Oh, where to start, where to start.
First, I want to say that I am so relieved for the Carter family that this nightmare is finally leaving from the forefront of their lives. I almost typed "this nightmare is over", but it will never be over because Beverly is never coming back. My hope for them is that they can finally attempt to move on with their lives without having to deal with "The Arron Show". Things for them will never be the same, but like it or not, life goes on and they deserve to live theirs without having to deal with this sociopath on a near daily basis.
I truly wish them nothing but the best.
Over the course of the last few days I had the opportunity to chat with Beverly's coworkers, friends and family members. The one thing that was consistent from all of them was that Beverly was the type of person to light up a room and that she was very special. Every single one of them stated that if you had ever met Beverly or knew Beverly, then you would realize just how ridiculous the assertions were that AL had made. You could tell they all thought it was so ludicrous as to almost be funny.....if the situation weren't so serious. Because of course there was NOTHING about these proceedings that were funny. Not that AL felt the same way...more on that later.
The day started out with CC Sr. on the stand. He did SO GOOD! I know this had to be one of the hardest things he's ever done in his life (if not the hardest) and he handled it so very well.
Defense attorney James approached CC Sr. much differently than he has any of the other witnesses. Gone was the "in your face" confrontational, bullyish attorney. That Bill James was replaced by the new and improved gentle and understanding Bill James. Pretty obvious to me that he was being very careful as to not seem like he was bashing the widower.
He began by telling CC he was very sorry for his loss. CC described his relationship with his wife at the time of her disappearance as "very good". When CC was asked about their financial situation, he described a life with a series of financial ups and downs, but stated that they "always pulled out."
There was some questioning of CC regarding BCs sales figures...the fact they were $12 million in 2013 and #2 million at the time of her death in Sept. 2014. James was still trying to insinuate that BC was having a mid life crisis and was using their 2014 financial stresses as another chip in the supposedly happy facade.
They discussed BC's surgery. CC stated that BC hadn't thought the recovery would take as long as it did.
James went back to the financial stress and questioned CC about a realtor's convention in Florida coming up that December that BC usually attended but had decided she could not attend that year due to not having enough money to go.
James questioned CC about Beverly's actions on Facebook before she died and asked if it were true that BC had "cut off" her own mother and sister on FB, which I'm sure he was hoping that would show more family stress and more reason to believe that her life was in turmoil. CC explained that it was, in fact, some sort of dispute between BCs mother and sister and that BC had become involved because she was "the leader of the family." When asked about CC's supposed statement to police (at the time of her disappearance) that BC had blocked her own mother on FB, CC testified that what he meant was that the sister had blocked the mom. It seemed to me like either someone had misunderstood him or that in his state of stress, he misspoke. Either seemed extremely plausible to me.
CC stated that BC suffered from anxiety and sometimes depression, especially after their son died (Duh!) He said she took medication for anxiety. She had been prone to anxiety attacks for the last 3-4 years but CC said it was because she tried to do too much and was working too hard.
Next discussion was her surgeries. CC stated that the surgeries were up to her and that he stood behind her if she wanted to do them....or not. He further stated "she was a pretty lady to me. She just wanted to make herself prettier."
James asked if her personality changed after the surgeries. CC - "No". James then trots out a transcript of a previous statement CC had given police. CC had forgotten his reading glasses, so the judge gave him his. LOL I didn't quite catch what he was reading from the transcript, but after reading it he clarified "she changed for the good."
Before ending his questioning, James once again told CC he was very sorry for his loss. Awww...what a sweet, cuddly Bill James we saw this morning.
On the state's cross of CC, they went ahead and brought up all the ancient "dirty laundry" that the defense had tried to bring up in their desperation to show BC as some sort of crazed, cheating wife. I'm not going to dignify most of it here because it was all stuff that happened 20+ years ago and had NOTHING to do with anything that has happened in this case.
One part I will bring up is that the defense had several times thrown up a statement that CC had made at some point to BC about if the grass was greener on the other side, man up and tell me before you leave. It was regarding something in one of the police reports. Insinuating that they were recently discussing divorce. So, the state gave him a chance to explain.
CC clarified that an unnamed family member had been going through a bad divorce and that he and BC were having a general husband/wife discussion about the bad divorce. CC was just saying to her something like "Man, i tell ya what...if you ever decide to leave me, just tell me!" In his attempt to truthfully answer all the questions that investigators were (rightfully) asking him when his wife disappeared, CC relayed this statement. But remember kids! Context matters. I'm glad he was able to give that statement some context. Afterwards, it didn't seem nearly so sinister.
CC testified that he had built BC a stool to use to get into bed after her surgery. She was still using it to get into bed the last night she spent at her home. In other words...she wasn't all the way healed and was still weak.
:sniff: In their last phone conversation, BC told him "I love you". He replied with his own "I love you".
Defense asked another question before he was released, but it wasn't anything worth going into. Just another clarification and some context to a statement he had given to police.
Again, he really held up well on the stand. I don't think there was a person in that room that wasn't metaphorically sitting in that chair right along with him.
End of this post...will post about Psycho Arron's testimony in another post.
