Arrest in Brianna Denison's Murder 11/26/08 [Archive]

Grande

11-26-2008, 03:31 PM

Police Arrest Suspect in Sex Assault Slaying of Reno Teen Brianna Denison
Wednesday, November 26, 2008

http://i34.tinypic.com/2cygrqd.jpg
James Biela

Police arrested a suspect in the kidnapping, rape and killing of Reno teenager Brianna Denison, ending an exhaustive 10-month-long manhunt for the college student's alleged murderer.

James Michael Biela, 27, of Sparks, Nev., was taken into custody about 9 p.m. Tuesday and booked at the Washoe County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault, authorities said. He is being held without bail.

Denison, 19, was abducted while she was sleeping at a friend's house during winter break in January. Police said a secret witness and DNA were crucial to cracking the case.

At an afternoon news conference about the arrest, the girl's aunt Lauren Denison thanked police for getting the suspect "off the streets."

"Can you believe it?" Lauren Denison told the Reno Gazette-Journal earlier Wednesday. "The police said the DNA came back, and it's him. ... This is what we have been waiting for."

Reno investigators told reporters that a secret witness was key to capturing Biela. The witness' information "indicated that Biela's activities and behavior made him a likely suspect," police said.

Brianna Denison Murder DNA was also critical in arresting the suspect, according to authorities. Biela, who was taken into custody at Stepping Stones Children's Center in Reno, provided a DNA sample that matched evidence collected at the scene where Denison's body was found in February.

Police said they collected DNA evidence at the crime scene that linked the suspect to Denison's murder and at least two other sexually-motivated attacks on women on or near the campus between October and December of 2007.

The district attorney vowed to fight for the maximum sentence possible.

Denison, a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California, was kidnapped about 4:30 a.m. Jan. 20 as she slept in the living room of a friend's rented home near the University of Nevada's Reno campus. The teen had likely been visible through a glass door, according to police.

Her body was found in near a business park in south Reno on Feb. 15 after a massive search. An autopsy determined she had been raped and strangled and left there about a week earlier.

Investigators said from the beginning they believed the suspect, who taunted police by leaving two pair of intertwined women's panties at the site where Denison's body was found, lived nearby. Public records show Biela has lived in the Reno area since 2002.

Denison graduated from Reno High School in 2006. She was visiting her hometown during winter break when she was kidnapped and killed.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457717,00.html

Grande

11-26-2008, 03:35 PM

Nov 25, 2008
Reno Cops: Arrest Made In Brianna Denison Murder

Reno, Nev. police have confirmed to America's Most Wanted that they have arrested a man, James Michael Biela, in connection with the Jan. 2008 kidnapping and murder of college student Brianna Denison.

Police say James Michael Biela, 27, of Sparks, was arrested Tuesday night and booked on suspicion of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault.

In a press conference on Nov. 26, 2008, authorities from the Reno Police Dept., Washoe County, the Reno District Attorney's office, the FBI and the United States Marshals Service gathered to announce the details of the arrest.

Cops say at 5:30 p.m. on Nov, 25, James Biela was arrested as he picked up his 4-year-old son from day camp.

Biela had been under surveillance for the days prior,m and stands charged with the murder of Brianna Denison and the kidnapping and sexual assault of another female victim from a Dec. 2007 incident.

According to police, Biela left town in March to take a job in Washington during which time he sold his Toyota extended cab pickup truck -- the vehicle matching the suspect vehicle description.

The vehicle was sold in Idaho and was later recovered by Couer D'Alene police. Cop say Biela's girlfriend visited him in September and found women's underwear in his vehicle, prompting her to become suspicious.

When Biela's girlfriend confided in a friend, police say that person called the Secret Witness hotline. That tip was called in on November 1, 2008 and ultimately led authorities to Biela.

In the press conference, police said that they asked Biela's girlfriend to allow a DNA sample to be taken from Biela's son. When she agreed, cops used that sample to directly link to crime scene DNA left by Biela in the Brianna Denison case and the December 2007 case.

Cops say that Nov. 1 was their first contact and interview with James Biela. Biela has a prior criminal history, although police did not elaborate as to what charges he had faced in the past. Police also noted that currently he's only a suspect in the Denison case and the December 2007 incident at this time.

Police said that Biela was a construction worker and pipe fitter by trade.

Authorities tell AMW that Biela was arraigned this morning and was denied bail. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for December 10, 2009 at 1:30p.m.

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/capture.cfm?id=53281

mrsmcgoo

11-26-2008, 03:44 PM

:happy0158:

Some good news!

Hope this gives Brianna's family some peace.

Claycat

11-26-2008, 10:32 PM

Thank God this monster has been caught!

sunstar

11-27-2008, 12:28 PM

Finally and thank God this monster is off the streets. DNA matches don't lie. I hope does he get the maximum punishment possible. I also find it ironic he was a construction worker. In the beginning from the description given by the Dec. assault victim, I thought he might be in a trade where he was outdoors during the day. Finally good news to see a face instead of just the composite drawing. MOO

:1222423: for Brianna

rem16

11-27-2008, 12:44 PM

KittyMom

11-27-2008, 03:31 PM

This is great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally, Brianna and all the girls he's assaulted will have justice. Thank you to the Secret Witness. You are a hero!!!!

KittyMom

11-27-2008, 03:32 PM

So, he moved to Washington in March? I certainly hope LE tracks his movements to determine if he's had victims in other areas.

KittyMom

11-27-2008, 03:36 PM

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081127/NEWS01/811270350/1321/NEWS

Biela had trouble with women, law

The 27-year-old suspect in the January rape and slaying of Brianna Denison -- and the sexual assaults of two other young women last year -- apparently lived his life wearing two faces, said family, friends and acquaintances.

Friends described James Michael Biela as a funny guy at a tavern or party, a young man who blended in at a Reno martial arts school where he trained beside police officers, even as those officers last year searched for a rape suspect who turned killer.

Biela also was described as a quick-tempered bully drummed out of the Marine Corps for drug use and under a restraining order from a former girlfriend who said he threatened her neighbor with a knife. Police said Biela had a volatile relationship with his current girlfriend, the mother of his 4-year-old son, who allowed the boy's DNA to be taken and tested against DNA left by Denison's killer and the man who sexually assaulted two other women last year in Reno.

Police arrested Biela as he arrived at a day care center Tuesday to pick up his son.

He remained in custody without bail on charges of murder related to Denison's death, and first-degree kidnapping and sexual assault charges related to a Dec. 16 attack on another college girl. Biela is being held in the jail's infirmary and on a suicide watch.

Biela's father, Joe Biela, said Wednesday he had not seen his son for years, but said he was upset after hearing the news of the arrest. He said he knows police have DNA evidence.

"He's still my son," said Joe Biela, a wire-thin former Marine and truck mechanic who lives on disability benefits. "He's my blood. I will always love him and back him up. But I can't help him. He did it to himself.

"I had no signs that he could do something like that, no signs at all."

Suspect's early life

James Michael Biela was born on June 29, 1981, in Chicago.

He was the fifth and last child born to Joe Biela and Kathy Flanigan Biela. Their first born, Joey, died in infancy.

Kristi Jackson of Spokane Valley, Wash., is the second child, followed by Jeffrey of Verdi, Kimberly Eastman of Salt Lake City, and James, called Jimmy.

In 1990, when James was 9, the family moved to Reno.

"I came to Reno to find a job," said Biela, a truck mechanic.

Washoe County School District officials could not determine immediately what schools James Biela attended.

His parents divorced and his mother remarried. Kathy Lovell now lives in Spokane Valley, Wash. She could not be reached for comment.

Joe Biela said it was "fun to be a father" and said he is proud of his children. But he said he has had mental problems and been in fights. Records show Joe Biela pleaded no contest in 1999 to a gross misdemeanor charge of "obliterating the serial number of a firearm."

He pleaded no contest to the charge and served a year in jail.

Return to Reno

James Biela lived with his mom in Spokane and graduated from West Valley High School there in spring 1999. He joined the Marine Corps and took basic training in San Diego in fall 1999, according to reporting in the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

He was stationed at Fort Lejune, N.C. promoted to the rank of lance corporal and discharged in 2001, his father said.

"It was a dishonorable discharge or an (unfit for military service discharge)," Joe Biela said. "He got busted, kicked out for doing drugs."

James Biela returned to Reno in 2002 and quickly came to the attention of authorities.

He was arrested for threatening his former girlfriend's neighbor with a knife. The girlfriend filed for a protection order against him.

Biela pleaded guilty April 23, 2003, and was sentenced to DUI school and ordered to have no contact with the victim, Angi Carlomagno, for one year.

Since the charge was a misdemeanor, no DNA sample was taken.

A new father

In 2004, James had a son with his girlfriend, Carlene Janae Harmon. They lived in Sparks.

Cindy Stern, 59, lives across the street from the couple. She said they moved in about three years ago.

"He seemed like a nice, normal guy," Stern said. "Isn't that what the neighbors normally say?"

In September of last year the couple applied for a marriage license, but no record of a wedding could be found.

Biela worked as a pipe fitter and occasionally trained in martial arts classes.

Gary Grate, owner of Charles Graci Jui Jitsu in Reno, said Biela trained sporadically at the dojo and attained the rank of blue belt, one step above beginner.

Jui Jitsu is a self defense art based on grappling and emphasizes joint locks and choke holds to control attackers.

"He was just a guy in a big group of students," Grate said. "He was under the radar. Police officers trained next to him but nobody noticed anything about him that was peculiar."

Grate said Biela hasn't come to class for about a year. That was about the time police were investigating sexual assaults near the University of Nevada, Reno.

In October, Reno police investigated a sexual assault at UNR. On Nov. 13, 2007, a man attacked a UNR coed on College Drive. On Dec. 16, 2007, another female student was kidnapped and raped.

Brianna Denison, a sophomore at a Santa Barbara, Calif., college was abducted Jan. 20 as she slept in the living room of a friend's home at 1395 Mackay Court, a block from the UNR campus. Police said Denison's sleeping figure would have been visible through a glass door.

Blue ribbons, symbolizing Denison's favorite color, were displayed on cars, telephone poles and buildings throughout the Truckee Meadows. Police said they recovered DNA evidence at the scene that would link a suspect to the crime. The DNA samples also linked Denison's killer to two of the other three attacks.

In March, James Biela went to Spokane, Wash., to work as a pipe fitter.

He returned to Reno in September.

"I just had a beer with him, sat right next to him, the other night," said a Reno man who said he has known Biela for about four years. "He's the last person I'd think of as doing (murder). He's a really likeable guy. He's funny, great to be around."

