Driving to Idaho to camp doesn’t seem that “normal”, especially being that they both already lived nearby numerous camping spots.I think it was a normal camp out that happens all the time where the older went to college even during covid…lotsa open space in Colorado. Lotsa camp outs on weekends and between semesters. And many kids stayed in their off campus apartments in 2020. I think Barry and Suzanne let the younger join her sister and whoever else was camping out. Not everything is going to be suspicious that “sleuths” have speculated about.
One puzzle piece I look forward to for clarification is who arranged the daughters' trip. Considering that travel was extremely limited at that time, in addition to the MD weekend, that trip has always seemed off. If evidence exists that BM arranged the trip, the circumstances may go far to indicate premeditation.
One small point: the Judge did not agree “they had the facts to nail him”. The Judge determined that IF THE SWORN FACTS WERE PROVEN TO BE TRUE AT TRIAL, they will have nailed him.Judge did not sign the AA.
Affidavits are not signed by judges. AA's are signed by investigators (usually the lead LE investigator). There can be more than one signature. I wouldn't be surprised if there is more than one signature on this AA, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's only one signature.
The Judge is making a legal determination based on facts sworn to by. other parties. The document in which those parties swear to the facts is called an Affidavit (not a brief, not a motion, not an order).
The Judge signed an order, not an Affidavit. His order is public. There is no argument about the public nature of the judge's Order. It's signed and delivered.
It's the Affidavit that many of us want to see (IOW, what does LE have against Barry that is so persuasive that a Judge weighed this heavy matter and came down with an ORDER to ARREST Barry Morphew).
Barry is in jail not because the Judge went and investigated him - he is in jail because investigators swore to the Judge that they had the facts to nail him, and the Judge, after deliberation agreed with them.
And the ball really is in the Defense's court now - as the Judge said, they are entitled now to begin their own investigation and to present those findings at the preliminary hearing.
I don’t think Les Gals Legals need our help.OMG, I bet his defense team is reading here and getting all kinds of ideas. If I see this during the trial, I'll totally melt down.
@MassGuy good to hear your to cents! Longtime coming but it happened. The scales of Justice will balance for Suzanne also.IMOIt’s my understanding that the DA asked for the arrest warrant to be sealed, so as not to tip off BM via a court filing that he was about to be arrested.
The justification was that he was a flight risk due to the liquidation of assets, and him telling people that he had plans to move to Arizona.
So I could see the judge reading through the AA, realizing at the time that some of the content was problematic, but signing it anyways because it both met the burden, and time was of the essence.
Yup, it was only a matter of when. It was clear all along this was a homicide investigation, and Barry was the prime suspect.@MassGuy good to hear your to cents! Longtime coming but it happened. The scales of Justice will balance for Suzanne also.IMO
Exactly, as the old joke goes, they don’t don’t say that about you and me!Me too.
And the redactions will be almost automatic and uncontroversial (the two sides will not sulk around in front of the Judge, having already agreed).
OTOH, those two lady lawyers who are defending Barry have their hands full. Given that somehow, LE has managed to amass 129 pages against Barry, it's super unlikely they can get even 1/5th of it redacted. Media will sue - again.
Because...we have a right to know what our police are up to, and what they are claiming. If the Judge manages to delay all this until after trial - okay. I guess. But srsly, everyone who is following this case needs to think hard about the fact that LE was able to swear to 129 pages of facts that show Barry Morphew killed his wife. On or about May 10.
I doubt they need our help either but I’m reasonably certain they have a paralegal or two here. It’s certainly been done before. IMOI don’t think Les Gals Legals need our help.
Whack!Yup, it was only a matter of when. It was clear all along this was a homicide investigation, and Barry was the prime suspect.
I started getting excited when the DA said she was going to be speaking with Lauren, and appeared on Mike’s show.
It seemed like a victory lap, just in reverse. Then the shoe dropped, right on Barry’s neck.
I’ve never followed a case where we knew so little at this stage. I’ve also never followed a case that’s going to have this much information.Well, we at the halfway point now. BM has been imprisoned for 7 weeks, and the Prelim Hearing starts in 7 weeks.
They don't.I don’t think Les Gals Legals need our help.
:I believe it was the same judge. In the order keeping the AA sealed, he says "[a] significant portion of the information in the Affidavit was not relevant to the Court's finding of probable cause...." A judge would be very unlikely to say that about an arrest warrant issued by a different judge since they wouldn't know exactly what parts of the AA were relevant to their decision.
I think people are misinterpreting his ruling as him saying the prosecution's case is weak. I don't think you can read that into it. He clearly thought there was enough there to issue an arrest warrant. He does seem to be saying that there's extraneous information in the AA that wasn't relevant to probable cause, and he's concerned about releasing that publicly ntheow. That wouldn't have been an issue while granting the arrest warrant, but could become an issue with regards to tainting the jury pool (especially in a small county), etc.
It's hard to know how viable his concerns are without seeing the AA, of course. 130 pages seems pretty excessive. If it was just a hurried info dump by LE because they needed to get a warrant quickly, it could contain prejudicial information about BM that isn't relevant, prejudicial information about witnesses, etc. That would all be stuff that would need to be redacted before the AA is made public. If there's a lot of it, that would take a long time and sealing it for a few months would seem ok to me. But the whole point of appeals is that you can always get other judges to look at it and see what they think.
I agree with this....but with premeditation...there seems to be a need for motive, i.e. girlfriend, money or simply a new life. While motive does not in and of itself need to be proven, the act of planning to kill requires some specific reasoning to explain its existance. A 'heat of the moment" wouldn't include the same ingredients, imo..One puzzle piece I look forward to for clarification is who arranged the daughters' trip. Considering that travel was extremely limited at that time, in addition to the MD weekend, that trip has always seemed off. If evidence exists that BM arranged the trip, the circumstances may go far to indicate premeditation.
I’ve never followed a case where we knew so little at this stage. I’ve also never followed a case that’s going to have this much information.
We’re going to go from knowing practically nothing, to having just about every question answered that can be answered.
Those 7 weeks can’t come fast enough.
Normally these hearings involve reporters relaying the evidence via Twitter, but with these Covid rules in effect, I think there’s a decent chance that we’ll actually be able to watch this thing on WebEx.
Cross your fingers!
You and me both. I think it's fair to speculate that it was entirely planned by Barry. But I want to know the exact conditions. Part of me thinks that there was never any plan for the daughters to return for Mother's Day.
There were legal bans against interstate non-essential travel at the time, so that tells us something about whoever organized and paid for it.
I am going to bet tons of internet donuts that Barry organized and paid for it (and may have had help organizing it).