I like the assertion that 'this was the perfect crime' by the defense attorney. Uh, no, you get away with the perfect crime.
I like the assertion that 'this was the perfect crime' by the defense attorney. Uh, no, you get away with the perfect crime.
Is asking about Native American blood a common court ques?
intersting article about cross-cultural considerations in a trial.
http://www.americanbar.org/newslette...scultural.html
while native american courts follow the U.S. court system, there are special considerations for native people. or something.
That seems pretty fucking weird and bullshitty. If you have to say 'I think so, maybe' about the answer to 'are you Native American', I don't think you should qualify for the protections put in place. It should apply to people who live on reservation land.
I'm gonna say this kid is innocent until proven guilty. There was a very similar case a few years ago. The kid's name was Michael Crowe. He was about the same age if I remember correctly. He was coerced into giving a false confession after hours and hours of relentless interrogation. It turned out that a transient in the neighborhood did commit the murder. Don't rush to judgement so fast people.
When I heard about this case I immediately thought the brother did it, which made me feel bad because I thought I was getting jaded. To see he was arrested and charged just makes me sad. That poor family...all those lives ruined.
CNN) -- A 12-year-old accused with stabbing to death his 8-year-old sister at their Northern California home pleaded not guilty on Wednesday during an appearance in a Calaveras County juvenile court, his attorney told CNN.
The boy -- who has not been named because of his age -- is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing.
"I say he is innocent," the boy's attorney, Mark Reichel, said. "We are going to come back on July 31 to set a date for a trial on that day and we are getting into the issue of whether a 12-year-old can ever be put on trial for murder."
Leila Fowler and her brother were said to be alone on Saturday, April 27, in their family's Valley Springs home when she was found dead. The 12-year-old told police that he'd seen an intruder leaving the home, then found his sister suffering from stab wounds.
The 8-year-old died minutes after arriving at a hospital, authorities said.
After the incident, police offered a sketchy description of the suspect as a 6-foot-tall white or Hispanic male with a muscular build.
They also interviewed registered sex offenders in the area, ran down leads and searched in attics, storage sheds and more in the rural, mountainous community located about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.
Authorities also combed the Fowler's home and neighborhood looking for evidence.
Then on May 11, authorities arrested the boy.
The boy's family, according to the attorney, is supporting him. He is "doing OK under tough circumstances," Reichel said.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/29/justic...html?hpt=hp_t2
He was tried in a juvenile court and convicted of first degree murder at age 11:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Brown_case
I'm thinking this may be a similar situation.
The brother's trial begins on October 6th, 2014.
http://www.news10.net/story/news/loc...ling/11335025/
SAN ANDREAS - The judge in the Leila Fowler murder case said her brother's rights were not violated during five interviews by sheriff's investigators without a defense attorney present.
A two-day hearing prompted by Isaiah Fowler's defense team led to Judge Thomas A. Smith refusing to suppress statements made by the boy before he was arrested.
Isaiah, 12 at the time, was the only other person at the family's house in Valley Springs when Leila was stabbed to death on April 27, 2013.
His attorneys said the tone of the interviews quickly shifted from detectives considering Isaiah a witness to them believing he was the killer.
And during the two-week period leading up to Isaiah's arrest, the attorneys said Barney Fowler was put in the nearly impossible position of being his son's guardian, while trying to find out who killed his daughter.
"This is extremely rare that this happens, and it's not appropriate because it leaves the 12 year old -- the main suspect in a homicide case -- completely on his own," attorney Mark Reichel said.
Reichel and his law partner Steve Plesser said that during the fifth and final interview, Barney Fowler acted as an agent of the law during the interrogation, which led to a vague confession from his son.
"He expressed some confusion and said, 'Well, if I did something I don't remember it. But I didn't do it.' And that's what the prosecution has chosen to view as a confession, and it's clearly not," Plesser said.
Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook declined to comment as she left the courthouse.
Reichel believes if the judge had ruled in their favor, the case against Isaiah Fowler would have crumbled
Is that all they have? No forensics? A 12 yr old managed to remove all scientific trace of his crime?
I went back and read some articles before the boy was a suspect.
They collected DNA and other fingerprints from Lelia. They also had the knives that were left at the crime scene.
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/...d8SW3Q.twitter
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/29...#ixzz2S1QX2QLR
The parents are mad b/c the police are not telling them anything, but it's very possible the police thinks the parents have covered up for the son- or hid under the rug past abuses from the son.
