Well, I decided I was going to start blogging a while back and only posted 1 blog! I never really have the time but I thought the experience I had this week was worthy of blogging about so thought I would share plus I had to journal about it for my internship so all I had to do was cut and paste. ;) Anyway, I hope you find it as interesting as I do!
August 1, 2011, Day 1 of the Ryan Patterson Jury Trial
I worked on the Ryan Patterson triple homicide case when I interned at the Prosecutors in the Spring so I was very excited to get to watch the jury trial which is a death penalty case. For those of you who are not familiar with the case I will give a summary of it. On October 27, 2009, 30 year old Jamie Orman was shot in her home killing her and her 7 month old she was carrying at the time. Her 15 year old son, Derrick Orman was also shot to death. Jamie’s boyfriend and the father of her unborn child was John Lawrence who she lived with. John Lawrence was going through a divorce with Michelle Lawrence. Michelle was dating the Defendant, Ryan Patterson and they had been living together for 8 months. Michelle and Ryan had been talking about killing John Lawrence and Jamie and setting their house on fire to collect the insurance money on John and on the house because Michelle was still the beneficiary since they were not yet divorced. Samuel “Ray Ray” Hughes was there at the house with Ryan the night the killings took place but he says he thought it was supposed to be a burglary and was not in the house when the killings took place but that he saw from outside the back door Ryan standing over the boy with a gun. Michelle and RayRay have already pled guilty, Michelle to conspiracy to commit murder and RayRay to murder in the 2nd degree and as part of the plea agreed to testify against Ryan.
The jury has already been selected from Pemiscot County and took 3 days but I was not able to attend that. On day 1 the attorneys gave their opening statements. The Prosecution’s lasted 30 minutes and the Defense only 10 minutes. The Prosecutor did a great job of laying out all the evidence and I thought he did an excellent job. The Defense doesn’t sound like they have much to go on. The State had 11 witnesses to testify on the first day which included police officers, crime scene investigators, a forensic pathologist, coroner, Jamie’s ex-husband and his 2 sons that watched their brother, Derrick die, Tammy Davis who was a friend and co-worker of Ryan’s and John Lawrence. A lot of pictures were shown of the crime scene and a video of the crime scene. Among the pictures were the bodies of the victims, the pillow Derrick was laying on when he was shot that showed teeth and bone fragments because he was shot in the face and a picture of the unborn baby. I thought it was interesting that the Prosecutor had a calendar blown up and was having each witness write what happened and sign their name. For instance he had a co-worker of Ryan’s put down that Ryan had told her the Friday before the murders that he was “fixing to come into a lot of money because he was going to hit a lick”.
I think the newspaper is doing a great job of explaining the trial. There was a news reporter who has been sitting behind me typing everything that happens. Here is the article from Day 1 of the trial: http://www.semissourian.com/story/1748780.html?response=no
August 2, 2011, Day 2 of the Jury Trial
Day 2 started out with a problem with the news and one of the jurors. The juror spoke to her husband and her husband told her that he saw her on the news. The cameras are not allowed to film the jurors and they are supposed to be kept confidential. The Defense was motioning for a mistrial. The Judge had the news director get all of the film that was aired and all of the raw footage so that they could make sure a juror was not shown. While waiting for this footage the state went on with their case but later on it was found that only a part of a juror’s head and 3 buttons of a blouse were shown. The cameras are not allowed in the courtroom for the rest of the trial. More witnesses were called including a crime lab specialist, Michelle Lawrence’s father who testified that Ryan was there the day before the killings took place and was practicing shooting a gun with a potato on it as a silencer. The asset protection person for Walmart was also called to testify that Michelle was there buying bullets a few days before the murders and the surveillance video was shown. Also the Rhodes gas station worker was brought in to testify that Ryan was there buying gas for a gas can at 1:00 a.m. the morning of the murders. Michelle Lawrence and RayRay Hughes also testified and I do have my notes from that because the Prosecutor asked for them so he could review them. Michelle testified that she and Ryan had talked about how life would be easier and they would not have to worry about money if John was dead. She had first told police that Ryan was home all night and then changed her story and said he left at 11:00 and got back around 5 in the morning and changed clothes and put clothes in the washer. RayRay testified that he thought they were doing a burglary and he was sitting in the truck as a look out and heard gun shots and went around to the back of the house and saw Ryan standing over the boy with a gun. The Defense wanted to make it look like RayRay committed the murders because he fled from Arkansas and testified to doing 40 burglaries before. The officer that interviewed Ryan testified and an hour long video of the interrogation of Ryan was shown. In the interrogation Ryan admitted to going over to the house the night of the murders (because he left his gas can over there). However, he said he was going over there to set John’s truck on fire to give him an invitation to come talk to him. In the interrogation he says that he thought John was in the house. At the end of day 2 the State rested. Here is the news article from Day 2:
