9.15.2016

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • I looked at the Court of Criminal Appeals hand down list yesterday and saw two Wise County cases on it. The State won both. By the afternoon, I had received a call about one of them but, by the time a case gets decided in Austin, it is all but over. (Death penalty cases still have some "life" but not regular felons.)
  • DPS took $200,000 left in an "abandoned" car in Hildago County.  I've got lots of questions about all aspects of that "case."
  • That Arochi trial is interesting, and I could smell a little desperation with the prosecution. They tried to admit into evidence yesterday an olive jar (found in a shoe) filled with an oily type liquid smelling of cinnamon and with pieces of paper within. The reason they wanted it? Possible witchcraft. Yep. Witchcraft. How'd they know? They read it on the Internet. Seriously. The judge denied the request. 
  • A body was found dismembered and burned near Lake Grapevine yesterday.  Arochi related? Probably not but worth a though since his alleged victim is still missing. 
  • There was a "human trafficking" case in the news about a week ago that I meant to mention. Some guy gets arrested in Wise County for having twelve (?) people in an SUV with him. He goes to jail and the twelve are let go.  (I would like to predict that any prosecutor who first reviews that case will think, "And just how do you expect me to prove this?")
  • A pastor interrupted Trump yesterday when he began to make a political speech.  I presume there were ground rules. If not, the pastor was rude.
  • I'll admit that the more I watch it the more that video from the weekend of Hillary is very odd. To me, it actually looked like she was a malfunctioning robot. That's truly my best description. And is it just me, or did those around her not move with quite the sense of urgency you would expect them to?
  • Why I hate sports interviews: The Ticket had Jason Witten on for his weekly show and they asked him, somewhat out of nowhere, if he had seen the dismembered hand of Jason Pierre-Paul while on the field against the Giants. Ok, that's kind of funny. Witten, in a deadpan voice, said "no, I didn't" and then spent over a minute talking about what a great player Pierre-Paul is (something which no one asked him about.)
  • Best idea I heard to stop the sun from coming into Cowboys Stadium: Move the Sky Mirror to the other side of the stadium and use it to reflect the sun. Brilliant. 
  • Ben Hur, the recent remake which doesn't depict electricity, bombed at the box office. 
  • The Waco Twin Peaks biker cases finally has a development: Three cops involved in it weren't indicted for crimes. Yep, they took the allegations all the way to a grand jury. As to the biker defendants: No trials. No plea bargains. No convictions. It's been well over a year.
  • Sandra Bland's family got almost $2 million in a settlement by the government? (And the "non-economic" agreement is the Sheriff's office yelling "mercy.")