Sentencing and beyond- JA General Discussion #8

[RickshawFan]

I understand RickshawFan. When I looked further into the Ross H case, I found out there isn't really anything for me to sleuth, nothing at all like the ' case. On a scale of 1 to 100, is at 100 for deception and manipulation, while RH is maybe at 5 for both.

The Erin Corwin case seems to be sleuthy and dramatic. Things are slow right now though because jury selection hasn't started. But the trial is scheduled to start next week.

I'll keep looking for other cases.

 

[MsJosie]

I doubt MDLR is still in the picture. However above and beyond she went at the time, it was a paid friendship, and that particular contract ended at sentencing.

Steve44, it will take me some time....but I read not to lon ago, that MDLR is still in contact with her. I was surprised when I read it. It was in a media article, not on WS....but I do not remember how they were in contact, letters or visits. I will search....

 

[GigiG]

I understand RickshawFan. When I looked further into the Ross H case, I found out there isn't really anything for me to sleuth, nothing at all like the ' case. On a scale of 1 to 100, is at 100 for deception and manipulation, while RH is maybe at 5 for both.

I agree. It's also just soon sad. As a parent, I can't go there...

 

[RickshawFan]

Steve44, it will take me some time....but I read not to lon ago, that MDLR is still in contact with her. I was surprised when I read it. It was in a media article, not on WS....but I do not remember how they were in contact, letters or visits. I will search....

I think that a lot of her pre-sentencing activity had nothing to do with a contract or paid friendship. There were no grounds, no job description, nothing that would have given an opening for her behavior. Boundary violations, no ethics, law violations, aiding and abetting an incarcerated felon. Further, IIRC her contract explicitly stated she would not have contact with the defendant for a certain length of time after the verdict.

 

[Steve44]

I think that a lot of her pre-sentencing activity had nothing to do with a contract or paid friendship. There were no grounds, no job description, nothing that would have given an opening for her behavior. Boundary violations, no ethics, law violations, aiding and abetting an incarcerated felon. Further, IIRC her contract explicitly stated she would not have contact with the defendant for a certain length of time after the verdict.

Her role was ambiguous during trial, and proved ultimately ineffective. I'm going to look more into the official job description and try to relate it to MDLR's somewhat comical performance. I don't know for sure if a genuine friendship developed, or continues, but trying to find more detail should be interesting.

 

[RickshawFan]

Her role was ambiguous during trial, and proved ultimately ineffective. I'm going to look more into the official job description and try to relate it to MDLR's somewhat comical performance. I don't know for sure if a genuine friendship developed, or continues, but trying to find more detail should be interesting.

It's curious that most women can't stand and see right through her, and she doesn't like women, but for some bizarre reason or other, and MDLR mutually served one another. I would venture to bet that almost everything MDLR did was beond the scope of her work assignment.

 

[geevee]

I think the opposite - that it's very likely he'll be convicted because the average even impartial juror is going to find him extraordinarily contemptible, and bottom line, he IS responsible for his son's death, whether it was accidental or not.

(I lean towards the possibility it was accidental, but am looking forward to hearing actual evidence, not just the very biased (IMO) media coverage I've seen so far).

What's interesting -and scary- to me is that a new GA law allows him to be convicted of felony murder even if he had no intention of harming his child. Hmm.

As for where to start...it's been a few months since I've been on the thread, but i think there's a lot of good info in the thread stickies.

I'd like to join you in this trial but I'm currently wrapped up in the Christina Morris kidnapping trial, it's not being streamed but I've followed the case since the beginning and the judge has allowed tweeters (though no pics, only throwback-era sketches) so I'm helping to tweet-post the trial over on the Trial forum thread. Not many things worse than a tweeted trial for cohesive understanding of what's being said on the stand but it's all we've got, and better than nothing.

I'll try to keep my eyes open for tweets on the Harris trial, I doubt the jury will find him a sympathetic person but I think it was accidental.

Sorry for not having been around here lately, sure do miss all my sisses and extended family members as we've all come to feel. Great big hugs and the very best of luck to CA and the new floral adventure.

 

[GigiG]

I'd like to join you in this trial but I'm currently wrapped up in the Christina Morris kidnapping trial, it's not being streamed but I've followed the case since the beginning and the judge has allowed tweeters (though no pics, only throwback-era sketches) so I'm helping to tweet-post the trial over on the Trial forum thread. Not many things worse than a tweeted trial for cohesive understanding of what's being said on the stand but it's all we've got, and better than nothing.

I'll try to keep my eyes open for tweets on the Harris trial, I doubt the jury will find him a sympathetic person but I think it was accidental.

Sorry for not having been around here lately, sure do miss all my sisses and extended family members as we've all come to feel. Great big hugs and the very best of luck to CA and the new floral adventure.

I agree that while Harris is a defendant undeserving of sympathy, he also seems more negligent than anything else...

I'll wait for something more intellectually compelling...

