It's about time. It appears that several pending motions have ruled on at last relating to Jodi Arias' penalty phase retrial - and this thing may actually happen. But not until January of 2014. Outlined in court minute entries, Judge Sherry Stephens ruled on the following:
1) Ruled in favor of Arias, in precluding or limiting live media coverage of the penalty phase retrial. It was nice to see the Judge acknowledging that Jodi Arias herself was responsible for much of the media interest around her case; contacting them to arrange interviews before, and after her trial. There will be use of Twitter or electronic devices inside the court room in this trial.
2) Ruled against Arias in her change of venue motion; the trial will remain in Phoenix.
3) Ruled against Arias in her request for Individualized Voir Dire.
4) Ruled against Arias in her request to sequester the jury.
5) Ruled against Arias in her request for fire attorney Kirk Nurmi.
They are calling 400 potential jurors the first two days of jury selection. The first 100 are scheduled to appear at 10:00AM, the second 100 at 1:30, the third 100 at 3:00PM and the last 100 will appear at 1:30 on day two if they haven't yet chosen a jury from the first 300 potential jurors.
Looks like the only motion Arias' defense really won was the motion against cameras in the courtroom - which means we, the viewing public will not get to watch the conclusion of this trial as it unfolds. No doubt it will still be covered heavily from gavel to gavel the old fashioned way, the way they did it before Court TV and In Session were around.
I particularly liked Judge Stephens response to her media complaint - she stated "In this case, the Court has granted the defense motion to preclude live camera coverage of the trail. As noted by the State in their response, much of the media interest in this case was generated by the defendant contacting media outlets. Defendant now complains she cannot receive a fair sentencing phase retrial because of the media interest in her case and wants the jury sequestered for the duration of the sentencing retrial. The parties estimate the retrial will last at least two months."
I have to admit that I'm highly disappointed that the trial will not be televised live - it's as if we are missing the end of a cliff-hanger. I think the coverage is the least of Jodi Arias' worries. This new jury (hopefully) won't have time to form any "connection" with her - they will be hearing an abbreviated version of trial #1, the conclusion of which we already know, she was found guilty. They only get to decide punishment. Hopefully this new jury will be able to weigh the heinousness of the killing, and carefully weigh it against the mitigating factors and nothing else and return a verdict one way or another.
No trial date has been set that I could find, just "January", which is what the defense wanted all along. What's next for Jodi Arias? Will Sheriff Joe ever crack down on the art business Arias is running right under his staff's noses? Will the IRS catch up to the jailed artist who has been making money and more than likely not filing tax returns? Let's hope so. I doubt she's worried about that. What are they going to do, put her in jail?
MY CRIMETIME BY MY FORTE. A DISCUSSION OF MURDERS IN THE NEWS.
Amber Hilberling Sentenced To 25 Years For Pushing Husband Out Window
Since I watched MSNBC's Lockup last weekend, I started reading about the horrible death of 23 year old Joshua Hilberling in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Josh died on June 7, 2011 after crashing through the living room window of the 25th floor apartment he shared with his 19 year old wife Amber. The Lockup staff featured Tulsa's massive jail system, and Amber happened to be one of the inmates featured on the show. I hadn't heard anything about this case before I saw Lockup, however this case has also been featured on NBC's Dateline. Lockup talked to Amber about her case and what happened to her husband Josh, and why she turned down the State of Oklahoma's offer for a 5 year sentence for a guilty plea. That's a question that many people wonder about, given at the time of the Lockup shooting, Amber had not yet been sentenced.
Amber explained to producers that the reason she didn't take the plea deal is because that would mean she was guilty of intentionally killing her husband Josh, something she adamantly denies having done. Lockup filmed Amber being loaded into the Sheriff's van with other inmates who were going to the courthouse, and they talked to her after she returned from sentencing. She received a 25 year sentence. She plans on appealing the sentence. Had she taken the 5 year plea deal, she would've been out of prison while her son Levi was still young. The 25 year sentence means Amber will miss all of Levi's milestone dates. His first day of elementary school, junior high, school dances, the Junior and Senior balls, high school graduation and even college.
Unless her appeals are successful, Amber will likely be in her mid 40s when released, less any time credited for good behavior. I'm not sure how the Oklahoma prison system works or how much of their actual sentences inmates there serve.
I've also read the State of Oklahoma Sentencing Memorandum and Victim Impact Letters, the link is attached below. There is a heartfelt letter from Josh's brother - which really gives you a sense of how volatile Josh's relationship with Amber was and how she treated him in front of friends and family. If she treated him so poorly in front of his family, I can only imagine how bad things may have gotten when they were alone.
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/griffin/NEWSon6/PDF/1304/Hilberling-sentencing.pdf
While it seems to me that the windows on that apartment building should have been much stronger than they were, Amber should have known they were not unbreakable - and being on the 25th floor, it would be very dangerous to push an individual towards one. Factor in that one of the Hilberlings had recently broken another window in the apartment, and building maintenance man Armando Rosales was there on June 7, 2011 to give them an estimate on replacing the window and it does seem to point to a reckless disregard for Josh's life when Amber pushed him while he was anywhere near a window. I'm not 100% convinced that she meant for Josh to crash through the glass and fall to his death. But her actions did cause his death, and it didn't have to happen. She pushed him with force, and he crashed through the window and fell 17 stories to his death. Was it an accident?
Amber seemed to admit to this during candid moments in the interrogation room with her grandmother. "I killed Josh", "Josh is dead", and "I pushed him", and then she said "what kind of person am I?" I think she was feeling the devastating reality of what had happened, and she knew it was her fault. She kept talking about wanting a time machine, wanting to go back in time and just leave the apartment instead of staying and arguing with Josh. What really happened in the moments before the fall? According to Amber, Josh was the one who was upset and yelling at her. While talking to her grandmother, she seemed to let it slip that Josh was messing with the television before she pushed him - which seems more plausible since there is no evidence of a struggle and Josh seemed to have been blindsided and unable to stop the momentum of being shoved. At trial, Amber called on the old standby "self defense", which took the State by surprise. Especially given the fact that Josh himself had gone to Domestic Violence Intervention Services looking for help. While Josh was stationed in Alaska, the pair had frequent contact with local police because of their tumultuous relationship and loud arguments. One such official gave Amber an ominous warning: "if you stay together, you are going to end up killing him".
One thing is certain. In the minutes before Josh fell to his death, he had called his father and several friends asking for a ride away from the apartment. He had bags packed, planning on at the very least separating from Amber for some period of time. Is that what caused her to lash out at Josh? Was she angry that he was leaving her alone, while she was 7 months pregnant? All we can do is look at her previous behavior, and she HAS some prior bad behavior according to court documents and Josh's family. In an emotional letter written by Josh's brother Zach, he talks about how Amber treated Josh in front of his own family and friends. Zach was serving in Afghanistan when Josh was killed. He wrote a victim impact letter that gave some insight into Amber's behavior with Josh. He said that even on the day of their wedding reception, Amber yelled at Josh and talked down to him. After they were married, they went to live with Amber's parents but days later Amber's mother kicked her out of their house. They went to stay with Scott, Josh's older brother from there. He was getting ready to leave for Afghanistan and wanted to spend as much time with Josh and Scott as possible, but found it very difficult to watch how Amber bullied Josh. He said that every time he saw Amber and Josh together, Amber called him names, made fun of him, punching him and pinching him. It was embarrassing for the brothers to see. Yet Josh acted like it didn't bother him, although they knew it did bother him that Amber treated him so poorly and the family could see.
In October of 2010, Josh and Amber left for Alaska where Josh would be stationed. By November, Josh was calling and saying that Amber was ranting and raving and throwing objects at him. In December, Josh told his brother that Amber was pregnant - not initially thrilled at the prospect but Josh quickly grew excited over becoming a father. On New Years Eve, Josh called his brother crying - something he wasn't used to hearing. He said that Amber pushed him down the stairs and then punched him in the face. She then called security forces on him! The phone calls from Josh about Amber's temper grew more frequent, although security forces were not always involved or informed of the domestic violence. On February 5, 2011 Josh called to tell him that Amber was again throwing things at him and hitting him and he asked him for advice. He told Josh to leave the house, call security forces and get out of that house. He was growing tired of hearing about the abuse, and he couldn't hide it in the tone of his voice. Sadly, this would be the last time he ever heard Josh's voice. He left for Afghanistan, and would talk to Josh via Facebook. During a call home to his mother and father, he learned that the violence had escalated and Amber hit Josh over the head with a lamp, requiring staples and stitches to close the wound. Josh finally had enough and briefly moved home with his parents and filed for a protective order.
