Trial dates set for three local murder cases

By Loyd Cook

March 15, 2008 11:00 pm

— Glenn Ray Boelter, Beverly Latimer and Shaun Earl Arender all face murder trials this year. District Judge John Jackson is in the last year of his term and is not seeking re-election.
But whoever wins the November election matchup between Republican James Lagomarsino and Democrat Clay Beard likely won’t have to be directing the movement of a capital murder proceeding.
“I don’t want to leave (the murder trials) for a new court,” Jackson said this week. “They’ll have some catching up to do when they take office.”
Jackson won’t leave office until the end of 2008.
Tentative dates, ones that could change depending on pre-trial hearings to decide on motions before the court, are already set for the three cases.
• Arender, 19, faces capital murder charges in connection with the Sept. 10, 2007 sexual assault and murder of 6-year-old Hanna Mack. His trial is set to begin, for now, for Aug. 18. He remains in the Navarro County jail with a bond set at $2.5 million.
• Latimer faces murder charges in connection with the death of a foster child — a 16-month-old boy — in her care in September 2006. An autopsy has ruled the death as a result of blunt force trauma. She is free on $750,000 bond. Her trial is set for June 9.
• Boelter, who is really Gary Thomas Sharron, remains in the county jail charged with the Sept. 5, 2006, capital murder of Sammy Joe Hawkins. An escapee from prison in another state where he was serving time, also for murder, Boelter has a court date set for May 12.
Dixie Fincher, the district court coordinator, said none of the three cases have seen a first request for a continuance.
Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson has said his office would not seek the death penalty in the Latimer or Boetler cases, but has yet to publicly comment on the Arender case.
Judge Jackson said he feels it’s his responsibility to make sure the cases are handled by him and not a new judge coming into any of the three cases late in the process. He presided over the Michael Zoch capital murder case until the first day of actual trial proceedings, when Zoch committed suicide in his jail cell.
And Jackson, when he was first assistant district attorney, prosecuted the Cameron Todd Willingham capital murder case.
“I have capital murder experience,” Jackson said. “I set (the dates) for these three cases, so I take responsibility for them.”
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Loyd Cook may be reached via e-mail at lcook@corsicanadailysun.com

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