TAMPA - Testimony ends. The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Friday.
-- Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Another witness to the shooting, Mike Kokojan, testified he was standing within feet of Nester DeJesus and Paula Gutierrez when Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero was shot and killed.

Kokojan said he fell to the ground after the shots. Seconds later, he looked at Gutierrez and she was holding a 9 mm pistol. The gun was Marrero’s. Kokojan said DeJesus did not order Gutierrez to grab the gun. His testimony contradicts the assertion of Gutierrez’s defense attorney, DeeAnn Athan, who contends DeJesus ordered Gutierrez to grab the gun, a Glock semi-automatic. Kokojan said the reason he was standing next to DeJesus when the shooting happened was because DeJesus had grabbed his car keys and was trying to steal Kokojan’s car.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Prosecutors played Laura Kent’s 911 call where the teenager described seeing Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero being fatally shot.

Kent, who was 17 at the time, saw the shooting from her second floor balcony at the Crossings Apartment.

"She’s not moving. Oh, my God," Kent said on the tape. "She’s dead." "He’s fine, OK. Don’t say that," the dispatcher said to Kent. The dispatcher didn’t know the downed police officer was a woman. "She’s not moving and all these cops are running around and everything. I don’t think she’s alive because they’re crying. The cops are crying," Kent said on the tape.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Laura Kent, who was 17 when Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero died, told jurors this afternoon what she saw that day.

She walked out onto her second-story balcony at the Crossings apartment building in Tampa after hearing some noise and thinking it may be someone she knew. She saw Nester DeJesus being chased by Officer Marrero.

Marrero chased DeJesus from the apartment parking lot and DeJesus jumped a fence at a nearby cemetery. Marrero ran along the fence line, staying outside the cemetery. DeJesus doubled back, jumped the fence and ran back into the apartment building, Kent testified. Marrero ran up and looked at Kent on the balcony.

"Where did he go?" Marrero asked.

Kent pointed to a breezeway. Just then DeJesus and Paula Gutierrez came out and DeJesus shot Marrero, Kent said. Marrero fell to the ground, her gun still holstered, Kent testified. Kent ran back into her apartment to keep two children in the room from going to the balcony. She then called 911.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Shortly after Nester DeJesus shot and killed Tampa Police Officer Lois Marrero, he called his mother.

"He told me he robbed a bank and killed a police officer," Lisette Santiago testified this afternoon.

DeJesus’s girlfriend, Paula Gutierrez got on the phone.

"She said they were going to kill themselves," Santiago testified.

Santiago took care of DeJesus and Gutierrez’s baby, Ashley. She reminded Gutierrez she had a 2-year-old daughter. "I told her not to kill herself, that she needs her mother," Santiago said. Gutierrez continued to stare straight ahead, not looking at her former boyfriend’s mother.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Nester DeJesus’s mother, Lisette Santiago, testified she tipped off her son that someone was looking for him just before Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero was shot and killed.

Santiago worked as a maintenance supervisor at the Regency and Crossings apartments. Her boss called her and said police were looking for DeJesus. Santiago then called her son and told him someone was looking for him. "He said, ‘Thank you,’ and hung up," Santiago testified. A short time later, Marrero was killed at the Crossings apartment complex.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - In testimony this afternoon, Nester DeJesus’s mother, Lisette Santiago, talked about her son's life in Tampa.

Paula Gutierrez stared straight ahead, not looking at Santiago during the testimony. Santiago said her son, Gutierrez and their child, Ashley, who was 2, lived with her in the Regency Apartments in July of 2001.

Santiago said she let them stay there rent free to help her son and his girlfriend. She said the day of the bank robbery, her son called and asked for a ride because his yellow Nissan Xterra had broken down. Police say DeJesus and Gutierrez used the Xterra as their getaway vehicle after robbing a bank.

Santiago said her son was not carrying anything, but Gutierrez held a bag big enough for beach towels. Prosecutors contend the bag was the one used to carry the money from the bank robbery.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Jurors listened to 39 minutes of the police dispatch tape from the day Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero was shot and killed.

Thirty minutes into the tape, Marrero can be heard screaming that she is chasing a suspect.

"He’s got a gun to me," Marrero yelled.

Other officers are heard on the tape rushing to help Marerro. Marrero then broadcasts that the suspect is doubling back in her direction. "...that gun," Marrero radios – her last broadcast.

