After having to miss four days of Trial last week due to my other career I arrived at the Courtroom this morning and caught up as much as I could on all I missed.
From one of my sources, I won't say her name, she told me that on the days I missed last week there was:
Dr. John Robertson, the surgeon who removed the bullet from Enietra Washington and who saved her life in November of 19988, was one of the witnesses who testified for the Prosecution.
Another witness who testified was Hawthorne Police Sgt. Chris Cognac. He knew one of Franklin's 'alleged' victims' before she was killed. Princess Berthomieux was young female of 15 who was well known to police as someone who 'was no stranger to the streets' despite being so young. In 2002 Berthomieux had been attacked by a man, not Franklin, and Sgt Cognac had charged the assailant and during the Trial, Berthomieux could not be found. She had been murdered by the man considered to be the 'Grim Sleeper' serial killer, she was one of the youngest victims authorities believe.
Inglewood Police Detective Daniel Milchovich was the next one to be sworn in and take the stand. He was the patrol officer who responded to the crime scene where Berthomieux was found naked in an alleyway on March 9th 2002.
Like most of the others this crime scene certainly didn't have much to go on as there was very little evidence that was collected other than her body. It was clear, yet again, that this was a 'body dump'. Meaning she had been killed somewhere else and then dumped at the location.
Another witness who was also an LAPD Detective Roger Allen testified that he had investigated the murder of Valerie McCorvey and she too had been 'dumped' at the location where she was found, duet to the lack of physical evidence at the scene.
Seymour Amster did his best to make it look like the LAPD didn't investigate the scene to the best of their ability, using such a far fetched example of orange peelings. There was the rind from an orange which was found near to the body which were not examined, therefore Amster seemed to make these peelings such a focal point that he was almost laughed right out of the Courtroom.
One of the star witnesses was an undercover LAPD detective that posed as a busboy at a pizza restaurant where Lonnie was attending a childrens party. In the early afternoon of July 5th 2010, John's Incredible Pizza in Buena Park, was in full swing with a possible serial killer partying amongst them. This undercover Detective carried a plastic tub collecting plates and carefully placed Franklin's discarded plates, with food still on them, in a separate metal pan with a tray placed on top to conceal it.
March 7th 2016
I arrived after the first witness had been sworn in. It was about 10.15am and Theresa Curtis was already on the stand. Ms Curtis was an attractive, petite hispanic lady with long brown hair. She was on the stand on Friday morning explaining how she strategically collected the items from Lonnie Franklin's garage.
Franklin was sitting in his chair facing straight ahead wearing a yellow shirt, black trousers and a dark (possibly black) tie.
Curtis is a Detective with the LAPD and had been with the Robbery Homicide Division for just under 5 years when she was called out to Lonnie Franklin's address on July 9th 2010. She no longer works in the RHD unit but she is still with the LAPD.
(Continuation in my book)...
After we came back from lunch it was 1.39pm when the Jury walked in the main door. Lonnie was already sitting there, with his glasses on this time, staring straight ahead.
Amster approached the witness with an envelope stating Lonnie Franklin's name on it and he asked her to open it.
Suddenly all the power went out, the Elmo switched off, the microphones went down and some of the lights went off too. Amster roared with hysterical laughter as if it was the funniest event of the year so far. We all looked at each other to see if we'd missed the joke but all it was was a power outage. Amster just kept laughing and laughing in his usual inappropriate way, I think we are all getting used to it now. After a few minutes, a deputy went back behind the Judge's wall and tripped the electrical breakers, then all the power went back on again.
The picture we were looking at now came right back to full view on the Elmo as it was working again. The photograph was that of the inside of the central garage at Franklin's home located at 1728 West 81st Street. I found it so strange to see a white microwave, 2 televisions and a cabinet filled with car radios in the garage along with all the other 'junk'. What a pack rat he was.
After Amster was done with his monotonous and long winded questioning, on the same exact point, he had no further questions and then shuffled and slid back to his seat.
The D.A. wanted to know about the procedure they go through when money is found and how it is collected and booked in to evidence. Detective Curtis explained that she had to advise her supervisor of this and he documented the money from that point forward.
Nothing further.
(Continuation will be in my book)
After a few minutes the Judge then asked D.A. Beth Silverman "You have said the amount of witnesses that you will be calling in tomorrow and I was just wondering, on what planet that might happen on?" Silverman responded that it would be over the next 2 days and there were already 5 witnesses who stayed outside all day today.
Then the fight started between Silverman and Amster regarding the Defense not being prepared in a 'timely manner' and he was being highly evasive about whether or not he's going to put certain witnesses on the stand. Silverman continued to say that 'yet again the Defense's discovery is going to be in the '11th hour', delaying the Trial yet again.'
To be continued.....
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