CA CA - Stephanie Crowe, 12, Escondido, 21 January 1998

[Up2theminute]

I fail to see how this most recent police testimony about Michael's demeanor is making anything better for Tuite. If anything, it shows how they were immediately focused on the family and interpreting any and all behavior as hinky. In one instance, his behavior is "odd" because he was quietly playing with a video game while the family was sitting there waiting in the living room. This is supposed to be suspicious because it could be indicative that he just didn't care and was emotionally, mentally, etc. 'removed' from the situation. But yet right after this, they describe another point where Michael puts his head on his mother's shoulder and despite the fact that this is completely contradictory to where they were trying to go with the point about him playing the video game (trying to make him appear detached) they still have to find something "odd" about that behavior...because..hmmm..uhh..gee...it was indicative that Michael was "dealing with things in another way." :hand:

 

[Ghostwheel]

Let's see, they "were ushered into the living room and told not to talk". So what's a 14 year old boy supposed to do? He's in shock, I would think. How many guys do you know that lose themselves in a video game when they are stressed? (my answer is about 95%, but we're all geeks)

Doesn't seem too weird to me.

Yet they think a schizophrenic who is eating chicken out of a dumpster would have to be acting differently how? if he just killed someone. A schizophrenic doesn't have a grip on reality, so could easily not be upset in the slightest if he had killed someone.

 

[Doyle]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20040319-9999-news_7m19tuite.html
Richard Tuite's attorneys yesterday began building their case that Michael Crowe engineered a plot to kill his younger sister. The defense offered testimony from several Escondido police officers who investigated the January 1998 slaying of Stephanie Crowe.

 

[Doyle]

The original lead investigator in the Stephanie Crowe murder case testified today he may have been "wrong" when he told a grand jury that blood was found on a knife thought to be the murder weapon.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/crowe/20040325-1430-tuite-early.html

After sitting through two days of interrogation videotape, jurors in the Richard Tuite trial yesterday heard the lead investigator in the Stephanie Crowe slaying say he had good reason to harshly question a teenager overnight.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/crowe/20040325-1430-tuite-early.html

 

[Ghostwheel]

[Bold]"At Tuite's preliminary hearing last year, Treadway testified that Claytor also told him off camera that if he went to prison he would be beaten, raped and traded among inmates for cartons of cigarettes. Treadway said the conversation took place as he was being processed at the police crime lab.

He testified that it was to avoid prison at any cost that he finally told Claytor and other detectives an elaborate tale of conspiracy and murder using the only tool available – his imagination. "
[/bold]
How many 15 year olds (or even adults, for that matter) wouldn't have done anything to stay out of jail at that point. How could you ever be sure you got a true confession. Kind of like beating the testimony out of slaves in the old days.

 

[Doyle]

A "Best Defense" knife found under the bed of one of three teenagers originally charged with Stephanie Crowe's murder is consistent with the weapon that killed her, a defense expert testified Monday.

Dr. Werner Spitz testified in the Richard Tuite murder trial that the "Best Defense" knife could have been used to inflict two deep knife wounds into the victim.
http://www.kfmb.com/topstory23892.html

 

[Doyle]

Stephanie Crowe was "a targeted victim" and was controlled during the knife attack, probably by "multiple assailants" familiar with the house, according to an FBI analyst who testified on behalf of the defense yesterday in the trial of Richard Tuite.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/crowe/20040409-9999-1mc9tuite.html

A transient charged two years ago with killing Stephanie Crowe suffers from mental illnesses including schizophrenia, organic brain syndrome and methamphetamine abuse, a psychiatrist testified today. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/crowe/20040408-1734-tuite.html

 

[Doyle]

Michael Crowe took the stand Monday in the Richard Tuite murder trial, 10News reported. He was the prosecutor's first witness in their rebuttal case.
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/n...break&ts=T&tmi=sand_break_3356_03260104122004

 

[LovelyPigeon]

Under oath before a grand jury the lead investigator "tried" to tell the truth about blood that didn't actually exist on the found knife. My guess is that the lies he told Michael while interrogating him became his "truth" and was hard to shake off even when testifying in court. What a horrible and false web LE wrapped around Michael and his friends.

