Watching from the outside it seems the Bristol DA’s office is engaged in a little bit of over kill in the Hernandez case. Perhaps it is necessary given the judge’s bent to favor defense lawyers and her prior squabbles with that DA’s office. I can’t see how their case will get any better than it is now.
What surprised me about the trial was the conduct of the defense counsel. Early on they were challenging some of the police work that occurred at the scene. I couldn’t figure out why they were doing it. No matter how sloppy the police may have been, if they were sloppy at all, it has no bearing on the facts of the case as we’ve seen as the days have passed.
I spoke with a guy who did a lot of defense work and asked him what he thought. He said first of all one of Hernandez’s lawyer is a civil lawyer and really doesn’t have a clue; and he said the other has a routine that he always uses to attack the police work. He agreed with me that their tactics made little sense other than as being just a show.
The Massachusetts State Police have proven they’re real professionals and have put their best foot forward in this case. They had a guy put the car Hernandez was in at the scene; they had another one of their employees tie Hernandez’s DNA into articles found at the scene. Under the rules of criminal discovery the defense counsel knew all this evidence was coming down the road to run over their client so they should have known attacking the cops wasn’t such a wise idea. Were they only doing it to pretend?
Here’s what the government has shown beyond a reasonable doubt to date: Hernandez and Llyod were friends, they were together in a car immediately before Llyod was murdered; Hernandez was at the scene of the murder as were two of Hernandez’s friends. They’ve shown Hernandez has a fondness for guns and the murder weapon may have been removed from the house by his girlfriend the next day when she took a black plastic back out of the house and drove away.
The government has also shown that Hernandez did nothing about his friend’s body lying on the ground after his murder; he went home and apparently slept well. It wasn’t until later that day that the body was discovered. Hernandez showed little concern for the deceased.
The defense as we’ve read has tried to play up the idea Llyod was Hernandez’s good buddy and it’s unlikely he’d murder him; but that has backfired because if he were his good buddy he wouldn’t have let him lie on the ground bleeding from his bullet wounds after being gunned down and gone home. You have to wonder what they are trying to achieve. They must have some plan.
Maybe they know Hernandez has no chance so they’re just spinning their wheels hoping there’s a renegade juror who won’t vote guilty. Do they figure that is the best outcome they can expect which would be a mistrial? It won’t help their client though. Hernandez would remain in jail; the case would be tried again in the fall. At least the weather will be better as will the judge handling the case.
I guess there’s still a lot more witnesses the Commonwealth plans to parade before the jury. I’ve read they have a list of 300 witnesses. I’m not sure what they will add to the case.
The issue is who murdered Odin Llyod. Hernandez was there with two other guys he brought up from out-of-state at the time of the murder who apparently didn’t know Odin Llyod from Llyod Bridges. Hard to see how they would have had a beef with Llyod in the hour they knew him.
Right now I’d say to the prosecutors it is time to wrap it up. Sure you have shown no motive evidence because the judge didn’t let you put in anything about the Boston murders; sure you have no plea for help evidence because the judge kept out the telling text messages Llyod sent to his sister. Those vital pieces of evidence which you need to point the finger at Hernandez are missing. As far as I can tell no other witnesses can help you in that area. If that is so any more witness evidence is just going to delay the inevitable decision by the judge but won’t change it.
The danger of saying au revoir to Hernandez is the judge. While the prosecutors show evidence to the jury; and the defense seems to be all over the place; the game defense is playing is to the judge. They want her to jump to their rescue and the scatterbrain defense to this point is just a smoke screen.
Defense counsel are hoping the judge will grant a directed verdict of not guilty for Hernandez. I’ve explained this before. Where four go into a room and three come out and the one that doesn’t is found murdered, without more you can’t pin the murder on any of the three. That’s how the case stands now.
Speaking of matters in US court, Miriam Conrad sure made the Feds squeal today. Things did not go well for the G. Man, oh, man, isn’t the plain old truth good enough? Why all the filigree? What’s the prosecution up to? The kid has admitted his guilt, more, or, less. Convict him, and, bundle him off to ADX. By trying to pass off false narratives, and, cooking Tsarnaev’s twitter account, the Feds are going to screw-up their case, and, make Dzokar Tsarnaev an international cause celebre. So far, he’s not getting much play in the overseas media. That could change quick, if the prosecution fumbles, again.
Khalid:
I missed what happened but did track it down. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/10/fbi-testimony-boston-marathon-bomb-trial-dzhokhar-tsarnaev It doesn’t surprise me. Remember, someone in the FBI office in Boston could identify Tamerlan as soon as he was identified as the bomber. Whowever that was didn’t, or didn’t have the opportunity. This should have been done before going public. Again the FBI is more interested in publicity than truth. That agent’s testimony was absurd. Your are right. If they continue dragging things out they may guarantee no death penalty since after that FBI agent testified what can you really believe about the governement’s case.
Earlier in the trial the judge advised the jury that AH didn’t have to be the shooter to convict him. She wouldn’t have done so unless she was going to permit a joint enterprise theory. If one aids or assists in the commission of the crime one is liable as a principal. If one aids or assists in the flight from the scene of the crime one is a principal. If one aids or assists in hiding the crime one can be a principal. If the judge instructs the jury under common scheme how does AH not get convicted. Assuming a guilty finding the next step for the defense team will be to file a Notice of Appeal and a motion to Withdraw as AH is now indigent. CPCS will do the appeal and the Boston murder trials. No money no private lawyers.
He got about a $4 million signing bonus, if he sells the house too he might be able to pony up the dough for the double murder case too.
What about the theory of joint venture? Is there not enough text message evidence to establish a joint venture theory? Would that have to be alleged in the charge/indictment, or could the judge instruct the jury on her own that this is a possible criminal theory in which Hernandez may be convicted?