OK - Five Bever family members slain in their Broken Arrow home, 22 July 2015 *Guilty*

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Judge in Bever quintuple murder case blocks admission of autopsy photos as evidence, citing potential to 'inflame' jury

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/judge-in-bever-quintuple-murder-case-blocks-admission-of-autopsy/article_2564c82a-916a-5440-b148-38f996d251e1.html

So far during the first nine days of the trial, the state has been able to introduce more than 170 crime-scene photos. But District Judge Sharon Holmes ruled Thursday morning that prosecutors cannot show the jury 118 autopsy-related images, finding that they have the potential to “inflame” jurors and saying neither side disputes that each person died from multiple stab wounds.

Chief Public Defender Corbin Brewster had alleged that prosecutors simply wanted “to overwhelm the jury with shock value” and make it impossible for jurors to properly focus. But Assistant District Attorney Sarah McAmis told Holmes the photos were necessary because they help disprove Michael Bever’s defense that Robert Bever was primarily, if not entirely, responsible.
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Bever Murder Trial To Continue Into Next Week

http://www.newson6.com/story/38063509/bever-trial

Witness describes finding bloody knives in Bever home

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/witness-describes-finding-bloody-knives-in-bever-home/article_6343aaae-ce6c-5871-8925-aa643ad7cc23.html

Making a second sweep through the crime scene a week after the killings, investigators found what might have been two murder weapons hidden in the Bever family’s home in Broken Arrow, a witness said Friday in the ongoing quintuple murder trial.

Karen Weikel, a crime-scene investigator, noticed a partially open lid on a box-like end table in the living room, she testified. And when she removed the lid and looked inside, she found an orange and black 7-inch knife with what appeared to be blood on it, Weikel told the court.

She found another knife, with a broken 3-inch blade, under a storage cabinet in the bedroom Michael Bever shared with his brother, Robert.
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Murder trial of Michael Bever enters third week
Rescuers didn't expect 13-year-old to survive Bever massacre, but 'heroic' efforts paid off

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/rescuers-didn-t-expect--year-old-to-survive-bever/article_7a0e6110-b996-5a8c-ad53-f64b504effa6.html

“This is going to be a bad call,” Moore warned his rookie partner that night as their ambulance pulled into the Indian Springs neighborhood.
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They arrived just in time to see a police officer dragging a 13-year-old girl out the front door and into the yard, leaving her on the grass. Moore and paramedics from a second ambulance, parked a few houses down the street, ran to check on her while the officer rushed back inside to get more victims.

The girl was soaking wet with blood and gasping for air. Her throat had been slashed and her intestines were hanging out of a gaping hole in her stomach.

“I thought she was in the final moments of life,” Moore told jurors last week during the girl’s older brother’s quintuple murder trial.
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Child-welfare workers contacted several of C.B.’s family members, asking them to visit the girl at the hospital and offer emotional support, Sledge testified. All of them refused.

“No grandparents, no relatives of any kind showed up,” Sledge told the jury. “There was nobody.”

The girls, now ages 5 and 16, have both been adopted by a Tulsa family.
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For the life of me, I cannot figure out the dynamics of this family. Who would refuse to visit a child that desperately needed family? I have wondered why no extended family members would take the girls and raise them, now we find out they wouldn't even visit her in the hospital? I do not even know if there was a funeral for the 5 deceased family members. A local church and local citizens, none of whom even knew this family, organized a nice vigil which drew quite a good crowd. I don't get it.
 
I appreciate all your updates and comments, HoneyWest.

No family visited the surviving sister in the hospital?!! HoneyWest, didn't the father have a brother that made a brief statement to the media? You'd think there'd be some relatives, even if distant, that would show up for that poor girl. I went looking back to the start of this case, found a neighbor's statement, but couldn't find a family member's statement.


