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Beulah Murder Trial
Richard Whitman, 29, and Cody Borner, 24, are accused of entering an apartment in Beulah, N.D., on Jan. 31 with loaded weapons, shooting and killing Michael Padilla and wounding his brother, Timothy Padilla. Whitman and Borner are each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. They will stand trial this week at the Burleigh County courthouse. The Tribune will be reporting the trial here as it happens.
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@TOOF A parole/probation officer will conduct the presentence investigations. A psi involves interviewing the defendants and gathering information about them, including criminal histories, work histories, family information, etc. They will probably begin the psi process as soon as possible.
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It is strange that the jury would ask if they could return different verdicts for the defendants and then they return verdicts that are the same. They wouldn't ask the question if it wasn't an issue (I just don't think they would even think about that if the believed they were both guilty beyond a reasonable doubt). Although the judge did say the verdicts didn't have to be the same, I believe it was Rick's attorney that said it would be problematic in issuing 1 guilty verdict for conspiracy. It's as thought the jury decided that one person was for sure guilty, therefore the other would have to also be guilty. Also, this was a great blog.
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@lm: Nailed it.
I'll be floored if this holds up on appeal. Though, I did say the same thing about a jury coming back with a guility verdict for the double charges of conspiracy to commit murder. To be frank, and objective, the state did not prove the elements of that particular offense beyond a reasonable doubt. I am interested to hear the outcome once the presentence investigations have been completed. -
@bb Just so you understand, the presentence investigations are not open records, so the public does not get to see them. They are used by the judges to help determine appropriate sentences. They have no impact on the outcome of the case other than giving judges some perspective.
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