CAUTION, CRIME SCENE PHOTOS

I’d love to know your thoughts on this case: does Linda Carty Deserve Death?

A British grandmother by the name of Linda Carty has received a boat load of press in recent years; she is accused of the worst kind of crime, and today she sits on Texas death row. There are plenty of people all over the world frantically trying to free this woman originally from St. Kitts, they believe her to be innocent. I’d love your opinion, and below I’ll be sure to add a documentary which favors her, just in case you’re interested.

Alright, so this horrific crime occurred at approximately one the morning of May 16th of 2001. At this time a group of masked men burst through the door of brand spanking new parents Joana Rodriguez and her husband, an honest construction worker by the name of Raymundo Carera. The young couple had been sleeping in bed with their 3 or 4 day old infant, Ray, at the time of the invasion. Raymundo was savagely beaten, pistol whipped, and bound with duct tape while the beautiful new mama and her brand new baby boy were kidnapped. After the invaders exited the residence, Raymundo’s cousin, who had been sleeping downstairs, came to untie him; together the men fled to a nearby apartment where the police were promptly summoned.

Investigators spent hours interviewing the victimized family’s neighbors, and they did learn some interesting information. A lady by the name of Linda Carty, who’d very recently moved out of an apartment just a couple of doors down from victims, had been telling everyone that she was nine months pregnant as well; people took note of this as, strangely, Linda had not appeared to be with child at all, let alone close enough to give birth!

Police already knew Linda pretty well, therefore they called and asked her to come up to the station in order to discuss a complaint she’d somewhat recently filed. Once there, they interrogated her about the home invasion and kidnapping; Linda stated that she believed it was possible that her vehicle may have been used in a crime, and she directed investigators to a spot in which she believed the vehicle may possibly be found.

After following Linda’s directions, police found two vehicles in a parking lot; it was here that they discovered the stolen baby boy who had been abandoned in the back seat of a running vehicle. While baby Ray was given back to his father unharmed, sadly his mother was nowhere near as fortunate. Joana was discovered laying inside the trunk the second vehicle; the beautiful new mother had been hog tied, duct tape had been placed across her nose and mouth, a plastic bag had been taped over her head, and there was a rope around her neck. Both of these vehicles at the scene could be ties back to Linda; one belonged to her twenty-one year old daughter, and the other had been rented by Linda for the day; Linda’s fingerprints was found all over both.

When the intruders, Chris Robinson, Gerald Jerome Anderson, and Carliss Ray Williams Jr. were caught, they promptly admitted to having been the ones who’d physically committed the crime; each and every one of them immediately pointed the finger at Linda Carty. Chris, who appears to be the leader of these men, claimed that he’d only known Linda because she was a drug dealer; they’d been friendly for a while when she’d come to him with a way to earn some serious cash. Linda had told Chris that there was plenty of money and 900 pounds of marijuana hidden somewhere within the victim’s tiny apartment. Chris claimed that everything of value found inside of the home was supposed to go to his crew as Linda had only wanted the pregnant woman.

Linda had confided to Chris that Joana had been having an affair with her own husband, and since the baby was a product of that make-believe affair that the infant really belonged to her; Chris explained that the vengeful wife had planned to commit fetal abduction, which is cutting the baby out of a mother’s womb. Chris would later say that he didn’t know what to do when he found a mother and a baby as he’d been expecting a pregnant woman. So he’d gathered up both mother and her newborn and them handed baby Ray to Linda who had been anxiously awaiting outside at the bottom of the stairs; as far as Joana, she was placed in the trunk.

The group thoroughly ransacked the home but, to their dismay, discovered less than a grand; this was money with which the victims had been saving to purchase their own vehicle. In reality, Raymundo and Joana had truly been decent, honest, hard working, law abiding, salt of the earth type folks over the moon with their new lives as parents. There had been no extramarital affair, Joana had done absolutely nothing to warrant this; this couple’s only crime had been living in that apartment where a desperate Linda had noticed them.

Linda vehemently denied all allegations against her. She swore that she’d loaned her vehicle to a man who she barely knew, but this person has yet to be found. The woman claimed to only have known the man who had kidnapped the mother and infant, Chris Robinson, after being recruited by the DEA to, in her words, “put a sting on him”. Though the DEA says that this is untrue, Linda had worked as an informant for a little while back in 1992 after finding herself on the wrong side of the law when she’d stolen a vehicle and pretended to be a FBI agent. Instead of facing a prison sentence and deportation, Linda had happily agreed to ten years probation and to become an informant; two people were arrested due to her work with the government. After Linda herself was arrested on drug charges, the DEA claims to have cut all ties with her.

Linda’s supporters claim that there is no hard evidence which proves her guilt; while that may be true, man there’s more circumstantial evidence than you could shake a stick at!

