11.30.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




I stand by that.   

  • I still can't get over that Lubbock shooting video I posted yesterday. And I've learned a wild twist: The shooter, at the time of the killing, was married to sitting district judge. Their divorce was finalized two weeks after the incident:

  • State Rep. David Spiller of Jacksboro has an opponent and, get this, he was arrested in April for taking part in the Trump Insurrection! He lives in Forestburg. He also deserves to receive zero votes. 


  • Since self-defense is a big player in the news these days, here is an interesting case out of McKinney. The jury rejected self-defense but she got a victory anyway in that they acquitted her of murder, found her guilty of just manslaughter, and then gave her probation. (It's a good thing they acquitted her of murder -- a jury can't give probation for that offense.) The deceased was a football star at Abilene Christian. Toby Shook was the defense lawyer. 


  • But those that shared that viral story last week told me they did their own research online.
  • LSU stole Notre Dame's Brian Kelly last night. This is amazing. Despite there being a very real possibility that Notre Dame is in the four team playoff less than one week from today, their coach has bolted. Insanity. 
    • There are some reports that Kelly will get $15 million a year. I'd tap the brakes on that. But I bet it's in the $10 to $12 million range.
    • An actual sentence from a 1982 Sport's Illustrated story about Texas A&M hiring head coach Jackie Sherrill: "Six days earlier, the 38-year-old Sherrill had stunned the college football world by signing a six-year contract with the Aggies for—hold on, folks—$267,000 a year, a total of $1,602,000. That makes him far and away the highest-paid college coach in the land." That was true. The highest paid coach ever. 
    • Speaking of old Aggies, former coach R.C. Slocum is doing a good job battling cancer. He "rang the bell" at Baylor's Scott and White.

  • OU quick hits:
    • The last picture of Lincoln Riley ever on the field as an Oklahoma Sooner:

    • Dude! TCU, Baylor, OSU, Tech, et. al. had to find out OU and Texas were leaving the Big 12 by reading the Houston Chronicle.

  • More coaching news this morning: Texas Tech's Offensive Coordinator Sonnie Cumbie is headed to Louisiana Tech as head coach.
  • Briefly last night:

  • I watched a short documentary on Amazon which I knew nothing about: The Bombing of Wall Street in 1920. I love learning about stuff like that. 

  • Rare baseball bullet point: "At 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 1, baseball's current collective bargaining agreement will expire. If no agreement is reached, we will have a lockout." I think we are going to have a lockout. Fun fact: They are meeting in Irving right now. 
  • The Wise County Messenger is running a deal for $20 a year which is both print and online. Buy it. Support local media.



at 8:33 AM

11.29.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





There needs to be a documentary about this. She was convicted by a jury and then cut a deal instead of having the jury or the judge assess punishment. (She faced possible prison time.) She was then later found* "actually innocent" on the charges, and sued the prosecutors for malicious prosecution. They escaped because of immunity law. Amazingly, her lawsuit against Collin County is still alive after a Motion to Dismiss was denied at the district court level in May of this year. I suppose that is now on appeal. She got her law license back and tried to run for judge in 2019 but got kicked off the ballot by the Republican chair for a very technical reason. (*Nerdy stuff: I haven't confirmed it, but I bet she waived her right to appeal as part of the plea agreement, but the agreement failed to say she couldn't raise an actual innocence claim by a writ -- assuming it can be waived.)


  • This video out of Lubbock is one of the most horrific things I've ever watched (and I urge caution before you decide to click on it.)  And I think the self-defense claim is a reach. From the moment he went and got the gun, it feels like he intended to kill the man.   Another shocking aspect of the video is just how everyone reacts so casually as a guy lays dead on a porch. Story. 

  • Good grief. 

  • An off-duty Euless detective was killed by an alleged drunk driver in Lake Worth on Saturday afternoon. There's a connection to Fuzzy's restaurant (but not the one in Decatur). 

    • I mentioned the former Bridgeport resident and current  Lake Worth PD chief on Friday. Little did I know he had to deal with that the next day. 

  • This wreck on Stemmons Freeway on Saturday injured a Dallas deputy. That's a heck of an impact. 

  • I said on Friday that the new COVID variant would be named "Nu."  Well, it was supposed to be until the World Health Organization thought that people would confuse "Nu" with "New". The next name up, "Xi" just happens to also be than name of a certain Chinese man. So it got named Omicron.
  • Matthew McConaughey says he will not run for Texas governor. It would have been a good bit. 
  • Rep. Louis Gohmert may be the dumbest man in East Texas, but Wise County's representative comes close. Jackson is, somehow, a doctor. 