 

[Val1]

Steve44, it will take me some time....but I read not to lon ago, that MDLR is still in contact with her. I was surprised when I read it. It was in a media article, not on WS....but I do not remember how they were in contact, letters or visits. I will search....

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/...man-who-is-involved-with-another-woman-110461

"“Ben can’t come visit. So, here’s what he needs to do. If we marry, then he can petition a court to grant us visitation,” Jodi, 36, wrote to her mitigation specialist and close friend, Maria De La Rosa.
When reached for comment about the letter (which In Touch obtained from another source), De La Rosa confirmed that Jodi wrote her frequently and talked about her road to marriage and pregnancy."

 

[Wing Ding]

I guess I'm not surprised that JA uses Maria Del Aroza as her PIO and personal attaché. I mean it's not as if she has any real work to do.

I suppose when she's not too busy laughing in open court, MDLR has plenty of personal time to spend doing things for JA. What's next, a lunch order for JA from IN-N-OUT burger?

"Let's see now... yours had the pickles and mine had onions. Here's some ketchup for your fries. Mmm... good, huh? And here's your special surprise... close your eyes... a strawberry crappuccino from Starbucks! Oh, that reminds me... I also stopped at CVS and picked up some of that cream you wanted for your sore butt. And here's a pack of cigarettes. They're like money on the inside. You can use them to trade for whatever you want."

 

[RickshawFan]

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/...man-who-is-involved-with-another-woman-110461

"“Ben can’t come visit. So, here’s what he needs to do. If we marry, then he can petition a court to grant us visitation,” Jodi, 36, wrote to her mitigation specialist and close friend, Maria De La Rosa.
When reached for comment about the letter (which In Touch obtained from another source), De La Rosa confirmed that Jodi wrote her frequently and talked about her road to marriage and pregnancy."

This means "Ben" must be another inmate, or some kind of serious "danger to society" undesirable if he's banned from ' visitation list. She's in lala land if she thinks she'll be allowed to circumvent the visitation regulations let alone have any kind of closeness going on. IIRC, they're restricted to air hugs lasting a negligible amount of time. I'll find the regs.

 

[Hope4More]

I'd like to join you in this trial but I'm currently wrapped up in the Christina Morris kidnapping trial, it's not being streamed but I've followed the case since the beginning and the judge has allowed tweeters (though no pics, only throwback-era sketches) so I'm helping to tweet-post the trial over on the Trial forum thread. Not many things worse than a tweeted trial for cohesive understanding of what's being said on the stand but it's all we've got, and better than nothing.

I'll try to keep my eyes open for tweets on the Harris trial, I doubt the jury will find him a sympathetic person but I think it was accidental.

Sorry for not having been around here lately, sure do miss all my sisses and extended family members as we've all come to feel. Great big hugs and the very best of luck to CA and the new floral adventure.

I agree that while Harris is a defendant undeserving of sympathy, he also seems more negligent than anything else...

I'll wait for something more intellectually compelling...

[Harris jury selection begins (again) tomorrow.]


I hear you. There is precious little sleuthing to be done on the Harris case, and precious little that is intriguing about the defendant, innocent or guilty. He seems to be a plain vanilla not very likable fellow, as opposed to the wildly psychopathic and borderline , just for example.

Not everyone's cup of tea, or flavor of case and trial, but for me, quite intellectually compelling--perhaps because I'm a nerdy wonk fascinated by the intersection of law and politics, and the real world implementation of law that sounds good on paper but maybe not so much when it comes to individual defendants and cases.

I'm also looking forward to watching the courtroom dynamics of a trial presided over by an unapologetically pro- prosecution hanging judge, and conducted by extremely well qualified attorneys for both defense and State.

Here's hoping a trial comes along at some point that draws in the whole "family."

 

[Hope4More]

This means "Ben" must be another inmate, or some kind of serious "danger to society" undesirable if he's banned from ' visitation list. She's in lala land if she thinks she'll be allowed to circumvent the visitation regulations let alone have any kind of closeness going on. IIRC, they're restricted to air hugs lasting a negligible amount of time. I'll find the regs.

It's curious that most women can't stand and see right through her, and she doesn't like women, but for some bizarre reason or other, and MDLR mutually served one another. I would venture to bet that almost everything MDLR did was beond the scope of her work assignment.

BEN
----
Ben is Ben Ernst, a superfan; an art dealer from a fairly wealthy family; the BF the wrote the Jodith letters to during trial (when testimony wasn't about her, so too tedious to mind), and the fellow who keeps getting arrested for driving drunk.


MDLR
------
I wondered for a long while how it was that MDLR was allowed to exhibit such unprofessionalism with utter impunity.

It finally dawned on me that she was most likely doing exactly what the DT asked of her, which was to do whatever was necessary to fire up trial watchers, to ensure the glare of publicity stayed burning bright, Nurmi's strategy being to lay the groundwork for appeals on that issue.

