RICHLAND CO.—According to the defense, there was no cold-blooded First Degree Murder of Michael Scott Earp on November 20, 2011.
Opening statements revealed what’s been kept from the public for many months…and what has apparently been obfuscation on the part of sources claiming to have been at the scene, and who claimed so many different stories that at this point, it’s like wading hip-deep in alligators.
What we’ve believed we’ve known all along about the night Scott Earp was shot is now in question. The official version is that somehow, Earp was shot by Jenkins in the abdomen and died at the hospital in Olney. The unofficial version we’ve been given by people claiming to have been present had it that the Earp group was climbing into Jenkins’ work truck coming after him and he shot in self-defense. That premise was supported because of one of the charges against Jenkins stating that he fired in an occupied vehicle, this being a grand jury indictment.
However, when Belleville criminal defense attorney John O’Gara gave opening statements today, he filled in the blanks that the state has withheld, and apparently, they’ve withheld it with good reason: the gunshot wasn’t the result of self-defense, but was actually the result of a struggle Jenkins had with Scott Earp, during which Earp was attempting to disarm the Marine, and Earp himself possibly attempting to shoot Jenkins during the struggle, when the weapon, a Springfield .45, discharged, shooting Earp through the BACK of his abdomen, the wound exiting out his BACK on the other side of his abdomen. In other words, in his attack on Jenkins, Scott Earp assured his own fate, as there was no reason for Earp to attack Jenkins at all, as Jenkins had only fired a warning shot in order to get Earp away from Jenkins’ truck, on which Earp had already broken a mirror because he was drunk and rowdy, typical Earp behavior on a Saturday night.
The Earp Boyzz
We suspect there will be more fill-in of the blanks as witness testimony proceeds, but so far what we’ve learned has been a stunner, and has prompted us more than we already were to question why David Hyde charged Brandon Jenkins at all. Flavius Doug Earp trashed the motel where Jenkins was staying; the cops literally had to “rescue” Jenkins from his room at the motel, pulling up to the west door and scurrying him out because they couldn’t get Flav Earp under control; and then they had to tell Jenkins to lie down in the cruiser “so Doug Earp wouldn’t see him leaving, in case he’d attack the police car.” (Flavius Doug Earp uses his first two names interchangeably; it may or may not be confusing for the jurors; point is, he acted like an animal that night, as did many on the parking lot, and that behavior is what’s going to sink the state’s case if it indeed gets sunk.)
And right now it looks like it’s got a boulder tied firmly around its neck.
There was a bit of a problem this morning, with something going on in the courtroom, filled with prospective jurors, and media not allowed. We are endeavoring to learn what that was about, but the rude deputies on hand providing court security—and they are THICK—wouldn’t provide info. This is something worth involving our media attorney over….because if there were essentially “secret proceedings” going on that media wasn’t involved in (the only thing they can keep the media out of a courtroom over is a grand jury), that can constitute a mistrial….and with as much money as Richland is spending over this needless case, they might want to think about doing it all over AGAIN because SOMEONE wanted to be stubborn, Jerry Doan.
The Earp clan present—the few of them that are, comprised of Victoria deWeese (a Scott Earp babymomma), Breanna Trout (Scott Earp half sister), Angel Neff (Flav Earp babymomma), Lynn Summers (Scott’s mother) and some bald guy—have been quite low-key. Other than the fact that Robin is a little overdressed for court and that a couple of them are going for the audible sniffling at crucial junctures in testimony, they’re not standing out, apparently in hopes that they can manage to not get themselves kicked out of the courtroom: they’ve kept remarks to themselves, except for a couple of notable hissing sounds during Jason Collins’ (owner of Friday Night Lights bar in Olney) testimony, and when O’Gara at one point said “Brandon just wanted to go home.” One of the clan muttered ”So did Scott.” However, this was just after testimony about how Scott Earp had been drinking and carousing with an obviously-drunk crew and had taken off from the bar with yet another woman other than one of his babymommas (Liza Miller, according to testimony), rendering the comment just short of comical in its context, as it was obvious that at 2 a.m., “going home” was the last thing on Scott Earp’s mind.
More when we break this afternoon….keep checking back.