ZACHARY and HEATHER SAVANNAH FREIBERG - 7 AND 2 yo - (and mother Lisa) / Charged: Boyfriend, Edward Covington - Lutz, FL

Mom, 2 children mutilated and dismembered in Fla.

Tue May 13, 2008 7:19 pm

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A woman and her two young children slain north of Tampa were found mutilated and dismembered in a crime scene that investigators described as one of the most gruesome they had ever seen.

Lisa Freiberg and her children, 7-year-old Zachary and 2-year-old Heather Savannah, were found dead in their mobile home Monday morning. The 26-year-old woman's live-in boyfriend was found hiding under some clothes in a closet and was taken to a hospital after claiming he had ingested an unknown substance, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said Tuesday.

At least one of the victims had been decapitated, and the bodies were in such bad shape that visual identification was impossible, Gee said. The family's white German shepherd also was killed.

For investigators, the mobile home in Lutz is an "extremely tough crime scene, emotionally and logistically," Gee said.

The boyfriend has not been charged and remains at the hospital under guard, Gee said.

The sheriff said more than one weapon had been used, but he would not elaborate, and he did not discuss possible motives.

Neighbors said that Freiberg had met her boyfriend on the Internet, and that he had recently moved in. He was not the father of the children.

Gee said the bodies were found by Lisa Freiberg's mother, who checked on her daughter after becoming concerned when she didn't hear from her on Mother's Day.

http://www.refugeesunleashed.net/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=14610

Writing samples including award winning articles from Community News Publications


Many saw trouble in confessed triple murderer’s life


Posted by Debbie Carson under Hard News

Published Nov. 5, 2008

By Debbie Carson, Staff Writer

LUTZ — Family members, co-workers and neighbors of Lutz murder victim Lisa Freiberg knew about violence and other problems she experienced with confessed killer Edward Covington. He is suspected of violently murdering Lisa and her two young children on Mother’s Day.

Newly-released law enforcement reports show:
–The parents of mother Lisa Freiberg took photos of suspicious injuries on some of her children. –One of Lisa’s co-workers at Wal-Mart said that Lisa told her she had been beaten by Edward Covington since he lost his electrician apprentice job weeks earlier.

–On May 10, the day before the murders, Probation Officer Stephanie Phelps went to Lisa Freiberg’s home to see Covington and inspect the home. In the report, Phelps wrote that Lisa’s house “was very messy with stuff everywhere.” She also noted: Covington “said his girlfriend was a pack rat and they were working on cleaning the house.”

Phelps also wrote that Covington did not have a job, though he told her he was looking.

The file ends: “No problem or concerns noted at present time.”

–Savannah’s paternal grandmother, Patricia Dupuis, told investigators that Lisa, the children, and Covington had visited her and Savannah’s father, Thomas Fish Jr., at their home in Zephyrhills Saturday evening – the night before the murders. During the visit, Dupuis noticed a bruised area under Lisa’s son Zachary’s eye that Lisa could not account for.

–Lisa’s neighbor Ricky Russell told investigators that at around 6 a.m. Sunday, May 11, he woke up to the sound of pounding noises outside. He said he thought it was the neighbor dog thumping his tail against the side of the trailer. It continued for 45 minutes.

While they were outside working, they continued to hear the noise of pounding. Friend Wesley Vyner said that he could see in the window of Lisa’s home and what looked like someone “beating a dog.”

Vyner said he was up on a ladder and could see down into a window in one of the bedrooms. He knew it was a guy doing the beating but couldn’t see what the target was due to the wall.
***
New documents recently released shed more light on what is the most horrific crime in recent history in Lutz and in Hillsborough County.

Those documents are part of the case against 35-year-old Edward Covington. He is charged in the brutal murders of his girlfriend, Lisa Freiberg, and her two young children, Zachary, 7, and 2-year-old Heather Savannah. The horror was on Mother’s Day, May 11.

The family dog, Duke, too, was slain. The only survivor of the attack was a family cat that authorities found hiding under a bed.

Covington is accused of murdering the mom and her children and then dismembering their bodies, decapitating one, and leaving bite marks on the youngest.

Deputies found Covington hiding under clothes in a closet in the home on Monday, May 12.

The documents also reveal that family and co-workers knew that his relationship with Lisa Freiberg was troubled.

A phone call the day of the murders
The ex-wife of Edward Covington told detectives that she received a phone call from him the morning of the murders.

