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The Lady In The Lake

In the opinion of Wah,  here is a case of the Defendant's own Expert Witness providing the "smoking gun" that did him in. 

Young Writers are often implored to "Show, Don't Tell". 

But, a Legendary Public Defender once told me that a Defense Lawyer's mantra should be:  
Tell, Don't Show! 

If the scenario is handed to the Jury on a silver platter, Jurors are no longer personally committed to making it plausible.   The mind can imagine a version of the truth. The eyes don't lie. 

 Once you have set your eyes upon this visualization of the Theory of Defense, would you have any hesitation in rendering the Verdict of Guilty of Murder In The First Degree? 




Once the jurors accepted that Flo had been alive on the pavement for an hour and a half, they say the defense team’s computer animations made no sense. 
David, juror: The animated picture showed that ... hit the ground, rolled over several times—had a seizure, drowned; many things, instantly.  And it just was too hard to believe.
Lucy, juror: Bodies don’t bounce, I don’t care what they say, on cement. 
Pertaining to the Defense of Mark Unger, accused and subsequently convicted. Video Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/dateline/16441697/#16441697

Jodi Arias Jury Cuts To The Chase

In Arizona's Maricopa County-- a place that prides itself on a Rugged Individuality proved in wilder days--  a Judge will often grant the Jury an opportunity to pose questions directly to a Witness.

Today, with accused boyfriend-killer Jodi Arias on the Witness Stand, the Jury wasted no time in getting to the heart of the matter:




Appropriate Reaction: Beating the Rap

One might think the vanishingly rare experience of being acquitted of Murder In The First Degree by a Jury of Esteemed Peers would yield unpredictable and varied immediate reactions, depending on the circumstances and the personalities involved.

Yet, perhaps because of the un-practiced nature of the moment, the response pattern is astonishingly predictable.  Not the leaping for joy, the wide smile, the athlete's triumphant fist pump.

 No, this victory is marked by its own peculiar expression:




(In the examples above,  it might be fair to note a caveat-- this expression may be specific perhaps to the experience of being found innocent for an act one knows one did commit.  But, setting that aside, for now... )

LET US OBSERVE: 

1.  The eyes turn down immediately, the face is turned slightly off-axis with the body. 

2. The brow is drawn in and up, initially, for a fleeting moment, the furrow of  aggression. 

2. The Jaw is clenched, the chin stuck out.  A surge of confidence in this undefended stance. 

3. The lips drawn thin, and pressed together, fighting back a sob. 

4. Moments later the eyeballs rise to face the jury, head is still askance-- The eyes look up from under a brow pulled out and over, like a pitcher looking in at the catcher from under the brim of a cap. This signals a moment of private and intimate communication with the jury. 

5. Next, the brow is relaxed a bit and pinched up at the front. A communication of truce and allegiance to the jury, while the chin remains protruded, pride restored, ego intact. 


Well, these just the observations of a simple Wah. What else this means, and if it holds, is not for Wah to know, but for the experts and the peers. 


The Face of The Accused Man


Here we have a Defendant charged with Murder in the First Degree. He has just been told the verdict in his case.  Examine the picture and endeavor to deduce the judgment rendered by his Peers: 


Have you concluded by his face what fate he has in store?

The man was found to be Not Guilty, his freedom granted back. And if he did the deed or not, he never will again be tried-- and this expression that you see is life's most sweet relief.

NOTE: this moment here captured is analogous to the second photo in the Anthony/Simpson pictures in subsequent post. Note the similarity in expression. Universal and alarming-- for if, as Wah, is careful to avoid stating too directly, there is a caveat invoved.... then this man too has shown the world a telltale signal ...

Arias Subpoenas God


cathartic cross-examination underway in Arizona.  
"Other than you, who would be sure about your statements?" 
"God"
"Well, God's not here, we can't subpoena Him, right?"
"I'm not sure"
"You're not sure that we can't? Because it seems like you're leaving the door open for that"

The Witness Did It

Recently, ABC ran a gruesome true crime story on their "Final Witness" docu-reenactment show.

The story told about a young hippie couple who, during Hurricane Katrina, stayed behind and lived in the abandoned French Quartier.  A NYTimes photographer snapped an iconic pic of them arm in arm cooking marshmallows.

