One last chance: Defense tries to avoid death penalty in death of retired teacher
TAVARES — Joshua McClellan’s mother, sobbing and bent over double in grief, sat in a courtroom Wednesday and listened to a videotape of herself six years ago when she was begging her then-19-year-old son to plead guilty to killing retired teacher Rubye James instead of going to trial and risking a death sentence.
“I love you so much,” Sara Collins said after McClellan and Krystopher Laws were arrested in 2017 and accused of breaking into the 92-year-old woman’s home, killing her, stealing her car and burying her in a shallow grave.
“I know you told me you didn’t kill Ms. Rubye. I believe you,” she said.
“But even if you didn’t do it, you were there. They’re going to hold you accountable,” she said. “I need you here.”
A 12-member jury did, in fact, hold him accountable. In August, it found him guilty. And later, in the trial's penalty phase, the panel voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence. His co-defendant, Laws, took the plea offer of life in prison without parole in 2020.
Circuit Judge Heidi Davis held a mandatory hearing Wednesday to give defense attorneys one more chance to present evidence that might keep McClellan off death row.
The tape of Collins talking to her son back in 2017 was played for the judge to hear. The defense's lone witness to testify was forensic neuropsychologist Hyman Eisenstein, Ph.D., who ran a battery of tests, examined some records, and spent 55 hours with McClellan, now 26 years old.
He looked at another expert’s brain scans and agreed that there was a past traumatic brain injury. He also described McClellan’s brain development as “extremely immature.”
Yet, on cross-examination, Assistant State Attorney Nick Camuccio ticked off a long list of tests that were administered to measure executive brain function, including one that showed an IQ of 86, as average or low average.
Eisenstein opined that McClellan was a “follower,” was impulsive, depressive, and needed help in school, where he was a special education student, ending in the 10th grade in an alternative school.
He described McClellan as “forthcoming” and “cooperative,” but Camuccio pointed out that he gave two contradictory statements to authorities — first claiming he wasn’t at the home in the Montclair area, then blaming Laws.
The prosecutor got Eisenstein to admit that he didn’t question McClellan about the contradictory statements. Those statements were an example of McClellan’s immaturity, Eisenstein said.
At one point, McClellan married Laws’ sister, who was twice his age and had teenage children of her own. He described that as a sign of “extreme immaturity” that showed “he was desperate for love.”
Eisenstein deduced that the crime was committed for rent money, but the two immediately took the $70 they stole from James and spent it on marijuana.
The prosecutor also ridiculed the “follower” description, pointing to a conversation recorded in the back of a patrol car where McClellan is yelling at Laws.
Previous coverage: Man found guilty of murdering beloved teacher Rubye James. What will the punishment be?
Not only that, the prosecutor said, but despite spending hours with McClellan, Eisenstein looked only at a summary of jail records prepared by the defense's mitigation expert.
The summary was bad enough. It showed several disciplinary reports, including exposing and touching himself in front of guards and insubordination. His behavior improved over time.
The psychologist also said McClellan and his sister were twice removed from the home when Collins was arrested. Collins testified that she was arrested for smoking marijuana.
Judge Davis told Camuccio and defense attorney Frank Bankowitz to submit sentencing memos by Oct. 27. She said she expected to sentence McClellan shortly after that.
She seemed particularly interested in arguments for and against the state’s claim that the crime was cold, calculated, and premeditated.
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: What will the judge do? Sentencing upcoming in death of retired teacher