The day that she was served with the order, Amber and her mother came to Josh's parents house and made him feel guilty for considering divorce and leaving Amber while she was pregnant. Josh decided to give the marriage one more try. Zach logged onto Facebook during a rare day off duty in Afghanistan and found out his brother was dead. He received a condolence message from a friend, and he immediately went to Josh's page and saw RIP. That was how he found out his brother was dead. Zach's account of the relationship sounds a lot like classic domestic violence, with Amber being the aggressor and Josh being the victim. If she had no problem throwing things at him, hitting him over the head with lamps and pushing him down the stairs, pushing him out the window doesn't seem like such a stretch now. It sounds like Amber has an anger management problem. She'll have the next 25 years to think about it. Josh's father Patrick wrote a similar letter to the court, telling of the devastation caused by his death. Patrick too talked about the many calls he received from his son Josh, crying and unsure of what to do about his marriage to Amber. He told his father about the mental, emotional and physical abuse he was suffering from and how he couldn't get Amber to stop using drugs - even when she was pregnant. By the way, one of the reasons Amber's bond was revoked while she was awaiting trial is because she failed numerous random urine tests, testing positive for THC. I tend to believe Patrick's account of Amber's drug use.
The most eerie and sad part of Patrick's letter was this. At around 3:30PM on June 7, 2011 Josh called his father and told him he wanted to leave Amber. He said he couldn't take it anymore, he could no longer watch Amber's drug use - he was going to file for divorce and try to get custody of the baby when he was born. He needed a ride, his bags were packed and he was ready to leave her for good. Patrick asked Josh where Amber was, he said she was in the bedroom. When he asked Josh if Amber knew he was leaving, he said that she was more interested in her need for drugs than whether he was leaving. Patrick told his son that he didn't get off work until 5:30PM, Josh told his father that he couldn't wait that long. He needed to get out ASAP. Can you even imagine how badly his father Patrick feels that he didn't leave work immediately and go pick up Josh? There is no way anybody could have known what would happen. But to live with that knowledge has to be devastating for Josh's father Patrick. Just horrible. Reading this, knowing the circumstances make it harder to believe that Amber pushed Josh away in self defense, as she told her jury. It sounds to me like that jury got it right.
This story and trial was not covered at all in the Bay Area. What a horrible and sad story. Josh Hilberling will never hold his baby boy, Levi - who was born on August 7th, just 2 months after Josh was killed.
Amber explained to producers that the reason she didn't take the plea deal is because that would mean she was guilty of intentionally killing her husband Josh, something she adamantly denies having done. Lockup filmed Amber being loaded into the Sheriff's van with other inmates who were going to the courthouse, and they talked to her after she returned from sentencing. She received a 25 year sentence. She plans on appealing the sentence. Had she taken the 5 year plea deal, she would've been out of prison while her son Levi was still young. The 25 year sentence means Amber will miss all of Levi's milestone dates. His first day of elementary school, junior high, school dances, the Junior and Senior balls, high school graduation and even college.
Unless her appeals are successful, Amber will likely be in her mid 40s when released, less any time credited for good behavior. I'm not sure how the Oklahoma prison system works or how much of their actual sentences inmates there serve.
I've also read the State of Oklahoma Sentencing Memorandum and Victim Impact Letters, the link is attached below. There is a heartfelt letter from Josh's brother - which really gives you a sense of how volatile Josh's relationship with Amber was and how she treated him in front of friends and family. If she treated him so poorly in front of his family, I can only imagine how bad things may have gotten when they were alone.
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/griffin/NEWSon6/PDF/1304/Hilberling-sentencing.pdf
While it seems to me that the windows on that apartment building should have been much stronger than they were, Amber should have known they were not unbreakable - and being on the 25th floor, it would be very dangerous to push an individual towards one. Factor in that one of the Hilberlings had recently broken another window in the apartment, and building maintenance man Armando Rosales was there on June 7, 2011 to give them an estimate on replacing the window and it does seem to point to a reckless disregard for Josh's life when Amber pushed him while he was anywhere near a window. I'm not 100% convinced that she meant for Josh to crash through the glass and fall to his death. But her actions did cause his death, and it didn't have to happen. She pushed him with force, and he crashed through the window and fell 17 stories to his death. Was it an accident?
Amber seemed to admit to this during candid moments in the interrogation room with her grandmother. "I killed Josh", "Josh is dead", and "I pushed him", and then she said "what kind of person am I?" I think she was feeling the devastating reality of what had happened, and she knew it was her fault. She kept talking about wanting a time machine, wanting to go back in time and just leave the apartment instead of staying and arguing with Josh. What really happened in the moments before the fall? According to Amber, Josh was the one who was upset and yelling at her. While talking to her grandmother, she seemed to let it slip that Josh was messing with the television before she pushed him - which seems more plausible since there is no evidence of a struggle and Josh seemed to have been blindsided and unable to stop the momentum of being shoved. At trial, Amber called on the old standby "self defense", which took the State by surprise. Especially given the fact that Josh himself had gone to Domestic Violence Intervention Services looking for help. While Josh was stationed in Alaska, the pair had frequent contact with local police because of their tumultuous relationship and loud arguments. One such official gave Amber an ominous warning: "if you stay together, you are going to end up killing him".
One thing is certain. In the minutes before Josh fell to his death, he had called his father and several friends asking for a ride away from the apartment. He had bags packed, planning on at the very least separating from Amber for some period of time. Is that what caused her to lash out at Josh? Was she angry that he was leaving her alone, while she was 7 months pregnant? All we can do is look at her previous behavior, and she HAS some prior bad behavior according to court documents and Josh's family. In an emotional letter written by Josh's brother Zach, he talks about how Amber treated Josh in front of his own family and friends. Zach was serving in Afghanistan when Josh was killed. He wrote a victim impact letter that gave some insight into Amber's behavior with Josh. He said that even on the day of their wedding reception, Amber yelled at Josh and talked down to him. After they were married, they went to live with Amber's parents but days later Amber's mother kicked her out of their house. They went to stay with Scott, Josh's older brother from there. He was getting ready to leave for Afghanistan and wanted to spend as much time with Josh and Scott as possible, but found it very difficult to watch how Amber bullied Josh. He said that every time he saw Amber and Josh together, Amber called him names, made fun of him, punching him and pinching him. It was embarrassing for the brothers to see. Yet Josh acted like it didn't bother him, although they knew it did bother him that Amber treated him so poorly and the family could see.
In October of 2010, Josh and Amber left for Alaska where Josh would be stationed. By November, Josh was calling and saying that Amber was ranting and raving and throwing objects at him. In December, Josh told his brother that Amber was pregnant - not initially thrilled at the prospect but Josh quickly grew excited over becoming a father. On New Years Eve, Josh called his brother crying - something he wasn't used to hearing. He said that Amber pushed him down the stairs and then punched him in the face. She then called security forces on him! The phone calls from Josh about Amber's temper grew more frequent, although security forces were not always involved or informed of the domestic violence. On February 5, 2011 Josh called to tell him that Amber was again throwing things at him and hitting him and he asked him for advice. He told Josh to leave the house, call security forces and get out of that house. He was growing tired of hearing about the abuse, and he couldn't hide it in the tone of his voice. Sadly, this would be the last time he ever heard Josh's voice. He left for Afghanistan, and would talk to Josh via Facebook. During a call home to his mother and father, he learned that the violence had escalated and Amber hit Josh over the head with a lamp, requiring staples and stitches to close the wound. Josh finally had enough and briefly moved home with his parents and filed for a protective order.
The day that she was served with the order, Amber and her mother came to Josh's parents house and made him feel guilty for considering divorce and leaving Amber while she was pregnant. Josh decided to give the marriage one more try. Zach logged onto Facebook during a rare day off duty in Afghanistan and found out his brother was dead. He received a condolence message from a friend, and he immediately went to Josh's page and saw RIP. That was how he found out his brother was dead. Zach's account of the relationship sounds a lot like classic domestic violence, with Amber being the aggressor and Josh being the victim. If she had no problem throwing things at him, hitting him over the head with lamps and pushing him down the stairs, pushing him out the window doesn't seem like such a stretch now. It sounds like Amber has an anger management problem. She'll have the next 25 years to think about it. Josh's father Patrick wrote a similar letter to the court, telling of the devastation caused by his death. Patrick too talked about the many calls he received from his son Josh, crying and unsure of what to do about his marriage to Amber. He told his father about the mental, emotional and physical abuse he was suffering from and how he couldn't get Amber to stop using drugs - even when she was pregnant. By the way, one of the reasons Amber's bond was revoked while she was awaiting trial is because she failed numerous random urine tests, testing positive for THC. I tend to believe Patrick's account of Amber's drug use.