Someone in the community left a tip with Secret Witness saying that James Biela may have been involved in the slaying of Brianna Denison, according to the affidavit for his arrest warrant.

After a Secret Witness tip, Reno police Detective Adam Wygnanski recently met with Biela, but he declined to give a DNA sample.

He also said that his girlfriend, Carleen Harmon, could provide an alibi for him during the time of Denison's disappearance.

Harmon was interviewed but said she couldn't account for his whereabouts on that date.

"She could not account for his whereabouts on the early morning hours of either Dec. 16, 2007 or Jan. 20, 2008," the affidavit said.

She also said she and Biela has "a tumultuous romantic relationship" and it was common for him to leave for days.

She said while visiting Biela in Washington, she found a "petite sized women's thong style underwear/panties inside his vehicle," the affidavit said.

Harmon provided a DNA reference sample from her 4-year-old son to be compared with DNA evidence found during the investigation.

The Washoe County Crime Lab matched the sample with Biela.

Joe Biela said his son rarely visits him.

"A couple of years ago he comes here with his girlfriend and baby and says everything is OK," Biela said. "But it wasn't."

"Why did he do this to this lady?" he asked.

KittyMom

11-27-2008, 03:41 PM

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/27/reno-police-domestic-strife-tip-led-to-arrest/

Reno police: Domestic strife, tip led to arrest

Early in their investigation into the kidnapping and slaying of a young college woman, Reno police were convinced the suspect they described as a serial rapist was a chameleon who blended in with a community grieving the loss of Brianna Denison.

"Somewhere in our community there is a wife, a mom, a girlfriend, a sister who recognizes this suspect," Deputy Police Chief Jim Johns said in February, a day after Denison's body was found in a brush-covered lot in a business district on the south side of town.

"Likely he looks like somebody you would least suspect, but that is the person who is responsible for this crime," Johns said.

On Wednesday, the profundity of Johns' words emerged when police announced the arrest of a 27-year-old Sparks construction worker.

James Michael Biela, a father and former Marine who trained in martial arts at an academy frequented by law enforcement, was arrested Tuesday afternoon while picking his 4-year-old son up from preschool.

"He seemed like a nice, normal guy," Cindy Stern, who has lived across the street from Biela for three years, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I guess killers don't wear a sign."

Biela's arrest, police said, followed a tip _ one of more than 2,200 received during their 10-month investigation _ that came after Biela's girlfriend, Carleen Harmon, confided in a friend about the couple's relationship troubles and recently finding a pair of woman's underwear in his vehicle.

That friend called Secret Witness.

Biela is charged with murder in Denison's death, as well as kidnapping and sexual assault for an alleged attack on another woman in December near the University of Nevada, Reno. That victim, identified as Hsiaotzu C. in court documents, was able to give police a partial description of the suspect and a vehicle.

She also said her assailant kept her panties.

Authorities have said DNA evidence also linked Biela to another sexually motivated attack last November, where a woman was grabbed from behind and groped, but managed to get away. No charges have been filed in that case.

Another attack in October 2007, where a woman was sexually assaulted at gunpoint in a parking garage where campus police park their cruisers, may also be related, officers have said, though investigators said the victim in that case didn't immediately report the crime and no evidence was gathered.

Denison, a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California, was visiting her hometown over winter break. After a night out with friends, she went to sleep on a couch at a friend's rented home near UNR.

The next morning, when the household roommates woke up, Denison was gone. Her purse and cell phone was still there. There was blood on a pillow.

Hundreds of volunteers for weeks searched for Denison, at times braving heavy snow. They showed their support by tying blue ribbons throughout neighborhoods. Blue was her favorite color.

They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars _ with some donations coming from as far away as Florida _ to help the Washoe County crime lab process a backlog of DNA samples, hoping a match would lead to an arrest.

Denison's body was found Feb. 15. An autopsy showed she was sexually assaulted and died of strangulation. At the scene, investigators found two pair of thong underwear, intertwined.

At a news conference Wednesday, Reno Police Chief Michael Poehlman said Biela left the Reno area in March to take a job in Washington state, and sold his Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in Idaho along the way.

In September, Harmon traveled to Washington to help Biela move back to Sparks, where the couple share a home in a suburban neighborhood. Reno police Detective David Jenkins described their relationship as "tumultuous."

Police say Harmon found a pair of woman's underwear in Biela's vehicle, and when she confronted him about it, he claimed he had stolen them from a coin-operated laundry.

Detectives said Biela, when contacted Nov. 7, "respectfully declined" to provide a voluntary DNA sample.

But Harmon, investigators said, later allowed police to take a DNA sample from the couple's son. From that, forensic experts determined the child's biological father could not be ruled out as the source of DNA evidence gathered from the crime scenes.

Conversely, DNA analyst Jeff Riolo concluded "the probability of excluding a random individual as a source of (the suspect's) DNA profile in the Caucasian population as 99.98 percent," Jenkins wrote in an affidavit.

Based on that, police obtained an arrest warrant for Biela and authorization from a judge to seize a DNA sample, that investigators allege matches crime scene evidence.

Biela, who made an initial appearance in Reno Justice Court on Wednesday, requested a public defender. A preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 10.

KittyMom

11-27-2008, 03:46 PM

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2053394/

WV grad held in Reno killing: Man is also suspected in kidnapping, sex assault

James Michael Biela, 27, a 1999 West Valley High School graduate, was arrested in Reno and charged with the murder of Brianna Denison and the kidnapping and sexual assault of another woman a month earlier. He also is a suspect in a third case, an attempted sexual assault.

Police aren't sure if Biela is responsible for crimes outside Nevada, but they're alerting authorities in Idaho, Washington and elsewhere, McDonald said.

sunstar

11-27-2008, 10:29 PM

So, he moved to Washington in March? I certainly hope LE tracks his movements to determine if he's had victims in other areas.

Yes I'm troubled by that too since the "ex" seems to have made a discovery in his new vehicle ~

She said while visiting Biela in Washington, she found a "petite sized women's thong style underwear/panties inside his vehicle," the affidavit said.

Police say Harmon found a pair of woman's underwear in Biela's vehicle, and when she confronted him about it, he claimed he had stolen them from a coin-operated laundry.

(from the articles linked above).

KittyMom

11-27-2008, 10:36 PM

http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=9424578

Who is James Biela? Channel 2 Investigates

Carleen Harmon says in court documents they had a ‘tumultuous romantic relationship.' And this past winter she says Biela would disappear claiming to sleep in his truck.

He later sold the truck to someone in Idaho then moved to Washington in March where he worked on a plumbing project. "That was after the assault happened so he just carried on life like a normal person," says Kristin Havelka.

Prior to Monday's arrest, Biela got a DUI in Sparks in 2003 and then was arrested again one year later for getting into a fight.

KittyMom

11-27-2008, 10:39 PM

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/capture.cfm?id=53281

http://media.amw.com/multimedia/fileRepository/db/472/193/content_photo_bielacapt3.jpg

Harmony

11-27-2008, 10:53 PM

Police: DNA links Denison murder suspect to crimes

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081126/NEWS18/81126016

Harmony

11-27-2008, 10:54 PM

James Biela family photos

http://rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=J7&Date=20081126&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=811260805&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=9

Harmony

11-27-2008, 11:02 PM

COURT DOCUMENTS: Legal docs pertaining to James Biela

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081127/NEWS18/81127010&theme=

sunstar

11-28-2008, 03:22 PM

Thanks so much Harmony! There's lots to read. Just a comment, but I don't think he really looked a lot like the composite unless he's gained quite a bit weight since the Dec. victim saw him. MOO

Harmony

11-28-2008, 03:40 PM

You are very welcome, Sunstar!!

Brianna Denison Update: Father Of Suspect Speaks Out

http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9423882

Harmony

11-28-2008, 03:42 PM

Biela's appearance in court

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=GlCSWU6EB68

Harmony

11-28-2008, 03:45 PM

Authorities searching Biela home; neighbors said he had a low profile

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081126/NEWS18/81126015&theme=

Authorities have arrived in Spanish Springs to search the home of James Biela.
Meanwhile, people in the area say Biela did not have a high profile.

Sheila Patterson, 29, lives across the street from Biela and said in the three years she has been in the home and operating a day care center there she does not recall seeing him.

Though Patterson knows many of her neighbors, she has never seen his girlfriend or knows if their child is male or female.

Patterson and her friend used to go walking at 4:45 a.m. daily.

“To know that it was this close is so scary,” Patterson said. “I carried Mace (pepper spray) and my friend carried a baseball bat, but we were never worried about a person. We were worried about coyotes.”

One of the mothers for whom she babysits, Cortney Wise, 28, brought her son to Patterson’s house for daycare regularly.

“They thought (the Brianna Denison suspect) would be a regular guy with a regular family and he is,” Wise said. “I never thought it would be here. We just don’t think about it in this neighborhood.”

While dropping off her son, she would often leave her 17-year-old sister in the car in front of the home. Sometimes she would return almost immediately, other times taking 15 minutes.

“He could have been watching me that whole time.” Wise said.

From now on she said she will lock the car.

Harmony

11-28-2008, 03:52 PM

Brianna Denison's friend expresses relief, anger over suspect's arrest

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081126/NEWS18/81126012&theme=

News of Tuesday night’s arrest of Brianna Denison’s alleged killer caused happiness and anger for one of her friends, who had been sleeping in the next room when Brianna disappeared from her apartment.
“I was crying with happiness and the same time I was excited,” said K.T. Hunter, a University of Nevada, Reno student whose apartment is where Brianna slept when police believed she was assaulted and killed in the late evening hours of Jan. 20 or early morning of Jan. 21.

Hunter, who saw a picture of suspect James Michael Biela, said “I was so grossed out and I wanted to throw up and yell at him. I had just as much emotion when I saw his picture as I did when they said they found her body.

“I am relieved,” she said. “I am happy he was found and that he’s not going to get away with what he did, and now girls on campus can finally feel safe.”

Hunter said she was surprised at what the suspect looked like, and was repulsed he is a father to a small son.

“I am really disgusted because I know what he did,” she said. “But I thought he would look more creepy and would be younger.”

Brianna, 19, had been staying at Hunter’s apartment at MacKay Court when police said her killer had snuck in through an unlocked back door. Biela, 27, was been booked into the Washoe County Jail on suspicion of murder, sexual assault and first-degree kidnapping.

Hunter and another friend had been sleeping in Hunter’s locked bedroom, while Brianna slept on a couch that was alongside her bedroom wall. The next morning, Hunter discovered Brianna was missing, but her clothes, purse and cell phone was left behind. A spot of blood was found on the pillow she was using.

