GUILTY FL - Michael Keetley accused of murdering Juan, 28, and Sergio Guitron, 22, Nov 2010 *mistrial in 2020*

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arielilane

arielilane

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FL v. Michael Keetley: Daily Trial Updates

Former ice cream truck driver Michael Keetley is standing trial for the second time in Hillsborough County's longest running murder case.
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DAILY TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS

DAY 12 – 3/21/23

  • Judge Sabella excused the jury for the day after an alternate juror called in unavailable due to a family emergency. He delivered the news in characteristically good nature, throwing in his ongoing joke about the “juror union” and assuring the jurors he wouldn’t call their employers. He also laid out the schedule and promised today’s delay wouldn’t throw off their plan.
  • The attorneys argued outstanding motions after the jury left for the day, including:
    • “VIGILANTE JUSTICE” ISSUE: The judge denied the defense’s request to prevent the state from bringing up in its closing the testimony of Stacy Rogan that Keetley said he “understood why people take matters into their own hands” and that he was “actively” investigating his shooting. Defense lawyer John Grant said the testimony violated a pretrial order that prevented anyone from using the term “vigilante justice” in reference to Keetley’s alleged conduct or mentioning his penchant for Charles Bronson movies, “Death Wish” in particular.
    • HANDCUFFS AND FLASHLIGHT PHOTOS: The judge granted the defense’s motion to exclude from evidence photos of a set of handcuffs and a flashlight that were found in the Keetley home. Prosecutor Rebecca Johnson argued they supported the state’s theory that Keetley planned to impersonate law enforcement while committing the murders. The judge found that they were irrelevant because no witnesses testified to seeing the shooter with the objects.
 
SeesSeas

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FL v. Michael Keetley: Daily Trial Updates

Former ice cream truck driver Michael Keetley is standing trial for the second time in Hillsborough County's longest running murder case.
www.courttv.com www.courttv.com
DAILY TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS
DAY 13 – 3/22/23
  • The defense continued its attempt to undermine the reliability of witness descriptions of the shooter, focusing primarily on shooting survivor Gonzalo Guevara’s identification of Keetley in a photo lineup while Guevara was in a hospital bed on morphine.
  • The jury finally heard from the man they’ve heard so much about: Omar “Creeper” Bailon, who testified as a state witness in 2020 and was declared an adverse witness for the defense this time around.
  • Neither side asked Bailon about the armed robbery that the state claims made him a target of Keetley’s alleged revenge killing.
  • Instead, Bailon testified that he interacted with Keetley at his ice cream truck several times before the shootings. He said he knew gang members from Ruskin area but denied belonging to a gang in the face of persistent questioning about his tattoos and photos of him and others throwing up ambiguous hand gestures.
  • James Kennedy, the person who sold Keetley a Ruger 10/22 in a Winn Dixie parking lot sometime before the shooting in November 2010, called it a “starter rifle for kids.” He said Keetley walked with a limp and held the gun in his left hand. On cross, he said it was a semiautomatic and light, weighing 3 lbs.
  • Forensic document examiner Grant Sperry used elaborate demonstrative aids to support his opinion that Guevara most likely signed a photo lineup instruction form when it was blank, and Det. Jose Lugo later filled in the information – writing the number “4” for photo number 4, then crossing it out and writing “3” for Keetley’s photo.
  • Lugo testified that he mistakenly wrote the number “4” on the form initially because he thought Guevara wrote a “4” next to his signature on Keetley’s photo. Lugo testified he now believes that the “4” is actually an “X” that Lugo jotted down to mark where Guevara should sign his name.
  • Sperry weighed in on the “X” or “4” dispute on Keetley’s photo. Using enlarged images of the writings with arrows pointing out certain characteristics, Sperry said the alignment of the symbol and Guevara’s signature suggested the symbol was a “4” authored by Guevara.
  • The jury heard the previously recorded testimony of eyewitness identification expert Dr Jennifer Dysart on factors that could have impacted the reliability of witness descriptions of the shooting, including the shooting’s fast pace and the fact that the witnesses had consumed drugs and alcohol earlier that evening.
  • Dysart also walked through the ways in which Guevara’s photo lineup defied best practices, undermining its reliability.
 
