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- Strand:
- It finally became a public record yesterday at 1:31 p.m.! The complete probable cause arrest affidavit (pdf) is uploaded here. Let me tell you something - I've got internal alarm bells going off because those facts in the affidavit don't add up. My hunch is that whatever happened out in Cottondale did not go down as described in the affidavit.
- The autopsy will provide more information and it, too, is a public record. Certainly the autopsy has occurred but the report might not be finalized yet.
- Orchestrated by a law firm, the mother of Athena Strand held a press conference yesterday at the courthouse complete with a prop of the package of Barbies delivered by the alleged killer in his capacity as a Fed Ex driver. But the event was not about the upcoming criminal case but instead about suing people. I want to be delicate here, but I don't think that was a good look at all.
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- But the event did work in getting a lot of press coverage. However, my favorite photo is from the Dallas Morning News where they tried to get the artsy shot below. Little did they know the image captured the Wise County District Attorney -- the man who will exclusively decide whether to seek the death penalty -- in the crowd.
D.A. James Stainton (far left) - Oh, my. Someone got cold feet after being selected for top education job in Boyd.
- The Democrats somewhat surprisingly lost a member in the Senate this morning.
- Video footage of the actual prisoner swap yesterday involving Brittney Griner.
- Here is absolutely wild dashcam footage of a wreck two days ago in Lewisville. A 2016 Chevrolet Corvette and a 2020 Ford Mustang can be seen passing on the right before all chaos breaks out. They had to be doing over 100 mph because the dashcam stamp shows that driver to be doing 83 mph.
- Did you ever want to know what the actual Alamo footprint looks like superimposed over a satellite image from today? Here ya go. I tried to find an image like this last year without success when I was reading Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth -- a fantastic book.
- I understand people being put off by high football coaches salary, but I'm taking a contrarian view here. Consider TCU and Decatur ISD and their incredible seasons. Both may have paid a premium for their coaches this year (Decatur's coach even made the front page of the Star-Telegram), but consider their return on investment in two areas: (1) Tangible - The equivalent in advertising dollars and (2) Intangible but equally valuable - The simple good feelings generated in the communities they serve.
- As for TCU, they could not afford the amount of national advertising they have received this year. What's an ad on national TV cost per minute? They've been on national TV, in a positive light, for hours upon hours.
- As for Decatur, the coach might be being paid a premium of $30,000+, but being on the verge of a state championship game would probably be worth it to the Chamber of Commerce. And most parents wouldn't mind chipping in a few bucks for the sheer fun of it all.
- Legal nerdy stuff couple with current events: It's Texas Criminal Law 101 that if a person is incarcerated in jail on a felony and he can't make bond, but the State fails to indict him within 90 days of when his incarceration begins, then he is entitled to a PR bond or a bond reduction to an amount that he can actually afford it. An appellate court had to reluctantly point this out yesterday in a case where the prosecutors in Panola County failed to indict the alleged killer of a deputy sheriff until 10 months had passed. Amazing. Here's the original story from 2020.
- The court pointed out (footnote 1) that the State failed to utilize a portion of the State Constitution allowing a capital murder defendant to be held without bail if the State had taken the effort to jump through a couple of hoops. See TEX. CONST. art. I, § 11.
- Here's a wild paragraph from the State's brief that makes me wonder what the heck is going on in that East Texas county.
- Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years, 157 days.
- Messenger - Above the Fold
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