James Biela? Top 13 The Most Correct Answer

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Tháng 11/2007, nữ sinh viên 19 tuổi xinh đẹp Brianna Denison trở về nhà trong kỳ nghỉ đông. Nhưng chỉ 1 tuần trước khi quay lại trường, tai họa đã ập tới. Cô bị mất tích một cách bí ẩn. 1 tháng sau, thi thể cô gái được tìm thấy. Sau đó, sự thật về kẻ thủ ác cũng như cái chết đau đớn của nạn nhân cũng được hé lộ.

James Biela bị dẫn giải tới tòa

Gã đàn ông say xỉn

Trả lời các câu hỏi của thám tử Wygnanski James, Biela phủ nhận bất kỳ điều gì liên quan tới vụ Brianna bị giết và khẳng định rằng hắn đang ở với bạn gái, người sẽ cung cấp chứng cứ ngoại phạm trong quãng thời gian xảy ra vụ án. Thám tử Wygnanski, tuy nhận thấy điều bất thường ở người đàn ông này nhưng do thiếu bằng chứng cần thiết nên không thể buộc tội Biela.

James Biela sinh ngày 29/6/1981 tại Chicago và cùng gia đình tới định cư ở Reno khi 9 tuổi. Tuy được những người xung quanh nhận xét là khá vui vẻ nhưng Biela cũng nổi tiếng là người nóng tính và thời đi học thường xuyên bắt nạt bạn bè. Sau khi tốt nghiệp trung học, Biela gia nhập lực lượng Thủy quân lục chiến và được phong hàm hạ sỹ. Tuy nhiên, năm 2001, Biela bị đuổi khỏi quân đội vì sử dụng ma túy.

Trở về nhà, Biela lại nằm trong danh sách theo dõi sát sao của chính quyền vì thường xuyên say xỉn rồi gây gổ với người khác. Có lần Biela đã cầm dao đe dọa một hàng xóm của người yêu cũ và bị bắt. Biela bị phạt hành chính và cấm đến gần nạn nhân trong vòng 1 năm. Sau vụ này, Biela và người yêu cũng chia tay.

Sau đó, Biela quen bạn gái mới và chuyển tới sống cùng cô ở Sparks, phía Đông thành phố Reno. Hai người có với nhau một bé trai. Những người hàng xóm nhận xét Biela là người thân thiện.

Những lời khai quan trọng

Ngày 12/11/2008, thám tử Wygnanski tìm gặp bạn gái của Biela. Cô xác nhận hai người có quan hệ tình cảm đã 6 năm và con trai của họ hiện 4 tuổi. Dù vậy, cô cũng cho biết tuy vẫn đang sống cùng nhau nhưng không dám làm chứng cho chứng cứ ngoại phạm cho Biela vào sáng 16/12/2007 và 20/1/2008. Lý do là bởi mối quan hệ của hai người đôi lúc lại trục trặc và Biela thường rời khỏi nhà trong nhiều ngày. Khung thời gian mà các thám tử quan tâm lại trùng đúng vào những ngày như vậy.

Tuy nhiên, có một chi tiết đáng chú ý mà cô cung cấp cho cảnh sát. Từ tháng 3 tới tháng 8/2008, Biela rời thành phố Reno tới làm việc ở Washington và bán chiếc Toyota Tacoma, chiếc xe phù hợp với mô tả của nạn nhân trong vụ tấn công tình dục trước đó. Có lần, cô phát hiện một chiếc quần lót của phụ nữ trên xe. Khi bị cô chất vấn, Biela nói rằng nó bị lẫn trong đống quần áo của một người phụ nữ ở tiệm giặt là tại Washington.

Bạn gái của Biela sau đó đã tình nguyện cung cấp mẫu ADN từ cậu con trai chung của hai người. Cảnh sát có thể so sánh với mẫu ADN này với mẫu của nghi phạm để lại hiện trường.

Không nằm ngoài dự đoán, ngày 25/11/2008, kết quả cho thấy mẫu ADN của đứa trẻ giống với mẫu của nghi can giết hại Brianna Denison. Biela bị bắt ngay sau đó. Lúc này, nghi phạm buộc phải cung mẫu ADN của mình cho cảnh sát và kết quả cho thấy trùng với mẫu ADN tại hiện trường và trên thi thể nạn nhân Brianna Denison. Kẻ sát nhân lúc này đã phải cúi đầu nhận tội.