The most eerie and sad part of Patrick's letter was this. At around 3:30PM on June 7, 2011 Josh called his father and told him he wanted to leave Amber. He said he couldn't take it anymore, he could no longer watch Amber's drug use - he was going to file for divorce and try to get custody of the baby when he was born. He needed a ride, his bags were packed and he was ready to leave her for good. Patrick asked Josh where Amber was, he said she was in the bedroom. When he asked Josh if Amber knew he was leaving, he said that she was more interested in her need for drugs than whether he was leaving. Patrick told his son that he didn't get off work until 5:30PM, Josh told his father that he couldn't wait that long. He needed to get out ASAP. Can you even imagine how badly his father Patrick feels that he didn't leave work immediately and go pick up Josh? There is no way anybody could have known what would happen. But to live with that knowledge has to be devastating for Josh's father Patrick. Just horrible. Reading this, knowing the circumstances make it harder to believe that Amber pushed Josh away in self defense, as she told her jury. It sounds to me like that jury got it right.
This story and trial was not covered at all in the Bay Area. What a horrible and sad story. Josh Hilberling will never hold his baby boy, Levi - who was born on August 7th, just 2 months after Josh was killed.
Jodi Arias Turns On Attorney Kirk Nurmi
It's no surprise to many of us who have followed the Jodi Arias murder trial that she has turned on attorney Kirk Nurmi in such a public manner. Nurmi has been unsuccessfully been trying to have himself removed as her attorney of record since the beginning of this trial - moving from the public defender's office to his own law practice, a move that enabled him to nearly double his hourly fee for representing the now convicted murderer. It has been difficult to tell whether these moves to be removed from the case at various stages of the trial, and now in Arias' motion to essentially fire him as her attorney are for the purposes that she has stated, or just another tactic to buy herself more time, or to set up an "ineffective counsel" appellate issue. It's hard to say what's going on in the mind of Jodi Arias.
Not much has been disclosed about the behind closed doors settlement conference that occurred on October 24, 2013. Closed to the public and to the media, no deals were made that would take the death penalty off the table. That would lead us to believe the penalty re-trial will go on, but when? I just checked the Maricopa County website's "minute entries", and there are no such entries that speak to the next scheduled court date or status hearing. To my knowledge, Judge Sherry Stephens has yet to rule on the numerous outstanding motions that have been on the table since the mistrial was declared back in late May of this year. What's the hold up? As I've said many times before, the judge has known about these motions for months - why hasn't she ruled? The main issues are where the trial will be held, if the jury will be sequestered and how and if juror social media accounts will be disclosed to the court. Arias also wants the cameras in the courtroom limited if not banned. There are a few other miscellaneous motions, but those are the biggies.
The sooner these motions are ruled on, the sooner they can get the jury questionnaires prepared and start bringing in potential jurors and get the ball rolling. Personally, I think the trial should be held in the county where the crime occurred, Maricopa County. If they need to bus in jurors from another jurisdiction, so be it. It worked in the Casey Anthony trial, and I don't think even Anthony's attorneys can complain that she didn't receive a fair trial - in spite of the full on 3-ring media circus that rolled into town for that trial. Arias' trial should be no different. I tried to find one of my previous posts, where I predicted "it's only a matter of time before Arias turns on her attorneys", but I didn't have the time to read through 100 postings on this trial. It's been said, and we all knew it would happen. But all of this from the same woman who virtually begged the judge to keep Kirk Nurmi on her case, calling him the person who knows the case best - she wrote to the judge stating that removing Kirk Nurmi would be so detrimental to her right to a fair trial, and so they retained the newly self-employed criminal attorney Kirk Nurmi and paid him an extra $100/per hour or whatever he was charging. Arias was convicted, and now she's blaming Kirk Nurmi and wants him removed as her attorney?
Thankfully all of these statements made by Arias, in writing, are preserved and on the record - it would be hard for her to make a case for ineffective counsel when Nurmi was her first choice, her go-to guy. He lost, plain and simple. Now Jodi Arias is publicly slamming him, saying that he hasn't gone to meet with her since her mistrial was declared and pointing out his character flaws. Arias has yet to turn on her other attorney, Jennifer Willmott - she praised Willmott for taking on the "brunt of the work" in her case. When will the re trial resume? If anybody knows when the next status hearing is, or knows what's coming next, please feel free to post your comment. It appears a new mitigation specialist is listed on this case, and her name is Sue Stodola. Her name has appeared on the court minute entries and other court documents on the Maricopa County Superior Court website for some time, so I decided to look her up to see what her background is. What happened to Maria DeLaRosa? All we know about her is that the court ordered her to be paid for her 100+ hours of work on this case. Doesn't seem to most people who watched the anti-climatic end of the trial that much of a mitigation defense was put on, but that may have been the choice of Nurmi, Willmott, Arias or all three.
Susan Stodola, according to LinkedIn graduated from Northern Arizona University and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Her brief bio/resume:
August 2013 - Present: Capital Mitigation Specialist - Susan Stodola Mitigation Services - all facets of mitigation work, family histories, life stories, hiring of mitigation experts and preparation of testimony.
January 2011 - April 2013: Mitigation Specialist, Office of State Capital Post Conviction Defender - all facets of mitigation work, family and life histories, interviewing clients and family as well as other mitigation witnesses, hiring of mitigation experts.
August 2008 - January 2011: Capital Mitigation Specialist, Maricopa County Public Defender - trial mitigation for non-capital crimes. Graduated to capital work and worked as a part of a defense team assigned to represent defendants charged with capital murder.
There you have it. Maria DeLaRosa's LinkedIn profile shows her as a "self employed Capital Mitigation Specialist. What happened with or to Maria DeLaRosa in relation to this case remains a mystery to me. What I do know is that Jodi Arias continues to hawk her doodles and sketches on her website. Her latest offering, "Sailing at Sunset" is priced at $1,500.00 for the original, and she advertises 100 Limited Edition prints at a price of $39.00 each. If all were sold at her asking price, this would net Arias $5,400.00. That would buy Arias a whole lot of commissary items. It seems outrageous that she is allowed to continue these activities. The Sheriff's office knows that it's happening, yet nobody has even tried to stop it.
Chris Hegstrom, spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's office has publicly stated "She's not physically running a business from our jail", and "we can't stop her from talking on the phone or releasing property". Seems like a colossal cop-out to me. I know they can't stop people from sending donations to fund her commissary account, but this IS a business she's running from their jail! No doubt about it, and the IRS should be notified and expect to receive a tax return for the monies earned by Arias' art sales, as well as the agency who collects state tax for the state of Arizona. She's making money, and she should at the very least be made to file returns and pay taxes on this money! Seems like nobody at the jail or prosecutor's office is interested in tracking these activities, but I'm hoping the attorney representing the Alexander family is on it. I can't fault Jodi Arias for wanting to help her family with their travel costs during the trial, but this has gone far beyond that now, and IT IS A BUSINESS, regardless of what Chris Hegstrom states publicly.
I've said this before - Charles Manson makes all kinds of arts and crafts items from his jail cell, and guards and prison officials confiscate them so they don't end up on eBay or other online murder memorabilia websites. The prison has an entire collection of Manson's big black widow spiders, which he fashions from strands of hair and other fibers from sheets etc. that have been painted or dyed black. They probably have enough to start a Manson Museum there, all confiscated so Charlie doesn't make a dime off his notoriety. Why should Jodi Arias be any different? Both are convicted murderers. OK I'll stop. It just gets to me, that she continues to do this so publicly and they know it's happening. It's wrong. What can we do? Can we put the IRS on notice, the state tax collector?
Not much has been disclosed about the behind closed doors settlement conference that occurred on October 24, 2013. Closed to the public and to the media, no deals were made that would take the death penalty off the table. That would lead us to believe the penalty re-trial will go on, but when? I just checked the Maricopa County website's "minute entries", and there are no such entries that speak to the next scheduled court date or status hearing. To my knowledge, Judge Sherry Stephens has yet to rule on the numerous outstanding motions that have been on the table since the mistrial was declared back in late May of this year. What's the hold up? As I've said many times before, the judge has known about these motions for months - why hasn't she ruled? The main issues are where the trial will be held, if the jury will be sequestered and how and if juror social media accounts will be disclosed to the court. Arias also wants the cameras in the courtroom limited if not banned. There are a few other miscellaneous motions, but those are the biggies.
The sooner these motions are ruled on, the sooner they can get the jury questionnaires prepared and start bringing in potential jurors and get the ball rolling. Personally, I think the trial should be held in the county where the crime occurred, Maricopa County. If they need to bus in jurors from another jurisdiction, so be it. It worked in the Casey Anthony trial, and I don't think even Anthony's attorneys can complain that she didn't receive a fair trial - in spite of the full on 3-ring media circus that rolled into town for that trial. Arias' trial should be no different. I tried to find one of my previous posts, where I predicted "it's only a matter of time before Arias turns on her attorneys", but I didn't have the time to read through 100 postings on this trial. It's been said, and we all knew it would happen. But all of this from the same woman who virtually begged the judge to keep Kirk Nurmi on her case, calling him the person who knows the case best - she wrote to the judge stating that removing Kirk Nurmi would be so detrimental to her right to a fair trial, and so they retained the newly self-employed criminal attorney Kirk Nurmi and paid him an extra $100/per hour or whatever he was charging. Arias was convicted, and now she's blaming Kirk Nurmi and wants him removed as her attorney?
Thankfully all of these statements made by Arias, in writing, are preserved and on the record - it would be hard for her to make a case for ineffective counsel when Nurmi was her first choice, her go-to guy. He lost, plain and simple. Now Jodi Arias is publicly slamming him, saying that he hasn't gone to meet with her since her mistrial was declared and pointing out his character flaws. Arias has yet to turn on her other attorney, Jennifer Willmott - she praised Willmott for taking on the "brunt of the work" in her case. When will the re trial resume? If anybody knows when the next status hearing is, or knows what's coming next, please feel free to post your comment. It appears a new mitigation specialist is listed on this case, and her name is Sue Stodola. Her name has appeared on the court minute entries and other court documents on the Maricopa County Superior Court website for some time, so I decided to look her up to see what her background is. What happened to Maria DeLaRosa? All we know about her is that the court ordered her to be paid for her 100+ hours of work on this case. Doesn't seem to most people who watched the anti-climatic end of the trial that much of a mitigation defense was put on, but that may have been the choice of Nurmi, Willmott, Arias or all three.
Susan Stodola, according to LinkedIn graduated from Northern Arizona University and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Her brief bio/resume:
August 2013 - Present: Capital Mitigation Specialist - Susan Stodola Mitigation Services - all facets of mitigation work, family histories, life stories, hiring of mitigation experts and preparation of testimony.
January 2011 - April 2013: Mitigation Specialist, Office of State Capital Post Conviction Defender - all facets of mitigation work, family and life histories, interviewing clients and family as well as other mitigation witnesses, hiring of mitigation experts.
August 2008 - January 2011: Capital Mitigation Specialist, Maricopa County Public Defender - trial mitigation for non-capital crimes. Graduated to capital work and worked as a part of a defense team assigned to represent defendants charged with capital murder.
There you have it. Maria DeLaRosa's LinkedIn profile shows her as a "self employed Capital Mitigation Specialist. What happened with or to Maria DeLaRosa in relation to this case remains a mystery to me. What I do know is that Jodi Arias continues to hawk her doodles and sketches on her website. Her latest offering, "Sailing at Sunset" is priced at $1,500.00 for the original, and she advertises 100 Limited Edition prints at a price of $39.00 each. If all were sold at her asking price, this would net Arias $5,400.00. That would buy Arias a whole lot of commissary items. It seems outrageous that she is allowed to continue these activities. The Sheriff's office knows that it's happening, yet nobody has even tried to stop it.
Chris Hegstrom, spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's office has publicly stated "She's not physically running a business from our jail", and "we can't stop her from talking on the phone or releasing property". Seems like a colossal cop-out to me. I know they can't stop people from sending donations to fund her commissary account, but this IS a business she's running from their jail! No doubt about it, and the IRS should be notified and expect to receive a tax return for the monies earned by Arias' art sales, as well as the agency who collects state tax for the state of Arizona. She's making money, and she should at the very least be made to file returns and pay taxes on this money! Seems like nobody at the jail or prosecutor's office is interested in tracking these activities, but I'm hoping the attorney representing the Alexander family is on it. I can't fault Jodi Arias for wanting to help her family with their travel costs during the trial, but this has gone far beyond that now, and IT IS A BUSINESS, regardless of what Chris Hegstrom states publicly.
I've said this before - Charles Manson makes all kinds of arts and crafts items from his jail cell, and guards and prison officials confiscate them so they don't end up on eBay or other online murder memorabilia websites. The prison has an entire collection of Manson's big black widow spiders, which he fashions from strands of hair and other fibers from sheets etc. that have been painted or dyed black. They probably have enough to start a Manson Museum there, all confiscated so Charlie doesn't make a dime off his notoriety. Why should Jodi Arias be any different? Both are convicted murderers. OK I'll stop. It just gets to me, that she continues to do this so publicly and they know it's happening. It's wrong. What can we do? Can we put the IRS on notice, the state tax collector?
High Rise Homicide - Amber Hilberling Murder Trial
On a Tuesday in June of 2011 in Tulsa Oklahoma, 23 year old Josh Hilberling fell to his death, crashing through the living room window of the 25th floor apartment he shared with his 19 year old pregnant wife, Amber Hilberling. Amber, 7 months pregnant with son Levi at the insisted to investigators that Josh's fall was an accident. While police initially viewed Amber as a witness to an accident or perhaps a suicide, the tide changed quickly after the police watched and listened in as Amber talked to grandmother Georgia, in the interrogation room while at the police station. "I killed him", Amber said.
Witnesses at the University Club Towers high rise took photos of a distraught Amber cradling her husband's head to her chest after she rushed down the 17 floors to reach her husband's body - which had landed on the pavement of an 8 story parking garage below the high rise. Josh died on impact. First responders described her as confused, shocked and emotional and she didn't want to accept that he was dead. Officer Don Holloway arrived on the scene and talked to neighbors, and two witnesses outside the building who saw Josh fall from the 25th floor window. One described Josh as "flailing and screaming, looking as if he was pedaling a bicycle", this would seem to confirm that he was alive and aware of what was happening to him as he helplessly fell to his death. How terrifying those moments must have been for him.
A neighbor told police that he heard the two arguing before hearing a loud noise, which was the glass window breaking through. That same neighbor provided what would turn out to be key testimony at Amber's trial. He told the jury that he heard what sounded like running, immediately before the glass breaking, which prosecutors allege was Amber getting a running start to get some weight behind the push. They believed the act was deliberate. The 5'5 Amber would have had to had caught the much taller, heavier and stronger Josh off balance enough to have pushed him through that glass window. That deliberate act showed a reckless disregard for life, which equaled a second degree murder charge against Amber.
Amber met Josh at a Halloween party in 2011. Although the two seemed like a mismatch to most of their family and friends, the romance was quick and heavy. After Josh found out he was going to be stationed in Alaska with the Air Force, they headed to the courthouse and got married - they later had a reception with family and friends. The honeymoon was short lived, however. Within months of moving to Alaska, cracks in the shaky foundation of their marriage began to surface as the two began to realize how different they really were. Both sets of parents reported a number of late night calls, where each would confess about frequent fighting and general unhappiness. Had they made a mistake getting married so quickly and while so young? After Josh was discharged from the Air Force, the pair moved back to Tulsa - and into Amber's mother's condo at the University Club Towers. When Amber found out she was pregnant, they tried to make the marriage work. But it wasn't working. The fighting continued, and one fight got so heated that Amber reportedly hit Josh over the head with a lamp, which took 10 staples and 11 stitches to close the wound. He filed or a restraining order against his wife, but when neither party showed up for court the case was dropped. That was a few weeks before Josh was killed.
Amber would later try to explain the restraining order, telling the jury that it was done in a move to make Josh's parents believe he was divorcing her - so they wouldn't take away his trust fund! Although the police didn't have much in the way of evidence at the apartment, what wasn't there was just as telling. Near the window, considered the crime scene nothing was disrupted or out of place. No signs of a struggle, nothing pushed over or out of place. This would become important at trial as for the first time since her arrest, Amber put forth a new explanation for Josh's fall - self defense. She testified that they argued, and Josh grabbed her shoulders aggressively - she "pushed his chest", shoving him away from her. She was 7 months pregnant, she told the jury. This was the first time the State or anybody else had heard anything about self defense. Would the jury believe her?
The State brought in evidence and testimony about the glass used for the windows in the University Club Towers apartments. It seems Amber and Josh had fought before, and Amber reportedly threw a laundry basket through the bedroom window. The glass repairman said the glass used in the building should have been replaced long ago - it didn't belong in high rise apartments. This would seem to show that Amber knew, or should have known the glass on those windows was fragile and not strong. Yet she pushed her husband towards it. Another key piece of evidence at trial - photos of Josh's packed bags sitting next to the front door. He was leaving Amber, and had called his father for a ride and was waiting for him when the fight began. Was Amber mad because he was leaving her? In the end, the tape the State played of Amber's talk with her grandmother may have done her the most harm. In what appeared to be an honest moment of complete clarity, she told her grandmother that Josh was "messing with the TV", and she pushed him and he tripped and lost his balance and hit the window and fell out. She says that her eyes met his in the moment before he fell to his death - a memory that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She also says she rushed to the window in time to see his body hit the ground.
