Sum it Up! #46 is a life-saver today because I am swamped. My editorial calendar was heavily neglected this week. All kinds of post ideas popped up that were not planned. Hehe, back to blogging free style for me!
Great news from Jared Bradley, the Colorado Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office is the latest to join the list of M-Vac System users! They have several cases in mind now that they have received the system and are trained to use it. One of the cases that inspired this purchase is the cold case of Andrew Graham. Graham was gunned down and his body was found on Nov. 6, 2009. He had walked home from an RTD light rail station to his Arapahoe County home. Jared will keep us posted about this and other cases where the M-Vac is used. Thanks, Jared!
I came across an interview AISOCC’s Pete Klismet did for Hook’ em and Book’ em. Pete is a former FBI Special Agent and retired criminal profiler. He is the founder of Criminal Profiling Associates LLC. His book can be found here. From Hook’ em and Book’ em:
“In criminal profiling, a crime scene often helps to label the offender as organized or disorganized. An organized offender will plan ahead, often choosing the victim ahead of time. Any tools needed are brought by the offender. He is meticulous with details, and it is clear that the crime was well thought out. This tells a profiler much about the offender.
Organized offenders tend to be high in the birth order of their family. They are very intelligent, but often were underachievers in both school and life. Most of them have a live-in partner, are socially adept, and will follow the coverage of their crimes in the media very carefully. Contrary to popular belief, a killer of this nature, even a serial killer, is not ‘crazy.’ Quite the opposite is true. They also ‘hide in plain sight,’ and when identified are a complete surprise to people who know them and thought they were ‘perfectly normal.’
A more spontaneous or impulsive offense is often the work of a disorganized offender. He will act impulsively, with little to no planning involved, and the crime scene will usually show this lack of planning. Seeing this, a trained profiler can draw some conclusions about this offender. Disorganized offenders are often of average or slightly below-average intelligence. They were younger children, they usually live alone, and are not as socially mature or competent as an organized offender. They often live or work near the scene of the crime, and tend to have a poor work history. Typically, they are younger than the organized offenders.”
Profiling also plays a crucial role in eliminating suspects and clearing those already arrested by police. I think you will love the interview!
Heads up for a cold case that hopefully will be aired on TV coming spring: Barbara Nantais (15). She dated Jim Alt (17). Police has ordered new DNA tests to re-analyse the evidence.
Barbara & Jim were camping on Torrey Pines State Beach, San Diego, CA, Aug 13, 1978. They had been knocked unconscious with a rock and a log.
Nantais’ naked corpse — with one of her nipples sliced open and sand stuffed in her mouth — was found dumped near a lifeguard tower at Torrey Pines State Beach, San Diego.
Alt was found nearby, semi-conscious, with a severe wound that led to him having a titanium plate inserted in his skull. He has never been a suspect in the case.
In the article (link above), you can read how Barbara’s murder scarred Jim for life. The physical scars healed but the emotional damage is permanent. That night, Jim lost Barbara and part of his soul, his sanity, and his peace. Some people never believed him when he told them that he did not kill Barbara. Police does believe him.
The everlasting doubt has eaten away Jim’s ability to connect with people. Always restless and always trying to figure out whether someone is sincerely nice to him … he had trouble socializing with people. It is a heartbreaking interview about the loss of his first love in such a gruesome matter.
The article also describes what happened to Barbara’s family clearly picturing that a murder rips apart families, friends, and forever changes the landscape for those who knew the victim. Thank you, Albert, for being Jim’s friend and for the tip!
Doug Carner from Forensics Protection, Inc, wants you to know about a free tool: the video cleaner! To clarify videos, Doug uses a two-step process. For ABC, Doug enhanced the Zimmerman surveillance video. “The first step, called “focus correction,” sharpened the image by refocusing the camera on the police badge of the officer standing next to Zimmerman. Once the new focus was set, a mathematical formula was used to clarify the images around the badge, including Zimmerman’s face. The second step utilizes a process called “subpixal fusion,” by which images are clarified by both increasing the detail of adjacent objects and looking at the frames that come before and after.”
Doug’s company is dedicated to finding the truth and this tool is free for all to use. Doug told me that this version only works on 32-bit PCs. He is working on a new version that will work on 64-bit. It will be based on the feedback from this version. That too will be a FREE tool. Thank you, Doug!
Last but not least, the Holiday Season arrives soon. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. For many, this is a very joyous time. For others, it is cruel reminder of everything they held dear and lost due to murder. Some will grief for a missing friend or family member. Some will pray that maybe in the next new year someone will believe that they were railroaded and were wrongfully convicted. One of those people is William Thomas Zeigler.
Tommy is getting older and is in frail health. If you have read my posts about his case then you know that I believe this man to be wrongfully convicted of quadruple capital murder. The Florida Supreme Court has affirmed the rejection for postconviction DNA testing last February. Two days ago, the appeal based on newly discovered evidence was denied as well.
“We affirm the denial of Zeigler’s Brady claims because he has failed to meet the prejudice prong. Even if we accepted Zeigler’s assertions as true, there is no “reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682 (1985). The evidence presented does not undermine our confidence in the outcome.
Additionally, we affirm the denial of Zeigler’s Giglio claims because, even if we accepted Zeigler’s allegations as true, there is no “ ‘reasonable likelihood that [the testimony of Detective Frye or Chief Thompson] could have affected the judgment of the jury.’
Moreover, we also affirm the denial of his actual innocence claim because he has not presented any new evidence that establishes that “ ‘it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have found [Zeigler] guilty beyond a reasonable doubt’ in light of all of the available evidence.”
Please leave Tommy a note in the comment box. I will print everything and send it to him.
Thank you.
