4/16/09

Wednesday 'Mini Statements' Open Andrade Murder Trial

Source 9News.com

"GREELEY - During the second day of jury selection, the prosecution and defense in the Allen Andrade murder trial gave a glimpse into how each side will proceed throughout trial."

"The prosecution [ Weld County Deputy District Attorney Brandi Nieto ] went first saying Andrade, 32, intentionally and deliberately murdered Angie Zapata, 18, on July 16, 2008. "

"You're also going to learn from the evidence that there's absolutely no evidence of any sexual activity occurring either on or around the time this murder was committed," Nieto said.

"Andrade's defense attorney, Annette Kundelius, followed saying Andrade did kill Zapata, but argued the murder was a crime of passion and doesn't rise to the level of first degree murder or a bias motivated crime. "

"When [Andrade] learned Angie was in fact Justin and was a male, he immediately reacted to that," she said. "He had been deceived and he reacted."

Complete original article at 9news.com
http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=113868

2 comments:

planet trans said...

Prosecution opening statement "there's absolutely no evidence of any sexual activity occurring either on or around the time this murder was committed,"

If the prosecution makes this statement stick the defense of Andrade will be extremely problematic since the opening statement by Andrade's defense Lawyers had stated that Andrade had in fact murdered Angie Zapata.

Abby said...

I left this comment over on Facebook, but thought I would post it here too for the benefit of your blog readers:

As a criminal defense attorney, what's even more significant for me is the statement by Andrade's attorney that he is going to testify: “Everything happened so fast, it was over before it started. He couldn’t control it. Those are the words you’re going to hear from Mr. Andrade. He never knew he had that kind of rage.” http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090416/NEWS/904159885/1005/NONE&parentprofile=1001&_ic=true. Of course, that's the only way Andrade can hope to convince the jury to reduce his conviction to 2nd degree murder or manslaughter based on his alleged "trans panic," but it's a very risky move, since it means that the prosecutor gets to cross-examine him thoroughly about when he first knew or suspected that Angie was trans. Also, the prosecutor will get to hammer home the evidence that, after first beating her unconscious, he went back and made sure Angie was dead after she tried to sit up. That makes it first degree (premeditated) murder without question.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, if Andrade contradicts any of the things he told the police, including the things he said during the parts of his confession that the judge previously threw out, the prosecutor will be able to bring all those things back in, including playing any audio or video tape of his police interview, to prove that Andrade is lying to save his ass. That kind of evidence is devastating to a jury. IMHO, his goose is cooked!