MIBowhunter
10-30-2003, 04:48 PM
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
18 years to trial, 2 hours to guilty
2 brothers convicted of killing metro hunters who disappeared in '85
October 30, 2003
BY HUGH MCDIARMID JR.
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
STANDISH -- For almost two decades, the mystique shrouding the Duvall brothers' involvement in the disappearance of two metro Detroit hunters mushroomed like an urban legend.
The legend crashed down on top of the pair Wednesday in the 120 minutes it took jurors to find them guilty of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning deaths of Brian Ognjan of St. Clair Shores and David Tyll of Troy.
Raymond (J.R.) Duvall, 52, and Donald (Coco) Duvall, 51, now face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for the 1985 murders on a cold, dark road near Mio.
For the families of the murdered men, it was a bittersweet moment.
"They took my son. It doesn't bring him back, but it's something," said Tyll's father, Arthur Tyll, quivering with emotion outside the courtroom. "I was glad to see them cuffed, and I can't wait to see them in chains."
The quick verdict stunned many observers who had settled in for long deliberations over mountains of evidence presented in the 7-day trial before 23rd Circuit Judge Ronald Bergeron.
Jury members declined to comment after the verdict.
As the word "guilty" came from the jury foreman, Raymond Duvall dropped his head on the defense table. Donald Duvall sat stoically. Some family members wept as the pair left the courtroom in handcuffs. Relatives declined comment.
The hunters' disappearance 18 years ago sparked an intensive manhunt that attracted national publicity.
Dozens of lakes and rivers were searched, fields dug up, cadaver dogs called in, aerial searches conducted and ground-penetrating radar employed. No trace of the men, their belongings or their truck was found.
The investigation, spearheaded by the Michigan State Police, eventually focused on the Duvalls, two of a tightly knit clan of seven brothers known as hard-drinking, hot-tempered brawlers.
Donald and Raymond Duvall spent much of the 1980s living in trailers and small houses in the woods of northeast Lower Michigan. They cut wood and sold junk cars, supplementing their incomes with poached fish and game.
According to trial testimony, the Duvalls bragged of the murders to relatives and friends. The brothers said they fed the men's bodies to pigs.
More than a half-dozen witnesses cited terror and threats as factors in not coming forward with information.
"Their human faces are nothing more than masks for monsters," said Donna Pendergast, assistant state attorney general, in her closing argument Wednesday.
She shot frequent glares at the Duvalls as she lobbied jurors. The crime "is an evil so dark your worst nightmare pales in comparison," she said. "There is no understanding of pure evil, only the recognition of what it is."
Despite the campaign of fear, witness statements trickled out over the years, including sealed testimony from the Duvalls' own brothers at a 1990 Oakland County grand jury hearing. The final piece to the puzzle came in 1999, when a tip led State Police Detective Sgt. Robert (Bronco) Lesneski to Barbara Boudro.
For several years, she refused to fully cooperate out of fear the Duvalls would kill her, she said. Finally, under oath at a special hearing this year, she admitted she saw the beating in a field near her home.
There, she said, she watched as Donald Duvall crushed Tyll's skull with a baseball bat before the two brothers beat Ognjan to death with punches and kicks.
"I've never had a trial quite like this," Pendergast said. "We had a witness who had some problems," she said, referring to Boudro's nervousness and hard-drinking lifestyle. "But I'm glad after all these years we went for it. I thought the family deserved closure after 18 years."
Defense attorneys said they planned to appeal the convictions.
"Certainly," said Seymour Schwartz, Donald Duvall's attorney. "It's a murder conviction. You can't let it lie."
He said he was unsure on what grounds he would challenge the verdict, but said he thought the trial and judge were fair.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said he is confident the verdict will stand "We have the best prosecutor in the state doing the case," he said of Pendergast.
Pendergast is married to Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson.
Pendergast and Lesneski choked back tears after the verdict, accepting praise from Tyll and Ognjan relatives who had sat through the trial. The men were both 27.
After the verdict, Helen Ognjan, 84, spoke softly about Brian, her only child.
