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Mullis Obituaries / Deaths Double murder cases move on
Mullis Obituaries / Deaths Double murder cases move on 
| Double murder cases move on |
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| Contributed by Joe Cox | |
| Sunday, 13 January 2008 | |
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By BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer 1/13/2008 Jones resentencing: Jones, 29, was sentenced in 2004 to death for murdering a convenience store operator and a customer. A jury imposed that punishment after finding him guilty of the Sept. 15, 2002, murders of Mohammed "Sonny" Rahaman and Sterling Mullis at 41st Street and 129th East Avenue. Prosecutors theorized that Jones went to the store to kill Rahaman and that Mullis, a customer, tried to intervene after Jones pulled a revolver. Jones told police that Murtaza Ali gave him the gun, drove him to the store and told him to "take care of" the man who was running the store. Ali pleaded guilty to two counts of being an accessory to murder after the fact. He received a 25-year prison term in a plea deal in which his charges were reduced from murder. The state Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Jones' murder convictions in 2006 but threw out his death sentences, ruling that he was entitled to a new sentencing proceeding. That opinion by Appeals Judge Charles Chapel said District Judge Tom Gillert erred in jury-selection matters and in a punishment phase procedure. In his opinion, Chapel urged trial courts to conduct individualized questioning of jurors -- outside the presence of other jurors -- during the selection process in capital cases, although he noted that this is not required under the law. Last week, District Judge William Kellough and lawyers spent four days questioning members of the jury pool one at a time -- with other potential jurors for Jones' retrial not present -- on punishment attitudes and issues in a case where the sentencing options are death, life without parole or life with parole possible. That time-consuming procedure, which keeps other people in the jury pool from hearing something in the courtroom that could influence their answers, is not typically used in Tulsa County capital cases. The individual questioning phase of the juror process in Jones' case is set for Monday. Tulsa World http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080113_1_A19_spanc08150 |
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