So this guy,
Vedgren Jones, was staying at the local homeless shelter. He met this 71 yr old guy named Byrn who, although he was also staying at the shelter got a little over a thousand dollars a month.
Jones went with Byrn to the bank, then stayed in his motel room for several days before beating Byrn upside the head with a 32oz beer bottle.
IIRC, 10 witnesses total, the most boring questions in human history.
We convicted him of Robbery 2 and Murder 1, in that the beating during the robbery caused the death of Byrn and under the Felony Murder Rule, i.e., that is, in the course of the robbery, Byrn died and therefore his death is legally Murder in the first degree.
The prosecution questioned the coroner, who ruled the cause of death was repeated blunt force trauma to the head. The prosecution also questioned a number of people who had seen the two together.
According to the defendant, Byrn was paying him to let Byrn perform (family site) "acts" on Jones, at some point he began asking for Jones to do likewise, hit Jones on the head and Jones flipped and beat him down, but, left him alive, and took his money.
Jones described himself on the stand as a "Hustler", had a $ tattooed on his hand and his story had many many inconsistencies, including that he was not homeless, although he was living at homeless shelter. Jones also testified that he didn't know where the pillow case that the bottle was in came from. In pictures admitted into evidence, we could see there were two pillows on what Jones had identified as the victim's bed, and two on Jones' bed, one, with no pillowcase...
The judge was nice enough, the prosecutor did a good job. The defense attorney had a guilty client.
