Day 2 of The Grim Sleeper Trial

I arrived at 7.45am and met, as planned with Lonnie's neighbours ~ Richard 'Ricky' Harris and Paul Williams.  Ricky is a tall black guy with a very jovial happy go lucky personality... a very gentle soul who I'm sure is religious but I hadn't asked him that yet.  I had met Ricky for the first time yesterday morning on the 9th floor.  I was there at the same time, just after 7.40am, when not even the deputies had arrived in their area by then and when they did, they hadn't even woken up completely.

Ricky and I chatted a lot yesterday, off the record and he told me in no uncertain terms that "Man I don' care if a whole load of those Juror people come back with him being Guilty, I know for a fact 'e ain't done none of those crimes.  He wern' like that.   Lonnie he'ped all the elderly in the neighbourhood, he was a good family man.  I know coz I lived right next door to him'".   Ricky goes back over 26 years with Lonnie and knew him well.  I was surprised as to the reason he was there but he said he just wanted to see Nick Broomfield and punch him in the face for lying to him and made him look so bad in that documentary. Either way, I know Nick, and that the last place on earth Nick would be is at Lonnie Franklin's Trial.  Despite being one of the best Documentary film makers in the world, he tends to piss off a few people - me included.   However, I hold no grudges and Nick and I have remained friends to this day.  I did have to legally extract myself from his documentary though for the same fear that has just happened to Richard Harris.  (I know I touched on this subject yesterday).  

As soon as I arrived, I called Ricky from outside of the building and he said he was already there, on the 9th floor waiting for me!  I waited the usual long wait for the elevator (not all go to the 9th floor mind you), and finally met up with Ricky who was stuffing his face with some Ramen noodles.... at 7.40am in the morning no less!!!!

So, after saying my hello I wanted to sit down with him and record him before we had to enter the Courtroom.   Before I had a chance to ask my first question, speaking through the noodles, he said to me, "I have changed my mind!  Wooahh that evidence they presented in court yesterday, oooooooohhhhhh the picture of that lady who was shot and got away, he can't get out o' that...that's.... noooooo.. that ain' right."   

Me: "But yesterday you led me to believe that you felt he was 100% innocent and now you've changed your mind?"

Ricky: "No I never said he was 100% innocent, I just said it was hard for me to believe... somebody you b'in knowing for damn near 30 years... and this happened? It's hard for me to believe, like I said in the past, Lonnie was buying cars and stealing other cars just like it and he'd put the parts on it.  That was his life, and you see the police used to always raid his house but they never found nuttin'."

Me: "Why did they never find anything?"

Ricky:  "Coz, coz... to our opinion he wasn' stoopid!  He didn' leave no stuff layin' aroun' to incriminate hisself but they went in his house and got all that shit out that we saw yesterday.  He was very stoopid!"

Me:  "So if you've known him over 26 years and you're his next door neighbour, then how do you think he went about getting these women?  When were the times you weren't with him?"

Ricky: "He was a roamer at night.  He roamed the streets at night."

Me: "Oh you knew that?"

Ricky: "Everybody knew that.  Everybody knew."

Me: "Walking or driving?"

Ricky: "He was driving."

Me: "Did he ever have an orange Pinto?"

Ricky: "Yup... years ago!

I just struck gold when he confirmed this.  I have asked Lonnie countless times if he ever owned an orange pinto and he said he didn't.  He told me he owned a pinto, a few of them, but not an orange one.  Hmmmm was he lying to me or did he steal it in one colour then repaint it?  That's one way of semi-telling the truth.  I'd like to think Lonnie didn't lie to me over all the years I interviewed him, but, if he is 'the most prolific serial killer in Los Angeles history', with a few prior arrests for car theft etc, why should I think I'm so special that he would tell me the absolute truth.  Time will tell and the truth will come out in the end.

Me: "Wow, really?  He really did have an orange pinto? Well I didn't know that.  That means he lied to me then.   So what was his wife doing all this time while he was 'roaming' the streets?  And his son, what was Christopher doing?"

Ricky: "Christopher, like you said yesterday, Christopher in't even in this state no more."

Me: "No I'm talking about back then, decades ago when Lonnie was out at nights?"

Ricky:  "Christopher was always going to school he wasn't, he din't hang with Lonnie no."

Me:  "What about his daughter Crystal?"

