Government Docs

Cool, No, blah, Line, kelly, saying, oh, yeah, well, because, wait, apparently, literally, young girl, you know, first of all, closing argumenta by defense counsel horton lance state of missouri v. byron case may 2, 2002 pages 11881218 page 1188 the court mr. lance, are you ready to proceed with closing argument on behalf of mr. case? mr. lance yes, your honor. the court you may do so. mr. lance anastasia witboisfeugen was the victim of a random act of violence committed by some unknown stranger who has never been caught to this day. how do we know that? , back to familiar areas, and she was caught alone in a deserted dark cemetery alone, unarmed. she made a mistake. and the prosecutors are up here arguing, she never would have got herself in this position by getting out in that area. she wouldnt have tried to walk through a dark cemetery. anastasia that evening wasnt being calm, and reflective. page 1189 of course she would never done that if she were calm, cool or reflective. this happened in a fit of rage. she got out of the car in a fit of rage. she isnt thinking where im at. she isnt thinking to herself there is nobody at home to call for a ride. the jury heard that evidence. she realizes th, sure. but it happened in a fit of rage. she tries to take the shortcut, and she made a mistake, because she was alone unarmed, young teenage girl. i think, if you look at the map, you can see what happened. she gets out of the car right here at the stoplight at 435, and she starts walking east. and you can see this is a vain attempt to take a shortcut to somewhere. youve heard the testimony. nobody at home to call. she is found shot dead right here in lincoln cemetery. is this a vain attempt at a shortcu, perhaps even dairy queen, which was over here at 24 highway at the exit of mount washington. page 1190 the people at dairy queen were friendly to her that night. they helped her get a sanitary napkin. they let her use the pay phone numerous times. let her hang out a, if you vote not guilty, youre saying we dont know who did it. there is no closure. do you understand the psychological term closure? everybody wants closure and wants to know what happened. that makes it easy to wrap up. to vote not guilty, you have to get over that hurdle. there is no closure in this case. this case has never been solved. the gun has never been found. page 1191 nobody knows who that unknown stranger was or if he was tying to rape her or rob her or what happene, there is no brown purse there. there are little clues here. there is no reason to disbelieve it couldnt have been a random attempt at a rape or a robbery. the contact wound. whoever confronted her in the cemetery, the gun went off right against her face. does that sound like somebody who is tying to rob her or rape her? the time passage. the time passage is one of the keys in the case, because its not just an unsolved crime. it goes unsolved for three years. and all the people in the car that night are being interviewed and reinterviewed. all the friends like abraham kneisley are being interviewed. so this allows kelly to come up with t, the police have no idea what happened. the police have no clues, of what happened here. i can come up with any story. so how can she come up with that kind of a bizarre story? so im going to ask the jury to get inside kelly moffetts head. were going to go in kelly moffetts mind and crawl around in there an, okay? and i think what youre going to find is there are really two kelly moffetts. lets talk about the two kelly moffetts. here is the first kelly moffett. im a crack addict, alcoholic. ive ruined my life. i got to go to rehab and psych counseling. ive just totally ruined my life, and i have no excuse. im just a screwup. im a total screwup. my family has forbidden me to go to the family home. thats one kelly moffett. page 1193 here is the other kelly moffett. im a crack addict and an alcoholic, but wait. i have an excuse. im a victim here. im a victim here. i saw a brutal murder. now i have an excuse. im not a worthless person that ruined my life. i saw a brutal murder. it ruined my life. take me back in the family. its not my fault. thats the s, if you have a choice, which kelly moffett are you going to be? she played a game on her parents. drug addicts are very manipulative. theyll do anything to get money out of people, to get the drugs. lie to people. you heard thats the history here. until finally she burned all her bridges with the family, because she lied to them that many times. she would lie where she was at, if she was still using drugs. they had to bar her from the family home. and when she gets around to the story to start saying she may have seen the murder, even though she has told the police repeatedly for years its obvious she didnt see the murder, nobody knows who did this murder. its an unsolved crime. page 1194 she finally comes around, i got to get back to my parents. sympathy from my parents. so she starts with some excuse. brutalized by this murder. traumatic to me. i saw justin do it. thats her first story. i saw justin do it. thats not just a short story either. accordi, this went on for months. did she go with that story for a few days or a few weeks or for months? for months she tried to create the impression its not my fault im a crack addict. i saw justin commit the murder. i was brutalized that way. but , debbie moffett. was it after she had been barred from your home, she was homeless? was it after all