Whoah man
I coudn't pull myself away from this trial on court TV today-- did anyone else think it was ridiculously one-sided? JP never had a chance, that prosecutor was intense.
I love that they all got little mop top haircuts for court.
And so weird that Sorenson's & Orlewicz's families sat on the same bench during the trial!
Glad they were found guilty.
Off topic for a quick second: for some reason I see the word sirloin and I think of meat and stalking..I dont know anyways....back on topic!)
[quote author=sirloin link=topic=10844.msg814489#msg814489 date=1208390214]
Whoah man
I coudn't pull myself away from this trial on court TV today-- did anyone else think it was ridiculously one-sided? JP never had a chance, that prosecutor was intense.
I love that they all got little mop top haircuts for court.
And so weird that Sorenson's & Orlewicz's families sat on the same bench during the trial!
[/quote]
:lol: it's my dog's name!
Oh dont worry sweetness nothing personal. You should post your dogs pic in the MDS pets thread though.
[quote author=sirloin link=topic=10844.msg814508#msg814508 date=1208390939]
:lol: it's my dog's name!
[/quote]
[quote author=sirloin link=topic=10844.msg814489#msg814489 date=1208390214]
Whoah man
I coudn't pull myself away from this trial on court TV today-- did anyone else think it was ridiculously one-sided? JP never had a chance, that prosecutor was intense.
I love that they all got little mop top haircuts for court.
And so weird that Sorenson's & Orlewicz's families sat on the same bench during the trial!
[/quote]
Yeah it was one sided, because he was as guilty as hell. Didn't you hear the one jail house phone calls where Orlewicz is bitching because he lawyers can't find a defense strategy for him?
The kid killed and sawed off the head of an acquaintance just for the hell of it, just to experience it. I would be just as intense to make sure that little bastard spent the rest of his cocky ass in prison.
Thanks for the updates, peoples.
I know!!
How awkward to have your recorded telephone call of you talking about how shitty your lawyer is... played as he's about to go into your own closing argument. Good thinking....
The trial made a big deal about Orlewicz's myspace--- I never got to see it before it was stripped to just a profile picture.
I didn't either. Alex's is still up and running though. His sister left a comment on how well he did on the stand.
This trial had me on the edge of my couch! I for the most part believed it was self defense. I mean, he wasn't a grown adult, a teenager would probably be very likely to panic after the fact and do what he did. Is it so far fetched to believe that maybe Alex, after reaching his deal was pressured to maybe say whatever they wanted him to? Obviously, most of what he said was correct and happened as their stories match. I'm not trying to call him a liar, just maybe easily influenced while being told he could spend his entire life in prison for something he didn't do?
As for the phone calls with JP's father... am I the only one who thinks maybe that was just his frustration from being in jail?
I think that sitting there, day after day just waiting to hear the fate of my future I might be a little on edge and get loud or use foul language as well. I don't know... just random thoughts that were going through my head as this all unfolded...
And for the criminal record of the victim, I think it absolutely should have been allowed. Whether Orlewicz was aware of it or not, it still existed and points to exactly what JP was trying to say about him. It may not have had an impact on the jury but I think it should have been out there.
I mean, if someone had raped someone and was on trial for a new rape, shouldn't the jury be made aware that that person had a history of that? The victim here had a history of violence and orders of protection. I don't understand why that wasn't brought up and I agree that it was a very one sided trial.
JP did speak without emotion, but I just don't know.
Any thoughts?
JP sure did talk about murdering this guy with enough people and had the garage all set up for this "panic" response. There were just too many people telling this fact.
If he can talk that foul and be that angry at the only people that care about him, doesn't that give a clearer insight to how he treats people he doesn't like? As far as Alex, he had to have done more than just stand there as he stated. You don't get 20-30 for that, period.
Why should a Dan's past record ( the sex offender conviction occurred when his son was 17 and dating a 14-year-old girl that he met on the Internet. Daniel Sorenson thought the girl was 16 and went to Illinois to meet her) have anything to do with why this guy murdered him? Sex had nothing to do with this case. Plenty was allowed about how Sorenson considered himself a bad guy. JP knew Sorenson was full of shit playing the bad guy and disliked him for it. He is now going to get to see real bad guys up and personal. I hope real personal.
[quote author=the color nine link=topic=10844.msg813467#msg813467 date=1208358089]
I have been watching the trial on Tru or whatever they changed Court TV to. Letkemann went into detail about the killing while on stand and they had to stop because a juror got sick.
