watchpaul: Closing arguments: Bodhi Tree Murder Trial, It's with the jury now

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Closing arguments: Bodhi Tree Murder Trial, It's with the jury now

◼ Only one alternate juror was left in Tree case and one just left courtroom in tears - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/6/14

◼ Standing in the hallway for other cases, courtroom 4 has been closed three times for Tree case - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/6/14

◼ "Bodhi Tree is a cold blooded killer who kills people he barely knows" - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/5/14

The defense made a big deal about motive in their closing. Ms. Firpo said motive was an issue in this case. "Bodhi Tree is a cold blooded killer who kills people he barely knows. Mr. Tree barely needs a motive to shoot people."

"He shot Rhett because Rhett didn't defend him. He shot two young people whose crime was that Christina didn't want to get with him and Sunshine defended Christina."

◼ "Most of Humboldt County is dodgy about marijuana" Firpo counters defense closing - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/5/14

That is the one statement made by Mr. Russo this morning as the defense is still presenting it's closing on the Eureka case that was free of defense spin.

The defense is hoping the questions they raise in closing may sway the jury however they are relying that the jury may have complete amnesia. If you only rely on closing or have not followed the trial daily, you might buy the hogwash the defense is presenting....

◼ Closing arguments over in Tree cade, case sent to jury - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/5/14
◼ Defense in Tree case insults victim's families, friends, prosecution and witnesses - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/5/14
◼ Sean Butler Smith fooled police, so did Charles Crow, and "put on a show for you" - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/5/14
◼ "What we say is not evidence, we are trying to persuade you" - John Chiv/Words Worth 8/5/14

Note: Chiv often posts early details of court proceedings, and then fleshes the story out later in the day, so it is recommended that you check back, to catch the full post, and the full flavor of the proceedings...

◼ Jury in Arcata double murder case enters deliberation - Times-Standard 8/5/14

After nearly three months, the jury in the Arcata double-murder case entered deliberations... Defendant Bodhi Tree has pleaded not guilty to two murder charges in the deaths of Eureka High School senior Christina Schwarz and 27-year-old Alan "Sunshine" Marcet at a home in Arcata in May 2013, and one charge of attempted murder in the Eureka shooting of Rhett August a few days prior. If convicted, Tree faces 50 years to life.

7 comments:

Anonymous8/05/2014 6:51 PM
The election is over! Why is John focusing on Elan Firpo and not the case at hand? The ENTIRE closing argument was about Elan Firpo? Come on! Give us some information that matters!!!!!

I happen to be close to one of the victims families, so I get bits of info about the case. Johns reporting is always way off mark to what is actually happening in the courtroom.
Having been around Humbolft forever, ive seen this before. John is being a political hack, trying to gain favor with the good old boy crowd in eureka. They run the show and its an understandable thing to do, but the butt kissing is sort of sick.
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Anonymous8/05/2014 8:06 PM
Is that you JG?

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Anonymous8/05/2014 8:07 PM
Anonymous you can claim anything. Do you sit and monitor what JC posts all day.

Your life must suck if you need to cyberstalk.
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Anonymous8/08/2014 8:59 AM
I don't know who JG and JC are (and do not care), but this blog has become nothing but links to third-rate court "reporting" and weird people attacking each other. Not very useful.
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Paul Gallegos

The Humboldt County Grand Jury found that "Weak leadership and poor managerial practices" have undermined the office... Implicit in all evidence gathered by the Grand Jury - including interviews with the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) - is the unfortunate truth that the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) exhibits a limited understanding of how things are done in the department" Gallegos "lacks the global perspective needed to keep the department operating efficiently," and quotes an unnamed staff member as saying, "The D.A. (Paul Gallegos) does not fully understand the functionality of many of the things we do here" - Years later, in his own words: "I’m not an administrator, they didn’t elect me to be an administrator, they elected me to make sure this office runs..."

Douglas & Zanotti

CASE TOSSED The district attorney misrepresented the law and failed to provide evidence of former Eureka Police Chief David Douglas' and Lt. Tony Zanotti's innocence during a criminal grand jury inquiry into the 2006 shooting death of Cheri Lyn Moore, defense attorneys argued in court documents filed Thursday... ”Our judicial system stands as a real and necessary check on the grand jury indictment process,” one of the documents states. “This court has the authority and the means by which to halt this prosecution, which is justified neither by the undisputed facts, nor by the law.”

