Yes. I see it. It’s possible Donna told Wendi about the plot, but didn’t tell Charlie that Wendi knew. That, to me, would be consistent with how manipulative people work, they make sure nobody knows the whole picture. Donna and Charlie, we know, have been heard on the bump tapes talking about Wendi behind her back, and how much help she needs. So when Charlie is saying on the jail tapes that “it can’t be a coincidence,” etc., he may really not understand and think that it’s just bad luck in her having chosen that particular route on that particular day. And Donna, of course, if that were the case, would not want him to figure it out.
Maybe it happened like this: (what follows below is hypothetical, just my opinion):
Donna seems to me to have been getting more and more agitated about the divorce and was complaining to Charlie, we’ve seen texts at trial between them about this. Charlie may have told her he was working on a solution. (We have seen texts where he says he’s working on a “surprise for Harvey” for example, and we know Charlie asked Katie if she knew someone who could fix it, Katie has testified to this.). Donna may have at some point brought the plan up to Wendi, at which point Wendi may have told Donna something like “ok, let Charlie go through with it, but keep me out of it.” So Donna may have told Charlie something like “Wendi doesn’t know, she would go nuts, we need to protect her” or something. And Donna might have told Wendi “Charlie thinks you don’t know, and he will take the fall if we get caught.” Then, Wendi may have gone rogue, telling the cops about Charlie’s hit man “joke,” (to throw suspicion on him and make sure he would take the fall), and driving by the scene. It’s possible neither Donna nor Charlie knew she did any of those things until the first trial. It’s also possible Donna told her to drive by, but we have seen no phone records which would reflect that.
We do see an 18 minute call between Wendi and Charlie on the morning of the murder. We also know that Dan had gotten in an argument with her about wanting to pick up the boys that day for swimming, she shows Isom these texts in her police interview. Wendi may have been worried about the timing of the hit because Dan might have the boys with him, and she may have needed to communicate to Charlie that the murder needed to get done before Dan was going to pick them up. But, hypothetically, she couldn’t let Charlie know she knew about the plot. So, maybe, the TV repair had already been arranged by Donna and Wendi just so that Wendi would have an excuse to call Charlie that morning in case something like this arose. Maybe Donna told Charlie that his sister might be calling about the TV that morning, and that she had set up the TV repair as an alibi to protect Wendi. (But maybe she really set it up just to have a reason for Wendi to call Charlie if she needed to). And so maybe, when Wendi needed to communicate that Dan was going to pick up the boys, she called Charlie to ask about the Tv but found a way to work in complaining about Dan wanting to take the boys swimming, so that he would know Dan’s schedule without her having to admit she knew about the murder plot. She does tell Isom in her police interview that she spoke to Charlie about Dan’s plans to take the boys swimming, and he told her to let him take them. All that may have happened. He may have indeed told her that, thinking she didn’t know about the murder. Then, he may have gotten off the phone and called Katie to make sure the killers knew they had to get it done.
I don’t recall whether she said she texted Dan to ask to pick the kids up early and then he told her he was going to take them swimming, or whether he texted her first. I know that she reads these texts to Isom during the interview. If she texted him first, that is certainly interesting and may give the appearance that she was trying to find out his schedule and trying to make absolutely certain the boys would not be with him that afternoon, because she was going to pick them up early.
This is all hypothetical, of course. But it makes sense. The repairman left too early for it to work as a complete alibi, but if the purpose was to justify a call to Charlie, it works perfectly. Then as the morning went on and Wendi had heard nothing, and after she called Dan and he didn’t pick up, she may have arranged a last minute lunch and used that as an excuse to leave the house. (She does say to Isom that she used to have a regular lunch with these people, but that they hadn’t done it in a long time. She also seems to freak out a little when he suggests the lunch was last minute.). We know that the house was not on the way to the lunch place, so she may have needed a reason to drive by it. So, maybe she used the bourbon as an excuse to drive past the house, because she knew there was this one liquor store which would take her past the house. This is consistent with her statements at various points that she chose that liquor store because it was near her old house. That may, indeed, be why she chose it.
Again, this is all hypothetical but it is consistent with what we know from evidence presented at trial and her statement to the police. Whether she can be charged is a different question. Knowing a crime is going to occur is not a crime. Conspiracy requires doing an act in furtherance of the conspiracy. Is talking to your brother about your kids going swimming enough? Is sending Dan a text asking whether he will be home enough (we saw that one at trial).
icgs.store
same person,
) And definately staying clear of furniture/decorating comments...I still love Mom & Pop recliners.