The 42-year-old IBM supervisor was in the midst of selling her large upscale home in Austin, Texas when a man posingas a potential buyer strangled her to death in herhouse. Read More: How Did Andra and Brad Sachs Die? Patrick Anthony Russo, 82. After viewing the video, the officer ceased the search on the hard drive and obtained a new search warrant authorizing a search for evidence of possession of child pornography. Evid. By | On December 12, 2021 03:47 AM "Tony Russo" whose real name is Patrick Anthony Russo has been confirmed that he brutally murdered Diane Holik at her Home. 37, 205.15 Detective Roy Rector, a forensic computer examiner with the Austin Police Department, first made a copy of the computer's hard drive, which is protocol for forensic computer examination. All of the residents who this man approached claimed that he seemed strange. The Gray court concluded that under the circumstances, it was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment for the special agent, in his routine preliminary file review, to open the JPG file, and to cease the search and obtain another warrant after viewing the nature of the material. Cranford invited him into the house. --- Support this podcast: htt Here we are presented with the separate testimony of thirteen witnesses whose different phrases or words are lifted out of the context of their individual testimony and claimed to be inadmissible under Rule 403. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of the contents of appellant's computer as contended. Wyatt v. State, 23 S.W.3d 18, 30 (Tex.Crim.App.2000). United States v. Carey, 172 F.3d 1268, 1271 (10th Cir.1999). Another trial exhibit included his AOL search for "asphyx" (which is hardly the first time that searches have been used as evidence in criminal cases). It is not an element of any crime, but evidence of motive is generally admissible because it is relevant as a circumstance tending to prove guilt. At some point, Rector was able to parse the Internet history relating to necrobabes.com and determine the dates and times on which the computer had accessed the necrobabes.com Web site on the Internet. We have no more Information about his Father; we will try to collect information and update soon. 15. The person is aroused by watching and controlling another with knives or guns or injuring them by other methods, including ligature strangulation. Russo, a part-time music minister, pretended he was interested in purchasing Holiks home, and claimed that he could buy the $450,000 house in cash, even though his bank account was later found to only have had $1,796 in it at the time. Inadmissible hearsay admitted without objection shall not be denied probative value merely because it is hearsay. Detective Roy Rector, a forensic computer examiner with the Austin Police Department, first made a copy of the computer's hard drive, which is protocol for forensic computer examination. art. A spare front door key with a ribbon was missing from the doorknob of a ground floor door. There is, however, no legal requirement that property stolen must be recovered in whole or in part to constitute the offense of robbery. * Gary A. Taylor, Law Offices of Gary Taylor, M. Ariel Payan, Austin, for appellant. The State offered and did eliminate certain parts of the testimony of Melody Blount and Tammy Tayman. On June 18, 2003, a search warrant was issued authorizing the search of appellants home and the seizure of his personal computer and its content. Questions, as here, of when testimony becomes too remote and, therefore, irrelevant are left to the sole discretion of the trial court. Appellant appeared broken and downcast when making his statements. Heiselbetz v. State, 906 S.W.2d 500, 504 (Tex.Crim.App.1995). 93, 628 S.E.2d 92 (Va.App.2006), the search warrant under which the computer was seized was issued relative to the crime of distribution of controlled substances. Dr. Coons was presented with a hypothetical scenario based on the evidence admitted at trial (except evidence of robbery). During the conversation Holik panicked when she realized that she did not have her expensive engagement ring on her hand. The victim, an IBM at home supervisor, was found in an upstairs bedroom lying face down. Evid. Carey is factually distinguishable. There was no sign of a sexual assault. On November 15, 2001, IBM supervisor Diane Holik was found strangled in her bedroom. The break in the case came after police received a tip from a woman who stated that a man had stopped by to take a tour of her home. Id. On occasion Hebner's wife took care of Holik's dogs. Investigators say Tony Russo targeted expensive homes and pretended to be a home buyer to rob the victims. The trial court was careful to eliminate images of unrelated sexual activity and nudity, leaving only those images showing ligature and manual strangulation of women and other items pertinent to this circumstantial evidence case where a woman was strangled in her own home. Bush v. State, 628 S.W.2d 441, 444 (Tex.Crim.App.1982); Eby v. State, 165 S.W.3d 723, 737 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 2000, pet. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. With regards to seven days after Dianes homicide, Tony was taken as a killer in court. State's Exhibit 621 was also generated by Rector and showed Internet activity on the computer on April 27, 2001, with the user-profile of a Patrick Russo and with the use of the AOL (America Online) engine to search for a subject associated to asphyx. To this exhibit, appellant expressed no objection. This exhibit is not before us for consideration of its relevancy. at 95-96 (citing Kearney v. Commonwealth, 4 Va.App. Choate allowed him to see the inside of the house. in charity morgan burger recipe. The first graduating class of the program, taught by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professors inside the Darrington Unit, includes (from left) Leslie Monroe Capers III, Vondre Demond Cash and Gary L. Everett. college algebra cheat sheet pdf. Texas Rules of Evidence 803 provides a number of exceptions to the hearsay rule, including the present sense impression and state of mind exceptions here involved. The e-mail and home addresses on the membership records matched appellant's. The cause of death was ligature strangulation. The officials had shown up at Dianes home, who was tracked down dead on the main floor in one of the rooms. Evid. Anthony Russo. We need not reiterate the evidence. The thrust of Rule 403 is to favor the admissibility of evidence, Goodwin v. State, 799 S.W.2d 719, 738-39 (Tex.Crim.App.1990), and there is a presumption of the admissibility of the evidence. Russo was a part-time music minister at a Bastrop church and the lead singer in a Christian band. Using realtor, Rector made a keyword search and found 19 hits in the temporary Internet files and 107 hits in the unallocated clusters.16 On August 1, 2003, Rector presented the extracted Internet history to a prosecutor to see what is real estate and what is not. The prosecutor noted that the Internet history made reference to a necrobabes.com. Rector did not know what that Web site was. Each membership was paid with a credit card traced to appellant. The facts do not show that Detective Rector exceeded the scope of the search warrant of June 18 in violation of the Fourth Amendment. If error was preserved, it was during pretrial hearings. He claims that the fact that Holik's undisturbed purse was found in her car in the garage dispels any notion of a robbery at the scene. Evid. Harmond v. State, 960 S.W.2d 404, 406 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] take on any road with intuitive all-wheel drive. 19. There was no evidence of a sexual assault. ref'd) (finding under Rule 803(3) that the trial court did not err in admitting into evidence the murder victim's prior statement that she was going to fire defendant, an employee); Pena v. State, 864 S.W.2d 147, 149-150 (Tex.App.-Waco 1993, no pet.) Russo claims his counsel was ineffective. Appellant relies chiefly upon United States v. Carey, 172 F.3d 1268 (10th Cir.1999), perhaps the preeminent case on computer searches at the time of the trial. Tonight, Dateline will investigate the details of Holik's death. Before conducting any examination of the computers, the police obtained a search warrant to search the files on the computers for names, telephone numbers, ledger receipts, addresses, and other documentary evidence pertaining to sale and distribution of controlled substances. Id. ref'd), a murder case, the trial court admitted under Rule 803(3) the victim's statement to a third party that she was frustrated in the relationship, but intended to continue the relationship with the defendant. Appellant received approximately $50.00 a week for his work at the church. Related To Janet Russo, Steven Russo, Mary Russo. >> we said his name came up in an investigation in austin and told his wife these things will happen from time to time because he is a convict and out on parole and not to worry that he would be back in a Keeping in mind the particular facts of the instant case, we find no violation of the Fourth Amendment. As noted, on November 18, 2003, another search warrant was issued by a district judge to search the hard drive of appellant's computer for, inter alia, information, photos, and text from a Web site named necrobabes.com and information pertaining to death by asphyxiation. Diane Holik was excited to enter a new phase in her life after