One Juror Can Change Everything In Court

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Well, hello, good morning.
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It's Heidi and this is Surviving Changes podcast.
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We're gonna do a quick podcast over coffee this morning.
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Just because I keep seeing the juries out on this Clancy deal.
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I have not watched it.
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I don't know anything about that trial, and so I want to tell you that right now.
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Um, but I do know a shitload about juries.
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And uh let me explain to you.
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Look at trials are won and lost in juries.
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That is the single most important part of the trial itself.
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Now, the motions in lemine, those are very, very important.
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And what people don't understand is so if you're accused of a crime or there's a trial or whatever, you have the motions beforehand, right?
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And those motions serve certain purposes, like are we gonna actually this case continue?
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Was the police officer did they do the right things, things like that.
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But motions in Limine are motions that happen right before the trial.
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As the jury is coming in and getting their questionnaires or you know, filling out all their little stuff, watching the video or hearing the instructions, whatever it is that particular court may have.
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Um, during that time, there are motions going on in court that are called motions in lemonade.
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I excelled at motions and lemonade, um, and jury selection, and that's part of the reason why I was dangerous to those people.
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Uh, I can understand juries because I've been poor and I've um broke bread with judges.
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So I get um where all of those people are coming from.
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But first, just let me tell you about the motions in lemonade and then I'll uh explain jury to you real quick.
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Um, so motions in lemonade.
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Well, if you're a juror, you're coming in, you're filling out this stuff.
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In the courtroom, there are last-minute motions happening.
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Things like can an officer testify to all of this stuff?
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Can um a past crime be brought up?
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Things like that.
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Those motions are not heard early on, those are not heard until literally moments before the trial starts.
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And so if you can do really good there, you can shut down a prosecutor or opposing counsel's complete argument because they may be relying on an officer to be able to testify to a full story, and you can go in there and get the judge under the rules of evidence, which most lawyers don't know.
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All prosecutors know, but most lawyers, unless they're a trial lawyer, um, they do not, they they don't understand the evidence rules, and that's what matters so much, man.
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Um, if you don't understand those rules, you can't really be standing in court.
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There's no purpose.
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You can get the shit beat out of you at places like motions eliminate.
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And so um the prosecutor might go in there thinking that they have three police officers that all can testify to something and it's a slam dunk case.
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Well, at motions eliminate, if you can make a good argument under like um evidence rules between 401 and 403, they're all the same but a little different.
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But essentially, it's um showing that what the officer is gonna testify to is more prejudicial than probative, um, right?
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And so that might be something like uh there's this big long fight and story here, Jenna Brooks.
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Let me tell you about the Jenna Brooks case, and that's actually great because it's a great juror.
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So Jenna Brooks, I fucking hate actually, I think I talked about Jenna Brooks.
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Go find the old Jenna Brooks one, um, so you can hear about the whole trial.
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But so um in Jenna Brooks, that prosecutor thought that she was gonna be able to um, well, it was a shefer early on, uh, male actually tried the case.
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But they thought that they were gonna be able to tell the whole story about how Jenna came up to the um military facility out there on Whidby, how she acted, her kicking and screaming and spitting and all of that in the car, the swearing all the way back to the um police station, uh, right up until she kicked that officer in the jaw.
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And I was able to argue that none of that stuff coming up was even relevant, and in fact, it was far more prejudicial.
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Look at whether she was being a little stupid drunk bitch out on the military facility has nothing to do with whether or not she kicked the officer in the jaw way back at the cop shop.
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Period.
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And the fact that the prosecutor wanted to bring all that in certainly would be prejudicial.
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Um, the jury would take all of that into account when in fact the only reason that we're in there for that trial was to determine if whether at that exact minute Jenna Brooks intended to kick the officer in the jaw and then in fact did.
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That's it.
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So at Motions Eliminate, I was able to argue that all of that previous stuff shouldn't come in, right?
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And so those motions lemonade are very, very important.
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And people sometimes don't understand.
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They're like, what went wrong on that trial?
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How did how how did that end up being that way?
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Um, well, motions and lemonade are gonna be a big reason as to why, but the other thing is jury selection, and I'm sure I talked about jury selection in Jenna Brooks, so if you want to know more about that, just listen, go look up the Jenna Brooks defense.
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Made me a very dangerous lawyer after that.
