Facts about Herman's Case

Following are facts about Herman's case. If you can provide any type of help, monetary, vocal, legal or otherwise, please e-mail me.(E-mail is at the bottom of the right-hand column.)

Please follow the "Read More" link to read the facts about Herman's case and decide for yourself.


The Crime:
February 19, 1988, approximately 3:15 am - Denise Stawakoski was found dead in her car. She had been shot twice in the head. The car was found in a ditch near NW 48th and Hwy 34 in lincoln, Nebraska. No weapon was found at the scene. No known eye witnesses to the shooting.

According to trail testimony Denise was last seen alive around 1-1:30 am February 18 at the house of friends/drug-users-dealers (she left between 1-1:30am)

The Victim:
Denise Stawakoski, 25 y.o. at the time of death, married to Jeff Stawkoski with four children. She was living in Lincoln at the time of her death. She was a known drug dealer; buying drugs in Missouri and selling drugs in Lincoln. She was also an addict.

Arrest:
February 19, 1988. Herman Buckman and Goldie Fisher were arrested for the murder of Denise.

Charges:
February 23, 1988 Herman was charged with first degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a felon, conspiracy to possess a controlled substance, including allegations of habitual criminal. Goldie F. was charged with being an accessory to murder by giving authoritites false information to hinder their investigation and conspiracy to possess a controlled substance.

Convictions:
February 3, 1989 Herman was found guilty by jury trial of first degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. March 8, 1989 Goldie Fisher, by plea agreement, pled no contest to robbery and being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Evidence used to convict Herman:
1. Seen with Goldie and the victim earlier that night.
2. Was known that he and Goldie were looking for her to get drugs
3. Herman and Goldie had shown a small handgun to the victim's husband earlier that evening and wanted to trade the gun for drugs.
4. Large amounts of cash found on both Herman and Goldie at the time of their arrest. Reports/receipts from payments and money spent by both the day of February 19.
5. Man's slippers, woman's slippers found near scene of crime; Herman and Goldie were known for wearing similar type of slippers out in public.
6. Kool King pack of cigarettes found near the scene of crime (opened in a way that Herman used to open cigarette packs -- from the bottom).
7. Cigarette butts found in back seat of victim's car (saliva testing done -- defendant could not be excluded as saliva donor on cigarette butt)
8. Clothes Herman was wearing at the time of arrest (fiber from jacket similar to fiber found at the crime scene, blood samples found on clothes -- victim could not be excluded as donor of blood stains according to serologist test).
9. Jacket, two floor mats, steering wheel cover taken from Herman's car (blood samples found -- victim could not be excluded as donor of blood stains according to serologist test)
10. Sort-term cellmate of Herman's claims Herman admitted to him that he killed the victim.

Notes re: blood and saliva testing evidence:
Race of perpetrator unknown, statistical frequency evidence limited to only two racial groups; not accompanied by statistical probability evidence that was calculated from a generally accepted method.

DNA testing (done 2002 upon request of Herman) results:
Black leather jacket (the serologist claimed to have found blood on this jacket) -
Tested Negative for blood.

Yellow sweater (serologist claimed to have found blood on this sweater) -
Tested Negative for blood.

Blue Jeans (serologist claimed to have found blood on the jeans) -
Tested Negative for blood.

Black leather cap (serologist claimed to have found blood on the cap) -
found to be uninterpretable by UNMC technician because dy contained in leather cap mimicked a positive presumptive chemical test for blood.

Cigarette butts from victim's vehicle (serologist claimed contained blood group substances consistent with Herman) -
Found to contain numerous alleles that were inconsistent with having been deposited by the defendant.

Statement taken from Motion for Hearing and to Vacate Conviction, prepared by attorney on behalf of Herman:
PCR STR based forensic DNA analysis of items of evidence used by the State to convict the defendant at trial totally failed to confirm any of the serological tests claimed to have been performed by NE State Patrol serologist and directly contradict her findings and testimony.