"I'm glad," she said. "I'm just glad."[/b]
18 years to trial, 2 hours to guilty
2 brothers convicted of killing metro hunters who disappeared in '85
October 30, 2003
BY HUGH MCDIARMID JR.
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
STANDISH -- For almost two decades, the mystique shrouding the Duvall brothers' involvement in the disappearance of two metro Detroit hunters mushroomed like an urban legend.
The legend crashed down on top of the pair Wednesday in the 120 minutes it took jurors to find them guilty of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning deaths of Brian Ognjan of St. Clair Shores and David Tyll of Troy.
Raymond (J.R.) Duvall, 52, and Donald (Coco) Duvall, 51, now face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for the 1985 murders on a cold, dark road near Mio.
For the families of the murdered men, it was a bittersweet moment.
"They took my son. It doesn't bring him back, but it's something," said Tyll's father, Arthur Tyll, quivering with emotion outside the courtroom. "I was glad to see them cuffed, and I can't wait to see them in chains."
The quick verdict stunned many observers who had settled in for long deliberations over mountains of evidence presented in the 7-day trial before 23rd Circuit Judge Ronald Bergeron.
Jury members declined to comment after the verdict.
As the word "guilty" came from the jury foreman, Raymond Duvall dropped his head on the defense table. Donald Duvall sat stoically. Some family members wept as the pair left the courtroom in handcuffs. Relatives declined comment.
The hunters' disappearance 18 years ago sparked an intensive manhunt that attracted national publicity.
Dozens of lakes and rivers were searched, fields dug up, cadaver dogs called in, aerial searches conducted and ground-penetrating radar employed. No trace of the men, their belongings or their truck was found.
The investigation, spearheaded by the Michigan State Police, eventually focused on the Duvalls, two of a tightly knit clan of seven brothers known as hard-drinking, hot-tempered brawlers.
Donald and Raymond Duvall spent much of the 1980s living in trailers and small houses in the woods of northeast Lower Michigan. They cut wood and sold junk cars, supplementing their incomes with poached fish and game.
According to trial testimony, the Duvalls bragged of the murders to relatives and friends. The brothers said they fed the men's bodies to pigs.
More than a half-dozen witnesses cited terror and threats as factors in not coming forward with information.
"Their human faces are nothing more than masks for monsters," said Donna Pendergast, assistant state attorney general, in her closing argument Wednesday.
She shot frequent glares at the Duvalls as she lobbied jurors. The crime "is an evil so dark your worst nightmare pales in comparison," she said. "There is no understanding of pure evil, only the recognition of what it is."
Despite the campaign of fear, witness statements trickled out over the years, including sealed testimony from the Duvalls' own brothers at a 1990 Oakland County grand jury hearing. The final piece to the puzzle came in 1999, when a tip led State Police Detective Sgt. Robert (Bronco) Lesneski to Barbara Boudro.
For several years, she refused to fully cooperate out of fear the Duvalls would kill her, she said. Finally, under oath at a special hearing this year, she admitted she saw the beating in a field near her home.
There, she said, she watched as Donald Duvall crushed Tyll's skull with a baseball bat before the two brothers beat Ognjan to death with punches and kicks.
"I've never had a trial quite like this," Pendergast said. "We had a witness who had some problems," she said, referring to Boudro's nervousness and hard-drinking lifestyle. "But I'm glad after all these years we went for it. I thought the family deserved closure after 18 years."
Defense attorneys said they planned to appeal the convictions.
"Certainly," said Seymour Schwartz, Donald Duvall's attorney. "It's a murder conviction. You can't let it lie."
He said he was unsure on what grounds he would challenge the verdict, but said he thought the trial and judge were fair.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said he is confident the verdict will stand "We have the best prosecutor in the state doing the case," he said of Pendergast.
Pendergast is married to Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson.
Pendergast and Lesneski choked back tears after the verdict, accepting praise from Tyll and Ognjan relatives who had sat through the trial. The men were both 27.
After the verdict, Helen Ognjan, 84, spoke softly about Brian, her only child.
"I'm glad," she said. "I'm just glad."[/b]