With litigation, sometimes even if you win you lose. The latest example may be Guy Heinze Sr. He was one of eight people killed in a southeast Georgia mobile home last month. Prior to the killing, he had been awarded $25,000 in a civil lawsuit. He died before he collected a single penny. The 46 year old Heinze had been awarded the sum by the McIntosh County Magistrate in a suit concerning a mobile home. The award was under appeal at the time of his murder. All eight of the victims died from "blunt force" trauma.
Guy Heinze Jr., 22, faces eight counts of first-degree murder associated with the killings. He appeared at his initial court appearance via television from the Glynn County Detention Center. He is represented by attorney Ron Harrison. The preliminary hearing will be next week. Whether the lawsuit is related to a possible motive in the slayings is unknown. Possible motive? The younger Heinze is the one who called 911. 911 caller arrested.
Guy Heinze Jr. "continues to deny any involvement in the murders and urges anyone with information to contact authorities," according to his lawyer.
Heinze Jr. is accused of making false statements and tampering with evidence. 911 call .
An arrest warrant claims he provided police "with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members." He also allegedly removed a shotgun from the mobile home and put it in his car. He was initially released and then arrested on the murder charges.
Dead are Guy Heinze Sr. 46, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Chrissy Toler, 22; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. The funeral for the eighth victim, Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held mid-month.
A ninth victim, a 3-year-old, was on life support at a Savannah, Georgia, hospital.
Guy Heinze Sr.'s father, William Heinze, told WJXT-TV in Jacksonville that he doubted his grandson was responsible for the deaths. Intuitively, it does seem hard to believe that one guy could beat all of these victims to death at the same time. The whole story remains elusive.
Guy Heinze Jr. is to be considered innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law.
Guy Heinze Jr., 22, faces eight counts of first-degree murder associated with the killings. He appeared at his initial court appearance via television from the Glynn County Detention Center. He is represented by attorney Ron Harrison. The preliminary hearing will be next week. Whether the lawsuit is related to a possible motive in the slayings is unknown. Possible motive? The younger Heinze is the one who called 911. 911 caller arrested.
Guy Heinze Jr. "continues to deny any involvement in the murders and urges anyone with information to contact authorities," according to his lawyer.
Heinze Jr. is accused of making false statements and tampering with evidence. 911 call .
An arrest warrant claims he provided police "with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members." He also allegedly removed a shotgun from the mobile home and put it in his car. He was initially released and then arrested on the murder charges.
Dead are Guy Heinze Sr. 46, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Chrissy Toler, 22; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. The funeral for the eighth victim, Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held mid-month.
A ninth victim, a 3-year-old, was on life support at a Savannah, Georgia, hospital.
Guy Heinze Sr.'s father, William Heinze, told WJXT-TV in Jacksonville that he doubted his grandson was responsible for the deaths. Intuitively, it does seem hard to believe that one guy could beat all of these victims to death at the same time. The whole story remains elusive.
Guy Heinze Jr. is to be considered innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law.
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55 comments:
Hard to believe one guy could do it all
come on guy...
I find this hard to believe as well unless he attacked them one at a time throughout the day.
could they have different times of death?
how is it possible?
who is the woman on the 911 call?
must have occured over time
Unless he confessed, he may not be a slam dunk case...
Too tough to call without knowing the evidentiary rulings....
This is real defensible...
Just now read an article that stated after the cause of death wz determined to be 'blunt force trama' & not gunshot wounds, that's how Brunswick police "connected" Guy Heinze Jr as the sole suspect BECAUSE he stated in his 911 call that his family had been beaten to death(police assumed they had been shot up until causes of death wz released) Brunswick police are saying since he knew that his family had been beaten, he had to have done it! I didn't realize that u had to have an IQ level of a genius to be able to tell that someone had been beaten to death. How does 1 man beat 8 people to death & not have a single scratch on him?! FBI needs to come in & question Brunswick police cuz this sounds lik a COVER UP! I love the South but lots of shady things still go on & police cover for the Good Ol' Boys!
Anon above,
I tend to agree. I think the FBI or at least someone needs to start from scratch and figure out exactly what happened.