The State also brought in two jailhouse informants, or snitches - however you see this type of testimony. They both claim that Amber joked about her husband's death, and the manner in which he died. I don't know if that is true or not, but the jury seemed to agree that Amber was responsible for the death of her husband. They found her guilty of second degree murder and punctuated the verdict with a 25 year sentence. This case came to my attention last night while watching MSNBC's Lockup. Amber Hilberling was at the Tulsa jail that was featured last night - the case was also featured earlier this year on Dateline. I don't know enough about the background of these two people to form an opinion on what may have really happened. What does seem clear is that she should have known that the window was dangerous, the glass was not thick enough and that seems reckless to me. She will have 25 years to think about that.
Witnesses at the University Club Towers high rise took photos of a distraught Amber cradling her husband's head to her chest after she rushed down the 17 floors to reach her husband's body - which had landed on the pavement of an 8 story parking garage below the high rise. Josh died on impact. First responders described her as confused, shocked and emotional and she didn't want to accept that he was dead. Officer Don Holloway arrived on the scene and talked to neighbors, and two witnesses outside the building who saw Josh fall from the 25th floor window. One described Josh as "flailing and screaming, looking as if he was pedaling a bicycle", this would seem to confirm that he was alive and aware of what was happening to him as he helplessly fell to his death. How terrifying those moments must have been for him.
A neighbor told police that he heard the two arguing before hearing a loud noise, which was the glass window breaking through. That same neighbor provided what would turn out to be key testimony at Amber's trial. He told the jury that he heard what sounded like running, immediately before the glass breaking, which prosecutors allege was Amber getting a running start to get some weight behind the push. They believed the act was deliberate. The 5'5 Amber would have had to had caught the much taller, heavier and stronger Josh off balance enough to have pushed him through that glass window. That deliberate act showed a reckless disregard for life, which equaled a second degree murder charge against Amber.
Amber met Josh at a Halloween party in 2011. Although the two seemed like a mismatch to most of their family and friends, the romance was quick and heavy. After Josh found out he was going to be stationed in Alaska with the Air Force, they headed to the courthouse and got married - they later had a reception with family and friends. The honeymoon was short lived, however. Within months of moving to Alaska, cracks in the shaky foundation of their marriage began to surface as the two began to realize how different they really were. Both sets of parents reported a number of late night calls, where each would confess about frequent fighting and general unhappiness. Had they made a mistake getting married so quickly and while so young? After Josh was discharged from the Air Force, the pair moved back to Tulsa - and into Amber's mother's condo at the University Club Towers. When Amber found out she was pregnant, they tried to make the marriage work. But it wasn't working. The fighting continued, and one fight got so heated that Amber reportedly hit Josh over the head with a lamp, which took 10 staples and 11 stitches to close the wound. He filed or a restraining order against his wife, but when neither party showed up for court the case was dropped. That was a few weeks before Josh was killed.
Amber would later try to explain the restraining order, telling the jury that it was done in a move to make Josh's parents believe he was divorcing her - so they wouldn't take away his trust fund! Although the police didn't have much in the way of evidence at the apartment, what wasn't there was just as telling. Near the window, considered the crime scene nothing was disrupted or out of place. No signs of a struggle, nothing pushed over or out of place. This would become important at trial as for the first time since her arrest, Amber put forth a new explanation for Josh's fall - self defense. She testified that they argued, and Josh grabbed her shoulders aggressively - she "pushed his chest", shoving him away from her. She was 7 months pregnant, she told the jury. This was the first time the State or anybody else had heard anything about self defense. Would the jury believe her?
The State brought in evidence and testimony about the glass used for the windows in the University Club Towers apartments. It seems Amber and Josh had fought before, and Amber reportedly threw a laundry basket through the bedroom window. The glass repairman said the glass used in the building should have been replaced long ago - it didn't belong in high rise apartments. This would seem to show that Amber knew, or should have known the glass on those windows was fragile and not strong. Yet she pushed her husband towards it. Another key piece of evidence at trial - photos of Josh's packed bags sitting next to the front door. He was leaving Amber, and had called his father for a ride and was waiting for him when the fight began. Was Amber mad because he was leaving her? In the end, the tape the State played of Amber's talk with her grandmother may have done her the most harm. In what appeared to be an honest moment of complete clarity, she told her grandmother that Josh was "messing with the TV", and she pushed him and he tripped and lost his balance and hit the window and fell out. She says that her eyes met his in the moment before he fell to his death - a memory that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She also says she rushed to the window in time to see his body hit the ground.
The State also brought in two jailhouse informants, or snitches - however you see this type of testimony. They both claim that Amber joked about her husband's death, and the manner in which he died. I don't know if that is true or not, but the jury seemed to agree that Amber was responsible for the death of her husband. They found her guilty of second degree murder and punctuated the verdict with a 25 year sentence. This case came to my attention last night while watching MSNBC's Lockup. Amber Hilberling was at the Tulsa jail that was featured last night - the case was also featured earlier this year on Dateline. I don't know enough about the background of these two people to form an opinion on what may have really happened. What does seem clear is that she should have known that the window was dangerous, the glass was not thick enough and that seems reckless to me. She will have 25 years to think about that.
Jodi Arias Settlement Hearing - NO DEAL!
Jodi Arias and her defense team met with prosecutor Juan Martinez and retired Superior Court Judge James Keppel on October 24, 2013 for the mysterious settlement conference. No progress or deals were reached during the conference, and Judge Keppel assigned the case back to Judge Sherry Stephens for resolution. And so it appears that Arias will be heading back into court for the highly anticipated penalty phase retrial she's been hoping to avoid since her the first one ended in a mistrial.
Here we go again! Judge Sherry Stephens has had numerous motions that have been on the table for months that she has yet to rule on - let's hope she does so at the next scheduled hearing on November 1, 2013 so we can begin the jury selection process! We can bet that once the motions on change of venue, cameras in the courtroom, juror social media account disclosure etc. have been ruled on - the jury selection process will be lengthy. I've been saying this all along, but it looks like Arias is going to get the "early 2014" trial delay they have been gunning for since late May. Shouldn't this case be history by now?
The only real "news" to come out lately is that Arias is trying to fire lead attorney Kirk Nurmi - although that's not really NEW news. It's no secret that Nurmi seems to have been disconnected from the case for some time now. But until now, it was hard to tell if that was just Nurmi sulking over the defense motions that were being denied, losing the case or if he really meant what he said during his closing statement about not liking Jodi Arias 9 out of 10 days himself. It appears the feeling is mutual. Arias wrote a 12 page hand-written letter to Judge Sherry Stephens, asking her again to allow her to "fire" Nurmi as the lead attorney in her case. Judge Stephens has denied Nurmi and Willmott's requests to withdraw from the case, but this time it's Arias who wants Nurmi off her case! Wait a minute....didn't she write a letter before begging the Judge to keep Nurmi on her case, saying that nobody knew the case as well as he did back when Nurmi wanted his hourly rate to be higher since he was no longer working at the Public Defender's office?
Well, well, well. Has it come full circle yet? Arias blasted Nurmi this time: "utter poverty of people skills", and saying Nurmi has "little tolerance for my emotional and psychological shortcomings". For example, she cited Nurmi's lack of empathy over her emotional reaction that the now infamous phone-sex audio tape that was played for the jury, the courtroom and eventually the public, despite Arias' wishes for it to NOT be played for the television viewing public. She shouldn't have taped that phone call to begin with, just my opinion! Arias does have kind words for Jennifer Willmott however, who she believes bore the brunt of the work load in her case. Has Kirk Nurmi seen Jodi Arias since the mistrial, and does that really matter? I don't see many scenarios in which Judge Stephens would allow either Arias attorney to walk away from the case at this late stage. That would set the trial back, and it's unnecessary.
The re-trial can't start fast enough for my liking. I want to see this case resolved. What will Judge Stephens decide? Will she move the trial to another venue, or bus in jurors from another county? Will there be cameras in the courtroom for this phase? Will jurors be forced to disclose their personal social media and Twitter information, and if so, who will monitor the usage? PS - I hope they monitor Jodi Arias' Twitter activity as well. Will Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott continue on as Jodi Arias' defense team? Will this trial ever end, or rather will it ever START? Why doesn't Arias have any family or friends speaking up for her in the courtroom? Where are those mitigation witnesses? Wouldn't you know it, Ms. Arias is now asking for donations for her APPEALS! Yes, that's right...."I'm filing for bankruptcy" but "send me money for my appeals". While you're at it, wanna buy a t-shirt or piece of original artwork?