Police said Brianna’s killer collected women’s underwear, and left two pairs of panties with Brianna’s body that was found in February in a field. One pair was identified as belonging to one of Brianna’s friends, while the other is unknown.
DNA also links Brianna’s killer to the sexual attacks of at least two other college women in the area near where Brianna disappeared.

Biela is an ex-marine, a local plumber and is skilled in the martial arts. He lives with a woman in Spanish Springs and he has a small son. When he was 21, a woman in Washoe County filed for a temporary restraining order against him for domestic violence.

Brianna’s aunt, Lauren Denison, said police told her Biela was linked to the slaying through DNA.

Harmony

11-28-2008, 03:53 PM

Gallery of photos #16 states investigators were digging in suspects backyard

http://rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=J7&Dato=20081126&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=811260803&Ref=PH

Harmony

11-28-2008, 03:58 PM

Police: DNA links Denison murder suspect to crimes

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081126/NEWS18/81126016

Police said Biela had been working construction at the time of the crimes for a local company doing a project for the University of Nevada, Reno, near where the offenses occurred. Detectives on Wednesday were trying to determine if he worked the college projects.

Also from the link:

Evidence against James Michael Biela
* Police say DNA links him to forensics evidence matched the DNA left on Brianna’s body, the body of the December victim, and from forensic evidence he left on the back door knob of the apartment where she vanished and a condom packet found near where the November victim was attacked.
* Because Biela initially refused to give detectives a DNA sample on Nov. 7, the DNA of his 4-year-old son was used to develop him as the suspect. A DNA sample taken from Biela’s mouth on Tuesday night proved to match the DNA evidence in the cases.
* Investigators collected grey fibers from the clothing of the December victim, who was assaulted in a pickup. Police said the truck that Biela sold, and are searching for evidence, has a grey interior.
* Brianna’s body was dumped in a field near where Biela’s estranged girlfriend had been working. Police said the suspect was likely familiar with the area, that at the time she was left, had been covered in snow.
* Biela was a construction worker whose former employer was doing a project at the University of Nevada, Reno. Police said the suspect likely was familiar with the neighborhoods surrounding the campus.

sunstar

11-28-2008, 05:50 PM

You are very welcome, Sunstar!!

Brianna Denison Update: Father Of Suspect Speaks Out

http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9423882

Thanks Harmony but I saw him yesterday (and that was enough for me!) :eek:

sunstar

11-28-2008, 07:04 PM

Columbus, Nevada Police Swap Notes After Alleged Killer's Arrest

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus police are talking with detectives in Reno, Nev. regarding the Northwest Serial Rapist, 10TV News reported on Wednesday.

James Biela, 27, was arrested Tuesday in Nevada in connection with several crimes against women, including the murder of a college student in Reno.

Columbus investigators are comparing notes with Reno authorities to see if there are any similarities between the cases, 10TV News reported.

SLIDESHOW: Surveillance Images Of Suspected Rapist

Biela has not been named a suspect in any Ohio cases.

Police said that detectives would work through the holiday weekend in search of the Northwest Serial Rapist.

Investigators believe the same man has raped or sexually assaulted seven women dating back to June 4.

Most of the attacks occurred on the city's northwest side.

Police believe that an ATM surveillance camera captured images of the rapist while he used one of his victim's stolen credit cards.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2008/11/26/story_nevada.html?sid=102

Claycat

11-30-2008, 11:54 AM

I am so glad this monster is caught! One down, and how many thousands to go?!

sunstar

11-30-2008, 01:22 PM

I am so glad this monster is caught! One down, and how many thousands to go?!

I'm just hoping there aren't more victims out there. :blondblush113268230

Harmony

12-01-2008, 08:41 PM

Detectives Say Biela May Be A "Sociopath" With A Women's Underwear Fetish

http://www.kolotv.com/news/headlines/35162294.html

"Biela's first court hearing is scheduled for December 10th at 1:30 in the afternoon. District attorney Gammick, says he'll be team-trying the case with chief prosecutor Elliot Sattler. Gammick says no doubt, he'll be asking for the maximum sentence, which in this case would be the death penalty.”

Harmony

12-01-2008, 08:43 PM

Police search for additional victims

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081128/NEWS18/81128045&OAS_sitepage=news.rgj.com%2Fbreakingnews

Reno police Friday said they are renewing efforts to find more victims who may be linked to the Spanish Springs father arrested in connection with the killing of Brianna Denison and the kidnapping and rape of another college woman in December.
Authorities also suspect James Michael Biela, 27, sexually attacked two other college students in cases not charged — a total of four victims targeted at a pace of once a month.

They believe the attacks were all random and crimes of opportunity, and that the victims were not associated with Biela, who had been working construction at a project at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Police said after Denison’s body was found Feb. 15, Biela quit his job. By March, he moved to Lake Moses, Wash., to work as a pipe fitter.
Lt. Robert McDonald, who heads the Reno Police robbery/homicide unit, said the victims will be interviewed again soon, to see if more information can be gleaned about the suspect.

Biela has declined interviews.
McDonald said authorities in Washington and Idaho also are revisiting their unsolved sexual crimes for any ties to Biela, who remains in the Washoe County Jail without bail on suspicion of open murder, first-degree kidnapping and sexual assault. In Idaho, Biela sold his truck, which was similar to the truck that the December victim described for police. He then purchased another truck.

Because Biela’s estranged girlfriend found women’s size small thong panties in his new truck in September, McDonald suspects he could have victimized more women.
Biela, he said, told the girlfriend he found the panties at a Seattle laundromat. Biela had been living in the small central eastern Washington town of Moses Lake.

“It seemed like he was waiting for things to calm down,” McDonald said. “It had been six months, and he had no contact with police. He still had his girlfriend and son. He came back.”

Leaving the pairs of panties in his truck that were found by girlfriend Carleen Harmon was the break police had been looking for, McDonald said. He credited a girlfriend of Harmon for reporting the underwear discovery to Secret Witness, which led detectives to investigate Biela. Because he refused to give a DNA sample, a match was made to the crimes from his son’s DNA.

The sample he gave police following his arrest Tuesday was a direct match to the DNA profiles from the assaults and Denison’s death, said Washoe County Crime Laboratory manager Renee Romero.

The December victim said her attacker kept her underwear. And when Denison’s body was found Feb. 15 in a field near where Harmon worked, two pairs of size small thong underwear were under Denison’s legs.

McDonald is still urging the owner of the Pink Panther thong underwear found with the body to come forward. The other pair belonged to Denison’s friend.
McDonald made a public plea Friday for any women who have been sexually assaulted between late 2007 through March to come forward if they have not already reported the crimes.

“We would really love for any more victims to come forward,” he said. “We will do our best to keep the information confidential, but we need to know if there are more victims out there.”

Biela, authorities said, has not been linked by DNA to any other crimes across the country. When Biela was in his early 20s, he had been jailed once in a knife-assault incident against a former girlfriend who said he was stalking her, and another time for drunken driving.

McDonald said a computer recovered during a search of Biela’s home will be examined Monday to see if there are any clues about his involvement in the cases. Police also want to see if he had been tracking media coverage of the Denison investigation.

““...I can’t stress enough that this doesn’t mean you have to stop paying attention to what’s around you, and protect yourself,” McDonald said.
“This isn’t the only bad guy out there,” he said.

sunstar

12-01-2008, 10:27 PM

About the knife assault incident against the former girlfriend who says he was stalking her, I wonder what she looks like. Maybe there's a resemblance to Brianna and the other confirmed victim from the Dec. 2007 assault? :shrug1:

sunstar

12-04-2008, 09:25 PM

Harmony

12-06-2008, 09:01 PM

New charges filed against suspect in Denison killing

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081206/NEWS/812060350/0/NEWS18

Prosecutors filed three new charges Friday against James Michael Biela, the 27-year-old pipe-fitter accused of killing Brianna Denison in January -- saying he also sexually assaulted Denison and another college student and tried to rape a third.
Biela was arrested on Nov. 25 and charged with strangling Denison, a 19-year-old college student who had been abducted from a friend's home on Jan. 20, and found dead in a southeast Reno field on Feb. 15. That arrest included charges that he kidnapped and sexually assaulted another student in December.
Officials have said for months that they believed Biela was responsible for at least two other attacks starting last October, and on Friday, they confirmed their suspicions with an amended criminal complaint.
The first new charge involved an October 2007 attack at gunpoint on a
19-year-old woman in the Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, the complaint said.
The woman was sexually assaulted, but police previously had said that they did not collect DNA evidence in that case.
Another new charge, battery with intent to commit sexual assault, concerned a November 2007 attack on a woman on College Drive, the complaint said.
Prosecutors also said he sexually assaulted Denison on or about Jan. 20.
Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick declined to comment on the new charges.
"I'm not going to get into any specifics or discussion on the case at this time," Gammick said. "We'll wait until the prelim on Wednesday."
The preliminary hearing in Reno Justice Court is expected to run through Wednesday afternoon.
Denison's family also declined to publicly respond to the new charges.
"Because of the sensitivity of the case, the family will not do any more interviews," said Jennifer Bushman, a spokeswoman for the family.
Gammick said his office was in the process of reviewing whether they will seek the death penalty in this case.
After receiving a tip on Nov. 1 from an acquaintance of Biela's, police used DNA evidence to link him to the Denison killing, as well as the December kidnapping and sexual assault, which occurred as the woman was getting out of her vehicle at her North Virginia Street apartment.
The woman also gave police a detailed description of the vehicle her attacker drove.
DNA also linked the Denison killing with the Nov. 13 attempted sexual assault, included in the new charges.
And after Denison's body was found in February, a 19-year-old UNR student reported to the police that she had been raped at gunpoint in the parking complex in October. No DNA evidence was available, and police did not immediately connect this attack with the Denison killing.
But on Friday, they said Biela was responsible for this assault as well.

KittyMom

12-06-2008, 09:33 PM

I have a feeling that if LE looks at all the cases in the towns this guy is familiar with, they'll find more cases linked to his DNA. I wonder if his girlfriend looks like Brianna?

Harmony

12-07-2008, 10:34 AM

Crime lab searching Biela's truck

Scientists at the Washoe County Crime Laboratory were searching for clues today in the pickup of the man accused of killing Brianna Denison and raping another college woman inside that truck weeks earlier.

James Michael Biela, 27, remains in the Washoe County Jail without bail on suspicion of open murder related to the strangulation death of Denison, 19, and sexual assault and first-degree kidnapping for the Dec. 16 attack against another college woman. In the December case, the woman was abducted less than 500 yards from the home where Denison disappeared Jan. 20.

