Daughter’s testimony too much for convicted killer

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

For the first time in the six weeks he has been on trial for murder in the 1992 deaths of four people, Richard Powell lost his composure.

Powell, who was convicted of the slayings last week, quietly begged his attorneys during the penalty phase Monday to stop questioning his 17-year-old daughter when she began sobbing uncontrollably on the stand.

The high school senior took the stand as Deputy Special Public Defenders Bret Whipple and Lee McMahon tried to persuade jurors not to give Powell the death penalty.

Powell's daughter told jurors she loves and misses her father.

"He tells me to stay in school, try to get good grades and that no matter what I do, he'll be behind me," she said.

When McMahon asked her how it would affect her if her father were executed, she broke down and had to be led from the stand. Powell and a handful of jurors all reached for tissues as her wails continued in the hallway.

Also testifying Monday were three of Powell's seven siblings and his 19-year-old stepdaughter.

All of Powell's siblings told the jurors of growing up in a house with a father who gambled, womanized and was physically abusive to them and their mother.

Each described Powell as a quiet and kind man.

Powell was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder Nov. 6 in connection with the 1992 shooting deaths of a police informant and three of her friends. Powell blamed the informant for getting him arrested in December 1990.

Prosecutors Mel Harmon and L.J. O'Neale contend the aggravating circumstances in the case, including the torture of one of the victims, outweigh the mitigating circumstances.

Forensic psychologist Mark Cunningham told jurors of numerous studies that indicate that capital murderers are far less likely to assault and murder other inmates and corrections officers than those in prison for other crimes.

Cunningham said based on those studies, there is only a 1 percent chance Powell will assault a corrections officer and a one in a million chance he would kill a corrections officer. There is a 7.5 percent chance Powell will assault another inmate.

Under cross-examination, Cunningham said he can't predict what any particular prisoner will do in the future.

Powell's co-defendant, Vernell "Little Ray" Evans Jr., was convicted and placed on death row in 1994.

The hearing was expected to continue this afternoon before District Judge Michael Douglas.