Top criminal court denies Pitonyak's latest appeal

Texas' highest criminal court on Wednesday denied Colton Pitonyak's latest appeal in which the convicted killer's lawyers claimed it was Laura Ashley Hall and not Pitonyak who killed Jennifer Cave in 2005.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Pitonyak's application for writ of habeas corpus without explanation.

Pitonyak, 27, is serving 55 years in prison for murder in the death of Cave, 21, whose decapitated body was found in his West Campus bathtub.

Hall, 26, is Pitonyak's former lover who was convicted of evidence tampering and hindering apprehension in the case and sentenced to five years in prison. She was recently granted a new sentencing trial on appeal.

Prosecutors argued at Hall's trial that she helped dismember Cave's body.

Pitonyak's appeal relied on sworn statements from two former Travis County Jail inmates who say Hall confessed to the murder in a group therapy session shortly after her 2005 arrest — evidence that was not raised at the trials of Pitonyak or Hall. Prosecutors did not tell Pitonyak's lawyers about the women's statements before his trial, which his lawyers say violated his due process rights.

On Wednesday, his lawyer Joe Turner said he was dismayed that no hearing was conducted on the claims. The court's ruling said the decision was based on findings by the trial judge.

Turner said he would file a similar appeal in federal court.

Prosecutors have roundly rejected claims that Hall killed Cave, claims that are contradicted by Pitonyak's testimony at his January 2007 trial. Pitonyak testified that he could not remember much of the night that Cave died because he was intoxicated but that he most likely killed her.

Pitonyak said he went to Sixth Street with Cave on Aug. 16, 2005, and awoke in his apartment the next morning to find her body. Pitonyak testified that he then called Hall and that Hall was the one who mutilated Cave's body.

Another witness testified that Hall spent the night of Cave's death at the witness' South Austin apartment.

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Man charged in hit-run that killed Austin woman

A 49-year-old West Side man has been charged in a hit-and-run accident that killed an 82-year-old woman Friday in the Austin neighborhood.

Darryl McGhee, of the 0-99 block of North Lorel Avenue, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, failure to report an accident, operating a vehicle without insurance and failing to give the right of way to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, police said.

Vivian Parker, of the 4800 block of West Hubbard Street, was trying to cross the street just before 6 p.m. Friday when she was struck by McGhee's vehicle as it headed north in the 400 block of North Cicero Avenue, police said. Parker was declared dead at 6:25 p.m. that day at Stroger Hospital.

McGhee was ordered held in lieu of $750,000 bail in a hearing today before Cook County Criminal Court Judge Israel Desierto.

Parker was knocked into the air and landed on the hood and windshield of a car McGhee was driving before landing on the pavement, Assistant State's Attorney Kevin DeBoni said.

McGhee did not stop and turned into an alley, DeBoni said.

But witnesses called police and provided a description of the vehicle and a partial license plate number, giving police enough information to track down the car, which had visible damage to the front and windshield, DeBoni said.


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