I haven't heard anything yet to make me think Tuite's sweatshirt got Stephanie's blood on it any way except when she was being killed.

 

[Doyle]

Michael Crowe is testifying again today in the Richard Tuite murder trial. He is the prosecution's first witness in their rebuttal case.Crowe's sister, Stephanie, was stabbed to death six years ago at the family's Escondido home. Monday, Crowe told the jury about his state of mind during the murder and how his relationship with his sister improved in the months before her death.
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/n...break&ts=T&tmi=sand_break_3355_10560104132004




personally, I am still on the fence on this...

 

[Doyle]

Michael Crowe was distraught and crying at times on the witness stand yesterday as he watched himself go through an apparent emotional breakdown during a videotaped police interrogation administered the day after his sister Stephanie was found stabbed to death.

"I don't like remembering that," Crowe softly said, crying hard in the tense courtroom of San Diego Superior Court Judge Frederic Link. "I wish they wouldn't have done that to me."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/crowe/20040414-9999-1mi14tuite.html

 

[Doyle]

Crowe Breaks Down During Testimony
Crowe Was 'Scared, Wanted To Go Home
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/n...break&ts=T&tmi=sand_break_3356_11090104142004

 

[Ghostwheel]

personally, I am still on the fence on this...

I am curious, how so? Do you think that maybe someone other than Richard Tuite did it, or more than one person, or that Michael Crowe and his friends may really have done it, or some other idea? I lean more toward Richard Tuite, but this case has been so messed up from the beginning, I'm open to other possibilities.

 

[Doyle]

I am just not convinced that Michael Crowe and friends were not involved.

This case has been messed up from the beginning however.

 

[Doyle]

An angry, brooding loner with a passion for violent video games is how the defense attempted to portray Stephanie Crowe's brother during his cross-examination yesterday in the trial of Richard Tuite.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/crowe/20040415-9999-1mc15tuite.html

 

[Doyle]

Michael Crowe, the brother of murder victim Stephanie Crowe, resumed testimony Monday in the trial of Richard Tuite.
Tuite's defense team emphasized Crowe's inability to recall what happened six years ago.

Crowe, a 20-year-old college student, said he lied to police about his relationship with his sister because he was just trying to give them what they wanted.

Last week, Crowe testified tearfully that he lied to Escondido police detectives about killing his 12-year-old sister in 1998 because they told him he could get treatment -- and avoid jail time -- if he did.
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/n...break&ts=T&tmi=sand_break_3354_11030204192004

 

[Babcat]

Michael Crowe, the brother of murder victim Stephanie Crowe, resumed testimony Monday in the trial of Richard Tuite.
Tuite's defense team emphasized Crowe's inability to recall what happened six years ago.

OK... now think carefully... anybody... what went down last night while you were asleep? No asking the cat either!

Sometimes I am dumbfounded by an attorney's ability to make no knowledge of a crime appear to indicate guilt rather than innocence. Sometimes I am even more astonished that a judge would allow such misleading garbage in front of a jury when it is simply designed to confuse them... a desperate "Hail Mary" in the last 4 seconds of the game. And yet it is still a commonly used tactic.

 

[Ghostwheel]

Michael Crowe, the brother of murder victim Stephanie Crowe, resumed testimony Monday in the trial of Richard Tuite.
Tuite's defense team emphasized Crowe's inability to recall what happened six years ago.

****Sarcasm alert on****
Boy howdy, I know I can tell you exactly what happened six years ago, when my sister was murdered, and I was in shock, and was stuck in a room with some pretty mean policemen who were convinced I had killed my sister, and all I wanted was my parents, and my "friends" were telling stories that made no sense to me. I'd sure as anything be trying to remember such a wonderful time in MY life.

****sarcasm alert off****

 

[Ghostwheel]

I am just not convinced that Michael Crowe and friends were not involved.

This case has been messed up from the beginning however.

Which part makes you think they might have been involved? What part makes you go, Hmmmmm?

 

[Up2theminute]

Why would the friends have gotten involved and done all of that for (or with) Michael? And wasn't one of the friends not even really on speaking terms with them at that time? I thought I remember reading that Aaron Houser hadn't even really been talking to or friends with Michael lately at that time.