Old news article with photos (is that one of kids with a grandmother or just a church friend???
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3173491/Suspect-18-admits-stabbed-parents-death-home.html

The two surviving sisters are in my thoughts and prayers. It helped to hear the older sister is doing so well in school and making a new life for herself. She survived so much! If not for her survival and testimony I imagine the defense attorneys would have tried to blame this more on the parents.

I don't want the surviving baby sister to ever have to know about this tragedy, but that cake in the refrigerator leaves a sweet message of family love that will touch her throughout her life.

Officers found a 23-month-old girl sleeping in a crib upstairs, alone. And crime-scene investigators later noticed a Minnie Mouse birthday cake in the family’s refrigerator. The youngest Bever survivor was turning 2 in just five days.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/loca...cle_7a0e6110-b996-5a8c-ad53-f64b504effa6.html
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Curious Me said:
I appreciate all your updates and comments, HoneyWest.

No family visited the surviving sister in the hospital?!! HoneyWest, didn't the father have a brother that made a brief statement to the media? You'd think there'd be some relatives, even if distant, that would show up for that poor girl. I went looking back to the start of this case, found a neighbor's statement, but couldn't find a family member's statement.


Old news article with photos (is that one of kids with a grandmother or just a church friend???
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3173491/Suspect-18-admits-stabbed-parents-death-home.html

The two surviving sisters are in my thoughts and prayers. It helped to hear the older sister is doing so well in school and making a new life for herself. She survived so much! If not for her survival and testimony I imagine the defense attorneys would have tried to blame this more on the parents.

I don't want the surviving baby sister to ever have to know about this tragedy, but that cake in the refrigerator leaves a sweet message of family love that will touch her throughout her life.
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It's hard to believe, isn't it? CB was in ICU for quite some time and this was testimony from her nurse. Yes, the father had a brother who lived here but he has some criminal record that excluded him from taking the girls. He died in 2016. There are cousins, sisters and brothers of April and David's...none of them would take the girls or visited CB. A sister of April's came in from FL to identify the bodies, but did not attend the vigil. A friend of hers set up a page that I don't think we're supposed to mention here, but it was for people to donate $$ to her due to the tragedy. I don't know how much she got and don't know what she spent it on.

The picture in that article, I believe the older lady is April's grandmother. Her health was declining and she wanted her kids to see her one last time. (This photo is on April Sharpe Bever's FB)

At first I was horrified that none of the family would take the girls or visit CB. But from everything I hear, it's probably best that they are with the people who have them. They are doing so well and are very well taken care of, and I am glad for that.
 
'Morbid and violent' drawings in Michael Bever's jailhouse notebook, detention officer testifies

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/morbid-and-violent-drawings-in-michael-bever-s-jailhouse-notebook/article_e5e27a14-36e0-5c43-9760-8c9525ae8587.html

Performing a routine search of Michael Bever’s jail cell in January 2016, a detention officer found a notebook that contained “morbid and violent” drawings that will now be used as evidence against him as his quintuple-murder trial enters its third week.

The jury, however, didn’t get to see the drawings Monday, as Detention Officer Seth Garner provided only a brief description of the contents. Bever, then 17 and charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents and three young siblings, drew with crayons, Garner told the jury.

After seeing the drawings, he was concerned Bever might have “homicidal or suicidal intentions” and gave the notebook to the jail psychiatrist, Garner testified.
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She earlier showed jurors photos of packages addressed to Robert Bever that contained a combined 2,000 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition and 250 12-gauge shotgun shells, which were due to arrive at the home the day after the stabbings. The packages were found at a Tulsa FedEx facility after the slayings.