Ngày 27/5/2010, James Biela bị đưa ra xét xử về tội bắt cóc, hiếp dâm, giết người đối với Brianna Denison. Jeames Biela còn bị cáo buộc hãm hiếp hai cô sinh viên tại gara trường đại học vào tháng 12/2007. Ngày 2/6/2010, tòa án quận Washoe tuyên Biela đã giết Brianna Denison, hãm hiếp hai cô sinh viên và phải lĩnh án tử hình.

(Hết)  

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Mời quý vị đón đọc kỳ tiếp theo của loạt bài Kỳ án thế giới vào 04h00 ngày 22/11/2019.

The Nevada Supreme Court has unanimously rejected James Biela’s second appeal seeking to overturn his conviction in the murder of Brianna Denison.

Biela was convicted of first degree murder and sexual assault as well as first degree knapping. He knapped the 19-year-old who was sleeping on a couch of a friend’s resence near the University of Nevada Reno campus Jan. 21, 2008. Her remains were not discovered until weeks later in a ravine in south Reno.

During that investigation, Biela was linked to the sexual assaults of two other young women near UNR. He was also convicted of assaulting those two victims and sentenced to death.

The Supreme Court has already upheld the conviction and sentence. Biela challenged his convictions and sentence this time arguing he received ineffective assistance of counsel, which the district court denied after an eventiary hearing.

All seven justices rejected his arguments that the DNA samples collected from Denison’s remains, from the resence where she was knapped and from one of the other two victims were too weak to connect him to the crime. The DNA from the door handle at that resence was matched to the swabs taken from one of the other victims, connecting Biela to that crime as well.

“He offered no evence at the postconviction hearing that counsel could have presented to undermine the DNA and other evence implicating him in the knapping, sexual assault and murder,” the court wrote.

But the justices agreed with Biela’s lawyer that his trial counsel should have objected to the state argument that phone records placed Biela near the place where one of the other two victims was knapped, pointing out that he used his cellphone from several miles away 90 minutes before the attack.

They sa, however, Biela failed to demonstrate prejudice and the brief argument dn’t make the proceedings so unfair as to deny due process.

They also pointed out that Biela left town promptly after Denison’s body was found and disposed of the vehicle that matched fibers found on her clothing. The justices concluded that there was ample evence of Biela’s involvement in Denison’s murder and evence connecting him to the other two victims.

In addition, the Supreme Court denied a petition for reconseration by Frank Matylinsky. He has been in prison for first degree murder committed in Reno since December 1983.

Murder of American student

Brianna Zunino Denison (March 29, 1988 – January 20, 2008) was a college student who was abducted on January 20, 2008 from a friend’s house in Reno, Nevada. Her body was discovered on February 15, 2008 in a field near a Reno business park after being raped and murdered. A man named James Biela was convicted of the murder.

Background

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Brianna Denison attended Reno High School in Reno, Nevada, graduating in June 2006. Denison was at home during winter break from Santa Barbara City College, where she was studying psychology. She and her friends had attended events tied to a Summer Winter Action Tours LLC (a travel agency that caters to students), Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in Reno; Denison had reportedly attended this event in the past.[1] She was last seen alive on January 20, 2008 at about 4am Pacific Time at her friend’s house near the University of Nevada campus. This resence is on MacKay Court in Reno, where she was staying after attending a party at the Sands Regency on North Arlington Avenue.[2] Her friend woke up at around 9:00 am and could not find Denison. A small bloodstain was found on the pillow Denison used to sleep on that night, which led her friend to alert Denison’s parents and then local authorities. Denison had left the house without her shoes, cell phone or purse. Authorities believed she was wearing only sweats and a white tank top. She was later found to have been dressed in only bright orange-colored socks.[3][4]

In the following days, the Reno Police Department conducted a forensic investigation of the MacKay Court resence where Denison was staying when she was abducted and found touch DNA belonging to an unentified male on the doorknob.[5] They also discovered that blood on the pillow was Denison’s. Investigators began focusing on a knapping scenario.[2]

