflict there has left more than 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced — many to eastern Chad.
Gilbert Collard, a lawyer for the group, said the charges against his clients were less severe than he had
demned the charity's plans.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Deby this weekend to discuss the case, which unfolded as the EU prepares a peacekeeping force in Chad and Central African Republic to help refugees along their borders with Darfur.
France has led the push for the peacekeepers, and the uproar over the charity's actions risked complicating efforts to ensure a smooth start for the force, which Chad initially had resist-
But Chad has assured France that a debacle over a charity's effort to spirit children out of the country will not affect plans to deploy European Union peacekeepers there to protect
"It's unimaginable that doubts are being cast on these people of good faith who volunteered to save children from Darfur."
minister for human rights, Rama Yade, told Europe-1 radio, "And Mr. Deby assured us of that."
In France, police searched the charity's offices as well as the apartment of its founder as part of an inquiry into whether the group broke adoption laws, police officials said. The group initially promised some families that they could adopt — not merely host — children from
— not merely host — children from Darfur, French officials have said.
CHRISTOPHE LETIEN
Zoe's Ark Charity Spokesman
refugees from neighboring Darfur, a French official said Monday.
"Because this affair has nothing to do with the deployment of the multidimensional force, there are no possible consequences," France's
"The team is made up of firemen, doctors and journalists," he said at a news conference. "It's unimaginable that doubts are being cast on these people of good faith, who volunteered to save children from Darfur."
Two of the detained journalists were covering the operation and a third was reportedly present for personal reasons, according to the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. Sarkozy insisted during his conversation with Deby that the journalists' status must be respected, the Foreign Ministry said.
French diplomats said they had warned Zoe's Ark for months not to go through with its plans. Christophe Letien, spokesman for the charity, insisted its intentions were merely humanitarian.
Seven Spanish citizens who work for a Barcelona-based charter airline also were
detained in the case, as was a pilot from Belgium, the two countries said. The Chad justice minister made no mention of the Belgian citizen, whose legal status in the country wasn't known.