Michael Bever’s defense has sought to contrast the appearance of the teenagers when they were apprehended, noting Robert Bever had more blood on him and, unlike Michael, appeared to smile during the time Weikel collected more than 40 evidence swabs from his body. She said she collected more than 45 such swabs from Michael Bever at some point between around 1 a.m. until his transfer to the hospital for treatment of a K-9 bite at roughly 4:30 a.m.
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Here is another video from local reporter Taylor Newcomb:

https://www.facebook.com/taylornewcombnews/videos/2000269443523545/UzpfSTg5NTgyMjUxNzE3MjIzODoxNzU3NjY1MTc0MzIxMjk3/
 
I am heartbroken not a one would visit her in the hospital. My sister and I didn't talk for a few years but if I had received a call like this on her or any one of her children, I would have been there in a heartbeat!! It seems like the Bever family had some issues but to the extent that no outside family would go to ICU to be with a child after her family had been killed and she was also hanging on for dear life???!! Breaks my heart.

I too am happy to hear she and her baby sister are one, together, and two, doing so well.
 
 
Today the defense started presenting their case with Robert Bever on the stand.

Robert Bever breaks down in tears on the witness stand in his younger brother's murder trial

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/bever/robert-bever-breaks-down-in-tears-on-the-witness-stand/article_c8cf59ba-ccfb-5783-a0a8-76df8ef6c38f.html

In a trial now reaching the end of its third week, Michael’s defense has repeatedly blamed Robert for most if not all of the bloodshed. And Robert seemed to accept that blame Friday, making several references to “the day I committed the murders” and “when I killed them.”

Wearing black-and-gray prison stripes and led into the courtroom in handcuffs, Robert described a lonely and sometimes violent childhood for both him and his brother.
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Since going to prison, however, Robert has been diagnosed with several mental-health problems, including major depression with psychotic tendencies, he told the court. He had never seen a mental-health professional or even a family physician before his arrest on the same night as the killings, Robert said.

When asked if he would tell the truth, he said, "Yes, I will. I promise."
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Nice father. They did a brutal murder but their lives had to be living hell
 
'I know I was lying most of the time when I was talking to the police,' Robert Bever says in younger brother's quintuple murder trial

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/bever/i-know-i-was-lying-most-of-the-time-when/article_ffa0915a-1654-5766-ae52-e50a20309576.html

Starting the fourth week of Michael Bever’s quintuple murder trial, his defense again suggested that 21-year-old Robert Bever, who has pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison without parole, was to blame for the violence. And last week, as the defense’s star witness, Robert told the court that he never saw Michael stab or slash anyone.

He even told Michael’s attorney, Chief Public Defender Corbin Brewster, on Monday that he exaggerated Michael’s participation when he spoke to police and didn’t remember telling, as he put it, the “shady” prosecution’s mental health expert anything incriminating about Michael.

Under cross examination Monday, however, Robert admitted telling police on the night of their arrests that Michael, then 16, played a much bigger role. Also, he had called Michael his “fellow tactician and colleague in prep work” in a journal Robert used to chronicle his plans to kill people.
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Brother's Testimony Continues In Michael Bever Murder Trial

http://www.newson6.com/story/38132910/brothers-testimony-continues-in-michael-bever-murder-trial

On Monday, Robert Bever, Michael’s brother, resumed his testimony. Robert wrapped up his testimony by saying he ultimately did not testify just to help his brother. He came to tell the truth, the truth no one had heard until now.

"Clearly, Robert's mentally ill," said defense attorney Corbin Brewster. "But what we heard was Robert's truth."

During Robert's time on the stand, he took full responsibility for stabbing all five members of his family to death, but he still talked about how his younger brother Michael was involved in concocting the plan.
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As much as Robert may have lied about some things to police, it's obvious Michael went along and helped commit the murders of their family members. I know his defense attorney says Michael was afraid to not go along with Robert because then Robert would've killed him too, but I don't buy that at all. In my opinion, Michael could've stopped this massacre from happening, but he didn't because, sadly, he was into it too.

