He did indeed - but it never went anywhere did it? There was a lot of 'who are the 7 gatherers?' asked of some witnesses, but when one explained who they were (was it Zalena?), IIRC, Prior didn't persue it further. Prior did not put up a defence, he just 'scatter gunned' various thoughts, trying to cause confusion to the jurors (who thankfully saw it as such).
He totally abandoned the paintball gun theory, which never made sense presented along side the "Chad was the real target," theory. But the paintball theory was stronger, because Lori and Alex wouldn't have killed Chad while he was married to Tammy. And Garth forgot his Dakota lines on stage. So I will never get why Prior dumped the paintball gun defense.
Prior tried to question Melanie's testimony by saying she was in cahoots with Rob Wood to protect the LDS church, all the while trying to normalize Chad's prepper doomsday dogma, and implied that Chad was being prosecuted for his religious beliefs that Melanie was protecting? The defense was, " They're all crazy fundamentalists in East Idaho, Chad's just an Everyman there, Chad has every right to express his whacky religion, but Melanie is suspect because she is defending it."
(Meanwhile: BS Melanie wanted to protect LDS. She wanted to protect herself from being booted. She wanted to talk RW ear off about what a good church girl she was, and RW had to listen to it, because she was an important witness.)
Prior's claiming that LE was out to get Chad was a non-starter because of the genuine concern the LE witnesses had for the case and the victims, especially the children. Prior had the previous trial to see how they testified. Also hours of kindly body cam footage. I am not pollyannish about LE, but this was not likely to be a jury of people who lost relatives and neighbors to police abuse. When libertarian-leaning people are skeptical of LE, they don't mean LE work like this.
After all the buildup around the seven gatherers, it was a big nothing-burger. And Prior grabbed the gatherer name for Chad- claiming he was doing some kind of pre-apocalypse charity work. That was absurd, too, considering absolutely none of the texts or emails or erotic stories referenced any service to the community. Alex was envisioned saving little children, but James and Elena were apparently exalted for doing nothing but hooking up between murders.
Then, there was Emma and Garth. There testimony was pathetic and only highlighted that there was no defense. I imagine Seth couldn't testify because that would bring in his journal. And Leah and Mark had nothing to say but, "my dad is a good guy." If they were willing. And being that they were not mitigating witnesses, I speculate they were not willing to say that.
The "she was so hot I couldn't help myself" defense wasn't even developed. I think the jury was not amenable to it anyway, but I'm surprised Prior didn't emphasize the yellow bathing suit text more- show more beautiful pictures of Lori.
MOO
