Hi Y'all.
I hope you all have a wonderful week getting into this true crime games, overall, I think the game is exciting, there are room to improve (like how I sanitize the information), but overall, I guess this become quite alright, we got some good discussion, good theory and MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, NO TROLLING.....That's pretty good, I supposed.
Ok, before I review the case detail, I want you all to know that the result is a single First Degree Capital Murder Charge to Rebecca, and she is guilty of that charge, and is currently serving in Death Row in Texas.
The Actual Case detail.
This case is about 2 child, Damon, 5 and Devon Routier, 6 whose their mother, Darlie Routier was allegedly murdered during the night of 2: 31 am June 6, 1996 in Rowlett Texas.
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Defendant : Darlie Routier
Darlie Lynn Routier, born Darlie Lynn Peck (January 4, 1970) in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was accused of 1 count of First Degree Murder (Capital with Aggregative Circumstance) on Damon Routier on the night of June 6, 1996. The prosecution will alleged Darlie the crime of murder with Financial Gain and since the victim is under the age of 10 years old, under Texas Law, the murder of a child under 6 is an aggregative factor to consider the crime a capital crime, punishable by death.
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Victim : Damon and Devon Routier
The Trial
The people have submitted all relevant evidence in front of a grand jury to consider a charge of murder of first degree on Devon Routier and a charge of murder of first degree on Damon Routier with Aggregative Circumstance.
Grand Jury agree to indict Darlie Routier for the charge of murder of first degree on Damon Routier.
The Trial Started Jan 6, 1997 with Prosecution present the case to the court.
The Prosecution
Motive - The Prosecution will accuse Routier murdered her sons because of the family's financial difficulties. Prosecutors described Routier as a pampered, materialistic woman with substantial debt, plummeting credit ratings, and little money in the bank, who feared that her lavish lifestyle was about to end.
Submitted to the court the Routier House hold account have the remaining balance of $2462 in their family account and also the Routier Family is behind in Mortgage.
The Prosecution will also accuse Routier murdered her sons because of Depression.
Evidence suggest that include the bank statement, which show the family account of less than $2450 balance on June 5, a page from the diary showing Darlie's states of mind before the murders, also shown is the injury to Darlie Routier where it was different than the injury suffered to both her sons, suggest a self inflicted injury. The Prosecution will also call expert witness to testify the injury on Darlie are in line of those which are self inflicted. Also expert forensic witness called on to testify the murder weapon were indeed belong to Routier Household and is part of a Knife Set, and also forensic evidence on the screen material found on another knife belong to the Routier Household.
Perhaps the most damning evidence of all is the Persecution will Release a video, to which Darlie Routier celebrate Devon Birthday (approximately 1 week after the murder) on Devon Grave site, without grieve, and most importantly, happy.
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The Defence
The main defence is the timeline, where the Medical Examiner are said that Damon would only live for no more than 9 minutes and the time took to dispose of evidence and stage the crime scene would exceed the reasonable time that Darlie can do such a thing.
The defence also going to challenge the authenticity of the prosecution video by cross examine the prosecution witness, where there exist a longer version which show the memorial service prior to the party and the alleged legality of Government Surveillance on the Prosecution Evidence, to which, the lead detective pled the 5th Amendment (Which mean he have the right not to say anything under oath in order not to perjure himself.
Also, the Defence is going to use the same evidence the prosecution use to rebut the injury sustained by Darlie is serious enough to be in the same category as her sons.
Defence also will put forward a third party theory, which will absorb all the guilt as to the third party is responsible to the murder, not Darlie.
The Verdict
The jury reach a unanimous guilty verdict on the charge, and sentence Darlie Routier tp death by Lethal Injection.
The reason behind the verdict is that the Jury did not see the crime scene to be consistent to have a third intruder, and the entry was possibly made inside the house, using a knife which was inside the house. Also the jury did not believe the argument where the third party intruder will uses Darlie's household knife and discard the murder weapon on site. While there are patent print on the coffee table, no print was lifted on murder weapon, suggest a conflict of account to a third party existence
The jury rely heavily on the prosecution video to support the theory that Darlie was in a serious depression and killing her child is the only way out. And also, the grieve does not fall in line with a normal grieving mother would.
Ipso Facto, the jury reach a guilty verdict.
Darlie is currently imprisoned, pending her execution.
Post-Trial analysis
While most people agree Darlie is guilty on the charge and she did indeed killed, or involved in the process of killing her sons, however, most Legal Professional suggest this verdict should be thrown out of court, with prejudice, due to prosecution misconduct. Or at lease a mistrial should be granted.
That stemmed from the defence rebuttal on Prosecution Video leading to the depression claim on Darlie, when the detective pled the 5th on his own testimony, that denied a chance for the defence to cross examine the evidence, which should be enough force to throw out the evidence (of the video of Graveyard Party) and since that is one of the main reason why Darlie is convicted a mistrial should be granted and the trial should be terminated.
But that was not to be, so there is indeed reason to free Darlie from her crime.