CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010 #8

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Plo_Koon said:
I understand what you're saying, but as devil's advocate, if the prosecution or a detective hears something in court that makes them think, and then that person goes home that night and does some more work and discovers NEW evidence/information -- should the prosecution then just ignore that information and not bring it up in the trial? Even though it may help the jury in their decision?
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Maybe @gitana1 could answer that question. I can't remember any of the other verified attorneys names.
 
missy1974 said:
@Edmo I know you are discouraged with L&C not streaming next week (and possibly longer), so am I. But I do hope you stick around, if I stick you gotta stick because I need the local perspective LOL
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I might go to court next week. The only problem; I can only be there for an 1 1/2 hour in the morning. It's a 45 minute drive one-way.
 
JMarsh said:
You've made an important point: Not everyone who gambles murders a family of four. That is the connection the DA clearly wants made. Hey, ignore the fact that we have zero evidence tying the defendant to this crime-find him guilty by way of his other conduct. Innuendo-over-hard-evidence-prosecution.
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Of course, not everyone who gambles is a murderer. But not everyone who gambles has a long criminal history, gambles to excess, to the point where they cannot pay the rent/bills for their wife and kids, and end up embezzling from their boss.
 
Plo_Koon said:
Have you ever read about the German family that disappeared in the California(I believe. Pretty sure it was Death Valley) desert? I know that they were driving a van, ended up off road and were in a wash which caused the wheels to sink as the vehicle wasn't 4WD and then they were stuck. There is one very good, detailed read on it and the S&R steps taken to try and locate them. I believe it was posted on Longform
Just presenting if you wanted further reading on washes in the desert.
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I'm not sure I found the family you are talking about, but googled and found a bunch of stories! Thanks!
 
Tortoise said:
I haven't watched it, but I do intend to watch everything now that there is going to be a 2 week gap in livestreaming. My post came from the report in the SBC Sentinel which laid it out as follows (bbbm):

A subsequent exchange with Maline gave rise to the impression that the Hewlett-Packard computer might not have been accessed by an individual but had rather been stimulated by an automated virus scan.
Fuller Context Undercuts Circumstantial Elements Of Merritt Prosecution | SBCSentinel

When I watch it I'll be able to get a better idea of whether he was trying to pull a fast one but since I'm having to guess I think most likely he wouldn't have tried that knowing the defense would have pulled him up on it and used it to make him look incompetent or dishonest so I think it was most likely human error and he hadn't run that enquiry to see if it was a scan. It's possible he used certain key-word search terms and that came up in his results, meaning he would miss all the other thousands of files that would have shown it was a system scan.
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Snipped by me just to address the one part of that....

I am not sure that person has the right computer there? I don't recall Maline implying that it was a scan on that computer, but he could have. If you find it in the testimony, please note it for me so I can go listen.

And don't get me wrong, I don't think it was Schroeder himself that was trying to pull a fast one. He was asked to do specific reports, he did them. I think someone probably did a "intuit" file search, or "quickbooks" file search, and came away with that 1 of 27000 file and didn't look at the complete records or didn't think the defense would. BUT JMO

When we first heard that testimony, it was interesting, because it left me thinking that someone was looking at Joey's credit score or whatever... but it turns out that wasn't the case.

As for the 8th, if you are going to continue to listen to the testimony, if you notice that the Prosecution mentions that before the defense, that would be interesting to know as well :) TIA It's interesting that both computers were accessed around the same time, but I don't know why the prosecution wouldn't want to bring that up first and I just don't have that in my notes, so would like to note it if possible without having to listen to ALL of it again LOL
 
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Edmo said:
Check out the date ;)


This was a few days earlier. I remember people were washed away in their campers/motorhomes from the local news. Some of the people ended up drowning in the flood waters. :(
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Thanks. I was gonna look for this video. This is pretty accurate for what it would like. Maybe a little more or a little less. Less rain could have actually fell in the area of the graves. By the time Merritt entered the wash it wouldn't look like this. Little to no water.
 
JMarsh said:
I think there is a chance as well that the judge doesn't want to overwhelm the jurors. We are at home, we can eat, exercise etc. while all this sophisticated information is being delivered. But the Jury just has to sit there taking notes. And this evidence is involved and complicated. I think with a trial this long, the judge is aware that jury-burnout is a possibility, so breaks are needed.

This is like taking advanced courses in physics and anatomy. This evidence is not just-Joe saw Ralph kill Agnes. It's really tough information to absorb and understand, well enough, to decide the fate of a man's life.
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All of this wasted downtime is overwhelming these juror, but not in a good way. Imo

Their frustration is going to mount as more downtime happens, and it will.

