I'm actually at the courthouse for jury duty... Was wondering if the brad cooper retrial was a possibility... Guess not

9/22/2014 10:48:27 AM

really sad that he had to plead guilty

9/22/2014 11:17:43 AM

Do you think he really did it? Or is just pleading 2nd degree murder to get this over with?

9/22/2014 11:37:06 AM

is this the guy TWW thought was innocent? i don't feel like reading 150+ pages.

if this guy was innocent, he wouldn't plead guilty to MURDER

9/22/2014 11:41:36 AM

This is the guy that, innocent or not, Cary PD botched the investigation horribly.

9/22/2014 11:42:28 AM

which is why he was getting a retrial.

taking a plea means he's guilty as fuck. dude just got off light for straight up murdering his wife.

9/22/2014 11:43:39 AM

Quote :

" this guy was innocent, he wouldn't plead guilty to MURDER "

innocent people plead guilty to crimes literally every day. at the very moment you are reading this, someone is pleading guilty to a crime they didn't commit.

9/22/2014 12:00:00 PM

he'll probably be out of prison in the same amount of time by pleading guilty; you can bet that his retrial would drag on forever.

9/22/2014 12:07:58 PM

Quote :

"if this guy was innocent, he wouldn't plead guilty to MURDER"

When presented with a choice of spending the rest of your life in prison, or pleading guilty and hbeing released one day, lots of people would plead guilty even if they were innocent.

[Edited on September 22, 2014 at 12:12 PM. Reason : but i didn't really follow the case and don't have an opinion on his guilt or innocence]

9/22/2014 12:12:09 PM

so like he didnt do it or what

9/22/2014 12:19:05 PM

Quote :

"dude just got off light for straight up murdering his wife."

9/22/2014 12:19:09 PM

if he did it the state never even presented a consistent explanation for how and why, let alone enough evidence to support those claims

9/22/2014 12:24:36 PM

Sucks that he couldn't trust our justice system enough to go through with a re-trial. I have some doubts about his innocence myself, but after following the first trial pretty closely it makes complete sense why he would plead even if he was innocent.

Gessner is a dinosaur and it's a shame that high tech evidence gets decided by people like him on a whim in our court system.

9/22/2014 1:17:34 PM

Quote :

"Sucks that he couldn't trust our justice system enough to go through with a re-trial. I have some doubts about his innocence myself"

Contradicted yourself there bud.

9/22/2014 1:22:46 PM

Quote :

"Contradicted yourself there bud."

Not at all. It's a perfectly reasonable position to have doubts about his innocence (ie, not know what happened) and still know that he got fucked over during his original trial and completely understand why he wouldn't trust the system. I also have some doubts about his guilt which is why it's a damn shame he can't trust the system enough to go through a re-trial.

9/22/2014 2:29:17 PM

^^If the police thought you were guilty of something, I mean really wanted you nailed to the wall b/c otherwise they would look bad, they could make you look bad enough for a possible conviction.

I don't bash cops like a lot of folks here, but this case was getting a lot of media attention, and I think CPD drummed up enough circumstantial evidence to make him look bad. If he didn't do it, he probably figured "what's another 6 years" and went for the plea. If he did do it, then he got away with murder.

9/22/2014 3:26:18 PM

Pretty sure that by pleading guilty to murder, he did not get away with murder.

A light sentence? Yes. But he's still a convicted felon when he gets out.

9/22/2014 4:34:16 PM

He gave up all rights to his two children too.

9/22/2014 5:41:36 PM

Quote :

"Not at all."

Your first statement implies he's innocent. Your second statement implies is open to the idea of him being guilty.

9/22/2014 6:44:58 PM

9/22/2014 6:46:15 PM

Is that you dtownral? I can see you as a short shorts dude.

9/22/2014 11:01:36 PM

unfuckingbelievable. our justice system is 100% broken if a guy who is plainly innocent feels it is simpler to plead guilty than deal with being railroaded again.

Quote :

""[Cary Police Dept] got run through the mill the likes I've never seen," Cummings said. "They are very professional. They did things exactly the way they needed." Read more at http://www.wral.com/cooper-pleads-guilty-to-second-degree-murder-in-wife-s-2008-death/14003991/#PmcfHpszE8WE98LK.99"

Fuck you, Cummings. Go fuck yourself hard. CPD fucking destroyed evidence TWICE, and EVERYONE fucking knows they did it. Then they ignored an obvious suspect who fucking lied to them during interviewing. Yeah, "they did things exactly the way they needed" to railroad a guy. GO fuck yourself and never stop being fucked, you asshole.

