CO CO - Kelsey Berreth, 29, Woodland Park, Teller County, 22 Nov 2018 - #34 *ARREST*

[Seattle1]

Feb 4, 2019 - KOAA/News 5

TELLER COUNTY – An Idaho woman is traveling to Teller County later this week for a court appearance as part of the investigation into Kelsey Berreth’s disappearance.

Lee Richards, the spokesperson for the Fourth Judicial District, confirmed to News5 that Krystal Lee will appear in Teller County court on Friday.

She did not say what Lee has been charged with, and she did not detail her involvement in the case.

“This is a sealed case,” Richards said to News5.

Her court appearance is set for 8:30 a.m. Friday. bbm
[...]
The description below Frazee’s solicitation charges read, “Between and including September 1, 2018 and November 1, 2018, Patrick Frazee unlawfully and feloniously commanded, induced, entreated, or otherwise attempted to persuade another person to commit murder in the first-degree.”

4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May told News5 in December that the three charges of solicitation don’t necessarily mean three different people might have been involved, but that Frazee could have reached out to an individual on at least three different occasions.

Idaho woman to appear in Teller County court as part of Kelsey Berreth investigation

 

[GordianKnot]

Why can’t the FBI get a statement without a plea deal? If she is guilty, charge her. If PF is guilty, get the evidence and charge him. Not a fan of plea deals.

LNF, me, neither!

Our "justice" system is a misnomer sometimes.
Plea deals often work to the benefit of the perp more than the justice system.

I feel nauseated at the prospect of KK skating.

JMO.

 

[WildcatRunner]

Or he may just continue to not say anything at all.
Why wouldn't there be a trial? Isn't she their most important witness? I thought that was why she was pleading to a lesser charge? In exchange for her testimony?

Deleted. OP clarified what I said.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

I'm wondering if disposing of the phone when she had been solicited to help in some way with the murder, wouldn't that be considered participating in response to the solicitation, in other words, conspiracy?
I'm not a lawyer, but wouldn't accessory after the fact indicate that she knew nothing beforehand. It's clear to me, at least, that if she was solicited, then anything she did, whether before, during or after the murder, makes her a part of the conspiracy.

I'm probably not being clear, but I don't see how she could get the lesser "accessory after the fact" when she had been solicited beforehand.

JMO

Yet, he was never charged with conspiracy to this date. So how can they charge her with conspiracy if he was not?

 

[NoeticSoul]

Yeah I don't have a problem with it. It's how cases are worked and won. I'd much rather have her get a hand slap than let an actual murderer get off.

She will be forever known for what she did and who she is. Life as she knew it is over.

bbm Life as her kids knew it is also over, which is SO SAD Same goes for Baby K. These poor innocent children... smh

 

[GordianKnot]

Not me. Not in this case. I think CO LE/DA are rock stars. I'm excited by this news. And pleased.

gitana, if the CO LE/DA have in fact thoroughly come out ahead of KK with this deal, I'll be excited and pleased, too.

It helps to hear you voice confidence in their skills.

 

[gliving]

Kelsey's "friend" is supposed to be on the Dr Oz show this Thursday. There's a little blurb on his website but it cuts off before giving much detail. I'll assume it's the same "friend" from GMA. It says Feb 2, but that's just the date this was posted. Episode airs Feb 7.

From Doctoroz.com | February 02, 2019

The daughter of the BTK serial killer finally speaks out on discovering who her father really was. Plus, the latest on what really happened to the missing mom. We speak to one of Kelsey berreth's good friends who sheds light on her fiancé who has been arr

 

[gitana1]

BBM:

I understand this perspective, and to an extent can agree with it.
If it remains a no body case, they have to make it iron clad against PF somehow.
If KK is the proverbial nail that puts that idiot PF in a literal coffin, I will be okay with it.

