GUILTY CA - Faith Tsarnas & Kiya Kitchen, Both 14, Die In Hit & Run, Fortuna, 12 July 2016

[Knox]

There are MANY mind boggling aspects to this case I can't wrap my head around. Most of all, that Marci did not quietly plead guilty, and silently disappear from public view to serve whatever sentence was meted out. The arrogant defiance she has displayed defies basic human ethics.

The odds in this case are really beyond comprehension. A Mother goes to a bar, gets hammered, gets in her car to drive home, hits and kills her own daughter & friend, leaves them to die, doesn't call 911. Gets home, hides the jeep, calls boyfriend to take her back to the scene, never says a word about what she did, and the cover up and lies begin.

I've often thought about how someone could cope with the reality of killing your own child in this way. I found no answers ...

 

[Knox]

This afternoon, after meeting privately with the two lawyers, Judge Kaleb Cockrum reluctantly canceled Kitchen’s Aug. 20 trial and rescheduled it for Sept. 4.

“It’s not an easy decision and I don’t want to make it,” Cockrum said, but he noted he must balance Kitchen’s rights with those of the victims and their families.

O’Connell submitted a written declaration to the judge, and also said in court that the defense expert will be finished with his work on Aug. 23, and she plans to file her motion the next day. The judge told her to have a preliminary motion filed by Aug. 3.

Eads opposed the delay, noting that twice before the defense said no more continuances would be requested, and now it’s happening again.

“It’s been two years now since these two young girls were tragically killed,” Eads said, noting that the teens and their families deserve justice.
Marci Kitchen Trial Continued Yet Again; Defense Plans to File Some Kind of Motion Next Month

 

[Lilibet]

John Chiv.

Words Worth: Brief motion to continue Marci Kitchen trial granted, new trial date September 4

 

[MsMarple]

There are MANY mind boggling aspects to this case I can't wrap my head around. Most of all, that Marci did not quietly plead guilty, and silently disappear from public view to serve whatever sentence was meted out. The arrogant defiance she has displayed defies basic human ethics.

The odds in this case are really beyond comprehension. A Mother goes to a bar, gets hammered, gets in her car to drive home, hits and kills her own daughter & friend, leaves them to die, doesn't call 911. Gets home, hides the jeep, calls boyfriend to take her back to the scene, never says a word about what she did, and the cover up and lies begin.

I've often thought about how someone could cope with the reality of killing your own child in this way. I found no answers ...

Yes! To everything you said! And let's not forget Marci's boyfriend who apparently doesn't mind hooking up with a woman with no discernible conscience.

Kitchen's last attorney attempted to impeach the statements of two witnesses, one being her son. New attorney Meagan O’Connell seems to be focused on claiming that: “There were certain things that were not investigated that I would like to have investigated.”

She said hiring a new expert and looking into this aspect would take about six weeks. That was at the end of April. Now it's by August 23. SMDH.

So... hurry up and wait.

 

[AzPistonsGirl]

The odds in this case are really beyond comprehension. A Mother goes to a bar, gets hammered, gets in her car to drive home, hits and kills her own daughter & friend, leaves them to die, doesn't call 911. Gets home, hides the jeep, calls boyfriend to take her back to the scene, never says a word about what she did, and the cover up and lies begin.

THIS NEEDS REPEATING and to be screamed from the rooftops. Unfathomable. Where is the outrage?

 

[burblestein]

It takes an expert to tell that she ran over those kids???

 

[Lilibet]

THIS NEEDS REPEATING and to be screamed from the rooftops. Unfathomable. Where is the outrage?

I can’t figure out why this was never picked up by other news sources outside of Humboldt County. There is a LOT of outrage in Humboldt, judging from recent comments on LoCO. Those comments alone are enough to win her a change of venue IMO. Personally, I’m all for a change of venue because influential people in Humboldt who have her back won’t be able to exert as much influence elsewhere. And when she is found guilty, it’s one less basis for an appeal. Mark my words. This case will drag on for YEARS!
JMO

Marci Kitchen Trial Continued Yet Again; Defense Plans to File Some Kind of Motion Next Month

 

[Lilibet]

There are MANY mind boggling aspects to this case I can't wrap my head around. Most of all, that Marci did not quietly plead guilty, and silently disappear from public view to serve whatever sentence was meted out. The arrogant defiance she has displayed defies basic human ethics.