The only way I could see one man doing it is if they were all asleep and he used something hard enough to cause death with one or 2 blows, and quietly took them out one by one. It could be possible, but then I'm sure he would have gotten blood on him. There has to be more evidence but they aren't letting the public know any details at all.
possible for one... but likely it was more than one in my opinion
There is no way he is guilty of this.
The Glynn County Sheriff's Department owes him an apology and a whole lot of money.
The sheriff's department needs to look at drug dealers and purchasers in the area who have violent histories.
I'm not buying that he's guilty of this. If their only evidence is the fact that he thought the family was beat to death, well that's hardly something to convict on. His legal defense said it didn't make sense that one guy would kill his family for a bottle of pills. And I agree. And let's not forget he was arrested the day after or two days after it happened. With so little evidence, that's not enough time to conduct a complete investigation.
An innocent man locked away. Just watched life and death row. Showing this case. They have no actual leads to prove this man killed his family members which no one could honestly do by themselves without being injured physically. Guy is truly innocent.
I watched Life and Death Row last night and spent 75 minutes yelling at the TV. I honestly cannot believe that the jury found him guilty. Especially since the defense lawyers made the police look totally incompetent. I can't understand why they didn't test the blood stains in the bathroom or take the blood spatter into account. He couldn't have done it without the whole house waking up and stopping him. It's actually very worrying.
DNA evidence? Future appeal?
I agree! I was under the impression it was trial to convince of guilt-not innocence. Those jurors must be bonkers. Definitely not guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.so shocked!
Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett had to decide whether the defendant would ever be eligible for parole. The 26-year-old Heinze was sentenced after a Glynn County jury found him guilty of malice murderfor the Aug. 29, 2009, slayings.
Heinze's attorneys have insisted he is innocent. Prosecutors apparently avoided a hung jury by dropping their request for the death penalty.
Under an agreement, the trial judge dismissed one juror and replace him with an alternate. A guilty verdict was returned four hours later..
I watched this on tv last night from Ireland. Left dumbstruck...... How is this man in jail??? How can you beat 8 people to a pulp & not have a mark on you. No bruised knuckles, no scratched face or broken ribs. So we're supposed to believe they all sat in turn waiting to be beat. It's a mobile home, not a mall, there's no space, no room to move, how could he do it all on his own without being overpowered. There were 4 adults in that mobile home
I too watched "Life and Death Row" on BBC. I'm quite frankly disturbed that this is considered justice. God knows the Southern States are a little backward at times, but it appeared he was guilty until proven innocent. Beyond reasonable doubt? I don't think so. No-one knows the whole story but I very much doubt one man can kill 4 adults and 4 kids in a mobile home single handed and without a scratch on him. A pair of shorts with a blood stain? A hidden gun? Hardly CSI Miami...I'm surprised there isn't a campaign group set up for a re-trial at least. American culture shocks me at times.
Legal Pub, you questioned this case way back when.... You know your law!
I've just watched "life and death row".
I'm shocked...utterly shocked!
How could the jury find him guilty?!
How could one man beat 8 people to death in a mobile home, no matter how much crack he had smoked I just don't believe it be possible. And with the barrel of a gun?
The coroner said each victim had 30+ wounds on their body's. So he managed to beat 4 people dead in one room giving them each the amount of blows they say?!
What makes it clear in my mind that he is innocent is the specialist crime scene investor. His findings concluded that the police missed multiple pieces of evidence which would have proven him either innocent or guilty.
The fact that he determined that there had to be at least 5 attackers to do what was done, considering that he proved on two of the victims that they were restrained and beaten at the same time. Another was beaten from two different sides of the bed.
Some victims had defensive wounds yet not one mark was on Guy.
Another thing that that confused me was that the prosecution kept on about the 911 call and saying that he knew that had been beaten to death. That isn't what he stated! He only said that "they looked like they been beat to death"
It was a speculation not a statement and he was distraught.
Plus it would be pretty obvious to determine a body with beaten, swollen, bruised face. Rather than a blown off face. The only reason the police thought they had been shot was because at first sight all they saw was blood.
