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Man's trial begins in wife's beating death
By Susan Spencer-Wendel
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 18, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH - A life is at stake in this courtroom.
The life of Jeffrey Lamb, the man behind the smooth black table, in the smooth blue buttoned-down shirt.
Jurors took their seats Thursday afternoon, looking at Lamb as a prosecutor detailed his theory on how he killed his estranged wife.
Some jurors glanced from Jeffrey to the portrait of Cathy Lamb, that life gone two years now.
Assistant State Attorney Craig Williams opened the death penalty case, describing to jurors a plot by Jeffrey to kill Cathy. He told how Jeffrey left his work as a tow-truck driver, and confronted her at their home in Lake Park.
Williams swung the alleged murder weapon - a tire iron - to demonstrate how hard he believes Jeffrey pummeled Cathy's head with it.
The tire iron rang even on the carpeted floor.
Williams' voice rose as he detailed Cathy's injuries, the hole in her head, her brain spilling out. How Jeffrey turned the tire iron, too, on dogs in the house.
Then the prosecutor got down to the science that this case may turn on. How experts interpret the blood spatter found by sheriff's office investigators on Jeffrey's pants. How the defense expert had discovered blood on the bottom of Jeffrey's sock.
Williams emphasized Jeffrey's ever-evolving story to police and his demeanor. "He cried but he couldn't shed a tear."
He assured jurors they would have not one reasonable doubt at the end of the case.
Then veteran defense attorney Richard Lubin began.
Lubin told jurors Jeffrey has an alibi. He was with a couple at the time of the killing.
The blood found on his client could have been picked up when he discovered his wife dead. Or when he went back into the house to clear the dogs out for investigators.
Lubin told jurors that poor crime scene analysis left too many questions unanswered. Deputies did not investigate other leads. Evidence - including the blood spatters - was not preserved properly for examination,
Jeffrey Lamb cooperated with police because he had nothing to hide, because he didn't kill his wife, Lubin said.
And that tire iron. Lubin said there was no blood, no prints, no scientific evidence that ever tied it to him
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Girlfriend quizzed on letter from suspect in wife's slaying
By Larry Keller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Ten months after his wife was bludgeoned to death, Jeffrey Lamb wrote a letter from jail to his girlfriend. His life for the past year had been "total (expletive), and it's my fault. I need your help."
Lamb's attorneys tried in vain to keep the jury in his first-degree murder trial from reading the letter Tuesday.
When Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown ruled that it was admissible, attorney Richard Lubin tried to dissuade the jury of any notion that Lamb was admitting to girlfriend Joey Lee Franco that he who smashed in Cathy Lamb's skull with a tire iron in her Lake Park duplex.
There were other plausible reasons Lamb was upset, he suggested.
Wasn't it true, Lubin asked Franco while she was on the witness stand, that the April 16, 2005, date of the letter marked the one-year anniversary since Lamb "found you in bed with a man named Ortiz?"
Franco replied that she thought that more likely occurred in January or February of 2004.
Wasn't April 16 also the anniversary of the death of Lamb's father, Lubin wanted to know. Franco said she didn't know what date the father died.
The jury ultimately will have to decide what relevance, if any, the letter has in the June 15, 2004, slaying of Cathy Lamb, 30.
Franco said that, when she learned of Cathy Lamb's murder, she went to the woman's home and Jeffrey Lamb was there. "He just kept telling me he was sorry," she testified. About what, he never said, she added.
Franco said she began dating Lamb in 1999 after moving to Palm Beach County. They lived together sporadically starting in 2002, she said, and were engaged "off and on" even though both were married to other people. Franco said her husband was in Illinois.
At the time of Cathy Lamb's murder, Jeffrey Lamb had moved back with his wife, but he also had just signed a lease with Franco to rent a house in Jupiter, Franco testified.
In the weeks following the murder, Lamb was "irritated, cranky," Franco said. She left him several weeks after the slaying, she said.
Franco was not allowed to tell the jury about the incident that prompted her to leave.
Less than a month after Lamb's wife was murdered, he tried to hang himself from a noose tied to a swing set in the back yard, she told police, then stumbled into their home and punched and choked her.
Outside the presence of the jury, Lubin said Lamb was charged with misdemeanor battery in that incident and was committed for psychiatric evaluation under the Baker Act.
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Jury in murder dismissed when member fails to disclose slaying
By Larry Keller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 05, 2006
The anticipated start of the high-stakes murder trial of Jeffrey Lamb ended abruptly Friday when it was learned that one of the jurors did not disclose during jury selection that her daughter was murdered five years ago.
The juror's reticence resulted in all 12 jurors and one alternate being dismissed. The panel was chosen from a pool of 120 prospective jurors after three days of painstaking questioning. Among the questions was whether anybody in the jury pool or their family members had been crime victims.
"She flat-out should be charged with perjury," said prosecutor Craig Williams. "She should be made an example of."