Ricky: "Crystal was barely seen coz she was a young girl.  Young girls do what young girls do, chase young boys"..... He then cracked himself up... Ricky is such a character.  "I'm tellin' the truth!  You see Crystal and my nephew were a couple for a while and...."

The elevator doors opened and I always panic in case a Juror is in the vicinity.  Ricky is sooooo loud, way louder than me and that's really saying something!

Me: "Excuse me, you're not a Juror are you?"

Unknown person: "No I'm not."   I still didn't feel safe as more people were coming up in the elevators so we stopped talking until the deputies were set up to let us through the metal detectors.   

As we walked down the hallway, I sat with Ricky right at the very first place on the bench next to the door of Dept. 109, same place as we were yesterday.  Again no one was around us, the people huddling around the elevator all went to the left down the hall and some sat in the middle area, he and I went to the right and sat at the end.  I even said to Ricky that we (I meant him) should lower our voices as we must be so careful that no Jurors can hear us.  He obliged.

We then started again and I turned my recording device back on.

Me: "So how did you meet Lonnie?"

Ricky: "When he moved in the neighbourhood almost 30 years ago.  He had real young kids at the time.  Crystal's younger than Chris."

Me: "What did you do with Lonnie?  When you hung out with him?"

Ricky: "I din' really 'hang out' with Lonnie, nobody 'hung out' with Lonnie.  Lonnie was a loaner.  We did do what neighbours do tho', he came to our barbecues and our parties.  I used to make money with Lonnie...Like I told you... Lonnie would like go to insurance sites and get cars.. he'd get his crew to go and steel a car just like that and then he'd take the parts off the stolen car and put it on the bought car.. then he would pay me $100 bucks to drive it away for him.... the stripped car.....

This interview went on for another 30 minutes and I also have a few more interviews to add but I'm going to save the rest for my book... I just wanted to give an idea of the types of neighbours and friends that Lonnie would be around, whenever he was around anyone.

Flash forward to when we all entered the Courtroom:

8.52am

Lonnie was already sitting in his seat at the Defense table, staring straight ahead, in the same shirt and and black rimmed glasses.  You'd think he hadn't left the chair since yesterday.  He was staring straight ahead rarely even blinking.

A motion was made, by the Defense again, so they all huddled around the Judge before the Jury came in.  From the little that I could hear Marguerite Rizzo, the other District Attorney besides Beth Silverman, confirmed that she is "not intending to introduce DNA reports or Coroners reports when a witness testifies.

The Judge then confirmed that "the witness who testifies in court is testifying to their opinion and their opinion alone.  They may testify on objective facts that were recorded at the time.   They will be given the facts, photos, raw documentation and will be forming their own independent opinion."  

Judge Kennedy was very upset that a Deputy's radio was loud enough for her to hear so she said if she hears it again she will ask him to leave her Courtroom.

Testimony began with Dr Raffi Jabourian (spelling?) who is a doctor a the Coroners office.  He was testifying and explaining about blunt force trauma and the meaning of that.  He had guessed the victim to be between 15-18 years of age as she arrived at his office as only a Jane Doe.  He had found know defense wounds on the victim, which is very telling.

The specifics on this are written in my book....



The second witness to testify was Dr. Mark Fajardo who is the Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner at the Coroners Office.  Dr Fajardo is in charge of a department with 216 employees, a budget of 32 million, he has 28 doctors on staff and a team of investigators and toxicologists.  His job is to investigate sudden and violent deaths in Los Angeles County, and determine the time and manner of how they died.  He is Board certified by the American Board of Pathology and Anatomic, Clinical and Forensic Pathology.  Not a dumb man by any stretch of the imagination.
After he spoke for the first few minutes I could tell that he is a very highly energized and flamboyant man.  He seemed very eager to make a great deal of eye contact with the Jury.  Knowing his profession uses complicated wording, he made sure to speak in layman's terms for the Jury and the rest of the Court to understand, myself included.  I found him much easier to understand than Dr Jabourian (spelling) who testified right before him.

More specifics on this are written in my book.....

During the lunch break I interviewed with Conan Nolan who is a reporter for NBC 4, the video is below.   NBC are covering the Trial along with Phil Shuman with Fox 11 and ABC 7 to name but a few.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Serial-Killer-Grim-Sleeper-Trial-Continues_Los-Angeles-369172211.html

To be continued.....