  • Legal stuff this week: (1) Arguments in a Mississippi case targeting  Roe v. Wade is in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, (2) Jury selection begins toay in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial in New York City, and (3) jury selection also begins for the trial for Minneapolis female cop who killed the guy when she mistook her gun for her taser in April of this year. That's taser case got to trial quickly.

  • Lincoln Riley leaving OU for USC is about as shocking of football news as I can remember. 

    • And some speculate that he was bolting because he wasn't a fan of OU going to the SEC. I scoffed at that at first, but then I saw some takes like the one below. That guy's right. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Aggie, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas, and OU can't all be winners when they are in the same conference. 

    • Within hours of Riley's announcement, OU's top running back recruit, top QB recruit, and top WR recruit decommitted. Earlier in the afternoon, this guy saw it coming: 

  • I don't know how anyone thinks the NFL can compare to college football.  Saturday I watched Baylor escape Tech in a bizarre and wildly entertaining game, Alabama and Auburn go to 4 OTs, Oklahoma State hang on to dear life against an OU miracle drive, and even SFA and Incarnate Word going to overtime in a playoff game. It was all glorious. And I just saw the highlights of Aggie/LSU and only parts of Michigan and Ohio State. 
    When Alabama tied it up in regulation.
    After Michigan's win. 


  • The Star-Telegram has started a new thing every Sunday . . . 

at 8:31 AM

11.26.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




I didn't expect it would take 10 years+ before they hooked up again.    

  • There is no Messenger Update, most people are in bed, but THWMISB©, a modern day farmer of yore if you will, is up before the sun. 
  • When I'm wrong I'm wrong, and I was definitely wrong with my prediction on the Arbery trial. I didn't think a jury in the Deep South had it in them, but they did. 
    • But the case will forever be a perfect example of how any suspect should never talk to the cops.  There are no deaf, dumb, and blind men in prison.

    • And without the video taken by Defendant Bryan "Roddie" Williams (pictured in the middle, above), there would have never been a prosecution. And even that prosecution didn't occur until that video was leaked to a local Georgia radio station who posted it on its website and public outrage ensued. It soon went viral. But get this: It was leaked to that radio station by Williams (!) because he "wanted to clear up some rumors circulating in the community." 

  • The Fort Worth Court of Appeals late Wednesday refused to reverse the conviction of the "Lottery" case out of Wichita Falls which I've been following for months.
    • Jason Carlile was charged with a sex offense. His mother just happened to win the lottery. 
    • Before the criminal trial, the mother testified at a divorce hearing in December, 2018 that she had "anted up $650,000 in legal costs for her son, Jason Wayne Carlile" and specifically "indicated she paid $400,000 to attorney Heather Barbieri of Plano to defend her 47-year-old son against sex-crime charges." That's when my radar went off. 

    • So what happened at trial? This is how the court of appeals described the attorneys' conduct: They "conducted no voir dire, exercised no peremptory strikes, made no opening statement, examined no witnesses, made no objections, presented no defense, made no closing argument and presented nothing on punishment.” He received a life sentence in prison. 
    • According to the court, the decision of his lawyers to do nothing was an intentional trial ploy with the hope of getting the case reversed on appeal for, well, doing nothing. That was a bold strategy. 
    • A different lawyer had to handle the appeal so he argued ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and used some blunt language saying, "Defense counsel did not even ‘fog a mirror’ during trial.” 

    • But since the plan to raise ineffective assistance was the plan all along once a Motion for Continuance was denied, the appellate court said it wasn't going to bail the defendant out now. 
    • The court wrote, “Carlile and his attorneys spread their joint motive all over the record.” Quoting one of its prior decisions, the court also said, “There is no room in our profession for the playing of games.” His conviction will stand. 
    • The guy will do life in prison. Maybe he deserved it, maybe he didn't. But it wasn't a fair fight at trial. 
    • I'm really appalled at all of this. And if that $400,000 figure as reported the the Wichita Falls Times Record News is correct, this case should receive wide publicity. (It's always possible that some of the fee was refunded, but I haven't seen any reports about it in the media if it was.)
  • Ok, this is wild. 
  • Remember the two teenagers who were murdered on the basketball court in Haltom City at Beach and 820? Well three arrests were made: One defendant is 17 and the other two are only listed as "juveniles" which means they are under 17. Remember me saying on Wednesday that there has been a lot of violent juvenile crime in the metroplex lately? 

  • There is an inordinate amount of buzz yesterday and this morning about a new variant of COVID (it will be called "Nu") which seems really potent. I don't know if it is legit or if it is over-hyped because of skeleton news crews looking for content on Thanksgiving. But in the last 24 hours Britain, and now Israel, have shut down travel from some southern African countries in response.

  • WFAA is flat out making this up.