Just when you thought you'd seen it all.
Here we go again! Judge Sherry Stephens has had numerous motions that have been on the table for months that she has yet to rule on - let's hope she does so at the next scheduled hearing on November 1, 2013 so we can begin the jury selection process! We can bet that once the motions on change of venue, cameras in the courtroom, juror social media account disclosure etc. have been ruled on - the jury selection process will be lengthy. I've been saying this all along, but it looks like Arias is going to get the "early 2014" trial delay they have been gunning for since late May. Shouldn't this case be history by now?
The only real "news" to come out lately is that Arias is trying to fire lead attorney Kirk Nurmi - although that's not really NEW news. It's no secret that Nurmi seems to have been disconnected from the case for some time now. But until now, it was hard to tell if that was just Nurmi sulking over the defense motions that were being denied, losing the case or if he really meant what he said during his closing statement about not liking Jodi Arias 9 out of 10 days himself. It appears the feeling is mutual. Arias wrote a 12 page hand-written letter to Judge Sherry Stephens, asking her again to allow her to "fire" Nurmi as the lead attorney in her case. Judge Stephens has denied Nurmi and Willmott's requests to withdraw from the case, but this time it's Arias who wants Nurmi off her case! Wait a minute....didn't she write a letter before begging the Judge to keep Nurmi on her case, saying that nobody knew the case as well as he did back when Nurmi wanted his hourly rate to be higher since he was no longer working at the Public Defender's office?
Well, well, well. Has it come full circle yet? Arias blasted Nurmi this time: "utter poverty of people skills", and saying Nurmi has "little tolerance for my emotional and psychological shortcomings". For example, she cited Nurmi's lack of empathy over her emotional reaction that the now infamous phone-sex audio tape that was played for the jury, the courtroom and eventually the public, despite Arias' wishes for it to NOT be played for the television viewing public. She shouldn't have taped that phone call to begin with, just my opinion! Arias does have kind words for Jennifer Willmott however, who she believes bore the brunt of the work load in her case. Has Kirk Nurmi seen Jodi Arias since the mistrial, and does that really matter? I don't see many scenarios in which Judge Stephens would allow either Arias attorney to walk away from the case at this late stage. That would set the trial back, and it's unnecessary.
The re-trial can't start fast enough for my liking. I want to see this case resolved. What will Judge Stephens decide? Will she move the trial to another venue, or bus in jurors from another county? Will there be cameras in the courtroom for this phase? Will jurors be forced to disclose their personal social media and Twitter information, and if so, who will monitor the usage? PS - I hope they monitor Jodi Arias' Twitter activity as well. Will Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott continue on as Jodi Arias' defense team? Will this trial ever end, or rather will it ever START? Why doesn't Arias have any family or friends speaking up for her in the courtroom? Where are those mitigation witnesses? Wouldn't you know it, Ms. Arias is now asking for donations for her APPEALS! Yes, that's right...."I'm filing for bankruptcy" but "send me money for my appeals". While you're at it, wanna buy a t-shirt or piece of original artwork?
Just when you thought you'd seen it all.
Arias' Online Ventures - What's Wrong With Our System?
I can sense that some people aren't going to agree with what I'm about to say, but what the heck - that's never stopped me from speaking my mind before. As we watch and wait for Jodi Arias' punishment to be determined for the murder of Travis Alexander, her attorneys continue to battle the State of Arizona over trial coverage, juror social media accounts, which venue the re-trial will be held in and a few other pending motions, it appears the convicted murderer has been busy updating her "Jodi's Book Club" website and putting up new "artwork" for sale. Her most current piece is "Sailing at Sunset" and is listed for a whopping $1,500.00 (last time I looked) and depicts a sailboat done in watercolors. According to a recent tweet, Arias announced "100 limited edition prints of "Sailing at Sunset" are now available at jodiarias.com/#!currentlyoffered". The limited editions are priced at $39.00 each, so if she sold all of them, that's $3,900 in her pocket - add in $1,500.00 for the original print and she's looking at making $5,400.00! All of this is being done out in the open, why don't the authorities seem to care?
Out of sheer curiosity and a lack of other related news, I looked at this website recently and noticed that she has added a number of pages such as:
 |
| (abcnews.com) |
Out of sheer curiosity and a lack of other related news, I looked at this website recently and noticed that she has added a number of pages such as:
- Send Books to Inmates
- Report on Correctional Education
- Inmate Mags
- The Arizona Department of Corrections Educational Program
- Read Between The Bars
- Prison Book Program
- PEN American Center
- Inside Books Project
- Books to Prisoners
- Prisoners Literature Project
Is this Jodi's attempt at showing what an asset she can be to other prisoners, if her life is spared? Maybe. I continue to be amazed at the communication she has with the world despite her circumstances. Her latest tweet says that when/if she can ever afford it, she is planning on filing for bankruptcy. Apparently she is offended that the public believes she or her family is cashing in on her crime, thus the tweet. IF Arias' artwork is selling, where is the money going? Can she really order and consume $5,400.00 worth of commissary items or is this money, along with donations her various websites are accepting going to her family? I have nothing against free enterprise, but when a convicted murderer has cost the taxpayers of Arizona over a million bucks in defending her, and that price tag will almost certainly continue to swell as the penalty/sentencing phase drags ever so slowly forward - how is this being allowed to happen? Arias, now as a convicted felon should not be able to profit in any way from her notoriety. And to be clear, none of us would know Jodi Arias existed if she hadn't slaughtered Travis Alexander.
I've read various articles and quotes from Arizona officials who seem to be wringing their hands about her very public online ventures. In the October 17, 2013 article from abcnews.com, Maricopa County Sheriff official Chris Hegstrom says "she's able to have access to paper and purchase colored pencils, and if she wants to release her property to someone outside she can". He further stated "she's not physically running a business from our jail....I can't stop her from talking on the phone or releasing property." This seems like an end run around the Son of Sam laws that are designed to prevent things like this from happening. I've been saying this all along and I'd really love to know who is tracking the funds that Arias has received via donations and from selling artwork while she has been incarcerated. While I can understand jail officials being unable to enforce the Son of Sam laws before Arias was found guilty, there is no excuse for allowing this to happen now.
After all, Arias doesn't seem to be making any attempt to hide the fact that she's creating and selling her doodles on the taxpayer's dime, all the while claiming to be unable to financially afford to even file for bankruptcy. Come on Sheriff Joe, she's making a mockery of your jail and she's claiming to be indigent while pocketing money from sales of her "Survivor" t-shirts and her artwork - and those are the things she is doing out in the open. Who knows what else she has going on to bring in money. During her mitigation speech to the jury, she told the jurors that 100% of the proceeds from the "Survivor" t-shirts would go to domestic violence causes, however - before that day, the website clearly read "a portion" of the proceeds would be donated to domestic violence causes. A PORTION. Only when she stood before the jury to ask them to spare her life did it change to 100%. While it's unclear exactly how much money these Jodi Arias related websites have taken in via donations to her, her family, her artwork sales and the Survivor t-shirt sales, I firmly believe all of it should have been seized the moment she was convicted of murder. Who's tracking this money? Do the good folks at the Internal Revenue Service and the Arizona State tax regulators know Arias has been earning money since 2008 from her jail cell? Has she even filed tax returns for those years? Selling any arts/crafts for money constitutes income and she should be paying taxes on the funds she has received. Has she filed returns since she's been behind bars? Why are Maricopa County officials continuing to allow her to "release property" to people who are in turn selling it on websites that are run FOR HER by others?
It's a well known fact that Charles Manson has created dozens of pieces of "artwork" while he's been incarcerated in California. Jail officials seize those items. They have a virtual collection of Manson spiders, fashioned from strands of hair and string from sheets that have been dyed black - I've seen these items on MSNBC's "Lockup". The guards who regularly search Charles Manson's cell confiscate these items as soon as they find them so he won't be able to sell them to people who collect articles from these high profile murderers. In contrast, you have Jodi Arias selling artwork out in the open on the internet and jail officials do nothing? All I have to say about this is WTF??
I've read various articles and quotes from Arizona officials who seem to be wringing their hands about her very public online ventures. In the October 17, 2013 article from abcnews.com, Maricopa County Sheriff official Chris Hegstrom says "she's able to have access to paper and purchase colored pencils, and if she wants to release her property to someone outside she can". He further stated "she's not physically running a business from our jail....I can't stop her from talking on the phone or releasing property." This seems like an end run around the Son of Sam laws that are designed to prevent things like this from happening. I've been saying this all along and I'd really love to know who is tracking the funds that Arias has received via donations and from selling artwork while she has been incarcerated. While I can understand jail officials being unable to enforce the Son of Sam laws before Arias was found guilty, there is no excuse for allowing this to happen now.
