James Staley's appeal set for a courtroom battle
James Irven Staley III's battle to overturn his murder conviction will go before justices for oral arguments March 12 in Fort Worth as requested by the defense, court records show.
While Staley serves life without parole for the murder of 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel, his attorney is expected to keep pressing his argument that a search warrant was invalid and key digital evidence Wichita Falls police gathered was inadmissible.
Oral arguments will be 1:30 p.m. March 12 before a panel of three justices at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center. Justice Elizabeth Kerr, Justice Dana Womack and Justice Brian Walker are slated to see the defense and prosecution face off in the Second District Appeals Court on the ninth floor.
Keith S. Hampton is calling for the appeals court to reverse Staley's conviction and grant him a new trial. Hampton contends Staley's constitutional rights protecting him from unreasonable searches and seizures were violated because the affidavit for the search warrant was too general, court records show.
Hampton holds that a district judge should never have issued the warrant, and the evidence seized should never have gone before a jury.
Among evidence possibly at stake are an infamous "slapping video," more disturbing videos and toxic digital messages presented to Fort Worth jurors who found Staley guilty March 13 of capital murder of a person under 10 after a three-week trial.
As for prosecutors seeking to uphold Staley's conviction, they contend Texas law says that in a murder investigation stemming from a domestic relationship between a defendant and the murder victim, facts showing the nature of their relationship and the accused's state of mind toward the victim are useful evidence, and it can be seized through a warrant.
At the time of Wilder's death Oct. 11, 2018, in a bedroom of Staley's Country Club area home, his mother, Amber Nichole McDaniel, was in a tumultuous relationship with the once prosperous oilman. Prosecutors say Wilder and Amber were living with Staley when the child was killed.
In addition, prosecutors contend Staley has previously forfeited most of the complaints he raised on appeal because he didn't bring them up in the trial court, according to a brief filed by Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie and Assistant DA Bryce Perry.
Hampton fired back a brief in reply to the prosecution Feb. 15, saying defense attorneys did their due diligence to preserve Staley's complaints for an appeal.
What's more, Hampton contends prosecutors did not provide anything in their brief that shows the appeals court should ignore Staley's allegations the warrant's affidavit did not specify what police expected to find in "never identified" devices, resulting in a too general warrant under the Fourth Amendment.
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Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Battle for James Staley's appeal set for oral arguments