JM commented during and after the trial that he had never experienced such a well informed media during a trial, and suggested more than once that it was MDLR who fed Michael Keiffer. MDLR would only have done that if she had Nurmi's wink-wink blessings, IMO.

 

[Steve44]

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/...man-who-is-involved-with-another-woman-110461

"“Ben can’t come visit. So, here’s what he needs to do. If we marry, then he can petition a court to grant us visitation,” Jodi, 36, wrote to her mitigation specialist and close friend, Maria De La Rosa.
When reached for comment about the letter (which In Touch obtained from another source), De La Rosa confirmed that Jodi wrote her frequently and talked about her road to marriage and pregnancy."

In Touch is a tabloid magazine. A 2010 study showed its cover headlines were only 9% accurate and its stories overall were only 21% accurate, In other words 79% of the stories at the time of the survey were simply made up to sell magazines; not the kind of source that can be relied upon to represent truth.

 

[Steve44]

Her role was ambiguous during trial, and proved ultimately ineffective. I'm going to look more into the official job description and try to relate it to MDLR's somewhat comical performance. I don't know for sure if a genuine friendship developed, or continues, but trying to find more detail should be interesting.

The role and job description of 'mitigation specialist' arose gradually as a result of the Supreme Courts 1976 decision ruling capitol punishment once again constitutional for States (initially Florida, Georgia and Texas) implementing, among other things, sentencing guidelines for capitol cases which take into account aggravating and mitigating factors.

The comprehensive investigation and subsequent report on all possible mitigating factors was eventually found to be a time-consuming, difficult, but necessary task if reversal was to be avoided, and requiring skills in social sciences such as therapeutic communication not typically characteristic of defense attorneys, thus arose the necessity of the mitigation specialist on the defense team, an individual typically with professional qualifications in social work or counseling, able to both define and ferret out all possible mitigating factors of a defendant. As an idea of how comprehensive this research could get, the investigation sometimes looks at the prenatal environment of the defendant, determining if the mother used drugs or alcohol during pregnancy thus compromising the mental development of the defendant.

It's interesting that for all of that, had so few mitigating factors to present. She did mention, and emphasized in her final statement, the token, 'wooden spoon' abuse she suffered as a child, but nothing substantive and nothing truly 'mitigating' at all.

 

[krkrjx]

I still chuckle and smh every time I see reference to the "wood spoon abuse" suffered by this killer. While I do not consider hitting a child as the best option available to a parent, if all adults who had been hit as children were to morph into rapists or pedophiles or psychopathic killers practically everyone over age 40 would be incarcerated. And then figure in how many would already have died in prison from old age being the only way to ease over-crowding.
JMO

 

[Steve44]

I still chuckle and smh every time I see reference to the "wood spoon abuse" suffered by this killer. While I do not consider hitting a child as the best option available to a parent, if all adults who had been hit as children were to morph into rapists or pedophiles or psychopathic killers practically everyone over age 40 would be incarcerated. And then figure in how many would already have died in prison from old age being the only way to ease over-crowding.
JMO

It shows they had very little to work with as far as mitigation. The defendant was a highly functioning member of society, and where she was lacking in achievement/development it was due more to her choices rather than a necessity borne of a compromised background. She projected an image on the stand of being self-aware and self-determined, and not lacking in the ability to make choices and to meet her own needs. This image, which was largely accurate, meant that mitigation would have to take the form of making Travis look as bad as possible, and that her actions, to some extent, were, if not justifiable, at least understandable. That strategy failed, and so mitigation fell back onto her and her alone, and she never gave, nor wanted to give, the impression that there was something so compromised within her that her actions could be self-justified, or at least understood in that light.

 

[RickshawFan]

Regulations for AZ prison visitors: https://corrections.az.gov/sites/default/files/_adc_inmate_visitation_policy_2.pdf

 

[MsJosie]

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/...man-who-is-involved-with-another-woman-110461

"“Ben can’t come visit. So, here’s what he needs to do. If we marry, then he can petition a court to grant us visitation,” Jodi, 36, wrote to her mitigation specialist and close friend, Maria De La Rosa.
When reached for comment about the letter (which In Touch obtained from another source), De La Rosa confirmed that Jodi wrote her frequently and talked about her road to marriage and pregnancy."

Thanks Val1 there are other reportes out there too that show the two are still in contact....I appreciate you finding this.

 

[RickshawFan]

Thanks Val1 there are other reportes out there too that show the two are still in contact....I appreciate you finding this.

There have to be reasons by he's not allowed to visit her. There are those above, as well as the possibility that he is on another inmate's visitation list. You can't be on two lists.

The visitation rules above are a "fun" read. I love how the visitors are expected to dress. And then there are the specifications about what kind of contact is allowed and what kind of language: no sex.

They can bring homemade food, but only to designated food events, which are a special privilege. I doubt has anyone show up for these. Not like anyone is gonna bring around a homemade casserole or birthday cake.

Don't inmates have to be handcuffed to the table between them and the visitor? Or was this just Estrella?