He (Robert) admitted telling police he wanted to make sure Michael got credit for two of the family's murders, but he also said Monday that he didn't always tell the truth to police.
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http://www.newson6.com/story/38132910/brothers-testimony-continues-in-michael-bever-murder-trial
 
Defense rests in Michael Bever familicide trial; jury deliberations could begin Wednesday

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/bever/defense-rests-in-michael-bever-familicide-trial-jury-deliberations-could/article_54d2c78c-4b37-50ea-a96b-59af80ed31af.html

Canceling plans to call at least one more witness, Michael Bever’s defense team rested its case Tuesday afternoon in the teenager’s quintuple murder trial, likely sending jurors into deliberations on Wednesday.

Chief Public Defender Corbin Brewster told the court he had no further witnesses “in light of certain rulings” by District Judge Sharon Holmes related to the issue of evidence mishandling by police.

Brewster had anticipated calling former Broken Arrow Police Detective Gayla Adcock to testify about how a hard drive became missing after a return of electronics to the agency’s chain of custody from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, as well as why she took items associated with the Bever case from an auction house in 2016 without logging them into the Police Department’s property room.
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Defense Rests In Michael Bever Murder Trial

http://www.newson6.com/story/38141302/defense-rests-in-michael-bever-murder-trial

The defense also asked the investigator about a missing computer hard drive. She testified the hard drive was the responsibility of another detective to re-inventory the evidence once they got it back from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

She said that detective has resigned from the Broken Arrow Police Department.

The investigator also said nothing was on the hard drive they could recover because it couldn’t be initialized.

When asked why she didn’t request DNA testing on the blood on the alarm panel in the Bever home, the investigator said it was because Michael Bever and his brother, Robert, both told police Michael was the one who shut off the alarm.

The defense also asked why she didn’t request more DNA and fingerprint testing from OSBI; she said it was because they had two confessions and they weren’t trying to discover who committed the crime.

The investigator said the OSBI has a tight budget and cases where suspects are unknown take higher priority. She also said she didn’t believe additional testing would have made a difference in the case.
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Curious Me said:
As much as Robert may have lied about some things to police, it's obvious Michael went along and helped commit the murders of their family members. I know his defense attorney says Michael was afraid to not go along with Robert because then Robert would've killed him too, but I don't buy that at all. In my opinion, Michael could've stopped this massacre from happening, but he didn't because, sadly, he was into it too.



http://www.newson6.com/story/38132910/brothers-testimony-continues-in-michael-bever-murder-trial
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I do believe Michael will be found guilty. I also think he was influenced by Robert, who is mentally ill and he probably was living in a fantasy world with his brother. I think Robert, for sure hated his parents. Yes, Michael could have stopped it from happening, but he didn't. There are so many could have, should haves in this horrible case. It's just so very sad. Sad for everyone. I don't think anyone in this family was "evil", there was just some weird religious and isolation issues combined with no mental health checkups, no visits to doctors and parents who overlooked every red flag.
 
HoneyWest said:
I do believe Michael will be found guilty. I also think he was influenced by Robert, who is mentally ill and he probably was living in a fantasy world with his brother. I think Robert, for sure hated his parents. Yes, Michael could have stopped it from happening, but he didn't. There are so many could have, should haves in this horrible case. It's just so very sad. Sad for everyone. I don't think anyone in this family was "evil", there was just some weird religious and isolation issues combined with no mental health checkups, no visits to doctors and parents who overlooked every red flag.
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I feel that the father saying that he could kill his kids if he wanted to is pretty evil. Not evil in some kind of religious way, but really nasty.
 
I'd love to understand with a more in depth study of the family dynamics. The isolation was, in the end, extremely harmful.

I'd only be guessing that both brothers had self-esteem issues. It just seems that the two brothers didn't have that much outside socialization, and became codependent on each other. I'm not hearing much involvement or praise coming from the parents, so I wonder if Michael got the most positive reinforcement coming from Robert especially in their planning to become serial killers. I haven't been able to get a sense of the parents objectives in keeping the family so isolated, but think they probably had good intentions. Didn't trust the world perhaps and wanted to keep their children safe from it? Yes, I do feel such sadness and sorrow for this whole family that it turned out all wrong.
 
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