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I didn't expect it would take 10 years+ before they hooked up again.
- There is no Messenger Update, most people are in bed, but THWMISB©, a modern day farmer of yore if you will, is up before the sun.
- When I'm wrong I'm wrong, and I was definitely wrong with my prediction on the Arbery trial. I didn't think a jury in the Deep South had it in them, but they did.
- But the case will forever be a perfect example of how any suspect should never talk to the cops. There are no deaf, dumb, and blind men in prison.
- And without the video taken by Defendant Bryan "Roddie" Williams (pictured in the middle, above), there would have never been a prosecution. And even that prosecution didn't occur until that video was leaked to a local Georgia radio station who posted it on its website and public outrage ensued. It soon went viral. But get this: It was leaked to that radio station by Williams (!) because he "wanted to clear up some rumors circulating in the community."
- The Fort Worth Court of Appeals late Wednesday refused to reverse the conviction of the "Lottery" case out of Wichita Falls which I've been following for months.
- Jason Carlile was charged with a sex offense. His mother just happened to win the lottery.
- Before the criminal trial, the mother testified at a divorce hearing in December, 2018 that she had "anted up $650,000 in legal costs for her son, Jason Wayne Carlile" and specifically "indicated she paid $400,000 to attorney Heather Barbieri of Plano to defend her 47-year-old son against sex-crime charges." That's when my radar went off.
- So what happened at trial? This is how the court of appeals described the attorneys' conduct: They "conducted no voir dire, exercised no peremptory strikes, made no opening statement, examined no witnesses, made no objections, presented no defense, made no closing argument and presented nothing on punishment.” He received a life sentence in prison.
- According to the court, the decision of his lawyers to do nothing was an intentional trial ploy with the hope of getting the case reversed on appeal for, well, doing nothing. That was a bold strategy.
- A different lawyer had to handle the appeal so he argued ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and used some blunt language saying, "Defense counsel did not even ‘fog a mirror’ during trial.”
- But since the plan to raise ineffective assistance was the plan all along once a Motion for Continuance was denied, the appellate court said it wasn't going to bail the defendant out now.
- The court wrote, “Carlile and his attorneys spread their joint motive all over the record.” Quoting one of its prior decisions, the court also said, “There is no room in our profession for the playing of games.” His conviction will stand.
- The guy will do life in prison. Maybe he deserved it, maybe he didn't. But it wasn't a fair fight at trial.
- I'm really appalled at all of this. And if that $400,000 figure as reported the the Wichita Falls Times Record News is correct, this case should receive wide publicity. (It's always possible that some of the fee was refunded, but I haven't seen any reports about it in the media if it was.)
- Ok, this is wild.
- Remember the two teenagers who were murdered on the basketball court in Haltom City at Beach and 820? Well three arrests were made: One defendant is 17 and the other two are only listed as "juveniles" which means they are under 17. Remember me saying on Wednesday that there has been a lot of violent juvenile crime in the metroplex lately?
- There is an inordinate amount of buzz yesterday and this morning about a new variant of COVID (it will be called "Nu") which seems really potent. I don't know if it is legit or if it is over-hyped because of skeleton news crews looking for content on Thanksgiving. But in the last 24 hours Britain, and now Israel, have shut down travel from some southern African countries in response.
- WFAA is flat out making this up.
- Good grief. The victim (and future author) failed to pick the defendant out of a lineup but that didn't stop the prosecutor. He went forward with the trial anyway and convinced the victim they had the right guy so she identified him at trial. It wasn't him. (The guy served 16 years in prison, and once released, had been on the sexual offender registration list which serves as a Scarlet Letter for jobs and relationships.)
- The Cowboys game had an official time of 3 hours and 53 minutes. The teams had a combined 28 penalties for 267 yards.
- Of all college rules that need to be adopted by the NFL, it is the change to 15 yards and an automatic first down for pass interference instead of from the spot of the foul.
- I thought that 2 minute and 20 second Chipotle commercial during the Cowboy game was fantastic. It had everyone in our house locked in. (And how much did that cost when you consider air time, production, and paying the music rights to Coldplay for the song and Kacey Musgrave to sing it?)
- Anyone try to go to Fort Worth from Wise County late in the afternoon lately? You'll hit a rush hour traffic jam between Bonds Ranch and Blue Mound roads as the population around that area has exploded over the last few years.
- Since it is now officially Christmas time, we can all agree we hate this couple, right?
- Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 875 days.
- Messenger: Above the Fold (there's not one.)
