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Lawyer says murder charges against Pasco man 'not fair'
By BRADY DENNIS, Times Staff Writer DADE CITY -- The attorney for Jeff Pelley -- the Darby man arrested Saturday on charges of killing his father, stepmother and two of her daughters in 1989 -- said Tuesday that for investigators to arrest Pelley 13 years after the shootings was "not fair." "We have quite a lot to say about what we believe is a very egregious violation of due process and due trial by them, waiting 13 years to charge him based upon no new evidence whatsoever," defense attorney Alan Baum said from Los Angeles. Pelley, 30, waived extradition Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he was arrested. He soon will be taken back to Indiana, where the slayings occurred. Baum said he intends to travel to Indiana and ask a judge to dismiss the case on the grounds that prosecutors don't have enough evidence to arrest Pelley. If that fails, Baum said a jury will have to decide the case. "He sure as hell isn't pleading guilty," Baum said. "This may sound naive for someone with 34 years as a lawyer, but I'm convinced he's innocent." Family and friends said Pelley, then 17, was upset with his father, Robert, a pastor at Olive Branch United Brethren Church, for remarrying after Pelley's mother died of cancer. They said Pelley was resentful of his stepmother and her children. They also said he was angry that his father wasn't going to let him attend after-prom activities on the night of the killings. According to an arrest affidavit released Monday, investigators say Pelley grabbed a shotgun from his father's bedroom and shot the 37-year-old minister in the chest and head, killing him. They said Pelley then chased his stepmother, Dawn, into the basement, where she ran to protect two of her girls: Janel, 8, and Jolene, 6. All three were found shot in the face at close range, their bodies "huddled together, with one daughter on each side of their mother, as if they had taken cover together from the shooter," the affidavit states. Pelley's other stepsister and his biological sister were away from home, one at church camp and the other spending the night with a friend. Investigators claim that after the shootings, Pelley put his bloody clothes in the washer, took a shower, grabbed his tuxedo and attended his prom. He went bowling afterward, and the next morning left with his girlfriend and others for Great America, an amusement park north of Chicago. Congregation members found the slain minister and his family when after they failed to show up for church that Sunday morning. Jeff Pelley claimed he left the home before the shootings, but investigators said he was lying. Pelley had been the central suspect in the slayings for years; but prosecutors never charged himbecause they said they didn't have enough evidence for a conviction. But when St. Joseph County prosecutor Christopher Toth created a Special Crimes Team in 2000, investigators dived back into the case and eventually decided they had enough circumstantial evidence to convict Pelley. In 1994, at 23, Pelley was convicted of wire fraud in connection with with a scheme to access a $48,000 trust fund set up for him by his father and stepmother before they were slain. He served six months of home detention. State records show he was issued a Florida driver's license in 1991 and a marriage license in 1993. He and his wife, Kim, divorced in 1997 but remarried in 1999. They have a young son. Friends and family described him as an intelligent, computer-savvy person who worked for IBM before last weekend's arrest. He and his wife live on 27 acres of land in rural Pasco, northwest of Dade City. Baum said Tuesday that Pelley never expected the arrest and was caught off guard when customs officials detained him as he arrived in Los Angeles from Australia. "He was going about his life, traveling for his job and returning to the U.S. after a business trip, and he was arrested," Baum said. "Of course that was shocking, to say the least."
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From today's Pasco Times Editorial Letters |