getting engaged. The special agent opened one of these files while systematically searching for NLM documents but wondered if the file might contain evidence of child pornography. Evid. It was the State's theory that when appellant came to or returned to the victim's home on November 15, 2001, it was raining heavily and the towel had been given to him and then left in the living room. On November 18, 2003, a second search warrant was issued, that authorized the search of the hard drive of appellant's computer for [i]nformation pertaining to death by asphyxiation as well as other information and photos and text from the Web site named necrobabes.com., Joseph Schwaleberg, the record custodian of Generic Systems, a billing company that controlled access to the necrobabes.com Web site, testified that a Tony Russo with the same home and e-mail address as appellant purchased a six-month membership on July 21, 2001. We observe that a general relevancy objection, even though timely, does not preserve an extraneous offense claim under Rule 404(b). The court rejected the defendant's argument of exploratory rummaging, Id. Of the 185 total inmates enrolled in the program, about two-thirds have been convicted of homicide. Brewer is factually distinguishable from the instant case. Later, she met her future fiance through a dating service. He insisted that he be shown only vacant houses. Tex. The search ceased, and a second warrant was obtained to search for child pornography. Your IP: See also Huffman v. State, 746 S.W.2d 212, 217 (Tex.Crim.App.1988); Whitaker v. State, 977 S.W.2d 869, 872-873 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 1998, pet. ref'd). ref'd); 1 Steven Goode, Olin Guy Wellborn, III & M. Michael Sharlot, Texas Practice: Guide to the Texas Rules of Evidence 401.3 (2d ed.2002). Tue Jun 27, 2017 at 10:11pm ET. While the authorities were canvassing in the neighborhood, they came across some peculiar information from many homeowners who had their property on sale. In Cooper v. State, 67 S.W.3d 221 (Tex.Crim.App.2002), an aggravated robbery case, the Court held that the general rule is the theft or attempted theft occurring immediately after an assault will support an inference that the assault was intended to facilitate the theft for the purposes of proving robbery. This makes sense, as the user is free to name a file anything. A man convicted of murdering a woman in her upscale Austin, Texas, home tells his story for the first time. He was indicted in May 2002. They were engaged within two months of knowing each other. Though the death case murder is still a mystery. Rector explained that the only way to do that was to recover the entire Internet history and "go through that basically by hand, look at it to see what is real estate and what is not." She had planned to sell the home, get married and move to Houston. One woman--who had been suspicious in a November 5 encounter and wrote down the man's license plate number--recognized the drawing and contacted police. Watson v. State, 204 S.W.3d 404, 414-15 (Tex.Crim.App.2006) (reclarifying Clewis and overruling Zuniga v. State, 144 S.W.3d 477 (Tex.Crim.App.2004), to the extent of any conflict); see also Marshall v. State, 210 S.W.3d 618, 626 (Tex.Crim.App.2006). Almost any relevant evidence offered by one party is going to be prejudicial to the opposing party. The murder was discovered when one of her co-workers at IBM became concerned that Holik had missed a scheduled meeting and was unreachable. Lives in Vancouver, Washington. Its going to give hope to inmates who didnt have hope before. Deep Dark Secrets is a podcast hosted by LaDonna Humphrey and Alecia Lockhart that shines a light in dark places when all other lights go out. The 43-year-old worked for IBM as an executive, ultimately settling in Austin in 1996. 401 & 403.9. We have no more Information about his Father; we will try to collect information and update soon. Five of these witnesses were Great Hills residents who were approached at their homes on the day of the murder. ref'd) (finding no abuse of discretion in admission of prior statement by murder victim that he intended to go to defendant's shop); see Green v. State, 839 S.W.2d 935, 942 (Tex.App.