And that leads to another point. They said that he had to have cleaned himself and changed his clothes. After beating 8 people to that extent he would've been covered in blood...so if he washed in the bathroom he would've gotten blood all over the place which would've meant he would've had to have cleaned the sink or the bath. But yet they didn't look like they had been cleaned in years. And blood stains!
So he would've had to have gone somewhere else to get clean which means he had to get in his car saturated in blood. Yet there's no blood found outside...or in his car.
The list could go on. I believe they doomed an innocent man.
If you ask me, this had something to do with the court battle with the Father. There was a fued going on that involved him.
So shocked at this verdict, how on earth did the jury decide he was involved? No bruises, no blood, no scratches to be seen on him. Never heard of a judicial system where they could replace a juror because he/she differed in opinion to the others it's a travesty and should be appealed as soon as possible.
I love when people watch a 75-minute TV show--filmed with an obvious slant--and think they know all the facts and can determine that a jury is stupid/crazy. Yes, because you saw every second of that trial, right?
I'm not saying I agree with the jury. I can't agree or disagree, because all I know is what a TV special chose to show. I don't know any other facts. I DO know that similar mass murders-by-beating have taken place in the past, in the middle of the night, with very little noise or injuries inflicted on the killer(s). I DO know that this is not the first or only time such a murder has been committed by one person alone. But that doesn't mean Heinze should have been found guilty, either, because the other things I DO know is that watching a TV special does not give me all the information and evidence that the jury had and saw, so I can't presume to know better than they did.
Anion
Understand your point. However, the original article based on our investigation years ago!
Martyn
Good point. This investigation always bothered me a bit. Possible yes. Common sense most likely scenario that one guy did it all... makes us at Legal Pub go hmmm....
Hi everyone,
My friend and I set up a group on facebook to show support for Guy and family.
We have been in contact with his brother and grandma, and they now both admin the page too.
Join the group for updates, ways to get involved (petitions etc) and to share your support and opinions!!!
Hopefully we can make a difference.
Group name : Guy Heinze Jnr is innocent!
200 member and counting.... We can't all be that blind?
i agree with your comments how could he not have a mark on him after doing that
Just finished watching 'Life on Death Row' and physically trawlled the Internet searching for 'sane' people who feel the same as myself.
I watched the whole show shouting that the case was a waste of time and with little evidence there was not way Guy would be convicted. The verdict was a complete joke.
I do think that people are missing the point here - the evidence was circumstantial (at best), and the jury were willing to end a mans life on those grounds!!
My point is - you don't need to be a CSI addict to realise that there would have been a lot more blood on Guy if he was guilty, or would of been some kind of evidence that shows some kind of clean up!?!?
when i watch life and death row i could not believe that one man could kill 8 people without anyone stopping him especially since some of them were in the same room of course one of them would have stopped him. i personally don't think he did it and well if he did then there had to be more people involved. i was so glad when i found out that the death penalty. but i was still out raged when the verdict was given how could all those people believe he was guilty especially with all the evidence shown or not shown in the case of the police. this is and outrage and i think that one day the police and everyone else will owe guy a massive apology.
Just watching 'Life and Death Row' on BBC, an excellent and compelling documentary series and I have seen the episode about the trial of Guy Heinze Jr.
I am seriously disturbed at the verdict of guilty for Guy Heinze Jr.
More frighteningly, it seems he only escaped execution because of a deal struck between legal teams when juror 152 was dismissed.
Where was the forensic team taking DNA from the blood drips in the bathroom, or taking finger prints from the multiple bloody hand prints all over the victims? No prints were taken. Hello, that's crime scene 101. Take finger prints of the bloody hand prints on the victims. Right?! Take DNA from blood found on the scene in the bathroom where none of the victims had been attacked. What a bungled effort.
So they arrest Guy Heinze Jr and cos he's a crack addict, so, well, that'll do. What other leads did they follow? It seems, shockingly, none!
I have a horrible feeling that a massive miscarriage of justice has been done.
My feeling is he is not guilty but if he really did batter eight people to death all in one go inside a mobile home with a never recovered barrel end of a shot gun then I genuinely stand corrected. Sadly, we will probably never know the truth because of the serious and embarrassing failures of the crime scene investigators.