A fellow inmate by the name of Sarah Hernandez testified at trial that while in jail Linda had approached her with a favor. The accused had begged Sarah to copy an already written letter; this letter was supposed to look like it was written by a man named Oscar, and the content involved Chris and Zeb borrowing Linda’s vehicle and placing the kidnapped baby inside it. The fictitious Oscar stated that this was done because the men wanted to get even with Linda. Sarah was asked to rewrite the letter as Linda needed it to be in someone else’s handwriting.

A friend of the criminal mastermind would later testify that Linda had claimed to be scheduled to have her labor induced on the day of the murder; on top of this, more witnesses claim that Linda had been driving around town on the day of the murder showing off a baby boy that she’d claimed to have just given birth to! But wait, there’s more! Inside the trunk in which baby Ray was discovered were tons of infant material: brand new newborn clothing, a stroller, car seat, all of the essentials in which a new mommy would need. There was also a diaper bag which contained other damning materials such as surgical scrubs, a stethoscope, and scissors; police surmised that this had all been gathered by Linda in preparation of the fetal abduction which she had been planning to commit.

CAUTION, GRAPHIC CRIME SCENE PHOTOS AHEAD!

Linda claims everyone and their mothers are lying, and that she truly had been pregnant just five months prior to the incident but that she’d miscarried. She insists that all of the baby items had been purchased by or gifted to Linda in the months prior to this, and these items had coincidentally been inside of her vehicle at that time. Now, that might have been a feasible explanation, except at the time of Linda’s arrest she’d been staying in a hotel room. Detectives thought this was a little off as the woman had just moved out of that apartment in close proximity to the victim’s and into a new home. During a search of Linda’s hotel room guess what they found? More baby stuff, of course! There was an infant bathtub and several other baby items! There’s just no reasonable reason for Linda to have had all this!

Countless witnesses testified against Linda at court, and one of these was an inmate by the name of Sarah Hernandez. Sarah claimed to have been approached by Linda with with a favor. The defendant had asked Sarah to copy an already written letter; this letter was supposed to look like it was written by a man named Oscar, and the content involved Chris and Zeb borrowing Linda’s vehicle and placing the kidnapped baby inside it. The fictitious author stated that the crime was committed strictly with the intent of getting even with Linda. Sarah was asked to rewrite the letter as Linda needed it to be in someone else’s handwriting.

The men who committed the kidnapping each turned state’s evidence against Linda. Chris stated on the stand that he had simply wanted the drugs and money said to be inside the home; had murder been this man’s intention, he stated that he definitely wouldn’t have left any survivors to testify against him. Chris swore that he had even attempted to save Joana’s life that night by ripping off the plastic bag which Linda had secured over her victim’s head, but it was too late; the innocent young mother was already deceased. In later interviews Chris matter of factly stated that if he had it all to do over again, Joana would still be alive; Chris makes no bones about it, he wishes he could go back in time and murder Linda instead.

As for motive, the prosecution claimed that Linda’s common law husband, Jose Corona, had been planning to leave the marriage (some sources claim he’d already left) if Linda didn’t produce a baby. This was why the woman was so desperate to get her hands on a baby. Though Linda and Joana didn’t really know one another, they would’ve seen each other in passing. Being at the end of her pregnancy Joana must’ve caught Linda’s eye, at which point she had concocted an evil plan. The jury believed the prosecution, and in February of 2002 Linda was sentenced to death. Her co-conspirators were given hefty sentences, but not the death penalty; Chris Robinson is serving 35 years.

So, as I have already stated, people around the world are up in arms over this case and I’m about to tell you why. If you’re still reading lol I’m sorry I’m so long winded! Anyhow, they are upset that the men who have actually admit to having committed the crime, to breaking in the home, received lighter sentences than Linda. They’re also enraged that a victim of a violent crime could possibly be sentenced to death! After moving to the big city, back in 1988, Linda had studied pharmacology at the University of Houston. She claims that she was robbed and raped in the college parking lot one night; this sexual assault lead to the birth of a baby girl who was put up for adoption at birth.

The prosecution believes Linda’s alleged victimization to be untruthful as she never reported any robbery or rape. They explained that, since Linda had been studying medicine, she’d have known better than most as to exactly what could come of unprotected sex, especially of a violent rape; they stated that if Linda truly had been a victim she would’ve gotten herself tested for various sexually transmitted diseases, if nothing else! They also claimed that while it is true that so many sexual assaults go unreported, most of those are cases in which the victim knows her (or his) attacker. In a crime such as this, a sexual assault and robbery which occurred in a public place, a larger majority of victims would’ve reported this type of attack immediately. The prosecution reasoned that Linda only cried rape in an attempt to hide the “social stigma” of pregnancy after a one night stand. It also must be stated that those who prosecuted Linda’s case have been accused of acts such as withholding witness statements, destroying evidence, and of convincing witnesses to lie on the stand. Of course these prosecutors claim that all of this is just a bunch of lies.