As the tape was played, Marrero’s domestic partner, police Officer Mickie Mashburn, wiped tears from her face. Marrero’s sister, Brenda Marrero, wiped away tears, too. A Court TV photographer videotaped the two women’s tears. Public defender DeeAnn Athan stood up, grabbed tissue and wiped tears from her eyes. Defendant Paula Gutierrez sat still, her face emotionless.

Thirty-two minutes into the tape, a police officer broadcasts, "officer down!" Minutes later, prosecutor Jay Pruner stops the tape.

Paula Gutierrez is on trial for first-degree murder for Marrero’s slaying, although police say her boyfriend, Nester DeJesus, is the one who fired the shots that killed Marrero. DeJesus then killed himself.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Jurors hung their heads and closed their eyes as they listened to the dispatch tape from the day Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero was killed. They are listening now.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The first officer who found Officer Lois Marrero described what happened that day.

Tampa Police Officer E.D. Bingle’s jaw shook and he wiped a tear from his eye as he began.

"I saw somebody laying in the parking lot. I went up, it was Lois," Bingle said, crying. "I went to her. Checked her condition. She wasn’t breathing," Bingle said.

Listening to Bingle’s testimony was Marrero’s domestic partner, Mickie Mashburn, who wiped away tears, as did Marrero’s sister, Brenda Marrero.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - A police helicopter pilot testified he spotted seven yellow Nissan Xterras on the day Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero was killed.

Police and prosecutors say Nester DeJesus and Paula Gutierrez drove away from a bank robbery in a yellow Xterra. Tampa police Officer John Thomas Martin said he was flying at about 500 feet and found the bank robber’s Xterra at the Regency Apartment complex. When police Officer E.D. Bingle drove up to the Xterra, Martin continued flying to look for other Xterras. Minutes later, Marrero spotted DeJesus at the Crossings apartment complex. DeJesus shot and killed her, then killed himself, officials said. Because Gutierrez took part in the robbery, prosecutors say they charged her with Marrero’s murder.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Public defender DeeAnn Athan is using the state’s witnesses to bolster the defense for Paula Gutierrez.

Athan maintains Gutierrez was in fear for her life and went along with Nester DeJesus’s plan to rob a bank under duress. Duress is a legal term used to excuse a person who participated in a crime against their will. Attorneys who use duress as a defense have numerous legal elements they must prove to convince a jury.

Athan attempted to prove two points using state witnesses Wednesday and Thursday: first, that Gutierrez was meek during the holdup and, second, that the police chase was over when DeJesus shot and killed Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero. Customers heard her say to stay on the floor, don’t look up, but three tellers never heard her voice. Everyone in the bank, however, heard DeJesus yelling.

Tampa police robbery squad Detective Chris Fox said that long after the robbery was over, he heard Marrero broadcast that she was chasing a suspect on foot. He didn’t think the chase was related to the robbery because so much time had elapsed, he testified.

Two witnesses who picked up money tossed to the street said they never saw Gutierrez throw the money.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Tampa police Officer Cole Scudder’s job was to collect the red-stained cash blowing across Estrella Street.

The money had been tossed there after the holdup of the Bank of America at 1501 S. Church Street in Tampa on July 6, 2001. Neighbors were picking up the cash and a storm was blowing in. Scudder collected the money, then heard Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero broadcast on the radio that she was chasing a suspect and needed help.

Scudder threw the money into the back of his patrol car and raced to help Marrero, he testified Thursday morning. But he got there too late. Nester DeJesus shot and killed Marrero. DeJesus and his girlfriend, Paula Gutierrez, then broke into an apartment and DeJesus killed himself, prosecutors contend. Gutierrez is on trial for first-degree murder, though she did not shoot Marrero.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Tampa police Detective Chris Fox testified he has investigated over 500 bank robberies in 24 years. The holdup of the Bank of America on July 6, 2001, he said, was unique. He called it a "take-over" style robbery.

The robbers ordered everyone on the floor, waved a gun around, grabbed cash from more than one teller, then left. He said those type of robberies are rare, perhaps 5 percent of the 500 bank robberies he investigated.

Most holdups are "note jobs," he said. Those types of robberies involve a quiet robber who passes a note to one teller, Fox said. Usually, other customers aren’t even aware of the hold-up.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

	Nissan Xterra allegedly used by DeJesus and Gutierrez.

Several seconds were accidentally erased from the Bank of America surveillance tape that captured images of alleged bank robbers Paula Gutierrez and Nester DeJesus, said the first witness on the stand today.