Other issues:
Ineffective representation, conflict of interest - original trial defense attorney.
At time of Herman's trial, attorney was also representing an individual listed as an 'endorsed state witness'; attorney failed to reveal this information.
Attorney never called witnesses for the defense (such as a woman in Omaha who had provided cash to Herman that night)
Attorney came to Herman to tell him that there was a "problem with one of Goldie's ex-boyfriends" and wanted money from Herman to make the problem go away. Attorney asked for $5000. Herman gave him $2500 and some jewelry.

Herman's state appointed defense attorney has since been disbarred.

Mishandling of evidence by law enforcement -
Deputy took evidence home to an unsecure location, placed everything in a personal freezer for the entire weekend.
Instructions were to refrigerate blood sample evidence and freeze the rest.

Reasonable Doubt:
No known eye witnesses to the crime.

Murder weapon never found.

Unknown what type of handgun Herman/Goldie showed to victim's husband.

Unknown type of handgun used to commit the crime.

According to testimony of the victim's husband, Herman, Goldie and the victim had been working together in the drug business for a few months with no known difficulties. That night, neither Herman nor Goldie owed the victim any money. This brings into question, what motive there may have been.

No one knows how much cash or drugs the victim may have had on her by the time the crime was committed. She had been going out that night to do business.

Herman was seen that night in dress clothes, with dress shoes. What was Herman wearing when? When did he put on the clothes he was arrested in? Herman, Goldie and Vetta (friend who rode in Herman's car to Omaha) all did drugs, all shot up with needles. There was testimony that the victim had also done drugs with Herman and Goldie in the past. Minimal amount of blood found - could it have been from shooting up drugs? Could it have been from someone else?

The purse Goldie had at the time of her arrest had a pack of Kool King cigarettes in it. Could she have been carrying a pack in her purse poened from the bottom?

Even if it could be proven absolutely cigarette butts found in the back seat of victim's car were smoked by Herman, how long could they have been there? If they had been doing business together for a few months, isn't it possible he was in her car in the past?

Cellmate that claims Herman admitted to murder brought it to the attention of investigators four months after the alleged conversation. Discrepancies in his trail testimony. Also, the cellmate wanted to tranfer to a different facility in order to be closer to family. Coincidentally, this happened directly after he told his story.

DNA Testing results.(Inconclusive at worst... Extremely damaging to the State's case at best had the chain of evidence not been broken by the deputy in the first place and had the testing been done by a competent serologist)

Goldie:
She had been with Herman that night and had been the driver of Herman's car (with Herman as a passenger)

Had been the person to talk with the victim the times they saw her that night.

Had been the person that went to the door of the victim's house to talk with her.

Victim left the house after talking with Goldie; individuals testified to seeing this don't recall seeing Herman. They testified that the victim left with Goldie. This was the last time these individuals had seen the victim at about 1am February 19, 1988.

Goldie was picked up near the scene of the crime, near the time when the death was estimated to have occurred by a woman driving home from work.

Herman state in Post-Conviction appeal paperwork that he was offered two separate plea offers: one-plead to one count of being an accessory to murder if he agreed to testify against Goldie and two-plead to one count of second degree murder and sentenced to indeterminate term of 10 years to life imprisonment without testifying against Goldie. (Herman rejected plea offers based on his counsel's assessment that the prosecution's case was so weak he would not be found guilty at trial.)

From newspaper accounts, it appears Goldie has told several different versions of what happened that night. As part of a plea agreement, Goldie's charges were dropped from felony murder and conspiracy to possess a controlled substance and Goldie pled no contest to robbery and being an accessory after the fact. This was entered after Herman's conviction/sentencing.

The Unknown: (Eric- a.k.a. Hollywood)
A possible suspect. Possibly made a deal with State's prosecutors, currently under investigation by Advocates for Justice. In January of 1989 in reference to a major drug bust, a newspaper article stated, "...unspecified written agreement had been made with Beckwith (Eric) and the two confidential witnesses in return for their testimonies." The investigation for the arrests on drug charges had begun in September 1987.