My :twocents: after watching it all. Some semi random opservations (and I promise no... ok minimal snark :innocent
- Hair Banding. I think the state more than accomplished what they needed to. Their witness was positively unflappable. The hair evidence will all come in.
- Dogs. The defense spoke a lot about dogs, but somewhere failed to read what it was they were allowed to go after and what their actual goal was. They had to establish that these two individual dogs were in some way not properly trained or certified. They were not there to challenge sniffer dogs as a whole. Dogs have already been subjected to Frye and are accepted by the courts. Apparently nobody told JB this as his arguments went everywhere but on point. The prosecution managed to get both the highly detailed, precise and succinct training and certification record on bones entered in clearly, and they got Gerus's 20,800+ hours of training and experience in. This is a done manner. JB failed to even come close to his goal. The dogs will be in in my estimation. No question about it. As an added bonus JB managed to elicit the dog handler to offer his own expert opinions on the smell of human decomposition in the car and his experience with which to offer it. Way to go Defense Team!
- Dr Fairgreave. Stick a fork in him, he's done. Just a horrible witness all around. He is worthless as a defense witness testifying about dogs, having less actual expertise than a typical pet owner. Even worse his testimony regarding chloroform, his actual area of expertise as a forensic toxicologist, was rather damning for the defense. He basically supported Dr. Vass's findings that the reason the amount of chloroform could not be accurately stated was the amount was so high that it was beyond the instruments ability to determine.
- Decomposition/Dr. Vass - Dr. Vass came off as a smooth, skilled professional witness. Extremely credible. Very easy for a lay person such as a juror to understand. I am not going to predict which way the judge will go regarding Dr. Vass's tests on the trunk space air. But if he does deny these tests or this science under Frye, it will be the result of his (HHJP's) own research into the matter. The defense did not even come close to presenting any valid or comprehensible arguments regarding the sniffing tests. Perhaps the defense may yet have an expert in the wings to offer a counter opinion on this? (I lost track of what they did and did not finish today). But the defense today was continually arguing evidence instead of science. Which was not what they needed to do under Frye. Maybe if HHJP happens to stumble accriss RH's blog he may find a good argument for tossing the science. But he did not get it from the defense.
- Overall performance by lawyers. LDB is by far the strongest most competent and most compelling lawyer in the room. Every time she gets up she elicits the exact response she needs. She shoots down BS with simple easy to understand facts. JA needs to work a little on his emotional control. Although I do think a lot of his "Objection" spam was to teach DCS a lesson following her antics in the depositions. DCS herself comes accross, ummm... not well. A weird mixture of a flighty aunt with way too many cats, and someone playing gotcha over weird verbal games. There may be a method to her madness, but really she just puts everyone to sleep. She is a medical malpractice lawyer, more used to facing a similar plaintiffs attorney, then a professional prosecutor, and more used to be facing medical lay people than true professional LE experts and forensic specialists. And it really shows. HHJP quickly lost patience with her. AF is probably the best resource or hope that KC has right now, assuming she does not bail after JB's antics of today. She is warm. She is polished. She is professional. And it really shows with how the prosecutions and the judges attitude changes as soon as she steps up (and gets JB or DCS to step down). She could possibly save KC's life in all of this. I just hope KC and her other lawyers realize this. And then we come to JB...
- JB. Sigh! The most obvious thing about watching JB today is that he was only ever taught one way to present in court. It's like his whole courtroom presentation style was learned from watching lawyer TV shows, as opposed to actually taking cases the full way through a trial. He does not seem to be able to switch gears between a dramatic adversarial presentation for a lay jury, or a more directed presentation to a single expert observer, ie the judge. Notice how every time LDB questions a witness or speaks in a hearing it is very clear that it is all directed in a clear and succinct manner towards the judge. Whereas JB is playing gotcha antics without an audience. Or is arguing points that while fascinating to a jury, will immediately be dismissed as legally irrelevant by a judge. Dr. Vass's profit motive argument today was a great example of this. It might play to the jury as a reason to discount the witness, but today the judge wanted science. He didn't get it.
And this is above and beyond the very clear realization today that JB has lost, totally lost the professional trust of pretty much every one around him save his client (who probably still thinks he was fantastic today for telling that judge and mean old JA what for). It was beyond apparent to everyone that his apology at the previous hearing to get out of sanctions or contempt charges (or whatever it technically is) was made in bad faith. he never had any intention of honoring anything he said beyond the 10 minutes it would need to get him out of immediate trouble. HHJP has the patience of a saint to not take start holding the defendant responsible for he antics of her lead attorney.
-HHJP. Looked very irritated every time the camera panned to him. He wanted science and true materials pertaining to Frye. Aside from a few thankfully brief prosecution sessions, he didn't get it. Instead he got a parade of irrelevant evidentiary nonsense. He had me worried watching him on camera during the great JB smackdown. I really thought the poor man was having some sort of Hypertensive Incident. His right eye was half lidded, his left eye was wide open and spasming. And his speech seemed off with some unusual pauses until he was able to collect himself. I think JB very nearly found his breaking point today, and only the timely intervention of Ms. Finnel prevented the situation from really escalating.
All around I think this will score as a major win for the prosecutors, and stand among some of JB's worst performances to date.