Biela has declined interviews. Additional charges are pending against him, the district attorney’s office said. A preliminary hearing is scheduled next week for Biela, but the public defender’s office said they will likely ask for more time to prepare.

Grey fibers were collected from the December victim’s clothing after she was assaulted in a pickup. Her description of her attacker’s truck matched to the one Biela drove at the time of the crimes.

Biela on June 1 traded his gold Toyota Tacoma pickup with grey interior to a dealership in Kellogg, Idaho. The truck was processed for forensic evidence Tuesday, police said.

Biela traded that pickup for a Chevrolet model that was tan and also had grey interior, police said. Authorities said they are hoping clues still remain in the truck Biela traded, despite the dealership detailing the vehicle.

Detectives tracked down the truck through DMV records, and learned the vehicle was sold in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Lt. Robert McDonald said the new owner modified the truck, adding a hard cover to the bed, rubber flare guards on the fenders and a running board.

more at: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081203/NEWS18/81203027

So many red flags!!! :45024:

From the link...

After Denison's body was found Feb. 15, Biela quit his job on a construction project at UNR, left his girlfriend, son and his girlfriend's daughter and moved to Moses Lake, Wash.

... and a look back at the description in March (Biela is 6 ft. tall)

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8050970

• A male that appeared to be Caucasian with the skin on his abdomen, groin, and upper legs noticeably lighter in color than the skin on his hands
• Likely in his early twenties to mid thirties
• Likely between 5'9" and 6'3" in height
• Large and somewhat heavy build - not overly muscular
• Medium to dark brown head hair. Body hair and facial hair were the same color as head hair
• Facial hair consisted of at least a mustache and goatee with a noticeable gap (without hair between the ends of the moustache and the top of the goatee)
• Clear fluent English with no accent or regional dialect.
• No visible tattoos on his hands, fingers, lower abdomen, groin, or genitals
• Genital and groin areas were without hair - skin noticeably smooth and consistent with use of a hair removal cream or similar hair removal process
• Large hands with "meaty" thick fingers.

sunstar

12-07-2008, 12:49 PM

I have a feeling that if LE looks at all the cases in the towns this guy is familiar with, they'll find more cases linked to his DNA. I wonder if his girlfriend looks like Brianna?

I was wondering that too because it might explain why he went after victims with a 'certain look' ~ hair color, size, etc. :shrug1: MOO

Harmony

12-15-2008, 12:32 PM

Rape victims, police testify at suspected Denison murderer's preliminary hearing

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9496843&nav=1Pus

Sami Davies-Sunbelt Digital Media

Police detectives are set to testify Thursday in the preliminary hearing of James Biela, the man accused of assaulting, kidnapping and killing 19-year-old Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two other women. A justice of the peace will determine if there is enough evidence to put Biela on trial.
DNA experts are expected to tell the judge that they have made an exact match between Biela's DNA and DNA found at the crime scenes.
On Wednesday, Biela arrived at the hearing dressed in a bulletproof vest and was surrounded by heavily armed guards. He sat silently in court Wednesday during testimony from two women who say Biela raped them.
The first witness, identified as "Amanda" broke down in tears as she described how Biela grabbed her from behind as she approached her car late at night in the University of Nevada parking garage. She says he pulled her to the ground, held a gun to her head and said "don't say anything or the safety comes off."
After the attack she didn't immediately go to authorities, but told the court she went home and threw away her clothes because she "tried to forget the entire incident."
The second witness, another student identified only as "Emma" was extremely composed as she recounted the second alleged attack, which she says took place December 16, 2007. She says she was grabbed outside her apartment, put into her attacker's pick-up truck and taken to a remote location where she says she was assaulted.
At one point "Emma" says she asked the attacker if she was "going to die" and he said no but threatened to return if she called police. A rape exam was done the night of the attack and authorities say DNA collected from that case is an exact match to James Biela.
Biela is currently being held on: three counts of sexual assault, one count of kidnapping in the first degree, one count of murder and one count of battery with intent to commit sexual assault.

Harmony

12-15-2008, 12:34 PM

In preliminary hearing, woman identifies Biela as attacker

http://rgj.com/article/20081210/NEWS01/81210034/0/NEWS18

During the first few hours of James Michael Biela’s preliminary hearing, two women testified that they were raped at sites on or near the university campus, and one woman said Biela was the attacker.
Biela, dressed in a red jump suit with a black bullet-proof vest, sat at the defense table with his head down through the hearing, which started at 1:30 p.m., and had its first break at 3:45 p.m.
Biela is charged with the rape and murder of Brianna Denison, as well as two other sexual assaults and one attempted rape.
Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler said he had about 14 more witnesses to call, some with limited testimony, and expected the hearing to run into tomorrow. But Justice of the Peace Patricia Lynch said she hoped it would conclude today.
The first woman called to the stand said she had just finished her midterm at 10 p.m. on Oct. 22 and was heading to her car at the parking garage on campus, when a man grabbed her from behind.
“He reached across my back and put his hand on my breast and pulled me down to the ground,” she said. She felt the barrel of a gun on her head, and heard the safety come off, she said. He lifted her skirt, she said, and raped her.
Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler asked if she struggled or tried to get away, and she said she was too scared.
“Did he say anything?” Sattler asked.
“He said don’t say anything or the safety comes off,” she replied.
“You could see his face?” Sattler asked.
“Yes,” she said,
Sattler asked her if the man was in the courtroom, and she pointed to Biela.
The woman said the attacker left after the rape, and she went home and threw away her clothes. She did not report it to the police until January, and when Biela was arrested on Nov. 25, she recognized his photo in the media, she said.
Another woman testified that she was getting her keys from her car at about 2 a.m. on Dec. 16 when she was grabbed from behind. The man forced her to the ground, breaking her glasses and causing her to pass out, she said.
She awoke inside his truck, she said. He drove her to an unknown parking lot, she said, and forced her to have oral sex. Once done, he asked her for her underwear, she said.
The man, whose face she never saw, drove her back to her apartment afterward, and she went to the hospital and was examined, she said. She described her attacker as white, with a body “like a football player.”
“Not really fat,” she said. “He has a belly – not a really, really big belly, and not a lot of hair.”

Harmony

12-15-2008, 12:37 PM

http://rgj.com/article/20081211/NEWS18/81211017

Biela to stand trial for rapes, murder

The elastic band on a pair of pink thong panties found with Brianna Denison’s body in February were likely used to strangle her, a forensic pathologist testified Thursday at the preliminary hearing for James Michael Biela, the man charged with raping and killing her.

“In my opinion, the size and shape of the strap is consistent with the mark on her neck,” said Dr. Ellen Clark, who performed the autopsy on Denison, the 19-year-old college student who disappeared from a friend’s home on Jan. 20 and was found dead in a field on Feb. 15.

Clark also found bruises on Denison’s arms, thighs and calves, and said the student had been sexually assaulted.

After hearing testimony from Clark, a list of forensic investigators who tracked the DNA evidence in the case, and two rape victims, Justice of the Peace Patricia Lynch said prosecutors presented enough evidence to bind Biela over to district court on three rape charges, a kidnapping charge and murder.

The next step will be an arraignment in Washoe District Court, said Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick. That hearing will likely occur in two weeks, he said.

“It’s the first step in the process,” Gammick said after Biela’s preliminary hearing which started Wednesday afternoon ended at about 11 a.m. Thursday.

Lauren Denison, Brianna’s aunt, said the family was pleased with Lynch’s ruling.

“It’s hard to sit through this, not just being Brianna’s aunt, but being a woman,” she said, referring to testimony Wednesday by two woman who described being raped -- one at gunpoint and one after being forced into her attacker’s car. “I’m just letting the justice system do their job. Sometimes it’s just surreal.”

The first woman who testified said she was raped at a university parking complex in October 2007 and identified Biela was her attacker.

The other woman, kidnapped from her parking lot outside her apartment last December and sexually assaulted in her attacker’s car, said she did not see the man, but DNA evidence linked the attack to Biela.

Deputy Public Defender Robert Davies, who represents Biela with Jay Slocum, challenged both claims before Lynch made her ruling.

The first woman described her attacker as 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighing about 175 pounds, Davies said, dimensions that don’t describe Biela.

“She only identified him after seeing him on TV,” Davies said.

And the DNA evidence for the second attack was weak, he said.

“A 1-in-493 chance is not a very strong connection between my client and the person who attacked her,” Davies said. “The DNA is not adequate.”

But Lynch said a preliminary hearing requires only slight or marginal evidence, and these issues could be considered at trial. She ordered Biela bound over on all five counts.

Earlier Thursday, Alberto Jimenez testified that he was walking through a field near Double D Boulevard on his lunch break on Feb. 15 when he saw some socks on the ground, and then a body. He told his manager, who returned to the field to confirm the sighting, and they called the police.

Adam Wygnanski, the homicide detective assigned to the case when Denison disappeared on Jan. 20, said from the beginning, tips were rolling into his office, and accumulated in a box on his desk. By the time of the arrest, they had received 5,000 leads, and had collected 700 swabs for DNA testing, he said.

But one tip caught his eye -- a woman had called Secret Witness about a man who had thong-style underwear in his Toyota truck, he said. Wygnanski compared the man’s drivers license photo with a sketch made with the help of one sexual assault victim, and believed he might have a match.

He contacted the man, James Biela, and set up a meeting, he said, and was surprised when Biela didn’t ask what Wygnanski was investigating.

“It was very unusual behavior,” he said. “Usually it’s the first question most people ask.”

When they met, Biela asked if the investigation was about his father. Wygnanski said it was about the Denison murder, and Biela’s mood changed.

“He sat in my seat and looked straight out the window and did not say a word for several moments,” Wygnanski said.

The detective asked if Biela had a Toyota truck, but Biela lied and said his truck did not have an extended cab, and was a 2-wheel drive, Wygnanski said. Then Biela refused to give a DNA sample, and said his girlfriend could provide “an alibi” for his whereabouts on Jan. 20.

The girlfriend disputed Biela’s claims and allowed the detectives to take a DNA sample from their son. That sample matched samples linked to the suspect in the case, Wygnanski said, and Biela was arrested on Nov. 25.

Gammick said Thursday that his office is still reviewing whether they will seek the death penalty.