After all, Arias doesn't seem to be making any attempt to hide the fact that she's creating and selling her doodles on the taxpayer's dime, all the while claiming to be unable to financially afford to even file for bankruptcy. Come on Sheriff Joe, she's making a mockery of your jail and she's claiming to be indigent while pocketing money from sales of her "Survivor" t-shirts and her artwork - and those are the things she is doing out in the open. Who knows what else she has going on to bring in money. During her mitigation speech to the jury, she told the jurors that 100% of the proceeds from the "Survivor" t-shirts would go to domestic violence causes, however - before that day, the website clearly read "a portion" of the proceeds would be donated to domestic violence causes. A PORTION. Only when she stood before the jury to ask them to spare her life did it change to 100%. While it's unclear exactly how much money these Jodi Arias related websites have taken in via donations to her, her family, her artwork sales and the Survivor t-shirt sales, I firmly believe all of it should have been seized the moment she was convicted of murder. Who's tracking this money? Do the good folks at the Internal Revenue Service and the Arizona State tax regulators know Arias has been earning money since 2008 from her jail cell? Has she even filed tax returns for those years? Selling any arts/crafts for money constitutes income and she should be paying taxes on the funds she has received. Has she filed returns since she's been behind bars? Why are Maricopa County officials continuing to allow her to "release property" to people who are in turn selling it on websites that are run FOR HER by others?
It's a well known fact that Charles Manson has created dozens of pieces of "artwork" while he's been incarcerated in California. Jail officials seize those items. They have a virtual collection of Manson spiders, fashioned from strands of hair and string from sheets that have been dyed black - I've seen these items on MSNBC's "Lockup". The guards who regularly search Charles Manson's cell confiscate these items as soon as they find them so he won't be able to sell them to people who collect articles from these high profile murderers. In contrast, you have Jodi Arias selling artwork out in the open on the internet and jail officials do nothing? All I have to say about this is WTF??
To jail officials in Arizona who say there is nothing they can do about Arias releasing personal property to visitors, I say that is just not true. They may not be able to stop her from drawing, but they CAN prevent her from selling this stuff by confiscating it, or at the very least they should not allow her to release it to visitors when they KNOW it's being sold online. Any and all money Arias has made should be paid to her victim's family, but I fear by the time the State or jail officials do something about this, the money will be long gone. Do we need to alert the IRS ourselves, as concerned citizens? I don't live in the state of Arizona, but their local tax entity should also be alerted to the fact that an inmate is earning income from the Estrella jail and require her to file tax returns for the last 5 years.
This was bad enough when Arias was running these websites before and during her trial, but the fact that it continues after she was convicted is just not acceptable. Why don't Arizona jail officials and the State Attorney General's office seem to care? Hey, she shouldn't be able to make any profits after May 8, 2013. That's the date she became a convicted murderer. From 2008 through May 8, 2013, she had earned income and should be required to pay taxes like the rest of us. I've heard the Alexander family is going to be filing a wrongful death claim against Arias when her criminal trial wraps up. By that time, I'm afraid every dime she has raked in will be long gone - and it could have been easily avoided. The Estrella jail should simply NOT be allowing her to give anything to a visitor that could wind up being sold on her websites. People, she's not even making an attempt to hide her activities, she's doing it out in the open! There is simply no excuse for allowing this to continue.....I don't know exactly why I find this so extremely distasteful and disgraceful, but I do. Is the Estrella jail staff simply understaffed? Do they really not realize the pieces going up for sale on her website were created from their facility, and released during jail visitations where guards were present? Where's the accountability here?
This is just hard to stomach, because Arias continues to refer to herself as the victim and she continues to deny having any assets and says she can't afford to file for bankruptcy. Come on. Really? How stupid does she think we are? The State of Arizona should be seizing her assets, to help offset the cost of her costly defense. It's not as if she's using the money she's earning to help pay Kirk Nurmi or Jennifer Willmott - and I highly doubt she would turn over the money to the Alexander family short of a court order seizing the funds. I'm simply outraged. This is shameful and it should not be happening. As we inch closer to the October 24 settlement conference, I'm now hopeful that the State will not make any deals with Jodi Arias. Let the citizens of Arizona decide her fate. I only wish they were privy to everything we know. There may be those out there who think Jodi Arias is articulate and a talented artist. But let's be real. Nobody would be buying "Sailing at Sunset" if she hadn't killed Travis Alexander. And that is profiting from the notoriety of your crime. Plain and simple.
I'll close this post with three recent tweets posted on behalf of Arias:
Oct 10 - "That rumor that somehow my family profited from my trial? Absurd"
Oct 10 - "I'm filing for bankruptcy (if I can ever afford to do so)"
Oct 16 - "100 Limited-Edition prints of "Sailing at Sunset" now available
Need I say any more?
This was bad enough when Arias was running these websites before and during her trial, but the fact that it continues after she was convicted is just not acceptable. Why don't Arizona jail officials and the State Attorney General's office seem to care? Hey, she shouldn't be able to make any profits after May 8, 2013. That's the date she became a convicted murderer. From 2008 through May 8, 2013, she had earned income and should be required to pay taxes like the rest of us. I've heard the Alexander family is going to be filing a wrongful death claim against Arias when her criminal trial wraps up. By that time, I'm afraid every dime she has raked in will be long gone - and it could have been easily avoided. The Estrella jail should simply NOT be allowing her to give anything to a visitor that could wind up being sold on her websites. People, she's not even making an attempt to hide her activities, she's doing it out in the open! There is simply no excuse for allowing this to continue.....I don't know exactly why I find this so extremely distasteful and disgraceful, but I do. Is the Estrella jail staff simply understaffed? Do they really not realize the pieces going up for sale on her website were created from their facility, and released during jail visitations where guards were present? Where's the accountability here?
This is just hard to stomach, because Arias continues to refer to herself as the victim and she continues to deny having any assets and says she can't afford to file for bankruptcy. Come on. Really? How stupid does she think we are? The State of Arizona should be seizing her assets, to help offset the cost of her costly defense. It's not as if she's using the money she's earning to help pay Kirk Nurmi or Jennifer Willmott - and I highly doubt she would turn over the money to the Alexander family short of a court order seizing the funds. I'm simply outraged. This is shameful and it should not be happening. As we inch closer to the October 24 settlement conference, I'm now hopeful that the State will not make any deals with Jodi Arias. Let the citizens of Arizona decide her fate. I only wish they were privy to everything we know. There may be those out there who think Jodi Arias is articulate and a talented artist. But let's be real. Nobody would be buying "Sailing at Sunset" if she hadn't killed Travis Alexander. And that is profiting from the notoriety of your crime. Plain and simple.
I'll close this post with three recent tweets posted on behalf of Arias:
Oct 10 - "That rumor that somehow my family profited from my trial? Absurd"
Oct 10 - "I'm filing for bankruptcy (if I can ever afford to do so)"
Oct 16 - "100 Limited-Edition prints of "Sailing at Sunset" now available
Need I say any more?
Cast of Characters Expected For Martin MacNeill Murder Trial
Martin MacNeill's long awaited murder trial is slated to begin on October 15, 2013 in Provo, Utah. Prosecutors and family members have long suspected that MacNeill was responsible for drugging and drowning his former wife, 50 year old Michele in their Pleasant Grove Utah bathtub, and finally - MacNeill was arrested and charged after being released from serving time in a Federal Prison for a slew of white collar crimes including fraud, writing phony checks, identity theft to name a few.
The witness list includes a cast of characters straight out of a bad romance or crime novel. Here's a partial list of names we can expect to become familiar during the estimated 5 week long trial:
Michele MacNeill: the victim of murder, although a judge has ruled she cannot be referred to as the victim at trial. 50 years old at the time of her death, Michele was a devoted mother, a former beauty queen who certainly did not need to undergo the face lift her husband Martin pushed her to have. Michele was allegedly preparing to divorce Martin, and told her daughter Alexis "if anything happens to me, make sure it wasn't your father". She feared her husband was preparing to kill her, she even tried to identify the pills he was giving her by feeling each one when her face was bandaged and she couldn't see well.