Prosecutors showed jurors the tape. It showed customers face down on the floor and a person identified as DeJesus behind the teller’s counter, but didn’t show the robbers entering the bank.

After the robbery on July 6, 2001, DeJesus shot and killed Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero, then killed himself. His girlfriend, Gutierrez, is on trial for first-degree murder, although she didn’t pull the trigger.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The prosecution and defense told jurors their version of what happened that day. Prosecutors portrayed Gutierrez and DeJesus as a Bonnie and Clyde duo. Public defender DeeAnn Athan portrayed Gutierrez as a timid young woman who was so brutalized by DeJesus that she did whatever he said.
-- Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Most of the testimony Wednesday came from customers and tellers who were in the Bank Of America branch on July 6, 2001, the day Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero was shot and killed by Paula Gutierrez’s boyfriend, Nester DeJesus. Testimony is expected to continue Thursday at 9 a.m.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

Bank of America teller JoAnn McCullough said Nester DeJesus had been in the bank several times to cash checks before the July 6, 2001, robbery.

During the previous visits, McCullough said she tried to make small talk with DeJesus. But he wasn’t talkative.

“He just seemed like a sad, sad person,” McCullough testified.

McCullough said she didn’t recognize DeJesus during the robbery. It wasn’t until she saw his picture on TV after the holdup that she realized he had been in the bank before.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - To build their case, prosecutors showed surveillance photos from inside the Bank of America at 1501 S. Church Street in south Tampa – the holdup that led to the slaying of Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero. They also played 911 calls of a teller who was in the bank during the holdup. The teller described the getaway vehicle, a yellow Nissan Xterra.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Prosecutors brought in several witnesses - customers and clerks - who described how the Bank of America at 1501 S. Church Street was robbed the day Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero was killed.

Tyler Welches came to the bank to get money to pay the workers in his construction business. The first thing he heard was "Everyone get down!" Welches stuffed the money a teller had just given him into his pants. He looked and saw a masked man running at him. The bandit leapt over the counter and began grabbing cash from the tellers.

Welches stayed on the floor and looked at the second robber. He knew the robber was a woman as soon as he heard her voice. "Keep your heads down. Don’t look up and we’ll be out of here in a few minutes," Welches quoted the female robber as saying.

Prosecutors say the male robber was Nester DeJesus and the female was Paula Gutierrez. DeJesus shot and killed Marrero, then killed himself. Gutierrez is on trial for first-degree murder, bank robbery and armed burglary.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - A clerk in the Bank of America during the robbery said the last words she heard the male robber say were: "Goodbye, thank you."
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The two women who were closest to slain Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero sat in separate rows. Marrero’s partner, fellow Tampa police Officer Mickie Mashburn, sat in the front row. Marrero’s sister, Brenda Marrero, sat in the second row.

Both shared a moment of pain and realization as public defender DeeAnn Athan described Marrero’s last moments alive. Athan told the jurors that after Nester DeJesus shot Marrero, DeJesus’s girlfriend, Paula Gutierrez, watched Marrero begin to fall.

Marrero and Gutierrez locked eyes.

Marrero seemed to ask "Why?" with her eyes, Athan said. It was the first time Brenda Marrero had heard the story. Since her sister’s death, she has asked for information about Marrero’s last moments alive. "Everyone had told me she was gone before they arrived," Brenda Marrero said. She was angry and her eyes welled with tears as she said it was "unfortunate" that her sister’s last communication was with Gutierrez, who is on trial for Marrero’s murder.

Mashburn said she has always wanted to ask Gutierrez why. Today, she learned Marrero also wanted to ask the same question.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - A witness testified he was walking out of the bank as two masked robbers ran past him into the bank. "Everybody get down!" witness Roy Cespedes testified, quoting what he heard as he walked away from the bank.

Cespedes called 911 on a cell phone, the first step in summoning police, including Tampa police officer Lois Marrero, who was killed by one of those bank robbers, Nester DeJesus. DeJesus’s girlfriend, Paula Gutierrez, is on trial for first-degree murder, though she didn’t shoot Marrero. Prosecutors played Cespedes’s 911 call for jurors. On the tape a police dispatcher asks Cespedes to get a license plate number off a vehicle in the Bank of America parking lot. "I really don’t want to go over there right now," Cespedes said.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - In his opening statement to jurors, prosecutor Jay Pruner portrayed Paula Gutierrez as a willing participant in the robbery of a Bank of America on July 6, 2001. During the getaway, Gutierrez’s boyfriend, Nester DeJesus, shot and killed Tampa police officer Lois Marrero with a gun purchased by Gutierrez, Pruner said.

