Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case of alleged double-murderer Bodhi Tree.
Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos said that, after carefully reviewing the case, he has decided not to purse capital punishment against Tree, who stands accused of gunning down two people at a house on Arcata’s Eye Street in May of last year. Gallegos said the case review assessed potentially mitigating and aggravating factors, including Tree’s criminal history and the facts of the case at hand.
Tree is scheduled to stand trial March 24 on charges that he murdered Christina Schwarz and Alan “Sunshine” Marcet, shooting both in the early-morning hours of May 18. Tree is also alleged to have shot and injured a Eureka man, Rhett August, two days earlier.
Tree has pleaded not guilty to the charges and faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted in the case. The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office is expected to announce its decision not to pursue the death penalty in the case at a hearing this afternoon. Read prior Journal coverage of the case here.
This article appears in The GPU.
So what then are those “potentially mitigating and aggravating factors” that include “Tree’s criminal history and the facts of the case at hand”? Just curious.
??
What??
There are no factors that could possibly even slightly excuse or be reason for a sentence than is less than the maximum the law allows. CHRISTINA and SUNSHINE were both taken too early by this “ALLEGED” murderer. She was an amazing, beautiful girl with her whole life ahead of her, as was Sunshine, she was just getting ready to start her life when it was taken from her and her family. She was an only child and loved so much by her parents and also so many in the community. This man has no mitigating factors that should save his life. He did not spare the two great kids he stole from their families and the world in which they would have without doubt made a better place by being in it. I am so sorry for Sunshine’s mom and Tina and Stew that our county legal system is just too lax and lazy to do what they are hired for. This should really be a new comment, but don’t know how … Sorry……. But I have seen it sooo many times, our police officers are too lazy to fill out reports so they just let criminals walk away from crimes. They and the prosecutors office are willing to cut these meaningless deals with the ones they do arrest in lieu of lighter sentences. But what little information gathered by these ” snitches” is not even used. What information they get from one they just use to get information out of the one they gave up. Thus an endless cycle of exchanging lighter sentences for (what I believe to be just a quick and easy way out of having to do their jobs and try these cases) then in a lot of cases these people are released in months, weeks, and in one instance I know of firsthand, in less than a 24 hour period. So they are back on the streets stealing, hurting people, and just really piling up in our county making it unsafe for any of us…. I strongly urge all of you that read this to please call and write to, ( our city council. Mayor, police chief, state representative, congress, and even the President himself, ) urging them to look into the practices of our county law officials. Help me make them take notice and therefore follow up with action to force our people who should be here to protect and serve… To ACTUALLY * PROTECT AND SERVE*