Motion Denied

As most of you know Vonda was in court today requesting a new trial. Now forgive me if I word that wrong, I'm not fluent in legal terms so I will just tell you what I witnessed. 

I arrived early to meet a dear friend for coffee at Catalyst. I want to mention it because the decaf iced coffee with sugar-free raspberry flavor is amazing. Irrelevant I know, but the only way I can think to explain today is to go through what I did and what I saw today.

I walked up to the courthouse and immediately noticed singers on the front steps. I guess it is national prayer day and they were there to celebrate it. It was a bit awkward considering that we were there to see if a woman convicted of murder would be granted a retrial.

There were camera crews there, I know most of you drive downtown and have messaged me asking about them. They are from a show that will premier on Starz in 2020. I didn't contact them, I assume Vonda's family did. 

They did reach out to me and ask to do an interview on camera and I told them that I would. 

Vonda's family was there. They did not speak to me but I didn't expect them to, it's a very high-stress situation for both families and I don't expect any attention from either side. Jessie's family were very kind to me and I did sit with them in the courtroom. 

The camera crew was very polite and I think they were just interested in asking both sides how they feel about everything. 

They seemed to speak or try to speak to everyone involved in the case. 

Close to 11am we went inside and sat down in the courtroom. 

Vonda was brought in and she looked very different. She was much thinner and her hair was longer. She was in the standard issue orange jumpsuit and as far as I could tell there was VERY little reaction from her throughout the entire hearing.

Her lawyer stumbled through his reasons for wanting a new trial. 

Here are the things he presented:

*Insufficient evidence linking Vonda to the murder of Jessie Morrison. He stated that all proof was circumstantial and brought up the fact that the DNA from 3 unknown males were found under her fingernails. He also mentioned that there was unknown female blood found on a paper towel. 

*The fact that a cell phone "ping" was detected and mentioned but the paper with that information was lost and therefore not shared with the defense.

*He brought up he had a witness that had been interviewed by the police and made a statement indicating he watched Jessie get into a white van in the trailer park between 3:30 -4:30. He lived adjacent to the trailer park. 

Based on that interview the defense called him as a witness. 

The problem is that in a second interview with police he stated that he wasn't sure that he saw Jessie get into a van. He said he was unaware of the second interview and had he known he would have never called that person as a witness.  

*He had an issue with the judge stating during the trial that the jury was shaking their heads because they were hearing redundant information. He claimed this might have made the testimony of the person he was questioning seem less important to the jurors. 

I don't think I'm missing anything. I took notes as quickly as I could.

Cecil Mills effectively shot down each of these concerns and in the end, the Judge decided that there was plenty of evidence, even if circumstantial, to uphold the guilty verdict.

Afterwards, we all filed out and the TV producers continued to interview people. I talked with them and they assured me this is not slanted towards Vonda being innocent. It is investigative. Non-biased investigation. I hope that is true. I wasn't ever going to talk with them but after being assured this was not a Pro-Vonda show, I went ahead with it.