After reading comments most think Rochelle did it and MM was an accessory after the fact. She changed her story to LE about MM punching her and what she saw, didnt even remember the day her child killed. She was so drugged up and high when Bella was killed she was probably hallucinating that he did it but was probably her. How can you trust a heroin addicts story. DA knew it would be easier to get a conviction with the BF then the Mother. Travesty of justice. Shapiro really feels his client is innocent. Ive never seen a defense attorney fight so hard for his client's innocence and being wrongly convicted.
https://youtu.be/4GacLPJfu10
I completely agree, going after MM was the easy option, but I remain unconvinced it was the right thing. Justice can't be served by throwing 'someone', 'anyone' in jail just to say that someone is in jail for a crime, it has to be the right person.
I am going to bed each night and trying to play it all out in my head. RB's story doesn't make any sense, whichever version of it you listen to. People hear the word "heroin" or "on drugs" and rush to judgment. I think in 9/10 cases similar to this it would be the male responsible, but it would also normally be a far more violent death with shouting, thumping, beating, throwing.
Maybe the heroin is the reason for the lack of violence? To my knowledge it's not a "get up and beat someone up" drug, it's the opposite. But someone who hadn't recently had a fix I suppose could be in any state, and not so relaxed, so maybe that wipes out that argument as well. Someone had a clear head to plan out how to dispose of the body. My thinking says that RB is more likely the more clear-headed of the two at that time. The crime is a female crime, the disposal is a female/mother disposal.
There have to be clues in the story we've been given, from the evidence and from RB's stories. The weights, for example. Someone here said it would be a lot easier for a woman to do the disposal if they put the weights in only when they reached the disposal point. RB said the weights were in the back of the car separate from the body...that's how she could see them in order to tie them to the plumbing shop and MM. If those weights had already been in the outer bag, ready for dumping in the sea, then RB would not have been able to see them, and they might never have been tied to MM as the police might not have been able to get a warrant for the basement of the plumbing shop.
Sprinsky's testimony has caused a lot of prejudice against MM. But if we break down a lot of the things said...what did MM do to protect RB's apartment from 'demons' or 'bad energies' ... he did something with herbs? And to help RB's body he did Reiki on her? So that thing about MM claiming he could exorcise demons, maybe that isn't something out of the Exorcist but instead walking around a house with smoking herbs while chanting nonsensical words?
We heard from RB's own mouth that MM's concerns about Bella were things like Bella needing more stability in her bedtime routine...not that Bella needed killing for being a demon.
None of this adds up to MM being the murderer, and I'm not even fully convinced he helped in the cover-up/disposal. The weights point to him, but it's still a circumstantial link. Surely RB could have got a lift with a friend and said she had something to dispose of into the harbor...and if most of Sprinsky's friends are now dead from heroin, this person could also be deceased by now and unable to come forward.
Unlike Bassil and her assertions that RB's a battered woman in fear for her life from a man in absolute control of her, I do get the feeling that Shapiro genuinely believes in his client's innocence. Yes, he's playing the lawyer's game in his techniques to get MM off, but he also seems to believe he's representing an innocent man. The DA's lot seem like they just want to rack up a 'win' for their side. The judge seems to me to be very distant from the whole thing. As she kept reiterating, it's for the jury to decide, not her.
