January 23, 2007

 

The trial resumed this morning with the testimony of Dr. Katsuyana, M.D. (he is forensic pathologist).  While employed by the Orange County Coroner, he performed the autopsy on Gary, (Dr. Katsuyana has since retired).  After explaining his qualifications to the jury, the doctor described the injuries sustained by Gary.

 

Warning: graphic information to follow!

 

Over about a three-by-eight inch area of the back of his scalp, multiple laceration to his head were found, along with tiny glass fragments.  The lacerations did not pierce the skull, but there would have been a lot of blood loss, and (according to Dr. Katsuyana) it would have taken a surgeon “hours” to stitch them all up.  These where not the lethal injuries though; those injuries were sustained to his face.  Massive trauma was sustained (from either multiple blows or a multi-sided object) to the front of Gary’s head; enough force was applied to crush the bones above and below his right eye.  From the lack of blood in his heart, the cause of death was determined to be blood loss.  Dr. Katsuyana also described lacerations to Gary’s neck; the doctor described them as being rough, not like from a knife, but like from glass.

 

Aside from a few questions about Gary’s size (I guess they wanted him to seem too big for Moloi to beat to death), the defense’s questions mostly focused around if a time of death could be determined.  Dr. Katsuyana explained that determining a time of death was the job of the criminalists, not the coroner.  The doctor did offer his recollections of Gary’s stomach contents.  According to the doctor, there were only about six-ounces of something brownish in color; he didn’t do the analysis himself, but he speculated it was something light – like a donut and some coffee.  As you may recall, the prosecution contends that the morning’s bake goods were delivered around midnight; the doctor’s findings would be consistent with that.

 

After Dr. Katsuyana left the stand, Ms. Powers-Ralston (criminalist) returned.  She displayed photos of tears to the shoulder portion of Gary’s jacket, and remains of shoe imprints on the broken, bathroom door.  A bit of the same pattern (that had been seen in other shoe prints around the crime scene) could be seen on the door fragments.  Under cross examination, Ms. Powers-Ralston could not identify the size of the shoe that made the print, or whether it was a left or right foot; there was not enough of a print.

 

The next person to take the stand was Officer Lowe with the Newport Beach Police Department – an expert at handwriting analysis.  Mr. Lowe had been given 10 letters by the DA’s office, and asked him to compare them to another document.  According to the officer, nine of the ten letters were a clear match to the main body of the document; there was writing at the top (Chapter Two…) that had been written by someone else.  The nine letters that matched the handwriting in the body of the documet where written by Moloi.  The defense questioned Mr. Lowe about his qualifications, and just how sure he was of the results of his analysis, but the officer held his own.

 

The next witness to take the stand was Troy Jones, Moloi’s cellmate during the summer of 2003; Mr. Jones had a most interesting tale to tell.  After getting to know one and other, Moloi told him that he was in for killing someone, however, the details of why he killed the person changed over time (the following indicated sections are Moloi’s word, but in reality, total bullshit).  At first it was because the victim had said bad things to Moloi’s girlfriend; then it was because of some drug deal involving Gary, Gary’s brother and a guy name Eduardo (the boyfriend of Marlene); Marlene testified yesterday.  The tale gets quite fanciful, describing Gary as a former Marine with specialized combat skills, a car full of cocaine, and Moloi leaving the crime scene in Gary’s car.  At all times, Moloi denied ever taking any money – despite the fact that he said that he was owed money (murder, while in the commission of a robbery, qualifies as special circumstances and has a minimum sentence of life without parole).

 

What interested the prosecution, though, was a scheme by Moloi to try and raise reasonable doubt about his guilt.  Moloi was going to get Eduardo to write and sign a confession to the murder, and have it sent to the DA.  The “confession” would contain enough actual information about the killing to raise doubt, but with no physical evidence linking Eduardo to the killing, both of them would go free.  Moloi even wrote out what he wanted written.  Moloi asked Jones to get the document to Eduardo, when Jones got out (Jones was serving time on a drug charge); there were discussions about Moloi paying Jones for this favor, but no dollar figure was settled on.  Instead of getting the document to Eduardo, though, Jones turned it into the DA’s office.  This was the document analyzed by Mr. Lowe; the writing at the top was Jones’ (he had hidden it in a book he says he was writing).  The document also mentioned the name Mark Aaron.

