Attorneys for Pablo Serrano again move to preclude death penalty

Attorneys for an undocumented immigrant accused of killing a New Florence man in 2016 are again asking a St. Louis judge to preclude the death penalty from his case.

Pablo Serrano-Vitorino is accused of killing Randy Nordman on March 8, 2016 at Nordman’s home. Serrano was on the run at the time for allegedly killing four people in Kansas. Nordman’s death started a massive manhunt in Montgomery County and authorities captured Serrano nearly 24 hours later.

Serrano’s lawyers filed a motion Tuesday claiming that Missouri’s “capital sentencing scheme” violates several court cases argued across the country.

They alleged that if a jury deadlocks on the death penalty decision, even if the majority of jurors are in favor of life in prison, a judge could rule in favor of the death penalty anyway.

Serrano’s attorneys, Heather Vodnansky and Chelsea Mitchell, quoted a case out of Maryland that referred to that structure as “the height of arbitrariness.”

They also filed a motion to strike four of the statutory aggravating circumstances from the reasons why Serrano should be sentenced to death.

Prosecutors will cite aggravating circumstances in a death penalty case. For Serrano, prosecutors included more than a dozen, including that Nordman’s killing showed a disregard for the “sanctity of all human life,” which is commonly cited by prosecutors pursuing the death penalty.

Vodnansky wrote that four of the aggravating circumstances, that Serrano committed the murder of Nordman “while [he] was engaged in the commission of another unlawful homicide,” be struck. They refer to the four people he is accused of killing in Kansas. She said that they should be struck from the list because the people were killed before Nordman’s death, not during, and so should not be part of this case.

Former Cole County prosecutor Bill Tackett said Tuesday’s filings are typical in a death penalty case. He said both sides will want to follow due process as completely as possible to make sure that the wrong person doesn’t get put to death or that a conviction isn’t eventually overturned on appeal because due process wasn’t followed.

“Seasoned death penalty lawyers, regardless of which side they’re on, they know where the boundaries are,” he said. “The defense is going to push it because that’s their job, and they should push it.”

Tackett said death penalty cases are extremely meticulous, and it can take up to 10 years before the convicted person is put to death because of the appeals process.