Was he framed or was there a rush to judgment
Guy was fingered as "the guy" from day one of the investigation. But for a deal, he would be executed
Any evidence to back up your speculations? Case examples of one man bludgeoning 8 people to death with a blunt object - and no victims escaping or injuries on the perp?
Totally agree with you here.
Also, an ENORMOUS point that everyone is missing is this:
BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT
that is the standard of proof required in order for a man to be found guilty.
Even where some of the evidence is compelling (ex blood on under shorts etc) there is also way too much evidence casting DOUBT and for that reason there should never have been a guilty verdict in the first place.
Too many questions left unanswered.
Too many facts ignored and overlooked.
Too much doubt for a "beyond reasonable doubt"
Funny thing is...
If crack were legal, would it have had so much weight?
(despite doing the same thing to a person as illegal crank would?)
Not advocating the use of crank here to be clear. Just making a point about preconceptions and labels having the effect of condemning a person before they are "objectively" judged.
Ha!
Yeah, in 1800's some guy bound and “killed a bunch of people with an axe“.
Isn't that what the forensic specialist said?
I thought that was actually hilarious. That's like saying "yeah and at some point in the past some guys killed a load of people with a bomb"
Not exactly similar facts to compare to the case at hand.
It truly makes one wonder what constitutes reasonable doubt
For a crime of this magnitude the police certainly wrapped it up pretty quickly. The jurors at the end sounded like they could of just gone guilty just to get it over with because of the stress of the whole situation. There is plenty of doubt in this case, a life sentence without parole when there were far too many holes in the case isn't justice. Something smells a bit fishy here.
So good to see that lots of people believe hes innocent, join the facebook group Guy Henze Jnr Is Innocent, it has links to a petition that you can sign if you want to show your support!
Free Guy!
Not sure I go that far... but I do hypothesize that he had help.
The old juror was actually disappointed that he couldn't decide the sentence .... he appeared to have his mind made up from the minute he laid eyes on Guy
This only goes to show it is darn scary being an innocent GUY and getting railroaded.
A bunch of non-working, mooching adults living in tiny rental trailer and all having drug problems. Who paid for all of that? Many of them had prior convictions and one was for armed robbery. This kid didn't have a chance in life and maybe the reality finally caught up with him. I dont know why he did it other than being high on cheap and probably laced drugs but he was at least involved. He had on shorts with their blood under his outer shorts. Whoever was supposed to be raising him is just as guilty though and maybe they finally got their just punishment.
Wow! What a shoddy police department! I have watched people walk away with an incredible amount of physical evidence yet this kid gets convicted with no evidence at all to put him there?! He may have done it but they certainly never proved it. Aint no way one guy can do that alone. They preserved some shorts and nothing else. Did he go in and check the bodies? This does not make me confident of the justice system. Ask OJs victims families how justice treated them. I hope he gets an appeal. If theres no good evidence then thats the investigators fault.
We dont need to see the trial. The evidence was presented and the botching of the case was evident. We dont know if he did it but we know they didnt prove it
He may have touched something or checked the bodies when he found them. If the shorts were underneath how was there non on the top layer. You see all that blood? And non spattered on him. Cmon. If he did it they didnt prove it
There are thousands of druggy losers who arent mass murderers
Absolutely no way one guy did this. I'd be looking at the Civil Suit folks, seems pretty convenient this happens right after the dad wins a 25k settlement. I mean wouldn't guy have waited till his dad had that money? And using a gun barrell? In a trailer? With 4 adults in it that are all obviously in with a suspect crowd when it comes to drugs, so just a huge shame that someone can be put in jail with this lack of proof.
I'm convinced he didn't do it. Lack of evidence supports my decision, not a single mark on him, no defensive wounds, blood under his nails, nothing. Had he held them down there would be trace evidence on his person. The only "evidence" the prosecution could really try and argue was the the blood on his shorts. BUT had he done it then it would be spatter!
I really hope he gets an appeal and gets home to what family he has left. Poor bloke. The
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