Attorneys within the Delaware Department of Justice recently obtained significant criminal convictions and sentences:

Deputy Attorneys General Steve Wood and Allison Abessinio secured a guilty plea from 23-year-old RhiShawn McNeil of Wilmington, to Murder Second Degree and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony. In January 2015, 26-year-old Donnell Clark was working outside of his home in the 900 block of East 17th Street in Wilmington, when McNeil, an acquaintance, approached and shot him several times. Clark was taken to Christiana Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Sentencing is set for July 15.

Deputy Attorney General Phillip Casale obtained a prison sentence for Bernard Bryant, 24, of Philadelphia, PA, following his conviction for Possession of a Firearm by a Person Prohibited, Possession of Ammunition by a Person Prohibited, Carrying a Concealed Deadly Weapon, and Resisting Arrest. In July 2015, Bryant took off running from a police officer who approached a group of people loitering in the 1700 block of North Locust Street in Wilmington. During the course of the pursuit, Bryant tripped and a loaded firearm fell from his waistband. Bryant picked up the gun and threw it in a nearby backyard before ultimately being taken into custody. Bryant was sentenced to five years Level V, followed by two years of Level III probation.

Deputy Attorney General Marc Petrucci obtained a prison sentence for Ulysses Dash, 48, of Wilmington. Dash pled guilty to three counts of Burglary 3rd earlier this year. In April 2015, Dash broke into three businesses, Books & Tobacco in the Lantana Square Shopping Center in Hockessin, Star Gas in the 3900 block of Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington, and Tulip Nail Salon in the 3700 block of Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington, and stole cash registers, computers, and other equipment. Dash was sentenced as an habitual offender on the count relating to the Books and Tobacco burglary, and was sentenced to four years at Level V. For the remaining two counts, Dash was sentenced to a total of 6 years Level V, suspended for 18 months at Level IV, suspended after 6 months for 12 months of Level III probation.

Deputy Attorney General Barzilai Axelrod obtained a prison sentence for Gene Fulton, 53, of Middletown, for Burglary Second Degree, and Theft from victim Over 62 Years of Age. In July 2015, a woman returned from a shopping trip to find Fulton running down the steps from the second floor of her home in the 200 block of Forsythia Lane in Newark. A friend who was with the homeowner took video of Fulton’s truck as he drove away, and police were able to locate him a short time later, and recovered jewelry stolen from the victim’s house. Fulton was sentenced to 15 Years at Level V as a habitual offender for the burglary, and two years in prison, suspended for 12 months at Level IV, suspended after 6 months for one year at Level III probation for the theft.

Deputy Attorney General Barzilai Axelrod obtained a sentence for Manuel Salaberrios, 42, of Dover, to eight Years at Level V as a habitual offender for Attempted Assault in a Detention Facility, followed by six months at Level IV. Salaberrios was serving a Level IV sentence at the Central Violation of Probation Center in Smyrna for Felony DUI in May 2014, when he was sitting at a table with another inmate, and suddenly began punching the other man multiple times in the head.

Deputy Attorney General Jan van Amerongen secured a plea from Paul Brunhammer, 34, of Salem, New Jersey to Rape Third Degree in a case from 2010. Brunhammer raped the daughter of his ex-girlfriend while he was visiting the mother’s home in Newark. When the victim reported the assault, Brunhammer was incarcerated in New Jersey for an unrelated sexual assault. Brunhammer was returned to Delaware earlier this year to face the new charge. Brunhammer faces a sentence of 2-25 years.

The Delaware Department of Justice has released a report on the Wilmington Police Department use of force incident that resulted in the death of Jeremy McDole on September 23, 2015. The “Introduction and Summary” and “Scope of Investigation” segments of the report are below.

The full report and video, audio and photo evidence referenced in the report can be found at http://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/executive/Wilmington092315.shtml.

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Introduction and Summary

Four Wilmington Police Department officers shot Jeremy McDole on September 23, 2015. The Delaware Department of Justice (DOJ) undertook an investigation to determine whether any of the four officers should be charged with a criminal offense. As detailed in this report, DOJ also examined whether, notwithstanding any potential violations of criminal law, there were deficiencies in the Wilmington Police Department’s policies and/or training that should be corrected in light of Mr. McDole’s shooting, to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future.

• Our investigation revealed serious deficiencies in the way in which the Wilmington Police Department prepares its police officers to deal with situations like the one that Mr. McDole presented, specifically with regard to use of force policies and training and policies for dealing with individuals with mental illness, disabilities, or cognitive impairments. Most significantly, we find that the “continuum of force” provisions of the Wilmington Police Department’s use of force policy are effectively meaningless for police officers as currently written.

