Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 *Arrest* #46

[MistyWaters]

It could be that some discovery was delivered to Defendant. Perhaps the material wasn’t clear or perhaps something wasn’t sufficient to understand aspects of the charges. Perhaps one or both sides are playing games or buying time for some reason.

But I highly doubt the two defense attorneys would fail to understand exactly what each is doing. M

The public has no good understanding of the evidence LE has for evidence or the information they have discovered during the 6 weeks since Mollie was found.

I don’t know why the defense confusion but I was thinking of the response by the prosecution that was posted earlier by another poster here.

“Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan said prosecutors intend to resist the defense's motion. She said there are deadlines in place for when prosecutors must provide evidence and they intend to comply with them.”
Mollie Tibbetts case: Suspect's lawyers say state must give more detail

 

[tmar]

I know there is due justice, but I think it is crap that the person that lead them to Mollie's body and was seen on video following her is now playing dumb. UGHHH

He can play Dumb, tell lies, not understand, but he cannot get out of this, no matter what he tries.
The Prosecution is far smarter than he is.
They also have Karma working for them: and this has already started.
CR has been accused, being Step 1, in this journey.

 

[Followfacts]

I don’t know why the defense confusion but I was thinking of the response by the prosecution that was posted earlier by another poster here.

“Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan said prosecutors intend to resist the defense's motion. She said there are deadlines in place for when prosecutors must provide evidence and they intend to comply with them.”
Mollie Tibbetts case: Suspect's lawyers say state must give more detail

Deadlines that is the time the prosecutors will be giving defense their evidence? Not before the deadline? Sounds like they don’t have it all and want to wait until the absolute last minute before they drop it on the defense. Then the defense will just ask for more time, money and experts to evaluate and process the mountain of evidence. Is this because of the not guilty plea by CR and his defense waving the 90 day speedy trial?

Can the premeditation be proven? The prosecution doesn’t want to give the defense this evidence until the last day which is the deadline. Not before the deadline. Do they have it? Maybe they are still collecting it all? Is this the way of all criminal cases, standard procedure that prosecution waits until the deadline day, the absolute last hour to share evidence?

 

[AnnaGrace]

I still check Mollie's page most days hoping for news or an update. I know we're likely to get very little until the case moves closer to trial.
Rest in peace sweet Mollie. Bumping you back to the first page.

 

[Charliegizmo49]

Deadlines that is the time the prosecutors will be giving defense their evidence? Not before the deadline? Sounds like they don’t have it all and want to wait until the absolute last minute before they drop it on the defense. Then the defense will just ask for more time, money and experts to evaluate and process the mountain of evidence. Is this because of the not guilty plea by CR and his defense waving the 90 day speedy trial?

Can the premeditation be proven? The prosecution doesn’t want to give the defense this evidence until the last day which is the deadline. Not before the deadline. Do they have it? Maybe they are still collecting it all? Is this the way of all criminal cases, standard procedure that prosecution waits until the deadline day, the absolute last hour to share evidence?

IMO

the defense is looking for details for one reason.

If defense discovers the Sole source and basis for the murder charge is from the confession, they will move to have it thrown out. This exact thing occurred in a recent murder in Dubuque IA in the last few months. They will attempt to use police error ie not allowing him an attorney, the language barrier or the police should have known they terrified him as the Police do in
Mexico. OR ??

Or, he didn’t understand, was to dumb to know.

 

[Alethea]

Deadlines that is the time the prosecutors will be giving defense their evidence? Not before the deadline? Sounds like they don’t have it all and want to wait until the absolute last minute before they drop it on the defense. Then the defense will just ask for more time, money and experts to evaluate and process the mountain of evidence. Is this because of the not guilty plea by CR and his defense waving the 90 day speedy trial?

Can the premeditation be proven? The prosecution doesn’t want to give the defense this evidence until the last day which is the deadline. Not before the deadline. Do they have it? Maybe they are still collecting it all? Is this the way of all criminal cases, standard procedure that prosecution waits until the deadline day, the absolute last hour to share evidence?

I wouldn't read anything nefarious in this. In every case there are discovery timelines where the prosecution and defense are required to turn over certain information to each other at specific times. It will take the prosecution some time to process and copy and produce evidence to the defense.

In practice, the defense always wants everything yesterday and the prosecution always needs more time. No one's ever really happy but it all gets done by the discovery deadlines.