Martin MacNeill: Michele's husband, and the defendant in her murder trial, charged with first degree murder and obstruction of justice. MacNeill was a physician and held a law degree, although an investigator discovered MacNeill gained entry to medical school in Mexico using falsified college transcripts. This calls into question his entire 30 year medical career. MacNeill used a phony transcript to get into a medical college in California, where he graduated after 3 years with a degree in osteopathic medicine. In 1984, he landed a residency at a New York hospital and built a 30 year career as a doctor. But don't call him "the good doctor". His resume includes a stint at BYU Health Clinic, but a complaint from a former patient caused him to resign from that position. Was this one of the several alleged sexually inappropriate relationships he had with female patients? Investigator Doug Witney also uncovered more dirt on MacNeill, after the fake credentials came to light. He found that MacNeill served in the US Army for less than 2 years in the mid 1970's before being discharged for a psychiatric disorder. Martin MacNeill collected more than $100,000 in disability payments from the Veterans Administration. At the time of that discovery, MacNeill was collected around $3,000 per month from the VA! His record of white collar crimes dates back to the 1970's. In 1977, he was on felony probation for 3 years for writing phony checks in California. Prosecutors and Michelle's family believe Martin MacNeill arranged for his wife's plastic surgery in order to obtain a lethal cocktail of powerful pain medications and sedatives which he used to drug her and drown her in the bathtub.
Gypsy Willis: Former mistress to Martin MacNeill, she moved into the MacNeill home weeks after Michelle's death and became the children's "nanny". A former roommate of Willis told investigators that Willis once said she wanted to cut Michele MacNeill's brakes. She did time in Federal Prison for stealing the identity of one of MacNeill's adopted children!
Alexis Somers: One of the MacNeill's oldest children, 29 year old Alexis has long believed her father killed her mother. As an outspoken woman who questioned her father from the start, she was "banned" from the family after Martin decided he no longer wanted her speaking to her siblings, because she stood firmly against her father. Alexis and sister Rachel would team up with Michele's sister Linda Cluff to begin building a "file" against Martin MacNeill. They would later present their findings to the Utah County Attorney's office, where investigator Doug Witney agreed to review the file and the official reports. Witney is the one who discovered MacNeill used somebody elses transcripts to gain entry to two colleges, including a medical school in Mexico Alexis was at her mother's side in the days following her face lift procedure, and began questioning her father when it was clear her mother was being over medicated and appeared "listless". Alexis had to return to Las Vegas on April 10, 2007 where she was attending medical school. Just a day later, her she received the call that her mother was dead. She immediately suspected her father had killed her mother.
Doug Witney: Investigator with the Utah County Attorney's office, Witney is the one person who agreed to take another look into Michelle's death and the file compiled by Alexis, Rachel and Linda Cliff. He uncovered many skeletons in the "doctor's" closet.
Linda Cluff: Michele MacNeill's sister, who joined forces with her nieces to get the goods on Martin MacNeill and find justice for her sister Michele.
Rachel MacNeill: The oldest of the MacNeill children, now 33 years old. Rachel was taken to a Mormon Temple with her father to "pray" for a nanny, when out of nowhere Gypsy Willis appeared. She would move in and become the nanny just weeks after Michele's death. What kind of scumbag father would do this to his own daughter?
Damian MacNeill: Martin & Michele's only biological son, Martin had Damian and his girlfriend remove and dispose of evidence relating to his mother's death. MacNeill asked his son to remove all of Michele's medications following her death, and Damian complied. In January of 2010, Damian MacNeill is believed to have committed suicide by taking an overdose of prescription medications. Anybody sensing a dark theme in the MacNeill family yet??
Rufus "Roy" MacNeill: Older brother to Martin MacNeill, Roy was found dead in the family's New Jersey home - an apparent suicide. Several of Martin's former girlfriends told investigators that Martin MacNeill confessed to killing Roy after he found him in the bathtub with both wrists slit - he allegedly drown his brother because he felt suicide was a family embarrassment. Although investigators have confirmed Roy MacNeills' death, it is not known if Martin was involved.
Randall Spencer & Susanne Gustin: Martin MacNeill's defense attorneys; they filed a successful motion to disqualify Judge Samuel MacKay, and have filed motions that prosecutors withheld evidence they were entitled to (prosecutorial misconduct) and fought to have the murder charge dismissed. That motion was denied.
Chad Gruander & Sam Pead - Utah County Attorney's Office, says their office was "sideswiped" by the defense's motion that the Utah County Attorney's office be disqualified from prosecuting the case against Martin MacNeill for withholding evidence, including information that the County Attorney's office informed Damian MacNeill's law school that he was believed to be "a dangerous" individual, among other allegations. Gruander said that his office hand delivered a letter to the defense inviting them to come to their office and review any and all evidence. The defense motion claims a thumb drive was given to the defense by one of the state's own witnesses in the case.
Judge Samuel V. MacKay - the first judge assigned to the case, he was later disqualified from the case as a result of motions filed by the defense.
Judge Derek Pullan - the new judge assigned to the MacNeill case, after Judge MacKay was disqualified.
Dr. Todd Grey: A medical examiner who testified during a preliminary hearing that he was surprised the State was filing murder charges because he didn't believe there was enough evidence to support the finding. The State has filed a Motion to preclude his testimony. Prosecutor Sam Pead argued that Grey is not a legal expert, and it is inappropriate for him to speculate to a jury during a trial. The judge found that Grey could testify, but not about the prosecution of the case.
Michelle Savage & Brandi Smith: Both women testified at the preliminary hearing that they overheard Gypsy Willis talking about wanting to sever the brakes on her boyfriend's wife's car.
Inmate #1 and Inmate #2: Expected to be key witnesses for the prosecution, the judge ruled these witnesses identities will remain secret to protect them from retaliation in federal prison where both are serving time - and served time with Martin MacNeill. Cameras will not be allowed to record their faces and their names will not be disclosed during the trial.
I will be adding to this list and updating the information as the trial unfolds. This case has so many scandal-like stories tied to it, it could fill 10 blog entries just to get up-to-date.
The witness list includes a cast of characters straight out of a bad romance or crime novel. Here's a partial list of names we can expect to become familiar during the estimated 5 week long trial:
 |
| Michele MacNeill (HLNTV.com) |
 |
| Martin & Michele |
 |
| Gypsy Willis (HLNTV.com) |
 |
| Alexis Somers (HLNTV.com) |
Doug Witney: Investigator with the Utah County Attorney's office, Witney is the one person who agreed to take another look into Michelle's death and the file compiled by Alexis, Rachel and Linda Cliff. He uncovered many skeletons in the "doctor's" closet.
Linda Cluff: Michele MacNeill's sister, who joined forces with her nieces to get the goods on Martin MacNeill and find justice for her sister Michele.
 |
| Rachel MacNeill (HLNTV.com) |
 |
| The MacNeill Family (HLNTV.com) |
Rufus "Roy" MacNeill: Older brother to Martin MacNeill, Roy was found dead in the family's New Jersey home - an apparent suicide. Several of Martin's former girlfriends told investigators that Martin MacNeill confessed to killing Roy after he found him in the bathtub with both wrists slit - he allegedly drown his brother because he felt suicide was a family embarrassment. Although investigators have confirmed Roy MacNeills' death, it is not known if Martin was involved.
Randall Spencer & Susanne Gustin: Martin MacNeill's defense attorneys; they filed a successful motion to disqualify Judge Samuel MacKay, and have filed motions that prosecutors withheld evidence they were entitled to (prosecutorial misconduct) and fought to have the murder charge dismissed. That motion was denied.
Chad Gruander & Sam Pead - Utah County Attorney's Office, says their office was "sideswiped" by the defense's motion that the Utah County Attorney's office be disqualified from prosecuting the case against Martin MacNeill for withholding evidence, including information that the County Attorney's office informed Damian MacNeill's law school that he was believed to be "a dangerous" individual, among other allegations. Gruander said that his office hand delivered a letter to the defense inviting them to come to their office and review any and all evidence. The defense motion claims a thumb drive was given to the defense by one of the state's own witnesses in the case.
Judge Samuel V. MacKay - the first judge assigned to the case, he was later disqualified from the case as a result of motions filed by the defense.
Judge Derek Pullan - the new judge assigned to the MacNeill case, after Judge MacKay was disqualified.
Dr. Todd Grey: A medical examiner who testified during a preliminary hearing that he was surprised the State was filing murder charges because he didn't believe there was enough evidence to support the finding. The State has filed a Motion to preclude his testimony. Prosecutor Sam Pead argued that Grey is not a legal expert, and it is inappropriate for him to speculate to a jury during a trial. The judge found that Grey could testify, but not about the prosecution of the case.
Michelle Savage & Brandi Smith: Both women testified at the preliminary hearing that they overheard Gypsy Willis talking about wanting to sever the brakes on her boyfriend's wife's car.
Inmate #1 and Inmate #2: Expected to be key witnesses for the prosecution, the judge ruled these witnesses identities will remain secret to protect them from retaliation in federal prison where both are serving time - and served time with Martin MacNeill. Cameras will not be allowed to record their faces and their names will not be disclosed during the trial.
I will be adding to this list and updating the information as the trial unfolds. This case has so many scandal-like stories tied to it, it could fill 10 blog entries just to get up-to-date.
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