GUILTY Jennifer Blagg - Re-trial of Michael Blagg 20 February 2018

[YESorNO]

An article I can't read without a subscription. https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/wes...cle_6ff84af2-2370-11e8-8c0c-10604b9f6eda.html

Sen. Scott gives testimony in Blagg trial

"GOLDEN — State Sen. Ray Scott wrapped up a fraught discussion on proposed concealed carry in school laws Thursday in time to step into an arguably more contentious setting: the murder trial of Michael Blagg.

Scott was called as a witness during the 12th day of proceedings against Blagg, who is accused of shooting his wife Jennifer in 2001 while she slept in the couple's home at 2253 Pine Terrace Court.

Scott — who has a clear view of the Blaggs' house from his own home on nearby Kingston Road — testified Thursday that on Nov. 13, 2001, the night when prosecutors believe Blagg killed his wife, his dog was "kind of having a fit and barking real loud at the back fence."...

Scott's testimony is expected to bolster the timeline prosecutors have laid out in the case: that Blagg shot and killed his wife in the early morning while she slept, then used the hours before he went to work to dispose of Jennifer's body and stage a crime scene, before calling 911 at the end of his workday....

Jurors also heard testimony from numerous former co-workers of Blagg, who was director of operations of Grand Junction's Ametek Dixson factory when he fell under suspicion. Shawn Wallace, a manufacturing engineer at the company, testified that during the workday Nov. 13, 2001, he saw Blagg pushing a cart of large boxes in the hallway.

Prosecutors have theorized that Blagg wrapped his wife's body in a tent and put her in a dumpster at the factory hours earlier, and at the time was trying to fill up the dumpster to force it to be taken to the landfill as soon as possible.

Wallace said Blagg didn't seem himself.

"I asked him if he needed a hand," Wallace recounted. "He said, 'Absolutely not. Just get away.' … It was completely out of character with anything I'd ever seen from him."

When asked about how well he knew Blagg, Wallace seemed to become emotional for a moment, taking several deep breaths and looking away.

"I considered him a friend," he said...."

https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/wes...cle_6ff84af2-2370-11e8-8c0c-10604b9f6eda.html

I still have 1 more free article after this one.

 

[Henry2326]

Mar 9

On Nov. 13, 2001 — the day Jennifer and Abby Blag disappeared — Wallace reportedly testified that he offered to help Michael Blagg push a cart filled with boxes and trash. Michael Blagg told him to go away.

That’s an important detail for the prosecution. They allege Michael Blagg spent that day filling the dumpster at Ametek-Dixson because he’d dumped his wife body inside during the early morning hours after shooting her inside their Grand Junction home.

The plant had a policy to call for a pickup whenever the dumpster was full.

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...cuses-on-michael-blaggs-demeanor/73-527356549

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[Henry2326]

Mar 9

Mesa County public defender Tina Fang challenged Gardiner about her observations of Michael Blagg. Part of Fang’s defense is that the police planted the idea that Michael Blagg was a murder in the minds of his friends and coworkers.

Fang asked Gardiner whether Michael Blagg seemed tired or had difficulty moving around the morning his wife disappeared. She said no.

Testimony is scheduled to continue at the Jefferson County courthouse Monday at 8:30 a.m.

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...cuses-on-michael-blaggs-demeanor/73-527356549



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[Tortoise]

He didn't testify in his first trial. I wonder if he will do it differently this time.

 

[Henry2326]

He didn't testify in his first trial. I wonder if he will do it differently this time.

That would be golden!!

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[RosalindaA]

Would be interesting if he did, I'd like to watch it, but I cannot believe that his lawyer would think this a good idea! Just feel very nervous about juries since OJ, Casey Anthony, and Quinton Tellis.

 

[Tortoise]

Meryhew said she and Gardiner — who was her boss and a close friend — attended a vigil for Jennifer and Abby Blagg. She says she gave Michael Blagg a hug, and was surprised by what he said next.

“He looked at us and said ‘you better not let this stop you from making the month,” Meryhew said.

It wasn’t the only interaction she said she had with Michael Blagg that she could still remember 14 years later. Meryhew said in January 2002, she, her daughter and Gardiner went to dinner with Blagg.

First, he “slammed a beer” — something Meryhew said was unusual because Michael Blagg rarely drank. Next, Meryhew says he told them “I’m lucky to be a single guy having drinks and dinner with three beautiful women.”

During cross-examination, Meryhew conceded that she thought Michael Blagg was just making conversation at the time, though it struck her as odd he was talking about being single when his wife and daughter were missing.

much more to read at link about him stealing office equipment and being fired http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...ter-wife-daughters-disappearance/73-527863239

 

[Tortoise]

Gardiner said Monday that on Nov. 21, 2001, after learning that Blagg had been gathering trash the day his family disappeared, she spoke to law enforcement officers and pointed them toward the dumpster as an area to investigate.
Jennifer Blagg’s body was later found in the landfill. Abby’s body was never recovered.


