DELAND -- Edgewater resident Russell Charles Bradshaw, already found guilty of murdering 21-year-old Lisa Memro of New Smyrna Beach, told circuit Judge James R. Clayton on Friday that he doesn't want to share a cell with certain people out of fear he could be harmed.
The judge said he called an emergency hearing after word got back to him by deputies that Bradshaw had hoped he would get the death penalty so he could have his "own" cell, something the judge couldn't guarantee him.
Convicted felons who receive life sentences are pla ced in general population while those sent to Death Row get their own cells, though they have far less freedom and no physical interaction with other prisoners.
The judge said he told Bradshaw he'd have the final say on punishment after the 12-member jury recommends life in prison or death by lethal injection. While judges are instructed by Florida statutes to give great weight to the jury's recommendation, the judge has the final say.
The jury found Bradshaw guilty Friday of first-degree murder and sexual abuse of a dead body in the Sept. 25, 2006, slaying of Lisa Memro in his parents' Edgewater home. She was beaten, strangled and her throat was slashed from ear to ear, after which her blood was drained in the tub and her body carried to a bed for sexual intercourse. The jury took less than three hours deliberating the verdicts. Bradshaw did not take the stand in his own defense.
The penalty phase is Monday in Clayton's courtroom at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand.
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