I've been taking a close look at the official timeline, with a focus on 2 areas that the defense will try to argue, specifically time to commit the murder and timing around finding the bodies and calling 911.
I believe that AM had time to commit the murders before leaving for Almeda and I believe that his description of coming across that bodies and calling 911 is not believable.
Let me know if you see any flaws in my thinking below.
Timing:
- 19 seconds to arrive at scene and then call 911 per OnStar: Defense has said that 20 seconds is a long time…plenty of time. My fastest estimate is 30 seconds - see below - and that doesn't include actually taking a pulse, just looking for where to take a pulse.
- park and get out of car - 2 sec
- run to PM, glancing over at MM - 6 sec
- check PM (take in scene and consider taking pulse; try to turn him over; try to take pulse; phone pops out; pick up phone and try to 'do something' with it; put phone back down on Paul; take one last look) - 9 sec
- Run over to MM - 4 sec
- Check MM (take in immediate scene; check for pulse) 7 sec
- Get phone out and dial 911 - 2 sec (presuming not left in car)
- Total fastest time: 30 seconds
- My Conclusion: AM could not have stumbled across the bodies and do everything he said he did before calling 911. It implies that he saw the dead bodies prior to this, because he had killed them.
- In contrast to the "20 seconds is a long time" opinion by defense, defense says time for AM to have committed the murders and departing for Almeda was too short a time. My presumed available time is 15 minutes(i.e. between 9:51 and 9:06). My quickest estimate for shooting/cleaning up/leaving is:
- Shoot Paul twice, including waiting for him to stumble forward (10 sec)
- Pick up 2nd weapon and chase MM (10 seconds)
- Shoot MM 5 times in fairly quick succession, allowing for MM to stumble (10 seconds)
- Put weapons down; walk to hose; quick rinse off of legs, feet, hands, arms; hang hose up (60 seconds)
- Wrap up guns in raincoat; put shoes, shirt, pants in cooler; put things in vehicle (ATV? Golf cart?) ( 60 seconds)
- Fiddle with Maggie's phone (30 seconds)
- Drive to house (ATV/cart) and transfer raincoat/cooler to SUV (60 seconds)
- Go in house and do quick shower. Put on t-shirt/shorts. (4 min.)
- Phone Maggie. (18 sec) - walking downstairs
- Call Randy (18 sec) - walking outside
- Go to SUV and start up. (15 sec)
- Total quickest time: 9 minutes
- My Conclusion: AM had enough time to clean up and head to Almeda
Great post. Further more a quick Google check of " How many seconds does it take to take someone's pulse:
How many seconds does it take to get your pulse rate?
" To check your pulse at your wrist, place two fingers between the bone and the tendon over your radial artery — which is located on the thumb side of your wrist. When you feel your pulse, count the number of beats in
15 seconds. Multiply this number by four to calculate your beats per minute."
Now just to give him the benefit of the doubt, I looked further down and saw a question of How to take a person's pulse in 5 seconds:
" Your radial pulse can be taken on either wrist.
Use the tip of the index and third fingers of your other hand to feel the pulse in your radial artery between your wrist bone and the tendon on the thumb side of your wrist. Apply just enough pressure so you can feel each beat."
Now granted he's not looking to time a pulse rate, he's just looking to find a pulse to see if they are alive. How many seconds does it take to determine IF there is even a pulse? 3 seconds, 2 seconds? This is you son and wife. Wouldn't you want to be absolutely certain?
So let's just say that Alex just so happens to know how to take someone pulse in 5 seconds. Ok let's time that out. He gets out of his car, passes Maggie who is lying right in front of his truck and goes immediately to Paul. He's running but he's also conscious of the fact not to step in any blood so he needs to be careful. Paul's arms are underneath his so he has to roll him over and find the artery on his wrist bone. So you see your son with the top have of his head blown off, you just ran from your truck which from the looks of the video appear to be about 20 yards from the bodies. He has the presence of mind to go immediately to the wrist and counts to 5. Not a whole heck of a lot of time to find a person's pulse who is missing half his head. " WOULDN'T YOU WANT TO BE 1000% CERTAIN THAT THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO PULSE NO MATTER HOW FAINT???" 5 seconds sure doesn't seem like a lot of time to determine that.
Next, he gently puts Paul back in the position he found him being careful not to get any blood on him. Oh and he see's Paul's cell phone fall out of his pocket that he picked up, checked and put back. He's really hustling now, ya know because he was so panicked and stuff. Now he sprints over to Maggie who is about 32-35 ft away. ( I think that's generous but I can't find the official measurements so I'm going off the not to scale diagram). He has to bend down, avoid any blood, and try to find a pulse. Again, if we go down to the bare minimum of 5 seconds to check her pulse, I ask the question again " WOULDN'T YOU WANT TO BE 1000% CERTAIN THAT THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO PULSE NO MATTER HOW FAINT???" 5 seconds sure doesn't seem like a lot of time to determine that.
Now he very possibly could have checked for a pulse on their necks. But it's not going to mess with the time frame that much. He still has to bend down, he still has to be careful not to get blood on him and he still has to give at least 5 seconds to check for a pulse.
So let's add up all those seconds he minimally could have taken just to check to see if PM & MM have a pulse. That's 10 seconds (5 seconds for each person) NOT including the seconds it took to turn Paul over, avoid blood, find the exact spot on his wrist, turn him back over, pick up his cell phone and replace it.
That leaves a grand total of 9 seconds left for him to run up and bend down, to Paul's body, stand back up, run over to Maggie, bend down to Maggie's body, stand back up, and run back to his truck.
19 seconds total to do all that. An untrained person in taking a person's pulse had to magically accomplish all of that in an unprofessional setting, ( in other words this wasn't done in a nice, clean, sterile doctor's office). As an experiment stop reading this right now and find your pulse. How long did it take you? You're sitting calmly right now. You're not running around panicked. You haven't just found your loved ones lying in pools of blood. You're not trained in taking a pulse. You have no medical training at all.
If you believe that Alex really accomplished all of that in 19 seconds while stoned on opiates (allegedly) then I have a place in Moselle to sell you.
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