that she started saying she saw the murder? page 1195 the answer was yes. she is very manipulative and her parents bought it hook, and sinker. we asked debbie moffett on the stand, do you think kelly moffetts life was ruined by witnessing a homicide? oh, yes. and she is welcomed back into the family home, and you have a lot of sympathy for her. but there are little clues in there that she is not even telling the truth, like psych counseling. she says she went to psych counseling. but i asked her, did you ever tell one of your counselors you saw a murder? no. the game she is playing is on her parents to get back, sympathy and attention. the counselor, if theyre to help you through problems and thats your main problem, how could that be your main problem when you never told any of your counselors you saw a murder? thats where the problem would start. but that is not who she is trying to impress, her counselor. and whats the other side issue here? did she have an axe to grind with byron case? this is a man she admitted she once loved him. she once told him repeatedly she loved him. page 1196 after their stormy relations, she tries to get back with him. thats byrons impression. but hes moved on by then. he has other girlfriends. he doesnt want to get back. does she have an axe to grind there? is that just another side issue? the story that kelly moffett comes , wait a minute. i saw this murder. total opposite of what she said before. she says that they had this plot to murder someone. they come pick her up, they have a plot to murder someone, they ask for her help. as the prosecutor used, the word absurd, well go with that for kelly moffetts story. and, if you were listening closely to the evidence, and im sure you were, this is the opposite of what the other witnesses are saying like the victims sister, francesca. she is saying she talked to justin on the phone and justin is reluctant to drive to missouri. he doesnt want to come to missouri. page 1197 whats really happening is theyre going to have this big discussion about the, blah. its the complete opposite of someone plotting were going to drive over there and were going to shoot her. hes on the phone saying, i dont think i can get over there now. ive already made plans. but kelly is telling completely the opposite story of the truth. when i got in the car with them, they asked me if i would help them with something. we were on the way to a gas station where they wanted me to call her and ask her to meet them at dairy queen. again, if you recall the evidence, thats a complete opposite of the truth. it was anastasia wanting to meet. anastasia set up this meeting. tried hard all day to get a ride there, to mount washington, and she only went to dairy queen across the street when she found herself sitting there waiting for hours. she went to dairy queen to use the pay phone. page 1198 so its anastasias idea to meet at dairy queen, im waiting here. im mad, justin. im at dairy queen now. come get me. tbats the evidence. but kelly, when she comes forward with what she calls the truth, did you call anastasia? yes, i did. and she is like, where am i supposed to meet you? and i just said, the dairy queen. this is kelly moffetts story. she has picked up bits and pieces of what happened that night and she is trying to formulate a story where she help set it up. its the complete opposite of the truth. basically, her story is im kelly moffett. im going to call anastasia and lure her out to the dairy queen or whatever. its the complete opposite. justin thought she didnt have a ride. he already made plans. he was running around. they went to funcoland a, on the phone, gave francesca the impression, total opposite of someone who was wanting to get over to independence so he can hurt somebody. hes making excuses on the phone like, i dont think i can get over there now. i thought she didnt have a ride. so anastasia has to go to dairy queen and make four or five phone calls before they can talk justin into finally going to missouri. thats why hes so very, very late. thats why anastasia one reason she is extremely mad. justin is so very, very late. if its his plot, him and byron are plotting and theyre going to go do this now, we got a gun, why are they so very, very late? theyre late because it was a meeting to talk about the relationship. justin wanted to avoid that topic. he didnt even want to be there. complete opposite of what kelly moffett is telling you. kelly never offers an explanation of why theyre so l, theyre saying kelly was done with an unknown type of gun at an unknown time of day. page 1200 if you think about that and the medical evidence, anybody can come forward with a story and tell a story, and the prosecutor could argue that medical evidence supports it. i mean, any highcaliber gun could have done it. it goes back to the vagueness of kellys statements. she comes forward claiming she is telling the truth now, but she will never specify what kind of gun exactly was used. she tells the police where the gun was dumped. when they search and dont find a gun, now she is at trial saying i dont know for sure where that gun was dumped. shell say i dont know for sure the exact spot where anastasia was found, but she can point out the general area because she went back there two years earlier and found a memorial for anastasias murder. her story, kellys story, well go with the prosecutors word, absurd. she tells detective kilgore in september of 2000 when she is coming