Harmony

12-19-2008, 11:00 AM

James Biela May Have Used Panties In Brianna Denison Strangling

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/36009199.html

RENO - A shocking discovery came to light in the murder case of Brianna Denison Thursday New evidence alleges that 27-year-old James Biela may have used a pair of women's thong underwear to strangle her.
The man is now set to face trial for Denison's kidnapping and murder, as well as for the rape of at least two other women.
The judge has bound James Biela over for trial in Washoe County District Court.
Biela could make a plea within the next two weeks, but after that, it could be up to a year, or even more...before we see him back in court again.
Court proceedings brought up new evidence in the case that turned the stomachs of family members in the courtroom.
The man who found Denison's naked body in a field testified, describing animal bites on her body, and a Christmas tree thrown on top of her, failing to keep her hidden.
Alberto Jimenez says he went to police when the young woman's battered body reminded him about the safety of his own children.
"If I did not do something about what I had seen, it would haunt me for a long, long time.."
Then a detective took the stand, a man who says he helped solve the case on a "hunch." After a Secret Witness tip led Adam Wygnanski to Biela...he interviewed him, and that's when he says he knew he had his guy.
"I observed a bead of sweat going down the left side of his face when I spoke to him. He was just very very nervous," said Wygnanski.
Since Denison went missing and two women were reportedly raped, 5,000 police leads have come in, and 700 men have had their DNA tested...but so far, there's only been one man whose DNA matched that from the crime scenes.
"James Biela or any of his paternal male relatives cannot be excluded from the Y chromosome DNA profile," said Dr. Lisa Smith Roam with the Washoe County Crime Lab.
And what's even more disturbing to Denison's family, is the way in which her life was taken.
"In my opinion, Brianna Denison died of asphyxiation to strangulation by ligature," said Dr. Helen Clark, who conducted the autopsy.
With a wound on her neck, the same size and shape as the strap on a pair of her best friend's panties.
"Pathetic sick man. He's pathetic," said Denison's grandmother, Carol Pierce.
Most of Brianna's family was inside the courtroom for the testimony, although her mother, Bridget, and brother, Brighton, left the room when some of the most graphic details were discussed.
Denison's aunt Lauren Denison tells me she's very happy with the judge's decision, and will now let the justice system speak for itself.
On the other side of the courtroom, Jame's Biela's mother and his two sisters sat quietly, all the while looking as though they had no idea biela was capable of this type of violence.
Biela's been bound over to district court where he will be arraigned within the next two weeks. He can plead either guilty, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity. After that, a trial will be scheduled.
District Attorney Dick Gammick says due to the amount of evidence in this case, the attorneys may request more time to prepare for the trial. Biela is on a no-bail hold at the jail, which is where he will be sitting until both sides are ready to make their case.
The D.A. has not decided yet whether he'll seek the death penalty in this case.

KittyMom

12-19-2008, 12:33 PM

I can't believe that his mother and sisters were in court.

KEKI1141

12-23-2008, 02:43 PM

any update?

annalyzer

12-23-2008, 02:53 PM

any update?

Members here are very good at keeping cases updated as the news comes in. Just scroll up to see the latest updates.

Pandabear

12-27-2008, 08:54 AM

He went from rape and assault to murder. I have to wonder why these monsters let some victims live and kill others. I also wonder how many other victims didn't live to tell about his crimes.

I'm so glad this monster is off the streets.

Audie

12-31-2008, 11:53 AM

When we were thinking of going to Reno to search, about the time she was found, I had written down some things about the case. One thing was "2-ft tall brown stuffed bear with white on the belly and multi-color balloons is missing".
Does anyone know if that was ever found?

Harmony

01-02-2009, 01:42 AM

Harmony

01-02-2009, 01:47 AM

Feb. 2010 trial date set in Reno for Biela

James Michael Biela pleaded not guilty to five charges this morning related to the murder of Brianna Denison and sexual assaults of two other college women.

Biela, a 27-year-old ex-marine, was scheduled for a February 2010 trial, that is expected to last three weeks. His attorney, Richard Davies, said that in the future he will be asking for a change of venue related to all the publicity the Denison case received in the community.

Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick and Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler said they will be meeting with other officials and law enforcement next week to determine if they will be seeking the death penalty against Biela.

Biela is charged with raping a college student in October at gun point in a parking garage at the University of Nevada, Reno, and then in December, kidnapping and sexually assaulting a college woman who was walking to her apartment near campus.

He is also charged with raping Denison and strangling her with a pair of panties that he left when he dumped her body in a south Reno field. Her body was found in February, weeks after she disappeared Jan. 20 as she slept on her friend’s couch in a home near the university.

Authorities said DNA links Biela to Denison’s murder and the sexual assault of the December victim. The woman raped in October pointed out Biela as her attacker during last month’s preliminary hearing where Biela was bound over for charges.

Authorities for nearly 10 months had no clues to Denison’s killer until a friend of Biela’s live-in-girlfriend and mother of his 4-year-old son provided a tip to Secret Witness on Nov. 1. Authorities eventually obtained a DNA sample from Biela’s son that indicated Denison’s killer had to be the boy’s father, scientists said.

Police said Biela’s DNA was compared to the DNA left on Denison’s body, and that it matched. His DNA profile was also matched to DNA found from the December victim, police said.

When Biela was brought into and out of the court room, he kept his head down. He answered “not guilty, your honor,” when Washoe District Judge Robert Perry asked how he plead to the five felony charges.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20081231/NEWS18/81231030&OAS_sitepage=news.rgj.com%2Fbreakingnews

sunstar

01-03-2009, 06:27 PM

Thanks for the updates Harmony! I just found the latest article and was going to see if it was here already. Do you think they will agree to seek the DP?

Harmony

01-03-2009, 11:27 PM

Thanks for the updates Harmony! I just found the latest article and was going to see if it was here already. Do you think they will agree to seek the DP?

Hi Sunstar!!

Yes I do believe it will be sought because of the bolded statements.

http://law.findlaw.com/state-laws/capital-punishment/nevada/

Nevada Capital Punishment Laws

More Information on Capital Punishment Laws

Code Section 176.025; 176.345, et seq.; 176.415, et seq.; 200.030, et seq.
Is Capital Punishment Allowed? Yes
Effect of Defendant's Incapacity Suspend sentence when defendant is found insane or pregnant
Minimum Age 16
Available for Crimes Other than Homicide? None
Definition of Capital Homicide First degree murder and murder of multiple victims (random, no motive); involved torture; peace officer or fireman engaged in official duties; for remuneration; avoid lawful arrest or effect escape from custody; connection with robbery, sexual assault, arson, burglary, kidnapping; knowingly created great risk of death to more than one person other than the victim ; previous murder/felony convictions involving use/threat of violence; offender serving sentence; victim was less than 14 years old; murder committed because of victim's race, religion, or ethnic background
Method of Execution Lethal injection

sunstar

01-04-2009, 12:58 PM

Thanks Harmony! :love0081: He's also been charged with the assault on the Dec. 2007 victim so even though she's still alive, wouldn't that count too?

KittyMom

01-04-2009, 02:26 PM

awakening2lite

01-06-2009, 03:03 PM

February 2010 seems like a long time for the trial date, or maybe it's just my thinking it a long time.

Harmony

01-07-2009, 12:16 AM

Accused Brianna Denison Killer Says He Didn't Do It

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/36954089.html

He says he didn't do it. The man accused of raping two local women, and then murdering 19-year-old Brianna Denison, pleaded "not guilty" to all five counts against him.
District Attorney Dick Gammick says a guilty plea would have shocked him, but not this. Brianna's aunt Lauren says she too expected James Biela to claim his innocence. The 27-year-old pipe fitter and father is set to spend the new year in jail.
His voice did not waiver as he made his plea.
"Not guilty, your honor," said James Biela at his arraignment in District Court Wednesday morning.
The man accused of terrorizing our community waived his right for a speedy trial, to give his attorneys enough time to prepare his defense.
Judge Robert Perry set the trial to begin on February 22nd, 2010, more than a year away.
"This is not unusual. Some people would say 'oh a year? My goodness.' But this is not unusual. We usually anticipate right around a year in a case of this size and magnitude to wait for a trial," said Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick.
And the community will also have to wait at least another week to find out if the state plans to seek the death penalty. Brianna Denison's family members say they've put their trust in the prosecution, but they don't think everyday prison life is enough. Capital punishment just might be.
"If that's what it's going to take to keep him sequestered and not just living in normal population," said Lauren Denison, Brianna's aunt.
Biela's attorneys chatted and shared a laugh with him before he made his plea...but they say underneath, he's scared.
"Obviously he's very nervous and upset and anxious. He's going to get a very strong and vigorous defense. I'm confident we'll get a fair trial," said Biela's attorney, public defender Richard Davies.
Davies says the public will be surprised at what they hear during upcoming testimony, maintaining that his client is innocent.
"We're excited about the opportunity for a trial for the truth to be told. It's an opportunity to separate fact from fiction," said Davies.
But Davies says that trial may not be in Washoe County. Judge Perry and the defense attorney both believe the trial could end up being moved to another County, one not so deeply affected by the case.
Lauren Denison hopes that with a year for the dust to settle, the judge will be able to find a fair and impartial jury. She says for now, the family will continue to heal.
"You just take it one day at a time and put one foot in front of the other. It's difficult. It will never be the same. You just try to make the best of it."
The DA plans to announce his plans about whether to seek the death penalty, sometime between January 5th and 14th.
Judge Perry made it very clear that because of the amount of time he's given the attorneys to prepare for the trial, he doesn't want any continuances down the road. He says that February 22nd trial date is firm.
Under Nevada law, Perry will first try to seat a jury in Washoe County.
If he's unable to find impartial jurors, he will then begin the process for a change of venue.
The trial is scheduled to last about three weeks.

awakening2lite

01-07-2009, 12:25 PM

Thank you for posting that article and highlighting it, Harmony.

That explains the year for trial is a normal time frame there.

Harmony

01-08-2009, 11:02 AM

Thanks Harmony! :love0081: He's also been charged with the assault on the Dec. 2007 victim so even though she's still alive, wouldn't that count too?

I am not well versed in legal issues but I would think it would count. However, I am not sure if it would be a seperate trial or conjoined with Bri's case.

Harmony

01-08-2009, 05:23 PM

http://rgj.com/article/20090108/NEWS18/90108009&OAS_sitepage=news.rgj.com%2Fbreakingnews

District Attorney will seek death penalty against Biela

In a news conference Thursday, Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick said he will seek the death penalty against James Biela, charged in the killing of a Reno co-ed and sexually assaulting two other women near the University of Nevada, Reno.

Gammick issued his statements at 2 p.m. from the district attorney's office in Reno.

Biela's trial is set for February 2010.

