2011.02.21: Elisa Baker indicted for 2nd degree murder!!

[Hickory Born]

Peliman, I am with you on this. Hope they get at least 2 felonies on her before the murder trial. IMO, EB has been an Habitual Offender for many years, just hasn't been caught up until now. I wish LE would investigate the illegal drug angle.

 

[westsidefox64]

I agree also Peliman. Im assuming thats the thought process behind this. Will it matter which felony is tried first? habitual is habitual right?

 

[Kamille]

Attorney for Elisa Baker to begin sorting through volumes of evidence

During the court proceeding Tuesday morning, the judge continued the date for the obstruction of justice charge until April 4 and the bigamy charge was added to the administrative docket for June

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14209132


Looks like the obstruction is going first and then the bigamy charge. Then they will probably persue the new identity fraud charge so she may have 3 felony convictions before the second degree murder charge.

MOO

 

[Wagara]

Snipped...

Scott Reilly, Baker’s appointed attorney has said he plans to ask for a change of venue.

“I can’t imagine her getting a fair trial in this area, and I can’t think of an area around here where she could get a fair trial.”

http://callsforjustice.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/elisa-baker-the-hits-just-keep-coming/

~*~

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14291181

 

[WhyaDuck?]

Reilly also said he is very concerned his client will not get a fair trial unless a change of venue is granted due to all the publicity surrounding Zahra's death. He said the cost would be "astronomical" to the state.

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14291181

 

[Hickory Born]

Would the State of North Carolina or Catawba County (or both) be responsible for the cost regarding change of venue? In my State, funding for Superior Courts are shared by the State and Couny.

I have attended a trial where there was a change of venue and the judge moved his staff with him to the new city during the trial. Rather costly.

IMO, the Baker trial would need to be out of the viewing area of Charlotte, NC. The tv channels have had extensive coverage. In the Raleigh and Winston Salem NC areas they have had coverage in their newspaper (IDK about tv).

How unusual is it for a trial to be moved out of the entire state?

 

[Kamille]

Unbelievable. These defence attorneys really need to be reined in. Why on earth wouldn't she get a fair trial on all of the other charges? All of the evidence for every charge is there and is as clear as can be. And she's going to plead not guilty to all of them? With the mass amounts of evidence LE have on all of these charges? This is a stall and delay tactic. And will cost the taxpayer's a lot of money. What kind of a lawyer is this? Why are they allowed to play these games with the taxpayer's money? His computer won't play some of the CD's in the evidence file because of the format so the prosecution have to reformat the CD's instead of him having to find a computer that will play them? Say what? The whole system really needs to be overhauled to prevent this kind of nonsense by defence attorneys.

I do understand the change of venue request for the murder trial. Most everyone in that county was invested in that case and it's a very emotional topic for the majority of people living in the area I'm sure. But what do they care about her bad cheques, bigamy, driving infractions, identity fraud etc? All of those charges are pretty open and shut cases. There is an extensive paper trail to prove them. Would these even require jury trials?

MOO

 

[eileenhawkeye]

Would the State of North Carolina or Catawba County (or both) be responsible for the cost regarding change of venue? In my State, funding for Superior Courts are shared by the State and Couny.

I have attended a trial where there was a change of venue and the judge moved his staff with him to the new city during the trial. Rather costly.

IMO, the Baker trial would need to be out of the viewing area of Charlotte, NC. The tv channels have had extensive coverage. In the Raleigh and Winston Salem NC areas they have had coverage in their newspaper (IDK about tv).

How unusual is it for a trial to be moved out of the entire state?

The Oklahoma City bombing trial was moved to Colorado but the OJ Simpson trial stayed in California, so I think it would be very unusual to be moved to another state.

My college has a newspaper archive database. If it's online or in print, it's in the database. It also tells you the newspaper and how many articles they've written about a topic. I searched for Zahra and the newspapers with the most coverage in NC are Hickory Daily Record and the Charlotte Observer. There are only 6 articles from the Greensboro News & Record, and Greensboro is 2 hours from Hickory so perhaps, they could move the trial there? The first article they wrote about the case was about Zahra's birthday so they didn't cover her disappearance and subsequent murder.

 

[Flakes]

I can tell you EB would be hard-pressed to find a jury in Australia that hadn't read extensively about the case – Zahra (and EB) has been in hundreds of articles here – so I'm quite astounded that the regions surrounding Hickory have had so little coverage. Very strange.

I am totally with you Kamille in my outrage at the comments made by EB's attorney, Scott Reilly. I can't believe the helplessness and lack of professionalism (and IT ignorance) in the comment about the CDs. That's laughable. So maybe you're on a Mac, Scottie, go stick the CD in a PC ... that's about the only viable scenario I can come up with. Annoying yes, but difficult to work around? Definitely NOT!

As for the below quote from the article (note it's not all quotes, as much is paraphrase which might make the intent different to Reilly's):

"She's entitled to a fair trial in every single case no matter how big or small," said Reilly.

