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the defense is expected to rest this morning in the trial of james alex fields. we should be hearing closing arguments this afternoon.
we’re expecting to hear from the defense’s final two witnesses before lunch, but at this point i don’t know what to expect from this meandering, unfocused defense.
headed in now for what i hope to be the end of this stage of the trial. more soon.
a bit of a hiccup as the defense’s final witness has not shown up. a capias has been issued for him & the augusta county sheriff’s department is attempting to locate him & bring him to the courthouse.
the court has not, to my knowledge, explicitly stated who the witness in question is, but i believe it is the 3rd unite the right participant who fields gave a ride to immediately before the attack. the other 2 have already testified.
i have no idea what the defense thinks this witness could add to their case that makes it worth arresting him over. that isn’t going to lend him a ton of credibility with the jury.
it could be a while before he shows, if they can find him at all. i want to be near the courthouse in case anything changes.
so much for a speedy end to the defense’s case this morning. the jury has been sent to lunch until 1:15 while the cops search for their last witness.
i can imagine one might be unwilling to testify to the fact that they went to a nazi rally and met a nazi there and that they were the last person to see or speak to him before he murdered someone. but by failing to appear he’s just ensured he will have to face this judge twice.
judge moore is on the record many, many times saying he hates wasting a jury’s time. this witness was supposed to testify yesterday. he’s now wasted the entire court’s time on two occasions. the judge is not amused.
the witness has apparently been located and is on his way. i’m interested to hear his excuse for his two failures to appear. i wonder if defense counsel has any meaningful questions for him that would make this strange delay worth anyone’s time or trouble. i kinda doubt it.
while we wait, i might float a little conspiracy theory of my own...
we finally heard from dwayne dixon this morning. for those of you lucky enough not to be neck deep in nazi conspiracy theories, the crux of most of them is that the scary antifa scared fields, making him drive into the crowd.
months after august 12th, dwayne posted that he’d seen a gray car near justice park & yelled “get the fuck out of here!” at it. that seed germinated a massive conspiracy theory that just wouldn’t die. hopefully it dies today with his testimony.
based on the timeline provided, there is ample evidence to suggest the vehicle dwayne saw drive by justice park 3 times between 12:40 and 1:15 could not possibly have been fields’ dodge challenger.
on friday, detective young testified that security footage from the shell station on preston shows fields buying a blue powerade at 1:15pm. he’d walked there from mcintire park with three other rally participants.
during the entire timeframe in which dwayne saw the gray car three times, fields’ car was parked at the mcdonald’s on ridge st. fields was walking with three witnesses from the park, to the shell station, and then to his car. he was not driving around justice park.
that part isn’t a theory. that’s fact. that’s evidence. that’s the timeline. here’s where i’m going to start speculating...
do you know who else drives a dark gray dodge with dark tinted windows? who might’ve been driving around downtown that day with a particular interest in what counter protesters were doing in justice park? who might’ve driven by the park, stopping to look at a man with a gun?
there is a charlottesville police car, a dark gray dodge charger with dark tinted windows that looks enough like fields’ car that it is distressing to survivors of the attack. it’s almost identical.
it makes absolutely perfect sense that a police car would’ve been cruising by the park, slowing or stopping to get a good look at counter protesters, particularly folks like dwayne who were legally open carrying.
whoever it was though, it wasn’t james alex fields, jr.
there is no credibility at all to the theory that redneck revolt scared fields into committing a murder.
there is no credibility at all to the theory that redneck revolt scared fields into committing a murder.
it doesn’t matter who dwayne saw or what he did. none of that changes what fields did. and what fields did was drop off the 3rd passenger in his car at the parking garage and then deliberately drive his car through a crowd of people, killing heather heyer.
i sincerely hope that the judge & attorneys have used this long delay in locating the last witness to go ahead and argue jury instructions so we don’t have another long wait before closing arguments this afternoon. we’ll see!
assuming nothing ELSE unusual happens, this case will be in the jury’s hands by the end of the day today.
with the lunch break coming to an end, i’m heading back in. our unwilling witness should be here. after that testimony, the defense will rest. not sure if they’ve come to an agreement in jury instructions yet or not, but eventually we’ll hear closing arguments.
if you hang out the courtroom long enough sometimes there’s a post credits scene after everyone goes home.
joshua matthews, the last person to speak with james fields before he murdered heather heyer, was found in contempt for failing to appear as a witness this morning.
joshua matthews, the last person to speak with james fields before he murdered heather heyer, was found in contempt for failing to appear as a witness this morning.
while the law allows judge moore to impose a ten day jail sentence without a trial for this offense, he simply gave him time served (he’s been in jail the approximately five hours since he testified earlier today)
as to the actual trial — everyone has rested. jury instructions agreed upon. closing arguments made. a foreperson selected. deliberations will begin tomorrow morning.
so i know i missed last night’s summary, but i think instead of trying to cover two days tonight i’m just gonna let yesterday go & write about today. maybe circle back to yesterday later but there’s just no time to cram it in right now. i’m sorry!
i've only just finished writing today's summary -- it's too late to record. i'm going to try to get up early and get it up before i head back to the courthouse in the morning.
