Apparently I was rather drunk when I posted this and had to be reminded of it. But let me get coffee and I'll type it up

Ok. I'm gonna use names but I don't feel comfortable using real names excerpt for the accused.

I live with my brother, sis-in-law and my 1 year old niece, have for about two years, and we're all very close. Two years ago my sister in law, who we'll call Stephanie Tanner received a phone call explaining that her brother who we'll call Carl Winslow, had been killed in modesto. The initial report told us that he had been stabbed to death following a dispute with some guy who had been harassing his girlfriend.
We were given very litle details at the time but we were told that the suspect had been picked up less than an hour after the attack, covered in blood, and attempting to load a rifle in his apartment.
Needless to say, Stephanie took it very, very hard and went through a period of a couple months where she was breaking down with little to no prompting.
So nearly two years go by while this guy is in jail awaiting trial. Over this time we learn very little about what happened. We do learn that the suspect had been harassing Carl's girlfriend for months. Leaving weird gifts at her door, making innapropriate calls at 3am, etc, stuff like that

So the trial was set to start about a month ago. They did jury selection and all that and it went quicker than anyone expected so pretty soon it was time for day one of the trial. My brother went with Stephanie as he had for every day during jury selection. But the next day he really had to be at work, something special that had been long in the works that he couldn't get out of. So I tell Stephanie that I'll go with her, (it's about 90 minutes away, and I didn't want her to have to be there by herself) so I went with her.
So while we're there we hear a few different witnesses for both the defense and the prosecution. It did not take a genius to realize that the prosecutor was on top of her shit and the defense attorney seemed in over his head and almost bored being there.
Each witness testimony, for both sides, seemed to help the prosecutions side more and more. The defense witnesses were clearly un intelligent, vague, and seemed like they were tere because they were ordered to be rather than to help their "friend" in any way.
So court wraped up for the day and it was explained to us that starting tomorrow we would be watching the interrogation video of the defendant, in it's entirety, that was taking about 3 hours aftefr the attack and would last a little over 6 hours.
Well, shit, there was no way I was gonna miss that now, I was intrigued.
So the next day all three of us go, me, my bro, and Steph, where we watched the majority of the video and listened to testimony by the detective that did the interrogation. We were going to finish the video the following day and at this point I was planning on being there for the duration of the trial.
The next day we finish the video, during which at alternating times he cried, screamed, said he was "A fucking murderer" and defecated himself. He had been given a breathalyzer when he was originally brought in and blew a 1.8. About 4 hours into the interrogation he seemed to start to sober up a bit. He became more careful with his words, stopped admitting to anything specific and seemed to be realizing what it was that was going on.
By this time we had heard the entire story of what happened. Carl and his gf had gotten home from the bars about 1:30 on a Saturday night. They both walked because they had been drinking ( I only mention that because it was brought up during trial) Between 1:30 and 3AM Carl's girlfriend, Topanga, received 4 seperate text messages and two phone calls from the defendant whos name is Darren Merenda. By the third message Carl was getting angry and took Topanga's phone and responded to Darren himself. The text read "It's 3AM in the morning, I don't know who you think you are but stop texting my girlfriend."
A few minutes later Darren texted back, I forget the exact quote but something along the lines of "You're right, you don't know who I am."
Carl writes back, "If we need to go downstairs and talk about that, then that's what we're going to do, but you harassing my girlfriend like this is not going to continue."
Darren writes back, "I'm coming over." (They lived in the same apartment complex)
So Carl, not wanting this guy at his girlfriends house at 3 in the morning, grabs his cigarettes and a lighter a goes to meet him in the courtyard. Darren also grabs supplies but rather than cigarettes grabs a 14' medieval dagger and unsheaths it in front of his own roommate and then tells his roomate if he hears any screams to come help.
Darren storms out of the apartment. Him and carl meet in the courtyard, Carl with a cigarette in his mouth and Darren with a dagger hidden in his pocket. Some words were exchanged that nobody knows exactly what was said, and then Topanga heard a loud scream. She ran out onto her balcony and watched as Darren stabbed Carl repeatedly and Carl - not immediately dead, screaming in agony. When Carl finally slumped to the ground, clearly dead at this point, Darren put his hands on his head and began running around in circles screaming "Oh my god, what have I done" before running back to his own apartment. Back at his apartment, he loaded a rifle with which he was going to use to kill himself. Somehow the gun jammed and Darren's roommate came running in to see what happened.
Darren told his roommate that he had killed Carl.
Very shortly after this occured the police were at the door. Topanga had seen everything so there was never any doubt of his guilt or innocence. But in trial they tried two different defense techniques. First they tried to argue temporary insanity due to him being drunk. But during trial it came out that he has been a functional alcoholic for years and had DUI's and other legal problems because of it many times before. One DUI he had blown a 3.2. so that defense quickly went out the window. After that they tried to claim that Darren was just a "scared nerd" and took the dagger for protection because Carl was bigger and stronger than him.
Both defenses were laughable and nobody on the jury bought them.
So prosecution and defense rest at around 3pm on a thursday and the jury goes in to deliberate. For some reason the jury couldn't meat on friday and monday was columbus day so except for the hour that they were able to deliberate on that thursday they wouldn't meet again until the folowing Tuesday.
I get a call about 11:30 tuesday morning, (1.5 hours after starting deiberations) from Stephanie telling me that the jury had reached a verdict and it ould be read at 1:30. Stephanie was already there but I wasn't going to make it there in time so I asked her to call me as soon as she heard.
My phone rang a little before 2 where Stephanie told me the jury came back Guilty of First Degree murder with the added special circumstance of pre-meditation.
In california apparently the sentences for these crimes are already set where First Degreee murder is mandatory 25-life but we were told by the prosecutor that with the added pre-meditation charge, he would never, ever, be realeased from Jail.
The actual official sentencing isnt for another week but like I said there's really not a lot of room for interpretaion, it's mostly just a formality.
It was heavy.
I'm sure I left stuff out and am happy to answer questions if anything was unclear.

So Topanga is single then?

Topanga is single, and hot.

 

Originally Posted by Glo4m

worth reading or no?

Meh, it was worth typing.

Cliffs: PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Actually im not lazy here they go

- Goes w sis in law to a trial of her brothers Murderer
- Witness the interrogation video where accused murderer shits himself
- Murderer is accused of meeting brother in Parking lot after harassing brothers GF and stabbing him to death
- Murderer then tries to kill himself, but gun jammed
- Found Guilty of 1 st Degree Murder will Rot in jail
-

Her name is topanga she has to be hot. Pretty gnarly though everything that happened, specially the girl had to watch it

you mean he blew a .18 and .32

but crazy story!

you did it, OP. grats.

 

Originally Posted by 2Slick4u

So he went to meet this crazed, lunatic, stalker ex-boyfriend at 3 a.m. armed with harsh language and a cigarette? Did I miss something? hmmmmm. Okay. Cool story, bro.

yah not the best idea to meet a crazy lunatic stalker without protection

 

Originally Posted by ccm

yah not the best idea to meet a crazy lunatic stalker without protection

Yea you fuckin clown he should have brought the gun he doesnt have or his own replica world of Warcraft weapon.he didn't go down there to fight that's the whole point .

It seems like an open and shut case, were there any offers made prior to trial?

 

Originally Posted by Mikey Babes

Pretty gnarly though everything that happened, specially the girl had to watch it

reallly this, that has to mess you up something fierce.

guy shoulda had at least a bat, but just sickening regardless. Good to see justice done, although he could have saved everyone a lot of time and trouble if he cleaned his gun a little more frequently.