GUILTY WA - Amber Coplin, 30, brutally murdered in her Port Orchard home, 3 Nov 2014

[Steely Dan]

I'd like an explanation as to why this isn't a death penalty qualified case.

 

[Kaydence]

I'd like an explanation as to why this isn't a death penalty qualified case.

I would too. Amber's murder was horrific, made even worse by the postings online. I feel like the locals and public are owed an explanation.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.portorchardindependent.com/news/294380301.html

According to the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office, Aug. 3 is the trial date set for David Michael Kalac, 33. Kalac was charged with the Nov. 4 first-degree murder of 30-year-old Amber Lynn Coplin.

A status hearing is slated for 9 a.m. April 6 in Kitsap County Superior Court...

Prosecutors are awaiting results from DNA test and an analysis of Kalac’s cellphone by the FBI’s crime lab in Virginia.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/...n-in-gruesome-Kitsap-Co-murder-361648801.html

Family and friends of Amber Coplin cried in relief late Friday afternoon after a Kitsap County judge refused to throw out the murder charge against the man accused of killing her. But, Judge Jeanette Dalton did chastise prosecutors for "prosecutorial misconduct"...

The prosecutors responsible for the "sloppy" work have since moved on to other jobs. The current prosecutors say they're deeply disturbed by what happened, but stopped short of calling for a formal review...

So, barring anything new, Kalac's trial will begin in January.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2016-...4c-1893-571f-e053-0100007f4234-365548591.html

Kalac is accused of strangling Amber Coplin, 30, in November 2014. The two had been in a relationship. He is scheduled for trial March 14.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Trial date pushed back to October 31st.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/local/two-high-profile-murder-trials-pushed-back-3b4f0403-8ceb-18a0-e053-0100007f591b-392220591.html

Kalac's attorney, Ron Ness, died of natural causes in August, putting Adrian Pimentel in charge. Pimentel told Kitsap Superior Court Judge Jeannette Dalton on Friday that he had retained an expert on the effects of alcohol abuse and mental health.

If Kalac uses a "mental health defense" — where he would not contest the state's factual case but claim that the effects of alcohol abuse rendered him incapable of planning to kill Coplin — a jury could find him guilty of a lesser murder charge, and Kalac could receive a sentence where he would not spend the rest of his life in prison. If convicted of aggravated first-degree murder, he would be sentenced to life without parole.

Pimentel, who was "second chair" on the case but advanced to lead counsel after Ness' death, said he did not want to delay the trial any longer than necessary. He told Dalton on Friday that, depending of the results of an evaluation of Kalac, he could have his case ready by the end of this month. Prosecutors would then have a month to prepare.

Dalton agreed, saying though she wanted the case the proceed but noted that Ness' death was "untimely and unexpected" Kalac had to be assigned a new lead attorney who had the right to re-evaluate the case.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Kalac murder trial pushed to next year

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/local/kalac-murder-trial-pushed-to-next-year-3edcd16a-dd05-317c-e053-0100007f8c1e-397162141.html

The trial date for a man charged in November 2014 with premeditated first-degree murder was pushed back Thursday to February, with a warning from the judge that she would not abide further delays.

David Kalac's attorney also indicated Thursday to Kitsap Superior Court Judge Jeanette Dalton that he would seek a "diminished capacity" defense, confirming that he will challenge the state's allegation that Kalac, 35, planned to kill Amber Coplin, 30, who had been in a relationship with Kalac but was trying to move on, but would not challenge that Kalac did kill Coplin.

The trial had been set for Oct. 31, but Dalton postponed it until Feb. 21.

"If I set it out to February, I expect it to go in February," Dalton told the attorneys.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/02/22/two-murder-trials-face-delays-again/98283792/

Although set to begin jury selection Tuesday, Kalac’s attorney, Adrian Pimentel, suffered a shoulder injury Sunday while skiing. Pimentel said he broke his scapula and damaged the ligaments in his shoulder.

Pimentel said Wednesday that he has a doctor’s appointment Thursday and hopes to have a timeline soon for when the trial can proceed. Pimentel said he was told it could take one to eight weeks to reach the point where he could function without the aid of painkillers.

It was the second time Kalac’s attorney’s health set the case back. His prior attorney, Ron Ness, died of natural causes in August. Pimentel had been assisting Ness, but took over and indicated he would change defenses. Kalac would not contest that he killed Coplin but instead claim her death was not premeditated. If convicted of a lesser murder charge, Kalac would face a lengthy sentence but would not be sentenced to life without the possibility of early release.

