TIMELINE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
’S TRIAL DEFENSE, 2010
Early 2010. Samuels interviews the
and tests her for PTSD. She tells him the ninja story. Nurmi writes it hurt the defense/Samuels’ credibility at trial that the
was still claiming ninjas, but he had to schedule experts, no matter what problems that would cause at trial if she changed stories, because trial was (supposedly, he thought) imminent (August of 2010).
Early 2010. Cheryl Karp, the DT’s first choice of DV expert, interviews the
, who tells her of numerous of physical abuse by TA incidents (30-40, according to Sky Hughes). The frequency of physical abuse the
alleged to Karp contradicted, as Nurmi knew, what the
had told a national audience on 48 Hours shortly after her arrest:
“Travis lost his temper with me several times, but I was never afraid for my life. He left bruises-on my arms, legs, and torso, but I think I covered them up pretty well.”
What she told Karp also contradicted what she had written to T’s family shortly before the 48 Hours interview: that Travis had been physically abusive twice. The
mentioned the letter to T’s family during the 48 Hours interview, an interview Nurmi said he watched soon after he was assigned the
’s case.
Karp never testified. Best guess, the
didn’t tell her a pedo story during this first interview, but did so in a subsequent interview (Karp was retained as the DT’s trial witness on DV through September 2011).
Given her exit date, Karp also had to have been aware that the
changed her story about the frequency of abuse within a few months of being interviewed by Karp (and would again).
April 6, 2010. DT’s enters a specifically targeted electronics motion: to compel the State to turn over texts & emails from TA’s phone. Nurmi is still in search of evidence proving a second degree worthy “chaotic” relationship.
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April 11, 2010. Ten forged letters are emailed to Nurmi. The letters are clearly intended as “evidence” to support the pedo lie AND the
’s lies about being physically abused. But the
’s intention to harm with the letters didn’t end there.
At least one of the letters targeted Deanna (it contained a lot of disparaging & hurtful comments about her, again, supposedly written by Travis). The ugliest letter, about pedo, was aimed squarely at Chris & Sky Hughes (suggested that Travis was thinking he might sexually abuse the Hughes’ 4 year old child)
June 2010. The DT discloses forged pedo letters to JM. Motions and hearings and wrangling about the admissibility of the letters starts immediately, and continues for over a year, finally ending in August 2011, when they are ruled inadmissible.
One of the key impediments to having the letters introduced is that the
(for obvious reasons) couldn’t produce originals of the letters. Nurmi writes that he demanded she tell him who had the originals, and says she told him, but he couldn’t reveal her reply because of attorney-client privilege (lol). (More on this in the 2011 timeline).
June 22, 2010. The
officially changes her defense. No more ninjas. She now admits she did kill Travis, but will present a defense that killing him was justifiable, as she had been a victim of domestic violence (alleges 4-5 incidents) and reasonably believed that Travis intended to kill her that day.
The pedo lie was already entwined in this defense, though the lie would evolve. The forged letters star in this first version because the pedo lie and the letters were intended to be mutually reinforcing.
In this first, pre-trial version, the
goes over to T’s house to clean his attic. While in the attic, she discovers a bunch of videos of little boys being molested and little boys’ toys. Travis writes her (one of the forged letters), dated
January 21, 2007, expressing his horror that she has uncovered his dark secret.
He confesses that he has sexually molested little boys, that he knows he is evil, that he’s afraid he won’t be able to stop himself from molesting Sky & Chris Hughes’ son, that having sex with women lessens his need to molest boys, and that his pedophilia explains why he likes anal sex and seeing her in little boy undies. He asks her not to judge him and tells her to call him as soon as she reads the letter.
There is nothing in this forged letter about the
witnessing Travis masturbating to images of little boys on the computer, nor to a photo that falls magically at her feet.
June 2010. Nurmi writes that the
gives him explicit permission to show Sky and Chris the forged letter(s) in which Travis “confesses” his desire to molest their son.
Nurmi does just that. Sky recalls that he contacts her right around the time Nurmi files
’s change in defense (June 22, 2010). He tells the Hughes that his experts had the highest confidence (according to Nurmi) or were 100% sure (according to Sky) the letters were authentic. Sky initially believes what is in the letter (which no doubt made
’s day).
What Nurmi doesn't dwell upon in his book is that the
had to have given him the same permission to show Deanna at least one of the forged letters, which he does, in an interview at her house. JM describes this interview as essentially an ambush, conducted in less than good faith, almost certainly intended to have Deanna “confess” that she sex with Travis, and likely, in the hope of encouraging Deanna to turn on Travis.
None of that works, and Deanna told JM several weeks later that she didn’t believe Travis wrote the letter. Deanna also gives JM original love letters from Travis to be used by JM’s handwriting experts. (Did the
see copies of those letters when she first went pro per?)
June 30, 2010. Dworkin begins examining the Helio phone containing both the tree
text (that she sent to herself) and the “sex tape” for “expert” analysis.
Nurmi writes that he was shocked by what he heard on the tape. Specifically, says Nurmi in this book written AFTER the trial, several comments by Travis relating to 12 year olds strongly indicated to him -and still do-that Travis did indeed have pedophilic interests. He also writes that what he heard on the tape gave credence to the forged letters’ authenticity.
In other words and in his own words, AT THE VERY LEAST, from the time Nurmi filed her defense to self defense on through August 2011, he did not think there was any reason to disbelieve
’s accusation that Travis was a pedophile
((Nurmi wrote that “sometime in 2010” he was contacted by someone in
’s family, who told him that the Helio had been found in a relative’s car. He said he was anxious to know what was on the phone, but knew he couldn’t access what was there himself (evidence tampering), so he instructed the family member to turn it over to the DT’s investigator, who then gave it to Dworkin to examine.
Since he said he listened to the tape AFTER he’d received and read the forged letters, Auntie Sue must have called him to report that she’d magically found the “stolen” Helio sometime between April 12 and late July, 2010.
Since nothing on the Helio was relevant to her accusations about being physically abused, and since the
would have known the tape contradicted her tale of herself being victimized by a sexually aggressive Travis, maybe the
wanted the Helio found just then because she thought it would help support the pedo lie. Just as it did, apparently, at least for Nurmi).
