Rebecca Zahau Wrongful death trial begins. Trial coverage and discussion #4

[MzOpinion8d]

It does if your brush is too wet. Takes experience to know how to prevent the dripping.

Which would be evidence of someone without knowledge of acrylic paints then, wouldn't it?

 

[MyBelle]

Oh, yeah, because they hadn't heard of long distance phone calls? What would her leaving town have to do with interviewing her in a timely fashion?

Long distance LE interviews in a criminal investigation involving a death of a child?
If that is what the family demanded, it won't surprise me if LE re-opens the investigation.

 

[MzOpinion8d]

Agree. Nor does it explain how she could have tied herself up, hopped out on the balcony, then paused to wipe fingerprints from the doorknob and door frame leading to the balcony before magically levitating herself over the railing.

Omg! The witchcraft book finally makes sense! RZ was learning to levitate!!

That was sarcasm in case anyone can't tell.

 

[MyBelle]

Of course, Adam the Tugboat Captain denies he is familiar with nautical knots. So even if he was questioned about his familiarity with acrylic paints, he'd lie.

The Plaintiff's own witness testified the knots weren't all that unusual.

Describing the overhand knot — the kind used to tie shoelaces — Philpott noted, “Children can do it, gorillas can do it, birds can do it, people of all kinds can do it.”
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/sd-me-zahau-day5-story.html

 

[MzOpinion8d]

I asked yesterday for a link to any other murder where the killer left no trace evidence of himself without disturbing victim dna and fingerprints...AND where the investigator could not detect use of gloves or massive areas of wiping.

That would be helpful if such a case has ever existed.

For those who just read here, look around the cases here...and see if you can find one. Help is needed. Maybe I missed lots of them.

The Missy Bevers murder is one example.

 

[MsFacetious]

BBM. If the goal was to stage RZ's death to look like a suicide, it failed spectacularly because LE IMMEDIATELY assumed homicide. After an investigation was opened, LE concluded suicide and seven years later, that legal determination still stands. If anything was wiped down or staged it was done by RZ who staged her suicide to look like a homicide in order to bring JS under great public scrutiny. She succeeded. JMO

I would think that if she meant to cause trouble for JS she would have left diary entries about abuse, or threats, or made it a more "obvious" murder scene. Not something so open to interpretation.

How is the defense going to play this. Leave Adam as the sole contender for the jury's contemplation, or put forward other names and concede it was murder? Difficult one.

That painted message is always going to be one heck of a problem for them. I don't think it can be surpassed. No I'm certain it can't be. I have to wonder if he was high to have done such a thing.

I think they should say "we don't know what happened, all we know is it wasn't our guy." Really that's kind of the only option. You can't CLAIM you know what happened because you weren't there. All you know is that you weren't there. It sucks, but it's really the only defense that isn't attacking anyone specific. I would go with "the mansion was unlocked, everyone knew about the accident, crime of opportunity" without mentioning names.

I asked earlier but didn’t get a reply. She had an IUD, right? Unless it was Paraguard, I’m surprised she had a heavy enough period for a tampon and to have blood in that area. Most hormonal IUDs significantly cut back on periods and many don’t have periods at all. That leads me to wonder if the handle of the knife or something else could have been used on her and caused her to bleed.

Obviously it varies from woman to woman. The lack of periods often takes time to have as a side effect. Not all women get it. I wouldn't go for the hormonal unless I had to. So I have the paraguard, which has actually made my periods much more painful and heavier.

I am more sensitive to stuff like this than most, but I NEVER am without a tampon. I change it after I shower but I don't even take it out in there 99% of the time. If I'm ever found like Rebecca, just the blood part... I was clearly murdered. That would never, ever, happen.

Mr. Greer is having to rush his presentation. Guess there's a time limit.

That's not right. They should each get a full day if needed.

I can't believe the judge cut off Greer's closing arguments to break for lunch. That was... unfortunate.

Absolutely. Wow.

I think his point spending so much time on the discovered clothes may be to discredit plantiffs statements since at first they were thought to be missing. And his repeated use of “pervert” just may lock that word into the heads of jurors. IMO

This is ABSURD. The plaintiff never used the word pervert, so the defense introduces it?! That would be like defending a man falsely accused of rape by repeatedly calling him a rapist. It's a horrible tactic. Even when defending registered sex offenders the idea is to NOT draw the juries attention to that fact (even if it's a Romeo/Juliet offense.) I cannot imagine what this attorney's reason for doing this is. Unless it's to give him grounds for suing the attorneys?!

The lawsuit, formally amended in March, now alleges that Adam Shacknai alone beat Zahau unconscious, stripped off her clothes, bound her hands and feet, gagged her and hanged her from the balcony.

Greer said it was a long process to obtain evidence from the Sheriff’s Department and to depose key figures in the case. He got the Rady Children’s Hospital security video on 27 disks in September.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-zehau-lawsuit-20170420-story.html

according to this, it was not a year, more like 6 months.

I imagine it took quite a while for one man to go through 27 disks of security footage... I mean, it's not like there are 7 of him...
JMO MOO etc

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Absolutely true. It's easier said than done to sit down and go through 27 discs.
So, say you have other cases and a family and a life in addition to this case.
Say you can go through one disc a week. Which is likely a generous estimate.
That would be 189 days - 6 months. Which in my experience with lawyers would NOT be unreasonable.
I've got an attorney right now who hasn't gone through ONE DISC that he got 6 months ago.
I actually think 6 months is a pretty short time frame to have gone through all of that.

LE went through those 27 disks long before he did and knew it proved Dina wasn't involved.