forward, im going to tell the truth, she says, it looked like an old doublebarreled gun. page 1201 at the trial, you decide. it appeared the prosecutors at first were implying this was some kind of highpowered hunting rifle, until the defense started bringing on the witnesses to say, byrons dad never had a hunting rifle. then, towards the end, you heard, now the prosecutor is trying to say, it was done with justins first shotgun. thats what theyre implying. but thats not what kelly moffett said when she came in september of 2000 and said im going to tell the truth now. she said, byron said he got the gun from his dad. it was in old hunting rifle. and she said, kelly said, i saw the gun once. i had been at byrons dad house, and there was this hunting rifle hanging on the wall. i saw it. now were back to the prosecutor arguing it was done with the shotgun. you heard from david hill, an investigator that works out of our office. he drove from the murder scene to the gun disposal scene of where she said the gun was dumped near lake quivira, kansas. page 1202 first of all, when she is interviewed with detective kilgore, she is saying that gun was thrown out nearby. we didnt go too far from the murder scene in independence and dunped the gun. not too far. mr. hill testified hes driven those two different routes to that area where the gun was supposedly droppe, and it took more than 30 minutes. tbats not nearby. tbats why she is on the stand changing her story at the trial saying, i dont know for sure where the gun was dropped. nancy nolker, dale cases brother, the defendants brother sister, she said byron never went hunting with dale, at least not she is aware of. there was no gun at that house after dale case died christmas eve, 1997. they even went in there to clean out the house. there were no gun racks, not even pegs on the wall where you would hang a gun. how does the state explain all these inconsistencies in kelly moffetts stories? well, they cant. because kelly moffett is what i would call a devil in disguise. page 1203 she comes up here, cleancut looking. you have to crawl inside her brain to figure out whats going on in there, because she is the devil in disguise. after her and byrons relationship got real stormy, she called the police and lied to the police in 1999 saying hes suicidal. better get him. he got taken to a mental hospital for 24 hours observation just on her word, which is a total fabrication. by the way, what do you think kelly moffett learned from that experience? theyre on the phone having an argument. byron hangs up on her. she is infuriated. she calls the police and says, you better go check on this guy. hes suicidal. total fabrication. but she learned she had some power that night, because he was taken by the police to the mental hospital for observation. so, she has learned she has a little bit of power there. the police actually believed me. she has learned this now. she has lied to the police before and the police believed her and lied to them about byron. page 1204 so she has learned that le, this is kelly moffett. this is their star witness. if you dont believe her, they dont have a case, because there is no other evidence. so you ask is kelly moffett believable? in one part that came out in the trial sort of unexpectedly is she told byron when they started dating, my dad is an alcoholic. he beats me, as they were dating for a long time, byron found out its not true. that was not even true either. thats a pretty big whopper of a lie too to be telling people. note mr. lances statement that the information that kelly moffett claimed her father was an alcholic who beat her came out in the t, who said she had been told that by byron case, and by byron case himself. besides being an unverifiable accusation on cases part, it was not very unexpected. so whats going on inside kelly moffetts head? if you meet a new boy you want to impress, a boy you want to date, and you say, my father beats me, if your parents have burned all bridges with you and you cant get back in the home and you say, i saw a brutal murder, and it traumatized me, so thats why im a crackhead, enough about kelly moffett. you can see she has no credibility. lets talk about the other witnesses and how is the state going to explain these other defense witnesses? are all these defense witnesses lying like don rand? don rand is an independent witnes, the general direction of the cemetery. so is the state saying that guy is full of it? hes an independent witness that doesnt even know byron case. and he was interviewed two days after the homicide, and he remembers what he saw that night, in a welllit area, where there is numerous businesses. page 1206 and the only thing the prosecutors can say is, she didnt use the phone. well, byron case told you on the stand, i thought she was just going to call her parents. but he doesnt know their work schedule. anastasia knows what was happening that night. did she stop at the pay phones? she knew there was nobody at home. thats why i kept asking those witnesses. nobody was, the lady that was working at dairy queen. she talked to a young lady in the dairy queen. the young lady we now know is anastasia. said she was angry at her boyfriend. he was late for their meeting. needed to borrow a sanitary napkin. when she, it was three people, two boys and a girl. as soon as anastasia went outside, she appeared to be arguing with one of the boys and this young girl was carrying a brown purse. now, whats wrong