 

[Seattle1]

I don’t know why the defense confusion but I was thinking of the response by the prosecution that was posted earlier by another poster here.

“Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan said prosecutors intend to resist the defense's motion. She said there are deadlines in place for when prosecutors must provide evidence and they intend to comply with them.”
Mollie Tibbetts case: Suspect's lawyers say state must give more detail

Seems to me these antics are par for the course. On another case, defense filing motions alleging prosecution is withholding autopsy report from them when in fact the coroner hasn't completed the reports and they're not even available! We should expect more of this to come. MOO

 

[tmar]

I still check Mollie's page most days hoping for news or an update. I know we're likely to get very little until the case moves closer to trial.
Rest in peace sweet Mollie. Bumping you back to the first page.

While following an earlier trial, just days before, loads of evidence was produced: CCTV, Phone Pings, etc.
We had been speculating for ages, going round in circles, and then all this evidence was given.
Perhaps, similarly, we will hear more, just before the trial.
So perhaps, a long wait for us.
MOO.

 

[rebel123]

Your right, his words do seem careful. I agree with what Alethea said that the interrogation might have been drawn-out and these things slowly pulled from him. I, too, am curious why in the end he confessed anything and led them to her. Maybe it was the interrogation process. I wonder how LE reacted to his blocked memories story.

Maybe he has no previous interactions with LE; maybe there was an immediate 'meltdown' and he wanted to get things that have been haunting him for the last 5 weeks off his chest; 'exercising his demons', hopefully the answers will be forthcoming in the near future.

 

[rebel123]

When it said that he dragged her on foot, I thought that it just meant that he was walking as opposed to driving. I read it to mean that he started dragging her and finally just threw her over his shoulder and carried her the rest of the way. If there's one thing I have learned, it's never to expect everyone to interpret things the same way as I do. It would be so much easier if it was possible to know what was going on in someone's mind when they make a statement, but I'd sure hate having anyone always know what I'm thinking when I make ambiguous statements.

I think that's what he means.

 

[rebel123]

That was a lot of words to tell me that my opinion doesn't matter! I agree that it doesn't matter how he dragged her, just that he did. The same is true for many other things I read (and write) here. I don't really care/worry about how he dragged her, but I do believe the affidavit was just saying he was on foot when he did it. I usually try to leave out the more morbid parts of my scenarios because I'd hate to have a family member of a victim coming here some day and reading all the gory details people can imagine but which never happened in most cases. As much as I dislike reading about the morbid fantasies of others, I dislike even more being mocked and belittled for trying to stick to facts that have been given to us.

I don't believe it matters how she was moved from the car to the field, but I know many people are more detail oriented than I am. I also know it's more important to others than to me exactly how she was murdered (hacked, sliced, stabbed, etc.) My main concerns are where she was injured and where she died (which county/jurisdiction), what may have affected his state of mind (nothing she said or did caused him to do what he did, but something happened to make him choose that day to do it), what other holes there are in his defense of 'not remembering' and why he picked her rather than one of the other females who jog in the area. It's too late to help MT, but anything that can be learned from her death may bring us one step closer to preventing another. MOO

Details are very, very important; the prosecution will be concentrating their minds on the details of the case; the defense will be doing the same; there will be some details that they both agree on; others they will totally disagree; that's where the case will be won. For the defense it's a matter of
mitigating on behalf of their client; that is the best they can hope for.

 

[Confusion]

Details are very, very important; the prosecution will be concentrating their minds on the details of the case; the defense will be doing the same; there will be some details that they both agree on; others they will totally disagree; that's where the case will be won. For the defense it's a matter of
mitigating on behalf of their client; that is the best they can hope for.

I know the details are important in the trial, but I'm just not interested in discussing (or hearing about) all of the horrid things people think may have been done to her. Others have every right to discuss that if they want to, but I feel that it would be very hard on any friend or family member of a victim to read that type of thing. It's not quite as bad in this case because she had no children, but I hate to think of young children who grow up and do searches to learn more about a parent, grandparent, sibling, etc., and find page after page of people discussing all sorts of cruel, painful and degrading things that might have happened to her/him. That's the main reason I prefer not to discuss the details of how a person was murdered or what was done with the body after death. MOO

 

[rebel123]

MOO...the person posting may have been referring to his illegal status and suggesting that he be deported, rather than U.S. tax payers footing the bill? That's just one interpretation of the post.

