MI MI - Julia Niswender, 23, EMU student, Ypsilanti, 10 Dec 2012 - #4

[Spellbound]

Well, I will admit I am a bit surprised, but not completely. Now we get back to concentrating our thoughts totally focused on Julia.

 

[caspermi]

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/09/21/stepdad-slain-emu-student-not-guilty-child-*advertiser censored*-case/72559494/

 

[Trojan1966]

NOT GUILTY ! ! ! Verdict just came in.
Now will he cooperate with LE in doing their investigation for Julia's murder?

 

[electric_rainbow]

NOT GUILTY ! ! ! Verdict just came in.
Now will he cooperate with LE in doing their investigation for Julia's murder?

I hope so!

 

[Spellbound]

WHY is the Detroit newspaper the first to report these things? Monroe comes up short again. JMO

I hope the family will start talking to LE again, and get Julia's death solved.

 

[Trojan1966]

I seriously hope he does cooperate but I can see where he might continue to be silent. I still will never understand how a parent could not cooperate in the investigation of their child,s murder.

 

[SapphireSteel]

Trial Update: I have received this from someone attending court today:
On break from Trial. Some highlights:
There are more than 30 images but only 30 are admitted into evidence.
Youngest daughter is missing school to be there. Why?
Some of the images were accessed multiple times.
JT seems to be the only male who used the computer.
No kiddie *advertiser censored* search terms were found in Internet searches.

To show public support for her father. She may have demanded to attend.

 

[FindHG]

It's possible their lack of cooperation with LE in Julia's murder investigation may be motivated by protecting information that would lead to a more 'valid forms of evidence', so the Turnquists would have no incentive to change their stance, if involved. That's the impression left as long as cooperating with LE is avoided.

Why wouldn't clearing his name be the most important thing for him when he is the only person of interest after more than two years of LE's broad exhaustive investigation?

The obvious reasonable answer would be that cooperating would reveal damning information he fears could implicate a suspect, himself and/or somebody he knows. I guess living with that cloud over his head is obviously easier than being found to have been involved with Julia's murder.

A 44 minute decision that essentially says that it may have not been construed as child *advertiser censored* or that he definitively alone without the slightest doubt accessed it on his home computer would be a short-lived victory, I would think. And, it seems that it was probably not a very aggressive prosecution too, given how fast it went and that there is a much more important case at stake. It doesn't change the fact that he is a non-cooperative stepfather considered the only POI in Julia's murder. Appearances or being cleared of child *advertiser censored* charges won't change that, it seems.

 

[psyquestor]

Trojan and 4ist, I hope that now that this matter has been resolved the search for Julia's killer can become more focused and productive.

#Justice4Julia

 

[georgiasblu]

I seriously hope he does cooperate but I can see where he might continue to be silent. I still will never understand how a parent could not cooperate in the investigation of their child,s murder.

I'm not counting on it as much as I would like to see that happen. Hopefully, I will be wrong.

 

[FindHG]

In the post trial interview James Turnquist says

"I'm not an outwardly emotional individual... Do I smile? Yeah, I smile."

http://www.freep.com/videos/news/local/michigan/2015/09/21/72586148/


Now, that self-description he provides in his post court interview (the part not quoted in article*), more to the point that he believes it and knows it about himself, would help pass lie detector tests since the tests are based on reading of emotional reactions as they manifest in physical reactions. Practice would make it perfect too which is why lie detector tests don't mean much or are inadmissible in court. Emotionally controlled people pass them. He did practice at least once with his lawyers and they would not be obligated to tell if he was more practiced.

Surprising and maybe telling that no reporters asked him about Julia's case and that neither KT or JT chose to address it. Maybe they set that as a condition for the press gaggle? Though this information is included in the text:

"The affidavit shed new light on Ypsilanti's investigation into Turnquist, why they believe he's a person of interest and previously unreleased details on Niswender's homicide. Allegations of sexual abuse, an FBI behavioral assessment and a vasectomy are among the evidence that led police to name him a person of interest."



*http://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...ty-child-*advertiser censored*-case/72559494/
see the abbreviated quote which begins with "Do I feel good?"

 

[Spellbound]

What the heck kind of a case did they even have here. Only two prosecution witnesses and one defense witness. Sounds weak, and a waste of taxpayer money, and 40 minute of jury deliberation. .

http://www.monroenews.com/news/2015/sep/21/turnquist-not-guilty/

 

[caspermi]

What the heck kind of a case did they even have here. Only two prosecution witnesses and one defense witness. Sounds weak, and a waste of taxpayer money, and 40 minute of jury deliberation. .

http://www.monroenews.com/news/2015/sep/21/turnquist-not-guilty/

I wonder if the only reason this case got prosecuted and tried is because it was JT. Were the 30 pictures displayed to the entire courtroom or just shown to the jurors?

 

[FindHG]

What the heck kind of a case did they even have here. Only two prosecution witnesses and one defense witness. Sounds weak, and a waste of taxpayer money, and 40 minute of jury deliberation. .

http://www.monroenews.com/news/2015/sep/21/turnquist-not-guilty/

Agreed, this and then previous mistrial, it being a small town, how much could be going on? The below is off topic, somewhat, but interesting none-the-less. It raises some red flags (included below, but there are a few more), considering the two girls murdered in the oddest and what seems such orchestrated fashion, both from the same neighborhood. If nothing else, along with the reasons he's considered a POI, the trial process seems revealing of what could be possible, somehow.

http://www.monroenews.com/news/2015/sep/10/monroe-man-head-drug-enterprise-feds-say/?police-and-fire
September 10, 2015, 06:00 a.m.