I had been listening to the host/anchors talk about Orlewicz and what a sweet boy he looks like and how they thought for sure it had to be self defense. Then they played the recorded jail phone calls between him and his parents. He has this deep voice and it is full of him telling his parents, lawyers, etc to fuck off and how they don't even have a fucking plan on how to get him the fuck out of this.
The look on the anchors/host's face was priceless! The kid is a piece of shit.
The jury has been in deliberation for a little over five hours now.
[/quote]
Aww, hells bells. I wish I'd been watching this before, I didn't know that this trial was going to be on the new Court TV. (I refuse to call it TRU lol)
Ok, my opinion on this is...finally a jury did it's job!!! Some of the cases I'd been watching on court tv, the jury seemed to be dazzled they were on tv or something, and would drop the ball.
JP is a sick kid. I have a great amount of respect for Daniel's parents. They belong to the thought of, we were all put on earth for a purpose, and some of that includes some mortal happenings. He was very..forgiving. I've been watching the anchors talk about this, this afternoon. And I have to agree, if it were MY child murdered, I couldn't do that.
I couldn't believe how snippy some of these kids (esp. Alex) got with the prosecutors!
I'm seriously dying to see Orlewicz's pre-trial MySpace... Alex's is pretty banal.
& apparently team Orlewicz is appealing...
Update: JP gets life in prison
Welp, they definitely remove dead men from the SO registry. Some states actually list the ages of the victims so I went to check out Michigan's list and no luck finding the guy.
From the minute I saw the mug shot, something about the look in Orlewicz eyes seemed so "off" to me. Then after watching him on trial, it only confirmed that he seems to have some issues. I don't know if he's psychotic, anti-social or what. I guess it would be interesting to know if he's done anything out of the ordinary like torturing animals in his past as well. At any rate, I am glad he was caught after this because who's to say that he wouldn't have done it again? He was just so cold and calculated, you don't wake up one morning with all these grand plans out of the blue to kill someone.
This case was on my mind cause we were in Canton the other day. My husband gets so annoyed with me talking about cases like this. I just find them so interesting.
[quote author=leaving_las_vegas link=topic=10844.msg855479#msg855479 date=1210905172]He was just so cold and calculated, you don't wake up one morning with all these grand plans out of the blue to kill someone.
This case was on my mind cause we were in Canton the other day. My husband gets so annoyed with me talking about cases like this. I just find them so interesting. [/quote]
Agree, I have no doubt he would have killed again. The manner in which he killed is particularly disturbing. Such intimate interaction with the corpse in stabbing and dismemberment. To me, it suggests a seriously fucked up head that is beyond help. I just don't think you can make those people normal again. They're Charles Manson. They're Jeffrey Dahmer. They're Ed Gein. Kill the monster. :|
You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...
I'm watching them in court right now and these kids don't seem to be afraid at all. Idk what it is but they just don't really seem to care.
I love an 18 year old kid declaring "music has gone all down hill since Lennon died."
Team Leyash
[quote author=sheeppiss link=topic=10844.msg1247571#msg1247571 date=1239648658]
I love an 18 year old kid declaring "music has gone all down hill since Lennon died."
[/quote]
Heh Lennon and Macartney both wrote banal, insipid shit after the beatles broke up. The Plasic Ono Band WITH Clapton had a couple songs..... but even that sucked I thought.
[quote author=Mortis link=topic=10844.msg1249203#msg1249203 date=1239805170]
Heh Lennon and Macartney both wrote banal, insipid shit after the beatles broke up. The Plasic Ono Band WITH Clapton had a couple songs..... but even that sucked I thought.
[/quote]I love his songs but it's hard for me to really get into them given how he was so different in real life.
Originally Posted by bowieluva
[quote author=Live2Love link=topic=10844.msg1247538#msg1247538 date=1239645022]
I'm watching them in court right now and these kids don't seem to be afraid at all. Idk what it is but they just don't really seem to care.
[/quote]
I'm confused...is Court TV/Tru TV re-running this trial? If so, when?
Well Chris Hansen did an episode on JP Orlewicz for ID but the official site removed that episode.
https://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/...tation/page/3/
https://sites.google.com/view/jporlewicz/story
Also the Supporters of JP orlewicz have written a statement saying that Orlewicz was a victim for attacking the deceased person for who he says was a predator and blame the courts for blaming a hero who was stopping a stalker recently. Sure the evidence was cherry picked for Orlewicz to go free.
https://www.hometownlife.com/story/n...mes/100833270/
When Alex Letkemann was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2008 for his role in the death of a Westland man, his father Pete could have done what many family members do in that situation.