Search

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On January 21, 2008, detectives began sweeping the University of Nevada, Reno area in search of Denison. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also joined in the search efforts.[1] Investigators later learned that the male DNA found on the couch where Denison was sleeping the night when she disappeared was linked with at least two previous sexually motivated attacks in the same area, one on November 13[6] and the second on December 16, 2007.[7]

On January 29, 2008, a Reno woman claimed she knew another victim who sa she was raped at gunpoint in a garage on the University of Nevada, Reno campus in October 2007 but had not reported the crime.[8][9] Police began interviewing nearly 100 registered sex offenders who live within a mile of the MacKay Court home.

Around 1,700 volunteers helped with the search of a 100-square-mile (260 km2) area during the time Denison was missing,[10] including Nevada’s then-First Lady Dawn Gibbons (wife of then-Governor Jim Gibbons).[11][12]

On February 15, 2008, Albert Jimenez of Reno was returning from his lunch break at a Subway restaurant. As he was walking by the road, he noticed bright orange-colored fabric standing out among a pile of discarded tree limbs that were lying in a ditch. When he approached closer, he discovered the neon orange socks were attached to feet. What at first he thought was a mannequin turned out to be a deceased woman. Jimenez had heard about Brianna Denison’s knapping but dn’t think the victim resembled photographs he’d seen on billboards. Jimenez dn’t have a cell phone with him so he quickly returned to his place of employment, EE Technologies, to call Reno police. When police arrived to the South Reno lot, Jimenez was told that the victim was Denison.[13] On February 16, 2008, an autopsy report confirmed that the body found in a field near a Reno business park was Brianna Denison.[14]

Suspect

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On January 29, 2008, Reno police released a description of the unknown perpetrator.[15] The person in question was also linked to at least two attempted sexual assaults in November and December 2007, and a woman claimed to have been raped in a parking garage in October.[16] Previous victims also gave enough detailed information for police to draw up a sketch of the suspect.[17] An item of underwear was found near Denison’s body along with the DNA of the perpetrator and the DNA of an unknown female. Police sa that the clothing item d not belong to Denison and that it might have been left near her body to taunt the investigators.[18] Police asked that anyone who recognized the clothing item as theirs come forward as they might know the entity of the perpetrator.

Arrest

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On Tuesday, November 25, 2008, James Michael Biela, 27, of Sparks, Nevada, was arrested and booked at the Washoe County Jail on charges of murder, first-degree knapping, and sexual assault.[19] The arrest occurred while he was dropping his son off at the Stepping Stones Children’s Center in Reno.[19] A DNA sample was collected from Biela.[20] He had previously been arrested in 2001 for threatening his former girlfriend’s neighbor with a knife.[21]

In a press conference held by the Reno Police Department on Wednesday, November 26, 2008, it was confirmed that the DNA collected from Biela matched the DNA found at the crime scene, positively linking him to both the murder of Brianna Denison and a previous sexual assault.[21]

At this same press conference, it was also stated that Biela had been turned in by a friend of his girlfriend via the Secret Witness program on November 1, 2008. Biela’s girlfriend had confed to this friend that she had found underwear unknown to her in Biela’s truck as they were coming back from Washington state, where Biela had taken a job in March. Wespread news media reports began circulating that included a police sketch of a suspect and a description of a vehicle used in another rape the month before Brianna’s abduction. According to Reno Police Department Chief Michael Poehlman, Biela was questioned by detectives after the Secret Witness tip came in. He denied involvement and declined to prove a DNA sample. Biela’s girlfriend was also questioned and gave police permission to obtain DNA from her 4 year-old son, whom Biela had fathered. The test indicated that a direct relative of his had left DNA at the home where Brianna Denison was abducted and at the other rape that had taken place the prior month. With this evence, Reno police obtained an arrest warrant and one for Biela’s DNA. Chief Poehlman announced at the press conference that the Washoe County Sheriff’s Department crime lab had tested Biela’s DNA and found it matched DNA from the Denison case and another rape. Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick told reporters at the news conference he would be prosecuting the case with one of his lead criminal deputies, Elliot Sattler, and that his office would be seeking the “maximum penalty” for Biela, up to and including the death penalty.[citation needed]

