According to the records I found, Barbara Scharton and Daniel Lyons both had holographic Wills. That means they are hand written, one in 1991 and the other in 1995 with no witness's required. I only mention this because I bet you all are unaware that the sister Colleen is now in possession her deceased brother's home. In fact the transfer of this property came right about the same time she switched her testimony in the second trial. Also even though the transfer was dated March 29th 2011 it was not recorded until after her damaging testimony in the then second trial on May 3rd 2011. Am I to believe that a property not yet owned by either, Barbara Scharton and Daniel Lyons would be covered in a hand written will 15 years earlier? One might think Corey Lyons defense attorney might want to know about this. And as I had mention during the second trial there once again is no media coverage for the current trial either. I have included an attachment of the above mentioned transfer document if you received this posting via email from me. Or here is a link to that document! http://magicinsantabarbara.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/court-doc-1-lyons-property-transfer1.pdf
The Santa Barbara District Attorney's office gets a "Ruse' Conviction (In the Corey Lyons Murder Trial)
Date: 2011-12-22, 1:39PM PST
Reply to: your anonymous craigslist address will appear here
http://www.independent.com/news/2011/dec/21/da-gets-lyons-conviction-third-try/
Prosecuting attorney Ron Zonen happy the jury found Corey Lyons guilty for two counts of first degree murder and one count of burglary Dec. 21, 2011.
DA Gets Lyons Conviction on Third Try, Jury Reaches Swift Verdict By Brandon Fastman
The Santa Barbara Independent meant to say Justice was Served didn't they? Is this what is known in the Santa Barbara District Attorney's office as a "Ruse' Conviction? You want me to believe the defendants attorney requested a change of venue so as to have a jury pulled from out side of Santa Barbara. Even after Mr Lyons first two cases ended in mistrials with a vote of 7-5 in his favor? Now if that is the case Mr Lyons attorney Robert Sanger was trying to get his client convicted. Actually if you read the media stories about why the jury was pulled as it was you get two or three different versions which are all Bull Shit. Oh and don't forget the need for a gag order so as to keep us the public in the dark. I want to know what new evidence was presented to account for such a swift deliberation by the jury, which went from days to hours and from 2 mistrials to a verdict of guilty. Because of the gag Order we will never know.
How hard did the Santa Barbara District Attorneys office really work at trying to convict Corey Lyons.in the first two trials? Well based on what this juror had to say from the first trial I have a real issue with the effort and expectations of the D.A.'s office. How can one expect to convict on circumstantial evidence when in all honestly there was no real effort to gather any. I say that based on the testimony of the man whose responsibility it was to search for this evidence in the first place. Criminalist "Ullemeyer then shifted to describing to the jury how and why he processed the home's downstairs back door for fingerprints. All of the other doors and windows were locked from the inside, he explained, meaning the downstairs patio door was most likely the entrance used by the suspect or suspects. There was no indication fingerprints would have been found elsewhere, Ullemeyer said, so he didn't process any areas other than the door, its handle, and the rod -- then removed -- used to keep it from sliding open all the way. To fingerprint the entire house would have been "time prohibitive,"
Based on the efforts of the District Attorneys office the Jurors claim they just did a poor job in presenting their case, read the comments below.
http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=1215&tid=1394&art=54741
COMMENT 170522 2011-05-05 02:52 PM
"I was on the original jury for this trial and there is virtually no hard evidence to prove Corey Lyons did it. There is a Mountain of circumstantial evidence that points to him but almost no hard evidence. The thing that you have to remember in any case is that the jury is not there to say "we think so and so did it" The jury is there to decide whether the prosecution has PROVEN that so-and-so did it, and its an almost impossible job in this case" What blew me away here was the 29 comments on that web site had even though there daily email had virtually no coverage of any part of the second trial except for the verdict. http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=1215&tid=1394&art=54741
Than District Attorney Joyce Dudley was quoted as saying "justice demands that there is a retrial" . With so many county workers faced with losing there jobs is she telling there families' saving face is more important than there survival? There are equal parts to a prosecutor's responsibility and none is greater than the other. "A criminal prosecutor is not only an advocate but, as a representative of the sovereign, has a duty to seek justice, which includes the responsibility of seeing that the defendant is accorded procedural justice." (Berger v. United States (1935) 295 U.S. 78, 88 [79 L.Ed. 1314, 1321, 55 S. Ct. 629]; County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court (2010) 50 Cal.4th35, 48.)
I must emphasize here that you all consider what a huge advantages the prosecution has had in both trials up to this point. The prosecution already knew after the first mistrial and the 30 days they spent presenting there case, the jury would not have convicted Corey Lyons. However based on there most recent 46 days I am hard pressed to see how there second effort was any kind of improvement. In fact in the Santa Barbara news press story yesterday juror after juror stated point blank that the prosecution did not prove their case. Prosecution 76 days Defense 0, and had Mr. Sanger used all that was available to him. I and others feel an acquittal would have been the likely out come.
