So if his DP goes off the table I assume that means his plea deal goes away and then he would have to have a trial, be found guilty, then be able to appeal?
I don't know. He pled guilty. They agreed if he gave his proffer the DP would be taken off the table for him and his family. But the prosecution can renege on their side at any time. Nothing is in the law that says they have to stand by their agreement with him. In fact they have made it clear their agreement carries the right to withdraw it if he lies.
Jakes proffer is shaky I think, because of what AC said in pre trial hearings. She said Jake told several different stories before settling on one. And even then his story did not mesh with evidence BCI had. P&N heard her say that.
I think AC knows its shaky and that is why she brought up Sam & Tabitha to try to bolster his testimony. But they both failed miserably for her with Sam turning out to almost being a character witness for George. I think that is why AC made sure to get in two comments from Sam about how honest Jake is.
But Sam blew that by saying Jake always blamed everything he did on George. For Jake to blame George for what he did, he had to be lying to Angie or whoever. Conflicting testimony from this witness. The part about George being short with her when she was talking about the murders really proved nothing. He knew Hannah for many years and was friends with Frankie. That could be taken that he just was very upset. Or that he did not agree with what his family did and was very angry about it.
I know you are going to say why didn't he turn them in before they did it? But this happened in Appalachia where family is everything and you don't snitch on them. And let's say he did go to police saying they were planning these murders. Then Billy, Angie and Jake denies everything and says he is just lying because he is mad at them about something. Would police have believed him? Or would he have left himself wide open for an "accident"?
Tabitha was a disaster for the prosecution I think. Her direct testimony was they locked her up and wouldn't let her leave or call her mother, wouldn't let her see her mother or her family, that they were abusive and controlling, that she had to flee for her life, that they had taken her son and wouldn't let her see him.
Then on cross she admits she was free to come and go and even stay the night with her friend and George was fine with her doing that. Until George found out she was having a long term affair with her friends dad. Which by my count was her 3rd in their marriage. Yet he didn't kick her to the curb, which most men would have, he just took her phone. We also find out he took her phone because she was using it to call her mother, who was taking her to hook up with the friends dad she was having the affair with.
Then he gets her to admit the reason George didn't want her or their son around her family is because her stepdad sexually abused her and all her sisters with her mothers knowledge. Her mother did not stop it or do anything about it, in fact she stayed married to him until he died 5 years ago. Remember that meeting where George tried to get them to go to the police? Even if the abuse happened when she was a child if she went to police, the stepdad would have been charged with it. There is really no statue of limitations on that. Think Bill Cosby and Prince Andrew, Jeffery Epstein.
She could only name once George hit her, the night she left. She admitted she told BCI that the belt thing was just "horseplay". She admitted that George tried to keep her from going outside in the cold without her shoes or coat on, then tried to get her to go back in the house. She said she was screaming and he told her to stop and she screamed louder. At that point he slapped her. My opinion was because she was upsetting their son, because she testified George told Hannah to take him upstairs. She got on her bicycle after dark and was riding it, even then she admitted George came after her and tried to get her to come home with him. After all that he gave her the money to pay her fine and took her to pay it.
She then testified that she voluntarily left her son with George because the only place she had to go was to her mother's and like George she did not want her son around a man who had sexually abused her and her sisters. Even her own mother offered to give her money for an attorney to get custody, but by inference from what she testified, she spent the money on "Jay" the lover and her mother told her she needed to make her son her number one priority and not Jay.
Then she openly admitted that George had offered to buy her a ticket for her and her daughter and rent her a hotel so she could come to AK to her son. She refused his offer and had an off the wall remark that she "didn't feel like dying". I do not think she could be so stupid to believe he would kill her when they were already under investigation by the BCI for killing Jake's ex. That would have been the height of stupidity on George's and really any of their part. She goes missing in AK when everyone knows she went to see George and her son and the BCI wouldn't have waited to arrest them. My opinion is George just wanted to see her because he missed her. She then admitted she did not file for custody of her son until BCI told her she needed to, leading me to believe she didn't really want the financial burden of caring for him when she had another child.
Topping off her testimony was her admitting she loved George and always would. That she believed if they had just let her go outside to cool off for five minutes her and George would have still been married to this day. To me that sounded like very wistful testimony and if George walks and would take her back she would gladly return to live with him. So IMO she couldn't think he was all that terrible a person if she still felt that way about him.
Granted she hates Angie and blames her for her and George's breakup. I think that is why she did not opt out, hoping Angie would hear every bad thing she had to say about her and would see her face as she was saying it.
But that is just MY opinion from watching Tabitha's testimony.