I hope this judge excuses the jury each and every time he berates the defense because otherwise this weighs on a jury’s mind when making a guilty/not guilty decision.
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I believe they lived on the main level the first summer (2018) and that MB was actually in the barn apartment then.
Wasn’t the pipe that burst on the main level? Which was why the damage was on the main level, and in the basement apartment right below it?
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As I remember the testimony the pipe that burst was in the ceiling between the main floor and the upper floor.
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I’m old as dirt, retired in this field and was around long before we even had the internet lol
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I didn’t start watching until Day 2. I’m watching opening arguments now. Prosecutor was meh, watching Mr Bilinkas and he’s quite the firey guy. Here’s the link if you want to watch
(197) NJ v. Michael Barisone Trial Day 1 - Defense Opening Statement - Edward Bilinkas - YouTube
Omg. It feels like that was two months ago by now. At least.
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Another attorney? 
Regardless, welcome to this odd little corner of the internet. Do you actually have anything to do with horses? Scared of them? One of the last true crime people who wandered into this discussion used “scared of horses” as a handle. lol
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I wonder how much different the defense attorney’s performance would appear if he’d been under another judge…
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Consider that the defense attorney’s questions often deserved sustained objections. The defense attorney rarely raised an objection to prosecutor because he wasn’t trying to introduce things not allowed.
There is so much biased thinking in this trial by viewers. If there is a predominantly Male jury I dont think they will have the pity for the defendant that most females might.
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not scared, rode English in my day, retired paralegal, and had a criminal defense PI firm many moons ago
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Really? I think if any of the male jury members ever had a crazy ex girlfriend, it might go the other way.
We shall see.
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This is kinda my point about the 911 call.
MB is already on the ground, under RG, and LK is shot.
We don’t hear LK much, except in the background, after she gives the phone to RG when RG says “hello? Hello?”
We don’t know what happened before the start of this call.
But we do know what happened from the start of that call until Heymer arrives (at the end of the call or the end of the portion of the call played in court) and of course after Heymer arrived.
MB was not beaten, his arm broken/dislocated after Heymer arrives, which is the end of the portion of the call played in court.
We don’t hear anything indicating the beating MB received, such as him screaming, or otherwise indicating vocal pain responses to that beating, broken arm, etc.
I mean that arm had to hurt, right? It was dislocated and broken, correct? That would hurt. He would scream or otherwise vocally respond, right?
That suggests either he’s incoherent [altered mental state], unconscious, or all that beating already happened.
Ok, rereading my notes, yikes!, I left out something [indicated in bold, below]
RG says " hello? Hello? A man, he came here with a F’in gun, I have him detained right now"*
When RG yells to get the “dog in the house now”, who is he telling to get the dog inside? LK?
I mean, has to be right? So is she still up at that point, moving around?
Did he not realise she had been shot?
He can’t see the blood she’s reporting she’s losing lots of?
I mean it’s her chest, how come he can’t see the blood she’s losing from this two gun shots to her chest?
Maybe she thought she was losing alot of blood because so much was on her hands?
But maybe it was on her hands from the beating she gave MB and not her own GSW which according to everyone bled surprisingly little [externally]?
In which case they clearly beat him before the call, as it’s the third thing she mentions, that she is losing alot of blood.
@MHM review the edits I made to this…
- I’m editing the doc cause clearly I can not read my handwriting…
.
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Not only that, women are more socialized to conform to the pressures of a group. Men are more likely to dig in and stand on principle.
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Sorry, that statement made me laugh out loud based on my own personal experience.
But it may well be true in general.
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It’s possible, definitely. I wish Mr B had been able to tie in what he was trying to get at with the testimony from the propane guy. It came across as irrelevant, but I have a feeling it wasn’t irrelevant at all.
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I know, it doesn’t describe me either….but I do think on the whole it’s true. Women are more group think/validation oriented in their communication goals.
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I partially agree with some of what you are saying.
But also, consider that there is a LACK of objections by the defense attorney at times. Not because the prosecutor is strictly following rules, or that the prosecution’s witnesses are conducting themselves perfectly. Nope. Multiple prosecution witnesses have rambled while testifying.
One theory about the lack of defense objections is that the defense attorney is past his prime, or incompetent.
Another theory, however, is that he is deliberately cultivating a certain atmosphere and dynamic in the courtroom. And this will impact how the jury perceived the case in front of them. And perhaps cause the jury to feel more sympathetic to the defendant.
This was most clearly on display when the defense’s expert rebuttal witness, Dr. Schlesinger, was on the stand. Bilinkas could have objected to a lot of that guy’s testimony. Bilinkas didn’t. I think there was a reason for that… and it was deliberate and tactical on Bilinkas’ part.
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Wow. So you were there? I can’t believe you weren’t called to testify.
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I wonder that too. I don’t see the bias that a lot of other people see. I do see Mr B skating the rules of evidence and sometimes going too far, but then the judge goes a little overboard in his reaction.
I’ve also wondered how many judges sit in that county in NJ (admittedly I haven’t wondered enough to look it up). But it’s clear those two have a history, even without knowing about some of the past trials they’ve been involved in together.
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To me, that is one of the least unbelievable parts of their account. Which, granted, is not a high bar.
But I can imagine not realizing immediately that the shots actually connected if there was not much blood visible right away.
Except! Moments later, he was telling the 911 operator that LK was in terrible shape. So which was it? Was she in terrible shape? Or was she in good enough shape to put the dog in the house?? 
And also! According to her statement to the police, by that time her hands were so covered in her own blood that she could not dial her own phone, which is why she had to use RG‘s phone to make the 911 call. She had lost that much visible blood, but RG was still telling her to put the dog in the house??
I can understand that there could be plenty of confusion in a chaotic scene with stress involved.
But there seemed to be a lot of contradictory things going on there. A LOT.
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