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good morning! instead of heading out for the first day of what would’ve been a long & painful trial, i’m on my way to what i hope will be a fairly brief sentencing hearing.
richard preston was found guilty yesterday after pleading no contest to firing his gun on ACsmy
richard preston was found guilty yesterday after pleading no contest to firing his gun on ACsmy
based on the witnesses he put on the stand at the preliminary hearing in december, preston’s lawyer elmer woodard would have pursued a self defense/defense of others argument. preston must have seen how badly that went for another of elmer’s clients last week...
the jury was visibly disgusted by elmer’s insistence that jacob goodwin was “defending himself” from deandre harris.
officers outside the courthouse tell me there’s another court order barring cell phones from the building. i don’t have time this morning to fight them on it, so i’m running it back to my car.
i imagine it’s similar to the one last week that they eventually walked back when pressed... i’ll go to the clerk’s office after the hearing the get a copy of it
another case of poor communication and inconsistent enforcement. we’re taking a brief recess & the officer i spoke to says he’s unaware of any such order today.
elmer seems to have forgotten his client has already been found guilty and is proceeding today as though this were the trial. he’s put forward three witnesses and says he has two more. testimony is much the same as we heard at the preliminary hearing in december.
one witness reiterated his testimony from december that he believes preston is “a hero.”
heading back in now. each witness has taken about half an hour so far. could be a while.
heading back in now. each witness has taken about half an hour so far. could be a while.
no sentence today. after hearing all the evidence, the judge has exercised his right to order a presentence investigation report, despite the defense not requesting one. i suspect elmer had hoped to get through sentencing without the judge knowing preston’s a klan wizard.
the sentencing hearing will be 3:00-4:30 on august 21. preston, who has not been allowed to leave VA since august, will be allowed to take trips to his MD home to take care of his personal affairs, provided he checks in with OAR & waives extradition rights.
elmer offered five witnesses today: four were associates of preston’s who witnessed the events on august 12, but the 5th was daryl davis.
npr.org/2017/08/20/544…
npr.org/2017/08/20/544…
davis said he & preston have been friends for 5 years, they talk on the phone often, & preston treats him with respect. they talked relatively little about davis’ work... it honestly just seemed like he was trotting out the classic “one black friend,” despite davis’ high profile.
there seems to be some disharmony in the ranks of preston’s witnesses. gregory scott woods, the third witness offered today, has made some terrible comments about daryl davis in the past.
speaking of gregory scott woods... i hope he’s retained a lawyer of his own. maybe a better one than elmer? he was on the stand for 30 minutes today & maybe he thinks nobody noticed... but mr woods did a little perjury today.
woods testified that as he swung his flagpole at corey, he could feel the heat of the flame.
he said, under oath, that he had burns on his hands & arms.
gosh, that flame looks pretty far away from anybody’s ar
vADo
he said, under oath, that he had burns on his hands & arms.
gosh, that flame looks pretty far away from anybody’s ar
vADooh no but look, look at these terrible wounds they claim were inflicted by corey long.
interesting claim.
interesting claim.
here’s mr woods claiming the burns were inflicted during the incident... note the pattern. these are the same burns we saw in kessler’s post.
look closely...
look closely...
uh oh. same burns. look at that date.
oh scott, that looks like it hurt!
anyway, we’ve got to wait three months for preston’s actual sentencing hearing... but y’all should know the judge did see this video