The motive: they needed money, Pruner said.

"They were awakened to the realization they had a dollar between them, a 2-year-old daughter to take care of and no food," Pruner said.

Public defender DeeAnn Athan portrayed Gutierrez as a terrified young woman who did whatever DeJesus said, fearful he would beat, rape or kill her.

She told of years of abuse, starting when Gutierrez was 16 and DeJesus made her keep her eyes downcast when they were in public so she wouldn’t look at other people.

Fear drove her to buy the gun for DeJesus, Athan said. Fear drove her to help in the bank robbery, Athan said. And fear drove her to stick with DeJesus as they fled with more than $9,000 in cash.

"Paula Gutierrez doesn’t question him. She learns that can be dangerous," Athan said. The first witness in the trial was a bank customer who saw the pair walk into the bank at 1501 S. Church Street in south Tampa moments before the robbery.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober let his top prosecutor, Jay Pruner, make opening statements. "Officer Lois Marrero bled to death on the sunbaked asphalt..." Pruner said, beginning his opening statement.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett ruled jurors won’t hear rumors that Tampa Police Officer Lois Marrero’s killer was into mind control and wanted to start a cult.

Paula Gutierrez is on trial for first-degree murder of Marrero, although her boyfriend, Nester DeJesus, was the one who shot and killed Marrero. DeJesus then committed suicide. Gutierrez and DeJesus robbed a bank and during the getaway Marrero was killed, police say.

One potential witness claimed DeJesus told him he was learning about mind control by reading articles on the Internet. That same witness said DeJesus wanted to start a cult. Padgett ruled that was hearsay and could not be admitted into the trial.

However, Padgett ruled pictures taken of Gutierrez holding the MAC-11 handgun could be shown to jurors. The photo was taken before the July 6, 2001, bank robbery and slaying of Marrero.

Padgett will also let jurors hear DeJesus’s own mother say she thought DeJesus was so violent he was going to kill Gutierrez unless Gutierrez left him. DeJesus’s mother paid for an airline ticket so Gutierrez could flee her abusive boyfriend, lawyers said during a brief pretrial hearing. Padgett also ruled jurors can see photos of Marrero’s body that show the gunshot wounds that killed her.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober is set to begin his opening statement at 1 p.m. in the first-degree murder trial of Paula Gutierrez.

It will be the first time in 16 years Ober will ask a jury to convict a suspect. Public defender DeeAnn Athan will give her last opening statement as a public defender.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The jury is chosen. It is made up of six men and six women. Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett swore in the jury.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Lawyers questioned the remaining 18 potential jurors about what news accounts they recall about the slaying of Tampa Police Officer Lois Marrero.

Six people in the jury pool said they remembered the case because of the dispute over Marrero’s pension. Marrero was a lesbian and her domestic partner, fellow Tampa police officer Mickie Mashburn, did not get the pension given to spouses of slain police officers.

Most said they remembered little more than that there was a bank robbery and an officer was killed. Lawyers worked to pick the jury from the 18.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Judge J. Rogers Padgett tells the 18 remaining people in the jury pool to come back to court Wednesday at 9 a.m.

At that time, each person will be brought into court while the others wait outside so the lawyers can ask what they have heard about the slaying of Tampa Police Officer Lois Marrero.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Lawyers tentatively picked 12 jurors for the Paula Gutierrez first-degree murder trial.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett told the seven women and five men that before they are officially sworn in as the sitting jury they would have to answer questions about how much they know about the slaying of Tampa police officer Lois Marrero.

Lawyers planned to question each potential juror without the others present about what news accounts they were aware of concerning Marrero’s death.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - One potential juror in the Paula Gutierrez trial told the courtroom she had a brother who was sentenced to death.

Neretha Clark didn’t remember who had prosecuted her brother, Larry Clark, in 1981, or who had sentenced him to death. Then Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett informed her he was the judge and Ober was the prosecutor. Clark looked stunned. Ober asked her if she could be fair, knowing Ober had asked for the death penalty. "Yes," she said. "OK, thank you," Ober responded.