• With respect to three of the four officers – Senior Corporal (S/Cpl) Daniel Silva, Corporal (Cpl) Thomas Lynch, and Corporal (Cpl) James MacColl – DOJ did not find probable cause to charge them with a criminal offense. Through our investigation, we determined that these three officers believed – at the moment they discharged their firearms – that doing so was necessary to protect themselves, or others, against death or serious physical injury. Because of that belief, they were entitled under Delaware law to use deadly force to subdue Mr. McDole. Under Delaware’s deferential legal standard for the use of deadly force by a law enforcement officer, their subjective belief that using deadly force was necessary to protect themselves or others immunizes them from criminal responsibility.

• With respect to the fourth police officer who discharged his firearm, Senior Corporal (S/Cpl) Joseph Dellose, the Attorney General did believe that the state should attempt to gather sufficient evidence to pursue a felony assault charge, based upon S/Cpl Dellose’s conduct in immediately confronting Mr. McDole rather than communicating with officers who S/Cpl Dellose knew were already on the scene, and discharging his shotgun in the manner that he did. However, after hiring a former federal prosecutor from Pennsylvania to prepare a case for possible criminal prosecution and after consulting with two nationally recognized police use-of-force experts who had recently recommended criminal charges against the Cleveland police officer who shot Tamir Rice, and after receiving opinions from both of those experts that S/Cpl Dellose’s actions did not constitute criminal conduct under the Delaware Code, DOJ concluded that it could not proceed with a criminal prosecution against S/Cpl Dellose given that the defense would present unchallenged expert testimony that S/Cpl Dellose’s conduct was reasonable.

• Although DOJ is not able to pursue criminal charges against S/Cpl Dellose, it is DOJ’s position that S/Cpl Dellose’s conduct in this case was extraordinarily poor police work that endangered both the public and his fellow officers. DOJ does not believe that S/Cpl Dellose should be employed by the Wilmington Police Department in any role where he would be carrying a firearm in public.

Scope of Investigation

The scope of the investigation into Mr. McDole’s death was much broader than the scope of prior investigations that have been undertaken by DOJ regarding police-involved shootings. There were a number of reasons for this. First, this case was the first police-involved shooting since Attorney General Denn assumed responsibility in January 2015 where there was a bona fide question as to whether the individual who was shot was armed with a weapon at or around the time of the shooting. This created a need for a broader factual investigation. Second, concerns were raised by Mr. McDole’s family as to (among other things) (1) the integrity of the scene of the shooting (and, in particular, whether evidence may have been placed at the scene by Wilmington Police Department officers), (2) the possibility of prior contact between Mr. McDole and one or more of the officers involved, and (3) the possibility of additional video of the incident. All of these issues had to be thoroughly investigated by DOJ investigators, in addition to their investigation of the shooting incident itself. Third, a decision was made early in the investigation that, notwithstanding any issues of criminal liability, the shooting raised serious questions about the Wilmington Police Department’s preparation of its officers, which DOJ should attempt to address through the use of outside experts for the future benefit of both the Wilmington Police Department and other Delaware police departments. All of these factors resulted in an investigation that was more extensive than other investigations of police-involved shootings.

Finally, the preliminary conclusion that DOJ should attempt to gather sufficient evidence to pursue a felony assault charge against S/Cpl Dellose required that DOJ (a) recruit, hire, and deputize a former federal prosecutor who was not a member of the Delaware bar to prepare the case for possible presentation to a Delaware grand jury, and (b) consult with two national experts with respect to police conduct who had supported criminal charges against a Cleveland police officer with respect to the shooting of Tamir Rice, in order to determine whether the facts collected by DOJ were sufficient to initiate a criminal prosecution against S/Cpl Dellose. DOJ first consulted with Jeffrey Noble, former Deputy Chief of the Irvine Police Department in California, who has been involved in over one thousand police use-of-force investigations and, in November 2015, authored an expert opinion on behalf of Tamir Rice’s family that criticized the expert opinions of the Cleveland District Attorney and argued that the Cleveland police officer who shot Tamir Rice should be held responsible for his death. After reviewing all of the materials in the McDole case, Mr. Noble told DOJ that, in his expert opinion, S/Cpl Dellose’s conduct did not violate Delaware’s criminal statute. After receiving Mr. Noble’s opinion, DOJ solicited a second opinion from Roger Clark, the former head of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s North Regional Surveillance and Apprehension Team. Mr. Clark has been retained as a consulting expert 1,400 times, the majority of times for cases involving the use of force, and like Mr. Noble, authored an expert opinion last year on behalf of Tamir Rice’s family that criticized the expert opinions of the Cleveland District Attorney and argued that the Cleveland police officer who shot Tamir Rice should be held responsible for his death. Like Mr. Noble, Mr. Clark reviewed all of the materials in this case, and told DOJ that, in his expert opinion, S/Cpl Dellose’s conduct did not violate Delaware’s criminal statute.

