Oklahoma death row inmate claims dad confessed to 1996 murder of OU ballerina Juli Busken
A death row inmate claims he has new evidence that he is innocent of the 1996 murder of University of Oklahoma ballerina Juli Busken.
Anthony Castillo Sanchez, 44, claims his father confessed before committing suicide last April.
Busken was shot in the head at Lake Stanley Draper after being abducted from a Norman apartment complex early Dec. 20, 1996, and raped. She was 21.
Anthony Sanchez was convicted of first-degree murder at a 2006 trial after being identified as a suspect by his DNA. He has always maintained he is innocent, telling the victim's parents after the guilty verdict, "I swear to God, I didn't kill your daughter."
He is now asking the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate his conviction because of the new evidence.
"This court should at a minimum grant an evidentiary hearing so the innocence claim can be explored further," said his attorney, Mark Barrett.
The new evidence comes from Charlotte Beattie, a longtime girlfriend of the father.
Glen Sanchez first acknowledged in 2020 that he killed Busken, the girlfriend wrote in a sworn declaration.
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In 2021, "Glen said more than once that he 'should have done a better job' of killing Ms. Busken," the girlfriend wrote.
"Once he said he ... enjoyed watching her die," she wrote. "Glen said that he regretted Anthony was on death row for something Glen did. But he said that Anthony was tough and could deal with being locked up, whereas Glen wasn't strong enough to adapt to being incarcerated."
Beattie met Glen Sanchez in 1992, and they have a son together, according to her declaration. Glen Sanchez committed suicide on her front porch in Midwest City. He was 68.
Anthony Sanchez sought the post-conviction relief Friday, days after Oklahoma's new attorney general hired an independent counsel to review death row inmate Richard Glossip's innocence claim.
"While I am confident in our judicial system, that does not allow me to ignore evidence," Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a news release Jan. 26.
Anthony Sanchez is set to be executed Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
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Spiritual adviser for Anthony Sanchez: '... I believe I have encountered a case of actual innocence'
Discovering the new evidence was his spiritual adviser, Jeff Hood.
The spiritual adviser said he learned of the confession when he "began to engage various family members and whatnot."
"I've worked with dozens and dozens and dozens of guys on death row throughout our country. This is the first situation ... where I believe I have encountered a case of actual innocence," Hood said Monday, speaking via a videocall from Little Rock, Arkansas.
The victim was abducted after taking a friend to the airport. She had completed her courses at OU and had packed to return to her parents' home in Arkansas and enroll in graduate school.
A neighbor reported hearing a man saying, "Just shut up and get in the car."
Anthony Sanchez became a suspect after his DNA was collected when he went to prison for a burglary. His DNA matched DNA found on the victim's underwear and a pink leotard discarded at the crime scene.
He has claimed before that his father could have been the real killer. His attorneys argued in 2011 in a federal appeal that a sketch of the abductor "closely resembles" his father.
They also argued the eyewitness responsible for the sketch thought the abductor was several years older than the victim. Anthony Sanchez at the time was 18.
At trial, prosecutors also used shoeprints, ballistics evidence and a call to convict Anthony Sanchez.
"It was one thing after another," said Tim Kuykendall, a former Cleveland County district attorney.
More:Oklahoma Attorney General Drummond hires independent counsel to review Richard Glossip case
"I don't care if a hundred people come forward and confess to killing Juli Busken, all of the evidence pointed to no one but Anthony Sanchez," the former DA told The Oklahoman on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton noted the cellphone evidence in a 2015 opinion rejecting a challenge to the conviction.
"Then, after the murder, the fact that Ms. Busken’s cell phone was used to call petitioner’s ex-girlfriend is more than just a coincidence," the Oklahoma City federal judge wrote.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma death row inmate Anthony Castillo Sanchez says he's innocent