So I ask District Attorney Joyce Dudley what has changed in two days after your office was defeated by the No Defense Defense, to make you feel that next time you will get an aqcuital (Magic Maybe)? You see people, that is why the absence of any accurate coverage of either trial is harmful to us all. It opens the door for a week minded person to think they can use a third try and manipulate an unjust verdict.
"Physical evidence cannot be intimidated. It does not forget. It sets there and waits to be detected, preserved, evaluated and explained." Words to live by in the future Mr. Ullemeyer. Oh that's right I found the quote on your web page @ http://ullemeyer.com/services.html than you can visit my blog @ www.santabarbaracriminalcourtcorruption.blogspot.com
http://santabarbaracriminalcourtcorruption.blogspot.com/2011/12/santa-barbara-police-chief-sanchez-will.html
Here is an old posting of mine dealing with the Corey Lyons trial
Third Double-Homicide Trial against Corey Lyons Expected to End in December
"Sister Colleen Lyons Zitelli testifies about a phone call she received from the suspect on the day of the shootings
According to the records I found, Barbara Scharton and Daniel Lyons both had holographic Wills. That means they are hand written, one in 1991 and the other in 1995 with no witness's required. I only mention this because I bet you all are unaware that the sister Colleen is now in possession her deceased brother's home. In fact the transfer of this property came right about the same time she switched her testimony in the second trial. Also even though the transfer was dated March 29th 2011 it was not recorded until after her damaging testimony in the then second trial on May 3rd 2011. Am I to believe that a property not yet owned by either, Barbara Scharton and Daniel Lyons would be covered in a hand written will 15 years earlier? One might think Corey Lyons defense attorney might want to know about this. And as I had mention during the second trial there once again is no media coverage for the current trial either. I have included an attachment of the above mentioned transfer document if you received this posting via email from me. Or here is a link to that document! http://magicinsantabarbara.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/court-doc-1-lyons-property-transfer1.pdf
http://www.independent.com/news/2011/dec/21/da-gets-lyons-conviction-third-try/
S.B.C.C.C. The place where COMMON SENSE never goes out of style!
Prosecuting
attorney Ron Zonen happy the jury found Corey Lyons guilty for two
counts of first degree murder and one count of burglary Dec. 21, 2011.
DA Gets Lyons Conviction on Third Try
Jury Reaches Swift Verdict
By Brandon Fastman
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Santa Barbara’s law enforcement community packed a courtroom today to hear the verdict in the Corey Lyons murder trial. After two mistrials, the second ending in a hung jury, the prosecution secured a stunningly swift verdict. The jury, selected in Solvang and bused in from North County every day, deliberated for only five hours. Judge Brian Hill accepted their decision only 24 hours after closing arguments ended.
Lyons was found guilty on two counts of murder with enhancements for financial gain, lying in wait, and committing multiple murders. Each enhancement makes Lyons eligible for life without parole. He was also found guilty of burglary. Sentencing is scheduled for February 7.
Police apprehended Lyons at 9 a.m. on the morning of May 4, 2009. His brother, Daniel, and Daniel’s partner, Barbara Scharton, had been shot to death in their weekend home on the Mesa at around 1:30 a.m. They lived in Fresno where Daniel worked during the week.
“Quite frankly, it’s time to end this case once and for all,” said defense attorney Robert Sanger in his closing argument. He questioned law enforcement’s investigation including their collection of evidence, the integrity of the perimeter police formed around Daniel Lyons’s home after the shootings, and their scientific exactitude in examining the gunshot residue found on Corey Lyons.
Santa Barbara’s law enforcement community packed a courtroom today to hear the verdict in the Corey Lyons murder trial. After two mistrials, the second ending in a hung jury, the prosecution secured a stunningly swift verdict. The jury, selected in Solvang and bused in from North County every day, deliberated for only five hours. Judge Brian Hill accepted their decision only 24 hours after closing arguments ended.
Lyons was found guilty on two counts of murder with enhancements for financial gain, lying in wait, and committing multiple murders. Each enhancement makes Lyons eligible for life without parole. He was also found guilty of burglary. Sentencing is scheduled for February 7.
Police apprehended Lyons at 9 a.m. on the morning of May 4, 2009. His brother, Daniel, and Daniel’s partner, Barbara Scharton, had been shot to death in their weekend home on the Mesa at around 1:30 a.m. They lived in Fresno where Daniel worked during the week.
“Quite frankly, it’s time to end this case once and for all,” said defense attorney Robert Sanger in his closing argument. He questioned law enforcement’s investigation including their collection of evidence, the integrity of the perimeter police formed around Daniel Lyons’s home after the shootings, and their scientific exactitude in examining the gunshot residue found on Corey Lyons.