-Waco 1992, pet. The time frame of her death was placed by the medical examiner from 3:00 p.m. on November 15 to 3:00 a.m. on November 16, 2001. As noted, appellant cannot rely upon Rule 404(b) because he made no objection on that basis either at trial or at the pretrial hearings. She had been tied up and killed, and ligature marks were present on her body, according to Inquisitr. @DatelineNBC https://t.co/JEoZIjMREd, Robert Maxwell (@RMaxwellKXAN) September 22, 2016. Rector was then requested by a prosecutor to conduct a more thorough search to look for Internet activity related to real estate. See Rabbani v. State, 847 S.W.2d 555, 560 (Tex.Crim.App.1992); Anderson v. State, 15 S.W.3d 177, 183 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2000, no pet.). ref'd). Fortunately, one of those homeowners was perturbed after her encounter with him, and wrote down his license plate number after realizing that he looked like the man in the polices composite drawing. by . The person will play out the fantasies, searching out potential victims. Keith examines the 2001 murder of Diane Holik tomorrow. Akia's family became alarmed when the 21-year-old failed to show up to her own baby shower on May 3. Brown, 552 F.Supp. Her $17,500 engagement ring was missing. A statement of the declarant's the existing state of mind, emotion, sensations or physical condition (such as intent, plan, motive, design, mental feeling, pain, or bodily health), but not including a statement of memory or belief to prove the fact remembered or believed unless it relates to the execution, revocation, identification, or terms of declarant's will. Despite the manner in which Barajas's testimony about Holik's plans was presented at the separate hearing, the prosecution made clear that it was offering the testimony under the state of mind exception to the hearsay rule. In part because of his Necrobabes.com membership, Russo was found guilty of the November 15, 2001 strangulation of Diane Holik, who worked from her home in Austin and was hoping to sell her house and move in with her fiance in Houston. Patrick Anthony RUSSO, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. Also, we have no information about his son and daughter. Evid. All rights reserved. 19.03(a)(2), the legal and factual sufficiency standards apply to both the charged and underlying offenses. 01:57 Dateline After the Storm Part 10 The suspect is charged with murder, six months after Diane was killed. However the demise case murder is as yet a secret. Only unfair prejudice as set forth in Rule 403 provides a basis for excluding relevant evidence. Furthermore, a hair sample taken from a towel found at the scene and swabs from Dianes hand matched Patricks DNA. He stopped opening picture files and obtained a second search warrant that allowed him to specifically search for child pornography. ref'd). See Tex.R. Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Net Worth, Fast Facts. Later, he parsed out of that history the part associated with necrobabes.com detailing appellant's activity with it. Alvarado, 912 S.W.2d at 207. She was excited about the real possibility of selling her home. Though the death case murder is still a mystery. He urges that the execution of the search of the computer's contents exceeded its scope with the search of a computer file relating to necrobabes.com. It is argued that the search should have been limited to the computer's contents involving real estate as authorized by the search warrant of June 18, 2003. 103(a)(1). ref'd); Schexnider v. State, 943 S.W.2d 194, 198-99 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 1997, no pet.). Some 1,200 necrobabes.com related images were recovered.6. 403.12 He does not advance a claim that his extraneous conduct with these latter witnesses was inadmissible, but only that only certain parts of their testimony about their own emotions, feelings, or actions during or after their interactions with appellant were inadmissible because their probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. A statement describing or explaining an event or condition made while the declarant was perceiving the event or condition, or immediately thereafter. In Walser, the officers obtained a search warrant to search the defendant's hotel room and computer for evidence of possession or sale of controlled substances. The scene covering the Texas Killing is After the Storm. When her colleagues werent able to reach her, they asked the police for a welfare check. Patrick Anthony Russo of Texas is one of the 33 graduates of the prison seminary program at the Darrington Unit prison in Brazoria County. Patrick Anthony Russo, 44, was a paying subscriber to Necrobabes.com, a Web site that offers "erotic horror for adults" by providing staged photos and video of usually nude women appearing to. Please try again. Appellant's second and current appointed appellate counsel, in a letter to this Court, states that the first appellate counsel did not request the penalty stage record. now get 0% apr for 72 months, plus $500 Some DNA evidence found on a green towel in Holik's home also pointed to Russo. 8. 202, 355 S.E.2d 897, 899 (Va.App.1987) and United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 820, 102 S.Ct. Holik's house had one in her front yard, too.