Hi, Everyone,
Newbie here, just getting a feel for the case.
A major thing that strikes me is the seemingly amazing coincidence of SM calling HE out of the blue after her date.
Because of that, don't you feel like the two had been communicating in some way? I suspect that SM knew about the date. I even think he might have been watching her place (another sign they had to have been in communication) for the date to end. If the date went inside, or even if SM witnessed any PDA -- holding hands, a kiss -- he could have been consumed with jealousy at the thought of HE with someone else.
A scenario I can see is when the date left, SM left the apt. complex and went to a pay phone to call HE and beg to come over, to see her, he had left TM. (And he sort of had. He'd managed to slip out somewhere along the line. If he had been allowed to go to Heather's maybe he really would have.)
But he was rejected. He had no plan and no where to go except home.
HE plays around with her poetry page, listens to "their song" and loses her resolve. She tries to call SM. She could even have thought if he had left TM (who knows what line SM was spinning in his jealousy) the number he called from was a hotel or something similar.
HE could also have thought that if SM had left TM he had taken his cell phone and she became more and more desperate to reach him and finally called the cell number.
That second call, the answered one, was put on speaker so TM could hear everything and she learned that SM would actually consider leaving her for HE.
The only way her marriage would be safe was with HE out of the way . . . . In these kinds of situations -- infidelity and the breaking up of a marriage -- people actually become someone they've never been before. It is about like temporary insanity.
Since LE is not seeking the death penalty, I wonder if those circumstances play into the decision . . .