Foster parents arrested for death of Marcus Fiesel

[WMR]

Does Thom Brennaman wear a hair-piece?

[Ltlabner]

Well...now it sounds like some idiot juror who just couldn't keep her yap shut has mucked things up. Story here...

BATAVIA - Defense attorney Gregory Cohen filed a motion Thursday in Clermont County Common Pleas Court asking Judge Robert Ringland to throw out Liz Carroll's convictions on murder and other charges and start over.

Cohen based his motion on comments by a juror about Carroll's trial and murder conviction in the death of her foster son Marcus Fiesel, 3.

Cohen singled out juror Patti Weinstein, who was quoted in a story by Paul Daugherty published last Friday in The Enquirer. (Read the story).


"This juror stated that her 'biggest fear was that what she said she knew in her heart - that this woman did this terrible thing - would not be proven in court,' " Cohen quoted from the article in his motion for a new trial.

"It is clear that she lied when she stated that she could be fair and would not be prejudiced by prior knowledge of the case."

Cohen also noted that Weinstein indicated in her interview that she and several other jurors agreed that they had to convict Carroll "to do right" by Marcus.

Cohen said other Weinstein comments also violated her oath to be impartial and showed that she disregarded the instructions Ringland gave jurors.

"She stated that she held it against Liz Carroll that she did not testify, in direct contradiction and disregard of the jury instructions," Cohen said in his motion. "She and at least two other jurors have publicly stated that they held counsel's failure to put on evidence as further evidence of Ms. Carroll's guilt. Again, this is a failure to follow the jury instructions by placing a burden of proof upon a defendant who has not raised an affirmative defense."

Clermont County Prosecutor Don White said his office would review Cohen's motion.

"We need to look at it, we need to investigate it, we need to research it before we comment on it," White said. "And when we comment, we'll do it in writing, and it will be available at the courthouse, or it will be in the courtroom."

Cohen said he tried during jury selection to have Weinstein booted as a prospective juror because he thought she had already made up her mind through news reports of the Marcus case.

Feb. 19, during the third day of testimony, Cohen again challenged Weinstein as a juror after he learned that she and another female juror were whispering and pointing at Carroll and were possibly passing notes. The women denied passing notes, but said they pointed and whispered about their view of Carroll being obstructed from the jury box by a lectern.

Carroll, a 30-year-old mother of three, was sentenced last week to 54 years to life in prison for the death of Marcus Fiesel. She will spend 38 more years in prison than her husband before she is eligible for parole.

Six days after a jury convicted Liz Carroll of murder and six other felony charges in Marcus' death, her husband, David Carroll Jr., pleaded guilty to charges of murder and gross abuse of a corpse. He was sent to prison for 16 years to life.

Prosecutors said the couple bound the developmentally disabled boy in a blanket and strapping tape and left him in a closet at their Clermont County home Aug. 4 when they left town for two days to attend a family reunion in Williamstown, Ky. The child was dead when they returned, authorities said.

David Carroll, 29, then incinerated Marcus' body in a remote chimney in Brown County, with the help of the couple's live-in girlfriend, Amy Baker, and tossed what wouldn't burn into the Ohio River in Maysville, Ky., prosecutors said.

Police broke the case two weeks later after a massive search for Marcus at an Anderson Township park, where Liz Carroll made a bogus report that the child vanished when she fainted from a heart condition.

Baker, 25, received immunity from prosecution after she pointed the finger at the Carrolls and gave authorities the break they needed to make arrests in the case.

David Carroll told The Enquirer in a jail interview that Marcus was dead before the family and Baker left on the family reunion and that his wife was not home at the time. He said Marcus died after Baker bound him because the child wouldn't stay down for a nap so they could have sex.

Before being sentenced Tuesday, Carroll denied that.

"I was present when Marcus was taped and wrapped in a blanket," Carroll told Judge Jerry McBride. "It was Amy Baker and myself. ... We left him there. When we came back, he was gone - he was dead."

[Ltlabner]

And here's the link to the story referenced in the above story...I've bolded the parts of the story that will lead to a hearing regarding jury misconduct/mistrial (based on news reports, I'm no lawyer at all). The way this story is written, I'm not impressed with this Weinstein twit in the least.

The slide show of her daughter's first 21 years contained 280 photographs and lasted 18 minutes. For a few nights last week, Patti Weinstein returned from jury duty to her Clermont County home to assemble the pictures of Lauren that she would give to her on her 21st birthday.

It was pleasant enough, until Weinstein started seeing pictures of Lauren when Lauren was 3. That was Marcus Fiesel's age.

At first, she thought it would be glamorous, being a juror in the murder trial of Liz Carroll. She watches legal dramas on TV. She followed the O.J. Simpson trial like everyone else. She discovered quickly it would be nothing like that. Nothing at all.


"I never want to be in that position again," Weinstein said Thursday, 24 hours after she and 11 other jurors convicted Carroll on seven counts, ranging from child endangering to murder. "It was an overwhelming, all-consuming sadness."

At one point during the jury's five hours of deliberations Wednesday, Weinstein held up a photograph of Marcus. "This is what it's all about," she said.

"This little boy with these beautiful blue eyes. Who got gypped out of a life. He was never given a fair shake."

Weinstein wasn't alone. Three or four other jurors made the same declaration.

"We never lost sight of one thing," Weinstein said.

"It wasn't about convicting her. It was about doing right by him."

Ultimately, Weinstein said, convicting Carroll wasn't hard. The jurors were clear about Carroll's guilt.

The weeklong journey their decision required couldn't have been more difficult.

"I don't know what good comes out of this. It's dirty. It makes your skin crawl," Weinstein said. "But we did what we could for that little boy."

Weinstein said she took Amy Baker's testimony "with a grain of salt," and that she knew Baker was "trying to save herself."

But while she didn't think much more of Baker than Carroll, Weinstein said Baker was not the one who agreed to be a foster parent, was not the one who agreed to take care of Marcus, and was not the one who agreed to never leave him alone.

It's an odd and wonderful thing that a country can call randomly upon the honor, duty and wisdom of 12 ordinary people and, more often than not, come away feeling justice has been served. Patti Weinstein, 48, married, mother of two, employed at a fitness center, said she was proud to do it.

"This was my only call to civic duty," she said. "I'm not called to fight in a war. I'm not in political office. I feel very strongly about being able to do what I did."

Also, exhausted. She said she has slept fitfully since last Wednesday, when she learned she'd be on the jury. Weinstein's biggest fear was that what she said she knew in her heart - "that this woman did this terrible thing" - would not be proven in court. Jurors are not allowed to discuss the case, even with one another, so by Tuesday night, Weinstein didn't know if anyone else felt the way she did.

Judge Robert P. Ringland had instructed the jurors before the trial not only to listen to testimony, but to observe everyone involved. What Weinstein said she saw in Carroll was a remorseless woman concerned only for her own welfare.

As prosecutors displayed Marcus' photo to the court, Weinstein looked at Carroll.

"I knew what I felt in my heart and my stomach when I saw that," she said. "I didn't see that in her. She just had a blank expression."