Considering Jonah Shacknai seems to have difficulty getting his story straight about whether or not he still owns Spreckles, I am certainly not going to take his word for it the chipped up paint on the newel post was not there the day before.
If you look closely at the newel post photos, it appears as if there was older "touch up" paint on the post. Possibly from earlier incidents or contacts. This would be a red flag to any investigator in a future legal action. Its quite possible the damage on that newel post was not from just a one time only incident, but rather accumulative damage over a period of time. It explains the touch up paint and multiple planes of damage. This would not be surprising since this is an area of high traffic flow in a house filled with children and teenagers. I can imagine that Max, his siblings, housekeeping staff, and other people all carried or played with numerous objects (ie: scooters, vacuum cleaners, furniture, baseball bats, balls, ect) around the stairs and bannister.
Speckler's mansion was 101 years old when JS purchased it in 2007. Surely the newel post suffered even minor damages throughout the course of years prior to Jonah Shacknai's ownership.
It remains most difficult to understand how a small boy and his scooter fell off the 2nd floor to land in the compact space below.
Did the paint transfer to the scooter wheel occur just prior to the fall or the evening before?
Who, other than XZ, witnessed MS riding his scooter upstairs?
Why were there no signs on Max's hands to indicate he grabbed anything to impede his fall? Max's hands were at least 35" off the ground holding onto the handlebars yet there was no damage to his fingers or knuckles caused by slamming into the wooden banister.
According to Dr. Bove's analysis, the scooter had little damage except for a scuff on the vertical shaft; however, it was seven degrees back of true vertical alignment. The front wheel has lateral paint transfer. Does this indicate the front wheel was between two spindles? How else could the front wheel show white paint transfer on both sides of the same wheel?
Was Max riding his scooter
fast along the heavy-pile carpet, which we know the scooter wasn't able to travel very
fast on heavy-pile carpeting, yet, somehow, going fast, the scooter's front wheel slides in between two spindles creating an instant cessation in motion causing the bilateral paint transfer. The immediate halt catapults Max and he scooter up and over the height and width of the railing, and snags the chandelier, although Max nor the scooter demonstrate physical contact with the chandelier. Somehow his body must also turn into a headfirst position consistent with a high velocity impact to receive the fatal head and neck injuries.
I suppose, someone could have been pushing him while he steered the scooter; however, getting Max and his scooter over the railing required high velocity.
No, the scooter was not the involved in the fall.
imo & moo