Does anyone think CD will be charged with conspiracy in Charles Vallow's death?
Why did CD go to trial? Did he actually want the death penalty? Did he think he was going to actually win his trial? I doubt Prior is going to hold his hand through the appeal process. It seemed toward the end of the trial, that JP was done with CD. Things definitely were much cooler between them as the trial went on...
I will never forget, JP at the defense table, touching CD, as if to "prompt" or remind him to pretend to at least show some sort of emotion during the testimony about the autopsy of Tammy Daybell, his wife...CD showed himself to be an absolute stone cold psychopath during the trial. He didn't even know how to fake emotional responses.
"Does anyone think CD will be charged with conspiracy in Charles Vallow's death?"... I do not.
"Why did CD go to trial?".... Because he killed people and they caught him. He didn't have any option to tell the state not to try him.
"Did he actually want the death penalty?".... Exactly the opposite, but he didn't have any way to avoid trial.
"Did he think he was going to actually win his trial?" .... Hard to say, but he had everything to gain and nothing to lose by going to trial.
It feels like you're thinking the state would have given him a better deal for a plea, but I didn't get that sense at all. Ever. In fact, I think everything that was done by CD and attys, both before and during trial, was for the purpose of trying to create some sort of leverage to get them to take the DP off the table somehow, and the state never did.
I don't have any sense that he was offered any choice at a different verdict in any way at any time. The state had the evidence on him, by the bucketload. They wanted him DP-ed because this case - killing his faithful hard-working innocent wife and brutally eliminating his lover's kids in a quest for money and sex - cries out for it.
So his choice was to take a plea, admit guilt, and get the DP, or go to trial and get the DP. imo
Oh, and BTW, I am confident Prior is done with this case. The typical procedure with appeals is that they get handed over to someone else, who specializes in appeals, and I bet CD already has a different (state paid) attorney working on finding appealable issues that might have some chance at success.