Meryhew also echoed Gardiner’s testimony this morning about Blagg’s mood, which she said shifted from being “upbeat, positive, friendly, easy-going,” to “more negative” in the weeks leading up to Jennifer’s and Abby’s disappearances.
Wes Hardin, who in 2001 was the general manager of the facility where Blagg worked, spoke about Blagg’s job performance, alleged theft of office supplies in early 2002, and eventual termination.
Hardin is expected to re-take the stand this afternoon.

https://www.gjsentinel.com/breaking...cle_2a746378-2625-11e8-b7ab-9f28f5fe2da3.html

 

[Tortoise]

The search area ultimately represented three-tenths of one percent of the Mesa County landfill, in a desolate stretch of desert south of Grand Junction.

[...]

“It happened to be one of the worst heat years in Grand Junction records,” said Frank Kochevar, a surveyor for Mesa County who helped with the landfill search in spring and summer 2002.

On June 4, 2002, the worst suspicions about the fate of this mother and daughter were confirmed. A decomposed leg was spotted hanging from an excavator that was pulling a load of trash from the landfill, attached to a body that was wrapped in a red tent. The next day, the victim was identified as Jennifer Blagg, and investigators say her body was found among trash not far from a newspaper dated Nov. 13, 2001.

Kochevar detailed about how he used aerial and GPS data as well as logs from the landfill’s managers to map where investigators could begin to comb through trash to find what may have been discarded by Ametek Dixson on Nov. 13, 2001.

Investigators dug what were called “potholes” to get a sampling of what had been dumped in certain portions of the landfill. This allowed them to narrow their search area from 250-by-250 feet to 150-by-150 feet.

The jury saw multiple diagrams that showed where Jennifer Blagg’s body was found in relation to trash from Ametek Dixson.

[...]

“My opinion is yes, [Jennifer Blagg’s] body was found in Ametek Dixson waste,” he said.

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...body-in-the-mesa-county-landfill/73-527957265

 

[RosalindaA]

I really hope the prosecution hammer the significance of the rubbish tip evidence home. I wish every site was able to track dumpster contents as accurately as this.

I'm imagining every officer on this case, with any subsequent murder investigations with the body unlocated, headed straight for the main suspect's work dumpster, I know I would. When you are sure the victim is dead (ie all the blood in the bed) one of the main priorities has got to be to locate that body fast before all that evidence is lost. Possibly if Blagg hadn't put Jennifer in his work dumpster he might well have avoided prosecution. Although I expect a lot of time rightly went into trying to find Abby as initially they couldn't be sure she was deceased.

It's a shame they couldn't trace where the tent had come from. What with the unknown male hairs this is the sort of thing some jury members can fixate on. Expect Blagg pinched it from someone.

 

[Tortoise]

“I want to go over a lot of things with you,” Troxell said.

Troxell grilled Kochevar about the makeup of the Mesa County landfill, the events of the day Jennifer Blagg’s body was found and the exact GPS measurements he took of evidence related to the case against Michael Blagg.

While trying to persuade Judge Tamara Russell to allow evidence that he says indicates Kochevar manipulated mathematical figures to better back up the prosecution’s case, Troxell said the crux of the defense’s argument is the fact that he believes officials in Mesa County never entertained any theories other than that Michael Blagg is guilty, something he says seeped into all tenets of their investigation.

Troxell’s questions dealt with the logistics of the search; namely how the landfill was organized and how dense the trash was. He seemingly was trying to dispute Kochevar’s assertion that Jennifer Blagg’s body was found in a “vein” of Ametek Dixson trash by bringing up previous testimony that it appeared to actually be a little bit higher in the landfill.

The defense plans to show a report from Kochevar about the density of the landfill after lunch — a report that’s unique because Troxell says he plans to submit not for its truth, but rather it’s “falsity.”

“I’m not familiar with the idea of submitting something for its falsity,” Russell said, minutes before allowing Troxell to do just that.

The rest of the courtroom will find out exactly what this means after lunch.

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...m-her-husbands-office-but-was-it/73-528195304

 

[Henry2326]

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...m-her-husbands-office-but-was-it/73-528195304
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Watch the video ina post 101 to see a great discussion of the landfill search. they should show that to the jury.

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[Tortoise]

So it's just coincidence that they plotted the probable location of Ametek's trash from 6 months earlier, narrowed it down to three tenths of 1% of the entire landfill, and out pops Jennifer's body. Of course. Pure luck.

And coincidence that the husband did a runner to another state 2 days after the search of the landfill began. Of course.

 

[Henry2326]

So it's just coincidence that they plotted the probable location of Ametek's trash from 6 months earlier, narrowed it down to three tenths of 1% of the entire landfill, and out pops Jennifer's body. Of course. Pure luck.