If anyone get a hang nail, the court will end.

I've never seen any courtroom run this way, not ever in decades of following trials. It's become bizarre.

Jurors dont like being sent a constant message either that their time, and lives don't matter.

No death penalty case should take this long. I've seen many DP trials over the years, in many different states, and on average they are finished in 4 to 6 weeks, and that includes the sentencing phase if convicted.

So his DP trial isn't any different than any other defendant's trial except it taking forever, and forever, with no end in sight. That's the only difference.

Of course in those cases all of the judges ran a tight ship, and really believed in putting in long work days, each day, and having testimony for a full 5 days-10 hour days or even more in some DP cases.

Imo, it won't be long before some of the jurors starts complaining to the judge about all of the wasted time.

Imo, jurors want to do their civil duty. What they dont want to do is show up for a full day of testimony every day, and then it not happen.

Unfortunately for these jurors it's happening more often, than when they get to hear a full day of testimony. Its shameful.

Imo
 
missy1974 said:
<modsnip>

I do think it comes down to personal experiences and this gives good insight into a "gamblers" mind, not a "addicted gambler", there is a difference IMO And if you frequent the casino's, you know what I mean. There are people that I can see at the casino, and you just know they have a "problem" LOL And then there are others that set a limit, and leave when that limit is hit, some can do that, some can't.

Reading some of the posts about the casino's and the gambling, I feel a bit shamed for my love of slots haha I'll get over it :)

I have never been to Vegas... I plan on going sometimes in the next few years, need to time it properly so I can catch an NHL game while there :)
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Vegas is about a 3 hour drive to the grave sites, if you would be interested in seeing it in person.
 
missy1974 said:
<modsnip>

I do think it comes down to personal experiences and this gives good insight into a "gamblers" mind, not a "addicted gambler", there is a difference IMO And if you frequent the casino's, you know what I mean. There are people that I can see at the casino, and you just know they have a "problem" LOL And then there are others that set a limit, and leave when that limit is hit, some can do that, some can't.

Reading some of the posts about the casino's and the gambling, I feel a bit shamed for my love of slots haha I'll get over it :)

I have never been to Vegas... I plan on going sometimes in the next few years, need to time it properly so I can catch an NHL game while there :)
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I don't gamble, mostly, but would find it addictive, cause I don't like losing :(. But isn't the point here that he ostensibly was gambling with funds gained from the fraudulent checks? Not sure if the PA will be able to come full circle with this, but I suspect they will.
 
Tortoise said:
I haven't watched it, but I do intend to watch everything now that there is going to be a 2 week gap in livestreaming. My post came from the report in the SBC Sentinel which laid it out as follows (bbbm):

his analysis of a clone of the hard drive of the eMachine computer in the McStay home shows that a series of Google searches were carried out on the device on February 8, 2010 between 2:06 a.m. and 2:07 a.m. Schroeder said he was not able to make a determination of whether the items searched for within the span of two minutes had been typed in or clicked on from a pull down menu. Schroeder said he was not aware of any other activity on that computer. He said most of his analytical focus was on the eMachine, as opposed to activity on another computer in the home, a Hewlett Packard, which was last accessed on February 8, 2010 at 2:08 a.m. On that Hewlett-Packard, it was determined that the computer had briefly opened to the msn.com home page, which in 2010 was a common opening page. That was all that was booted up to the computer’s opening page. Schroeder indicated there were no following searches on that machine he could identify.
Schroeder said he was not aware of the FBI regional computer forensic lab’s report on the same machines. A subsequent exchange with Maline gave rise to the impression that the Hewlett-Packard computer might not have been accessed by an individual but had rather been stimulated by an automated virus scan.
Fuller Context Undercuts Circumstantial Elements Of Merritt Prosecution | SBCSentinel




When I watch it I'll be able to get a better idea of whether he was trying to pull a fast one but since I'm having to guess I think most likely he wouldn't have tried that knowing the defense would have pulled him up on it and used it to make him look incompetent or dishonest so I think it was most likely human error and he hadn't run that enquiry to see if it was a scan. It's possible he used certain key-word search terms and that came up in his results, meaning he would miss all the other thousands of files that would have shown it was a system scan.
Click to expand...

I don't recall if it was mentioned in the testimony but do we have any information whether either computer was left on? An 'automated virus scan' can only run if the computer was already booted up; 2:00 a.m. is a fairly typical default time for auto scans to run, but only if the computer is already on.

Gosh I wish we weren't going to be missing any testimony, our own "trial record" is going to have vast black holes that may be difficult to fill in.
 
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