A simple blog collecting true crime stories from all around the world! With a special emphasis on trial coverage and occasional analysis.
Feel free to share the entries in this blog, and to contact the blog writers at crimestories@gmx.com
The video, from November 2012, is significant to Holmes' insanity defence, as it allegedly shows the beginnings of a nervous breakdown, or psychotic break, the accused suffered in jail.
In the video, James Holmes can be seen standing on his bunk and then jumping or falling backwards to the ground.
You can view an enhanced version of the video played in court, below.
Parma, OH:The cleveland.com is reporting that the Parma Police Department have released the audio of a hoax 911 call in which a man told the dispatcher that he had already shot his father and was holding his mother and sister hostage.
The man, who sounds rather distressed on the call, called 911 at 8:20 p.m. and told a dispatcher that he along with having already shot his father, he also claimed to have his father, sister and his mother tied to chairs.
Parma officers and the department's SWAT team
surrounded the home but discovered that the call was a hoax, Lt. Kevin
Riley said.
"I just shot my dad in the stomach with a 12-gauge shotgun," the man
said during the call. "He's in the bathroom right now. My mom's in the
bathroom and so is my sister. They're all tied up."
Investigators released audio of the call Monday and are asking the public to help identify the caller, Riley said.
At one point in the call, the tension rises very quickly when the dispatcher asks for the caller's name; he threatens to shoot the rest of his family.
Investigators have said they believe the hoax is an example of a trend called
"swatting," which involves reporting life-threatening emergencies in the
hopes of bringing in a SWAT team and a large contingent of first
responders.
Police also say that this is not "prank behaviour", and have asked people to listen closely to the 911 call (embedded below) and contact the Parma Police Crime Tip Line at 440-887-7340 or by emailing crimetips@parmajustice.net
Reginald Kindle, pictured here in a mugshot from 2011
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
This is the face of the man who at 6.20 am, Sunday, June 28, called 911 to tell them that he had "killed his girlfriend." in the room they shared at the Rashelle Hotel.
Deputies responded to the motel,where they arrested 52-year-old Reginald Kindle without incident.
According to an incident report, Kindle confessed to killing her, by choking, early
Saturday morning after an argument about his drug use. He told detectives he tried to kill
himself, by taking a large amount of pills and cutting himself. but ended up calling 911 to report his actions, Deputies said.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/article25740448.html#storylink=cpy
Responding deputies found the victim's body under a pile of clothing in the room,
obstructing her from view. They said she was bound at the wrists and
ankles with belts, preventing her from escaping or fighting back. The
report stated that Kindle had several lacerations on his lower arms and
wrists and was taken to a hospital for medical treatment.
The victim, who was in her 50s, was found dead Sunday morning at the Rashelle Hotel on Northwest 27th Avenue near Fort Lauderdale.
A hotel manager informed detectives that the couple had checked in together May 29.
Associate
medical examiner Dr. Rebecca MacDougall arrived at the scene and ruled
the death a homicide. MacDougall said the victim had been dead for more
than a day.
Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said Kindle claimed he killed his girlfriend about 2 a.m. Saturday.
Kindle was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder.
Phoenix, Arizona: Just a few short hours ago, Maricopa County Superior Court judge, Sherry Stephens, announced that Jodi Arias must pay restitution to Travis Alexander's family in order of more than $30,000.
Arias, who is now serving the life sentence handed to her in April, was not at the hearing.
The restitution is to cover travel, lodging and other costs arising from having to attend two trials.
It is roughly one-third of the $100,000 restitution the Alexander family had asked for. And Arias' defence attorney, Jennifer Willmott, was quick to point that the reason for the discrepancy in the two figures, is "because they didn't turn in all the necessary receipts."
Willmott also explained that she arrived at the amount to be distributed to each family member using the receipts that were submitted to her. She also revealed, that she had asked the family to disclose the amount of money they received in donations from trial followers to "offset their expenses". They declined to reveal the amount.
Prosecutor, Juan Martinez, told the hearing that the Alexander family had been too traumatised by the two trials to come to the restitution hearing, so Judge Stephens awarded the amounts proposed by the defence.
The amounts break down as follows:
Travis' Sisters: Samantha, $15,530.73, Tanisha, $10,754.99, Hilary, $4,232.11.
Travis' Brothers: Stephen, $1,372, and Dennis, $225.60.
Even though $30,000 is nothing to be sneezed at, when you consider the trauma and lost this family has had to endure for six very long years, a lot of it in the public view, it's a pittance.
And of course, Willmott had to stick the boot in my reminding the world that Arias most likely won't ever be able to pay for it!
"In the past, my experience has been that victims are unlikely to get
the money when somebody has been sent to prison for so long because they
don't have the ability to make it," Willmott said. "Eventually she'll
be able to get a job making 10, 20 cents an hour so they can take money
from that, but it's very small."
Poor Jodi! :'(
So it seems that yet again Jodi Arias is going to screw over the Alexanders. They probably never expected to get anything from her, and maybe this is just a formality to them.
Below you'll find two videos. Each is the same interview with Jennifer Willmott, just set in two parts. It's unedited, and raw. So it's a rather interesting insight into her.
On Wednesday, June 10th 2015, Gargi Datta, took the stand in the trial of James Holmes. She attended graduate school with Holmes from 2011 until he dropped out the following June. For some of that time, Ms Datta, who came across as very intelligent, confident, was Holmes' girlfriend. And once again, she showed her maturity and confidence, by being not one bit embarrassed to speak of the personal nature of her relationship with James Holmes.
Quite tellingly, she referred to Holmes as "the defendant" throughout her direct testimony. A choice not missed by the Defence, as on cross examination, they asked her did she always refer to Holmes as the "defendant" or was it just after he'd been charged. Obvious question, but, of course, the defences job is to humanise their client, at any chance!
Some things of note in these chats:
The beginnings of their relationship
Discussions with Datta about wanted to kill people
Discussions about his college work
How his thought process was operating in tandem with planning the theater shooting
Discussions about mass murder
Datta advising Holmes to get some help from a therapist (he called it the mind rapist, or The Rapist (a play on the word "therapist"
etc; etc.
*Scroll down for both sets of emails.
Emails entered into evidence on Wednesday June 10th:
Emails entered into evidence on Thursday June 11th 2015:
