[QUOTE=faithfool]
[Bolding mine.]
And as I’ve asked a gazillion times, has this been established as a fact beyond all reasonable doubt? That, by your assertion, not only was the person that died definitely one of those that perpetrated fraud by theft of services/goods, but all of the others as well??
If that’s the case and I’ve missed it, could you please provide citation? Thank you.
[/QUOTE]
What do you mean by, “beyond all reasonable doubt.” That is the threshold for determining guilt in a criminal proceeding, but not necessarily a reasonable threshold for general purposes.
It is my opinion based on the evidence and statements from persons involved that all persons within the Jeep Grand Cherokee in question either tacitly or explicitly agreed to skip on the check.
The driver of the Jeep was Steve Smith. His story is, he left the restaurant to warm up the car, he says there was never any talk of skipping on the check that he was aware of, his claims are once the rest of his friends came out to the Jeep they told him to, “go,go,go” and he realized they were skipping on the check at this point. His excuse for this was, “he did not want to leave his friends stranded.” Smith says it was his understanding originally that Aaron Brown (the deceased) was going to pay the bill (the remainder) with his debit card.
Another passenger in the vehicle, Breklyn Paulitzky, explained that her and the fourth passenger, Aaron Daughtrey did not enter the IHOP until after their friends had ordered, so her and Aaron D. (not the deceased) did not order. She claims that when it was time to leave James (a fifth party member who left in his own vehicle and was not a witness to the shooting) left his share of the bill and Aaron Daughtrey left his share. Which is strange and contradictory since earlier in her statement she claims her and Aaron D. did not order any food at IHOP (and this ostensibly wouldn’t be paying a bill for food they didn’t eat.) However Breklyn may have been referring to Adam Daughtrey, Aaron’s brother who was also a passenger in the Jeep.
There were five persons in the jeep that fateful night. Stephen Smith (driver), Breklyn Paulitzky, Aaron Daughtrey, Adam Daughtrey, and Christopher Waters.
Smith claims he never intended to skip out on the check and that he was outside warming up the Jeep. He also reports that when his friends came out he was told to, “go,go,go” because they had not paid the check and were skipping on it.
Breklyn Paulitzky and Aaron Daughtrey did not order.
Adam Daughtrey did order and says he paid $10 on the bill and that Aaron Brown said he would pay the remainder with his debit card.
Christopher Walters attests that when he got up to leave the IHOP Brown said he would pay the remainder of the bill with his debit card.
We’ve got three persons who say Brown was going to pay the bill to some degree with his debit card. We then have Smith claiming that when his friends came out to the car they were all telling him to “go,go,go” because he had skipped out on the bill. We also have information from the Aaron Brown’s parents’ lawyer that there is no record of this payment being made with his debit card.
So if we assume that the other passengers weren’t lying, it looks very likely that Smith and Brown were the only two persons to skip out on the bill, and that Smith was in fact not doing so willingly but only because Brown was.
However, we do not know the veracity of the statements, and we probably never will.
In any case, all of the information in this post is in the official investiation of this incident which I have saved on my hard drive. The report was written by S. Randolph Sengel, Commonwealth’s Attorney (Case # O6109452.) I don’t have a web link for this report but I imagine it is not too difficult to find and would not be surprised if it is linked to in the thread in question.