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Um, instead, I'm gonna tell you about Cody Miller and those jurors.
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So Cody Miller uh was his at the time 16, I think he was.
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Um, and he had look at he was from Euphreda, Washington.
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You can look up the case still, I think.
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I know it made it to um the appellate court, so you can find it in the appellate court, uh, Cody Miller, Washington State versus Cody Miller, um in Euphrada, that's Grant County.
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So, anyways, he went into this little gas station, Tiger Paws, uh, with a friend.
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Now he was mad, it was Thanksgiving, and his mom was, and I'm sorry for listening, but just kind of a piece of shit, mom.
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And who took care of him mostly was his grandparents.
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And his grandparents and Billy fuck you for everything I did for you.
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God's gonna punish you.
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But so his grandparents um were who took care of him, right?
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His grandma's name's Billy.
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Uh, I took her on vacation and everything fucking now.
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That might have been a violation.
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It was afterwards, it was afterwards, so probably not.
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But stuff like that, if I did anything wrong, it was taking a grandma after a trial on vacation because she deserved it.
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And I was going anyway, and none of my friends could go.
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But so anyway, um pieces of shit, man.
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Um, so back to Cody.
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So he was mad because his uh grandparents took off for Thanksgiving this year, and he didn't even have turkey and so and or money, and so him and his friend, well, his friend turned on him, wasn't much of a friend, uh, but went in, they decided they were gonna rob the little tiger paws in Euphrata, um, and then use that money for turkey.
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And so, man, yeah, they were so smart criminals and so dumb.
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So they put on before they went in, and Cody had a gun, um, but I mean they were covered from head to toe.
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They even changed shoe sizes.
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So, um, when the cops came to check their shoe sizes, you know, check the footprints and all that stuff, they would have different shoe sizes.
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I mean, pretty smart stuff for being a 16-year-old criminal, right?
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Some thought went into this, I guess.
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Um, but what they didn't do, Cody, because he needed to have his hands on the trigger of the gun to scare the the guy behind the register, um, did not wear any gloves.
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And unfortunate for Cody, he had these big knuckles.
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Like if you know any framers from the 80s, they have these knuckles that are unmistakable.
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They're and I don't know, it must be from maybe arthritis or something.
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I don't know.
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He was pretty young, but he had these same knuckles.
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Very out of place.
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Good-looking kid.
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Um, you get to his hands, and they're very, they're very um recognizable hands.
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And so after they took the money, they went right across to a Walmart in Euphreda Um and bought a frozen turkey dinner that they took to then microwave over at his mom worked at the motel in town, and they could use the microwave for free.
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And so they went over and did that.
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Um now, unfortunate for Cody, and I I noticed this pretty early on and hoped that um it didn't become noticeable, but it sure did.
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And Cassandra, so I I co-counseled this one with Cassandra, and you can learn about the not so honorable Cassandra.
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She died of cancer.
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Um anyway, so and sh fuck Cassandra is a good lawyer, and she's a great trial lawyer.
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She's very trial experienced.
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The two of us together were very, very dangerous.
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Um, also, this Cody Miller case.
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So let me back up.
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I wanna I wanted to tell you about how awesome we were really quick.
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Um, so Cody was looking at, I believe it was nine years, and they came to us like seven days before the trial, or the court date was seven days before the trial, right?
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They had another lawyer they didn't trust.
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Um, public defender, I'm sure.
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She they hadn't paid nothing.
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But so they came to us, they're like, there's gonna be this trial, and he's gonna go to jail for a lot of years.
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There's gun enhancements and all of this stuff.
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Um, look at the case.
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It was like I don't know, nine years.
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We had less than two weeks.
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I know that.
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So excuse me.
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The air is I think here in Puerto Rico, I guess that's the best way to say it.
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Um, right now.
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But so anyway, they came to us and Cody, one of the things that he had done is he had thrown down a cigarette.
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They had a cigarette that had his DNA.
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But because they knew that um Cody was gonna be asking to change lawyers, they weren't prepared for trial.
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Trial was set, but they weren't like prepared for it, and so they didn't have that cigarette tested for his DNA.
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Now we knew for a fact if that DNA came back, Cody was going away.
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And so we convinced the judge that between the two of us we would be able to take that case to trial in less than like two weeks.
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I think it was nine days.
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Um and we were able to because we were that good.
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Most most lawyers wouldn't be able to do that, and they certainly would be able to convince a judge that.
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But so anyway, took that to trial.
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Um, and jury selection, that's what started this as it's getting longer.
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Jury selection is so important, man.
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Um, and so they obviously had a good jury selection, the defense did on this case, for it to still be um for the jury still to be out.
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So, anyway, we do this trial.
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Um, we get the weapon enhancement gone at halftime.
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We're able to get that dismissed.
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So, right off the bat, he's not looking at too much time.
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I think it was maybe a year or two at most, because it was simply a burglary at this point, an armed robbery, um, and not and not the weapons enhancement.
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So we felt a little bit better going into the second half because Cody would not have come out of Cody.
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Still had a lot of hope in him.
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As a matter of fact, um he ended up getting here.
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Let me tell you.
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So, okay, fast forward.
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Um, we're at jury selection, and we've got a great jury, except there's this one teacher in the middle, and me and Cassandra fought.
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Cassandra's like, no, we want to teach her, they're compassionate, and I'm like, no, we don't want to teach her, they pay attention to the little things like knuckles and things like that.
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And she's like, No, and I ended up giving in to her, and we would have won that trial if I didn't.
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Um, and I'm glad that it worked out the way it did because Cody ended up getting nine months essentially, and during that nine months, um his grandparents brought him paralegal stuff, and he got a certificate through the online deal, and I hired him at my office.
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Um, right up until a probation officer was upset that Cody was doing well and stopped that.
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But um, he became a paralegal.
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He went from armed robber to paralegal.
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That's the good work that I did.
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That's what they that's that's the story that they don't tell you.
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Um, but anyway, so we get the trial done, we do our closing and everything, and this is also a hung jury.
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I think we're in day two of just sitting and waiting over in Efreda, waiting for the jury, because you gotta stay close to the court um in case the judge calls you back for questioning or the verdict comes in.
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But you don't have to stay at the court, and but there's not much to do in Euphreda.
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So we're spending a couple days in Euphreda, and I think it was day two of um it had to have been day two or three, but anyway, so the judge calls us in and says, Okay, the teacher has a question, and I'm like, oh fuck, Cassandra.
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And so we go back in, and the teacher wants to see the video, um, because Walmart has the video of his knuckles, and then Tiger Paws has the video of him in there, and so I immediately I'm like, Cassandra, we're screwed.
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It's probably good because if Cody would have got off completely, he's a smart enough kid that he would have um certainly become a super criminal.
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That would have not been good for him.
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So nine months becoming paralegal was exactly what was supposed to happen.
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Um, but that fucking teacher checked those both out, recognized the knuckles, and that's how he got convicted.
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One teacher paid attention, all of the 11 other jurors um did not pay attention to the knuckles, and so um jury selection is so so so important.
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So when you see things like this and you're like, what the hell is happening here?
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Look, if there was even one juror, one, like there was in go look at Jenna Brooks' case.
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Wow, I really have an itchy throat.
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Um this morning.
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I needed to take off syrup.
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But so check it out.
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One juror is all it takes.
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It took one juror in Cody's case, it took one juror in um Jenna Brooks' case.
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It one jur is all it takes, and they can hold out, and they can make they no one can make them change their mind.
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So if you're a criminal defense lawyer, you want one person on there that you know what's on their mind, and they refuse to change it.
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And if you can get them on the jury, you win as a defense lawyer.
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Because anytime your client walks out of the courthouse, not in cuffs, you won that day.
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The winner that day.
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So, and a lot of times they won't retry these cases.
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This one they may because it's so public, but like Jenna Brooks, they had to put 40 grand into that, they already lost it.
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She just walked away, uh officer assaulter.
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She got she got away with kicking that officer in the jaw.
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Um, and then after her, a lot of other people got away with shit too because I learned how to how how that system worked.
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But so anyway, jury selection.
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I'm gonna go.
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It's already we're looking at what 17, 18 minutes.
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I'm drinking coffee, but just also look at I finally I just served my dad two days ago.
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Um, the very first legal documents have been served in these cases.
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He's got 30 days to respond, and then we'll go from there, we'll open it up.
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They thought they were gonna get away with converting this trust of my grandpa's.
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They're not.
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It's for fun to litigate, man.
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I forgot how much fun this is.
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Um, anyway, have a great day.
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I'm Heidi, and this is Surviving Changes Podcast.