Prosecuting
attorney Ron Zonen, who had recently retired but tried this case at the
urging of District Attorney Joyce Dudley, agreed that it was time to
end the trial but interpreted the substantial yet largely circumstantial
evidence quite differently than Sanger. He said in his own closing that
it was “arrogant” of his opponent to call the police investigation
shoddy.
Zonen contended that Lyons single-handedly killed the couple with three weapons. “There is no entry in Craigslist for assassin,” he told the jury during his rebuttal in an attempt to discount the possibility of an accomplice. Scharton was shot with a shotgun and .22 caliber gun, Daniel with a shotgun and .38 caliber gun. Aside from the difficulties of finding an accomplice, Zonen argued that Lyons was well motivated.
Later on the morning of May 4, he would have had to sign over a large chunk, if not most, of his assets — $100,000 and an undeveloped piece of property along with another $150,000 within the next five years for which there would be a lien on his home — to his brother who had brought a lawsuit against him in 2008. Daniel sued Corey for a number of breaches including worker’s compensation fraud after the latter — who worked as a contractor under the name Select Construction — built a weekend home for the former.
Daniel and Corey had not talked for 15 years previously, and apparently Daniel hired Corey as a form of reconciliation. The defense contends that Daniel set Corey up.
Unlike in previous trials, however, the prosecution did not focus on motive. Instead, Zonen focused on the evidence tying Lyons to the crime, and establishing a timeline of his whereabouts during the night in question.
The prosecution also decided to go all-in on the importance of gunshot residue found on Corey, his gloves, and fanny pack. The defense argued strongly that residue particles could have been transferred to Corey from police officers, the police cruiser that transported the defendant to the station, or from the station itself. Therefore, the D.A. commissioned a study of the amount of particles present hanging around the police station on a day in which officers had been taking target practice in the basement firing range to prove that the number of particles on Corey’s hands was uncommonly high.
Zonen contended that Lyons single-handedly killed the couple with three weapons. “There is no entry in Craigslist for assassin,” he told the jury during his rebuttal in an attempt to discount the possibility of an accomplice. Scharton was shot with a shotgun and .22 caliber gun, Daniel with a shotgun and .38 caliber gun. Aside from the difficulties of finding an accomplice, Zonen argued that Lyons was well motivated.
Later on the morning of May 4, he would have had to sign over a large chunk, if not most, of his assets — $100,000 and an undeveloped piece of property along with another $150,000 within the next five years for which there would be a lien on his home — to his brother who had brought a lawsuit against him in 2008. Daniel sued Corey for a number of breaches including worker’s compensation fraud after the latter — who worked as a contractor under the name Select Construction — built a weekend home for the former.
Daniel and Corey had not talked for 15 years previously, and apparently Daniel hired Corey as a form of reconciliation. The defense contends that Daniel set Corey up.
Unlike in previous trials, however, the prosecution did not focus on motive. Instead, Zonen focused on the evidence tying Lyons to the crime, and establishing a timeline of his whereabouts during the night in question.
The prosecution also decided to go all-in on the importance of gunshot residue found on Corey, his gloves, and fanny pack. The defense argued strongly that residue particles could have been transferred to Corey from police officers, the police cruiser that transported the defendant to the station, or from the station itself. Therefore, the D.A. commissioned a study of the amount of particles present hanging around the police station on a day in which officers had been taking target practice in the basement firing range to prove that the number of particles on Corey’s hands was uncommonly high.
Paul Wellman (file)
Corey Lyons leaves the courthouse in handcuffs July 2, 2009
The
quick conviction was a victory for the Santa Barbara law enforcement
community whose public image has taken some hits this past year. The
same judge presiding over the Lyons case threw out a high-profile DUI
case against investigative journalist Peter Lance, who accused his
arresting officer of several improprieties including using pre-filled
blood test waiver forms. The city has hired investigators to review
those accusations. The police department is also facing scrutiny over
the arrest of Tony Denunzio, a DUI suspect who some witnesses said was
the victim of brutality. The DA did not charge Denunzio with resisting
arrest or the arresting officer of using excessive force.
The large turnout of law enforcement officials for today’s verdict suggests that when Sanger demeaned the investigation of the Lyons and Scharton murders, he touched a nerve. “The police did an excellent job of working this case up and investigating it. Very good job,” said Zonen after court recessed.
For his part, Zonen says that he is re-entering retirement. What's not yet clear is whether the longtime prosecutor's retirement will be that of the cowboy walking off into the sunset after one last gunfight or that of a heavyweight boxer who makes a career of coming out of retirement.
The large turnout of law enforcement officials for today’s verdict suggests that when Sanger demeaned the investigation of the Lyons and Scharton murders, he touched a nerve. “The police did an excellent job of working this case up and investigating it. Very good job,” said Zonen after court recessed.
For his part, Zonen says that he is re-entering retirement. What's not yet clear is whether the longtime prosecutor's retirement will be that of the cowboy walking off into the sunset after one last gunfight or that of a heavyweight boxer who makes a career of coming out of retirement.