Cheri Tate told Detective Dale Bunten that Covington called at 9:42 a.m. from a number she didn’t recognize and that he left a message.

“He said, ‘Cheri, I need you to call me. I’m in a lot of trouble’ and he says, ‘please call me right back.’ It was calm, like nothing was wrong or anything. It was just smooth. It was empty,” she recounted. “And he said, he said, ‘I need you to call me back immediately. I’m in trouble.’”

Tate told the detective that she tried calling him a couple times later that day, leaving him messages. He never called back.

E-mails 2 days before the murders to classmate
A high school classmate of Covington shared e-mails with detectives she and Covington had sent each other.

Jorelle Nowlin, of Ocala, told detectives that she had neither seen nor spoken to Covington until 2006, when she found him on http://www.Classmates.com.

They had e-mailed each other as recently as Friday, May 9, two days before the murder.

Documents released in the case include those e-mails:

In the e-mails, Covington tells Nowlin that he’s not dating anyone, he suffered in a recent divorce and that he once weighed 460 pounds but is now 195.

Covington wrote: “well how are u doing. Me not too good got divorced. and lost just about everything. It has been a hard and long road comming back so what is up with you.”

Nowlin replied: “Hey. I’m so sorry to hear that. I’m doing fine. I’ve got to get ready to go to a doctor appointment, but i’ll be around later if you’d like to talk. It is always nice to hear from an old friend. Jorelle”

Covington responded at 9:38 a.m.: “Well I am doing fine. Divorce was a hard bitter pill for me to swollow. I am working with the I.B.E.W. Local 915 as an apprentice inside wireman. Who would have every thought i would become an electrican. I am down to 195 pounds now.. I feel so much better now. It is hard to believe that back in 2003 I was weighing 460 pounds and now I weight 195. But I am still not dating, I lost my spark that i had back when i was young. I cant believe just how much i lost in the diveorce. I know it will take time but to be honest a part of me ereally doesent want to see anyone but a part of me does. Well I will talk to you later. Eddie”

What Lisa’s family knew
The day of the murders, investigators spoke with Lisa’s babysitter who told them that Lisa’s parents, Barbara and Keith Freiberg, had taken photos of injuries the children had suffered. Detectives went to the Freiberg’s home to view the photos and take the camera into evidence. The photos, according to the report, showed bruising on 2-year-old Savannah’s behind, swelling on her lip and bruising around her eye.

According to an interview with Savannah’s father and his mother, Lisa told them that Savannah had fallen and landed on her face, causing the injuries.

Savannah’s paternal grandmother, Patricia Dupuis, told investigators that Lisa, the children, and Covington had visited her and Savannah’s father, Thomas Fish Jr., at their home in Zephyrhills Saturday evening – the night before the murders.

During the visit, Dupuis noticed a bruised area under Zachary’s eye that Lisa could not account for.

Fish told investigators that he met Covington for the first time that night, that they had shaken hands and that Covington “seemed nice” and “seemed polite and coherent.”

Fish also said that he noticed cuts on the right side of Savannah’s lip and her nose.

Fish told investigators that Lisa had asked him to talk to Zachary about the “importance of minding her.”

The report reads: “Tom Fish stated he talked to Zachary and at the conclusion he asked Zachary if he understood and said Zachary went rigid and said ‘yes sir.’ Tom Fish stated he asked Zachary what he had said and he replied ‘yes Tom-Tom,’ which is what Zachary would normally call him. Tom Fish stated he just assumed Eddie was trying to teach him discipline and didn’t think anything else about it.”

He also told investigators that during their visit, his dog became very protective of Lisa and the children and would bite at him if he acted like he was hurting them.

What co-workers knew
Evelyn Tincher worked with Lisa Freiberg at the Wal-Mart near the intersection of Dale Mabry Highway and Bearss Avenue in the Northdale/Carrollwood area. She told detectives that she had known Lisa for nine months and that Lisa had last been at work that Friday, May 9.

Lisa told Tincher that “Eddie” had recently lost his job and was “stressed out about the difficulty in finding a new one.” Tincher told investigators that she did not believe Lisa nor Covington used drugs.

Tincher noted that Lisa never told her she was afraid of Eddie.

Another co-worker, Audrey McEwen, painted a very different picture of what Tincher supposedly knew.

McEwen told investigators that she had overheard Lisa talking with two employees, Tincher and Linda Abner, about her boyfriend losing his job two weeks prior and that he had started beating her.