Yes, if LE had simply said "Here, Mr Greer let me show you exactly where Dina shows up and save you so many hours." Then he might have taken them seriously. However, it is his job to double check what he is told. There is ZERO chance that most attorneys would just blindly take the word of LE without verifying. Those that will are usually prosecutors and not the best ones in my experience. I have seen WAY too many LE botch investigations to ever just take their word for it.

I agree and as I see it, the idea of some random person walking in the house and committing this elaborate crime defies credulity.

Yet, I'd believe that before I'd believe suicide. There have been cases where a husband leaves for less than 30 minutes and his wife is murdered by an intruder while he's gone. This case had several hours, plus likely knowledge that Jonah would not be at home. It happens during funerals and hospitalizations regularly. Break ins, burglaries, crimes of opportunity. This would just be a different level. Kind of like Riley Fox was abducted and murdered by a burglar, who just happened upon her while breaking in. This could easily be something similar.

Agree with your entire post. I found Webb to seem like he was flustered, even stuttering at times......there was one point where greer objected to the same question about 3 different times and Webb was trying desperately to figure out a way to re-word the question. I didn't know it at the time, because I wasn't aware of the mannequin demonstration at the time, but now I think that perhaps Webb was caught off guard and didn't know how to put a spin on what greer had just done....I have a feeling the rest of his closing tomorrow will be very interesting. I think he lucked out that he ran out of time today. All my opinions.

That does sound likely. I've seen attorneys caught off guard and flustered. They usually come back twice as strong the next day....

 

[MyBelle]

Looking at the crime scene photos again today, I ask again: has there ever been any explanation for why the balcony doors were closed?

Did Rebecca turn around and close them mid-air as she leapt over the balcony railing?

Anyone? Bueller?

In a photo posted up thread repeatedly, latest #695, a door is clearly open.

 

[MyBelle]

The Missy Bevers murder is one example.

You are kidding, right? Missy Bevers' murder was ruled a homicide and the killer was on security video. Neither is true in this case. JMO

 

[MzOpinion8d]

Berman apparently said RZ's breast implants made her a higher risk for suicide. Lordy. Guess we should prepare for mass suicides all over the country.

Wow, how does that work, exactly? I have three sisters-in-law that I better be concerned about if that's the case.

 

[MyBelle]

Except Adam admitted to taking two showers in the time frame in question. Not gonna find paint on him, that's for sure.

Two showers isn't a crime.

 

[MyBelle]

Wow, how does that work, exactly? I have three sisters-in-law that I better be concerned about if that's the case.

Breast Implant/Suicide Link Confirmed

Threefold Higher Suicide Risk After Cosmetic Breast Implants

Women have an overall threefold higher risk of suicide after getting breast implants -- a risk that keeps going up over time, a new study shows.

Loren Lipworth, ScD, Joseph K. McLaughlin, PhD, and colleagues analyzed data on 3,527 Swedish women. The women had voluntary cosmetic silicone breast-implant surgery an average of 19 years earlier.

https://www.webmd.com/beauty/news/20070810/breast-implant-suicide-link-confirmed#1

 

[MzOpinion8d]

So far, it seems he's telling the jury they need to believe Adam because Adam said he didn't do it.

Well, that's slightly better than all of us hearing for years that we need to believe it was suicide because SDSO said it was suicide...

 

[MzOpinion8d]

He keeps referring to AS as a "sexual pervert" because that's what Greer hinted at. I don't think it's a good strategy, but IANAL.

[emoji23][emoji23]

 

[elfie]

In a photo posted up thread repeatedly, latest #695, a door is clearly open.

One of the first things the boot print on the balcony officer did was to access the balcony. Is there a time stamp visible on the photo?

 

[MzOpinion8d]

I'm going by what Webb said in court today. He gave specific dates. Pretty unconscionable to do that to Dina whether it was a year or six months. JMO

It was pretty unconscionable for SDSO to do that to Dina...saying they had used phone pings to determine her whereabouts, knowing that was flimsy evidence as she could have left her phone and the hospital and been anywhere. They had the option to cut that speculation off and chose not to.

 

[MzOpinion8d]

The Defense provided a chart in closing.

The defense provided a chart. The plaintiff provided a hanging, gagged, bound mannequin. One of these items is far more demonstrative of the truth than the other.

 

[MyBelle]

The defense provided a chart. The plaintiff provided a hanging, gagged, bound mannequin. One of these items is far more demonstrative of the truth than the other.

The defense did provide a chart but I hate to break it to you but neither it nor the hanging, gagged, bound mannequin is evidence that can be considered by the jury. Bummer, huh?

 

[MyBelle]

It was pretty unconscionable for SDSO to do that to Dina...saying they had used phone pings to determine her whereabouts, knowing that was flimsy evidence as she could have left her phone and the hospital and been anywhere. They had the option to cut that speculation off and chose not to.

Indeed. But now that they are aware Dina's was wrongfully accused in the court of public opinion, they also have the option of re-opening the investigation into Max's death. Isn't that wonderful?

 

[MzOpinion8d]

You are kidding, right? Missy Bevers' murder was ruled a homicide and the killer was on security video. Neither is true in this case. JMO

Apparently I misunderstood what you were asking for.

However, that Rebecca died and Adam was on the premises is a fact, and it's also fact that Adam's DNA and fingerprints are *not* found on items on which they should have been found is also fact.

You say there's no evidence he was at the "crime scene" because of this. By the same logic, he also wasn't at the "finding her body" scene, either. So which is true?

 

[MzOpinion8d]

Two showers isn't a crime.

Nope, but it sure does wash off paint and apparently minimize DNA shedding to a point that nearly makes one an invisible man.