A few months later, the young gentleman fell 7 stories off a building to his death, with a note in his pocket directing police to their house, where, he said, they would find his girlfriend, dismembered and in pots on the stove.  Graffiti on the walls pronounced his love for her.  Macabre scribblings in his diary recounted his evil act in cold-hearted clinical detail.

On the ABC show which ran this week, one of the murdered girl's friends was interviewed talking about the tragic love affair with the suicidal boyfriend and the horrific ending to their lives.

It turns out that ABC show was not the end of this bizarre tale.

You see.... Over the holiday weekend, the friend of the victim,  who had been interviewed by ABC months ago,  was arrested in connection to a seemingly unrelated, but oddly similar tragedy:

http://www.wlox.com/story/18952155/suspect-in-lockharts-murder-speaks-about-another-dismemberment

Abc show, recorded before above arrest was known:  http://abc.go.com/watch/final-witness/SH55206839/VD55216566/graveyard-love


---Yours Truly,
Detective Milton Wah

The Head of Zimmerman


Pertaining to the charge of Murder in the First Degree brought by The People against the vigilante, George Zimmerman. 

Madams and Sirs, I implore you to examine this photo from the police station. Please note the trails of dried blood running sideways across his head.




EVIDENCE: 

1.The dried blood trails run semi-horizontally across the side of his head.  Not straight down. They are not running toward his feet, but toward his ears. 

Therefore it is impossible that this blood was dried in this pattern on his head when he entered the police car, because at no time between the altercation and the entry into police car was Mr. Zimmerman's head parallel with the earth for the minutes it would take for blood to dry. 

This means he was facing down, with his face toward the ground, as the blood dried. He was not standing, pacing, lying on his back, or sitting. 

2. At the scene of the crime he was reported to be on his back, then standing, then pacing, then sitting. This blood therefore did not occur at the scene. 

3. Paramedics cleaned him up at the scene. See above. 

4. The pictures were taken at the police station. 

The photographic evidence that we have clearly demonstrates that this blood did not occur at the altercation. 

That is the scope of evidence in this section of Wah's Investigation. The photos prove one thing only--- this blood was not upon the Head of Zimm when he got into the police car. 

And so, we turn to deduction by inference: 

Sitting in cruiser with cuffs on, a Zimm-like killer would naturally lean forward. Not head in hands but doubled-over, crying with remorse and fury. 

After slamming his head in frustration-- as the reality of what he'd done set in-- he might then proceed to slump forward, crying and holding his head in his hands. 

Let us recall the "cross examination" of the state investigator during the bail hearing. 
Mr. Zimm's lawyer asked the State's Honorable Investigator if the injuries could have come from head being struck on ground. 

Investigator said, with twinkle in eye, that they could have come from head being struck upon any hard object. It seemed apparent that this hardened Lawman knows which hard object that is and it isn't the ground/walkway. 

I submit it is a hard object that is owned by the police--- a cruiser, a wall, a chair or a doorframe. 

And, so, let us formulate a theory about the blood upon the Head of Zimm: 

WAH'S THEORY: 
In the police car, or in the holding cell,  Zimmerman-- in a panicked moment of regret/fear/anger/adrenaline slammed his head in frustration against the police car or against an object/wall etc in the interview room or police station. 

CONCLUSION: 
The wounds occurred between the scene of the crime and the police station. After receiving the wounds, he was either lying face down or sitting with his head in his hands for long enough time that the blood dried. 


The roots of the tale

A tale of acts most vile and foul, uncovered by a gardener's trowel. A plot unlike the kind he seeds, with dirt unlike the kind he needs. A simple man, of lawn and hedge, Wah digs to bury, not to dredge. Still, Wah, the landscape engineer, knows well of roots beneath the land, and knows that brambles, thorns and stones cannot resist the gardener's hand.

And with his shovel, Wah did toil, with stomach churning, dug up the soil. He found an earring, then an ear, and so began a cruel year. Day by day, and month by month, Wah nurtured clues and grew a hunch. A simple man, of shrub and vine, who trimmed back lies and found the crime. And found the criminals who thought, a man who labors can be bought. Not Wah, he knows the Truth is all
that bears sweet fruit in gloom of Fall.