What Lisa’s babysitter knew
Marissa Bohannon was a babysitter for Lisa since late December 2007. Lisa would drop the children off at Bohannon’s home and she would pick them up from there. Bohannon was responsible for getting Zachary to Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, where he was a happy student. Lisa helped with his homework.

That had always been their arrangement except for once “several weeks” before when Lisa asked Bohannon to leave the children with Covington at their home.

Bohannon and a friend went to Lisa’s home to drop off the children, she said. “As she went to leave, Savannah chased her out of the house and was crying and saying ‘no,’ the interview report states. “Eddie followed them out and took Savannah from Marissa and began to comfort the child.”

She told investigators that “several weeks ago” – from the murders – Lisa spent three hours with Bohannon crying, saying she was scared of Eddie. Lisa told Bohannon that Eddie is bi-polar and off his medication and that he “is unable to control his anger problems and threatened to kill himself.”

Bohannon tried to ask questions about Covington but Lisa would avoid answering them. She also said that Lisa and Covington fought a lot.

The week leading up to the murders, Bohannon noticed that Savannah had a black eye and a swollen lip and that the next day her lip was even more swollen.

What the probation officer knew
Probation Officer Stephanie Phelps has been an officer since 2005, according to Gretl Plessinger, the public affairs director for the Florida Department of Corrections. She said there has been no disciplinary action in Phelps’ file.

Phelps was assigned Covington’s case in April, during which he was serving probation on drug-related charges. In early April, Covington received permission to move in with his girlfriend temporarily while he searched for a job.

Probation Officer Philip Springer, who handled Covington prior to Phelps’ taking over, noted in a report released from the Florida Department of Corrections that he had been laid off from his job.

Covington had missed work too many times, the report said.

According to the report, on May 2 Covington took two drug tests, both of which tested negative.

On May 10, the day before the murders, Officer Phelps went to Lisa Freiberg’s home to see Covington and inspect the home. In the report, Phelps wrote that Lisa was making lunch for the two kids and that the house “was very messy with stuff everywhere.”

She also noted: Covington “said his girlfriend was a pack rat and they were working on cleaning the house.”

Phelps also wrote that Covington did not have a job, though he told her he was looking.

The file ends: “No problem or concerns noted at present time.”

What neighbors heard, saw the day of the murders
Neighbor Ricky Russell told investigators that at around 6 a.m. Sunday, May 11, he woke up to the sound of pounding noises outside. He said he thought it was the neighbor dog thumping his tail against the side of the trailer. The sound continued for 45 minutes. At 7:15 a.m., Russell left to pick up a friend who was helping him put a roof on his back patio.

While they were outside working, they continued to hear the noise of pounding and the friend, Wesley Vyner, said that he could see in the window of the neighbor’s home and what looked like someone “beating a dog.”

Vyner gave more details about what he saw and heard to Detective Dale Bunten.

“I keep hearin’ this thumpin’…thumpin’ thumpin’..and ah…I look over and hear this do…I hear this dog yelpin’, he’s squallin’ pretty good,” Vyner said, though he was quick to point out that he never saw a dog and didn’t know if it was a dog or a person being beaten.

Vyner said he was up on a ladder and could see down into a window in one of the bedrooms in Frieberg’s home. He knew it was a guy doing the beating but couldn’t see what the target was due to the wall.

When asked how many swings the man had taken, Vyner said, “it had to be every bit of 10, 15 times, easy.”

The sighting happened sometime between 8 and 9 a.m., Vyner told Bunten.

He said that he continued to hear the thumping noise for a couple hours thereafter.

“You didn’t think of anything additional though?” the detective asked Vyner about the noise.

“Couldn’t think of…you know, I mean, I thought the…the dog mighta nipped at one of the kids or somethin’, that’s why, you know,” Vyner said.

“Oh, why he was beating the dog,” Bunten responded.

“Why he was beating the dog, right, you know,” Vyner said.

The missing pieces
According to authorities, Covington has admitted to killing the family and provided the grisly details. He has offered no motive for the rampage and authorities have not released any case notes or other documents regarding his confession.

Other evidence that has not been released includes a 911 call from that day, video of the crime scene, which is referenced in the documents, and the contents of investigators’ interviews with Covington.

Covington’s history of violence
Covington had been married to a woman identified as Cheri Tate for about 2 1/2 to 3 years – she wasn’t sure in an interview with investigators.

During the interview, Tate recounted a violent marriage filled with false accusations against her that landed her in jail for domestic violence.

