JusticeWillBeServed
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Man held in contempt in N.O. double murder trial; refuses to testify in case of slain Reserve couple
Reserve couple drownings trial halted by appellate court
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/08/reserve_couple_drownings_trial.html
In an unusual development, a judge in New Orleans on Wednesday held a man in contempt of court for refusing to testify against a fellow defendant in the killing of a couple whose bodies were found in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in 2014.
Bradley was given a signed letter from the Orleans Parish district attorney and the Louisiana attorney general promising that nothing he said Wednesday could be used against him when he has his own day in court.
But when Bradley took the witness stand in Criminal District Court, clad in an orange jail jumpsuit, nothing could make him budge. Over and over again, he asserted his right against self-incrimination. Even when a prosecutor asked if he had a lawyer, he cited the Fifth Amendment.
Reserve couple drownings trial halted by appellate court
Willard refused to bring Bradley back into court Wednesday, and jurors were dismissed minutes later. Thornton informed the judge that the state planned to appeal his decision. Willard replied, "Good luck with that," and denied a request for a stay.
The 4th Circuit imposed the emergency stay before the trial could resume Thursday morning, and ruled late in the afternoon.
The state's appeal -- lodged simultaneously with the 4th Circuit and the state Supreme Court -- said its case would be "irreparably harmed," should prosecutors not be allowed to continue questioning Bradley and eventually play his statement to police.
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/08/reserve_couple_drownings_trial.html
48-year-old Frank Mike Jr., testified at length Wednesday about how his "street nephew" Bradley, accompanied by Johnson, had brought to his New Orleans East house a silver Dodge Caravan that had been borrowed by the Josephs before their disappearance. Mike told jurors that even though he was warned there was blood inside the van, he felt confident he could drive the vehicle to Atlanta without getting stopped by authorities. He said he ditched the vehicle at an apartment complex outside that city after seeing on the news that it had been linked to the missing couple.
Dozens of disturbing images of the Josephs' bound and bloated corpses flashed on a television screen, showing the condition in which the bodies were found when recovered 12 days apart in March 2014 after weeks underwater.
Forensic pathologists Dr. Erin O'Sullivan and Dr. Richard Tracy, who performed autopsies on the victims for the Orleans Parish Coroner's office, confirmed each victim died from homicidal drowning. Both victims' faces had been disfigured by marine predation. The woman's body had a fractured right lower leg and a hematoma under the left side of her scalp indicating she had been struck. But neither victim exhibited injuries so severe as to cause death, leaving asphyxia due to drowning as the determined cause.