It's my opinion, but I believe the parents figured out very early it was their son that killed Lelia.
http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/n...9bb2963f4.html
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/m...er-folo-jg.php12-year-old brother Isaiah Fowler told Valley Springs, Calif., authorities that he had found his sister stabbed to death after an intruder broke into their home, but the investigation by police have concluded that in fact there were no adults at the house when the stabbing occurred.
The boy said he called his parents who had gone to a little league game after he'd found Leila bleeding severely. Soon-to-be step-mother Krystal was the one who alerted authorities to the scene, apparently unaware that Leila had been physically hurt when reviewing her call to dispatch, though Leila had at that point actually been stabbed 21 times and was laying dead in her bedroom.
"My children are at home alone and a man just ran out of my house. My older son was in the bathroom and my daughter started screaming," the panicked woman said in the 911 call released by the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office. "When he came out, there was a man outside my house. I need an officer there."
Isaiah at that time told authorities that the intruder, whom he described as a tall man with a muscular build and long gray hair, fled the scene. The boy's description launched a 15-day manhunt that included door-to-door searches and divers in a few reservoir's near the home, not to mention terrified neighbors. The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office spent more than 2,000 man-hours collecting evidence & searching door-to-door along with agents from the FBI.
An autopsy determined Leila, at age 8, "died of shock and bleeding as a result of multiple stab wounds." Forensic evidence was taken from the family home including DNA, fingerprints, and several knives.
3 days after his sister's killing, the 12-year-old brother appeared at a candlelight vigil for her with their 19-year-old brother in which thousands attended where he said "I'm not saying goodbye to Leila," he said. "I'm saying 'See you later.' There are no goodbyes."
The children's biological mother, Priscilla Rodriguez, said during an exclusive interview with CBS Sacramento (channel 13), "There is no way Isaiah would hurt his sister" and insisted that he had never "pushed her around or anything like that as most brothers and sisters do", though she did later state that he was protective over Leila but insisted that she'd never seen him be violent nor aggressive toward Leila nor vise-verse.Calaveras County Sheriff’s investigators however, say they found the blood and fingerprints of 12-year-old Isaiah Fowler, and sources close to the investigation say the DNA evidence was collected from the crime scene, which was Leila’s bedroom.
Last edited by bermstalker; 10-05-2014 at 01:52 AM.
Reading those articles you posted Berm makes me think they knew, or suspected that he had something to do with it. That has to be a hard thing to go through, the death of one child being caused by one of your other children.
Is that the right kid? They were a big family, there was a younger boy, cute kid, with lots of curls that ended up blurred out after the arrest. (add in a haircut & sudden puberty & I guess it's possible though)
& you're right, if they've actually got forensics it's a done deal. It's not like kids that age don' t keep saying "but I didn't!!!!!!" while you sit there with them watching vids of them while they did.
Actually there is a hearing scheduled for October 6th in order to set a new trial date.
http://t.recordnet.com/article/20140922/News/140929876
Weird. At the start they were blurring the younger one?
Now they're almost all unblurred of both boys
Blighted- this local newspaper identifies him.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/m...er-folo-jg.php
The picture Berm posted of him creeped me out a bit. At the vigil and smiling? I mean, I'm sure there was some people there trying to keep the kids from being too sad, but it was weird that the picture they are posting are of the suspected murderer smiling at his sister's vigil.
Maybe it's just me.
Yeah it does, that' s why it's so confusing - the first ones identified the other kid? I've got 12 , 13 & 14 yr olds at the moment, I know some kids hit puberty REALLY early, but the younger one looks more like most 12 yr olds. Either kid is a possibility though & now both have been i.d'ed as "the one"?? The younger one had his hands over his face a lot of the time. No-one else did, so maybe they misidentified him because he was the odd one out behaviour-wise at the vigils?
Either way, there's a kid out there who's owed an apology.
I just don't see concrete evidence here. When I see it maybe I will change my mind. This kid, if he did not do it, is probably in a total state of shock and operating on autopilot. He found his younger sister butchered. He is now facing the possibility of going to prison. That would be traumatizing to a kid or adult.
His facial expressions and saying "I'm not saying goodbye to Leila, I'm saying 'See you later.' There are no goodbyes.", IMO doesn't make him guilty or sinister. I have seen lots of people say damn near they same thing when their loved one passed. I have also seen people smile at a funeral because they were remembering the good times they shared with someone they lost.
Looking at this with the mindset of a juror, the evidence so far isn't convincing me that this kid did it. Show me the evidence.
"Theoretical physics can prove that an elephant can hang from a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy. But use your eyes, your common sense".... JIM GARRISON
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