Defense lawyers argued Tuesday that a man who strangled and stomped a 72-year-old woman to death should be have his murder conviction and death sentence overturned because he is mentally disabled.
Attorneys for Floyd Eugene Maestas told the Utah Supreme Court that a trial judge erred when he ruled the 55-year-old did not meet the criteria for an exemption from the death penalty under Utah law.
Public defender Joan Watt said 3rd District Judge Robert Maughan disregarded research from experts and placed more weight on courtroom observances of Maestas, which belie his "significant sub-average intellectual and adaptive behavioral capabilities."
"He does things to front to pretend he's smarter than he is," Watt said of Maestas.
It's not clear when justices will rule.
This is Maestas' first appeal of his 2008 conviction of aggravated murder and aggravated burglary in the death of Donna Lou Bott.
The elderly woman was found dead in her home in 2004 after a neighbor noticed newspapers had piled up and a porch light was on during the day. A medical examiner found Bott had more than 30 separate injuries, including broken ribs and tears to her heart muscles.
During the penalty phase of Maestas' trial, the jury concluded the death penalty was the appropriate punishment. A judge has ordered Maestas executed by lethal injection. No date has been sent.
Attorneys say the case is the first challenge of Utah's law exempting the mentally disabled from execution. The law was passed in 2003, a year after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling ruled such exemptions are appropriate because those with disabilities in the areas of reasoning, judgment and impulse control do not act with the same level of moral culpability as other criminal defendants.
State prosecutors argue, however, that IQ tests administered to Maestas over a number of years don't prove he suffers from a mental disability.
In fact, Assistant Attorney General Karen Klucznik said tests results have found a range of IQ scores for Maestas -- from 65 to 85 -- and that experts who testified in the case have agreed that Maestas had underperformed on most tests.
Some state testing indicates Maestas could score as high as the low 90s, and "that puts a lot of distance between him and mental retardation," Klucznik said after the hearing.
Utah's law does not include an IQ score or any range of score results for determining whether a person suffers from a mental disability.
Also Tuesday, Watt said the court should reverse the case because Maughan wrongly ordered Maestas' defense attorneys not to present mitigating evidence about Maestas' life out of the penalty phase of the trial. The evidence included low IQ scores and a troubled family history that includes allegations of physical, emotional, substance and sexual abuse.
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Jennifer Dobner can be reached at --http://www.twitter.com/JenniferDobner
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