“In the beginning he was nice,” Tate told Detective Dale Bunten on May 15. “It wasn’t violent. After a while, it started getting really violent. And when he, when he started hitting me, and he, he would get away with it, you know. The cops would get called, I’d go to jail.”

She explained that she is a convicted felon and the cops would take Covington’s word over hers because of that and because he worked for the Department of Corrections.

She recounted one time when he attacked her and was interrupted when her mother walked in. He later broke his own nose in the doorjamb and told authorities that Tate had hit him and did the damage, Tate said. Investigators later discounted his story once they found traces of blood in the doorjamb.

Along with physical violence, Tate told the detective that Covington was also verbally abusive, leaving violent messages on her message machine, cussing her.

“He never really threatened me over the phone,” she said. “It was just, you could hear the violence in his voice when he was cussing me.”

She said that she’s saved as many as 20 of the messages.

Tate also told the detective that she believed Covington was still using drugs, for which he had lost his job and had been placed on probation.

“He called me several times at four, five o’clock in the morning and he had been high and telling me how he had messed up, again, you know, from smoking crack and stuff,” Tate said. “He would take anything. He’s been known to steal my pills…my prescription medication.”

Deputies: Covington sold motorcycle for crack
A week before the murders, authorities say Covington sold his motorcycle for crack.

When they led Covington away from the mobile home, Covington exhibited what some described as a trance-like or dazed state. He told an officer that he had overdosed.

“I O.D.ed before you got here,” Covington said. “I took over 100 pills. I don’t know what I took. It was in a green bottle.

Officers took him to University Community Hospital – Fletcher where he was kept under observation. While officers kept watch over Covington, he offered no statements regarding the incident, the documents reveal.

And while he was in the hospital, his parents came to see him. The conversation between the family members was not part of the documents released.

Officers described Covington’s demeanor in the hospital as “calm the whole evening as he laid in the hospital bed.”

When arrested, he was on probation for drunken driving and drug convictions.

Other pieces of information pertaining to Covington’s past include:

–His decade long career with Florida state prisons in Hillsborough and Hardee counties included accusations of abuse of inmates and excessive absenteeism. His father Ronnie Covington was a detention deputy at the Falkenburg Road Jail.

–His criminal record includes at least five arrests on battery charges since 1994, with adjudication being withheld in four cases.
–His driving record includes 14 accidents, a DUI in Pasco, and tickets for careless driving and speeding.

Could there have been other victims?
On May 17, after Covington had been arrested, a woman called from Pinellas County to say that she had met him in a Pinellas library in January and that he would not leave her alone. When she refused to give him her name or contact information, he gave her his e-mail address and asked her to e-mail him.

The woman, later identified in documents as Carol, said that she is “afraid he has committed other crimes that no one knows about.”

A Hillsborough sergeant sent an e-mail to the address the woman provided but did not receive a response.

“It is doubtful if this information can be verified,” the sergeant wrote in a report, “that his complainant actually met Covington. If in fact she did, no information leading to criminal activity can be gained from this complainant.”

The person who took Carol’s call wrote in the report: “Please be advised, female caller also states she has a long list of dramatic incidents in the past and has been seeking professional help and is afraid no one takes her seriously.”


http://debbiecarson.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/triple-murder-trouble-11-5-08/

Citing nightmares, Lutz man is excused from hearing testimony in his own triple-murder case

Monday, January 27, 2014 6:30pm



Edward Covington may face the death penalty if convicted.

TAMPA — A former prison guard accused of killing his girlfriend and dismembering her two children successfully begged a judge to let him skip most of a court hearing Monday, complaining that detectives' harrowing descriptions of the victims' remains might trouble his sleep.

"I don't want to be here at all," said Edward Covington, 41. "No, seriously. I am at a point where things in the past are no longer troubling me. I'm not having nightmares and I want to keep that as long as possible."

Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente expressed skepticism about the unusual request, warning Covington that he might forfeit opportunities to consult with his defense attorney about testimony against him.


But when Covington insisted, the judge allowed him to return to jail a mere three hours into the daylong evidentiary hearing in one of the goriest homicide cases in Hillsborough County's history.

The episode did not rest well with Barbara Freiberg, mother of the slain Lisa Freiberg and grandmother of Lisa's dead children, 2-year-old Savannah and 7-year-old Zachary.

"That's what made me mad," Freiberg told the Tampa Bay Times during a courtroom break. "He can finally sleep at night, and he doesn't want to get his nightmares back? Well, what about our nightmares? Our whole family is going to have nightmares for the rest of our lives."

