3rd trial for my neighbor, need advice

[Lovemy4goldens]

This is very serious you all and if you can help me in any way, would be so much appreciated.

Here in California, I guess it's okay for a deputy DA to go into court and lie about the defendent. How dare Michael Hestrin who is a DA here in California at the Riverside Superior Courthouse, How dare him make the jury believe that my neighbor is a mean, angry drug user who purposely shot his 12 year old son while playing Army with him one morning in Febuary 2004.

I have newspaper articles that in black and white, Hestrin states lies after lies regarding my neighbor and come this Monday on Oct 1st, I am to go testify again for the 3rd time for him. But, It is the DA's office who commanded me to testify against my neighbor which I have nothing bad to say about him. If anything, I have been thinking very hard and also stressing very much over the thought of what I am to do. I don't want to testify on the DA's behalf nor do I want the DA to get away with the lies he is stating in the newspaper. So I have been on the internet looking up anything I can find which would give me rules for witnesses in a court case and what my rules are.

I want to take the stand and then turn to the judge and ask the judge if I can talk to him in his chambers and not in front of the jury regarding the DA. I don't know if I am allowed to do this but I don't see anywhere that I am NOT allowed to. I can't testify for the DA when I know they are lying and are making my neighbor look bad for something that was so horrible for him and which he regrets everyday since then. Don't they know that his life sentence is already in effect for this man. Everyday when he opens his eyes in jail and looks around, he knows why he is there and he knows it was a accident, yet this man will think of his son and what he did everyday of his life for the rest of his life. And every night when he goes to close his eyes to go to sleep, who is there in his head, his son. I'm sure he has nightmares too.

I have very important information regarding my neighbors boss who was also a witness in this murder case and what he told me while we both were waiting to testify in this room. But the DA wouldn't bring it up, since they weren't suppose to put us together in the same room while waiting to testify, nor did the defendents lawyer since he alone is another a**hole. The neighbors lawyer is a total flake and yet the courts appointed him for a 3rd time to this case and to defend him. They do that since he knows the case but he hasn't yet gone see my neighbor in jail since he has been there since June.

1st trial was a mistrial. 2nd trial my neighbor was convicted of 2nd degree murder and another charge for using a gun. He got 15 years to life for the 2nd degree and 25 years added on for the gun charge. The judge did not explain to the jury the sentences for these charges and so he appealed it in prison and it was reversed by the 4th district appealettes court. So since June 2007, they shipped my neighbor back to Riverside jail from his prison he was at in Pleasantville California, and that is where he is now waiting to go to trial.

If I had one shred of doubt regarding this accident and thinking it wasn't, believe me, I wouldn't be so stressed over all this. But in my heart which keeps telling me to search search search for the answers to help him.

The whole problem is the gun he used. It was a Antique double barrel black powdered gun which did not work per his boss, who checked it out and told my neighbor it was broken.

I know that it doesn't give my neighbor permission to use it while playing Army with his son one morning, and it was stupid and careless on my neighbors part to use that gun as a toy and point it at his son and shoot, but he didn't know it would go off. He was told it was broken and that there was no black powder in it. But that gun hadn't been shot in over 10 years and then, and then, I see a show on History channel regarding Da Vinci and he talks about black powder guns and how black powder can sit in a gun for years and years and not fire, but if the elements are all right at that moment the trigger is pulled, a tiny spark can trigger that dried up gunpowder residue and it could fire. That I see is what happened here with my neighbor no doubt in my mind.

It is a hard story to believe that it happened this way but it did now that I saw that show. and also knowing the information I know what his boss told me regarding him looking at this gun.

The DA is stating that my neighbor was so angry at his son and deliberately shot him and planned it out of anger. Come on, if that was the case, why would he use a gun he was told didn't work and even if it was to work, why would you use an old antique gun, which you would have to load with black powder and put in a percussion cap and stuff the powder etc, while you are angry and planning this and then after all that, fire it and hope it works. It would of been faster if that was the case to hit the kid with the gun hard and kill him that way. Lets get real here.

If anyone can find me any articles on the rules of a witness testifying in court, could you please please leave me a link to it please???

I need all the help I can get to help my neighbor since this is his last time I bet to go to trial. I feel for this man, and the funny thing about all this is, I never talked to this neighbor until after he went to jail. After what was said to me by his boss in that room, my thought about this murder did a 360 degree turn and since then I have been trying to help my neighbor.

Yes my neighbor was a idiot for pointing a gun whether it be real or not at his son and that was so stupid but he was awakened after working a graveyard shift at his work and the rest is history.

Again if anyone has any information on black powdered guns or rules for a witness in court, please leave me a link to it. I am so stressed over this and what I should do as far as testifying or turning to the judge, but I don't want to get comtempt in court for speaking out, but don't I have freedom of speech and the right to state my feelings to the judge?

Lanie & Gang

[Wichita]

The court will not allow you to testify as to your opinion about whether your neighbor is guilty or not, nor will he allow any other person to do so. The prosecutor may make such statements only if he has the evidence to support the accusation. I don't have any idea what you are supposed to testify to, but just tell the truth, and let the jury decide.

Have you talked to the DA about your change of heart? Have you asked him all of the questions you posed here? I would do that first. This is not a war against you and the DA, it is a quest for the truth regarding your neighbor's guilt or innocence. You may be convinced that the neighbor is innocent, and that's okay, but if the DA is lying, it is up to the defense attorney to point that out during the trial. If you try to do so, it will only end in disaster. Sorry I can't help you more.

[accordn2me]

Originally Posted by Wichita

<snipped>....if the DA is lying, it is up to the defense attorney to point that out during the trial.<snipped>

Your answers/information for the jury will be directed by the lawyers' questions. Speak to the defense attorney before the trial. If s/he asks the questions in a proper manner, you should be able to get your point across.

[Angie1960]

What case is this? I can't find anything connected to Hestrin on this.

[Lovemy4goldens]

Well the funny thing is that today the jerk Hestrin was sent this post I wrote about the case and him, so I will no longer be asking for advice here or coming back. Some asshole cop in Iowa sent it to him I think Hestrin said today in court without the jury present.
I thought it was so funny when he asked me today on the stand that if Lanie & Gang meant I was with a gang.
I felt like saying to him on the stand "You stupid idiot it's my golden retrievers". Hestrin then goes "Your address is lovemy4goldens?" again I said to him
"Hellooooo, I have 4 golden retrievers that are my gang" I was laughing at the fact he just made a idiot of himself. Sorry Hestrin, you couldn't piss me off today, but I was waiting for you to get me the chance to let the jury know you are a low life D.A who lies about your cases and doesn't have the balls to admit when your wrong.
So who ever sent my post to Hestrin, Thank you, and please send this one along to, to Mr. Hestrin the piece of crap he is.
Lanie & Gang