It’s chilling to think how close Morales-Ceceres was to walking out of the courtroom a free man. Even more disturbing is the fact that there are thousands of other murderers and criminals roaming the streets because liberals think it’s “hateful” to make sure people like him don’t enter our country:
“Chaikin then turned his account to the crime scene, using photographs to lay out how long and brutal the attack was.
It was later that day, during a break, that one juror approached the judge’s law clerk and discussed her anxieties over the photos.
That discussion was disclosed in open court, outside the jury’s presence. The judge told the lawyers that the juror taught children who were of similar ethnicity to the defendant and the victim, and that was leading her to see those children’s faces when she viewed the stabbing photos.
The attorneys said the teacher had indicated during the selection process for the jury that she wouldn’t be swayed by gruesome images. But the judge was sympathetic to her reaction.
‘You don’t know until you see it,’ McCormick said, ‘because you can’t fathom the nature of the pictures. . . . I’ve never seen pictures of this ilk.’
Wink, a prosecutor, argued the photos were critical in laying out the crime. ‘We all live in the real world where bad things happen, and this one of them,’ he said.
The defense attorney, Gottlieb, renewed his request to remove the photos from the trial. McCormick said she would consider doing so.
The jury returned to the courtroom and the judge spoke to them.
“I know the pictures have been very graphic,” she said. ‘But there aren’t going to be any more graphic pictures, unless absolutely necessary — certainly no more today.’
As the trial went on, the school teacher wasn’t the only juror affected. During a break, a 47-year-old federal worker went to the courthouse cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. In a daze, he walked past the cashier without paying.
‘I was kind of shocked,’ he said in an interview after the trial, speaking on the condition of anonymity to maintain his privacy. ‘A horror movie couldn’t do it justice. This was beyond a film.’
On Thursday, just before the medical examiner was set to testify, the judge again spoke to the lawyers, without the jurors present, about which autopsy photos she would allow to be shown during the medical examiner’s testimony and during closing arguments.
McCormick said she would permit six to be used.
‘There are times when photographs have to be admitted to allow the jury to visualize the atrociousness of the crime,’ McCormick said, putting it in legal terms: ‘They are probative as to the issue of intent.’
The jury reached its verdict Friday, concluding that Morales-Caceres was the killer and that he acted in willful premeditation. He is set to be sentenced this summer.
Prosecutors have said they will ask for life in prison with no chance of parole. Should Morales-Caceres ever get out of prison, every indication is that he would be deported to his native El Salvador.
Prosecutors earlier said he entered the United States illegally. And since his stay at the Montgomery County jail, immigration officials have lodged a detainer on him, an indication they would move to have him deported at the end of a prison sentence.
Nelson Navarro, Oscar’s brother, said he has turned his attention to Oscar’s 12-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. They know their dad was killed, but so far the family had been able to spare them details of how he died. During the trial, they came to the courthouse on one day but stayed in the prosecutor’s offices. Their mother watched the trial in the courtroom.
‘The only thing we can do for the family,’ Nelson Navarro said, ‘is get closer to them.’”
Source: The Washington Post
the time is getting closer better have food and guns the$#%&!@*may hit the fan sooner than later