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Covington, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of abuse of a human body.
.
Authorities say he dismembered the children and mutilated Lisa Freiberg's body. The family members had been beaten, choked and stabbed. One body was decapitated. Amid the blood in the family's home on S Mobile Villa Drive in Lutz, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies found Covington cowering in a closet.

The killings took place on Mother's Day in 2008.

"I don't know if there's one word that could cover it, but the closest I could come would be 'horrendous,' " retired sheriff's Deputy Donald Custer, the lead detective on the case, testified Monday. Sheriff David Gee said in 2008 that it was the grisliest crime scene he had ever seen.

Like many capital cases, Covington's has moved slowly through the court system since his arrest, stalled by extensive pretrial litigation and questions about the defendant's history of mental illness. Fuente said that he expects the trial to begin in October.

The latest sparring between prosecutors and defense attorneys is about due process issues surrounding Covington's arrest. His attorneys are asking that statements he gave to police after his arrest — including a detailed confession that hasn't been fully disclosed — should be thrown out because Covington was not initially allowed appropriate access to a lawyer.

Testimony on those issues is expected to continue today. Fuente is not expected to make a ruling until hearing from a final group of witnesses in March.

Covington worked as a corrections officer for the state of Florida until 2006.

While the hearings' outcome could help him, Covington clearly resented his trip to court Monday. Before testimony began in the morning, he could be heard griping to his attorney about the expectation that he be present.

A heavy, balding man with a week's worth of a beard similar to what he had when he was arrested, Covington is jowly and pale. Before the judge excused him from court, he glowered at the deputies who took the stand to talk about his arrest and shook his head at times as they spoke.

Covington's avoidance of the images connected to the murders is not new. In a portion of his video-recorded interrogation that was played in court Monday, he breaks down sobbing as detectives prepare to read him his Miranda rights.

"I'm afraid," Covington said in the 5-year-old video. "The pictures I'm seeing in my head is what's scaring me."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/citing-nightmares-lutz-man-is-excused-from-hearing-testimony-in-his-own/2162969

This POS needs to be hog tied and forced to sit in the courtroom for every minute of this trial.  He needs to be forced to listen to every bloody, gory detail of his heinous bloody, disgusting murders of 2 precious children and their mother.

Why do women bring POSs into their bed and home and put their children at risk?  She knew he was evil and continued to lie for him and cover up for him.  Not only did she pay the price, her children paid a heavy price.  They paid with their lives.

Lutz triple-slaying defendant Edward Covington could benefit from appeals court ruling

Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:26pm

TAMPA — A state appeals court decision last week could spell trouble for prosecutors pursuing charges against Edward Covington, the former state prison guard accused of killing his girlfriend and her two children in a Lutz mobile home on Mother's Day in 2008.

The Hillsborough Public Defender's Office is arguing that it was improperly denied access to Covington for two full days after he was found hiding in the mobile home and taken into custody. The 2nd District Court of Appeal opinion, which will serve as a precedent for Hillsborough County, overturned the double-murder conviction of a Pasco County man under similar circumstances.

Covington, 41, was read his Miranda rights by a sheriff's deputy when he was found in his underwear in a closet at the home of Lisa Freiberg on the day after Mother's Day. Also in the mobile home were Freiberg's mutilated corpse and the dismembered bodies of her children, 7-year-old Zachary and Savannah, 2.

Over the next 48 hours, attorneys from the Public Defender's Office tried to meet with Covington at a Tampa hospital where he was being kept under guard by deputies. But only after Covington had been taken to the Sheriff's Office and confessed in a lengthy interrogation did detectives tell him that lawyers were trying to see him.

Defense lawyers are now asking a judge to suppress the confession, arguing that it was obtained in violation of Covington's due-process rights.

The Pasco case involves similar legal questions. Michael McAdams was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife, Lynda McAdams, and her boyfriend, William Ryan Andrews. Pasco deputies refused to tell him an attorney hired by his parents was trying to see him as he confessed to the murders, was arrested, and then led them to where he had buried the bodies.

While the appeals court found that McAdams' confession was legally obtained because he was not yet under arrest — and thus not entitled to an attorney — when he gave it, the court also ruled that the information about the bodies should be suppressed because McAdams was not informed about his lawyer.

"Any evidence collected after detectives read Mr. McAdams his Miranda rights until they told him about the attorney was collected in violation of Mr. McAdams' right to due process under the Florida Constitution," the court found.

