USA - Florida. Judge Larry Schack ordered a new trial for Eugene Wayman McWatters Jr.

Circuit Judge Larry Schack ordered a new trial for Eugene Wayman McWatters Jr. known as the 'Salerno Strangler'. McWatters, 36, White, deserves a new trial because his lawyers failed to make a meaningful or organized effort to represent him, the judge has ruled. On Dec. 4, 2006 (see) judge Schack gave McWatters 3 death sentences for the rape and strangling of three women in a 2004. The victims were: Jacquline Bradley, 43, found in a Golden Gate canal on March 31, 2004; Carrie Caughey, 18, found June 3 on the east bank of a Port Salerno lake; and Christal Wiggins, 29, found 4 days later on a different bank of the same lake. In addition to the three death sentences, Martin Circuit Judge Larry Schack ordered 3 consecutive life prison terms for the rapes of the victims, and he tacked on the state requirement of chemical castration if he meets the medical criteria. The law mandates that those convicted of 2 sexual batteries begin taking the drugs before release from prison, but they also can be administered to inmates in prison if believed necessary. McWatters, on death row since, appealed, and in an April hearing before Schack he accused his attorneys Robert Udell and Rusty Akins of poorly representing him. Schack issued a 73-page ruling this week that concluded that the lawyers brushed off basic arguments, missed obvious opportunities to challenge key parts of the state's case, and even failed to keep a complete case file in what has become one of the biggest murder cases in the region. Prosecutors have 30 days to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.