Having said that, I'm not nearly at the point of saying that I don't have a problem with this deal yet. I'm in a "wait and see" mode, i.e. let's see who ends up more on the winning end of the deal. There's a lot we don't know yet:

• We don't know what the DA conceded to KK as part of the bartering process.
• We don't know just how much actual value her testimony will have, i.e., we don't know what she knows and/or or what she'll actually say when she gets up on the stand.
• KK is going to be a very unsympathetic figure to jurors (especially female jurors), especially vis a vis the victim, KB. Jurors are going to actively dislike her, again specifically female jurors. The DA is rolling the dice by putting a female <modsnipped> on the stand that many (female) jurors will feel antagonistic toward and having a juror say, "I can't stand that woman! I'm not buying word of what she's selling!" She may have done this all on her own for all we know!" There are jurors loony enough to convince themselves of this, given half a chance.

All of the above: JMO.

What's odd to me is after watching LE/DA work this case why anyone would be that skeptical and cynical.

What on earth has LE/DA done to show they're not working this case in an impeccable fashion, such that they merit the public needing to wait and see whether they've blown this insanely high profile case to smithereens with a crummy plea deal?

DA is an elected position in the county. They're prosecuting one of their own, a good ol' boy, for the murder of a victim who hails from out of state and who no one in CO really knew. We've already seen on these threads how defensive some can be about one of their own. Yet the DA is going full bore. Knowing it's an elected position.

I'm confused by the attitude.

It would make sense if this was a DA that had a long history of blowing it in cases or if they'd already tragically blown a super high profile case in the recent past. Then I would get the, "Hey I am not in law enforcement and have no idea about the process but I'm going to have to go ahead and wait for them to prove to me they didn't blow this and haven't created a serious miscarriage of justice here."

I'm really not understanding the logic here. Does this DA have a terrible history? Help me out.

 

[gitana1]

Why can’t the FBI get a statement without a plea deal? If she is guilty, charge her. If PF is guilty, get the evidence and charge him. Not a fan of plea deals.

Because people often won't talk without a plea deal. They can be charged with something but if their testimony will make a case against a more serious perp even stronger, they may want that testimony more than they want a higher charge for that witness/perp.

 

[makayla]

Such great news this morning!!! At least it’s step #1 in the right direction. I don’t buy that KK felt threatened, all she had to do was go to the police if she did. My guess is that she and her attorney have spent all this time coming up with a plan for her to plead guilty to the least criminal act and seek a plea deal. I don’t think any of us are surprised that she would do this. I only hope and pray that she is penalized to the nth degree for participating ... she could have prevented Kelsey’s death in the beginning IMHO. I have no sympathy for her at all.

 

[gitana1]

LNF, me, neither!

Our "justice" system is a misnomer sometimes.
Plea deals often work to the benefit of the perp more than the justice system.

I feel nauseated at the prospect of KK skating.

JMO.

It seems to me people are more concerned with her "skating" than with him.

People have a fifth amendment right not to speak with LE. If a plea deal helped her speak, and led to lesser charges or a recommendation of a lesser sentence for her, but ensures that the actual killer is put away forever, even though no body is found, how is that nauseating?

Oh she's facing justice. And in more than just legally. Her life as she knew it is over. Getting a job. Getting a mate who isn't a total creep. Having anyone ever respect her again. That's all gone.

 

[?mysterian?]

I agree. When and if she signs the official plea deal I expect we learn the "leave of absense" from her job will turn into an involuntary permanent "leave", if that has not already happened.

Plus lose her nursing license, in any and all forms. She wouldn't be able to work as a RN, LPN, or CNA.

 

[OldLadyBlues]

Watch the linking verbage..."might", "at least", "could".... Someone in the KK camp is leaving the court appearance pretty open on charges.
As for being scared and threatened? Lol! She's know from the get-go he was "iffy". Now she's scared? Yea, no.
MOO, MOO

 

[gitana1]

I'm wondering if disposing of the phone when she had been solicited to help in some way with the murder, wouldn't that be considered participating in response to the solicitation, in other words, conspiracy?
I'm not a lawyer, but wouldn't accessory after the fact indicate that she knew nothing beforehand. It's clear to me, at least, that if she was solicited, then anything she did, whether before, during or after the murder, makes her a part of the conspiracy.

I'm probably not being clear, but I don't see how she could get the lesser "accessory after the fact" when she had been solicited beforehand.