Harmony

01-08-2009, 05:40 PM

http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=9641497

Reno DA to seek death penalty against Biela

Associated Press - January 8, 2009 5:04 PM ET
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Prosecutors in Reno say they will seek the death penalty against James Biela, a construction worker charged with killing a young college woman and sexually assaulting two others.
Biela is scheduled to stand trial in February of next year for the death of Brianna Denison. She disappeared Jan. 20, 2008 while sleeping on a couch at a friend's rented home near the University of Nevada, Reno.
Her body was found 26 days later hidden beneath a discarded Christmas tree in a vacant lot in a southeast Reno business district.
The 27-year-old Biela also is charged with sexually assaulting two other women near the UNR campus in October and December 2007.

awakening2lite

01-08-2009, 07:23 PM

I am not well versed in legal issues but I would think it would count. However, I am not sure if it would be a seperate trial or conjoined with Bri's case.

It's likely they will bring him to a separate trial for each the other assaults.

If they complete those trials before this one begins, those could be witnesses to show propensity to commit this type of sexual assault and may be considered at sentencing.

IMO

sunstar

01-11-2009, 01:33 PM

Harmony

01-15-2009, 03:50 PM

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901150306

Family appreciates community's help

On Jan. 20, 2008, our granddaughter, Brianna Denison, was kidnapped and murdered in Reno.
On Nov. 25, we were notified from the Reno Police Department that the person who allegedly did this was caught and arrested.
Because of all of you and your generous contributions, it helped to keep Brianna's abduction and murder advertised on TV, radio, newspapers and program pamphlets.
This person was exposed and arrested. Also, because of your heartfelt sympathy, compassion, letters and cards, hugs, calls and visits, you don't know how much this has helped my family and Bridgette and Brighton trying to get through this bad time.
We don't realize what friendship and compassion means until a tragedy like this happens.
A thank you is not enough. Along with Brianna, all of you will be in our thoughts forever.
Bob and Barbara Zunino
John and Ashley Zunino
Bridgette Zunino Denison
and Brighton :sad0119:

*I am confident justice will prevail for Brianna*

:1222423: RIP BRIANNA :1222423:

Harmony

01-17-2009, 03:11 PM

http://www.rgj.com/article/20090108/NEWS18/90108057

4 factors for death sentence in Biela trial

Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick said Thursday his office will seek the death penalty against 27-year-old James Biela, charged with raping and killing Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two other college students.

Gammick listed four aggravating factors he said prosecutors would prove to secure a death sentence against Biela: that Denison was sexually penetrated before, during or after she was murdered and that Biela committed three other felonies involving force against a person.

The felonies cited are the alleged sexual assault of two other women and alleged kidnapping of one of them, Gammick said.
While four aggravators were listed, jurors need only to approve one to secure a death sentence, depending on mitigating factors. Lauren Denison, Brianna’s aunt, said the family did not have an opinion about whether a death sentence should be sought but supported the prosecution’s decisions.

“We have just set out to let the district attorneys do their work and let the justice system make sure justice is served,” she said in a telephone interview after Gammick’s announcement. “We were confident that they will do the right thing.”

Gammick said the county public defender office, which is representing Biela, submitted a list of mitigating factors to prosecutors at a meeting Wednesday. He would not reveal the list.

Washoe County Public Defender Jeremy Bosler was not available for comment.
Denison, a 19-year-old sophomore at a Santa Barbara, Calif., college, disappeared from a friend’s house near the University of Nevada, Reno campus on Jan. 20. Her body was found Feb. 15 in a field in South Reno. She had been raped and was strangled with a pair of thong-style panties from the home, according to the autopsy report.

In November, a Secret Witness tip led investigators to Biela. A subsequent DNA sample connected him with the Denison murder and with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a university student in December 2007.

The woman testified during Biela’s preliminary hearing last month that Biela jumped her outside her apartment and forced her at gunpoint into his truck. She said she was sexually assaulted before he drove her back to her parking lot.

Another woman told police in late January that he raped her at a university parking complex in October 2007. No DNA evidence was collected in that case. Biela was arraigned Dec. 31, and pleaded not guilty to all five charges. Trial was set for Feb. 22, 2010.

Nevada statutes list 15 aggravators that can be used to secure a death sentence in a first-degree murder case, including torture of the victim, the killing of a law enforcement officer or a murder motivated by hate.

sunstar

01-31-2009, 05:48 PM

Denison case: Biela attorneys want three separate trials

KRNV-TV
updated 1 minute ago
Attorneys for the man accused of raping and murdering 19-year-old Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two others near the University of Nevada, Reno, plan to ask a judge to separate the cases into three different trials.

27-year-old James Michael Biela faces a possible death penalty if convicted of killing Denison, and life in prison if convicted in connection with the other two criminal cases.

Richard Davies, defense attorney for Biela, says his client deserves a fair trial, and likely would not receive a fair hearing if jurors were confronted with the mounting pile of evidence in all three cases. "It's important that each charge be taken separately, and each set of facts and circumstances that come along with it," Davies said. "We're confident that once jurors look at each charge separately, the truth will be told."

But prosecutor Dick Gammick says he will oppose the motion when it is formally presented in court on April 17th before Judge Robert Perry. "If you put it all together, present all of the facts one time, to one jury, in one trial, it's more efficient for the system," Gammick said. "You're not putting victims and witnesses through multiple trials."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28901190/

Harmony

04-02-2009, 09:50 AM

http://www.rgj.com/article/20090319/NEWS18/90319073&OAS_sitepage=news.rgj.com%2Fbreakingnews

Judge denies Biela request for new lawyers

http://cmsimg.rgj.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=J7&Date=20090319&Category=NEWS18&ArtNo

After closing his courtroom to the public and questioning the man charged with raping and killing Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two others, a Washoe District Court judge Thursday denied James Biela’s request for new lawyers

Biela, who could face the death penalty if convicted, has been represented by Washoe County public defenders Richard Davies and Jay Slocum since his arrest in November.
But he sent an “inmate request form” from the Washoe County Jail to Judge Robert Perry on Feb. 23, and two letters March 6 and 10 asking for a change.
“I am requesting a meeting with Judge Perry to discuss replacing my lawyers,” Biela said in the note and letters, Perry said.
Perry first asked everyone, including District Attorney Richard Gammick and Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler, to leave the hearing, over the objections of Reno Gazette-Journal lawyer Scott Glogovac.
Glogovac said under federal law any criminal proceeding must be open to the public “unless some aspect of the hearing, by being open, would compromise the constitutional rights of the accused.”
Perry said he was concerned that Biela might disclose privileged attorney-client information. A defendant with an appointed lawyer can’t switch “unless there’s a complete collapse,” Perry said, adding he needed to find out if that had happened with Biela.
“I don’t want to ask questions that would jeopardize the case,” Perry said. “It’s only safe to ask the questions I intend to ask outside the presence of someone else just in case something comes up.”
About 15 minutes later, he reopened his court and summarized Biela’s complaint. Biela, reading from a list, had told the judge that there was a “lack of communication” with his lawyers and a failure by them to provide the information he wanted, the judge said.
Perry said he disagreed the Biela’s opinion that they were not doing their job. The public defenders had made about 10 visits to the jail, each lasting one to two-and-one-half hours, Perry said, and appeared to be providing adequate representation for Biela.
“I found that there was no basis to grant a motion for substitution of counsel,” Perry said. “Motion denied.”
Biela, dressed in a bulletproof vest and red jumpsuit, was angry when escorted from the courtroom.
Denison, 19 and a Reno native, was a student at Santa Barbara City College in Southern California when she disappeared Jan. 20 from a friend’s house near the University of Nevada, Reno campus. Her body was found Feb. 15 in a field in southeast Reno. She had been raped and strangled.
Biela also is charged with sexually assaulting two other women last year.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Trial is set for Feb. 22. During his next hearing April 17, his lawyers are expected to ask the judge for separate trials on the three cases.

Harmony

04-02-2009, 10:08 AM

http://www.rgj.com/article/20090330/NEWS18/90330078

Denison murder suspect wants separate trials on other cases
BY MARTHA BELLISLE • mbellisle@rgj.com • March 30, 2009

National attention on the Brianna Denison death and differences in two other sexual assault cases with which James Biela is charged are grounds for separate trials, his lawyers said Monday.

“We’re concerned that the publicity and the presumption of his guilt in the Denison case will overshadow the two other charges,” said Richard Davies, a deputy public defender who filed a motion Friday for three trials. “For clarity, it would be better to sever the counts.”
Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler said he had not seen the motion and declined to comment on the request.
“The state will review the motion and we’ll file an appropriate response,” Sattler said. “I will not discuss the merits of the motion. Issues like these should be decided in the courtroom, not in the press.”
Washoe District Judge Robert Perry will hear arguments April 17. Biela’s trial on charges of abducting and killing Denison is Feb. 22, 2010, with the death penalty an option.
Denison was a 19-year-old sophomore at a Santa Barbara, Calif., college when she was abducted Jan. 20, 2008, while sleeping on a friend’s couch in a house near the University of Nevada, Reno campus.
Her body was found Feb. 15, 2008 in a south Reno field. She had been raped and was strangled with a pair of thong underwear.
A tip led police to Biela in November, when he was linked to two other cases.
At a December preliminary hearing, he was bound over for trial on rape and murder charges in the Denison case, kidnapping and sexual assault charges in the case of a woman abducted outside her apartment in December 2007, and the rape of a woman at a university parking garage in October 2007.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Davies contended the three attacks “occurred under remarkably dissimilar circumstances.”
In the first case, the woman said she was raped at gunpoint, and said her attacker wore a hood over his head, the motion said. Afterward, the woman went home and threw away her clothes. She did not report the alleged attack until Jan. 30, 2008, so no evidence was collected, the motion said.
In the second case, the woman was grabbed from behind outside her car and then forced to the ground, the motion said. The attacker forced her into his vehicle, drove her to an unknown location, and sexually assaulted her. He returned her to her car and left.
Denison was missing for weeks before being found dead.
“Each crime is a separate assault that occurred one to two months apart, under substantially different circumstances,” the motion said. “Thus, as there is no evidence to show that three separate events are part of a common scheme or plan, (holding one trial) is not appropriate.”
Since two of the five counts were part of a highly publicized case in the Reno community, the motion said, “the prejudicial effect of permitting a jury to decide the other allegations during the trial of the murder and sexual assault of Brianna Denison is extreme.”
“The murder and sexual assault charges are so highly sensitized in the area, the passions of the jury will likely be inflamed to such an extent that the jury cannot fairly assess the remaining counts,” the motion said. “There is a distinct possibility that the jurors will convict on the other three counts out of the hostility from the Denison case.”

sarahhod

04-02-2009, 11:13 AM

Thanks for the updates Harmony.

