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Dorian
Frank O'KELLEY
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Rape - Robbery - Arson
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders:
April 12,
2002
Date of arrest:
Next day
Date of birth: 1981
Victims profile: Susan Pittman,
41, and her daughter Kimberly, 13
The man accused of killing a Savannah mother and
daughter before setting their Whitfield Avenue house on fire claims
to have videotaped parts of his assault on the 13-year-old.
In a 24-page letter to an inmate he met at the
Chatham County jail, Dorian Frank O'Kelley said he propped a video
camera on a shelf in Susan and Kimberly Pittman's home in order to get
clear shots of the attack.
The Pittmans' charred remains were discovered in
April 2002.
A motion filed by defense attorneys earlier sought to
restrict the crime scene photos the jury could see. That motion makes it
clear that very little of the bodies survived the blaze so no physical
evidence of a sexual assault could be recovered.
In June 2002, a grand jury indicted O'Kelley and pal
Darryl Stinski, who lived next door to the slain mother and daughter.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Det. Robert von Lowenfeldt of the Savannah Chatham
Metropolitan Police Department used O'Kelley's letter as the basis for
an Oct. 27 search warrant application. O'Kelley had written the tape was
in his mother's safe-deposit box. Police subsequently learned that box
was at the BB&T bank on Hodgson Memorial Drive.
Superior Court Judge James Bass Jr. approved the
warrant, but von Lowenfeldt did not find the tape there.
Von Lowenfeldt's application reveals O'Kelley also
wrote about "how he raped, sodomized, tortured and killed Kimberly
Pittman," according to the warrant application, which was filed with the
clerk of court. He wrote that he'd retrieved the camera from the trunk
of a car.
Neither Chief Assistant District Attorney David Lock
nor defense attorneys Michael Edwards or Brian Daly could comment about
the possibility of any video because Judge Bass issued a gag order
prohibiting anyone involved in the case from speaking about it.
Two weeks ago, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled
unanimously to exclude a detailed confession O'Kelley made to detectives
after he'd requested an attorney during a routine court hearing.
Prosecutors, however, likely will try to introduce
the letter into evidence.
O'Kelley wrote the letter to Chris Bowen, who is now
incarcerated in state prison. The two met while both were assigned to
the same unit at the county jail.
After a woman accused Bowen, 19, of sexual assault in
September 2001, he pleaded to a charge of aggravated assault. He is
scheduled for release in March 2005.
Bowen contacted his attorney after receiving the
O'Kelley letter on Oct. 21, von Lowenfeldt said in the application. His
attorney forwarded it to police.
Jury
selected in death penalty trial
Savannah Morning News
Monday,
October 31, 2005
After seven days of jury selection, lawyers in
the death penalty trial of Dorian Frank O'Kelley have picked a jury.
Opening statements in the case are scheduled to begin
at 9 a.m. today.
O'Kelley is charged with murder in connection with
the slayings of Susan Pittman and her daughter Kimberly, 13.
According to police reports and court documents,
O'Kelley and Darryl Stinski killed the Savannah mother and daughter then
set their Whitfield Avenue house on fire in the early morning hours of
April 11, 2002.
Stinski, who is also facing the death penalty, will
be tried separately at a later date.
In death penalty cases, potential jurors are
interviewed individually about their views on the death penalty. They
are also asked what, if anything, they may know about the case.
Over the past week, lawyers in the case have
questioned about 200 potential jurors.
Before selecting a jury of 12 plus alternates, 60
potential jurors must be qualified by the judge. That means they must be
able to consider the death penalty as a sentence. The two other options
are a life sentence without the possibility of parole and a life
sentence with the possibility of parole.
After today, jurors will be sequestered throughout
the trial, which is expected to last at least through the week.
Convicted Killer of Mother and Daughter Appeals
Death Sentence
By Barbara Herring - Wsav.com
May 15, 2008
Dorian Frank O’Kelley is
appealing his sentence to death following his conviction in Chatham
County for the murders of Susan Pittman, 41, and her 13-year-old
daughter, Kimberly Pittman. O'Kelley's case will be argued before the
Georgia Supreme Court next week.
Background on the
Case - information from the Supreme Court of Georgia:
FACTS:
The
State contends the evidence at trial showed that in the early morning of
April 11, 2002, two Chatham County police officers were leaving a
convenience store when they spotted a fire and rushed to the scene,
where they found a house fully engulfed in flames. One of the officers
saw two men, O’Kelley and Darryl Stinski, watching from across the
street. Later, investigators found the two bodies. Susan Pittman had
died from blunt force trauma to the head and stab wounds to her heart
and abdomen, and was probably dead before the fire was started. Her
daughter, on the other hand, died from smoke inhalation. That evening,
O’Kelley and Stinski brought a red duffle bag to the trailer where
Stinski was staying. O’Kelley told a group there that he and Stinski had
stolen items from cars, and he told one member that he’d slit Susan
Pittman’s throat and raped her daughter “just for his pleasure.” He
showed the man a tooth in his wallet that he said was the girl’s. The
group later phoned police and reported what O’Kelley had said, and what
items they had found in the bag, including pill bottles with Susan
Pittman’s name on them. The men were arrested the next day, and officers
found what appeared to be a tooth in O’Kelley’s wallet. At trial, the
jury heard a taped statement in which O’Kelley confessed he’d beaten and
stabbed the victims, as well as raped and sodomized the 13-year-old,
then started the fire when she was still alive.
In 2005, a jury convicted
O’Kelley of the malice murders of Susan and Kimberly Pittman, as well as
cruelty to children, arson, burglary and other crimes. Following the
sentencing phase, the jury found he qualified for the death penalty due
to several aggravating circumstances, which included that the murders
were “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman.” O’Kelley now
appeals his conviction and death sentence to the Supreme Court.
ARGUMENTS:
Attorneys for O’Kelley argue the trial court erred by failing to exclude
six jurors who were biased in favor of a death sentence. All should have
been struck for cause, including a state representative whose “personal,
public and political life” rendered him incapable of voting for any
other punishment, including life in prison with or without the
possibility of parole. The failure of the court to exclude those six
jurors, “deprived O’Kelley of his rights to a fair and impartial jury,”
they argue. The court also erred by not letting the defense give an
opening statement prior to the four-day sentencing phase, where they
presented 22 witnesses to testify why O’Kelley’s life should be spared.
The court also erred in denying the defense’s motion to declare
Georgia’s lethal injection protocol unconstitutional.
The State argues the court
properly qualified the jurors and that the complete record shows none
demonstrated a bias that would impair their ability to be impartial. The
State also argues there is no inherent right of a criminal defendant to
present an opening statement during the penalty phase of a trial.
Finally, execution by lethal injection does not violate the
Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