JMO

I think you're being clear. If she was asked to help dispose of evidence after having been solicited, it would be accessory. I believe it would only be conspiracy if she planned to do that before or during the murder.

 

[riolove77]

I'm wondering if disposing of the phone when she had been solicited to help in some way with the murder, wouldn't that be considered participating in response to the solicitation, in other words, conspiracy?
I'm not a lawyer, but wouldn't accessory after the fact indicate that she knew nothing beforehand. It's clear to me, at least, that if she was solicited, then anything she did, whether before, during or after the murder, makes her a part of the conspiracy.

I'm probably not being clear, but I don't see how she could get the lesser "accessory after the fact" when she had been solicited beforehand.

JMO

No; the solicitation was specifically to commit murder 1. If she did not comply, she never agreed to it, thus never merging into conspiracy.

You can definitely be an accessory after the fact without knowing the crime has happened until afterwards; in fact, that is the exact premise behind the charge being lesser than the other forms and carrying less time. Basically, sort of says that the crime was already done anyway and you could not have done anything about it because you didn't know until after.

I know this doesn't necessarily apply here because we know she was solicited beforehand. However, we do have to remember that we don't know what happened after that. Based on what we've seen so far, it appears she did not accept his solicitations, so she didn't conspire with him, and didn't take part in the crime. I will quit my day job if this woman was a principal to the murder and is getting a deal for an accessory after the fact or tampering charge.

I know a lot of people don't like plea deals because they're a cop out and give someone a better deal than they deserve for what they did. But the reality is that we need it. This doesn't work like a crime show where you see all the evidence and everyone is brought to justice and then we're all satisfied. Often one party IS the prime evidence against the other, and it's the lesser of the two (or however many) evils. In this case, as a lot of us suspected, KK is the lesser of two evils. What we do know is HE killed her, and if she gets a deal and that puts him away for life, I'm good with it.

 

[Mom24]

Not me. Not in this case. I think CO LE/DA are rock stars. I'm excited by this news. And pleased.

Just to clarify, don't any deals include being completely honest? In other words, if she lied about anything the deal is off the table and she would be subject to harsh charges?

 

[gitana1]

Well isn’t that what we do here is armchair quarterback?

Armchair quarterbacking is talking about how a pro isn't doing their job well and how we, as amateurs, need to instruct them on how to do their job or criticize them for not doing it the way we think we could, despite not being pros.

I don't think that's what the aim of this site is. Instead, its brainstorming and discussing cases and trying to solve mysteries, or to understand why these horrors occur, and to watch justice (hopefully) unfold, or miracles happen.

IMO.

 

[riolove77]

Why can’t the FBI get a statement without a plea deal? If she is guilty, charge her. If PF is guilty, get the evidence and charge him. Not a fan of plea deals.

How do you get a statement out of someone who won't talk? It's a lot easier to say "get the evidence" when you don't work in this area. These cases are a lot more complex than they sound.

 

[Mom24]

How do you get a statement out of someone who won't talk? It's a lot easier to say "get the evidence" when you don't work in this area. These cases are a lot more complex than they sound.

Also, the point is justice for the family as well. As a family member it's far more justified to have the person who masterminded and killed your family member be locked up for life than to run the risk that they might be acquitted. Especially in this case where there is no body and he's still maintaining that KB ran off before and is hiding out somewhere. That's a hard situation to overcome, and when you factor that most people will buy something because they saw it on TV, you get a flavor for how easily a jury can be manipulated.

 

[Aydrianna523]

Such great news this morning!!! At least it’s step #1 in the right direction. I don’t buy that KK felt threatened, all she had to do was go to the police if she did. My guess is that she and her attorney have spent all this time coming up with a plan for her to plead guilty to the least criminal act and seek a plea deal. I don’t think any of us are surprised that she would do this. I only hope and pray that she is penalized to the nth degree for participating ... she could have prevented Kelsey’s death in the beginning IMHO. I have no sympathy for her at all.

You have to blunt with these narcissistic type guys. KK at the very least SHOULD HAVE told PF (even if she cared nothing for anyone else's life) something like this...
"You have a wish to spend the rest of your life in jail"?!
But, it appears she just went along with the ride.