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Doctor: 'Extremely Unlikely' Keetley Could Operate Weapon | Court TV Video

A surgeon testified that extensive injuries to Keetley's hand would have made it 'extremely unlikely' that he could have fired a gun.
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DOCTOR: 'EXTREMELY UNLIKELY' KEETLEY COULD OPERATE WEAPON​

Dr. David Halpern testified that extensive injuries to Michael Keetley's hand would have made it "extremely unlikely" that he could have operated a high-caliber weapon to shoot six people, killing two. (3/23/23)
 
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FL v. Michael Keetley: Daily Trial Updates

Former ice cream truck driver Michael Keetley is standing trial for the second time in Hillsborough County's longest running murder case.
www.courttv.com www.courttv.com
DAILY TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS
DAY 15 – 3/24/23
  • The jury deliberated for three hours and 40 minutes Friday after calling it quits shortly before 9 p.m. and asking to return Monday.
  • In addition to first-degree murder, the jury has the option of convicting Keetley of lesser charges of second-degree murder, or manslaughter for the deaths of Sergio and Juan Guitron.
  • Shooting survivors Daniel Beltran, Richard Cantu, Ramon Galan and their supporters joined the mother of the Guitron bothers in the gallery for closing arguments.
  • Assistant State Attorney Michelle Doherty delivered both closing arguments for the state. She said Keetley made himself a suspect because everyone in Ruskin knew he was looking for Omar “Kreeper” Bailon, then suddenly, a gunman appeared at 604 Ocean Mist Court looking for Kreeper.
  • Doherty said Keetley targeted Bailon based on “rumor” and “speculation” and indiscriminately targeted the victims because they were Hispanic like Bailon.
  • Doherty said the armed robbery of Keetley was horrible and his injuries were devastating, but he had the “willpower, mindset and capability” to learn to shoot a gun with his left. She reminded the jury of all the witnesses who said they saw Keetley target-practice on a van on his property and the testimony of a firearms examiner who said projectiles found at the crime scene and on Keetley’s property were likely fired from the same weapon.
  • Defense lawyer Richard Escobar said the investigation was a “nightmare” from the start and witness contamination was “rampant” because of lead detective Jose Lugo.
  • Escobar accused Lugo of a litany of missteps: failing to document the crime scene; failing to investigate the possibility that the shooting was gang-related; falsifying Gonzalo Guevara’s photo identification; failing to follow leads other than those that led to Keetley
  • Escobar suggested gang members targeting Bailon might have committed the shootings and framed Keetley with a text message implicating him that spread through the community. He blasted Lugo for failing to confirm the source of the text message.
  • For the first time in the trial, the defense acknowledged that Keetley may have been looking for “Kreeper” even though he told investigators he had never heard Kreeper’s name. Escobar said Keetley had good reason to believe investigators would arrest him based on their single-minded pursuit of him and deny knowledge of Bailon.
DAY 14 – 3/23/23
  • The defense rested its case after Keetley declined to testify. With no state rebuttal, the evidence is closed, paving the way for closings.
  • A plastic surgeon who operated once on Keetley’s hand and monitored his progress said it was “extremely unlikely” that Keetley would have been able to lift, hold or fire a high-caliber weapon with his right hand in November 2010 (when the shootings occurred). On cross, Dr. David Halpern said Keetley would have been able to fire a gun with his left hand had be trained himself to do so.
  • Jackie Burgess, the mother-in-law of Keetley’s sister, said Keetley’s mother cut his meat for him on Thanksgiving Day – hours after the shooting – because he was unable to use his right hand.
 
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Case closed: New insights from the murder retrial of ice cream man Michael Keetley

After 14 days and 41 witnesses, the evidence in Michael Keetley's retrial is in and the case will soon be in a Florida jury's hands.
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Case closed: New insights from the murder retrial of ice cream man Michael Keetley
March 24, 2023

TAMPA (Court TV) — After 14 days and 41 witnesses, the evidence in Michael Keetley’s retrial is in and the case is in a Florida jury’s hands.
[...]
Keetley’s retrial comes three years after a jury in his February 2020 trial could not reach a verdict. His former attorney told Court TV in 2020 that the split was 10-2 in favor of acquittal.

As frustrating as retrials can be for both sides, they create the opportunity for attorneys to fine tune their approach. Here are some highlights from the state and defense cases that caught our attention:

“KREEPER” TESTIFIED FOR A DIFFERENT SIDE

A NEW EXPERT RAISED MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE KEETLEY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION

NO HANDWRITING ANALYSIS
 
Snoopster

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MK looks the same, as always...as he waits for the jury to come in with the verdict.
1680012961029.png
 
Snoopster

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Current poll on Law&Crime on how people expect the jury to decide:
Guilty - 34%
Not Guilty - 56%
Hung - 9%

(ok - I'm not sure what the 9% are thinking as they've reached a verdict??)
 
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