I personally suggest a Planter's Punch to cool down with if before 10:00 Hours local time, but then you should stick with Rum for the rest of the day!
When you talk about the weather that way, it makes me think of a Tennessee Williams' (who is an alum of the University of Iowa by the way) play...perhaps you could partake of your refreshment (or posting) sitting on the veranda while fanning yourself...but I digress.
Good idea to keep away from the news, as it will only depress you!
My late significant other went through a number of interesting scrapes in her life, some of which were documented in the MSM (once, she was on her way home to New Orleans from the Gulf Coast when the car carrying Jane Mansfield roared past them in the fog, they passed the accident scene soon after...) and she warned me to NEVER trust what you read in the papers as it is usually wrong, I've sinced learned (the hard way) that she was right. Something we in WS should take to heart...
Someone should tell Occam to stop slinging that damned razor around, as he might eventually cut somebody. Stuff happens, especially when one is young, dumb and full of adreneralin, and maybe seminal fluid, when fleeing from the scene of a serious crime. PTSD and worse comes from this, for everyone concerned. (Been there, done that, had the burnt gunpowder flake on my back to remind me...never live with sociopaths!)
IMHOO, y'all are looking for rational answers to the irrational actions of an amateur maybe sociopath who comes comes from far outside of your collective cultural milieu; actions taken in the wake of a high stress criminal act. This is a dark rabbit hole to go down.....(though while Jack Russels like to do this, everybody (who has ever lived with one) KNOWS that they are nuts to start with!)
CBR did what seemed like the best idea to him at the time (not always a good idea) and seriously lucked out for a while...fortune favors the bold (sometimes). Sometimes, when you hear hoofbeats, there is a #$%& zebra coming at you (many malpractice torts result from this application of that same tired old razor).
While I agree with a number of your conclusions, please just don't go too far down the rabbit hole, or you may wind up sitting in the dark, confused, with a Jack Russel for company (MSM tells me that it recently took a Texas fire company 8 hours to dig a Jack Russel out from under a slab house, after it went there after a rabbit...no word about the rabbit...), please don't go there!
CBR will likely go to trial (I doubt a plea...but) and he will go to prison for the rest of his natural life...however long that may be. If it gives you comfort, consider what happened to Jeffery Dahmer (hey, Stuff happens in the weight room). Sometimes, justice is swift and Sure!
