Wow, what a fascinating story. I just watched the video the OP linked, and the guy is going on about how much she is loved, and how tragic and senseless her death was, etc. What a scumbag.
FatBaldGuy, what do you think the motive was?? If he wanted to be with his girlfriend, why didn’t he just leave the wife? Do you think the wife knew about the girlfriend and maybe an argument ensued? What did the guy do for a living - was he having financial problems?
I wonder what’s going to happen to the 15-year-old son?
I’m not sure about the motive. The girlfriend did find out about the wife, but he bought the truck 3-4 weeks before that. He was a dialysis (sp?) tech at the VA hospital. As far as the 15 year-old, he was already living with his mother.
Missed the edit window. I see you’re asking about the wife finding out about the GF. Obviously, we don’t know that, perhaps she did.
One thing he said during interrogation (if he’s to be believed) is that even though he had been married to his wife for 9 years, they had only had sex once:eek: and that they basically were living separate lives under the same roof.
I agree that he’s guilty, based on your (excellent) description of the case.
But still, it’s extremely curious to me, the lack of no obvious motive, ya know? I wonder if any friends or family members knew of any strife going on in the marriage? Or knew of any prior bizarre behavior by the husband?
Or maybe he wanted to get rid of the wife to be with the girlfriend without having to go through the inconvenience of a divorce.
The whole thing is extremely bizarre. It’s also bizarre that there was pretty much next to no defense, and that he didn’t testify.
Was the jury made aware at any point that the death penalty was not at issue?
Was there anything in the behavior of the lawyers that was noteworthy to the jurors? I.e., anything that you appreciated or that you would advise other lawyers not to do?
There was no mention by the judge or the attorneys of anything as far as what sentencing would be involved. During one of the breaks I happened to mention to the bailiff that I was surprised there were only 10 of us on the jury instead of 12, and he said that was because it was not a capital case.
For lunch we were allowed to either go to the cafeteria in the courthouse or leave the building to go somewhere else if we wanted. Of course, every time we left the court room the judge charged us not to speak with anyone regarding the case.
When we arrived in the mornings, there were bagels, rolls, juice and coffee for us in the jury room, and for our mid-afternoon break they had cookies or brownies and sodas. When we got the case for deliberation, it was about 6:30 p.m. and they brought in a bunch of pizzas.
As for the lawyers, I didn’t really notice anything that stood out one way or the other.
I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but we had 10 jurors all the way through the trial. Just before we went to deliberation, the judge said, “Jurors Bill Jones and Sally Smith (not the real names), you are excused. We thank you for your service.” Apparently they were alternates, but neither they nor we were aware of that.
I always run out to buy a barrel of chili after having diarrehea.
Doesn’t everyone!!!11!!!
I was one of the last prospective jurors not seated on this trial in Late September. It went over 4 weeks.
( I got off because I went to school with the investigating detective. )
I just wanted to say that the accused may not be called if the defence counsel thinks that the accused would break down under cross examination, basically, if calling him would be more harmful than simply relying on the prosecution not proving their case. After all, the prosecution has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, and there’s no point in helping by calling a witness who’s just going to screw up.
In this case, he doesn’t seem like he would be a good witness, and if he was screwed either way, he might as well be spared appearing on the stand.
Curious to me that the judge would discharge the alternates when deliberations were starting. Seems possible that the judge had decided her/himself that there wouldn’t be much deliberation. Ordinarily, the alternates would sit around bored until the main jury returns with a verdict; the whole point of the alternates is to be available if one of the main jury gets sick or injured or anything.
The only good thing about FBG’s case (murder cases being sucky from just about any standpoint) is that the evidence was pretty clear. No doubts that you did the right thing, all the way around.
I know it was only 1 hour or so, but could you get into the details of deliberation. I’m always fascinated by how the jury reaches the decision. We’re there any holdouts? Did anyone take any convincing? Were any of your fellow jurors complete idiots or do anything inappropriate?
So, since he bought the truck several weeks in advance and then hid it, it wasn’t a sudden act of rage.
