A Motional Cinco De Mayo

What’s In, What’s Out is On Court’s Docket Today

At 9:30 am, Judge Lynn Liebowitz gavels in what looks to be the final motions hearing before the start of the May 10 trial.  The court has a full plate with several motions in limine waiting on her desk when she swoops into courtroom 310 at the Moultrie Courthouse.

The Obligatory Moultrie Courthouse Pic

Among the motions being navigated today are several from the defense that seek to limit or exclude entirely portions of the government’s case including whether the crime scene was cleaned, and experimental evidence that government created to bolster that the knife found at the scene was not the murder weapon.

Another big decision is whether or not two of the defendants, Joe Price and Dylan Ward’s statements can be suppressed because of Miranda violations. Defendant Victor Zaborsky withdrew his motion and will allow it to be entered in its entirety.  All three of the defendants, though, have filed motions to sever their trials from the each that should be determined today.

Recently, the Defense has entered motions objecting to the observations of the EMTs, who first arrived at the crime scene. 

More on what is expected at today’s hearing after the jump.

The Government, for their part, has gotten into the motions act by responding to each of these motions with their obvious opposition. 

They have also requested additional information about Dr. Farhad Najam, a cardiac surgeon who will testify for the defense that the single stab wound to Robert’s heart would have incapacitated him immediately, and that his wounds would have bleed internally, meaning that Robert would not have had time to fight off his attacker, and the amount of blood found at the scene is not inconsistent with what should have been found at the crime. 

The defense has backed up Dr. Najam’s opinion with another cardiac surgeon by the name of Dr. Andrew Wechsler from Drexler University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

And the latest breaking motions from the defense ask that certain publications and books be excluded from being entered at trial, including the New Yorker article by John Updike, which discussed how dying at home has fallen out of fashion for writers.  Included as part of the article  is a drawing by Ralph Steadman, which showed a dead William Shakespeare lying on top of a white covered bed, which the prosecution claims is similar to the way Robert Wone’s body was discovered.

The defense also reveals that they want two books found in Dylan Ward’s book collection excluded from trial.  They are the novel Being Dead by Jim Crace, and STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.

Indeed, with all of this on the Court’s plate , much of the contours of the trial will be determined today.

Look for updates and all the latest developments from 310 Moultrie Courthouse here and on the twitter feed.

— Posted by David

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BadShoes
BadShoes
13 years ago

“being dead” and “stiff” as reading matter? Yikes.

AnnaZed
AnnaZed
13 years ago
Reply to  BadShoes

I have a copy of that Mary Roach book; it’s very interesting.

just sayin’

CDinDC
CDinDC
13 years ago
Reply to  AnnaZed

I read a review about the Roach book…..I thought “hmmm, I might like to read that.” LOL Sounds a little offbeat.

BadShoes
BadShoes
13 years ago
Reply to  AnnaZed

Anybody might have a copy of either book–both books together suggest a special interest.

I would bet that no murder victim has ever turned up in your guest bedroom, either.

AnnaZed
AnnaZed
13 years ago
Reply to  BadShoes

I don’t have that particular other tome, but have lots of murder mystery type books, lots ~ probably hundreds.

Clio
Clio
13 years ago
Reply to  AnnaZed

Editors, could we have a special “book chat” piece on these two works? Readers of this blog would be encouraged to read the two books in order to discuss posted reviews of them in about three weeks. Your new intern could do the posted reviews and could also facilitate the chat. Just a thought.

Eagle
Eagle
13 years ago

A picture of Shakespeare laid out dead on a bed;
A copy of Being Dead which begins with a murder;
A copy of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
And- the defense wants these bits of evidence excluded.
What can I say?

MotherOfInvention
MotherOfInvention
13 years ago
Reply to  Eagle

According to the Twitter feed the Defense was successful in getting them excluded.

Eagle
Eagle
13 years ago

Too bad.
Perhaps they relate more to a murder trial. Motivation
Necrophilia.

MotherOfInvention
MotherOfInvention
13 years ago
Reply to  Eagle

Yep. Necrophilia is plausible as a motive, but OTOH if you were going to do that, wouldn’t you be careful not to leave books like that lying around? Maybe they wanted to drug him to simulate necrophilia, and then things got out of hand. But also, if necrophilia were the motive, wouldn’t they have wanted, uh, more time with the corpse than they ended up getting? Puzzlement.

Eagle
Eagle
13 years ago

I can buy the possibility of simulated necrophilia- with a body under control, not necessarily dead.
Th thoughts of real necrophilia make me cringe (understatement).
Even with this threesome.
Then again, it happens.
Even among those we think of as the bright.
About the books left around- maybe the plan just went bad. Perhaps they(or he) had experience doing whatever they planned to do with success, perhaps to picked up strangers.
Or perhaps it was usually done at another location.
Those needle marks still haunt the picture. Always make me think of some kind of ritual.
There is so much we do not understand.

CDinDC
CDinDC
13 years ago
Reply to  Eagle

Makes me think of that guy in Canada. The grocery store chain owner. Married w/children. Would bring home men he picked up in bars when his wife was away. He would convince the men to let him asphxyiate them until they passed out. Have sex with them while they were out. He started killing them and dumping them on his property.

In not so sure I want to understand this stuff.

Eagle
Eagle
13 years ago
Reply to  CDinDC

I know how you feel.
Scary.

MotherOfInvention
MotherOfInvention
13 years ago

Wow! According to the Twitter feed restraints are out! That seems like a big blow for the government. Or is the case solid ennough that it can survive that?

Eagle
Eagle
13 years ago

I wonder if that includes chemical restraints, or just the mechanical restraints found in the closet?

MotherOfInvention
MotherOfInvention
13 years ago
Reply to  Eagle

I think the govt decided not to pursue the drugging angle already, because the only thing they found was xyxlene, which is found in a lot of foods and in other places (car exhaust), and it wasn’t in large enough quantities.

Hoya Loya
Hoya Loya
13 years ago

A little suprised the restraints aren’t coming in, but perhaps a blessing in disguise. It lessens the “ick” factor further (with sexual assualt also off the table, this may lead to more coverage from the squeamish media) and will allow the government to focus more on the conspiracy itself — the restraints would have required an explanatory tangent that might have caused confusion. And it removes at least one appealable issue for the defense. I need to think about how this impacts testimony about the wounds.

At the same time, as I said once ages ago, if I was on the jury, let the guys off and then afterwards found out about Dylan’s extensive “toy” collection, I’d be pretty p.o.’d.

Bea
Bea
13 years ago
Reply to  Hoya Loya

Well said.