Reilly said Baker will plead 'not guilty' to every charge when the time comes.

He also said, at some point, he will file motions for a change of venue in each case.

That will be the request to move each trial outside of Catawba County. Reilly said the cost of moving each case, if done separately, could be "astronomical" to the taxpayers.

This sounds like Reilly is quite DELIBERATELY aiming to cost the taxpayers more money by seeking case relocations on every individual count. Comes across like a threat IMO.

 

[tlcya]

He can file motions for change of venue on every single case for all I care. I highly doubt the court will grant such frivilous motions. The only one that has a chance is the one relating to little Zahra's murder. THAT one the court may entertain and choose to allow.

The rest is just so much legal wrangling to try to position his client for the best outcome. I am a bit shocked at the ballsiness tho, I must say. Shades of Jose Baez?

Let's hope this guy Reilly sees a similar thwart in NC to the ones Mr. Baez is suffering in Forida on his case.

 

[Kamille]

Can you imagine EB pleading not guilty to the bigamy charges and every one of her "ex's" showing up in court with copies of their marriage and divorce certificates and comparing notes and dates with each other? Do these guys really need to be dragged into this? Heck, I was able to figure out the bigamy from ancestry.com ages ago.

Or how about her daughter, who was terrified in court the first time, having to show up in court yet again to state that yes that is her identification that her mother used to hook up utilities therefore committing identity fraud. Does she really need more of this? The murder trial is going to be hard enough on her, why make her go through another trial that is obviously going to result in a guilty verdict. And yeah, make her have to travel out of town for it too while you're at it.

Is this guy for real? Why is it always about playing games and delaying the inevitable with these attorneys? Why is it always about "winning"? Do they not have any sense of decency or consideration for the other people who have been hurt by their client's actions and behaviour?

MOO

 

[Flakes]

It's way too far down the line in the Caylee case for me try and understand these references to this Jose Baez character. I gather he's the lawyer representing Casey Anthony. But I have not followed that case (it has not made the papers or media in Aust) and I have no idea what his tactics are. Does he use desperate measures and diversion in the place of little of substance to work with?

 

[Kamille]

It's way too far down the line in the Caylee case for me try and understand these references to this Jose Baez character. I gather he's the lawyer representing Casey Anthony. But I have not followed that case (it has not made the papers or media in Aust) and I have no idea what his tactics are. Does he use desperate measures and diversion in the place of little of substance to work with?

I don't really follow that one either Flakes but from some of the stuff I have read that sounds about right. I'm sure there are lots of others on here who can enlighten us on Mr Baez though.

 

[tlcya]

He is doing what defense attorneys do, vigorously defending his client to the best of his ability. Unfortunately his task is a necessary one, while I logically understand he is doing what he needs to do, it is frustrating.

IME you only see this sort of motions when there really isn't any defense for your client. It is the old "I'll thrown everything at the wall and pray something sticks" strategy, usually - the less a defense, the more of these sort of motions.

 

[Kamille]

He is doing what defense attorneys do, vigorously defending his client to the best of his ability. Unfortunately his task is a necessary one, while I logically understand he is doing what he needs to do, it is frustrating.

IME you only see this sort of motions when there really isn't any defense for your client. It is the old "I'll thrown everything at the wall and pray something sticks" strategy, usually - the less a defense, the more of these sort of motions.

Well I would like to believe that a good defence attorney would be up front with their client about the charges they are facing and would be working with both their client and the prosecution to bring about the best possible deal for their client when the evidence is stacked against them. This is how I see the majority of the other charges, if not all of them.

I can understand a different strategy for the murder trial though. EB's version of what happened does not add up to second degree murder so that charge does require a full jury trial IMO.

MOO

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I can tell you EB would be hard-pressed to find a jury in Australia that hadn't read extensively about the case – Zahra (and EB) has been in hundreds of articles here – so I'm quite astounded that the regions surrounding Hickory have had so little coverage. Very strange.

There's been 436 articles about Zahra's case in North Carolina newspapers and 472 articles about her case in Australia newspapers. I know that Zahra is from Australia, but I still find it interesting that there seems to be more coverage in a country on the other side of the world from where the crime occurred.

 

[Hickory Born]

There's been 436 articles about Zahra's case in North Carolina newspapers and 472 articles about her case in Australia newspapers. I know that Zahra is from Australia, but I still find it interesting that there seems to be more coverage in a country on the other side of the world from where the crime occurred.

Could the difference in these two amounts be because Australia did have the opportunity to use but 2 tv interviews. I don't know if your count included tv broadcasts or not.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

Could the difference in these two amounts be because Australia did have the opportunity to use but 2 tv interviews. I don't know if your count included tv broadcasts or not.

My count only includes newspapers articles (in print and/or online) not TV broadcasts.

 

[Carolina Girl]

I don't think they will send this out of state, but if they do, tell them to come 5 or 6counties south into SC. I will serve, GLADLY!

 

[Tugela]

It is state charges, so it won't be tried out of state. In another county perhaps.