The odds in this case are really beyond comprehension. A Mother goes to a bar, gets hammered, gets in her car to drive home, hits and kills her own daughter & friend, leaves them to die, doesn't call 911. Gets home, hides the jeep, calls boyfriend to take her back to the scene, never says a word about what she did, and the cover up and lies begin.

I've often thought about how someone could cope with the reality of killing your own child in this way. I found no answers ...

BBM

Great post! One more detail to add is that she tried to get her own son to lie for her!

As to how one copes with her reality, a number of commenters on the LoCO article I just posted said they would kill themselves. I wouldn’t go that far, but I’d certainly want to! Going on vacations with bf would be the last thing on my mind! She is the antithesis of a normal mother IMO.

 

[Lilibet]

As expected, MK’s lawyer has filed for a change of venue. There will be a hearing Aug 27.

Will she succeed?

It’s rare for cases to be moved out of the county. One of the few occurred in the late 1980s, when the trial of double-murder suspect Donald Hansen was transferred to Oakland. A jury there acquitted Hansen of murdering his 16-year-old twin sisters.

Marci Kitchen Defense Attorneys File Change-of-Venue Motion, Ask Judge to Move Manslaughter Trial Out of Humboldt

 

[burblestein]

Oh, wait, this late in the game, she suddenly claims she thought she hit a deer...but she doesn't mention it until now? She didn't stop to check what (who) she had hit?

 

[Lilibet]

Oh, wait, this late in the game, she suddenly claims she thought she hit a deer...but she doesn't mention it until now? She didn't stop to check what (who) she had hit?

I don’t recall hitting a deer being mentioned either. Generally you see a deer before you hit it on a straight stretch of road before the sun goes down. With the impact, it would have bounced up over her windshield. Young girls don’t have fur. She did pull over briefly, according to the man who stopped and called 911. But then she proceeded home and started staging the cover-up. If it was “just” a deer, there would have been no “need” to hide her vehicle and ask her son to lie for her. So she clearly knew what she had done and left Kiya and Faith mangled on the road. She must have nerves of steel and a heart of stone, even intoxicated with looser inhibitions. It’s beyond understanding, and as I’ve often said...why hasn’t this case gotten national attention?!

 

[burblestein]

If Kitchen's case does get moved, don't be too surprised if it ends up in Mendocino County.

Besides being handily next door to Humboldt, Mendocino has plenty of judges. In fact, if it is possible to have too many judges.... Well, anyhow, it seems that in the great gone-by, there used to be part-time justice courts scattered throughout Mendoland. The magistrates in those courts settled minor misdemeanors, and bound over serious cases for superior court. However, the lawyers in the legislature found out to their horror that some of the magistrates weren't lawyers. Next you knew, a law was passed that all judges had to have a law degree, and there would be no more layman magistrates. Result: Mendocino County has nine full-time judges for a population of 90,000 people. If not more judges per capita than anywhere else in the country, then in serious contention.

From a Humboldt judge's POV: Mendo is an analogous rural county, conveniently located, and with an abundance of judiciary.

 

[burblestein]

And I doubt a change of venue will help Kitchen's case. I just don't think any dozen citizens anywhere could excuse a woman from running over children and abandoning them to die. Especially when one of them was her own daughter.

 

[Lilibet]

If Kitchen's case does get moved, don't be too surprised if it ends up in Mendocino County.

Besides being handily next door to Humboldt, Mendocino has plenty of judges. In fact, if it is possible to have too many judges.... Well, anyhow, it seems that in the great gone-by, there used to be part-time justice courts scattered throughout Mendoland. The magistrates in those courts settled minor misdemeanors, and bound over serious cases for superior court. However, the lawyers in the legislature found out to their horror that some of the magistrates weren't lawyers. Next you knew, a law was passed that all judges had to have a law degree, and there would be no more layman magistrates. Result: Mendocino County has nine full-time judges for a population of 90,000 people. If not more judges per capita than anywhere else in the country, then in serious contention.

From a Humboldt judge's POV: Mendo is an analogous rural county, conveniently located, and with an abundance of judiciary.

That’s very interesting about Mendocino judges. If there is a change of venue, it seems logical.

But I’d be very surprised if Judge Kaleb Cockrum, recently appointed Judge, is going to want to give up this case. He has always wanted to be a Judge and the Kitchen case will be too interesting for him to pass up, especially since it won’t make a huge difference in the outcome (except perhaps on appeal) IMO.

