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Friday, April 11, 2008
Ind. Courts - "Conviction is upheld in '06 Allen murder," most notable because mother took court records
Rebecca S. Green of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports today on the Court of Appeals decision yesterday in the case of Daniel Favela v. State of Indiana (NFP):
In September 2006, a jury convicted Daniel Favela, 30, of murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Jeffrey Kramer of Churubusco. A month later, Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull sentenced Daniel Favela to 60 years in prison.Here is a list of ILB entries on the case.He appealed his conviction. But his mother, Adela Favela, then 58, nearly brought the appeals process to a halt last fall when she refused to return the official court record of the trial.
Adela Favela obtained the file from her son’s then-appellate attorney Robert Gevers II, or someone in his office, and refused to return the 13-volume file.
The file included not just the transcript of the proceedings but also physical pieces of evidence, DVD presentations seen by the jury and other items impossible to reproduce. For reasons never made clear during the multiple hearings on the matter, Adela Favela broke the file into two sections, wrapped them in aluminum foil, placed them inside plastic grocery bags sealed with clear tape and then hid them in pieces of furniture inside her teenage daughter’s bedroom.
It took two weeks in the Allen County jail for Adela Favela to return the file, but Gull then sentenced her to 90 days in jail for contempt of court.
After the file was returned, Daniel Favela’s appeal began. * * * [I]n a memorandum decision issued Tuesday, a three-judge appellate court panel upheld the guilty verdict.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 11, 2008 10:19 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions