sooneron
2/18/2006, 12:08 PM
I'm really glad that this is finally over. My Mom was very close with Juli.
OU ballet student's killer to die, jury decides
By Jane Glenn Cannon
The Oklahoman
NORMAN -- After almost nine hours of deliberations Friday, a Cleveland County jury recommended Anthony Castillo Sanchez die for the 1996 slaying of University of Oklahoma dance student Jewell "Juli" Busken.
Show Video
Jurors, several of them fighting back tears, returned the decision at 9 p.m. to a courtroom filled with spectators and ringed with sheriff's deputies and police officers.
Sanchez, convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder, rape and sodomy, remained calm when the decision was read.
Members of Sanchez's family left the courtroom crying.
An angry grandmother, Ernestine Fox, yelled, "Silas Lyman should not have a license to practice law!"
Lyman and co-defense attorney Diane Box said nothing to Sanchez when the jury's decision was read.
Sanchez has repeatedly told the judge he wanted his defense counsel fired.
After embracing each other, Bud and Mary Jean Busken were escorted by deputies from the courtroom.
A tearful Bud Busken told reporters, "I am sad that any of this had to happen. Two lives have been lost because someone made a bad choice."
Mary Jean Busken said the couple would return to Arkansas and go on with their lives.
Bud Busken said, "Juli was a sweet girl. She wouldn't be happy, either. We feel for Anthony's family."
Sharon Fox, Sanchez's sister, sobbed on the courthouse steps and screamed, "He didn't do it! I will die for Anthony. Let me die for Anthony."
Megan Hulitt, who was a dance student at OU and close friend of Juli Busken, was the last of her friends to see her when Juli Busken dropped Hulitt off at Will Rogers World Airport, early Dec. 20, 1996.
Hulitt traveled from out-of-state with her husband for the two-week trial.
"I'm glad it's over for all of Juli's family and friends," Hulitt said outside the courtroom. "I'm kind of in shock right now. I just hope this gives Juli's family some peace."
Mary Margaret Holt, OU school of dance director, knew Juli Busken for four years while she was a student.
"I don't think I believe in closure in a case like this because Juli is gone," Holt said.
She said the OU community was not the same in the years after her death.
"We're going to miss her forever and regret her death forever."
The jury began to deliberate punishment shortly before 11 a.m.
About 5 p.m., the jury sent a note to the judge that said they were at an impasse.
Hetherington told jurors to return to deliberate "as long as you are still having meaningful dialogue."
Sanchez's father, Glynn Sanchez, had to be supported by relatives and be helped out of the courthouse.
District Attorney Tim Kuykendall said Friday's icy weather was "as cold as the day Juli died."
The jury's decision ended a case that dates back more than nine years. Busken disappeared from her Norman apartment complex, then was found dead on the shore of Lake Stanley Draper in Oklahoma City.
For several years, police did not have a firm suspect. A DNA profile was eventually made from semen stains found on Busken's clothing.
In 2004, state investigators found a match between the profile and a profile taken from Sanchez when he entered the prison system on a burglary conviction. State law mandates all violent offenders and convicted burglars submit a blood sample so their DNA profiles can be entered into a statewide database.
During closing arguments of the penalty phase of the trial, prosecutors urged jurors to give Sanchez a death sentence.
"There are things people do to other people, so evil, so depraved, that they forfeit their right to walk among us," prosecutor Richard Sitzman said.
Sitzman urged jurors to assess the death penalty to "end this evil here and now, stop it dead in its tracks."
Lyman asked jurors to show mercy and compassion to Sanchez.
"The death penalty eliminates evil," Lyman said. "But it also eliminates the good."
Sanchez is "not the sum total of one day. Anthony Sanchez is not all evil."
Kuykendall asked the jury, "Compassion? What compassion did Anthony Sanchez show Juli Busken? What chance did he give her?"
Sanchez was also given a 40-year sentence for the rape conviction and a 20-year sentence for sodomy.
Contributing: Robert Medley
OU ballet student's killer to die, jury decides
By Jane Glenn Cannon
The Oklahoman
NORMAN -- After almost nine hours of deliberations Friday, a Cleveland County jury recommended Anthony Castillo Sanchez die for the 1996 slaying of University of Oklahoma dance student Jewell "Juli" Busken.
Show Video
Jurors, several of them fighting back tears, returned the decision at 9 p.m. to a courtroom filled with spectators and ringed with sheriff's deputies and police officers.
Sanchez, convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder, rape and sodomy, remained calm when the decision was read.
Members of Sanchez's family left the courtroom crying.
An angry grandmother, Ernestine Fox, yelled, "Silas Lyman should not have a license to practice law!"
Lyman and co-defense attorney Diane Box said nothing to Sanchez when the jury's decision was read.
Sanchez has repeatedly told the judge he wanted his defense counsel fired.
After embracing each other, Bud and Mary Jean Busken were escorted by deputies from the courtroom.
A tearful Bud Busken told reporters, "I am sad that any of this had to happen. Two lives have been lost because someone made a bad choice."
Mary Jean Busken said the couple would return to Arkansas and go on with their lives.
Bud Busken said, "Juli was a sweet girl. She wouldn't be happy, either. We feel for Anthony's family."
Sharon Fox, Sanchez's sister, sobbed on the courthouse steps and screamed, "He didn't do it! I will die for Anthony. Let me die for Anthony."
Megan Hulitt, who was a dance student at OU and close friend of Juli Busken, was the last of her friends to see her when Juli Busken dropped Hulitt off at Will Rogers World Airport, early Dec. 20, 1996.
Hulitt traveled from out-of-state with her husband for the two-week trial.
"I'm glad it's over for all of Juli's family and friends," Hulitt said outside the courtroom. "I'm kind of in shock right now. I just hope this gives Juli's family some peace."
Mary Margaret Holt, OU school of dance director, knew Juli Busken for four years while she was a student.
"I don't think I believe in closure in a case like this because Juli is gone," Holt said.
She said the OU community was not the same in the years after her death.
"We're going to miss her forever and regret her death forever."
The jury began to deliberate punishment shortly before 11 a.m.
About 5 p.m., the jury sent a note to the judge that said they were at an impasse.
Hetherington told jurors to return to deliberate "as long as you are still having meaningful dialogue."
Sanchez's father, Glynn Sanchez, had to be supported by relatives and be helped out of the courthouse.
District Attorney Tim Kuykendall said Friday's icy weather was "as cold as the day Juli died."
The jury's decision ended a case that dates back more than nine years. Busken disappeared from her Norman apartment complex, then was found dead on the shore of Lake Stanley Draper in Oklahoma City.
For several years, police did not have a firm suspect. A DNA profile was eventually made from semen stains found on Busken's clothing.
In 2004, state investigators found a match between the profile and a profile taken from Sanchez when he entered the prison system on a burglary conviction. State law mandates all violent offenders and convicted burglars submit a blood sample so their DNA profiles can be entered into a statewide database.
During closing arguments of the penalty phase of the trial, prosecutors urged jurors to give Sanchez a death sentence.
"There are things people do to other people, so evil, so depraved, that they forfeit their right to walk among us," prosecutor Richard Sitzman said.
Sitzman urged jurors to assess the death penalty to "end this evil here and now, stop it dead in its tracks."
Lyman asked jurors to show mercy and compassion to Sanchez.
"The death penalty eliminates evil," Lyman said. "But it also eliminates the good."
Sanchez is "not the sum total of one day. Anthony Sanchez is not all evil."
Kuykendall asked the jury, "Compassion? What compassion did Anthony Sanchez show Juli Busken? What chance did he give her?"
Sanchez was also given a 40-year sentence for the rape conviction and a 20-year sentence for sodomy.
Contributing: Robert Medley