Three previous marriages is a double edged defense; it could be argued, or possibly demonstrated, that the first three left him broke, and meant money was a likely motive.
Perhaps the prosecution did not bring up the matter of insurance because they feared that it could confuse the issue? That some people would have trouble believing a person would murder a partner for less than $200k?
I actually think the reason given for buying the truck makes sense; I think buying a kid a large beat to hell vehicle and teaching repair and maintenance on it is a good idea. Chili to settle your stomach? Bad idea.
And the girl friend put it all together and ratted him out immediately.
May I ask what she was like? Was she his age? Did she come across as smart, or just suspicious? Did she have a bit of money?
Why did Mr. Lynch and his wife not attend the same church?
Were you glad to be on the jury? Some people try to avoid it, others like doing their “civic duty”. Would you be happy to be on another jury in the future?
Was being on the jury a hassle for you at all? Do you get any remuneration for jury duty? Did you employer give you paid time off, or did you have to use PTO/vacation/sick days or take unpaid time off?
As I mentioned upthread, I think we were all pretty much convinced before we started deliberation. We all felt though that out of respect to the process and the rights of the defendant we should not rush to a guilty verdict. We reviewed the timeline of the alibi and examined an aerial photo showing the relationships between the various locations involved, and looked at some of the evidence photos. When we all felt comfortable, we took a vote and unanimously found that he was guilty.
I don’t know her exact age, but I would guess she was in her 40’s and he was 60. She seemed pretty intelligent on the stand, and definitely felt that he had betrayed her confidence. Don’t know anything about her financial situation or the reasons for attending different churches.
I didn’t mind being on jury duty, although I would have been happy to go in and find out I wasn’t needed. It was a little inconvenient being away from work for 3 days, but fortunately I wasn’t needed for anything critical. My employer was very understanding and company policy allows up to 5 days/year of paid jury duty.
I don’t know how jurors who serve on very long trials deal with putting their jobs and personal life on hold while they serve. I don’t think I could do that.
The court pays $18.50 for the first day and $49 for each additional day of jury duty. By law, if the employer pays your salary during jury duty, the employer is entitled to be reimbursed for the jury pay, but mine told me to keep it.
In the state of Utah, once you have been called up for jury duty (even if you don’t actually serve on a jury) you are exempt for the next 2 years.
When I was called for jury duty at the criminal courts in LA, they had us each fill out an information form, and then we had to deposit our forms in a box that corresponded with how long our employer would pay us for jury duty (there were a number of boxes – no pay, a day, a week, unlimited, etc.), and then called people for jury duty based on how much they would pay.
In the long trials I’ve worked on, the judge has usually been pretty good about giving an afternoon off here or there if a juror had a doctor’s appointment or something that couldn’t be changed. But, yeah, it’s a pain.
This was my experience as a juror at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. There were 13 jurors for the case I was a juror for (very minor drug case). I was selected as a juror and sat through the entire case. Right before the jury was sent to deliberate, they randomly selected one juror as the alternate - and it was my number. They thanked me for my service and I was dismissed. It was a little disappointing to sit through the whole trial and then not get to continue! The Bailiff was kind enough to call me later that afternoon and share the verdict (guilty, which was my opinion too).
Dismissing the alternate before deliberations seemed very standard procedure, at least in that courtroom.
Dad took up a part time job as a porter in the local court house after retiring. He was surprised at the amount of time a jury spent hanging about for even something like a short assault trial.
The jury comes in, is sent off for a while, then brought back in and sent home. I’d love to be a juror on a sensational case, but chances are most people end up on the sort that Dad sees every week.
It’s interesting to know a bit more about the processes involved though. The padded room for conversations between solicitor and defendant was something of a laugh too, padded from top to bottom, voices are strangely muted inside. And of course there is the esteem from working in an armoured pill box too (it is Northern Ireland after all!).
Wow. I pray that if I ever have the misfortune to serve on a murder trial, that the facts presented as evidence will make the decision as easy for me as it did for you here.