with that witness? is the prosecutor saying that was a different girl who borrowed a sanitary napkin and was arguing with the boyfriend and carrying a brown purse? page 1207 because there is no brown purse found at the murder sc, this is another witness produced for trial. she was interviewed october 24th 1997, right after the homicide, she remembers what happened. and the other people, are they all lying? abraham kneisley? tara mcdowell? good friends of anastasia and the defendant, but good friends of anastasia wh6 said on the stand i wouldnt lie to protect anastasias killer. they saw the two boys. you have kelly moffett saying right before the homicide justin and byron were drinking hard liquor and all this stuff. , we didnt smell any liquor. i talked to them. they werent drinking. they saw the kid stop by, which according to the prosecutor, would have been right after the murder. right after justin was pale, crying. he couldnt even drive he was so shaken up, so they had to switch drivers and now byron is driving. this is what kelly moffett is telling you. page 1208 friends that saw them that night said there was nothing like that. those guys acted normal. nobody was crying or pale or shaking an, because nobody knew that, when anastasia got out of the car, she was going to try to take a shortcut up through the cemetery and was going to get confronted by some stranger who killed her, a stranger who has never been arrested. motive. the prosecutor brought up motive. already tried to explain that, because they have no motive. byron case has nothing to gain from this homicide, favor to a friend. thats their theory. he did it like a favor for a friend? thats their whole motive, apparently. quick notes i made during the trial. evelyn case testified, the defendants mom. do you remember the procecutor was attacking her or cross examining her, you have seen the file. you have seen the police file. page 1209 you saw all the evidence. and do you remember what her honest answer was? well, there is no evidence. thats the remark of someone thats read the entire police file. there is no evidence. and then the prosecutor said, what about kelly? and the witness said, you mean kelly? thats what they have. kelly. again, quick notes during the trial. control. theyre arguing byron dated kelly just to control her and didnt want her to tell the truth. well, you ask yourselves. the guy thats leaving town and moving to st. louis and not giving her his phone number or his address and trying to break off all contact with her, does that sound like somebody who is trying to control her and keep her from going to the police? so what else do they have? they got these audiotapes. theyre trying to make a big deal about the audiotapes, and i think their argument is its like a confession. well, you heard the tapes. there is no confession on there. page 1210 the prosecutor is arguing you should make the adverse inference, an inference. you understand the term inference. theyre asking you to assume something or infer. is that what evidence is all about to you, proof beyond a reasonable doubt? you should assume hes guilty is basically what theyre saying there. well, the inference cuts the other way. if somebody says something totally crazy to you, like you killed somebody or i think youre the one that stole my car last week or something thats totally not true and you remain silent or dont deny it, does that mean youre accepting or adopting that statement? thats what theyre asking you to believe. but the opposite is equally inferred. if somebody says something crazy and you ignore it, you think thats not even worth responding to. its like when an idiot confronts you or something. you may or may not have heard that saying. an idiot comes up to you and starts to make an argument if you join in the argument with the idiot, then you just have two idiots. its simpler and easier to ignore an idiot. page 1211 so when byron case is on the phone that night awakened from a deep sleep, and she starts rambling on about this crazy stuff, hes going this is my crazy psycho exgirlfriend again. and the medical records, thats exhibit 31, that he went to the doctor and wasnt just sometime that week. it was the very next day. the medical records, you cant fabricate medical records later for the trial. if he really is half sick, half awake, half asleep, and he doesnt respond appropriately well, anyway thats up to the jury to decide. if he didnt respond quickly enough or appropriately enough, you decide that, but its not a confession, and the inference can cut either way. as long as youre inferring or assuming make sure you follow the courts instructions, because there is nothing about assuming there. you need proof beyond a reasonable doubt before you send somebody to prison. page 1212 shutdown. byron case mentioned that he sought counseling because his emotions were shut down. does that he, but typical red blooded american man. you dont want to talk about your emotions, usually. thats just typical. something terrible happens like the loss of a parent or anything traumatic, a lot of men dont want to talk about it. ill go chop wood all day or something and maybe tomorrow ill feel better, but i dont want to talk about that. and kelly knows thats his reaction. has been for a long time. so, if hes staying saying on the stand if hes saying on this tape i dont want to talk about it. we shouldnt talk about it, is that just a typical male reaction? page 1213 while were tawng about these audiotapes, if you caught one point on the tape, byron did say something like, when i talked to the police, i told them everything. i dont remember the exact words. but thats on there. hes saying, youre all worried. youre saying the police are going to call you. i talked to the police. i told them everything. why isnt that an inference that hes innocent then? hes saying i told them everything. october 24th 1997, i told them everything. it was the truth. little clues throughout the case. when byron case was being cross examined by the prosecutor, hes attacking them about what he told detective kilgore on that date, october 24th, it came but in a question. but you and kelly were amazingly consistent with your story. like thats suspicious now or somehow sinister? thats our whole defense. they told the truth october 24th. their stories were amazingly consistent because it was the tr, and sinker. what really happened is anastasia made herself easy prey, terrible mistake, but it was made in a fit of rage. she walked up that hill into the cemetery, at truman road, four lanes, very fast cars going by. maybe she didnt want to walk on the shoulder. its a little dangerous maybe, right? its easier to take a shortcut up through where there is no traffic. little did she know there was some stranger up there, maybe a drug addict also desperate for money with a gun looking for easy prey. unarmed teenage girl alone in the cemetery after dark. she didnt know there was going to be somebody there. remember the questions the very first questions that d, but youre here to tell the jury the truth today, thats their star witness. page 1215 she came and told the jury a story without a shred of evidence in support of her. you determine her credibility. this is a witness who, in may of 98, sent a computer email to anastasias father. this is the victims father. she is saying, if we could get together and talk, we could swap stories. that would be ludicrous, if there wasnt so much at stake today. what type of a mind does kelly moffett have? she wants to get together with the victims dad and swap stories. we know who would be swapping the biggest stories of all, kelly moffett, who says my dad beats me or something, which isnt true, to get sympathy and says, i saw a murder. justin did it. she is just saying that to get sympathy. they never got together, to talk. if they would have been swapping stories, we know who would have been swapping the biggest one. let me talk about some key dates in the case. as a reminder, in few minutes well be done and youll be deliberating. i want to talk about some of the key dates. page 1216 june 5th, this audiotape phone call is maded where they claim it infers hes guilty. very nearly midnight. the medical records show the next day hes at the doctors. you cant fake a strep throat. its not like a soft tissue injury that you can say your back hurts. you, youve been throwing up. june 5th the call is made. you heard abraham kneisleys testimony. good friend. he said he talked to byron on the phone that week too. he said byron was practically incoherent, giving answers to questions that didnt follow. byron is the next day at the doctors. they cant deny that. september 13th, byron moves to st. louis. the key here is he has decided to when he does move, hes going to have no ties to kelly. hes tired of her coming back around, talking about her drug problems and whatever. she broke up with him. he doesnt feel he has to deal with her anymore. hes got other girlfriends now. page 1217 so september 13th he goes to st. louis. no ties. he wont give her the phone number, this is in 2000. september ]9th 2000, kelly moffett is at the prosecutors office saying i can testify if you give me immunity. i can testify that byron case did the murder. now, is this a coincidence, the closeness of these two dates? is that just a timing coincidence or is that important? well let the jury decide. kelly moffett gets on the stand and says, this drug addiction and alcoholism got worse because i saw a murder. well, isnt that a typical spiral of addiction? she admitted she had these problems and was using drugs before anastasia ever died. so the typical drug addiction or crack addiction or spiral addiction is getting worse and worse and worse. would that have happene, thats the way a drug addiction progresses anyway. page 1218 but its very convenient, isnt it, to say, after anastasias death, thats when it all got worse, the crack use and everything. well, thats all of my notes from the trial. so in conclusion here, i just want to wrap up. youve seen all the evidence. the prosecutors office has had five years to bring in all this what they call evidence. the defense would submit to you what one of the witnesses said on the stand. what evidence? kelly moffett? , the verdict of not guilty. in a few minutes youll be upstairs deliberating, trying to reach a decision here, and just remember that byron case will be downstairs here waiting for you. byron and his attorney are waiting for you, waiting to hear the truth being affirmed, waiting to hear the verdict of not guilty. do the right thing. thank you very much. top of page return to the case against case. return to anastasias memorial., all this stuff. and then later, thats immediate attention and sympathy from a boy you like. page 1205 and, thats immediate attention and sympathy to get back into the family. because now she is the victim. im a victim and none of this crack addict is my fault. well