TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Supreme Judicial Court sides with Marshfield prosecutors

    SJC rules that 9/11 terrorism law applies to Marshfield teens:

    Ten months after the trial of Tobin Kerns officially ended the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has finally ruled on the law that held up Tobins’ verdict.

    In a key victory for Plymouth prosecutors, the state’s high court outlined today how a new law aimed at terrorist conspiracies should apply to two teenagers charged with plotting a Columbine-style attack on Marshfield High School in 2004.

    In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Judicial Court said the law was crafted to punish people who discuss violent attacks on public places or against individuals. The SJC said for someone to be convicted, prosecutors do not have to prove that the intended target somehow learns about the attack. The court said prosecutors cannot use evidence from co-conspirators to prove their case, but can draw on witnesses who learned about the threats. Today’s ruling is believed to be the first time the SJC provided guidance to judges on how to interpret the five-year-old statute.

    I hate to say it but this does not bode well for Tobin. If any silver lining can be found in this black cloud is this ruling will apply to Joe Nee as well.

    No word yet when the judge will deliver Tobin’s verdict.

  • Possible mistrial for Henderson

    Henderson defense seeks mistrial:

    The defense for Richard Henderson Jr. is calling for a mistrial after one of the prosecution’s witness’ statement did not match her pretrial statement.

    The request by lead defense attorney Carolyn Schlemmer came on the third day of testimony after the prosecution’s last witness of the day testified Henderson had told her he realized that his actions were wrong on the day he allegedly murdered his 11-year-old brother, parents and grandmother.

    Witness Jennifer McCreary, who dated Henderson for a year in 2001-02, started to tell jurors Wednesday that Henderson had admitted to her what happened on the evening of the crime. She testified he told her he was playing video games with his brother, Jacob, in his room and that he killed him with a steel pipe.

    “He realized what he had done and threw his brother’s body out the window,” McCreary said.

    After killing his brother, she continued, Henderson told her he realized he had to kill his whole family. She said he went to his grandmother’s room and asked her to get something out of a nightstand, then killed her with a pipe.

    “He closed the door so his father wouldn’t see,” McCreary said.

    Henderson also hid the pipe, McCreary testified, and at one point retrieved it and wrapped a towel around it.

    At that point in McCreary’s testimony, Judge Diana Moreland dismissed the jury for their evening break.

    Out of the presence of the jury, defense attorney Carolyn Schlemmer told the judge that she was unaware the realization statement was ever made.

    “There have been no statements (that) he realized what he did until this,” Schlemmer said.

    Initially, Schlemmer said, McCreary gave a statement to the state attorney and a statement to the defense, but “at no point” did Henderson tell her he pushed his brother out the window because he realized what he did.

    Way to go prosecution. You may have just screwed up what was a slam dunk. If the judge declares a mistrial a new trial would take place at a later date.

    Today however the prosecution is trying to backtrack.

    When McCreary retook the stand this morning, prosecutor Brian Iten asked her if she was sure that Henderson told her, “he realized what he had done.”

    Said McCreary: “I’m not too confident.”

    Iten then said to her: “Then you acknowledge when you gave a statement to the state attorney’s office you never mentioned that before.”

    McCreary said, “Yes.”

    Iten then asked the court to instruct the jury to disregard the statement made to the jury that he had realized what he had done.

    Judge Moreland then instructed the jury to disregard that portion of McCreary’s testimony.

    You can’t unring the bell.

    As of the time I am posting this I have yet to hear a ruling on the mistrial request.

  • Testimony continues in Henderson trial

    Witnesses testify to Henderson’s describing people dying:

    More testimony about how Richard Henderson Jr. is not insane just fucked up.

    William Klein, a friend of Henderson’s, said the two were smoking pot and drinking alcohol three days after the murders of four Henderson family members. As they talked, he quoted Henderson as saying, “Something to the affect of how it sounds when somebody dies…bones are crunching, bodies gurgling.”

    Katie Kadisak, 17, said that she had spent time with Henderson the weekend after the killings. She said Henderson told her that it is very easy to crack someone’s skull, and that when someone is dying they twitch and gurgle.

    Also on the stand this afternoon during the third day of testimony was Henderson’s friend, Christina Depetris, who said with Henderson jailed the two exchanged letters. She read from one of the letters he wrote, saying, “I did that horrible thing – I’ll never forget the sound of the (TV-video) remote hitting the ground.”

    The defense questioned witnesses on Henderson’s thoughts of suicide…

    Henderson’s ex-girlfriend told the court today that he discussed suicide the day after the murders.

    Danielle Kervin was asked about suicide by defense lawyer Franklin Roberts.

    To Robert’s questioning, Kervin said that, yes, Henderson had talking about killing himself. She said Henderson had asked her if she would join him in taking an overdose of pills.

    While Kervin answered questions, she nervously played with her hair and occasionally looked over at Henderson, who sat at the defense table. He sat slumped down in a chair during the morning testimony, occasionally resting his chin on a hand and twirling a pencil. He was dressed in a dark sweatshirt and baggy blue jeans.

    Another witness on the stand, Eric Weger, 20, also said Henderson talked of suicide. He said, to a prosecutor’s questions, that he took it more of a joke that Henderson was talking of killing himself. Later, when asked by the defense lawyer if Henderson was laughing when he said this, Weger said Henderson was not laughing.

    Asked if Henderson seemed to be hearing voices, Weger told the state’s lawyer he didn’t think so. Asked by a defense lawyer if he had observed Henderson talking to unseen voices, Weger said no.

    This little tidbit leads me to believe he damn well knew the difference between right and wrong…

    Witness Stacy Dean, 21, said that on Sunday three days after the killings she was asked by Henderson to drive to Wauchula and pick up Henderson, Kervin and another young woman, and she did. A previous witness had said Henderson dropped the family van in Wauchula and needed a ride.

    When the four in the van drove by the Henderson family’s mobile home outside Myakka City, Dean said there were sheriff’s cars there with lights flashing.

    She said Henderson ducked down in the back seat of the van. When she asked him why he had slumped out of sight, he said his parents must have called the cops on him.

    And motive…

    Earlier in court, witnesses said Henderson – on the Friday after the killings – picked up his girlfriend for a weekend date, tried to sell his family’s electronics, bought illegal drugs and passed out at the mall.

    Amy DonSalvo said she was approached by Henderson as he tried to sell a TV and a computer. He told her she would have to go pick them up at his family’s house near Myakka City. He told her he wanted cash or drugs that could be sold for cash, DonSalvo said.

    He’s not insane, he’s just a murderous drug addict.

  • More testimony in Henderson trial

    (Again this was written up yesterday but I took last night off.)

    Henderson ‘normal’ after deaths:

    More testimony in the trial of Richard Henderson Jr. This time let’s hear from his grandfather.

    Loyal Stringer told jurors their grandson said he was taking a girlfriend home. He testified he appeared “normal,” but the girlfriend appeared scared and had “little color in her face.”

    Henderson, before he drove off, told his grandparents not to go to the house because his parents were fighting “real bad.”

    Again that doesn’t sound like an insane person to me.

    Now some testimony from his friends…

    More testimony from Nicole J. Russell and Zach Anderson – two friends of Henderson Jr. – indicated they had previously seen Henderson take Xanex and smoke marijuana.

    Russell also said she had seen him the day after the killings and that he told her he was going to Mexico.

    The day before and after the killings, Anderson testified, he saw Henderson Jr. at a friend’s house. Henderson, he said, appeared normal and “in touch with reality.”

    If he appeared normal after slaughtering his entire family he must be one heartless S.O.B.

    So far it doesn’t look like the insanity defense is going really well.

  • Kip Kinkel denied retrial

    Springfield school killer denied new trial:

    Speaking of Kip Kinkel, because you know we were, he has been denied a new trial.

    Kinkel claimed he was too mentally ill to agree to a plea bargain that sent him to prison for more than 111 years. But the judge disagreed.

    Kinkel argued his original defense attorneys and the trial judge should have ordered a mental competency evaluation before going ahead with the plea bargain.

    But a lawyer for the attorney general’s office argued during a two-day hearing in June that Kinkel understood what was happening and was intelligent enough to calculate that his best chance for a reduced sentence was the plea deal.

    Thank God for a responsible judge for once.

    (Trench’s Note: I had this written up early yesterday but took the night off. Still, thanks to D.P. for thinking of me. 🙂 )

  • Give it up already Roy

    Cooper still pushing for parental consent to use MySpace:

    Seriously, Roy, it’s time to hang it up.

    Even after being crushed in the North Carolina House Attorney General Roy Cooper is still touting his master plan for MySpace.

    Attorney General Roy Cooper vowed Monday to keep pressuring lawmakers to approve legislation that will require minors to get parental permission before using MySpace.com and other social networking Web sites.

    North Carolina legislators failed to pass a bill this year targeting such sites, as some House members and Internet commerce groups said a broad restriction would be unworkable and unconstitutional.

    “One thing we pride ourselves in doing is being ahead of the curve with ideas,” Cooper said during a news conference. “Sometimes it just takes the slow-moving Legislature a period of time to see the light.”

    Or how about a slow Attorney General who doesn’t realize the technology doesn’t exist yet?

    Cooper said age verification technology is already being used on adult oriented sites that advertise tobacco and alcohol. He said social networking sites just don’t want to lose the revenue generated from advertising to young people, an accusation MySpace denies.

    What? You mean that stupid drop-down menu that asks you your age? Yeah, nobody lies on that. The other form of verification is called a credit card. While a parent’s credit card may be helpful with parental consent it doesn’t prevent kids from just lifting the numbers and using it themselves. Plus it opens a whole other issue of identity theft.

    And my favorite part…

    Officials in two states have said MySpace recently identified more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles. The company will not confirm the reports but said it is working to locate and remove profiles posted by sexual offenders.

    Cooper threatened Monday to take action against MySpace if it fails to require parental consent voluntarily, but he declined to discuss specifics.

    That’s Roy Cooper for you. He hasn’t been specific since he started this whole ordeal. From now on I’m going to refer to him as Mr. Vague.

  • Henderson trial starts

    Sides come out firing on Day One of Henderson trial:

    The trial of Richard Henderson Jr. opened yesterday. Henderson is accused of killing his entire family on Thanksgiving 2005.

    The defense, of course, is pursuing an insanity defense…

    But Franklin Roberts, one of Henderson’s court-appointed attorneys, told the jury a different story as he outlined his client’s defense. He contended the slayings in the family’s Myakka City mobile home were a tragedy brought on by Henderson Jr.’s severe mental illness.

    “The horrible act of someone who was insane at the time it was committed,” Roberts said of Henderson, charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his father, Richard Sr.; mother, Jeaneane; grandmother, June; and younger brother, Jacob.

    As Henderson occasionally jotted notes, Roberts described him as a man with a troubled youth full of drug abuse, suicide attempts and self-mutilation.

    “Early in life, something was wrong,” Roberts said. “He had trouble keeping up in school . . . was disruptive in class. He is not someone who simply at one moment in time – suddenly exploded.”

    Doctors will take the stand, Roberts said, and testify Henderson was insane when he killed his family.

    But just as the prosecution asked how can Henderson be insane when he did this?

    Henderson, while playing video games with his 11-year-old brother, took a metal pipe, struck him on the head and pushed the boy out a window. Then, in separate rooms, Henderson attacked his 82-year-old grandmother, his father, 48, and his mother, 42, killing each with “lethal amount of force” to their heads.

    Sandy Stringer, Henderson’s other grandmother, called the home for her daughter, Jeaneane, on the night of the killings.

    But Henderson Jr. answered instead.

    Lying, he said that his mom was in the shower and would soon go to bed.

    The day after the killings, Iten said, Henderson took his parents’ van, picked up his girlfriend and her friend and the three spent the next two nights in an Ellenton hotel. There, he told his girlfriend that he had killed people. But he lied about who, Iten said. He said he had killed his ex-wife, Brittany Wilde, and then killed his grandmother after she walked in on the attack.

    He also later told friends he planned to head for Mexico, Iten said.

    If he was insane he would have told his girlfriend that he killed Snap, Crackle, and Pop and was running away to Crunchland. (If he did kill Snap, Crackle, and Pop wouldn’t that make him a cereal killer?)

    Henderson isn’t insane he’s just a cold-blooded killer.

  • Potter porn portrayers up in arm about LiveJournal deletions

    LiveJournal users fight erotic ‘Harry Potter’ deletions:

    The LiveJournal Harry Potter sex fans are revolting in their parents’ basements again over some more deletions of accounts that in my opinion were long overdue by LJ.

    LiveJournal users who patronize sex-themed Harry Potter fan art and fiction communities–and a host of other concerned users–are revolting a second time over account suspension notices they say are unpredictable and trample on their free-expression rights.

    The most recent saga over user-generated Harry Potter artwork appears to have started late last week, when at least two users, “ponderosa121” and “elaboration,” reported receiving notices from a LiveJournal abuse team member who informed them that their accounts had been “permanently suspended.” (One user tracking the situation says an “undetermined” number of other Harry Potter artists have also been suspended in recent weeks, but we’ve yet to get official confirmation on that.)

    The reason for the deletions? The users’ journal entries contained “drawings depicting minors in explicit sexual situations,” which represented a violation of LiveJournal’s policies, according to copies of the letters posted by their recipients.

    In ponderosa121’s case, the offending image depicted an unclothed Harry Potter of ambiguous age receiving oral sex from sometimes-villain Severus Snape. The image posted by elaboration, who describes herself on an external site as a 21-year-old Atlanta sometimes-resident with a fondness for “zombies, pie and cold pizza,” showed the twin brothers of Ron Weasley, Harry’s good friend, in their own intimate moment. There were no ages listed in the fantasy images, however, so they could have been meant to depict the lads when they were 18 years old.

