Savannah, TN – A jury in Hardin County, Tennessee Wednesday found a nurse not guilty of killing her husband by giving him a drug for diabetics.  Sharron Chason was acquitted of first-degree murder. She was also found not guilty of all the lesser charges brought by the prosecution. Jurors deliberated for just over an hour before delivering their verdict.

–In Session Staff

Ft. Myers, Florida–Jurors on Tuesday found a Fort Myers man guilty of murdering his estranged wife and mother-in-law. Juan Mendez Jr. was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for the stabbing deaths of Whitney Mendez and her mother in July 2006.

Jurors deliberated for just about 90 minutes to arrive at their unanimous decision. As they entered a silent courtroom, the six-member panel looked straight ahead without any visible emotion as they took their seats.

Judge Mark Steinbeck spoke with family and friends on both sides of the courtroom a moment earlier, warning them that a lack of restraint could result in a contempt of court charge.

The courtroom was still when the jury foreperson passed the verdict sheet to the clerk and the guilty verdicts were announced. While the jury was still seated, family members of Juan Mendez, including his mother, left the courtroom. The father of the defendant stayed seated, crying, putting his face in his hands. Family members of the victim were jubilant but silent.

Earlier in the day, closing arguments began with assistant state attorney Cynthia Ross telling jurors to remember testimony of the defendant's demeanor the day the bodies of his wife and mother-in-law were found in their home. She asked the jury to recall that Mendez displayed no concern to law enforcement, saying "he doesn't ask what was inside."

She described the continued stabbing of Whitney Mendez, in her bedroom, as she lay on the floor by her bed and that it could only be from someone who had hate, spite, and an evil intent toward the victims, and that person could only be Juan Mendez.

Defense attorneys Nicole Malick and Jay Brizel attacked the credibility of the investigation and the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses who were working at Denny's the nights of July 21 and 22, 2006. They emphasized the DNA that was not consistent solely with Juan Mendez, and questioned why other people in the victims' lives were not even investigated.

Chief assistant state attorney Randall McGruther gave the rebuttal close for the prosecution which focused on common sense. He emphasized events beginning late Friday July 21, 2006, when a worker for Florida's Department of Children and Families told Juan he could not see his son that weekend.

Referring to testimony that the DNA found on the broken knife handle was consistent with the defendant or his son, McGruther urged jurors to use their common sense: "a 2-year old didn't have strength to bend a knife like this."

Over the course of five days, prosecutors called 23 witnesses. The defense called one witness, and the defendant chose not to testify.

Juan Mendez faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on February 22, 2010.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

Fort Myers, Florida – Jurors on Tuesday found a Fort Myers man guilty of murdering his estranged wife and mother-in-law. Juan Mendez Jr. was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for the stabbing deaths of Whitney Mendez and her mother in July 2006. Over the course of five days, prosecutors called 23 witnesses. The defense called no witnesses, and the defendant chose not to testify. A sentencing hearing has been set for February 22nd. Mendez faces life in prison.

–In Session staff

NEW YORK –Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced Allen Andrade to life in prison without parole this afternoon after he was found guilty of first-degree murder and bias-motivated crime in the beating death of Justin (Angie) Zapata.

Allen Andrade hangs head as guilty verdict is delivered

The jury deliberated for about two hours before finding Andrade, 32, guilty of beating 18-year-old Zapata to death last July in a rage after discovering that Zapata was biologically a male.  The two met on a social networking website.

The defense claimed Andrade was guilty of a lesser crime - second-degree murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, but the jury disagreed.

Stay tuned to In Session for complete verdict coverage beginning at 9 a.m.

–Carolyn Purcell, In Session Senior Executive Producer

DETROIT, Michigan - The jury has just found Jean Pierre Orlewicz, 18, guilty of first degree murder, felony murder and mutilation. The jurors did not look at anyone as they filed in. Daniel Sorensen's father began to sob. The family of the defendant remained stoic. Jurors deliberated for 10 hours and 40 minutes over two days.

– Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

ELKHORN, Wisconsin – Mark Jensen has been found guilty of first degree murder in the 1998 antifreeze poisoning of his wife, Julie.

Mark Jensen was found guilty of murdering wife Julie.

The defendant walked into the courtroom in handcuffs. His attorney, Craig Albee,  successfully argued that they should be taken off so that jurors would not see the cuffs when they came into to deliver their verdict. Watch the courtroom drama

The jurors filed in a little before 6 p.m. ET on this Thursday evening. They were serious, looking straight ahead.

The room was silent when the verdict was announced. Julie's brothers struggled with their emotions but remained silent. Mark's family didn't make a move. Read more

Word began to spread a little after 4:30 pm. that there was a verdict. The defendant's family, including his sister Laura, nervously came into the courtroom and took their seats. Mark's parents claimed their spot in the front row, where they have sat for the entire trial. His sister sat in the back row.

Julie's brothers were across the street and were immediately called to come to the courthouse.

Sherrif's deputies lined the courtroom and security was tight.
The judge was overcome with emotion as he thanked the jurors for so six weeks of loyal service.

– Jean Casarez, In Session corresponent

ELKHORN, Wisconsin – It is 5:45 p..m. ET and we have a verdict in the Jensen case. I'm in the courtroom and we are waiting for everyone to assemble.

– Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

CANTON, Ohio – Former Canton police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. could face the ultimate penalty, death, when the jury of six men and six women returns to the Stark County courthouse February 25 to hear more evidence and recommend a sentence for the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Jessie Davis, in June.

Jurors spent more than 20 hours over four days working through complex legal definitions and instructions before reaching unanimous verdicts Friday morning. Because the jury panel must return for the next phase, jurors couldn’t speak to the media about their decision.

When Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. read the first verdict — not guilty of aggravated murder in the death of Jessie Davis — some were hopeful, others disappointed.

Without a guilty verdict of aggravated murder, there was no possibility of a death sentence. Cutts was instead found guilty of the lesser charge of straight murder.

But the relief of Cutts’ family and the disappointment of Davis’ family were short-lived. Counts 2 and 3 were also aggravated murder charges and Cutts was found guilty of those two counts.

Moreover, the jury found him guilty of each of three “specifications” or circumstances under each of those counts, any one of which qualifies him for the death penalty. At the trial’s penalty phase, the same jurors will hear evidence from both sides as the prosecution argues for a death and the defense argues for a life sentence.

In finding Cutts guilty of straight murder and not the aggravated murder of Jessie Davis, jurors apparently believed that her death was intentional but that it did not occur during a burglary. Yet, in finding Cutts guilty of aggravated murder in intentionally terminating Davis’s pregnancy (Count 2), jurors found it did, indeed, occur during a burglary. So, the death of Davis was not during a burglary but that of the nearly full-term baby inside her was.

In Count 3, another verdict of guilty of aggravated murder, jurors found that Cutts killed a viable fetus — a person under the age of 13 — and, again, that it occurred during a burglary. The verdicts in these three counts seemed inconsistent to defense attorneys who asked for a mistrial based on that very point. Judge Brown denied the motion, saying the verdicts are not inconsistent because they pertain to different victims: Jessie Davis and Baby Chloe. We won’t know why the jurors reached these decisions until the penalty phase is completed, and only if jurors are willing to speak about it.

After court adjourned, family members of Davis and Cutts were escorted from the courthouse. Everyone refused to comment on the verdicts for now.

– Beth Karas, In Session correspondent