 

[elizabethie]

Kalac is on the docket tomorrow at 9 am his time. Couldn't find a link but got it from someone on world justice news who searched the docket for Kitsap Superior Court. If it streams, WJN will have it on their site.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Trial begins for man accused of killing girlfriend, posting pictures

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/03/16/trial-begins-man-accused-killing-girlfriend-posting-pictures/99276846/

In opening statements Thursday in the Kitsap County Superior Court trial of a man accused in 2014 of strangling his girlfriend and posting photos of her body to the internet, a prosecutor gave jurors a chronological rundown of the disturbing details from the case.

One of David M. Kalac’s attorneys countered that jurors needed context for the details to understand what happened.

The likely stakes in the case, however, are not whether Kalac will walk free but how long he will spend in prison.

Deputy Prosecutor Jonathan Salamas said that after strangling Amber Coplin, 30, on Nov. 4, 2014, at Coplin’s Port Orchard apartment where she lived with one of her five sons, Kalac, 35, abused her body, took photos of her that he would post online and made repeated written statements about why and how he killed Coplin.

In presenting jurors with the other side of the case, defense attorney Nicolas Kiewik did not deny Kalac killed Coplin and conceded the details are, “frankly, vile.”

Kiewik, however, told jurors that the details did not tell the whole story of Coplin’s death. For that, jurors needed context.

“Our context is going to be about his addiction to alcohol,” Kiewik said, noting that in the months leading up to Coplin's death Kalac was consuming a half-gallon of vodka every day, along with large amounts of beer. For a person that deep in the throes of alcohol dependency, it is not a choice to continue to drink, Kiewik said, noting that sudden cessation of alcohol could kill a severe alcoholic and that, upon being lodged in the Kitsap County Jail, medical staff placed Kalac on two medications, including an antipsychotic to manage his withdrawal symptoms.

In asking that jurors reserve judgment until all evidence is presented, Kiewik repeatedly acknowledged that the details of the case and Kalac’s actions were disturbing. “Not only are they horrific, they are nonsensical.”

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Prosecutors seek removal of judge in murder trial

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2017/03/20/prosecutors-seek-removal-judge-murder-trial/99419618/

In a surprising turn of events Monday morning, prosecutors said they want the Kitsap Superior Court judge overseeing a murder trial to be removed from the case, saying Judge Jeanette Dalton compromised herself by making several public and private comments about the case.

Monday was supposed to be the first full day of testimony in the first-degree murder trial of David Kalac, 35, accused in November 2014 of strangling his girlfriend Amber Coplin, 30, and posting photos of her body to the internet. Opening statements in the case took place Thursday.

As jurors assembled, waiting to be brought into court, prosecutors alleged Dalton made statements March 6 to a deputy prosecutor, who is not on the case, that were critical of the state’s expert witness and how the state has proceeded, according to comments made in open court and in court documents.

Further, prosecutors say while sitting on the bench last week in another case, Dalton praised the opening statement of one of Kalac’s attorneys, as well as showed graphic photographs from the case to another courthouse employee while in her chambers.

 

[dyannaON]

This poor family.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Judge on murder case won't step down

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/03/21/judge-murder-case-wont-step-down/99475388/

A Kitsap County Superior Court judge overseeing the trial of Amber Coplin’s alleged killer declined Tuesday to recuse herself, saying statements she made outside the courtroom about the proceedings were within judicial guidelines and there was no evidence presented that she had damaged the case.

Judge Jeanette Dalton is presiding over the first-degree murder trial of David Kalac, 35, accused in November 2014 of strangling Coplin, 30, and posting photos of her body on the internet. Testimony was disrupted for two days but is expected to resume Wednesday morning.

Dalton also said she did not feel so personally stung by the allegations made by prosecutors, who said that the appearance of impartiality had been breached, that she had to step down.

“I am capable of continuing on in this case,” Dalton said, adding that she was not so “slight of character” that her feelings would interfere with her ability to remain impartial.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Kalac's boss: He is a 'functional alcoholic'

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/03/23/kalacs-boss-he-functional-alcoholic/99566050/

“When he had been drinking the night before, he had his own ideas about how things ought to get done,” said Curtis Cameron, who owns a house painting business and received texts from Kalac the morning of Nov. 4, 2016, indicating that Kalac had done something that would be on the news and that he would soon be dead.

“There will be no more me,” Kalac wrote in the text, according to court documents.

Alcoholism features prominently in Kalac’s defense, which alleges he suffers from severe alcohol addiction and a brain disorder that prevented him from being able to form the intent to kill Coplin. If convicted of the current murder charge or the aggravators attached to the charge, he likely would spend the rest of his life in prison. If his attorneys are successful at persuading jurors that Kalac was addled by severe alcoholism, his sentence likely would be lengthy but would allow a chance for him to one day walk out of prison.

Cameron told jurors that Kalac was a “functional alcoholic” and though he was capable of doing the work, his attitude and attendance were becoming a problem because of his drinking. Kalac was consuming a half-gallon of vodka every day, according to a statement he made to the defense’s psychologist who is expected to testify in the coming weeks.

Also testifying Thursday was Christopher Poole, founder of the website **********, who identified the thread authorities believe Kalac started to post photos of Coplin. Included in the post was an unsigned confession and an indication that Kalac believed Coplin’s middle-school age son would discover her body.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Testimony describes period leading to David Kalac's surrender

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/03/28/testimony-describes-period-leading-david-kalacs-surrender/99761626/

According to testimony Tuesday in his first-degree murder trial in Kitsap County Superior Court, Kalac had at least two opportunities to force a potentially fatal confrontation with police but didn’t.

Instead, after penning a confession at the damp homeless camp and swallowing 20 trazodone pills in what was described as a suicide attempt, he sought out a police officer and turned himself in.

His only request, according to the officer who testified Tuesday, was that he be allowed to sit, as he did not feel well.

The note, presented to jurors Tuesday, was written in what appeared to be a child’s sketchbook, Kalac allegedly wrote that he used his hands and then a shoelace to strangle Coplin.

“I had no reason other than I was drunk and she pissed me off,” Kalac allegedly wrote in the note signed “DK.”

On Monday, jurors saw surveillance video from Nov. 4, 2014, of Kalac pawning a laptop in Olympia for $125, then shopping at a Chehalis Walmart for a BB gun that resembles a semi-automatic pistol. He reportedly went to a Portland bar and spent the evening drinking.

The car chase with Portland police occurred in the early hours the next day. He is believed to have ditched Coplin’s car then likely rode public transportation to the Wilsonville transit center.

After Kalac was arrested, former Clackamas County sheriff’s criminologist Andy Shelley searched the homeless camp, finding the confession note in a plastic storage box, as well as another statement written on a discarded box spring, “Dave’s last stand.”

Among the trash and items sitting in the rain — a stuffed animal, mail, a flattened tent, a pair of sweatpants — was what appeared to be a semiautomatic pistol.

“It turned out to be a Daisy BB gun,” Shelley said.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Kalac trial stumbles along despite multiple obstacles

http://www.kitsapdailynews.com/news/kalac-trial-stumbles-along-despite-multiple-obstacles/

Alleged murderer David Kalac, whose trial in Kitsap County Superior Court has been plagued by delays since before it even started, appeared before Judge Jeannette Dalton April 4, in full view of a row of friends and relatives of his alleged victim.

The case has been beset by delays since the pretrial status hearings, with motions to dismiss, motions to exclude witness testimony, multiple requests to reschedule the trial and even a motion requesting that the judge recuse herself.

In addition to the aforementioned obstacles to what should have been a speedy trial, there were also motions filed to exclude both physical evidence and expert witness testimony.

The most recent of these was a motion filed by the prosecution requesting that the testimony of defense witness Dr. David M. Dixon, who declared that Kalac’s “ability to form the intent to commit the crime” was impaired at the time of the incident, be excluded.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Murder defendant says drinking led to confusion, false memories

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/04/08/murder-defendant-says-drinking-led-confusion-false-memories/100200188/

Charged with murder for strangling Amber Coplin and posting photos of her body to the internet, David Kalac said Friday that the blackouts and violence that accompanied his heavy drinking left him confused the next day about what really happened.

“It’s a really difficult thing to wrap my head around,” Kalac, 35, told his attorney during an exchange conducted while the Kitsap County Superior Court jurors who will decide his case were not in the courtroom. “On one hand, I have memories of what I believe happened. On the other hand, I have multiple people saying what I remember is garbage.”

Kalac’s case will likely hinge on whether jurors believe that his brain was so addled by severe alcoholism, along with other mental disorders, that Kalac was unable to plan to kill Coplin. If convicted of premeditated murder, Kalac would be sentenced to life in prison.