A 'moot point' I know; however I calculate using 2015 fiscal figures that it would cost approx. $1,700,000 for 50 years; still a lot.

The is out of date; nevertheless; 'One of every nine individuals in prison is serving a life sentence. More than 159,000 people were serving life sentences in 2012, and 50,000 of those are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.'

 

[Charliegizmo49]

Seems to me these antics are par for the course. On another case, defense filing motions alleging prosecution is withholding autopsy report from them when in fact the coroner hasn't completed the reports and they're not even available! We should expect more of this to come. MOO

That’s what attorneys are paid to do. Imo

 

[Charliegizmo49]

A 'moot point' I know; however I calculate using 2015 fiscal figures that it would cost approx. $1,700,000 for 50 years; still a lot.

The is out of date; nevertheless; 'One of every nine individuals in prison is serving a life sentence. More than 159,000 people were serving life sentences in 2012, and 50,000 of those are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.'

Fire Island just off the coast of anchorage Alaska that has been rumored to be a perfect place for violent gang members doing life. No one would escape in the cold waters of Cook Inlet and only guard towers would be needed. Housing of course and enough to meet requirements set by law. Cheaper way to reduce incarceration costs. ;-)

Fire Island (Anchorage, Alaska) - Wikipedia

Fire island is on the left in the image.

 

[PommyMommy]

Why the first 72 hours in a missing persons investigation are the most critical

Social media now plays a vital role in missing person cases
Social media has become a "huge asset to safely recovering people," purely due to the ease of spreading the message, Fox said.

Fox used the example of Mollie Tibbetts, the Iowa college student who went missing in July and was found about a month later in a farm field.

"There as tons of social media coverage over trying to find her, getting the word out," Fox said. "In our research, we're finding that that is an effective message."

 

[runfar262]

I wouldn't read anything nefarious in this. In every case there are discovery timelines where the prosecution and defense are required to turn over certain information to each other at specific times. It will take the prosecution some time to process and copy and produce evidence to the defense.

In practice, the defense always wants everything yesterday and the prosecution always needs more time. No one's ever really happy but it all gets done by the discovery deadlines.

Thank you for your always informative posts. The wheels of justice do move slowly. The trial in the Karina Vetrano case starts on Oct. 29th, more than two years after her murder. I feel for the family members.

 

[tmar]

"We need to have goodness conquer evil . We need to flood the courtroom with righteousness. To represent my baby against the vermin on the other side."

I found the above quote, from a family member, of another runner, also murdered.

 

[ACG2x]

Seems to me these antics are par for the course. On another case, defense filing motions alleging prosecution is withholding autopsy report from them when in fact the coroner hasn't completed the reports and they're not even available! We should expect more of this to come. MOO

This is the personification of the age old legal idiom that has been used by thousands of attorneys over the years:

"If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have neither, pound the table"

 

[Alethea]

This is the personification of the age old legal idiom that has been used by thousands of attorneys over the years:

"If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have neither, pound the table"

I have been in charge of producing documents to the Department of Justice in federal criminal cases and the whole process just takes much more time than you'd think. Every agency and every state has rules about how electronic documents have to be produced. We had a discovery request where we had to produce one excel file to the government, but they wanted not only an original electronic copy of the excel file but a PDF copy so we both would have copies where the data was paginated and we could all refer to specific pages instead of having to use an electronic copy. It took weeks to process the one document. The senior partner in charge of the case could not believe how long it was taking but we had a whole team of e-discovery experts working all day to get it processed.

The old partners would always quip "When I was the junior associate we would hand stamp the documents and get them out the door." But in the 70s data was not stored in complicated electronic databases so there weren't the same problems we have in e-discovery today. There are whole industries now that try to simplify the e-discovery process.

On both sides you have to know what's going out the door before it goes. So if you are producing 10,000 documents, someone has to read them before you dump them. It just takes a lot of time, particularly if you are a state prosecutor who doesn't have a team of 30 junior lawyers who can work 18 hours a day cranking through the documents and flagging anything interesting for you like many defense firms have.

That's all a long way of saying that the only thing I really believe without question from both the prosecution and the defense is that they both always need more time and they both want things to be produced more quickly.