He could have melted into the background, gotten lost and struggled with a system that, while trying to improve, still presents a degree of challenge as families try to navigate it.
Instead of giving into the system and watching other families give up, as well, Letkemann, a Westland resident, decided to do something productive.
He’s part of a group of people in several organizations trying to change the system, making it easier for families to navigate the morass of red tape and other problems they face in dealing with issues such as visitation.
“People don’t like to talk about it,” said Letkemann, an engineering manager at Franklin Fastener in Redford. “When a loved one gets in trouble, they tend to close in on themselves. As I learned the system, people would come to me with questions. As I learned, I helped other people out.”
It’s a system he’s been trying to help improve since Alex pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the highly publicized killing in a Canton garage of 26-year-old Daniel Sorensen of Westland. Alex took the plea in exchange for testimony that helped convict Jean Pierre Orlewicz of first-degree murder. Orlewicz, a 17-year-old Plymouth Township resident at the time of the murder, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole
The publicity that trial received — Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy dubbed it a “thrill kill” — eventually helped bring attention to the system, Pete Letkemann said.
“When everything happened with Alex, it sort of blew up … everyone heard about it,” Letkemann said. “It helped us put a human face on it.”
Making things better
Alex’s experiences in the system have helped galvanize Pete’s determination to improve it. Simple things like medical release forms that don’t follow transferred inmates from facility to facility, visitation that can be delayed or rescheduled for a variety of reasons not explained to families or incomplete family information packets are all things that make supporting an incarcerated loved one difficult on families.
After a few years, Letkemann decided getting involved with change was infinitely more satisfying that standing on the sideline.
A support group called Citizens for Prison Reform, a grass-roots, family-led initiative designed to engage, educate and empower families, was working with the Michigan Department of Corrections to form a Family Participation Program, designed to reach out to those dealing with incarceration.
The idea was to create a place where families feel supported and get the tools they need to have a more positive experience.
CPR was founded by Lois DeMott, who got the group started after the experiences of her own son.
“I contacted (DeMott) and told her I’ve been stumbling through this for five years,” Letkemann said. “I thought maybe I could help.”
Letkemann has done just that, both with the Family Participation Program and its sister program, the Family Advisory Board. Letkemann has recently assumed the chairmanship of that board, made up of a half-dozen or so family members, former inmates and ex-Michigan Department of Corrections officers.
Hard on families
Letkemann said the system can be very hard on family members, some of whom have to travel for hours or even days to get to the prisons. Letkemann himself has to drive to the Upper Peninsula to see Alex at Kinross Correctional Facility.
Such visits can be cut short, delayed or even cancelled for a variety of reasons, ranging from health problems the family members didn’t know about to a lock-down due to some factor inside the prison walls.
Those kinds of problems, Letkemann points out, are partially responsible for the low number of family visits to prisoners. Letkemann said only some 14 percent of inmates across the state get visits from the outside.
“We see best practices and suggest to MDOC ways to streamline,” Letkemann said. "They recognize the importance of (inmates having) contact with good people on the outside. It has an effect on re-entry (into life). It’s a measurable fact.”
Kyle Kaminsky, the MDOC’s legislative liaison who also serves as a liaison for the department to the Family Advocacy Board, said the work that group is doing is “helpful” and added having someone like Letkemann on the board is an asset.
“I think it’s important there are people like (Letkemann) out there,” Kaminsky said. “He’s a constructive guy, he’s trying to find constructive solutions. He understands some of the limitations faced by (MDOC).
“Pete isn’t looking to make it better just for his son,” he added. “He’s looking at making it better for everybody. He can see the complexity of a lot of these issues and works through it to try and offer useful advice on how to make it better.”
He’s made himself useful enough to DeMott to convince her to step back a little bit. She said part of Letkemann’s true value is his ability to avoid the pitfalls most families face — “A lot of people end up bitter and angry,” she said — and view the group for what it is: an opportunity to help, not unlike herself, who formed CPR in 2011.
“Pete has been a godsend,” DeMott said. “I turned my anger into passion and purpose and that’s exactly what Pete has done. It’s a life-changing experience and it can be very painful. Pete has done a remarkable thing to turn that into being able to help a lot of people.”
It’s not all sunshine and roses — “Sometimes it feels like you’re not doing any good at all,” Letkemann said — but when he looks back at what his group has been able to accomplish, there’s a sense of satisfaction.
“You do get past this ... it doesn’t have to be the end of the world,” Letkemann said. “As long as you can see past it, you can see your way through to the end.”
bkadrich@hometownlife.com
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