The Lamb trial unraveled less than two hours before attorneys were to deliver opening arguments, when a woman in the jury pool who was not selected for the panel phoned the jury administration office and the office of the trial judge, Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown. She said that one juror, Dorothea Moore, had mentioned to several people that her daughter had been killed by the daughter's husband, but had not disclosed this during questioning by attorneys during jury selection.
Lamb, 33, was charged two years ago with brutally smashing Cathy Lamb in the head with a heavy tire iron in their Lake Park duplex. The motive: to collect a $29,000 insurance policy from the Walgreens corporate office where she worked. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Lamb is convicted.
Attorneys would have wanted to know if Moore could be impartial in Lamb's case given the fact that he is charged with murdering his wife.
Moore, 47, of Riviera Beach admitted in court Friday that she didn't mention that her daughter, TangieMoore, was murdered by her husband, who then killed himself. "I felt it was none of their business," she told Brown. She denied, however, telling others in the jury pool about her daughter's death.
"I haven't spoken a word to anybody about that," she said. She repeated that assertion to reporters later.
Moore was dismissed from the jury. Other jurors were then called into Brown's courtroom one by one and asked if they had heard Moore say anything about her life that had relevance to the Lamb trial.
A woman said she overheard Moore tell a group of five to seven prospective jurors about her daughter's murder. And a man dropped another bombshell: Moore told him there was no way she would impose the death penalty if Lamb was found guilty.
Prospective jurors were asked by attorneys if they could impose the ultimate penalty. Those who said no were dismissed.
Defense attorney Richard Lubin asked Brown to dismiss the entire jury panel. "There was deception here... that affected the entire process," he said. "I believe this jury has been tainted." Brown granted the motion to "preserve the integrity of the process."
Moore, who said she's an operations manager for a motor coach company in Lake Worth, told reporters that she could have been an impartial juror. "I would have listened to the evidence, listened to the facts and then made my judgment," she said.
Brown could find Moore in contempt of court for her actions, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a fine. She said she wants to review testimony before deciding what she will do.
Prosecutor Williams didn't rule out asking the sheriff's office to investigate Moore for perjury, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. If it found probable cause that Moore committed perjury, Williams' office could then prosecute her.
In the meantime, a new round of 150 prospective jurors will be convened on Wednesday in an effort to get a new jury for the Lamb case. Those who were chosen this week looked crestfallen when told they were being dismissed.
"I was really looking forward to doing my best in the trial," said Kurt Tenaglia of Delray Beach. "This was my chance to really feel good about our justice system. It was very upsetting for all of us."
By Susan Spencer-Wendel
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 18, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH - A life is at stake in this courtroom.
The life of Jeffrey Lamb, the man behind the smooth black table, in the smooth blue buttoned-down shirt.
Jurors took their seats Thursday afternoon, looking at Lamb as a prosecutor detailed his theory on how he killed his estranged wife.
Some jurors glanced from Jeffrey to the portrait of Cathy Lamb, that life gone two years now.
Assistant State Attorney Craig Williams opened the death penalty case, describing to jurors a plot by Jeffrey to kill Cathy. He told how Jeffrey left his work as a tow-truck driver, and confronted her at their home in Lake Park.
Williams swung the alleged murder weapon - a tire iron - to demonstrate how hard he believes Jeffrey pummeled Cathy's head with it.
The tire iron rang even on the carpeted floor.
Williams' voice rose as he detailed Cathy's injuries, the hole in her head, her brain spilling out. How Jeffrey turned the tire iron, too, on dogs in the house.
Then the prosecutor got down to the science that this case may turn on. How experts interpret the blood spatter found by sheriff's office investigators on Jeffrey's pants. How the defense expert had discovered blood on the bottom of Jeffrey's sock.
Williams emphasized Jeffrey's ever-evolving story to police and his demeanor. "He cried but he couldn't shed a tear."
He assured jurors they would have not one reasonable doubt at the end of the case.
Then veteran defense attorney Richard Lubin began.
Lubin told jurors Jeffrey has an alibi. He was with a couple at the time of the killing.
The blood found on his client could have been picked up when he discovered his wife dead. Or when he went back into the house to clear the dogs out for investigators.
Lubin told jurors that poor crime scene analysis left too many questions unanswered. Deputies did not investigate other leads. Evidence - including the blood spatters - was not preserved properly for examination,
Jeffrey Lamb cooperated with police because he had nothing to hide, because he didn't kill his wife, Lubin said.
And that tire iron. Lubin said there was no blood, no prints, no scientific evidence that ever tied it to him
-------
Girlfriend quizzed on letter from suspect in wife's slaying
By Larry Keller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Ten months after his wife was bludgeoned to death, Jeffrey Lamb wrote a letter from jail to his girlfriend. His life for the past year had been "total (expletive), and it's my fault. I need your help."
Lamb's attorneys tried in vain to keep the jury in his first-degree murder trial from reading the letter Tuesday.
When Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown ruled that it was admissible, attorney Richard Lubin tried to dissuade the jury of any notion that Lamb was admitting to girlfriend Joey Lee Franco that he who smashed in Cathy Lamb's skull with a tire iron in her Lake Park duplex.
There were other plausible reasons Lamb was upset, he suggested.
Wasn't it true, Lubin asked Franco while she was on the witness stand, that the April 16, 2005, date of the letter marked the one-year anniversary since Lamb "found you in bed with a man named Ortiz?"
Franco replied that she thought that more likely occurred in January or February of 2004.
Wasn't April 16 also the anniversary of the death of Lamb's father, Lubin wanted to know. Franco said she didn't know what date the father died.
The jury ultimately will have to decide what relevance, if any, the letter has in the June 15, 2004, slaying of Cathy Lamb, 30.
Franco said that, when she learned of Cathy Lamb's murder, she went to the woman's home and Jeffrey Lamb was there. "He just kept telling me he was sorry," she testified. About what, he never said, she added.
Franco said she began dating Lamb in 1999 after moving to Palm Beach County. They lived together sporadically starting in 2002, she said, and were engaged "off and on" even though both were married to other people. Franco said her husband was in Illinois.
At the time of Cathy Lamb's murder, Jeffrey Lamb had moved back with his wife, but he also had just signed a lease with Franco to rent a house in Jupiter, Franco testified.
In the weeks following the murder, Lamb was "irritated, cranky," Franco said. She left him several weeks after the slaying, she said.
Franco was not allowed to tell the jury about the incident that prompted her to leave.
Less than a month after Lamb's wife was murdered, he tried to hang himself from a noose tied to a swing set in the back yard, she told police, then stumbled into their home and punched and choked her.
Outside the presence of the jury, Lubin said Lamb was charged with misdemeanor battery in that incident and was committed for psychiatric evaluation under the Baker Act.
---
Jury in murder dismissed when member fails to disclose slaying
By Larry Keller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 05, 2006
The anticipated start of the high-stakes murder trial of Jeffrey Lamb ended abruptly Friday when it was learned that one of the jurors did not disclose during jury selection that her daughter was murdered five years ago.
The juror's reticence resulted in all 12 jurors and one alternate being dismissed. The panel was chosen from a pool of 120 prospective jurors after three days of painstaking questioning. Among the questions was whether anybody in the jury pool or their family members had been crime victims.
"She flat-out should be charged with perjury," said prosecutor Craig Williams. "She should be made an example of."
The Lamb trial unraveled less than two hours before attorneys were to deliver opening arguments, when a woman in the jury pool who was not selected for the panel phoned the jury administration office and the office of the trial judge, Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown. She said that one juror, Dorothea Moore, had mentioned to several people that her daughter had been killed by the daughter's husband, but had not disclosed this during questioning by attorneys during jury selection.
Lamb, 33, was charged two years ago with brutally smashing Cathy Lamb in the head with a heavy tire iron in their Lake Park duplex. The motive: to collect a $29,000 insurance policy from the Walgreens corporate office where she worked. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Lamb is convicted.
Attorneys would have wanted to know if Moore could be impartial in Lamb's case given the fact that he is charged with murdering his wife.
Moore, 47, of Riviera Beach admitted in court Friday that she didn't mention that her daughter, TangieMoore, was murdered by her husband, who then killed himself. "I felt it was none of their business," she told Brown. She denied, however, telling others in the jury pool about her daughter's death.
"I haven't spoken a word to anybody about that," she said. She repeated that assertion to reporters later.
Moore was dismissed from the jury. Other jurors were then called into Brown's courtroom one by one and asked if they had heard Moore say anything about her life that had relevance to the Lamb trial.
A woman said she overheard Moore tell a group of five to seven prospective jurors about her daughter's murder. And a man dropped another bombshell: Moore told him there was no way she would impose the death penalty if Lamb was found guilty.
Prospective jurors were asked by attorneys if they could impose the ultimate penalty. Those who said no were dismissed.
Defense attorney Richard Lubin asked Brown to dismiss the entire jury panel. "There was deception here... that affected the entire process," he said. "I believe this jury has been tainted." Brown granted the motion to "preserve the integrity of the process."
Moore, who said she's an operations manager for a motor coach company in Lake Worth, told reporters that she could have been an impartial juror. "I would have listened to the evidence, listened to the facts and then made my judgment," she said.
Brown could find Moore in contempt of court for her actions, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a fine. She said she wants to review testimony before deciding what she will do.
Prosecutor Williams didn't rule out asking the sheriff's office to investigate Moore for perjury, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. If it found probable cause that Moore committed perjury, Williams' office could then prosecute her.
In the meantime, a new round of 150 prospective jurors will be convened on Wednesday in an effort to get a new jury for the Lamb case. Those who were chosen this week looked crestfallen when told they were being dismissed.
"I was really looking forward to doing my best in the trial," said Kurt Tenaglia of Delray Beach. "This was my chance to really feel good about our justice system. It was very upsetting for all of us."