COURTROOM OBSERVATION PART 2
A few more notes from my friend’s courtroom visits. Some of these tidbits are mixed up date wise, but come from Willmott questioning Geffner, Nurmi questioning DeMarte, and some of Juan’s redirect of DeMarte.
Huge toss up whose voice/courtroom demeanor is more unpleasant: (he actually used the words “repellant” and “brain searing” as well)
1. Willmott: condescending tone; too much “we’re just two friends having a funsy little conversation” with Geffner
2. Willmott: contemptuous little smirks when Martinez was redirecting
3. Willmott: so incredibly repetitious with her questioning! Began so many sentences the exact same way, used inflection in her voice in a strangely ineffectual way, could not have led Geffner more effectively had she given him her word for word script!
4. Willmott: was reminded of his 5 year old niece who objects and argues anytime she is being disciplined…..that Willmott had a hard time taking no from the judge and that it really scrambled up her thinking as she tried to get back into the questioning; going off script really seemed to throw her
5. Willmott: lots of what he called “quiet stomping” up to the bench, body language through her walking showing major ticked off, didn’t seem to try to hide it
6. Nurmi: if his lumbering movements with his head down like in charging mode was meant to intimidate, epic fail!
7. Nurmi: as repetitive as Willmott was with her speaking patterns, Nurmi was downright predictable: “well let me ask you this” “Let’s back up” and using 100 words and redirects in a straightforward question. “T” said he’s seen this before with attorneys and it’s used to confuse and keep the witness off balance, but in his opinion was a convoluted attempt at best and was so overused it added to the monotony and extremely slow pace.
8. Nurmi: Was a “brutish Neanderthal” attacking DeMarte, and in his opinion less than zero effectiveness. Seemed he had coined some phrases he wanted to throw at her and got them in as often as possible: Dr. Death; concocting stories with Martinez; etc. He said it was like a 12 year old boy trying to be the to impress the girls.
9. Nurmi: preoccupation with his phone never ending and comical in his blasting of the media while scrolling so fast on his phone he probably got “carpal forefinger”
10. Nurmi: when not up speaking, he could not retain an upright position in his chair. Slumped, collapsed like in his chair, flopping hard into it,
11. Nurmi: watching over his shoulder a lot at the gallery which T found interesting. Not as much jury watching as he would have thought, but any noise from behind him got his immediate attention.
12. Nurmi: even when at sidebar, Nurmi really trying to snag looks into the gallery
13. Nurmi: no recognizable manners noticed, except for bad ones.
14. MDLR: Uncomfortably cozy with Arias. Lots of “hair whispers”, a few back rubbing/touches which grossed him out and again made him wonder where security was
15. MDLR: Phone addiction like Nurmi, but with Nurmi he saw more scrolling and scrolling, whereas MDLR was either playing “angry birds” on her phone or doing a lot of texting as well. Found this especially distracting when such serious testimony was ongoing.
16. MDLR: She and Arias liked “sharing”
17. JM: Wasn’t in the best position to see him unless he was standing. But said he never “walked angry” like W and N
18: JM: Almost always looking straight ahead, no phone games, no note sharing, no “hair whispers” no gallery staring
19: JM: loved the way he ambled up to the every 20 second sidebar, and appeared so composed at the bench (most of the time) while Willmott had her hands flailing and Nurmi just “stood and hulked mad” (which means looked angry just standing there)
20: JM: counted several times at sidebar called for by defense when it was over and he would start to walk back but W or N often had just one more thing to add and they had to go back!!
21. JM: loved his style of even keeled questioning whether his own witness or defense witness. Said it was for all, ‘just answer my question w/out all the extraneous BS’
22. JM: thought he was insanely quick with facts and could recover even when there was an objection after every question
23. JM: saw what appeared to be him affectionately/reassuringly looking back at Alexander family often when returning from sidebars.
Interesting: The first day Tony was there he was dressed in a suit, just coming from a meeting or on his way to one. (He’s a nice looking guy……..she coyly says!) He met Nurmi and Willmott(who he wasn’t sure were Nurmi and Willmott at this point) as he was going in the door to the courtroom and they were going out. Willmott smiled like she recognized him (which she couldn’t have), said hello, and Nurmi held the door open and said some kind of greeting. Later that day, possibly because he was sitting on the public side behind Arias’ family, Willmott caught his attention again and asked if he could hear alright from where he was sitting!?!?! HUH?!?! The next time he was in court he was dressed more in going to the airport for a long flight attire, still nice but not a suit, and was talking very briefly to who I think from his description might have been Paul Sanders. Willmott saw him in the queue waiting for the elevator and this time didn’t return the smile Tony gave just to test his theory. Make of it what you will!
All for now……this is so much of what you folks have already noticed either during the guilt phase televised or through others’ tweets. But from those of you who have either been in the courtroom or had conversations with court watchers know, it’s so much cooler to get the first hand impressions!!