Defense requests two juries in teen sex slaying case

The Associated Press
Last Updated 8:20 pm PST Monday, December 27, 2004

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - Defense attorneys for a couple accused of raping and fatally shooting a Las Vegas teen have asked a judge for separate trials - a request experts believe may show that the accused want to blame each other for the crime.

Michael Forrest Thornton, 49, and Janeen Marie Snyder, 25, both of Rialto, have been held at the Robert Presley Detention Center since their arrest in April 2001 in the death of 16-year-old Michelle Curran.

The couple could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances. They have pleaded not guilty.

Superior Court Judge Paul Zellerbach has been asked by defense attorneys to grant separate trials for Thornton and Snyder or, barring that, to seat two juries to hear the case against them. Their trial is expected to start in March.

Curran, a 10th grader, disappeared after heading to school on April 4, 2001. Her nude body was discovered April 22 in a compartment of a horse trailer on a property in Rubidoux, west of Riverside.

Thornton and Snyder had been arrested on suspicion of burglarizing that property on April 17. Witnesses placed the two and a girl investigators believe was Curran at a nearby regional park that day.

Prosecutors allege the couple shot Curran in the head after raping and torturing her, then hid her body after a nearly two-week sex- and drug-laced odyssey from Las Vegas to Lake Arrowhead, Arizona, Fontana, Riverside and finally Rubidoux.

Experts in the field of criminal law say "antagonistic" defenses - when co-defendants blame each other - are a common reason for requesting separate trials or juries.

These motions are not usually successful, said Gerald F. Uelmen, professor at Santa Clara University Law School.

George Fisher, a professor who specializes in criminal law at Stanford Law School, said it makes sense for defense attorneys to try to secure separate juries or trials.

"Each defendant falls to the lowest level," Fisher said. "If one is bad, both will seem bad because they were hanging out together."