 

Mr. Jones also described details about the killing itself – details that were relayed by Moloi.  Details such as: smashing Gary’s head into a toilet, kicking down the bathroom door & scratching his leg in the process, leaving through the back door by the soda machines, breaking a mirror over Gary’s head and slicing (or attempting to) his throat with broken glass.  Moloi kept no legal documents in their cell, there has been almost no media coverage of this story, and the evidence involving the mirror wasn’t even mentioned during the preliminary hearing.  The only way Mr. Jones could have known those details is if Moloi had told him.

 

The defense did there best to try and impeach Jones’ credibility.  They tried to make the most of his criminal past, but Jones was [from the beginning of his testimony] upfront about what he had done, and took responsibility for it.  They tried to get him to say that he was getting out of a “3^rd strike” in exchange for his testimony, but he was never in danger or receiving one (Jones was allowed out of jail about 60 days early on one charge, and allowed out on another to go into residential drug treatment, but that’s it).  They tried to get him to shake his testimony, but he held firm.  They also tried to imply that Jones had forged the document, but that went nowhere.  Jones came across as credible as any jailhouse informant could be.  It was notable that the smug expression Moloi had on his face, since the first time I saw him, was gone.

 

The next person to take the stand was Detective Karen Shrephur of the Anaheim Police Department.  A veteran of 20 years and assigned to homicide since 1998, she assisted in the investigation of Gary’s murder.  The evidence she was brought up to discuss was a photo taken of a computer monitor on the front desk; the computer had gone into sleep mode.  After being… “woken”, the computer displayed the last entry.  It was of a guest being checked in, but a check in that was not completed.  The name of the guest: Mark Aaron (the name Mark Aaron also appeared in the document turned in by Troy Jones).  The zip code given: the same as Moloi’s grandparents in Anaheim (where Moloi had lived for the previous year).

 

Karen was followed by a return to the stand of Mr. Conley.  He also analyzed the door fragments discussed earlier.  He agreed that the shoe pattern matched the others found at the crime scene, and showed how one pattern was consistent with multiple kicks to the door.  He had an educated guess as to which foot made one of the kicks, but as was the case with Ms. Powers-Ralston, could not determine size.

 

Mr. Conley was followed by a return to the stand of Sergeant Kazakos, to FINALLY show the security video from the mini-mart.  For all the trouble they went through to display the thing, there wasn’t much there to see.  The photos captured from it seem to display better details about what Moloi was wearing that night (they were already in evidence).

 

The final witness to testify for the state was Gary’s mom.  She let the jury know that none of Gary’s brothers lived in southern California (either then or now), and that not only did Gary not own a car, he didn’t even know how to drive.  She also let the jury know that Gary’s military experience consisted of eight weeks of basic training, in the Army, before being medically discharged for injuries he received during that training.  While his mom testified, a picture of Gary was displayed to the jury; it was the picture of a harmless, nerdy looking guy – not that of a drug-dealing, killing machine described by Moloi to his cellmate.

 

Howard Gundy rested his case for the state.

 

The defense began their case with a motion dismiss the charges against Moloi, based on Troy Jones’ testimony.  Gundy didn’t even bother to offer an argument, and the judge quickly denied the motion.

 

The only defense witness called today was the defendant’s father – Seima Moloi sr.  He testified that his son had lived with his grandparents during the year prior to the murder, and had completed his senior year at a local high school (the parents live in Palm Springs).  He also testified that his son was in the habit of jogging late at night.  At the time of the killing, Moloi jr. was a student at CSUSB; Moloi sr. was covering the cost of school, including room, board, as well as providing his son with some pocket money.  According to the defendant’s father, Moloi jr. was dropped off in Corona on the 23^rd of October, by his other maternal grandfather – who lives in Stanton.  Moloi sr. picked junior up, and took him back to Palm Springs.  Back in Palm Springs, Moloi sr. contacted a lawyer.  Moloi sr. did know that the Anaheim Police did want to speak to his son.

 

Under cross examination, Moloi sr. admitted to not taking his son back to his home, but to housing his son in two separate hotels and at a relative’s house (during the days after the murder & before being arrested), yet refused to say he was hiding his son from the police.  He also admitted to going to the CSUSB campus, and trying to look for someone who had seen his son on campus, the week before the murder (and being unable to), yet refused to say he was looking for an alibi witness.  He also said he removed things from his son’s room, but said those were “perishable items”, like food.  When asked how much pocket money Moloi jr. was getting, Moloi sr. said it averaged about $50 per week.  Moloi sr. also made allegations about his sister being followed by police; Sergeant Kazakos thought this was so bizarre he almost started to laugh.  All and all, Moloi sr. came across as a very un-credible witness.

 

The defense will resume their side of the case at 9:15AM tomorrow.