GUILTY KS - Evan Brewer, 3, Wichita, 6 July 2017

[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker
Cory says police found over 16,000 videos. There were files, photos and videos, from every month from Feb. 2017 to Sept, 2017, when Evan's tomb was found. Police officers spent months watching all of them. Some officers yesterday testified that they worked full time doing it.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

BBM

 

[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker
Sgt. Cory is excused by prosecutors. Defense attorney questioned him briefly. He's now off of witness stand. Prosecutors now going through their evidence list to make sure everything they want admitted has been. Alice Osburn is reading through the exhibit numbers, pages of it.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

 

[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker
Here she’s reading through the list. She’s up to page 18 and more than 540 exhibits (not all admitted, though):


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[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker
Osburn just went through 19 pages and more than 570 pieces of evidence. Again, not all of those pieces of evidence were admitted to the jury. The prosecution has rested.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

 

[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker
Osburn just went through 19 pages and more than 570 pieces of evidence. Again, not all of those pieces of evidence were admitted to the jury. The prosecution has rested.

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[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

Defense attorney Casey Cotton now asks for an acquittal for Bodine on all counts.

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BBM

 

[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

Cotton: "The state has thrown out a laundry list of things that suggests it could have been the act (of murder). ... At the end of the day, Bendaryl is not a lethal dose. Salt, there's no evidence of that. ...

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Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

"... Strangulation, drowning - there's simply no evidence of it from the coroner or anyone else."

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[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

Cotton is also asking for an acquittal on child abuse, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated child endangerment and other counts Bodine is charged with. There's just not enough evidence, he says. He argues the state hasn't met its burden to prove guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

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[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

Prosecutor Justin Edwards responds to Cotton's motion for acquittal: "So what I hear is if you kill a child, hide the body and cover it up and the state can't prove it king's x" then you get away with murder.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

"Certainly the evidence is sufficient at this point to allow the case to go forward to the jury," Edwards said. "Can I say that it was by strangulation or drowning? No one can. And that's the problem when someone buries a body in concrete."

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

Edwards: "This defendant controlled a house with violence, full of drugs, full of danger for a 3-year-old child. ... it's clear that the defendant was control of the household whether he was there or not." He asks the judge to deny the motions.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

Cotton, the defense attorney, gets the last word. He doesn't have anything else to say at this point.

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[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

Judge's ruling on defense motion to acquit Stephen Bodine: "After carefully considering the arguments by defense, the court will deny the motion. ... The court cannot agree that the evidence is insufficient."

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BBM

 

[HayLouise]

Amy Renee Leiker‏ @AmyReneeLeiker

OK, so quick update: The prosecution has rested this morning in the murder and child abuse trial of 41-year-old Stephen Bodine. Defense attorney has asked for an acquittal on all counts in Evan's case. Judge denied the motion. Court is taking a brief break right now.

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[HayLouise]

Court back in session in Stephen Bodine's murder and child abuse trial. Jurors filing back into the courtroom now.


Bodine is charged with torturing and killing Evan Brewer, his girlfriend's 3-year-old.

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The defense rests without presenting any evidence or calling any witnesses. Defense attorney Casey Cotton says they'll be "holding the state to its burden of proof" - which is guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Judge Stephen Ternes just excused jurors for an early lunch. They're due back at 1:25 p.m. this afternoon.


In the meantime, prosecutors and Bodine's attorney will work out jury instructions and any other legal matter that needs addressed.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Prosecutor Justin Edwards just informed the judge that at one point when those video clips were playing for the jury this morning, that the TV screen they were watching on caught their reflections. News media brought this to his attention over the break.

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News media were filming the screen during that time but immediately pointed the TV camera away and recorded only audio. This is a big deal because jurors can't be photographed or filmed.


Edwards said media has assured him video with the reflection won't be used.

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None of it was live streamed, either. (I didn't tweet any of that video.)


Judge says he's been impressed with the professionalism of the media covering the trial and appreciates them bringing this to the court's attention.

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Attorneys and the judge are working through jury instructions now.

