Cheatham homicide retrial proceedings begin Thursday

Videotapes showing the crime scene where Annette Roberson and Gloria Jones were shot to death more than nine years ago reflect the age of Phillip D. Cheatham Jr.'s murder case.

Stored in cardboard sleeves, the roughly 10 tapes are recorded in VHS format rather than the DVD mode now used.

Courtroom proceedings in Cheatham's retrial start Thursday with a status conference before Shawnee County District Court Judge Mark Braun. Cheatham, 40, was transferred last week from the Hutchinson Correctional Facility to the Shawnee County Jail.

The retrial is the result of a Jan. 25 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court overturning the 2005 convictions of Cheatham.

The focus of the Thursday hearing will be to make a schedule for the upcoming trial.

The hearing was scheduled after the judge received the mandate last week from the Supreme Court. The mandate reversed Cheatham's convictions and ordered that he be tried again.

"It's still a death penalty case as far as I know," Braun said. "We're going to schedule it that way."

The case will resume with the trial, not with a preliminary hearing.

Chief deputy district attorney Jacqie Spradling said prosecutors have 90 days to get Cheatham to trial unless the defendant would ask for a continuance.

Prosecutors have reports from the first Cheatham trial, "and we'll be prepared to go forward with the (90-day) timeline," Spradling said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if (Cheatham) isn't interested in a quick trial," Spradling said. "We're looking forward to an opportunity to presenting this to another jury."

As of Monday, no motions had been filed by prosecutors or defense attorneys, according to court records.

Paul Oller, of Hays, and John Wachtel, of Wichita, are Cheatham's defense attorneys. They represented Cheatham in his appeal.

On Monday, Wachtel declined to answer any questions other than the spelling of his last name.

Soon after the Supreme Court's ruling, Washburn University law school professor Michael Kaye painted a picture of better lawyering at the defense table during the retrial, a blizzard of motions, and likely a long wait for the trial to start because prosecutors and defense attorneys might want more time to work on the case.

Roberson, 38; Jones, 42; and Annette Thomas, who was severely wounded but survived, were shot at a southeast Topeka house on Dec. 13, 2003.

Thomas told police that two men entered the house, spoke awhile, then drew handguns and began firing. Thomas told police she knew one shooter as "Phil" or "KP" but didn't know the other gunman.

Cheatham will be retried on charges of capital murder, first-degree premeditated murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a weapon.

Following a preliminary hearing from June 30 to July 7, 2005, Cheatham was bound over for trial, and prosecutors at that time filed paperwork to seek the death penalty.

In August 2005, Cheatham was convicted of capital murder.

Cheatham was sentenced in October 2005 to death for the slaying of Roberson; 50 years without parole for first-degree premeditated murder of Jones; 28 years and one month for attempted first-degree murder of Thomas, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a weapon.

The prison term totaled 78 years and one month.

In the Supreme Court decision, justices unanimously cited ineffective assistance of counsel by defense attorney Dennis Hawver as the reason to overturn the convictions.

Hawver's shortcomings included his unfamiliarity with required standards for handling death penalty cases; declining to accept state funds to hire investigators; spending 200 hours on the case, an "appallingly low" amount of time; failing to testify as an alibi witness for Cheatham; and telling jurors of Cheatham's 1994 manslaughter conviction, the court's ruling said.