Woman jailed 27 years for murdering elderly man
A woman who bashed her de facto father-in-law and left him for dead has been jailed for 27 years.
Danielle Birchall, 49, closed her eyes as Victorian Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale handed down her sentence on Friday morning.
Birchall sneaked into Kon Kritikos' Coburg home on November 11, 2020, and beat the 87-year-old with a weapon before leaving him for dead.
She told a series of lies to cover up the murder and returned to Mr Kritikos' home with her partner, his son George Kritikos, later that evening.
The couple found Mr Kritikos on the floor, surrounded by blood, moaning but still semi-conscious.
George asked his father "who did it?" to which he replied "afti, afti, afti" in Greek, meaning "she did it".
Mr Kritikos was taken to hospital but died two weeks later from his injuries.
Birchall pleaded not guilty to Mr Kritikos' murder but a jury found her guilty of the crime in November 2024.
Justice Beale described the killing as vicious as he sentenced Birchall to 27 years behind bars.
She will be eligible for parole after 20 years.
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CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Oklahoma prosecutors seek retrial of longtime death row inmate Richard Glossip after conviction tossed
Supreme CourtFacebookTweetLink Follow Oklahoma prosecutors will retry longtime death row inmate Richard Glossip a third time for his role in the 1997 killing of his former boss, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Monday. The decision comes after the US Supreme Court in February tossed Glossip's conviction and death sentence. The court determined the original prosecutors in the case allowed a key witness to give testimony they knew to be false, violating Glossip's constitutional right to a fair trial. Glossip, who had long maintained his innocence, was twice convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese in what prosecutors alleged was a murder-for-hire killing. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing Van Treese and beating him to death with a baseball bat, but testified that he did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed was the state's key witness against Glossip and was sentenced to life in prison. After the Supreme Court's decision, Drummond, acknowledged retrying the case more than 25 years later would be difficult. Drummond had taken the unusual step of asking the court to overturn Glossip's conviction, arguing that while he believed Glossip had a role in the killing, he did not believe he had received a fair trial. 'I do not believe Richard Glossip is innocent,' Drummond said after the high court's ruling. 'The mission of this office is to seek justice, not to defend the prosecution.' Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote for five of the high court's justices, said additional prosecutorial misconduct, including interfering with Sneed's testimony, destroying evidence and withholding witness statements, further undermined confidence in the verdict. During his time on death row, courts in Oklahoma set nine different execution dates for Glossip, and he came so close to being put to death that he had three separate last meals. In 2015, he was being held in a cell next to Oklahoma's execution chamber, waiting to be strapped to a gurney and injected with drugs that would kill him. But the scheduled time for his execution came and went. And behind the walls of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, prison officials were scrambling after learning one of the lethal drugs they received to carry out the procedure didn't match the execution protocols. The drug mix-up ultimately led to a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions in Oklahoma. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip to face new murder trial but without death penalty
Oklahoma's top prosecutor said Monday that the state intends to pursue a new murder trial against Richard Glossip but without the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated his capital conviction in a rare victory for a death row prisoner. State Attorney General Gentner Drummond's decision to retry Glossip, 62, on a first-degree murder charge came out of a status conference hearing. Drummond said in a news release that the evidence still implicates Glossip in the 1997 murder of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese. Glossip, a motel manager working for Van Treese, has maintained his innocence while on death row for almost three decades. While Drummond, a Republican, has not agreed with Glossip's innocence claims, he was supportive of the Supreme Court's ruling in February, when the majority of justices agreed, as Drummond put it, that "it is now an undeniable fact that he did not receive a fair trial." Drummond said Monday that he would ensure Glossip now receives an impartial trial. "While it was clear to me and to the U.S. Supreme Court that Mr. Glossip did not receive a fair trial, I have never proclaimed his innocence," Drummond said in a statement. "After the high court remanded the matter back to district court, my office thoroughly reviewed the merits of the case against Richard Glossip and concluded that sufficient evidence exists to secure a murder conviction." Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna, a Democrat, had previously indicated that Glossip would not be eligible for the death penalty now if he were to be retried. Drummond said he would seek a life sentence for Glossip at his next trial. "While I cannot go back 25 years and handle the case in the proper way that would have ensured true justice, I still have a duty to seek the justice that is available today," he added. The continuation of the state's prosecution against Glossip resumes a twisting case that saw him dodge death several times with nine separate execution dates that had to be postponed. Various courts delayed the executions as he appealed, while state corrections officials also came under scrutiny a decade ago for botched execution attempts. But Glossip's case had been championed in recent years by a bipartisan group of Oklahoma legislators after an independent report they commissioned in 2022 found that "no reasonable jury hearing the complete record would convict Glossip of first-degree murder." The report centered on the state's primary witness, Justin Sneed, who had confirmed to the report's investigators that he had discussions with multiple family members about "recanting" his testimony over an 11-year period. Investigators also said the district attorney's case file included documentation describing how the state provided Sneed information "so he could conform his testimony to match the evidence" from other witnesses. Glossip's original 1998 conviction was overturned in 2001, when a state appeals court found that the evidence against him was weak. But the state took him to trial again, and a second jury found him guilty in 2004. At Glossip's trial, Sneed, a motel handyman, admitted that he had killed Van Treese, but said that it was at Glossip's direction and that he had been promised $10,000. In exchange for testifying against Glossip, Sneed received a life sentence while Glossip was given the death penalty. Prosecutors said Glossip orchestrated the plot because he was embezzling from the motel and feared being fired. The Supreme Court on Monday tossed out Glossip's capital conviction in a 5-3 ruling. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate, presumably because he was involved in the case when he was on a federal appeals court that includes Oklahoma. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority's ruling that prosecutors "knew Sneed's statements were false" and that "because Sneed's testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip's guilt of capital murder, the jury's assessment of Sneed's credibility was necessarily determinative here." "Hence, there is a reasonable likelihood that correcting Sneed's testimony would have affected the judgment of the jury," she added. After the Supreme Court's decision, Glossip was moved off death row, but was held without bail in the Oklahoma County Detention Center on a first-degree murder charge. A next court date in Glossip's case is scheduled for June 17. Glossip's attorney, Don Knight, did not immediately comment about the prosecutors' decision, but he welcomed the Supreme Court's ruling in February that spared his longtime client from the death chamber. "He had nine execution dates, three last meals, and obviously, to finally get relief has been huge for him," Knight said, "and he's thrilled beyond words." This article was originally published on
The Intercept
an hour ago
- The Intercept
In Shocking Move, Oklahoma AG Decides to Retry Richard Glossip for Murder
Support Us © THE INTERCEPT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Sheriff's deputies lead longtime death row inmate Richard Glossip to a courtroom on June 9, 2025, at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City. Photo: Sean Murphy/AP It was after 10 a.m. on Monday morning when Richard Glossip was led into an eighth-floor courtroom in the Oklahoma County Courthouse by three sheriff's deputies. Wearing orange prison scrubs and Crocs, and shackled at the waist and ankles, Glossip, now 62, looked small compared to the hulking deputies around him. His hair, now almost entirely gray, was long and combed to the side. Though his expression was impassive as he entered the room, his face softened into a smile when he caught sight of his wife Lea and other supporters sitting in the front row. It was the first time in years that Glossip had been in a courtroom, and it was the first hearing in his case since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late February that prosecutorial misconduct had so tainted Glossip's case that his death penalty conviction should be overturned. It was a victory not only for Glossip but also for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who had taken unprecedented steps to block Glossip's execution — and fought alongside him to secure the high court's decision. 'The high court has validated my grave concerns with how this prosecution was handled,' Drummond said shortly after the ruling. 'I am thankful we now have a fresh opportunity to see that justice is done.' Drummond wasn't in court on Monday morning. But his proxy Jimmy Harmon, chief of the AG's criminal division was — and signaled that the office is ready to prosecute Glossip for a third time. While Harmon did not publicly announce what the charge would be, Judge Heather Coyle noted that the state has said it would not be seeking the death penalty — suggesting that the state will try Glossip for murder yet again. The state's plans were confirmed in a statement released by Drummond's office shortly after the hearing. 'While it was clear to me and to the U.S. Supreme Court that Mr. Glossip did not receive a fair trial, I have never proclaimed his innocence,' Drummond said. 'After the high court remanded the matter back to district court, my office thoroughly reviewed the merits of the case against Richard Glossip and concluded that sufficient evidence exists to secure a murder conviction. … Unlike past prosecutors who allowed a key witness to lie on the stand, my office will make sure Mr. Glossip receives a fair trial based on hard facts, solid evidence and truthful testimony.' Drummond's announcement that the state would retry Glossip for first-degree murder was a shocking reversal of his recent public statements about the case. Drummond, who is running for governor, made the rounds in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, boasting about his success at the high court. Asked at a press conference how he might resolve the case, Drummond said 'everything is on the table; a jury trial, all the way down.' But he noted that it 'would be difficult' to retry Glossip after so many years. More recently, in an April interview on the CBS Evening News, Drummond reemphasized his support of the state's death penalty, reminding viewers that he has witnessed every execution carried out during his tenure, while making clear that Glossip's case had jumped out as problematic from the start. Glossip 'didn't murder the victim,' Drummond said. 'Frankly, given the history of this case, we don't think there can be a fair trial.' In court, Andrea Miller, legal director of the Innocence Project at the Oklahoma City University School of Law and one of several lawyers now representing Glossip, was blunt with the judge. 'Frankly, given the history of this case, we don't think there can be a fair trial,' she said. Nevertheless, the defense team is preparing for another high-profile murder trial. Miller told the judge that famed death penalty lawyer Judy Clarke would be joining Glossip's team. Glossip was twice convicted and sentenced to die for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese inside a seedy Best Budget Inn that Van Treese owned on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. No physical evidence linked Glossip, the motel's live-in manager, to the crime. The case against him was based almost entirely on the testimony of a 19-year-old maintenance man named Justin Sneed, who admitted to bludgeoning Van Treese to death but insisted it was Glossip's idea. In exchange for testifying against Glossip, Sneed escaped the death penalty and was sentenced to life without parole. At issue before the Supreme Court was Glossip's and Drummond's contention that prosecutors knew that Sneed, the key witness against Glossip, had lied on the witness stand but had failed to correct his testimony as the state was constitutionally required to do. This failure had violated Glossip's rights and fundamentally altered the case, the justices found. 'Besides Sneed, no other witness and no physical evidence established that Glossip orchestrated Van Treese's murder,' Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion. Sneed's credibility was central to the case and would have been undermined if the jury had learned the truth. 'A prosecutor's midtrial revelation that Sneed lied on the stand would have significantly undercut' his account, Sotomayor wrote. Since being sentenced to death, Glossip has faced execution nine times. In 2015, he came within moments of lethal injection but was spared after officials realized they had the wrong drugs on hand. A moratorium on executions followed, pushing any new execution date well into the future and giving Glossip's attorney Don Knight, who had already uncovered compelling evidence of Glossip's innocence, crucial time to investigate further. The decade since has brought a steady series of explosive revelations, including that the state destroyed key evidence before Glossip's 2004 retrial and also hid evidence that Sneed had attempted to recant his testimony implicating Glossip. A slew of new witnesses also came forward to challenge the state's depiction of Sneed as a meek follower who was under Glossip's control when he violently murdered Van Treese. They instead described Sneed as dangerous and unpredictable — and entirely capable of killing on his own. Another said that while Sneed was locked up in the Oklahoma County jail, he had bragged about setting up Glossip to take the fall. The new witnesses offered accounts of the night Van Treese died that flipped the script on the state's case. According to these witnesses, Sneed often worked in concert with a girlfriend, one of the many sex workers who occasioned the Van Treese's motel, luring targets into a room to rob them. The woman in question was also said to be in a relationship with Van Treese. Instead of submitting on the night in question, Van Treese fought back, ultimately prompting Sneed to kill him. Read Our Complete Coverage A persistent problem for Glossip has been his documented behavior and statements in the wake of Van Treese's death. Oklahoma City cops became suspicious of Glossip in part because he'd failed to give them information that tied Sneed to the murder. The night Van Treese was killed, Glossip said, Sneed had woken him up around 4 a.m. by knocking on the wall of his apartment, which was adjacent to the motel's office. Standing outside with a black eye, Sneed told Glossip he had chased off some drunks who had broken a window in one of the motel rooms. According to Glossip, he asked Sneed about his black eye, and Sneed flippantly replied, 'I killed Barry.' It wasn't until the next morning, when no one could find Van Treese, that Glossip realized Sneed might have been serious. Still, Glossip didn't tell the cops right away; he said his girlfriend suggested waiting until they figured out what was going on. After Glossip finally confessed this to police, he was charged as an accessory after the fact to Van Treese's murder — an acknowledgment that Glossip had nothing to do with the killing, but had withheld material information about it. That charge was escalated to capital murder after Sneed told detectives that Glossip had masterminded the crime. There was good reason to be skeptical of this story. Not only was there no evidence to support it, Sneed implicated Glossip after a highly coercive interview by Oklahoma City homicide detectives, who repeatedly named Glossip as a possible conspirator before asking Sneed for his version of events. Nearly 30 years after the murder — and with the credibility of their star witness irrevocably destroyed — the most logical course of action would have been for the state to offer Glossip a plea to a lesser charge, and finally end his legal ordeal once and for all. Sneed, who is now 47 and remains incarcerated on a life sentence, has changed his story numerous times over the years, making him a terrible witness if prosecutors were to put him on the stand. In an ordinary case, the Supreme Court's ruling would leave the question of a new trial to the elected district attorney in Oklahoma City, Vicki Behenna, who would decide how to proceed. But Drummond's announcement on Monday made it clear that the ultimate decision is his to make. For now, Glossip is being held in isolation at the Oklahoma County Detention Center, where he was moved in April. The jail is notoriously chaotic and violent: Seven people have died inside since the beginning of the year alone. On Monday morning, Judge Coyle scheduled a hearing to consider the defense's request that Glossip be released from jail on bond pending a new trial. In an email to Drummond's office, The Intercept asked how Drummond reconciled the new murder charge with his previous statements and with his various legal briefs which conceded that the case against Glossip 'hinged almost entirely' on Sneed, whose credibility had been fatally compromised. The Intercept also asked if the state had uncovered new evidence implicating Glossip in the crime. AG spokesperson Phil Bacharach did not answer the questions. 'Because it is an active case, we are unable to comment beyond the news release.' Join The Conversation
