Yah yah yah, I haven't posted anything here in a long time, but whatever. After having completed my first year of law school, I'm currently clerking for a judge in Colorado (in a way, I currently have three residences in three different states...crazy). That means I get to spend a portion of every day watching trials.
Right now there's a murder trial for an American Nazi Party prospect who allegedly killed a female Mexican immigrant (I've come to refer to the case as American History Zed, after the movie "American History X," the "zed" being the non-American pronunciation of "z"). Doesn't appear to be an actual hate crime, but you never know. It seems pretty likely that the guy is guilty (mandatory life in prison), but he also got thrown under the bus by a "soldier" in the ANP. Kyle Gray first told his (now ex) girlfriend that the defendant had killed the woman while driving a stolen car and then had bragged about it to him. Kyle was actually the driver, and the car belonged to the girlfriend. He then wrote a letter to the police, telling them that he could solve this murder for them (the trail went completely cold after a month of searching for the murderer)...if they were willing to give him a sweet plea deal (one of the parts of the deal is that it's not made public where he will serve out his sentence, probably afraid he'll get raped in the ass like in "American History X"). Only then was the defendant arrested.
There are a couple of other curveballs in the saga. First, the victim was having an affair with the eyewitness (someone other than Kyle Gray) at the time, something that the victim's husband didn't know about until the probable cause hearing (where the judge decides whether or not there's enough of a case to present to a jury). Second, the eyewitness had 10 beers earlier in the evening, but couldn't say when he had consumed them. Third, the defendant is the most polite convict that I have encountered. I see convicts almost daily and occasionally pass by them in the hall. Usually there's something about their demeanor that's skeezy, messed up, or mean. Not this guy. He ALWAYS says excuse me whenever people are in the back hall (whenever there's someone being taken to/from a holding cell, all civilians have to line up against the wall to avoid touching the convicts) and is more than happy to move to avoid blocking a person's view. Not to mention, he has no problem laughing whenever something humorous is said in the courtroom (whereas all of the other convicts either keep a straight face or cry).
It'll be interesting to follow, to say the least.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment