Jodi's testimony, Feb 4, Part 5 Continued...
Nurmi: (talking about quitting HS and moving in with Bobby) What was the last straw for you to move out of your house?
Jodi: I think the last straw was when they said you're grounded til you're 18. A lot of my things were already at Bobby's house, they were putting it in a storage shed right behind the house, um, just boxes of things I had been saving, cuz I knew I would be out of the house soon. My dad had closed his restaurant, he had let me have a lot of the plates, the dishes, the silverware, so that would just get me started. So things like that, um, old books I'd already read I didn't want to part with, things like that went to the storage shed, and then when I was grounded, I though I only have a few more things to throw in the car, plus my cat, so I stayed up all night packing, while my parents slept, and I -- well, my dad when he would ground me, he used to unhook my car -- I don't know what that means, but I would go out and try to turn the engine and it wouldn't turn. He unhooked something under the hood, and I think I figured out how to rehook it, so then he started taking the entire piece so that I couldn't rehook it. (ed note: that car should have been yanked from her the first time she "rehooked" it)
So the first thing I did, um, after they went to sleep, was I went out to check if my car would start, and it did. So, I was relieved. So I began to load up the car, um, I was almost completely packed, and then I think around 4:30 or 5:00 I heard one of my parents, um, awake. So, I was in the living room, still packing up a few things, so I jumped on the couch real quick to pretend that I was sleeping so they wouldn't wonder why I was awake, and I was very tired so I ended up falling asleep. The next thing I knew it was 7:30 or 7 o'clock, and my mom was in the kitchen preparing breakfast, and I thought "Oh shoot, I missed my opportunity," but I just went into my bedroom, found my cat, picked her up, and I just started walking out the door. My mom said, "what are you doing?" And I said, "nothing," and I just shut the door and put my cat in my car and drove out to Bobby's house, unloaded it and went to school that day.
N: And, um, you say Bobby's house. Uh, these people you described as grandparents, do they live in this home as well?
J: Yes
N: And was there anyone else besides them and Bobby in this house?
J: No
N: Describe for us the environment you were leaving your home to - leaving your home with your parents in order to live with Bobby. What were you (trailing off, unintelligible)
J: Um, it was um - structurally the house was very good (ed note: who says this??), but it was in very bad shape, um, his parents were very heavy smokers, and there was always a haze hanging out in the room, and there was a lot of, um, I don't know what it's called -- I guess, tar -- running down the walls, kind of in deep brown. The living room was almost, not quite to the ceiling, but it was packed with a bunch of things, I don't know what it was, just various odds and ends - I guess they were hoarders. Um, Bobby did the best to make his bedroom his own little space, um, but he wasn't allowed to touch any of those things while they were there, so I mean the kitchen was very very dirty, um, the bathroom was very dirty, um, the linoleum was coming off the floor, and the shower was kind of falling apart, um, it was just a mess. All of the yard all around the house was overgrown. Um, I went back to my parents' house a few days to borrow their cleaning supplies for it
N: Doesn't sound like Bobby's house was a great place to live
J: No, he hated it, um, like I said his own room, he did his best to make that his space, and um make it habitable, um, and then his parents would kind of sit in the living room all day and watch TV and smoke til they went to bed.
N: You mentioned he, uh (left hand gesturing in circles, right hand stuffed in pocket), kept his room in a different way - was that a room you shared with him?
J: Yes
N: Were you having a sexual relationship with him at that point in time?
J: Um, I'm trying to remember if we were at that point. We did eventually. I don't remember if it was right before I moved in with him. I think it was right after I moved in with him. I don't remember. We waited several months.
N: So, from what you're telling us then, what you moved into this home, this filthy home, with one clean room in it, you dropped out of high school, and you were working, right?
J: I'm sorry, will you repeat that?
N: At this point in time when you moved in with Bobby, you were at the end of your junior year, and that was your last school right?
J: Yes, I was coming up on the end of my Junior year
N: And you were working as well, I believe you said Grandma's if I heard you correctly
J: Yes, my dad had recently closed his restaurant, and I think I got a part time position there - at Grandma's House
N: Aaaaaaand, was this how you were supporting yourself?
J: Yes, it was.
N: Aaaand, were you supporting Mr Juarez as well?
J: Um, not quite yet, um, occasionally we would go on a date, and I of course would pay for it, which wasn't a big deal to me at the time. Um, he had a problem getting identification to prove that he was legally able to work in the United States, so he didn't have a photo ID, he couldnt find a copy of his birth certificate, he didn't have a social security card, but he did have a social security number -- but every time we went to the DMV or the social security office or the court house, they would wanted the one form of identification we were trying to get, so of those three it was hard to get all of them, so that was the reason he couldn't work, or so that was what I understood.
(camera cuts to Juan -- his eyelids are fluttering, and he actually nods off)
N: Soooo, based on what you were telling us earlier then, at the end of your junior year, you drop out of high school, worked full time ...
J: (interrupting her lawyer) Yes, Bobby and I went to Chico, California briefly, which is near Sacramento, just a little bit south I think. Um, I was gonna work there, I was gonna live there - it didn't work out, we were there for about a week, and we went back. And so then I applied at a restaurant where - I worked at Denny's actually, and the woman there who had gave me a good reference had worked for my dad the previous year, um, her and her husband, so I was hired there -- I think around August, that would be 1998.
(to be continued ...)
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