It was also announced that Biela, on his way to Washington, had sold in Idaho his truck which matched the description of the vehicle used in the previous sexual assault. At the press conference, officials sa the vehicle was being returned to Reno to be searched and used as evence in the case against him. [22]

Trial and sentencing

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On Thursday, May 27, 2010, Biela was found guilty of the murder of Brianna Denison. The jury returned a guilty verdict for all counts against Biela which included knapping, sexual assault and murder after deliberating for about nine hours. Defense attorneys argued against the death penalty, stating that Biela suffered an abusive childhood due to an alcoholic father, that he had been a productive member of society prior to his crimes and that he was a model prisoner. Jurors d not accept these mitigating factors and handed out the death sentence. On July 30, 2010, Judge Robert Perry sentenced Biela to four additional life sentences for multiple counts of rape and knapping associated with attacks on two victims prior to Denison’s abduction and murder.[23] Biela has appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court to reverse the denial of his 2012 writ of habeas corpus by the Washoe County second judicial district court.[24] His appeal has most recently been denied on June 12, 2019, whereby the Nevada Supreme Court “consered Biela’s arguments and concluding that they do not warrant relief, we ORDER the judgment of the district court AFFIRMED.”[25]

Aftermath

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The sale of handguns, stunguns and pepper spray increased dramatically in the University of Nevada, Reno area after Denison’s body was found.[26] Denison’s mother founded the Bring Bri Justice Foundation to try to implement changes after Denison’s body was found.[27]

On February 23, 2008, hundreds of people attended a vigil held in Reno for Denison.[28]

Media attention

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The case received prominent national media attention, including coverage by national news services Fox News Channel,[2] CNN,[14] ABC News,[1] MSNBC,[10] and CBS News.[18] It was televised in 2008 on an episode of Dr. Phil[29] and was featured as Case #7 in the 2009 E! Entertainment special, Young Beautiful & Vanished: 15 Unthinkable Crimes.[30][31] The case was also on 20/20 on OWN, and on ID’s Unusual Suspects, Vanished in Reno season 6 episode 1.[citation needed] Brianna’s Law in Nevada was also put into action, which mandates anyone who is arrested for a felony to give up DNA.

See also

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References

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Brianna Denison (Personal Photo)

Personal Photo

Reno, Nev. (CBS/AP) Brianna Denison’s family may feel a measure of closure after seeing her killer, serial rapist James Biela, sentenced to death Wednesday. For Brianna’s mother, however, the vindication is palpable.

PICTURES: Brianna Denison’s Life
Ends in Brutal Rape and Murder

“When James Michael Biela messed with my little girl, he messed with the wrong families,” Brgette Denison sa after the sentencing, “[He messed with] the wrong women, and the wrong city and state.”

James Biela (AP Photo/Marilyn Newton)

AP Photo/Marilyn Newton, Pool

The same jury that last week convicted the

28-year-old Biela, deliberated for about nine hours before reaching a unanimous verdict to execute him by lethal injection. 

Before sentencing deliberations began, the pipe fitter and ex-marine from Sparks, Nev. apologized in court Tuesday, saying he regretted that he would not be able to see his son grow up.

PICTURES: Brianna Denison’s Life
Ends in Brutal Rape and Murder

His public defenders urged the jury to conser that he had no previous criminal record and grew up in an abusive, impoverished home in the Chicago area where his father brutally beat his mother on almost a daily basis.

But the jury ultimately deced an unfortunate childhood d not absolve him of Brianna’s brutal rape and murder or of the multiple assaults he committed in 2007.

As Biela was being led out of the courtroom he turned to his mother and apologized.

“He sa `Don’t cry.’ He sa he loved us,”‘ Kathy Lovell told reporters later.

Brianna, a sophomore at California’s Santa Barbara City College, was home visiting friends during winter break when she was abducted Jan. 20, 2008, while sleeping on a friend’s couch near the UNR campus.

“It started probably one of the most massive manhunts I’ve ever seen for a missing person in this community,” Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick sa Wednesday. “Nothing we do here can bring Brianna Denison back, but I think I can stand here now and say we d bring Bri justice,” he sa.

Biela’s sentence will be automatically appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Brianna Denison’s Murder