"According to the complaint, the defendant ran an operation that distributed thousands of pills to areas including Metro Detroit, Tennessee and Kentucky. He also owns 12 homes in the Monroe area that authorities said he uses to launder his income, which federal agents said was provided by the sale of pills that had a street value of more than three-quarters of a million dollars during a three-year period."

Did this guy hire a cleaning service? Peddle influence locally? Did he have access to construction permits? Switching urine samples was part of their MO. Those gloves in Julia's room look mighty planted.

“(He) is attempting to conceal the true nature of his criminal activity by laundering the drug proceeds through the purchase of various rental properties.”

Did he use chop shops around there?

"The money, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars, would be transferred back to Monroe hidden in secret compartments within the cars."


“He is the leader of a large-scale drug trafficking organization,” Ms. McCullough said. “The defendant is dangerous. He is a danger to the community.”

All in little Monroe, these people with such big reach and apparently not too shy to show it. And Turnquist, who seems based on his career, a ne'er-do-well, didn't seem to lack money to engage in hobbies, a very well stocked hunter devoted to his DO JO and coaching Karate. Where did all the money for all this come from? Could KT's job account for all of it?

All said, I'm not sure why, but somehow justice for Julia seems closer now that this trial is over. It all seems less just out of the blue, somehow, two girls dead like that, the way they crossed paths, the details of their cases, the people around them at the time of their deaths, all in itself, that's strange enough. So, I think it will take looking in strange places to find the why and there is a great deal of eye wash going around.

 

[Spellbound]

I have more faith in Washtenaw County than in Monroe courts. Hopefully, they get their act together and will have a solid case if/when that gets solved. Feeling real disgusted with the MC system tonight.

 

[georgiasblu]

Have Chelsea's family been supporters od JT?

 

[Spellbound]

Have Chelsea's family been supporters od JT?

I think they are. Twin sis was at the viewing days of the funeral for Chelsea Bruck and was chummy with CB's sister. I don't know if other family went, as I was only there for about an hour.

 

[black_squirrel]

Well, I am glad that is over. This confirms my suspicion that the prosecution did not have a strong case at all. I wonder why the prosecution took on this case. If the prosecution cannot prove that there are minors in the images, then there is no case. I think that the Ypsilanti police may have pushed to Monroe police/prosecutor to charge JT, in the hope that he would confess to something. It did not work, perhaps because he didn't do anything wrong in the first place. Reading the affidavit, the child *advertiser censored* charges seem to be a part of a bigger effort, to portray JT as a bondage-loving psychopathic pedophile. But it seems to me that none of the mud that has been swung at him sticks. I do not think that JT has to clear his name, that should not have been smeared in the first place. JMO.

I cannot say for sure that he has nothing to do with the murder of his daughter, but at this point it does not seem like it IMO. I will presume he is innocent until I see some proof. I am glad that he can be reunited with his family now.

I cannot blame JT for not cooperating anymore. Whatever he says may be twisted, then used against him, and
that would not help find Julia's killer. After everything that the Ypsi police put him through, he probably lost all faith in the Ypsi police. Perhaps he might be more cooperative if they changed the people in the investigation to people who seem less biased.

 

[georgiasblu]

Hi Squirrel, when you say " all that Ypsi put him through" are you referring to the murder investigation? As far as I'm concerned they were doing the job in which they are trained to do. Just because he doesn't have a buddy relationship with the investigators doesn't mean he gets to choose! That's a little absurd, don't you think?

 

[black_squirrel]

Hi Squirrel, when you say " all that Ypsi put him through" are you referring to the murder investigation? As far as I'm concerned they were doing the job in which they are trained to do. Just because he doesn't have a buddy relationship with the investigators doesn't mean he gets to choose! That's a little absurd, don't you think?

I did not say that they should have a "buddy relationship". However, I don't think it was strategically smart to antagonize JT, without having proof against him. It should have come to no surprise that he retained a lawyer and eventually stopped talking to Ypsilanti police.

What Ypsi police did, that they shouldn't have done:
1. Very early in the investigation, they interviewed JT's biological mother, step-mother, biological sister and step-sister about events that happened even before Julia was born. They did found out that JT was abused in his childhood. But what does this have to do with Julia's death? All this did was antagonize JT and his family.
2. They should not have prosecuted JT for child *advertiser censored*, because there was no proof. I think Ypsi police is partially responsible for this. They may have pressed Monroe to prosecute.
3. They should not have named JT a POI. It is questionable if they should have considered him a POI. But in any case there was no reason to publicly announce it.

What these actions achieved is, that JT has been subjected to a trial in public, a witch hunt even. Perhaps they believed by torturing him with public humiliation, that he would somehow confess to something. But this seems to me an immoral approach.

What they should have done though is:
1. Actually collect all the physical evidence (no missing bathmats etc.)
2. thoroughly evaluate that physical evidence right away. Why does it take 2 years to figure out that the donor of the semen is someone who had a vasectomy?

My impression is, that the Ypsilanti LE focussed on the gossip and allegations, rather than the physical evidence.