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[MsJosie]

Testimony wraps in case of 3-year-old found dead in concrete structure


KWCH noon news report

Closing arguments after lunch and then jury gets it

 

[JerseyGirl]

State and defense rests in Stephen Bodine trial

 

[Niner]

Defense attorney Casey Cotton now asks for an acquittal for Bodine on all counts.

Seriously??

And thanks HayLouise for posting the tweets!

 

[HayLouise]

Court back in session in the murder and child abuse trial of Stephen Bodine, who's accused of torturing and killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old Evan Brewer.


Judge will give jurors instructions shortly. The jury will then hear closing arguments from attorneys.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Attorneys from both sides will have an hour to present closing arguments to jurors after they get their instructions.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

There are hundreds of exhibits in this case. Jury saw over 550 pieces of evidence in Evan Brewer case. Deliberation expected today

Attorneys just agreed to have some of the exhibits out in the courtroom instead of in the jury room during deliberations. The courtroom will be locked - effectively expanding the size of the jury room.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

The judge is reading the jury instructions now. They tell jurors what the charges are, what the law is and how to apply it, and how the jury is supposed to go about weighing evidence and considering testimony while they are deliberating.

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Judge to jury: "Your only concern in this case is determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty." The state has the burden of proving defendant's guilt; he has no burden to prove anything.

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Judge to jury: "You should consider with caution the testimony of an accomplice" witness, who is someone who commits a crime with the defendant.


In this case, that's Evan's mom, Miranda Miller. Here's what she said during the trial:

Standing naked in chains was punishment for Evan Brewer when he refused to apologize

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[HayLouise]

(Evan's mom, by the way, struck a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for her testimony against Bodine. She'll be allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and other crimes, which will put her in prison for around 27 years:
At last minute, Evan Brewer's mom sought plea deal in 3-year-old's death

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Bodine has pleaded not guilty to all of the crimes with which he is charged.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

BBM

 

[MsJosie]

(Evan's mom, by the way, struck a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for her testimony against Bodine. She'll be allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and other crimes, which will put her in prison for around 27 years:
At last minute, Evan Brewer's mom sought plea deal in 3-year-old's death

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Bodine has pleaded not guilty to all of the crimes with which he is charged.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

BBM

The moms plea deal has been in the news for some time. I am not surprised. Bodine has said he was not guilty for a long time. Thi# is normal in such cases...thanks for the update.

 

[HayLouise]

Judge is now done reading jury instructions.


Prosecutors begin their closing arguments now. Justin Edwards giving them.

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Edwards: "Stephen Bodine was the king of his castle. He was a king who ruled by fear and violence." He did so in every house he lived in and dominated his girlfriends and children. That's what killed Evan, he says.

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Edwards is about to walk jurors through the crimes and the law.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

1.) First-degree felony murder, which killing a person during commission of a dangerous felony crime.


Prosecutors have 2 theories for how this might have happened to Evan: child abuse & aggravated child endangerment. The acts had to happen between March and Sept. 2017.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Bodine can be convicted if jurors decide that he or someone for whom he's responsible - Miranda Miller - killed Evan in this way.

Amy Renee Leiker on Twitter

Edwards: "What he (Bodine) did exactly when he took him (Evan) in the bathroom, only he will ever know." Edwards tells jurors he doesn't have to prove Evan was killed in a particular way.


"I have to prove that he was killed during an act of abuse of a child" under this theory.

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Edwards, on the second theory involving murder by child endangerment: "That household was the living embodiment of endangerment of a child."

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Edwards says if jurors find that Bodine aided or counseled anyone (Miranda Miller, Evan's mom), he's still responsible for Evan's death if the death was reasonably foreseeable.


Edwards: "He's on the hook."

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Edwards: "Is he primary? Is he aider and abettor? Is doesn't really matter."

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Edwards to jury: "Listen again to those videos - watch them. Is there any doubt he (Bodine) was holding him (Evan)?"

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Edwards now reviewing evidence with the jury.

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[HayLouise]

Edwards reminding jurors about testimony from a former girlfriend of Bodine's, Laura Lively, who made a DCF report about Evan's abuse.


Other girlfriends testified about their own abuse and abuse of children they witness committed by Bodine.

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Edwards says there's been a pattern in Bodine's life where he "gets to the edge" with abusing children "but never goes over."


"With Evan, he went too far."

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