Day 8, second opinion from Dr. Falzon on autopsy confirms Brendan was smothered and had evidence of seizing (there were wounds inside his mouth indicating he bit his tongue and cheeks pressed against his teeth.
Next are the text messages between DJ and Julie.
The text messages in summary give us a picture of DJ and Julie having a fast and hard falling for each other in June, doing mushrooms in the woods, talking about running away together, then Julie saying she would get an abortion if she got pregnant because she is not ready for kids already in July.
By July 30th Julie is already talking about other guys to DJ, including guys she has slept with and STDs she might have gotten from them. (ugh she is such a disgusting <modsnip>). When he starts to get upset, she turns this around on him by making him defend seeing Sam, the mother of his child. They fight.
"I care about you so ****ing much I would do anything."
By August she is already complaining about Brendan being there and continues mentally abusing and manipulating him for several weeks up to the end, constantly trapping him in guilt and obligation.
Julie makes it clear over and over again how much she detests Sam and Brendan. The last month of their relationship is rife with mistrust and jealousy on both sides and Julie is already pressing him on getting a lawyer or cutting off contact with Sam.
"ditch on him or ditch on you, is what I'm getting."
"look, do what you think is right, do what your mind tells you to do."
Ï want to be with you but I will never ditch out on his life."
"you can't have both."
"yes you could both be in my life, but you cant make me choose"
"If and when it comes time to make a decision...what would you choose?"
" I can be with you and still have him in my life, it is you that refuses"
"So i'm number 2 priority, don't try to spin it any other way..."
"You can both be in my life, what the **** is wrong with you? Why do you make it out that way? Your perception is so twisted...He is my son, he is my life"
She continues to hound him with scenarios leading to him choosing to get rid of Brendan and put her first. He is steadfast in saying he loves Brendan and will not put her above him.
By mid-September, there is more and more guilt and pressure. He even tells her to stop and that it gives him anxiety, but she loads it on even more.
He talks about a new job he is getting. Rather than being supportive, she goes on about how it will conflict with their schedules etc and he says he would be willing to lose the job for her. Anytime he is talking about things happening in his life, or if he stands up to her, she turns the conversation to her negative outlook, feelings, doomsaying or outright blaming him for her suffering or making her suffering more than his.
This entire segment is extremely hard to listen to because she is so unbelievably toxic. She threatens to leave him for telling her she was acting like a *****, always directs the conversation to herself, and 180s on him often, is rude and insulting to Brendan ("I don't want to see your kid"), blames him and mires him in guilt. Only a few days after this fight, they are talking about getting married. The next night, she is breaking up with him. It is truly sick. He even calls her out and says she is unstable.
By October, she is making her schedule as incompatible with his as possible, and telling him they probably won't see each other till next year. During this conversation, she uses Brendan as leverage for why she should be busy every other weekend. DJ tells her they can see each other every weekend, he can get babysitters or put him to bed at his parents, she turns the conversation to making him defend himself over talking to Sam or having Sam's phone number in his phone. I mean, no wonder he is paranoid and worried about her cheating on him when she is threatening him and putting him through emotional blackmail at every single opportunity.
"I don't want to spend my precious time with your kid. I don't like him."
She lays out most of the same stuff in the Tumblr post on him here. He says, "why don't you like him, why don't you want to be a family with me? Can we stop talking like this and talk nicely please?"
" I want you to not have a kid in your life."
October is just one long breakup over 2 weeks with Julie laying it on as thick as ever.
I am sincerely so sorry that he lacked enough self esteem not to see through her and realize he and Brendan deserved so much more.
If DJ really did do this, I would allow him a temporary insanity plea. He was not in his right mind. Anyone here who has been in a toxic relationship or in the throes of the honeymoon phase of a young relationship knows how crazy it makes you.
Finally, what IMO is a key text from Julie "Do you really need me to tell you I love you when I would drive 45 minutes on the highway and back to see you for only 4 hours?"
I didn't post my really long notes about Julie's testimony - if anyone needs them let me know. The MSM article sums it up, but basically her responses were "according to the transcript." She would not answer anything based on her own memory other than select details, and tried to avoid wherever possible until the judge ordered her to testify. She also lied and then misquoted what she thought was in the report once she was in front of the jury, showing she had no interest in testifying to the actual truth.
Court is in recess until next week. The texts from Oct 12 will be presented via an expert.