At first glance, the case would seem to bolster the arguments of Covington's attorneys. Covington's confession was obtained after he had been read his Miranda rights by deputies who knew, but did not tell him, that lawyers wanted to see him.

However, the attorneys trying to see Covington were from the Public Defender's Office, and had not yet been appointed by a judge to represent him. Private attorneys, by contrast, can be hired by a suspect's relatives and don't have to wait for an official court appointment.

Hillsborough Public Defender Julianne Holt said that her office was still reviewing the McAdams ruling, but that defendants shouldn't be at a disadvantage simply because they are unable to afford private counsel.

"We're a government agency representing indigent people," she said. "Should they be treated differently?"

The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office declined to comment. At court hearings, sheriff's deputies have asserted that Covington was not technically under arrest when the defense attorneys first tried to see him.

Circuit Judge William Fuente is scheduled to finish hearing pretrial testimony about Covington's statements this month, then rule on whether the confession will be admitted as evidence at Covington's trial in October.

Tampa defense attorney John Fitzgibbons, a former federal prosecutor, said he thinks the problem of suspects being denied access to lawyers is widespread.

"The police do back-flips to keep a lawyer from someone they want to talk to, because the police know a lawyer will tell someone not to make any statements," he said. "The problem is that in trying to keep a lawyer away from someone, police might jeopardize a case."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/lutz-triple-slaying-defendant-edward-covington-could-benefit-from-appeals/2169011

Prosecutors plan to argue for death sentence for Covington

Edward Covington pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend and her two young children.


Published: November 2, 2014   |   Updated: November 3, 2014 at 05:24 AM
TAMPA — Edward Covington says the children he murdered loved him.

He says he was close to their mother’s family, that before he brutally murdered and mutilated Lisa Freiberg and her two young children, he spent the holidays with the Freibergs and learned from her father how to install a transmission in her truck.

Lisa Freiberg’s mother says she saw Covington only a few times before he slaughtered her daughter and grandchildren on Mother’s Day in 2008. Barbara Freiberg testified she didn’t even know Covington was living with Lisa, 26, Zachary, 7, and Heather Savannah, 2.

This week, prosecutors will argue that Covington’s version of the relationships justifies a death sentence.

“While living with the Freibergs, Edward Covington routinely and lovingly participated as a caregiver in the daily lives of the Freiberg children,” the prosecution wrote in a court pleading to support prosecutors’ assertion that Covington’s “familial authority” role over the children is an aggravating factor justifying a death sentence.

Just after his trial began, Covington pleaded guilty Oct. 24 to murdering Freiberg and her children, as well as mutilating their bodies and killing the family dog, Duke, a white German shepherd.

Covington told Circuit Judge William Fuente he wants to waive his right to have a jury recommend his sentence, and have the judge preside over the penalty phase of his trial. Fuente put jurors on standby in case Covington changes his mind.

The trial was disrupted when Barbara Freiberg was on the witness stand. Her statements minimizing her family’s interactions with Covington enraged him. Freiberg also testified that she suspected the defendant was abusing her 2-year-old granddaughter.

Saying they weren’t representing his interests, Covington also fired his public defenders and said he would represent himself. He said he would present no evidence to argue against a death sentence because that is what he deserved.
But Covington relented and agreed to be represented by his team of public defenders during the penalty phase of his trial. They are expected to assert that his mental illness should justify a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Covington has been treated for bipolar disorder since he was 15, his lawyers have said.

In seeking a death sentence for Covington, 43, prosecutors also will argue several aggravating factors in addition to his position in authority over the children.

The deaths of Lisa and Heather Savannah, the prosecution says, were what the law refers to as “heinous, atrocious or cruel.” According to legal instructions given to jurors in such cases, “The kind of crime intended to be included as heinous, atrocious, or cruel is one accompanied by additional acts that show that the crime was conscienceless or pitiless and was unnecessarily torturous to the victim.”

The acts typically would have to occur while the victims were still alive and conscious and wouldn’t include the mutilation Covington inflicted on the victims’ corpses.
Other aggravating factors asserted by the prosecution include the fact that Covington was on probation at the time of the killings for driving under the influence of drugs, that the killing of Heather Savannah was in the course of aggravated child abuse, that the two young victims were younger than 12 and that there were multiple killings.


http://tbo.com/news/crime/prosecutors-plan-to-argue-for-death-sentence-for-covington-20141102/