Harmony

04-02-2009, 11:40 AM

Thanks for the updates Harmony.

YVW!! :friends3:

Nut44x4

05-02-2009, 09:45 AM

(05-01) 17:02 PDT Reno, Nev. (AP) --
Judge to rule on motions in Reno murder case
The Reno man accused of raping and killing a young woman and sexually assaulting two other college coeds told his boss he wanted to leave for a new job in Washington state the same day the murder victim's body was found last year, a prosecutor said Friday.

Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler made the disclosure during a hearing on defense motions to separate James Michael Biela's murder trial from the two sexual assault cases.

Biela, 27, is charged with murder, kidnapping and three counts of sexual assault. The former pipefitter faces a possible death penalty if convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Brianna Denison, 19, who disappeared in January 2008 while sleeping on a friend's couch. Her body was found about three weeks later.

Biela also is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a parking garage in October 2007 and kidnapping and raping another woman two months later.

Based partly on DNA evidence, he was arrested in November 2008. Trial is set for Feb. 22, 2010.

The prosecution wants all three cases tied together, saying each attack by what police have described as a "serial rapist" occurred within a 400-yard radius north of the downtown casino district near the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.

"What we have here is a man who basically is a predator," Sattler said. "A man who conducted sexually-motivated, sneak attacks on small, unsuspecting women at UNR who are unable to defend themselves."

Public defenders representing Biela argue that tying all three cases together could prejudice jurors against Biela by allowing them to consider unrelated evidence from the other attacks.

Judge Robert Perry said he intends to rule early next week.

Wearing handcuffs, leg shackles and a bulletproof vest, Biela briefly smiled at a newspaper photographer when he entered court Friday.

In an effort to prove Biela had a guilty conscience about the attacks, Sattler disclosed the prosecution has two witnesses prepared to testify that Biela fled the area after Denison's body was found in a vacant field near a business park.

The day Denison's body was found, he went to his employer and said he wanted to leave, Sattler said.

"If that is not consciousness of guilt, I don't know what is," he said.

Public defender Jay Slocum said that under Nevada law Biela is entitled to three separate trials unless the prosecution can prove the set of facts in each case is closely connected and part of a common scheme or plan. He said that while the attacks were only blocks a part they were in "discrete and separate places."

One of the sexual assault victims was taken from the parking lot to another location miles away before she and the assailant performed oral sex on each other and he brought her back to the original location, Slocum said. In that case, no weapon was used.

In the other case, the assailant raped the victim at gunpoint in the parking garage, he said.

"The difference is pretty marked," Slocum said. "Evidence in one case may be stronger than in another, but the jury may accumulate all evidence in all the cases and attempt to piggyback the evidence to convict him in all the cases."

Sattler said two of the attacks were "literally across the street from each other."

"You could throw a rock from one to the other," he said. "It's like arguing the Columbine killings took place in discrete locations because they did not all happen in the same classroom. ... It is absurd."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/01/state/n170257D33.DTL

Harmony

05-02-2009, 11:12 AM

Thank you Nut44!! I am so glad they caught this POS!!!

*JUSTICE FOR BRI!!*

sunstar

05-02-2009, 05:08 PM

Thanks so much for finding and posting the update, Nut44x4! I think the first part about Biela's timing in leaving for Washington is very telling. I also think the three crimes should be tried together as they do show a pattern, especially with the first attacks being a month apart, and then Brianna's murder a month later. MOO

Harmony

05-02-2009, 11:43 PM

http://www.rgj.com/article/20090502/NEWS01/905020352/1321/NEWS

Lawyer for Biela argues for 3 separate trials

The strangulation of Brianna Denison, the rape of another woman at gunpoint in a parking garage and the abduction and sexual assault of a third woman were all distinctly different crimes, and each should be tried separately, a lawyer for James Biela argued Friday.
"They would like the court to believe there was a similar attack pattern," Deputy Public Defender Jay Slocum said of the prosecutors. "Our contention was there is not."
But Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler cited a list of similarities among the three cases -- they occurred near the university, late at night, against women who had similar builds -- and asked Washoe District Judge Robert Perry to keep the cases together.
"What we have here is a man who basically is a predator," Sattler said.
Sattler said Biela conducted "sexually motivated attacks on unsuspecting
college-aged girls. The facts, they all point to the same person committing all of these acts one month after the other."
Perry said he would announce his decision on the request on Monday or Tuesday. At present, the trial is set for Feb. 22. If Perry separated the three charges, Sattler said he would keep that date for the Denison trial, and hold the two others sooner, in chronological order.
Denison, a Reno native, was a 19-year-old student at Santa Barbara City College when she disappeared from a friend's house near the University of Nevada, Reno campus early on Jan. 20, 2008. Her body was found on Feb. 15, 2008, in a field in southeast Reno.
Biela also is charged with raping a UNR student on about 10 p.m. on Oct. 22, 2007, as she headed toward her car. She testified at Biela's preliminary hearing that she was grabbed from behind and raped on the ground. She did not report the attack until January, and no DNA evidence was saved.
Another woman told police she was at her car outside her apartment about 2 a.m. on
Dec. 17, 2007, when she was grabbed from behind, taken away in a car and forced to have oral sex. The attacker then returned her to her car and left.
Connecting the two sexual assaults with the highly publicized Denison case would be unfairly prejudicial against Biela, Slocum told the judge.

The jury may likely use evidence of the publicity and unfairly apply that to the other cases," he said. The jury also might see stronger evidence in one case and "piggyback the weaker case on the stronger one and convict."
He also said each attack was different.
The attacker used a firearm when he raped the woman in the parking garage, and she later told police that she contracted a sexually transmitted disease from the attack. The attacker didn't have a gun during the December attack, he took the woman away, then returned her, Slocum said.
And in the Denison case, she was abducted, raped and strangled, he said.
"The difference is pretty marked between all three situations," he said.
But Sattler said the attacks shared a common scheme.
"They were all conducted within that 400-foot radius on North Virginia Street," he said. The two rapes were "basically across the street from each other. That's how close these are. I would suggest that you could throw a rock from one place to the other.
"They are crimes of opportunity in that he puts himself there," Sattler said. "He's waiting for somebody to come by, so he can attack them. And he attacks in a similar way."

FoolsGold

05-03-2009, 07:53 AM

We’re concerned that the publicity and the presumption of his guilt in the Denison case will overshadow the two other charges,For clarity, it would be better to sever the counts.” I see know great need for severance. The attacks are recent, took place in the same general area and the defendant is not being exposed to any enhanced ridicule or contempt from the public. The defendant would undoubtedly prefer to have the separate charges severed but I see no great prejudice to him if he is charged and tried on the combined events.

killerqueen

05-04-2009, 10:37 PM

He's a serial rapist and, if he hadn't been caught, may have become a serial killer. IMO they should run all three trials together.

I wonder if that could be grounds for appeal later on, though.

Harmony

05-07-2009, 12:33 AM

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=58841

One Trial Ordered in Denison Murder, UNR Rapes

[RENO, Nev. (AP) -- The Reno man accused of raping and killing Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two other college coeds more than a year ago will be tried in February on charges involving all three attacks at the same time.

Washoe District Judge Robert Perry denied a request by public defenders for James Michael Biela to severe the three cases for fear he wouldn't receive a fair trial if they were combined.

Biela is scheduled to go to trial February 22 on charges of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault in the abduction and murder of the 19-year-old Denison last January.

Under Perry's ruling Monday, Biela also will face at that time the two additional counts of sexual assault in the attacks on the two other women on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Perry said that while the three-week-long trial will be "very costly," holding a single proceeding will save taxpayers money. He also said it may help to reduce the "probability of publicity and prejudice" that could make a change of venue necessary.

Biela's lawyers have indicated they likely will ask to have the trial moved out of Reno if they have difficulty seating an impartial jury.

Perry said prosecutors were able to prove the three alleged attacks over about a three-month period from November 2007 to the time Denison was kidnapped and killed in January 2008 could be considered part of a "common scheme or plan."
Such a finding is required when a defendant is ordered to stand trial on charges involving separate incidents.

Harmony

05-07-2009, 01:24 AM

http://www.rgj.com/article/20090504/NEWS01/90504033/0/GOTO01/Judge+denies+Biela+s+request+for+3+separate+trials

Judge denies Biela's request for separate trials

A judge on Monday denied James Biela’s request to hold three separate trials, saying that prosecutors had successfully argued that there was a “common scheme or plan” in the rape and strangulation of Brianna Denison and the sexual assault of two other college students. Washoe District Judge Robert Perry also denied claims by his lawyers that the publicity surrounding the Denison case would cause unfair prejudice against Biela in the other two cases.

“It seems inequitable for the defendants to enhance the probability of prejudice, then use it to his advantage to change venue in spite of its impact on cost and judicial economy,” Perry said in his ruling. “The court believes that a single trial may in fact decrease the probability of publicity and prejudice.”

Deputy District Attorney Elliott praised Perry’s order.

“We look forward to taking the case to one trial, instead of three,” he said.

Deputy Public Defender Jay Slocum said he had not seen the judge’s ruling by early afternoon and declined to comment until he had a chance to read it.

Denison, 19, was visiting friends in January 2008 near the University of Nevada, Reno campus when she disappeared. Her body was found two weeks later in a south Reno field.

Biela was charged in November with killing Denison. He also was charged with raping a UNR student at gunpoint in a university parking garage on Oct. 22, 2007, and with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a third woman on Dec. 17, 2007.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He could face the death penalty if convicted. His trial is set for Feb. 22.

On Friday, Slocum argued that the there were substantial differences between the three crimes and with the evidence in each case. He also argued that the jury might confuse the strength of some of the evidence presented in one case with weaker evidence in another and convict on all three.

But Perry disagreed, saying there was enough evidence to support the idea that there was a “purposeful design” in the attacks of “a certain class of victim, in a particular area, at certain vulnerable times and with similar objectives.”

“All three women were all of college age and small in stature,” he said. “They were attacked very near the campus of the University of Nevada within a 400-yard area and at a similar time of the night when they were tired, alone and possibly impaired.”

During each assault, the attacker either took or asked for the victim’s underwear, Perry said. And all three occurred between October 2007 and January 2008.

Although there is sure to be substantial media coverage of the trial, Perry said he would “exercise every caution to prevent unfair prejudice.”

“At trial, the court will specifically instruct the jury as to the limited use, which may be made of the evidence in this case,” he said.