Gallegos has taken what was "arguably the state's best small DA's office, with a cutting edge CAST program that "trained the trainers"... into a bunch of time serving bureaucratic wannabee brown nosers, lightly sprinkled with a couple of earnest learners who are sure to split as soon as possible.

One weeps for Max Cardoza who won Angellel, and for Maggie Fleming who won so many impossible victories. Mired in Humboldt for personal reasons, they have to suffer the ignominy of working for Paul, with Yougo, yes, yougo who has freed more people as a prosecutor than he did as a defense attorney. As has Paul. Anonymous comment

Gallegos has answers for everything. I’ve never met anyone whose answers came so quickly, with such polish - except about his law school(s). He likely sounded the same way when promising to get prosecutors off their anachronistic “at will” status and onto civil service status. It never happened. Indeed, he told them, “Disloyalty will not be tolerated” – a real morale builder.

He sounds great. What progressive doesn’t want to believe in him? But it’s a myth. He’s an intellectual lightweight and self-aggrandizer who tries to please everybody with glib answers. Jim Fahey for The Arcata Eye

The Humboldt County DA's office is one of the most exciting prosecutorial
offices in California.

Its District Attorney, Paul Gallegos, is willing to charge anyone who commits
wrongdoing--no matter how wealthy, sacrosanct, or ruthless. He believes in total equality before the law. He also plans to be innovative in promoting programs of prevention and treatment. He wants to make it the best prosecutorial office of its size in the nation.... Gallegos' Help Wanted ad

Gallegos' OWN Quotes

★ ...District Attorney Paul Gallegos said he believes the statute of limitations clock, even on misdemeanors, doesn't start running until law enforcement knows or reasonably should have known of the offense. In this case, Gallegos said, that means the statute of limitations would not run out at least until Feb. 8, 2009, or one year after Gundersen's arrest and the discovery of the photographs in question...

★ "...some people actually molest out of different feelings, some times out of feelings of love....” DA Gallegos explaining why Child Abuse prosecutions were down

★ “I never said that the information was not available under the Freedom of Information Act. Quite the contrary, I informed you that our use of force policy is not a public record.” Paul Gallegos to the Times Standard 5/25/07

★ ...“One is that I do everything to make people happy which means I don’t stand for anything except for just something,” he said. “The other is I stand for something and I try to be a leader and take some people, a group of people, a community someplace and I say guess what folks, this is who I am. I stand for your beliefs. We share these beliefs or we don’t. You get the option to judge that. This is who I am and I am committed to leading us this place, wherever it is...." Eureka Reporter Gallegos defends record, looks ahead 7/3/2005

★ Note the difference between what he SAID, and what he DOES..."...So what are these issues? Top on Gallegos' list is the proliferation of "garbage cases," small-time crimes and overcharged cases that he said are clogging up the court system.

Garbage cases, said Gallegos, come in two forms: Cases that would lose if actually brought to trial and cases that are overcharged for the crimes committed. The idea behind filing both kinds of garbage, he said, is to get the defendant to plead guilty, netting a conviction without having to go into court.

Again, the IRONY is astounding! Look at what he SAYS, and then think about what he DOES! "Probably 95 percent of the cases that are filed plead guilty. In fact, there are a lot of cases that are filed on the assumption they will plead guilty, because of the time and expense involved in defending them. But these cases shouldn't even be filed in the first place, because if they were challenged, they would lose," Gallegos said. Better yet: If they weren't filed at all, it would save the county time and money...." North Coast Journal 2/21/02 Too bad he didn't take his own advice.

★ “Tim’s a stud,” he said. “He really is; anyone would be stoked to have him.” Gallegos on his second in command right hand man Assistant District Attorney Tim Stoen. (Former second in command right hand man to Jim Jones/People's Temple.)

NOTE:

"Helping Crush Progressivism" - ie: exposing the predatory litigious orgs and those who seek power for power's sake.... The original purpose of watchpaul is to post important documents relating to Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos and his handlers who seek to gain power through the acquisition of political offices. This includes, but is not limited to, the manipulations of "Humboldt Watershed Council," "EPIC," "Baykeeper," and other activist groups - the unregulated orgs. It also includes the master manipulators, such as Richard Salzman and Ken Miller.

Links to key stories and documents are also included in the sidebar, so that you do not have to try to scroll back through what has become a lengthy series of posts. I encourage you to use the Search and Labels features as well.

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Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Closing arguments: Bodhi Tree Murder Trial, It's with the jury now

7 comments: