JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - A man convicted in the robbery-slaying of a Georgia tourist will get a new trial after an appeals court said the judge should have allowed the man's attorneys to introduce a teenager's coerced, disproven confession to the killing.
The 1st District Court of Appeal on Tuesday overturned the conviction for Juan Curtis, who is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of 64-year-old Mary Ann Stephens of Toccoa outside a Jacksonville motel in 2000.
Curtis, 25, was the second man to go on trial for the slaying. Teenager Brenton Butler was acquitted in the slaying and said the confession he gave to police came after a full day of interrogation that included beatings and intimidation.
``That's one of the things that I was trying to avoid was descending into all the morass of Brenton Butler,'' said State Attorney Brad King of Ocala, appointed special prosecutor after Butler's acquittal. ``Basically, you would try two different cases. You'd try Juan Curtis ... and they'd (Curtis's lawyers) try Brenton Butler, and I'd defend him the same way the public defender defended him.''
Butler's case was the subject of an HBO documentary, ``Murder on a Sunday Morning,'' that won an Academy Award in 2002.
Both State Attorney Harry Shorstein and then-Sheriff Nat Glover apologized to Butler after learning they had prosecuted the wrong man.
King said he has asked the Attorney General's Office to seek a rehearing and appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
Butler, then 15, was arrested the day Stephens was shot in front of her husband, James, during a robbery outside a Ramada Inn. He was identified by James Stephens and confessed to Jacksonville police.
When a jury acquitted him, his public defenders tipped police off to Curtis and Jermel Williams, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against Curtis. Jurors convicted Curtis on the strength of that testimony and his fingerprint in Stephens' purse, found in a Dumpster but never tested before Butler's trial.
Curtis's lawyers told the jury about James Stephens' eyewitness identification of Butler and about the previous charges against him. But Circuit Judge W. Gregg McCaulie wouldn't allow them to use Butler's confession, citing Florida evidence laws.
Curtis' lawyers appealed.
The appeals court said Curtis's constitutional right to a fair trial overrides state law.
``The exclusion of Butler's confession denied the defendant his right to a fair trial. ... This was a critical piece of evidence,'' the court said in a 2-1 ruling.
A Duval County grand jury, led by King, criticized the way police and prosecutors handled the Butler case but found no criminal wrongdoing. Butler won a $775,000 settlement from the city.
James Stephens, now remarried, couldn't be reached for comment and has refused to talk even to prosecutors.
Tuesday
May 6th, 2025
11:27PM