DOJ’s investigation included:

• In the days immediately after the shooting, a broad-based neighborhood canvass involving multiple DOJ investigators to locate eyewitnesses, video or audio evidence, or any other information that would help DOJ prosecutors to understand all relevant facts from the incident in which Mr. McDole was shot. This canvass was accompanied by a public request through traditional media and social media for persons with information to come forward.

• Ballistic evidence was analyzed by Carl M. Rone of the Delaware State Police Forensic Firearms Services Unit. The evidence itself was gathered by the Wilmington Police Department and the Delaware Division of Forensic Science from the crime scene.

• Performance of an autopsy by the Delaware Medical Examiner’s office. This autopsy, which was received by DOJ on January 28, 2016, included a post-mortem toxicology report.

• Interviews of Wilmington Police Department officers who were at the scene of Mr. McDole’s shooting and civilian witnesses. Some of these interviews were conducted by Wilmington Police Department officers and observed by DOJ investigators, others were conducted jointly between DOJ and WPD officers, and some were conducted by DOJ investigators outside the presence of WPD officers.

• Interviews by DOJ of members of Mr. McDole’s family (accompanied by their legal counsel), followed by interviews of persons identified by those family members as potentially having relevant knowledge.

• Subpoenaing and reviewing thousands of pages of documents from the Wilmington Police Department, and hundreds of pages of documents from other third parties.

• Microscopic examination of swabs taken from Mr. McDole’s hands by the R.J. Lee group, an independent laboratory. The swabs themselves were gathered by the Wilmington Police Department at the scene.

• Video evidence, including a version of the cell phone video processed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, providing a detailed review of the images captured by the cell phone video.

• Collection and review of video evidence from multiple stationary locations in the area of Mr. McDole’s shooting.

• Retention of experts in police policies and training to review the policies and trainings of the Wilmington Police Department, in order to identify any relevant deficiencies relating to the incident involving Mr. McDole.

• Retention of an attorney from the Pennsylvania bar (a former federal prosecutor) sworn as a Delaware DOJ Special Deputy Attorney General to prepare the case for possible prosecution, in order to avoid any real or perceived conflicts presented by DOJ prosecutors presenting a case involving criminal charges against a Wilmington Police Department officer.

• Retention of two national experts in police practices to determine whether, if charges were filed, the State could rebut expert testimony expected from the defendant officer with respect to the justification of his conduct under Title 11, Section 464 of the Delaware Code. As noted above, the national experts retained by DOJ were the two experts retained by Tamir Rice’s family who recommended criminal charges against a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio for the police shooting incident that led to Tamir Rice’s death.

Earlier today, Department of Justice prosecutors and a Wilmington Police Department detective met with the mother and older brother of Amy Joyner-Francis to discuss with them the charges that would be brought against three Howard High School students in connection with the incident that led to the death of Amy Joyner-Francis on April 21, 2016.

The individuals responsible for Amy Joyner-Francis’s death are minors, but they must be held accountable for their actions. DOJ’s goal in making a charging decision was to ensure that those persons responsible for Amy’s death are held responsible to the maximum degree permissible by Delaware law.

In reviewing all of the evidence gathered to date, there were two facts about the case that were significant in determining the charges that could be brought. First, the Medical Examiner’s office has ruled that Amy’s cause of death was sudden cardiac death due to large atrial septal defect with a contributing factor of physical and emotional stress due to physical assault. The autopsy did not detect any internal injuries or significant blunt force injuries. In layman’s terms, the Medical Examiner determined that Amy died from a cardiac incident that she was vulnerable to because of a pre-existing heart condition, but the cardiac incident would not have occurred if she had not been assaulted.

The second fact that was significant in making a charging decision is that all of the evidence indicates that although three girls were involved in planning a confrontation with Amy on April 21, only one girl – Trinity Carr – actually hit Amy. Therefore, the charges against two of the three girls involved in the incident do not involve actually striking Amy.

Based on these facts and other facts gathered from the investigation, Trinity Carr (age 16) was charged earlier today with Criminally Negligent Homicide. Criminally Negligent Homicide is punishable by up to eight years in prison. DOJ will also seek permission from Family Court to have Trinity Carr declared non-amenable to Family Court proceedings because of the severity of her offense, and tried as an adult in the Superior Court.

The other two girls, Zion Snow and Chakeira Wright, were charged earlier today with criminal conspiracy in connection with the incident in the Howard High bathroom. Delaware law does not allow for a charge of conspiracy to commit negligent homicide. Therefore, Snow and Wright were charged with third degree criminal conspiracy, which is the highest level of criminal conspiracy allowed by law given the facts of this case. Third degree criminal conspiracy is punishable by up to one year in prison. Because neither Snow nor Wright have any prior juvenile arrests or convictions, and because they did not physically assault Amy, they will be tried as juveniles in Family Court.