    Now let’s see what the basement dwellers had to say…

    One user who goes by the name Guma Kawauso argued that by that logic, people could face journal shutdowns for posting images by the renowned photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, whose common themes were flowers, portraits of famous people and nudes–which encountered charges of “pandering obscenity.”

    “‘Obscenity’ is the perfect tool to weed out everything that doesn’t fit in a nice, clean, straight, male-dominated and preferably white world,” charged a user named erestor.

    Except we’re not talking about Mapplethorpe. We’re talking about bizarre sexual fetish drawings (I refuse to call then art) of underage characters that someone else invented.

    “The policy makes LJ an unwelcoming environment for sexual expression and experimentation, which is a change; in the past, LJ has been a valuable environment for many groups who are expressing, experimenting with, or identifying as non-normative sexualities to speak free of constraints which are often backed by patriarchical [sic], racist, classist, or heterosexist behavioral norms,” another user, who goes by the moniker “coffeeandink,” wrote in a recent entry.

    This is the same argument I used to see in the LJ Pedo forums. Hey, if the Furries want to get their freak on at LJ I have no problem with that as long as it only involves adults. Any kind of sexual activity that takes place on LJ should not in any way, shape, or form involve children real or imagined.

    Harry Potter fans, in general, creep me out but these “fan artists” wrote the book on creep. Or should I say stole the book on creep then put the creep characters in sexual situations? Anyway, these fan artists are uber-creepy. Not only that but LJ and its parent company SixApart are a private company and have the right to banish any material they see fit. With their userbase, I doubt they’ll even miss the Harry Potter porn freaks.

  • Book review of “The Killer Book of True Crime”

    (Guest post by Jade)

    Yes, it’s book review time again kiddies.

    First of all, I would like to say thanks to Sourcebooks Inc. for sending me their book “The Killer Book of True Crime” by Tom Philbin and Michael Philbin to review. I just wish I had nicer things to say about it.

    It starts going wrong in the very first chapter, which in my opinion reads like a how-to for shoplifters, pick-pockets and con men. From there it digresses into pure schlock. Pure, at times inaccurate schlock. I could almost overlook the misspelling of serial killer Dean Corll’s name (they don’t call me the Grammar Bitch for nothing). Then I got to the chapter about female killers where they mentioned North Carolina’s own Velma Barfield, who, according to this book “killed seven husbands, a handful of fiances, and her mother”. Neat trick, considering that she was only married twice. Simple matter of public record. It wouldn’t have been that difficult to get it right.

    In each chapter, they have little blurb called “Crime Can Be Funny”. Good idea, except for the fact that very few of the stories were funny.

    Some cases they devote half a chapter to, some only get one or two sentences. Many of the stories are the sort of sensationalized writing reminiscent of the old true detective magazines that used to be on the rack with the Enquirer and Star at the grocery store. Not to mention the fact that I never really wanted to see pictures of John Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe on the morgue slab. And I really didn’t want to see the ones of JonBenet Ramsey. While there was nothing gruesome about any of these pictures, I just found it to be beyond tacky.

    I also could have done without so many statistics. If I want statistics I’ll look them up. When I’m reading a true crime book I want actual cases, not numbers.

    This book was not completely without redeeming qualities though. I did learn some new things about cases I read about previously and read about some others that I had never heard of but now want to read more about.

    In short, I would say if you’re a fan of the previously mentioned detective magazines this book might interest you. Otherwise, you’d probably be better off passing on this one.

  • Chanthabouly fit to stand trial

    Teen declared fit for trial in Foss shooting:

    The last we heard anything about the shooting at Foss High in Washington State gunman Douglas S. Chanthabouly was ordered to undergo a psych exam.

    A psychiatrist there reported last month that the teen suffers from psychosis, and prescribed a battery of drugs to treat it, according to court documents.

    So a judge has ruled that Chanthabouly is fit to stand trial.

    Of course, his defense team will still more than likely be pursuing an insanity defense.

    A psychiatrist hired by the defense has diagnosed Chanthabouly with a “major mental disorder,” John McNeish, one of the two public defenders assigned to represent the teenager, told Superior Court Judge Ronald Culpepper during a hearing.

    McNeish did not say from what mental disease his client suffers or what the possible mental defense would be.

    They haven’t picked out their mental disease yet.

    To successfully argue insanity, his lawyers would have to convince a judge that Chanthabouly didn’t know the difference between right or wrong or couldn’t perceive the nature and quality of what he was doing when Kok was shot.

    Good luck with that.