Thursday, November 02, 2000

By DONNA J. ROBB

PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

AKRON - Jurors listened yesterday to Frederick A. Nelson's gruesome taped confession of how he shot and scalped Mark S. Burton for having sex with his wife.

The jury in Nelson's murder trial saw a photograph of a shotgun blast to Burton's groin. They saw another photo of Burton's partially scalped head. And they heard Nelson brag to detectives that Burton was alive long enough to see Nelson take his scalp.

"I wanted him to live long enough to see me scalp him. He was looking at me, pleading with his eyes," said Nelson, who worked as a paramedic for 18 years. "It was just like that scene in Last of the Mohicans. You pull up the hair and slice. That's the eternal stroke."

Nelson will take the stand today. In the taped confession to police, Nelson said that on Aug. 5 he bought a shotgun and hunting knife at a Wal-Mart in Stow. Then, he shaved the sides of his head and tied a bandanna around it, "like Robert DeNiro in the movie Taxi Driver,'" he said.

He got drunk, shot a few practice rounds near a Cuyahoga Falls middle school; left a note to his wife and three children on the door of their home, apologizing for what he was about to do; visited his wife's brother to tell him he planned to kill Burton; loaded his minivan with clothes and a jug of vodka and orange juice; and at 9:30 p.m., drove to Crocker's, where Burton worked as a chef.

Burton, Nelson said, had to "pay the price" for the seven-month affair he had with Nelson's wife of 19 years. She was a waitress at Crocker's but was not working that evening.

Nelson walked into the restaurant with the shotgun at his side. He approached Burton behind the bar. Burton, known as Marko, "turned and walked away. I shot out his left kidney. He fell and rolled onto his back. I shot his groin," Nelson said, laughing as he spoke to two Cuyahoga Falls detectives.

"Then I shot his chest. Being a paramedic, I knew there would be a delay when he could watch me scalp him," Nelson said. "Being a paramedic for 18 years, you know, I've seen a lot of people die."

"The alcohol made me violent. I couldn't do nothing, man. I couldn't deal with anything. I couldn't keep my attention. I couldn't sleep for more than three hours at a time. Something happened in my brain," he said, referring to his wife telling him on Aug. 4 that she planned to file for divorce. "I was just a normal dude before that," he said.

Nelson said he put a red hawk feather on the scalp and stuck it to his dashboard as he drove into Pennsylvania, where he planned to borrow money from a friend and head to Mexico. His van broke down 85 miles from Cuyahoga Falls. Pennsylvania state troopers arrested him shortly after midnight.

He was sleeping on the side of the road with the scalp tucked in his belt.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf?/news/pd/cc02nels.html

Remember you guys: if you are on a jury, you can refuse to convict the defendant if you believe that the law under which he is being prosecuted is unjust. It's called "Jury Nullification." Look it up on the Web.

YOU KILL THE MAN WHO HAD AN AFFAIR WITH YOUR WIFE, BUT DO NADA TO HER!

It is also not worth spending the rest of your life in jail having your beaver licked and fingered and being made to do the same, or getting buttwhomped by the biggest baddest mother fucker in the prison. Who walks up to and says you my bitch now suck me and also fucks you in the ass and pimps you out to the rest of the population.