Prosecutors within the Delaware Department of Justice recently obtained significant convictions and sentences.

A Wilmington man will spend eight years in prison for a domestic assault. Deputy Attorney General Joe Grubb obtained the sentence from the court for John McCasline, 50, on charges of Assault Second Degree, and Terroristic Threatening as a habitual offender. In August 2015, McCasline went to his girlfriend’s home in the 200 block of West Fourth Street in Wilmington, and during an argument, hit her repeatedly in the head with a bottle. After serving his prison term, McCasline will serve 6 months at Level IV, followed by 18 months Level III probation.

Deputy Attorney General Phillip Casale secured a plea from Robert Bright, 25, of New Castle, for Possession of a Firearm by a Person Prohibited and Possession of Ammunition by a Person Prohibited. In September 2015, Bright robbed a man at gunpoint in the 1200 block of Maple Street in Wilmington. Bright was later arrested with a loaded firearm in his possession along with several items belonging to the victim of the robbery. The court sentenced Bright to 15 years at Level V, suspended after 5 years for 2 years at Level IV, suspended after six months for 18 months of Level III probation. Bright was sentenced by the court to an additional two years in prison for Violation of Probation relating to a 2011 robbery.

Deputy Attorney General John Downs obtained a prison sentence for William Burrows, 40, of Benton Harbor, Michigan. In July 2015, Burrows traveled to Delaware from Michigan to meet a 15-year-old girl he had talked to online. The girl met Burrows at a motel in the Newark area, where he raped her. A few days later, Burrows threatened two of the girl’s friends with a knife when they told him to stay away from the victim. Burrows pled guilty to Sexual Solicitation of a Child and Rape 4th. Burrows was sentenced by the court to a total of 40 years at Level V, suspended after 15 years, followed by 6 months at Level IV, then 2 years at Level III probation. Burrows is also required to register as a Sex Offender and undergo sexual offender counseling.

Deputy Attorney General Abigail Layton secured a prison sentence for 32-year-old Donald Estep of Newark. In February, Estep pled guilty to one count of Possession of Child Pornography, and one count of Dealing in Child Pornography. Estep, who was arrested in July 2015 after an investigation by the Delaware Child Predator Task Force, created an online account to access and download images of child pornography from an overseas website. Estep was sentenced by the court to 10 years in prison, suspended after 4 years for 3 years at Level IV, suspended after 6 months for 2 years of Level III probation. Estep must also register as a Tier 2 sex offender.

Deputy Attorney General Abigail Layton obtained a four-year prison sentence plus probation for Benjamin Luscher, 43, of Newark. In August 2015, a State Police investigation showed Luscher used a computer file sharing program to download and share images of child pornography. In March 2016, Luscher pled guilty to 1 count of Possession and 1 count of Dealing in Child Pornography. The court sentenced Luscher was sentenced to 10 years in prison, suspended after 4 years for 6 years at Level IV, suspended after 6 months for 2 years of Level III probation. Luscher was also ordered to register as a tier 2 sex offender.

Deputy Attorneys General Gregory Strong and David Weinstein won a conviction against LeToni Wilson, 32, of Middletown, for Theft Greater Than $100,000. Wilson served as the trustee on a special needs trust account for her disabled child. During her tenure as trustee, Wilson diverted more than $100,000 to her own use, including the purchase of luxury items and travel. Wilson is scheduled for sentencing in June.

A New Castle County Superior Court jury returned guilty verdicts on all charges against Christopher Rivers, 33, of Wilmington, for the 2013 killing of his business partner Joseph Connell, and Connell’s wife, Olga, both 39, of Wilmington. The jury found Rivers guilty of two counts of Murder First Degree, two counts of Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, Conspiracy First Degree, and Criminal Solicitation First Degree.

Rivers’s co-defendant, Dominique Benson, 25, of Wilmington, was convicted of Conspiracy First Degree, but jurors could not reach a verdict on the charges of Murder and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony. The State will retry Benson on those charges.

Joseph and Olga Connell were killed outside of their home on Paladin Drive in Wilmington. Rivers planned the murders in order to collect on an insurance policy that he and Joseph Connell took on each other in order to protect their business. The state believes Benson was hired as one of the gunmen.

“We are gratified that this jury found Christopher Rivers responsible for the heinous murders of Joseph and Olga Connell, and hope the verdict brings some measure of closure to their family members,” said State Prosecutor Kathleen Jennings. “We’re also grateful the jury found that Dominique Benson conspired with Mr. Rivers to commit these murders, and we will most certainly retry him on the remaining counts. I want to thank the prosecution team of Deputy Attorneys General Colleen Norris, Karin Volker, and Jenna Milecki as well as Kim Moro and Evelyn Smith, who prosecuted the case, and the New Castle County Police Department for their fine investigative work in this case, led by Detective James Leonard.”