A deal could be in the works for accused child killer Patrick Cody McCormick to avoid retrial and not spend another day in prison.
McCormick is scheduled to appear back in Elko District court for a status hearing next week on March 4th.
McCormick who had his murder conviction overturned last November by the Nevada Supreme Court is now free on bail awaiting a possible retrial later this year.
McCormick was tried and convicted of the 1995 murder of then 14 month old Jacob Jones.
His trial gain notoriety not only because of the age of the victim but also because McCormick was represented by “rock star” attorney Ron Yengich of Salt Lake city and the fact that Yengich lost.
In addition to possibly freeing McCormick, the court’s finding that the Carlin miner deserved a new trial because his original attorney was grossly incompetent sent shock waves across the intermountain west.
“We aren’t talking about some inexperienced, under paid public defender,” said McCormick’s new attorney Rick Cornell. “This is Ron Yengich, who is promoted as the best defense attorney in the west.”
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The winning appeal attorney, Cornell was supposed to have handed off the case to another lawyer after the bail hearing earlier this month. However according to court documents Cornell is still the attorney of record representing McCormick.
While his name may merely be a clerical error, Cornell did outline a deal with the Elko district Attorney Marc Torvinen before the bail hearing.
“It’s really not that hard,” Cornell said at the time. “McCormick signs an agreement not to sue the state for false imprisonment. He either takes a plea with the time served or the charges are dropped. He walks free and the state and county avoid an expensive trial and a trial they have a real good chance of losing.”
According to cornell and the Nevada Supreme Court agreed the “expert” testimony of Dr. Ellen Clark that sent McCormick to prison was extremely suspect and could have been easily challenged by another pathologist.
Part of the court’s ruling is reprinted below:
Opinions such as those of Dr. R. Gabriel, whom appellant
retained for the post-conviction proceedings, would have impeached Dr.
Clark’s testimony and provided a plausible, alternative cause of death that
did not implicate appellant. Dr. Gabriel opined based on the victim’s
medical records and the autopsy report that the victim died from
anaphylactic shock due to penicillin poisoning. He explained that it was
in fact not “unusual” that no penicillin was found in the victim’s system as
it would have been fully metabolized before death, an opinion with which
Dr. Clark agreed at the evidentiary hearing held for the instant petition.
Dr. Gabriel further opined that the medical records and autopsy report
contained insufficient evidence to support child abuse as a cause of death.
17 years later the burden for the state is even greater.
“A new trial with so much time passed would not be easy for the prosecution,” said retired District Judge Mike Memeo. “Witnesses forget, evidence is destroyed or ruined. It isn’t impossible getting another conviction but it isn’t easy.”
The prospect of McCormick walking free is even acceptable to Jacob Jones’ father Ben Jones under certain conditions.
In an emotional interview with the High Desert Advocate earlier this month, Ben Jones, the father of murdered toddler Jacob Jones agonized over his few options regarding the upcoming hearing of Patrick Cody McCormick.
“It would be hard to swallow,” said Ben Jones. “But I could live with McCormick not serving another day behind bars. What I could not take is if he walks out not guilty. That is completely unacceptable.”
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE FATHER ,Ben Jones. HE HAS SUFFERED MORE THEN ANYONE COULD IMAGINE
I am Jacob’s grandmother, Ben’s mother. I can not begin to tell you the heartbreak and pain this family has suffered over the last 18 years. We have tried to remain silent and let the Elko District Attorney do his job. We have tried to remain silent in the face of the comments by Patrick McCormick’s brother and friends in order not to try this case in the media. I can no longer just wait and watch. The comment from McCormicks brother that he (McCoemick) has given 17 years of his life, what more could the family of this child want was absoultly unconscionable. If Patrick Cody McCormick is so very innocent, Why did he try to plea-bargin at the first trial? Plea to manslaughter, then too 2nd degree murder when that was refused. These pleas both were refused because the Elko DA Gary Woodbury had an air tight case against McCormick! I also was at that first trial and testified that Jennifer Jones was an awful mother, I did not like her, but she never hurt her children. My question is why wasn’t the fact that McCormick also beat his other children & the women he lived with and the women he was married to, allowed to be submitted as evidence? No one is talking about all of this. What ever happens with the legal system, I truly believe Patrick Cody McCormick was quilty of the brutal murder of my grandson Jacob William Jones, a 14 month old baby. 20 blows to his head alone, neck fractured between C1 & C2, he went into respiratory arrest then full cardiac arrest because C1/C2 control the respiratory center. Jacob was brain dead by the time he got to the hospital. This is NOT SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME, this child was beaten til he died! Whatever happens in the legal system, I know that McCormick will eventually get his due when he burns in hell for the agony and pain he has inflicted on the family by beating an innocent child to death. I just pray that anyone who has helped free him gets the same as well. Patrick Cody Mccormick, may you BURN IN HELL!
Patrick Mccormick was watching the child, his brother Thomas the paramedic testified against him. a jury convicted him and now we hear of a reaction to penicillin. He was represented by a famous trial attorney who somehow was negligent in his representation. Should Patrick McCormick be able to walk away sue the state of Nevada and become a rich man when words of force like a train were used describing the trauma inflicted on this baby of fourteen months.
Thankyou Gaylene!