He was the defense attorney (conflict counsel) for the trial of priest murderer Gary Lee Bullock in Eureka a couple of years ago. I was very surprised that the case stayed in Humboldt.
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...d-in-church-rectory-eureka-1-jan-2014.230384/

Then he was appointed head of the public defenders office in Nov 2017 and Judge in February 2018.
Interim Public Defender Kaleb Cockrum, 43, appointed Humboldt County judgeship

Quoting Cockrum:

Cockrum said his experience as a public defender taught him many things including “empathy but it also teaches you a good sense of when someone is telling the truth and being honest. Fairness, having to listen to both sides and evaluate their cases not just how one side advocates for their position but ensuring everyone involved receives a fair hearing.”

 

[Lilibet]

If Kitchen's case does get moved, don't be too surprised if it ends up in Mendocino County.

Besides being handily next door to Humboldt, Mendocino has plenty of judges. In fact, if it is possible to have too many judges.... Well, anyhow, it seems that in the great gone-by, there used to be part-time justice courts scattered throughout Mendoland. The magistrates in those courts settled minor misdemeanors, and bound over serious cases for superior court. However, the lawyers in the legislature found out to their horror that some of the magistrates weren't lawyers. Next you knew, a law was passed that all judges had to have a law degree, and there would be no more layman magistrates. Result: Mendocino County has nine full-time judges for a population of 90,000 people. If not more judges per capita than anywhere else in the country, then in serious contention.

From a Humboldt judge's POV: Mendo is an analogous rural county, conveniently located, and with an abundance of judiciary.

That’s very interesting about Mendocino judges. If there is a change of venue, it seems logical.

But I’d be very surprised if Judge Kaleb Cockrum, recently appointed Judge, is going to want to give up this case. He has always wanted to be a Judge and the Kitchen case will be too interesting for him to pass up, especially since it won’t make a huge difference in the outcome (except perhaps on appeal) IMO.

He was the defense attorney (conflict counsel) for the trial of priest murderer Gary Lee Bullock in Eureka a couple of years ago. I was very surprised that the case stayed in Humboldt.
GUILTY - CA - Father Eric Freed, murdered in church rectory, Eureka, 1 Jan 2014

Then he was appointed head of the public defenders office in Nov 2017 and Judge in February 2018.
Interim Public Defender Kaleb Cockrum, 43, appointed Humboldt County judgeship

Quoting Cockrum:

Cockrum said his experience as a public defender taught him many things including “empathy but it also teaches you a good sense of when someone is telling the truth and being honest. Fairness, having to listen to both sides and evaluate their cases not just how one side advocates for their position but ensuring everyone involved receives a fair hearing.”

 

[burblestein]

Not that I believe the case will be moved. Customarily, a judge will try to seat a jury from an extra-large panel of citizens before despairing and ordering a change of venue.

And if the truth of my above remark about the jury is accepted, then it must be wondered, Why go with a jury anywhere? Be judged by a judge and be done with it.

And yet she is reluctant to be judged by an ex-public defender?

I think the motion to change venue is just another stalling motion.

 

[Lilibet]

Not that I believe the case will be moved. Customarily, a judge will try to seat a jury from an extra-large panel of citizens before despairing and ordering a change of venue.

And if the truth of my above remark about the jury is accepted, then it must be wondered, Why go with a jury anywhere? Be judged by a judge and be done with it.

And yet she is reluctant to be judged by an ex-public defender?

I think the motion to change venue is just another stalling motion.

I agree that it’s a stalling tactic. I wonder how long the judge will let it play out. There will have to be a moment of reckoning at some point.

 

[Knox]

Oh, wait, this late in the game, she suddenly claims she thought she hit a deer...but she doesn't mention it until now? She didn't stop to check what (who) she had hit?

She did say that early on, I'll have to see if I can find a link.

 

[Knox]

Ca - Faith Tsarnas & Kiya Kitchen, Both 14, Die In Hit & Run, Fortuna, 12 July 2016

 

[Lilibet]

Ca - Faith Tsarnas & Kiya Kitchen, Both 14, Die In Hit & Run, Fortuna, 12 July 2016

Thanks. I’d forgotten that. Reading about the preliminary hearing testimony is sickening!

When I posted back then that the deer defense won’t fly because she hid the truck, Gardenista pointed out that she might be able to say she hid it after finding out who she hit. But I think she’d have a hard time proving that.

I ran across this post by John Chiv that Crime Watch Daily was interested in doing a story on this case. Does anyone know if they ever did? Or did Marci’s peeps manage to block it somehow?

Words Worth: Crime Watch Daily interested in covering Kitchen case; this email made my day