Judge denies defense motion for new trial in Tree case

Judge Reinholtsen basically he agreed with the People's written response and oral argument today in court.
The previous posts links will give the background and put this post in context. The written motions are basically what the attorneys argued in court.

Judge Reinholtsen said that the only issue is if the new evidence about Ms. Stonebarger "would result in a different outcome in a new trial". Judge Reinholtsen did not think that this would be the case.

He agreed with Ms. Firpo that the information provided to the defense, even though it was at  a late stage, was "merely cumulative" and "would not have had a different result."

Bodhi Tree was in court dressed in the orange jail garb with his trademark "wtf" and "I don''t give a damn" expression. Both his attorneys, Ms. Holmquist and Mr. Russo were present but only Mr. Russo presented oral arguments to the court. DDA Elan Firpo was present for the People.

Representatives from Probation, Victim Witness and two jurors were present as well as prosecution key witness Sean Butler-Smith's sister.

Prior to the motion, when sentencing has been scheduled, other jurors have attended as well. They are very vested in the outcome.

Mr. Russo claimed Brady violation and used the same argument of lack of physical evidence and inadequate investigation. He called Ms. Stonebarger's statement in the People's response, the expert witness, who the defense team is using as the reason for a new trial, self-serving.

Ms. Firpo point by point, explained that the defense was provided in a very timely manner the information when the People learned about it. In fact, District Attorney Paul Gallegos sent it to the defense a day before he informed Ms. Firpo about it.

As she stated in her motion, Ms. Firpo said Ms. Stonebarger's testimony was limited. She forwarded the blood stain she found on clothing to another criminalist, she did not do any ballistics or DNA or crime scene analysis. Ms. Firpo disputed Mr. Russo's claim that Ms. Stonebarger made decisions on what should be tested.

The best part was when Ms. Firpo pointed out that the statements the defense was attributing to Ms. Stonebarger claiming she testified on stuff she was not qualified to were answers she gave in response to cross by the defense. Ms. Firpo said that Ms. Stonebarger's testimony did not provide any evidence that implicated Bodhi Tree. She also clarified Ms. Stonebarger's response was included because she was only excluded from biological work in 2012 for three months and she went to retraining. In 2013, she received a satisfactory evaluation.

The time period she was suspended was not when she did work on the Tree case. She said that the prosecution's primary expert witness and rebuttal witness to defense's experts was Dale Cloutier, who testified three mornings for 12 hours compared to Ms. Stonebarger's 3 hours.

Previous posts regarding defense's motion and People's response:

http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2014/09/tree-motion-for-new-trial-missing.html

http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2014/09/das-office-files-response-to-defense.html