Nut44x4

10-06-2009, 08:51 PM

Lawyers for James Biela say crime lab destroyed vital evidence

BY MARTHA BELLISLE • mbellisle@rgj.com • October 6, 2009

Lawyers for James Biela, charged with killing Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two others, have filed a motion saying the county’s crime lab destroyed DNA evidence that could have been used in his defense.

The lab violated its own policies by destroying semen samples after using what they had for DNA testing, Chief Deputy Public Defender Maizie Pusich said in the motion.

“The destruction raises the inference that arresting and prosecuting someone, anyone, in this high profile murder case may have been more important to state agents than following the procedures designed to prevent false tests,” Pusich said.

The motion asks the judge to order that “evidence of any DNA tests in which the entire suspect sample has been consumed, and cannot be retested, be suppressed and not be presented to the jury during the trial in this case.”

Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler did not return phone messages seeking comment.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for Wednesday. The defense team plans to ask the court to move the trial date from Feb. 22 to a later date. One reason is Biela’s lead attorney recently left the public defender’s office to work for a private firm and Pusich needs more time. They also said they have not received all of the evidence requested.

Denison was a 19-year-old sophomore at a Santa Barbara, Calif., college when she was abducted Jan. 20, 2008 from a house near the University of Nevada, Reno campus. Her body was found in a south Reno field on Feb. 15, 2008. She had been raped, and was strangled.

After his arrest in November 2008, Biela also was charged with raping a UNR student on Oct. 22, 2007 as she headed toward her car in a university parking garage, and charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting another UNR student on Dec. 17, 2007.

He has pleaded not guilty. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

While no DNA evidence was collected in the parking garage rape, evidence was collected in the Denison case, and in the December 2007 sexual assault, according to court documents and testimony. This evidence linked Biela to these two crimes, prosecutors have said.

(2 of 2)

In May, Biela’s defense lawyers asked prosecutors for access to these biological samples so they could be independently tested, the motion said. They were told the samples were “consumed during testing.” But a previous Washoe County Crime Lab report had said some material was still available, the motion said.

At that point, the lab gave defense lawyers a copy of their protocols for testing, which said they were to use the smallest amount possible.

The amount of evidence collected from the crime scene was “70 to 100 times the amount necessary for a lab to develop a genetic profile of a suspect,” the motion said. “So what happened to all of this unused evidence?”

Without the ability to conduct its own testing, the defense is unable to challenge the state’s test results, the motion said.

“Allowing the state’s DNA tests into evidence would force the defendant into the position of proving a negative,” the motion said. “Like requiring Mr. Biela to prove he is not a warlock, the state here seeks to use secret evidence, shielded from the inquiries of science to prove Mr. Biela’s guilt.”

“The state is asking Mr. Biela to disprove their own test results, while they simultaneously have destroyed the evidence in the case, which he needs to present his defense.”

http://www.rgj.com/article/20091006/NEWS01/91006058/1321/news

packy

10-06-2009, 09:00 PM

Oh this is not good.

CSAFD

10-12-2009, 01:14 PM

Reno advocates: DNA from all felony arrests could help catch serial offenders

October 11, 2009

In July 2002, James Michael Biela was arrested on charges of assaulting an ex-girlfriend with a knife during a drunken rage in Reno.

After that, he had no documented run-ins with law enforcement until November 2008, when he was arrested in a string of violent, unsolved serial crimes in Reno, including the rapes of two college women and the rape and strangulation of Brianna Denison, 19.

Officials say DNA links him to a December 2007 rape and the Denison slaying. But the alleged genetic connections were made only after a Secret Witness tip led detectives to Biela, who has pleaded not guilty and faces trial next year.

Had Nevada law required DNA be taken from all persons arrested on felony charges, a DNA link could have been made to Biela for the 2007 rape, about a month before Denison’s death, depending on criteria set forth in the law regarding the storage and removal of samples.

Victim advocates say killers likely would be arrested sooner, preventing them from committing further violence.

Saying they want to protect future victims, Denison’s friends and family are renewing their push for lawmakers to adopt “Brianna’s Law” to require DNA testing of everyone arrested for a felony. It is similar to “Katie’s Law” enacted in 2007 in New Mexico after the rape and murder of graduate student, Katie Sepich.

All persons arrested for federal crimes are mandated to submit their DNA for testing by a statute upheld in May by the Eastern District of California federal court.
The Bring Bri Justice Foundation has teamed with Secret Witness and Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto to create a task force to explore how to get the law, or a form of it, passed in Nevada.

The effort was introduced during the last legislative session by Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, but died because of its more than $6 million projected cost. Felons are assessed a $150 DNA testing fee that officials say only 10 percent pay.

Bring Bri Justice Foundation members say “Brianna’s Law” would prevent violent crimes and repeat offending, exonerate the innocent and drastically reduce time and money spent on lengthy criminal investigations. Overtime for the Reno Police Department’s investigation into Denison’s death was more than $365,000.

Sgt. Chuck Lovitt, of the RPD robbery/homicide unit, said DNA immediately points detectives to a potential suspect in cases instead of having to chase false leads that cost time and money. But he cautioned that a suspect still has to be thoroughly investigated and isn’t arrested just because of a DNA match.

Critics say the law would be too expensive in this economic crisis, could violate civil rights because not all people arrested are convicted and that samples could be compromised to obtain personal medical information or discriminate against minorities. During a March legislative hearing, officials said that in 2007, more than 86,000 felony arrests were made in Nevada, with only 13,000 convictions.

Michigan passed Katie’s Law last year and now legislators there fear that because it was unfunded, samples won’t immediately be stored in databases, leaving criminals free on the streets while backlogs grow. Masto said the law has “clear positives” but the biggest challenge to Nevada is funding it.

“I am hoping we can work through the civil issues,” she said.

Lovitt said that if DNA was taken for arrests for gateway crimes that lead to more violent offenses, such as burglary, crimes will be prevented.

“We have an opportunity to significantly impact violent crime, but it won’t work unless it can handle the onslaught of work, otherwise the system will grind to a halt because it’s so overwhelmed,” he said.

Denison Foundation members said they are committed to finding a funding source for the law.

Currently, DNA is entered into the state and national databases only upon a felony conviction, which became a Nevada unfunded mandate in 2007.

Lee Rowland, coordinator the Northern Nevada ACLU chapter, said the law is a potentially unconstitutional solution, as is the process.

“Here in America, you are innocent until proven guilty,” she said. “This mandate would treat you like you are already convicted, and then pass the cost on to you just because you were arrested.”

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said it will be a “balancing act” and that lawmakers will have to be convinced the public safety advantages outweigh privacy issues.

(3 of 3)

“If you’re innocent, who cares if you have to give your DNA,” Leslie said. “But from a civil liberties side, the government has no right to take my DNA because a police officer arrested me. I work in the criminal justice system and am not soft on crime. But how would you feel if you were wrongfully arrested and your DNA was taken?”

Crime lab scientists say they don’t have the capability to know anything about a DNA sample other than the person’s gender. The samples do not have names, but are given a code of numbers for identification purposes. Other safeguards would be in place, Foundation members said, such as destroying samples if charges are dropped against arrestees, and criminal penalties associated with compromising samples.

“The Foundation’s guiding principle is to do everything possible to ensure that no other family, or individual, is forced to go through what Brianna and her family had to endure,” said Valarie Van Antwerp, vice president of the Denison Foundation. “This legislation is perhaps the most important step we can take. Taking DNA saves lives.”

Don Richter, founder and board member of Secret Witness, said he is unable to find a valid argument against the law, saying “any legislator who opposes this will personally wear the name of all future rape and murder victims.”

“The true cost of not having this is the loss of human lives, raped women and traumatized victims and families,” he said.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20091011/NEWS/91011015/1321/news

annalyzer

11-25-2009, 01:23 AM

Benefit set for Bring Bri Justice group

November 24, 2009

An arts and crafts festival to benefit the Bring Bri Justice Foundation will be Dec. 4-6 at the Bring Bri Justice Center, 5000 Smithridge Drive, A-9, near Toys R Us in Reno.

Hours for the Holiday Festival Arts and Crafts Fair are noon to 8 p.m. Dec. 4; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 5; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 6.

The event includes safety items, tips, balloons and a bake sale. Gift wrapping is also available for a donation.

The center was created in 2008 after the kidnapping and murder of Brianna Denison, 19, a Reno High School graduate who was visiting family and friends during winter break from her college in California.

The suspect James Biela is facing trial for her slaying in 2010, as well as the rapes of two other college women. Denison’s family and friends founded the center to focus on education and awareness about personal safety, and ensuring justice is served.

The Foundation is working on helping pass “Brianna’s Law” which would strengthen DNA collection to stop serial offenders, and is creating a special search team that would be deployed to help law enforcement looking for missing persons. The group would be volunteers.

For more information, go to www.briannadenison.com.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20091124/NEWS/91124061/1232/NEWS19/Benefit-set-for-Bring-Bri-Justice-group

Audie

02-12-2010, 04:22 PM

Has a trial date been set for this yet?

Harmony

02-12-2010, 10:26 PM

Has a trial date been set for this yet?

Audie, I think James Biela's trial has been postponed until May 10th, 2010. I will see if I can find a link to confirm the date.

CSAFD

02-13-2010, 10:08 AM

Audie, I think James Biela's trial has been postponed until May 10th, 2010. I will see if I can find a link to confirm the date.

May 10th is his trial date

Judge considering crucial question over evidence in murder case

Nov. 9, 2009

Washoe District Court Judge Robert Perry will rule Monday on whether prosecutors can use DNA evidence in the case against James Biela, the man accused of a series of rapes and the murder of Brianna Denison.

Defense attorneys asked to have DNA evidence excluded, disputing the way it was processed at the Washoe County Crime Lab. Specifically, they were protesting the fact that technicians used virtually all of each of the samples, leaving no DNA evidence for them to retest.

But a DNA expert hired by the defense testified that he saw no reason to dispute the actual findings of the DNA tests, and said he did not believe the technicians acted in bad faith when they processed the evidence. Renee Romero, director of the Crime Lab, said the evidence was consumed in the process of comparing the DNA to national databases in an effort to pinpoint a suspect. And Romero said that is consistent with protocol at the Crime Lab.

Judge Perry will rule on Monday whether he will admit the DNA evidence at trial.

Also Friday, the judge granted a defense request for a delay in the trial, which was scheduled to begin February 22, 2010. Public Defender Maizie Pusich was assigned to the case in September after the original attorney left the public defender's office. Pusich told the court she needed more time to review more than 40,000 pages of evidence and to adequately prepare for the case.

Prosecutors did not object, and Judge Perry granted the request. The trial will begin on May 10, 2010. If convicted, Biela faces a possible death penalty.

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11472767