Jury Duty Complete
Defendant was found guilty on all five counts, including: attempted murder, criminal threats, attempted arson, and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon (a car).
The guy had a history of domestic violence and fights with his wife. Also suffered from PTSD from his time in Desert Storm, but they didn't really get into that. He'd get randomly enraged and kick his wife out of the house for a few days every one to two months. This last time she caught him signing up for online dating, and when she confronted him he locked their 13 year old daughter out of the house and then threw his wife against a wall and started to choke her, saying that if she said "one more word I'm going to snap your mutherfucking neck, bitch." A week later there's a restraining order against him because he still hadn't calmed down and she wanted to go home and get her kid/ some clothes/ her car. When he was served the order and told to leave the house he went crazy. The cops advised her to not return that evening, which was fortunate because he came back in the night, took all her stuff and poured bleach on it, smashed a bunch of furniture, took a chainsaw to the bed, etc.
She attempted to go home the next day to get her car because he was supposed to be going to an internship. She had her male cousin drive her there for protection. When they opened the garage and saw his car they kept driving, but the defendant got into his car and chased her, tried to run her off the road, got out of the car and spit on her while screaming that he was going to kill her. He tried to get a metal flashlight out of his car to swing at her cousin's car. A 911 call and a police escort to the house later, they found her car filled with gasoline, in a garage with an open flame pilot light. He took off all the lugnuts because, as he told an officer, if she tried to move the car the rims would fall off, the metal rotors would hit the floor, causing a spark, and setting fire to the car with her in it. He told the officer this because he didn't want the police that were moving the car outside of the garage to get hurt.
He sat in court everyday with the same peach button shirt and peach and blue tie. He shook his head frantically when the DA was speaking. His defense said that his wife was a woman scorned and that all he was guilty of was destruction of property. That any man would rightfully be pissed that his woman is kicking him out of HIS house, and taking HIS car (that was in her name), a woman that was ruining HIS life. Besides, the defense claimed, she'd have to be a dumbass to try and drive a car full of gasoline, and so it would be closer to "voluntary suicide" than attempted murder. It's like putting a gun on the table with a note that says "Please kill yourself." That all he wanted to do was ruin the upholstery... with gasoline. That the cop had to be lying.
I will say, one of the pictures of the crime scene (with the chainsawed bed) had an officer (different officer) posing with the evidence with a giant grin on his face. But I also heard recordings when the officer was legitimately scared about the car... did the man set it up to explode? Was he going to be able to see his wife tomorrow if he went into the house to investigate? And even if the attempt to murder someone isn't a good attempt, it still counts as an attempt. You can tell the wife was shook by it, but tried to be calm, and that she worried about her husband, who she is now divorcing. She wants him to get help, and says that she feels that the VA hospital didn't take him seriously enough. That normally he calms down and even though it's stupid, she goes back, but that this time it was "different."
I wonder what the sentencing is going to be. All I know is that something has to be done about this man and his rage issues. You could see the seething anger when his wife was in the room. You could also see the look on his face, his head bobbing up and down whenever they tried to pin her as a mad woman, glaring at the jury as if to say, "Can you believe this bitch is dragging me into attempted murder for this?" All I know is that I think that the whole thing is very sad, and that I'm glad that their daughter is safe.
The guy had a history of domestic violence and fights with his wife. Also suffered from PTSD from his time in Desert Storm, but they didn't really get into that. He'd get randomly enraged and kick his wife out of the house for a few days every one to two months. This last time she caught him signing up for online dating, and when she confronted him he locked their 13 year old daughter out of the house and then threw his wife against a wall and started to choke her, saying that if she said "one more word I'm going to snap your mutherfucking neck, bitch." A week later there's a restraining order against him because he still hadn't calmed down and she wanted to go home and get her kid/ some clothes/ her car. When he was served the order and told to leave the house he went crazy. The cops advised her to not return that evening, which was fortunate because he came back in the night, took all her stuff and poured bleach on it, smashed a bunch of furniture, took a chainsaw to the bed, etc.
She attempted to go home the next day to get her car because he was supposed to be going to an internship. She had her male cousin drive her there for protection. When they opened the garage and saw his car they kept driving, but the defendant got into his car and chased her, tried to run her off the road, got out of the car and spit on her while screaming that he was going to kill her. He tried to get a metal flashlight out of his car to swing at her cousin's car. A 911 call and a police escort to the house later, they found her car filled with gasoline, in a garage with an open flame pilot light. He took off all the lugnuts because, as he told an officer, if she tried to move the car the rims would fall off, the metal rotors would hit the floor, causing a spark, and setting fire to the car with her in it. He told the officer this because he didn't want the police that were moving the car outside of the garage to get hurt.
He sat in court everyday with the same peach button shirt and peach and blue tie. He shook his head frantically when the DA was speaking. His defense said that his wife was a woman scorned and that all he was guilty of was destruction of property. That any man would rightfully be pissed that his woman is kicking him out of HIS house, and taking HIS car (that was in her name), a woman that was ruining HIS life. Besides, the defense claimed, she'd have to be a dumbass to try and drive a car full of gasoline, and so it would be closer to "voluntary suicide" than attempted murder. It's like putting a gun on the table with a note that says "Please kill yourself." That all he wanted to do was ruin the upholstery... with gasoline. That the cop had to be lying.
I will say, one of the pictures of the crime scene (with the chainsawed bed) had an officer (different officer) posing with the evidence with a giant grin on his face. But I also heard recordings when the officer was legitimately scared about the car... did the man set it up to explode? Was he going to be able to see his wife tomorrow if he went into the house to investigate? And even if the attempt to murder someone isn't a good attempt, it still counts as an attempt. You can tell the wife was shook by it, but tried to be calm, and that she worried about her husband, who she is now divorcing. She wants him to get help, and says that she feels that the VA hospital didn't take him seriously enough. That normally he calms down and even though it's stupid, she goes back, but that this time it was "different."
I wonder what the sentencing is going to be. All I know is that something has to be done about this man and his rage issues. You could see the seething anger when his wife was in the room. You could also see the look on his face, his head bobbing up and down whenever they tried to pin her as a mad woman, glaring at the jury as if to say, "Can you believe this bitch is dragging me into attempted murder for this?" All I know is that I think that the whole thing is very sad, and that I'm glad that their daughter is safe.