Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Death penalty dropped in Meegan case

As James Meegan's penalty hearing ended, the death penalty was quickly eliminated as an option for the jury that must sentence him for the killing of his baby daughter.

But it wasn't the jury's choice.

In a surprise move, Deputy District Attorney John Lukens told the jury during closing arguments Tuesday that the death penalty was "inappropriate" for Meegan because there was no premeditation to kill.

The jury that convicted Meegan of first-degree murder by child abuse deliberated only an hour Tuesday before going home. Deliberations were to resume today.

Trial testimony indicated that six years ago Meegan shook his 10-month-old daughter Francine in a fit of rage when she wouldn't stop crying. She fell into a coma a short time later and did not respond to attempts to revive her with CPR.

Meegan and his wife, Lillian, put the baby's body in a suitcase, drove it to central Arizona, doused it with gasoline and burned it in an isolated gully along a cattle trail.

The incident was a secret until early this year when word leaked out to a California social worker who called police.

"Meegan, in fact, is despicable and the act detestable but in this case he doesn't deserve a sentence of death," Lukens told the jury in District Judge Sally Loehrer's courtroom.

He advocated that Meegan be given a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"Just as (Francine) has no hope for life, he should have no hope for parole," Lukens said.

Meegan, 39, tearfully asked the jury for a life sentence with a chance for parole after 10 years -- the lightest possible sentence for first-degree murder.

As the defense case was ending, Meegan was wheeled in front of the jury and said he was "very sorry for what happened."

He told the jury that "no one knows what has been going on in my head the past six years."

"Whether it happened to Francine or any of my other children, it's the same," Meegan said from the wheelchair that has been necessary to transport him since the day last month that he was convicted.

After he returned to his jail module at the Clark County Detention Center, he ran to a second-story balcony and plunged over the edge in a suicide attempt. He broke an arm and a leg -- requiring pins to hold the bones in place -- and injured his back.

Meegan told the jury that the possibility of parole would give him a chance to still be a father to his five children.

Deputy District Attorney Vickie Monroe questioned the sincerity of Meegan, who was known for his angry outbursts at prosecutors during pretrial hearings.

"The only tears he sheds now are tears of self pity, but not one tear of remorse for his baby," Monroe said.

She reminded the jury how the Meegans had given the infant in 1989 to a California couple in a deal for cash, the down payment on a home and a car.

But nine months later, the Meegans took Francine back when more money wasn't forthcoming.

Trial testimony indicated that the baby, who was pampered by the Jensen family in California, cried constantly for attention when she returned to the Meegans.

Monroe recalled that Meegan had complained the baby was a "spoiled brat ... who came back with a silver spoon in her mouth."

Defense attorneys portrayed Meegan during the penalty hearing as a good father and neighbor with no criminal background who snapped one day and unintentionally committed a deadly act.

Attorney Tony Sgro agreed with Lukens that the death penalty should not have been an option for the jury.

The only "aggravating circumstance" legally necessary to justify the death penalty was that the baby was mutilated by the immolation in the Arizona desert.

Sgro argued that there was no mutilation of the baby while she was alive or during the acts leading to her death.

"While the case may be sensational and while it may have shock value, it is not a death penalty case," Sgro said.

He and defense attorney David Schieck asked that the sentence be life with the possibility of parole to "give Mr. Meegan a chance."

Lukens countered that Meegan had his chance at parole during the five years between Francine's death and the determination by police that she had been killed.

During that time, Lukens said, Meegan could have accepted responsibility and provided a name for the girl who was buried as Baby Jane Doe and became a haunting mystery for Arizona lawmen.

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