Linda’s nationality plays a huge factor in all of the support and attention she’s received. She is a woman born in a British territory living in the United States of America; many feel very strongly that this woman should have been appointed a British attorney to fight for her, and that Linda was not given adequate representation. They feel that the public defender who specialized in capital cases appointed to defend Linda didn’t even attempt to save her life, and it is a fact that Jerry Guerinot has seen more than 20 of his clients sentenced to death. They claim that the lawyer called absolutely no witnesses even though there were witnesses to call, and he only met with Linda for a very brief time before the trial.

While conducting my own research on this case it appears that Linda had not only one attorney, but two; Windi Akins also fought on Linda’s behalf but you rarely hear any mention of this. These two sing a much different song; Jerry Guerinot has stated: “Linda refused to speak to me or my co-counsel, Windi Akins, because she insisted she was hiring her own lawyer… She was the most uncooperative defendant I have ever represented in a capital murder case… She told us about the circumstances surrounding her stay at the Hampton Inn Hotel and the items found in her room. Based on that information, we filed a motion to suppress evidence that was recovered in her hotel room, and we were successful in that motion… She continued to state that she was hiring other attorneys and again stopped communication with us during the trial.”.

Linda’s supporters did raise enough hell that a higher court actually took a second look at the case, but last year it was ruled that Linda will remain on Texas death row.

MY OPINION: If you have followed me for any length of time you already know that I just love me a good sob story, and that calling attention to injustices is my mission. I dove head first into this case truly expecting to find just that, but honestly I fail to see how this woman could have possibly been uninvolved in this horrific murder. The only potential injustice I can find is that Linda didn’t receive a British attorney when she probably should’ve been appointed one. Linda did not receive a talented American lawyer, but shamefully that can be said for so, so many people in this country’s prisons. It’s exceedingly common for a financially challenged US citizen to find themselves in a situation such as this because decent lawyers don’t come cheap; that is why we hear of people such as OJ or Casey Anthony getting away with murder and innocent people being sentenced to death. It absolutely does happen, and more often than most of us care to admit; still, a person having shoddy legal representation does not equate to their innocence. And, if her attorneys did successfully file a motion to suppress that very damning evidence from being heard at trial, can we honestly say that they didn’t try?

The fact is, were Linda an American citizen, it’s extremely unlikely that any of us would would’ve heard her name; very few would give a damn if she were scheduled for execution tonight. My question for you: if a person comes to the US and is accused of a crime of this magnitude, should the death penalty be an option for them? Should they be subject to what much of the world sees as extreme punishment? Furthermore, do you believe that the death penalty should still be an option? Do you believe Linda’s case should qualify? I’ll add that documentary at the very bottom of this article. Please, let me know what ya think!

As for the victims here, Joana’s husband, Raymundo, soon took his baby boy to be raised with family in Mexico. They are reportedly doing well today – as well as they can possibly be given what they’ve been through.

*I’m only mentioning this because I know there will be comments about it if I don’t. I’m well aware that many, many women do not report their sexual assaults. At age 14 I did not report my own rape; it absolutely did happen, and my rapist was a man in his mid 20’s. So I’m not insinuating that she’s lying about that. But really, what does that have to do with what was done to Joana? As horrific as that is for a woman, it doesn’t give any of us a free pass when it comes to murder.

**** Hi, sorry I haven’t been around but trust me, I have good reason! I made a post about posting soon on the public Fb page, and then I caught a ban, and then SW Florida got hit head on with almost category five hurricane Ian – like the eye of the storm went right over top of my moms house in fort Myers where we were staying! Everyone a block in any direction of my moms house, those people had to swim in their homes to survive. The city I love so dearly is leveled and soooo many of my friends and loved ones lost EVERYTHING. My house and my moms houses are still standing, though mine is terribly damaged. But at least I have a home, and that’s so much more than so many of my loved ones can say. When I tell you it’s been hell, it’s been actual hell. We were out of electricity for weeks (in the south Florida heat, trust me, that’s not okay. People die from no electricity!), no internet for even longer, and my husband missed multiple weeks of work because there just was no work. But again, we are so fortunate to have a home – can you tell that we’re trying so hard to look on the bright side? And then my aunt Carol passed away last week, there’s just been a lot going on. I do hope you’re all doing well, and I promise to post articles here and on the FB page more often. I can not promise that I won’t disappear every once in a while but I’ll never completely give up writing these articles. I promise you! And for my patrons there are a few new Patreon Article available (including one from tonight) if you’re interested. ❤️~ Crystal Bearr