And coincidence that the husband did a runner to another state 2 days after the search of the landfill began. Of course.

Did you watch the video? It wasn't that easy...

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[Tortoise]

Did you watch the video? It wasn't that easy...

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I've watched it before, and I agree, it was no easy task.

 

[Henry2326]

I've watched it before, and I agree, it was no easy task.

I was impressed....they just didn't stop until they found her. They kept searching for baby doll Abby but came up short...

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[Tortoise]

Grasping at straws if I ever saw it I'd like to hear their explanation for how they found Jennifer's body if they weren't being guided by their own meticulous plotting and sectioning of a landfill that size -

Just a matter of feet could be the difference between proving the body of Jennifer Blagg was found in a plume of trash from her husband’s office … or that she had been dumped in the Mesa County landfill some other way on an entirely different day than what the prosecution’s alleging.

[...]

The green punch outs that came from Ametek Dixson are small, but they’re a big part of the prosecution’s case against Michael Blagg.

Troxell claims what Kochevar admitted in an email to him was a “major flaw” in a mathematical calculation about the density of the trash in the landfill is proof that Mesa County officials tailored their data to meet their predetermined conclusion: that Michael Blagg was guilty.

Troxell says those green punch outs from Ametek Dixon were not as close to Jennifer Blagg’s body as prosecutors claim, and that Kochevar’s data indicates they likely could have been dumped into the landfill on a different day entirely.

Kochevar says he used those newspapers and the Ametek Dixson trash to help direct the search area.

He also told prosecutors that no, he didn’t use his conclusion to direct his data — he’s a scientist, it was the other way around.

Darren Jewkes is an expert in latent fingerprint analysis, [...]

It was also virtually impossible to tell how long the fingerprints had been there. The defense showed photos of the jewelry box that had been knocked over in the Blagg’s master bedroom and the nightstand right next to their mattress, which was splattered with blood. Fingerprints collected in both of these locations were unidentified … but as the prosecution said, they could belong to Michael Blagg, or Abby or Jennifer or a stranger.

As of around 5 p.m. Tuesday, Michael Blagg’s second trial was two weeks behind schedule. The prosecution says they expect to finish with testimony on March 23, but that could spill over to March 26.
The defense says it could use up to 14 days for testimony.

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...-to-prove-he-didnt-kill-his-wife/73-528292775

 

[Tortoise]

One photo showed black powder on the entryway to the house just outside Grand Junction that Michael Blagg shared with his wife Jennifer and daughter Abby.

Another depicted a shriveled piece of metal — what remained of the bullet that was lodged in Jennifer Blagg’s skull when her body was pulled from the Mesa County landfill, wrapped in a red and black tent and virtually unrecognizable after months in the desert near Grand Junction.


Bryant, who despite a spirited objection from the defense was certified as a witness in firearms investigations, then went into technical details about how he went about analyzing the bullet that was taken from Jennifer Blagg’s head during her autopsy.

He says that by using FBI guidelines, he was able to match the bullet to what would have been fired by a 22-millimeter Smith and Wesson semi-automatic handgun. Scott Troxell, one of Michael Blagg’s public defenders, fought hard to prevent Bryant from testifying about this.


Bryant will be back on the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon. 9NEWS will post an update after court ends for the day.

more to read at link

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...-lodged-in-jennifer-blaggs-skull/73-528540745

 

[Tortoise]

Afternoon report mostly about unidentified palm and finger prints that doesn't seem to lead anywhere IMO, and this -

Troxell grilled Bryant about his analysis of the bullet found in Jennifer Blagg’s head, and his assertion that the gun it was fired from could be a 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol that was on Michael Blagg’s insurance list.Troxell pointed out how the bullet could have also been fired from different types of guns — or one of the multiple different models of 9mm semiautomatic Smith and Wesson pistols.

Even if that is the case, Troxell pointed out how there are thousands upon thousands of Smith and Wesson 9mms in circulation.

The prosecution called Norm Kivett, who used to operate the Mesa County landfill, at the end of the day on Wednesday. He explained how trash is placed in the landfill and how records are kept about who is dropping off at the landfill and when.

Kivett’s testimony dealt with how trash was distributed in the landfill, and how a day’s trash wasn’t necessarily placed on top of waste from the day before.

During cross-examination, Troxell showed the apparent slope of the landfill and tried to prove how trash could often be placed on top of one another in an effort to fill in that slope.

Testimony will continue on Thursday morning.

http://www.9news.com/article/news/l...-scene-belonged-to-michael-blagg/73-528625291

 

[Tortoise]

Looks like closing statements will begin around Friday April 13th then if the estimates are accurate. About another week and a bit for prosecution witnesses and about three weeks for defence witnesses.