August 3, 2011, Day 3 of the Jury Trial
The Defense called 4 witnesses and it only took about 45 minutes total. First a police officer testified that the coworker told him that Ryan said he was going to come into a lot of money but not that he was going to hit a lick. The next witness was a bookkeeper at Jackson Manor where Ryan worked. The co-worker had testified that another gentleman was present when Ryan said he was going to hit a lick but the records reflected that he was not working that day but on cross examination the Prosecution brought out that he was working the evening before and the days following showing that the day was probably just not accurate that the co-worker gave. Another witness was a criminologist that said she tested RayRay’s sock for blood and that it was a woman’s blood on his sock. Prosecutor showed that this was irrelevant because RayRay testified to burning his clothes after the killings took place and the woman who burned them also testified. The Defense rested. Next was the jury instructions which I did not know how involved they are and how much time they take. A recess was taken so that the jury instructions could be assembled. The judge read all of the instruction to the jury and the jury was given a copy of the instructions for deliberations. I was kind of confused by them and I am a 3L in law school who has had Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure so I know they would be confusing to a layperson to be able to keep straight! I had to take notes laying each one of the counts out as the Judge read them. Basically Count 1 was for the death of Jamie Orman, Count 2 was for Derrick Orman and Count 3 was for the unborn fetus. They could find Ryan guilty of murder in the first degree which means that the defendant caused the death of Jamie Orman, Derrick Orman and her unborn fetus, knew it was "practically certain" his actions would cause their deaths and he acted with deliberation "or cool reflection," for any amount of time, however brief. For second degree murder it would be without deliberation, just like a spur of the moment killing. This is the alternative for first degree murder. If the jurors believed that it was a burglary gone bad then they could find him guilty of felony murder which means a murder took place during the course of a felony. For Derrick Orman they transferred intent doctrine was in the instructions which means Ryan meant and deliberated about shooting John and thought Derrick was John so that intent transferred to Derrick. For the unborn fetus involuntary manslaughter was added meaning by killing a pregnant woman he recklessly caused the death of the fetus. The Judge also explained that there is no presumption of guilt of the Defendant because he did not testify. Next, the closing statements were given. Once again the prosecutor did a great job. He had one of those huge legal pads on an easel and had listed all of the deliberations that Ryan did before committing the murders and there were like 20 or more different things. He went through each item and explained it. Some things listed were the statements between Ryan and Michelle about they would be better off if Ryan were dead, him shooting a gun at Michelle’s dad’s house the day before, he asked Tammy Davis to be a look out, he bought gas that morning, RayRay saw him with the gun standing over Derrick, that it was never for a second a burglary gone bad because the victims were shot in their beds, he coincidentally sold the gun a few hours before the killings, bullets were from same gun witnesses had seen him with, etc… The Prosecutor then explained the jury instructions to the jurors and had written them out in a simpler form than what the Judge had read kind of like I did on my notes. I thought this was great since the jurors were probably very confusing after hearing the Judge read them. He explained that Missouri Law is that a fetus is considered a life for the purposes of murder once it is able to survive outside the womb and this one was. He told the Jury they should find him guilty of first degree murder on all counts and not even have to consider the others but he still went down the list and explained each of them.
The Defense gave their closing argument and kept saying that Ryan thought John was at work so how could he have went into kill him if he knew he was at work. They also kept saying RayRay committed the murders and pointed out all of his convictions and that he was fleeing from Arkansas for failure to register as a sex offender. Then the Prosecutor gets to speak again and he explained that in the interrogation video Ryan said he thought John was in the house. In response to their comments about RayRay he said “you aren’t gonna get a nun or a priest to commit a burglary with you.”
After the closing arguments the jury went into deliberations and deliberated for 3 hours and then retired for the evening. They gave the verdict of guilty in the first degree of all 3 counts that next morning. Here is the article from day 3 and of the verdict being reached this morning.
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1750270.html?response=no
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1750447.html?response=no
Now they are in the penalty phase of the trial and the jury will have to decide on life in prison or death.
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