Opening Statements 03/05/2012 in MRT's Trial

[matou]

From today's opening statement, I have to say that I was shocked that there was enough of Tori's tissues left to state that she had damage to her internal organs and gave details of these injuries. Even in the full heat of July.

 

[matou]

Was that in the news? I don't remember that. I don't remember anything about any shoes, to be honest. That's why I posted that tweet.

Didn't a forensic truck go to Tara's to pick up some of Tori's items and I thought some of these items were shoes. I could be remembering the wrong items though.

 

[maxfactor]

Didn't a forensic truck go to Tara's to pick up some of Tori's items and I thought some of these items were shoes. I could be remembering the wrong items though.

I remember that Matou! Maybe it was Tori's shoes.

 

[margaret_diane]

Didn't a forensic truck go to Tara's to pick up some of Tori's items and I thought some of these items were shoes. I could be remembering the wrong items though.

Yes I remember reading that as well - that they took shoes and a hairbrush for DNA or a toothbrush (?) not sure but definitely I remember reading shoes.

And I also thought that TLM showed LE where VS's shoes were discarded - that was in the tweets coming out of the satelite courtroom today

 

[flipflop]

IIRC Did they not find the shoes back when TLM was out in the helicopter, on a sideroad between Guelph and Fergus....will have to go looking for that link.

 

[Hello_Kitty]

Mares and Cha!

Ditto, long time now see

 

[matou]

Five witnesses, including Tori’s teacher from Oliver Stephens School in Woodstock will testify on Tuesday.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...to-present-case-against-michael-rafferty?bn=1

 

[Hello_Kitty]

WTH? She got rid of her shoes? Are you sure this isn't supposed to be Tori's shoes?

I think they said that Terri-lynne led them to where they discarded her (TS's shoes).

 

[Hello_Kitty]

I wonder what was in the dumpster that LE took? I thought the hammer would be in there. I'm surprised they didn't find it but Rafferty likely dumped it somewhere that weekend like he dumped the carseat. JMO

Perhaps that's where TLM led them to TS's shoes.

 

[matou]

The mystery woman was Ms. McClintic, and she led Tori to a nearby parking lot, Mr. Gowdey said, where Mr. Rafferty “sat in his Honda Civic, waiting.”

The car was caught on video near the school three times in total that day.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/03/05/tori-stafford-christie-blatchford/

Seems like a guy desperate for a little girl. Trolling the school. JMO

 

[ChaChaCha]

Where is JG these days?

Tori vanished on her way home from the Oliver Stephens Public School, a few minutes walk from the rented house she shared in Woodstock with her mother, Tara McDonald, and older brother, Daryn Stafford

Did JG not live with them? I have not seen his name mentioned for awhile now?????

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ended-in-her-death-jury-hears/article2358818/

In another article that I read today it stated that TM was walking into court with 2 girlfriends?!?

Wasn"t going to say anything, but I was at the Woodstock courthouse last week on an unrelated matter, and they were there together. The next few months will be very difficult for them ... I think it says something positive about their relationship to have gone through this and still be together.

 

[antiquegirl]

TLM's shoes? I thought TLM lead LE to where they dumped VS's shoes????

That other reporter goofed. Guess it happens when you're trying to listen and Tweet at the same time. This is from RR's Tweet on LFP this afternoon:

"RaffertyLFP:

McClintic then tried to help police locate Tori's body , showed police when they discarded Tori's shoes [via Twitter]

2:31"

ETA: I'd bet the Crown said "HER shoes", meaning Tori's and Morrow misinterpreted that as being TLM's.

 

[swedie]

Murder (Canadian law)
Just one example of murder:
By causing that human being, by threats or fear of violence or by deception, to do anything that causes his death; or
By wilfully frightening that human being, in the case of a child or sick person.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_(Canadian_law)

 

[matou]

I guess they got rid of Tori's shoes so she wouldn't run away. JMO

 

[Hello_Kitty]

I guess they got rid of Tori's shoes so she wouldn't run away. JMO

I don't know, I'm thinking more that she lost them in the fight, and they realised after the fact the shoes were still in the car and they had to get rid of them. JMO Would an 8 year old think of running? She would have been so frightened, almost to the point of being frozen with fear. I dunno

 

[swedie]

On the radio today they said that they also thought that since the process will take several months that they will only do court monday thru thursday to allow the jurors a bit of a break during the process also giving them more monetary payment then normally would recieve for being a juror.. wonder if i can find a link somewhere ( I heard it on the local London Radio this Am )

Hi Myzzy. I haven't read any further then your post, so sorry if someone has clarified this for you already, but the trial is Tuesday to Friday, 10am-4:30pm. If you do decide to go, be prepared to go early as the courtroom only seats 50 people and general public gets last dibs on seating. If the family and media fill up the seats, general public is out of luck. Just a heads up, I heard on a news report today on tv 35 to 40 reporters were in the courtroom for the first day. I looked for the article but I cannot find it. Good luck.

 

[Alice Ramnit]

Justice is creeping forward. I hope that they are prepared to go down in history as two of Canada's most heinous murderers!

 

[matou]

I don't know, I'm thinking more that she lost them in the fight, and they realised after the fact the shoes were still in the car and they had to get rid of them. JMO Would an 8 year old think of running? She would have been so frightened, almost to the point of being frozen with fear. I dunno

I guess we'll find out if the shoes were dumped before they got to Mt Forest or after. I'm sure Tori was frozen with fear. I hope that the perps endure a lifetime of hardship, pain and suffering for what they did to her. Let them live a long life but a long life that sucks. I want to know did she scream? Was she in the bag already before she was bludgeoned and was she some kind of horrific pinata? Was her death 'fun'? JMO

 

[antiquegirl]

I'm pretty sure that children can run barefoot, especially a girl like Tori who loved the outdoors.

Question: Why leave her upper clothing with the remains, but take away and discard elsewhere her shoes and lower clothing? Why not just leave them with the body?

My theory is that the Crown is wrong and that Tori was assaulted not at the Mt. Forest Site, but earlier and somewhere else. The shoes had to be removed in order to take off her tights. Then they were discarded along the way to where she was found.

Until I hear the evidence, I can't even be sure that she was killed at that site.

Poor little girl! The best we can hope for now is that she was drugged and didn't know what happened.

JMO

 

[swedie]

Defence will give their opening statement when the Crown has rested their case.

My opinion is they didn't say who killed Tori because they don't know, and it would appear from what I read that they are just trying to link him to being there to get the conviction because they don't know if he was the one who murdered Tori or if it was TLM.

He told the jury it's not their job to determine who wielded the hammer, but to decide whether Rafferty and McClintic "acted together."

"In the end it is not necessary or essential that you determine exactly who did what, for example which of the two delivered the hammer blows to the skull or who inflicted the trauma to Tori's body that lacerated her liver, broke her ribs," Gowdey said.

McClintic herself will be testifying soon, Gowdey said, about what led up to the kidnapping, what happened that day and how the pair tried to cover their tracks.

"When you have heard her evidence you will unquestionably be disturbed by the choices that she made with Michael Rafferty to bring this all about," Gowdey said. "I expect that her credibility will be a major issue in this case. It is because she had such a significant role in what happened that she's able to give us so much detail. Listen to her evidence carefully and cautiously."


http://www.globalnews.ca/murder+tri...of+tori+staffords+death/6442594136/story.html