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Thursday, August 28, 1997

Death penalty sought for two 17-year-olds

AUSTIN (AP) -- Two 17-year-olds, indicted for capital murder after a former astronaut's son and a city employee were found drowned in the trunk of a car in a lake, will face the prospect of lethal injection if convicted.

Prosecutors said Tuesday they will seek the death penalty against Derrick Williams of Round Rock and Ahmad McAdoo of Lubbock after a carjacking spree ended in the abduction and murder of Juan Cotera, 25, and Brandon Shaw, 20.

Shaw, a University of Texas architecture student, was the son of former astronaut Brewster Shaw Jr.

Cotera, a city employee, was the son of an architect known for his efforts to revitalize low-income East Austin.

Their bodies were found July 2 in the trunk of a 1982 Volvo owned by Shaw's parents. The car was pulled from Town Lake, a part of the Colorado River that runs through Austin just south of downtown.

From June 29 to early July 1, Austin police said two carjackers carried out six attacks in which two men were pistol-whipped and left in a field, a woman was sexually assaulted, and Cotera and Shaw were abducted.

Williams and McAdoo, who remain in custody, each were indicted by a grand jury on two counts of capital murder, a crime that can result in either life in prison or the death penalty. They are accused of killing Cotera and Shaw during a kidnapping and robbery.

They also have been indicted on one count each of aggravated sexual assault related to the carjackings. Earlier, they were indicted on charges of aggravated robbery in connection with two carjackings.

'Carjacking is a really serious, heinous crime,' District Attorney Ronnie Earle said. 'The idea of carjacking strikes terror in the heart of honest citizens, so we prosecute these cases vigorously.'

McAdoo's attorney, Pat Ganne, accused the district attorney's office of improperly using the grand jury process to gather details about the two suspects' backgrounds, when it was designed only to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge them with a crime.

'They're supposed to investigate any criminal act, not what kind of grades the kid had in high school ... or whether or not his father hit him,' Ganne said.

'What they've done is used the power of the state to coerce witnesses and testimony out of people who might otherwise give a favorable picture of the defendant.'

Assistant District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg called Ganne's allegations absurd.

'The grand jury's job is to take up a case and investigate it to the extent they think is necessary,' she said. 'In a capital murder case, that can include anything the grand jury might want to know.'

Williams' attorney, Tom Weber, declined to comment Wednesday.

'I've seen none of their evidence yet. I think it would be inappropriate for me to say anything until I've seen what they've got,' he said.