San Diego
Imperial County Dist. Atty. Thomas Storey said Tuesday he plans to ask the California Supreme Court to review an appellate court’s order freeing a drifter who has admitted killing men in Texas and El Centro.
The 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego refused Monday to reverse its earlier decision that “procedural snafus” by authorities in Houston and El Centro necessitated the dismissal of an Imperial County murder charge against the drifter, William Sam Marshall.
Marshall had pleaded guilty to murdering a 22-year-old man in Houston and signed a plea-bargain agreement admitting his guilt in the premeditated slaying of a former Navy man in El Centro.
But Texas authorities dropped the Houston charge last year on the understanding the California case was stronger. And the California appelate court ruled in March that Imperial County prosecutors had allowed too much time to lapse before bringing Marshall to trial in El Centro.
Justices Don Work and Howard Weiner ruled that an interstate agreement on transfers of prisoners required dismissal of the California charges under the circumstances. Justice Robert Staniforth dissented, arguing that the interests of justice were not served by “mechanically” applying the agreement’s provisions.
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