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Since I posted the description of the Cooper trial in the NC group, the defense has systematically destroyed the State's case, the ADA accused the defendant's mother on the stand and in front of the jurors of making liars out of the prosecution witnesses, the missing ducks have reappeared unharmed, and the political implications will be huge.
Expert witnesses have stated that spoliation of evidence occurred on the defendant's laptop and the victim's Blackberry (completely erased the BB and the sim, "by accident") while in they were in the custody of the Cary Police Department.
Several people were confronted on the witness stand with things they had posted at WebSleuths.com and wral.com. In one incident, I was logged on to both websites when it happened. Weird.
O, and out of the blue with no context, the ADA outed one of the neighbor witnesses as a lesbian. No clue why.
Almost all of this trial is in full public view because it is streaming on the net and is archived at wral.com. Day 36 begins at 9:30 and runs until 1:00 today. No clue what is next.
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Here was my original post a couple of days back.
Many of you may know about the trial in Wake County of Cary resident Brad Cooper for the murder of his wife Nancy Cooper. He claims she went jogging on a Saturday morning and never came back. Her nearly nude body was found several days later in a drainage ditch several miles away. Police immediately claim it was a severe case of domestic violence, that he killed her, and faked his alibi (a phone call from the home phone while he was at Harris Teeter). Another abusive husband kills his wife. Give custody of their kids to her family. Her friends start charity in her name to fight abuse, etc. Throw him in jail. He obviously did it. Case closed!
Well maybe not so closed. Now after 2.5 years in jail, the trial is well underway, 30+ days and counting only 3 by the defense. Almost no forensic data to substantiate the prosecution's case, it even requires extra assumptions to make it work (e.g. she must have vomited, leading to so little undigested food remaining). No evidence he had ever abused her; likely a claim for a possible divorce. The police had accidentally erased her cell phone while trying to access it, then failed to notify defense for many months. Lots of foot dragging by police and DA for Brady disclosures. The dramatic key evidence of premeditated murder: FBI found files on his computer showing he had done a Google Maps search the day before for the location the body was found.
Since almost all the trial documents and testimony are online at wral.com, many people have been watching this trial locally and in Canada where the Coopers are from. The defense computer expert was greatly restricted in what he could discuss because of a strange ruling by the judge barring him from talking about the FBI evidence because he was not a forensic expert. Still got most of the evidence in. It is now looking very likely that there was tampering with the computer evidence and that the Google search is bogus. No idea if the jury is able to follow the technical evidence. Next week should be interesting.
The FBI testimony was blacked out but was in open court. The best reporting of it is this weekend's thread at WebSleuths.com. I am part of discussions there and at wral.com under unc70. The news reports at wral.com have been very one-sided favoring the prosecution, the headlines even more so; suspicious since one of their reporters, Amanda Lamb, already has a book to appear this fall.
No idea if Brad Cooper is guilty or not. Don't know anyone involved. Want to see a fair and open trial. Too many things wrong with this trial so far. Glad to help anyone trying to get up to speed on this case.
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