But during a break, Neretha Clark said she had time to reflect and changed her mind. Padgett dismissed her from the jury pool. In 1981, Padgett sentenced Larry Clark to death for shooting and killing Dorothy Satey, a clerk at the A-1 Printing and Decal sign shop in Port Tampa. Her husband, Sam Satey, was also shot, but survived. In 1993, the Florida Supreme Court overturned Clark’s death sentence and his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Court TV, the cable channel that covers big criminal trials, sets up in Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett’s courtroom for the second day of Paula Gutierrez’s criminal proceedings. Seven microphones are placed around the courtroom – including one on the defense table and one on the prosecution’s table. A bailiff told Court TV’s cameramen to turn off those two microphones.

Lawyers will continue picking a jury for Gutierrez’s first-degree murder trial for the slaying of Tampa police officer Lois Marrero.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Police Officer Mickie Mashburn sat in the courtroom's front row as public defender DeeAnn Athan walked in Monday. Mashburn, 50, was in court for her slain domestic partner, police Officer Lois Marrero.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Judge J. Rogers Padgett rules the jury can’t hear any comments about Paula Gutierrez’s lack of a previous criminal record.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Lawyers rejected seven of the 60 potential jurors Monday. Jury selection will begin again Tuesday morning at 9 a.m.

After the jury pool left, the lawyers argued about keeping out portions of a tape recording where police tried to convince Paula Gutierrez to come out of an apartment because she had no prior criminal record and the courts would go light on her.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - A dozen potential jurors questioned Monday afternoon said they had heard about the slaying of Tampa police officer Lois Marrero.

Some of the 12 said they recognized the case as soon as Marrero’s name was mentioned. One potential juror said that when he stepped into the courtroom he recognized defendant Paula Gutierrez immediately. Others said they had read about the case in the newspaper, saw it on TV or heard about the case on the radio.

One potential juror, an 18-year-old high school student, said she already had an opinion about the guilt or innocence of Gutierrez. She didn’t say what that opinion was. The responses raise questions about whether lawyers can find a fair and impartial jury. Defense attorney DeeAnn Athan said she may ask each juror individually about what they heard about the case.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Paula Gutierrez’s public defender, DeeAnn Athan, hinted at her defense strategy as she lectured and questioned potential jurors Monday.

Athan told the jury pool members that duress would be part of Gutierrez’s defense. Athan claims Gutierrez was terrified of her boyfriend, Nester DeJesus, because he beat her and sexually abused her. Athan said duress would explain why Gutierrez took part in the bank robbery and broke into a man’s apartment while fleeing police.

Jurors said they could accept duress as a defense if it were proven.

Athan said duress would not be a defense in the murder of Tampa Police Officer Lois Marrero.

To defend Gutierrez on the murder charge, Athan pointed out that Marrero was shot and killed by Gutierrez’s boyfriend, DeJesus. She argued that Florida’s felony murder law, which makes robbers responsible if their partners kill someone during a robbery or while fleeing, doesn’t apply in this case.

Athan hung that part of the defense on the point that Marrero was killed away from the scene of the robbery, not at the scene of the robbery, Bank of America at 1501 S. Church Street in Tampa.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett tells the jury the trial will likely last two weeks.
-- Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - David G. Henry is the second person questioned in the jury pool of 60 people, He was the civil attorney for Randolph Puryear, the white Town 'N Country dentist who killed a black man, Jemale Wells, in a racially charged incident.

Puryear was the last big criminal case for the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office. Henry criticized the zealousness of the prosecution against his client, but told Ober he could be fair and impartial in the Gutierrez trial.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett tells jurors they have probably heard of the case, because Paula Gutierrez is accused of taking part in the slaying of a police officer.

He asks them to set aside what they have heard and rely on only what they learn about the case in the courtroom. Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober begins questioning the jury pool of 60 people.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Defense attorney DeeAnn Athan hugged Lois Marrero’s domestic partner, Mickie Mashburn, in the courtroom Monday morning.

Mashburn said she wants defendant Paula Gutierrez to spend the rest of her life in prison for killing Marrero, the woman she loved. "To me, every day that she wakes up she’s going to realize every morning the reason that she is there" in prison, said Mashburn, 50.

Mashburn is also a Tampa police officer and has been on the force for 18 years. Mashburn said she respects Athan and didn’t have a problem hugging her. "I know she has a job to do. I know she will fight for her client. I respect that, especially with the job I have," Mashburn said.
-- Joshua B. Good , Tampa Tribune