Withdrawal of murder plea is sought

Defendant claims admission coerced

By Carol Sowers
The Arizona Republic Oct. 30, 2001

Walter Elze Jr., a nancial adviser who pleaded guilty to bludgeoning and stabbing a Sun City woman to death, now says his confession was coerced after 10 hours without food or sleep and several hours strapped into a controversial "restraint" chair. Elze's Aug. 4, 1999, confession to premeditated murder "was offered as a result of what can only be described as torture," defense attorney Nick Hentoff, wrote in a motion to a judge to withdraw Elze's guilty plea. Hentoff said Elze was denied food, water and sleep from 2 p.m. until midnight on Aug. 3, 1999, during an interrogation by Maricopa County sheriff's deputies. Elze didn't confess during that interrogation to the July 29, 1999, murder of one of his clients, 72 year-old Shirley Noe, Hentoff said. But, after the questioning was over, deputies arrested Elze, took him to Maricopa County Jail, where he was strapped into a restraint chair at 1:30 a.m. Aug. 4, because ofcials feared he was suicidal, jail records show. He was in the chair at least until 5:15 a.m. While he was strapped down, Elze said he would harm himself if he were freed and knew he was in jail "because I killed somebody," according to the jail account. He was arrested later that day after confessing to the murder. Sgt. Bill Knight, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Ofce, said it is not the policy to deny food or water to inmates in the restraint chair and that it is commonly used to control suicidal or belligerent inmates. Elze, married and the father of two young children, pleaded guilty on June 19 to the murder, telling Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael McVey that he hit Noe with the palm of his hand, then bludgeoned her with a hammer and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. He also told McVey that his guilty plea was not the result of physical force or threats. Elze's former attorney, Richard Miller, who was aware that his client had been in the restraint chair, advised him not to plead guilty, according to court documents.

Prosecutors, who will not comment on the case, say Elze killed Noe to cover up the fact that he had embezzled $200,000 from her accounts to nance his gambling debts. Hentoff's eleventh-hour motion to withdraw the guilty plea was led on Oct. 22, three days before Elze was to be sentenced to either life in prison or death by lethal injection. No hearing date has been set for the motion. If McVey allows Elze to withdraw his plea, Hentoff wants him to go to trial, convinced that prosecutors couldn't prove that he planned the murder. "At the least the allegations would only support manslaughter or seconddegree murder," Hentoff said.
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