  • Good grief. The victim (and future author) failed to pick the defendant out of a lineup but that didn't stop the prosecutor. He went forward with the trial anyway and convinced the victim they had the right guy so she identified him at trial. It wasn't him.  (The guy served 16 years in prison, and once released, had been on the sexual offender registration list which serves as a Scarlet Letter for jobs and relationships.)

  • The Cowboys game had an official time of 3 hours and 53 minutes. The teams had a combined 28 penalties for 267 yards. 
    • Of all college rules that need to be adopted by the NFL, it is the change to 15 yards and an automatic first down for pass interference instead of from the spot of the foul. 
  • I thought that 2 minute and 20 second Chipotle commercial during the Cowboy game was fantastic. It had everyone in our house locked in.  (And how much did that cost when you consider air time, production, and paying the music rights to Coldplay for the song and Kacey Musgrave to sing it?)

  • Anyone try to go to Fort Worth from Wise County late in the afternoon lately? You'll hit a rush hour traffic jam between Bonds Ranch and Blue Mound roads as the population around that area has exploded over the last few years. 
  • Since it is now officially Christmas time, we can all agree we hate this couple, right?

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 875 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold (there's not one.)

at 8:29 AM

11.25.2021

Annual Thanksgiving (Not So) Random Thought

 


Always a crowd pleaser for long time readers. 

at 8:29 AM

11.24.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  •  Ahmaud Arbery update:
    • In Georgia criminal trials, apparently the judge reads the "Court's Charge" to the jury after closing arguments. That makes absolutely no sense. 
    • A loyal reader, while agreeing that the defense lawyer's argument that Arbery had "long, dirty toenails" was over the line, pointed out that the autopsy report was the factual basis for the comment.  I've found news reports that say the autopsy photos showed long and dirty toenails, but I haven't found the actual autopsy report which used those exact words. 
    • I'm going out on a limb, but I bet we have a verdict today. The jury will want to get this thing over with before Thanksgiving.  And I'll think the jury will send the three men home before the holidays.
  • Add this to my decades old rant that medical examiners are always giving opinions that they absolutely cannot justify. If an ME wants to say Brian Laundrie died "due to a metal projectile penetrating the left occipital aspect of the skull" then knock yourself out. But to say it is suicide is nothing but a wild guess.  (Side note: Where's the gun?)

  • There seems to be a ton of crime committed by juveniles in the metroplex of late. This one which happened on Saturday afternoon is particularly disturbing.  He burglarized the place and then came back. 

  • A Tarrant County DA candidate was hanging out yesterday with former Bridgeport resident and Wise County Sheriff's Office deputy and current Lake Worth Police Chief J.T. Manoushagian:

  • Another former Bridgeport resident, a lawyer who I've often said that I wanted her press agent, appears to be heavily involved in this verdict:

  • But some verdicts can be hard to hang onto: 

  • This is a very recent photo of the new Tesla plant going up in Austin.  Look at how small the cars are to give you some idea how big that thing is. 

  • BagOfNothing put up a new post the other day. That's a tough year. 
  • I forgot to mention yesterday that we have new footage of the the Trump Insurrection. How all these people aren't hammered by the Justice Department for trying to overthrow the U.S. is a mystery to me. 

  • Oh, good lord. 

  • I mentioned Abraham Zapruder yesterday and should have included this great photo. I've got him circled in red standing on that concrete thingy. He can barely be seen in black, but there's also a person standing beside him who is taller and wearing tan. That would his 23 year old receptionist Marilyn Sitzman. 


  • The stock market is booming but look at the last 12 month performance of two particular stocks which benefited greatly from the COVID lockdown. 


  • Legal nerdy stuff: Yesterday a lawsuit was filed challenging all of the new lines drawn for Texas state representatives and senate districts. Man, this seems real simple and really clear: Lines can only be drawn at Regular Session -- that's in the Texas Constitution. But because of COVID, the Census was delayed this time causing the legislature to have to redraw the lines in a Special Session. Jut look at the opening of the lawsuit below. (Lawsuit pdf here.)

  • Fun time waste. It should enlarge if you click it, but here's an alternative link if that doesn't work. I even had to Google a couple of things at the bottom of the chart which were true. 

  • You wonder how people can believe stuff like that?  This video making the rounds yesterday doesn't help answer the question. It's amazing and amazingly entertaining. (And it's from the Jim Bakker Show -- the guy who was married to Tammy Faye.) 

  • Hey, Baylor fans, look what I did with 538's playoff generator. And, call me crazy, that's not that crazy at all. (Although I'm not sure I understand how a two-loss Baylor gets in over one-loss Notre Dame or even a two-loss Alabama, but I'm guessing the number crunchers would put great value on the wins over BYU, OU, and Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship. Alabama and Notre Dame don't get close to that. Heck even Georgia's best win right now is over #23 Clemson.): 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM
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