On Thursday, jurors heard from David M. Dixon, a clinical psychologist, who testified that considering Kalac’s mental disorders -- and that he was reportedly consuming a half-gallon of vodka plus 18 beers a day, every day -- he was unable to plan to kill Coplin.

State law defines intent as acting with an “objective or purpose to accomplish a result,” and premeditation as planning for “more than a moment" in time.

However, while being questioned by Kalac’s attorney, Adrian Pimentel, Dixon went further and said because of the alcoholism and brain disorders, Kalac would be unable to form the intent to kill at all.

Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jeanette Dalton had previously ruled Dixon could not offer testimony on whether Kalac could intend to kill, only if Kalac was able to plan to kill.

When Dalton confronted Pimentel, he said prior to deliberations, he intended to ask jurors to consider the charge of first-degree manslaughter, which state law defines as “recklessly” causing the death of another. Dalton later instructed jurors to disregard Dixon’s testimony about what Dalton called “general intent.”

However, in an attempt to introduce all of Dixon's testimony, Kalac took the stand and talked about two prior incidents where, while intoxicated, he misperceived threatening situations where he reacted with violence, though at the time he did not believe he was the aggressor.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Jury finds Kalac guilty of first-degree murder

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/code-911/2017/04/19/jury-finds-kalac-guilty-first-degree-murder/100666424/

After deliberating for a day and a half, a Kitsap County Superior Court jury Wednesday convicted David Kalac of first-degree murder for the November 2014 death of girlfriend Amber Coplin, 30.

His attorneys did not contest that Kalac, 35, killed Coplin, whom Kalac lived with along with her middle-school-age son at her Port Orchard apartment. Instead, they argued to jurors that because of his severe alcoholism and brain disorders he was unable to plan to kill Coplin, a mother of five who had known Kalac since they were teens.

Testifying over two days, Kalac said from the time of Coplin’s death until his arrest he had only fleeting memories, including one of his hands around Coplin’s throat after the two had consumed more than a half-gallon of vodka. He told jurors his history of blackouts and false memories made his recollections unreliable.

“Now Amber’s boys can find peace and start healing,” said Julie McGill, a victim’s advocate who spoke on behalf of Coplin’s parents. Family members also expressed thanks to jurors.

“Justice for Amber was a hard decision, but they are grateful,” McGill said.

In a written statement, Rebecca Coplin, Amber Coplin’s mother-in-law, said the trial had been a long, rough road for Amber’s sons and her husband, and they continue to miss her.

“I am hoping that now this is done and over that my son and grandsons can start the healing process and try to move forward the best they can,” Rebecca Coplin wrote.

The sentencing range for first-degree murder goes up to about 40 years. However, the jury of six men and six women also found Kalac guilty of two aggravators, that there was a foreseeable impact beyond the victim as well as for Kalac showing an egregious lack of remorse.

This will allow Judge Jeanette Dalton to exceed the range when she sentences Kalac on May 16.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Kalac gets 82 years for murder of Amber Coplin

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/05/16/kalac-gets-82-years-murder-amber-coplin/101764924/

On Tuesday Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jeanette Dalton sentenced David Kalac to 82 years in prison after a jury convicted him last month of first-degree murder for strangling and posting gruesome photos of his ex girlfriend Amber Coplin to the internet.

Before Dalton announced Kalac’s sentence, she urged him to better himself while in prison.

“There’s consequences, and you have to suffer that consequence,” Dalton told Kalac, 35, who nodded as she spoke to him. “I hope you choose life.”

Coplin’s loved ones described the loss as losing part of their lives, their bodies and their hearts.

“Those pictures will forever haunt me,” one of Coplin’s sons wrote in a letter to Dalton.

Rebecca Coplin, grandmother to Coplin’s five children, said Coplin’s youngest son still watches out the window for his mother to come take him to the park and that sometimes the boys still wake up screaming in the night.

“Please make sure this person doesn’t have the chance to hurt these boys ever again,” Rebecca Coplin said.

 

[Caffeine]

Such a senseless and appalling crime....and to somehow try and blame it on alcoholism or whatever, that he wasn't of sound mind when he did this. Give me break.

He killed her, took pictures, uploaded them to 4chan and even commented on them. This was a cold, calculated act and he knew exactly what he was doing.

I'd say he got what he deserves, but quite honestly I think he deserves the death penalty...but this is the next best thing I suppose.