[Edited on September 22, 2014 at 11:56 PM. Reason : ]

9/22/2014 11:49:00 PM

I, too, feel that he's copping to the 2nd-degree just so he'll have some light at the end of the tunnel. We'll never know if he actually committed this crime or not, but facing a retrial after he was railroaded on the last one is definitely not something I'd want to do either.

9/23/2014 9:12:23 AM

^ yep.

9/23/2014 9:14:39 AM

Quote :

"a guy who is plainly innocent "

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

9/23/2014 9:36:26 AM

He plainly knows things others don't. He's smart like that.

9/23/2014 9:42:35 AM

Burro's position is:

Quote :

"unless he figured out how to break the laws of physics and be in multiple places at the same time, then there's no way he had the opportunity to murder his wife"

9/23/2014 11:46:41 AM

I was on the side of "he might have done it, but the prosecution failed to prove it, and he should not have been convicted."


But if he's pleading guilty just because it's the only chance at one day being released, why did he not enter an Alford plea?

9/24/2014 12:54:04 PM

I'm sure he would have if given the opportunity. But you can't take an Alford plea if it's not offered. From the interview with the family, it seemed pretty clear that they required an admission of guilt, not just an agreement.

9/24/2014 1:02:08 PM

ITT: synapse not understanding the difference between innocent and not guilty.

9/24/2014 1:40:16 PM

From what I have seen, I think he did it.

But I don't know he did it.

If I was on a jury, I have to know he did it to say guilty.

9/24/2014 1:41:15 PM

My biggest issue with this result is that we still don't know what happened to Nancy Cooper. The prosecution, through the Cary Police Department, who Gessner and Cummings praised as "doing their job exactly how they should", has never been able to put together a theory of the case that explains:
1) What time of day was Nancy murdered (and what physical evidence do you have to back that up, witness, BAC content, stomach content, etc).
2) Where was she killed (blood, bodily fluids, fibers in the house? Car?)
3) When and how was she transported to the dump site? (What car did you take, why weren't their witnesses, why wasn't there anything in the car, what did you do with the kids while gone?)
4) What shoes did you wear? Why weren't they the ones seen on the Harris Teeter videos? When did you dispose of them, because none of the shoes in the house matched soil samples from Fielding Drive or your foot size?
5) How did the call get spoofed without a router or without leaving traces?
6) Why would a CCIE "computer genius" not erase temporary internet files?

I hate this case because I want to know the answers, and a plea deal doesn't give us answers. Where is the evidence?

9/24/2014 1:56:45 PM

There is no evidence, that's the whole thing. There's no evidence, but due to being bankrupted by the previous kangaroo trial, Brad Cooper can't afford an actual defense to fight this time. He knows if it goes to court, he will lose badly, because his current court-appointed attorney hasn't even read the transcript of the previous trial.

The situation is absolute bullshit, because the state has basically admitted that it fucked him over last time in not providing a fair trial, and it bankrupted him in the process. Now the state wants to do it all over again, with the pretense that he can finally get a fair trial, all is forgiven, everything is exactly as it was, and they will "play fair" this time, except that Brad can't afford a lawyer this time, so the new trial would proceed under circumstances completely dissimilar and on a completely different footing than the previous one. It's as if they want to call a "redo" for a footrace after chopping off the guy's legs during the first one.

9/24/2014 9:06:28 PM

Considering the small fortune he paid to Kurtz and what's his name, and the fact that they have some culpability in not securing backup forensic expert witnesses on the key testimony, those chumps should have represented him pro bono for the second go round.

9/24/2014 9:33:18 PM

Kurtz and Trenkle were public defenders. And if you read the COA decision, they did everything properly with the computer witnesses. It was Gessner who didn't follow the rules.

9/24/2014 10:16:26 PM

You could certainly argue that Kurtz and friends should have had a contingency plan in place for the Jay Ward being rejected, cause they were certainly scrambling afterwards; however, the state has effectively said that it should never have come to that, because Ward should have been accepted as an expert witness by essentially all reasonable standards expected at the time. I can't entirely fault Kurtz for not anticipating his witnesses being illegally excluded due to the judge's technological incompetence. I'm of the opinion that when the state agrees it fucked up and didn't give a guy a fair trial, it should refund all of the defendant's legal expenses from the first case and pay a substantial portion towards the retrial, even to the point of hiring outside defense attorneys at a higher cost than a normal public defender.

9/24/2014 10:17:28 PM

Wasn't there a backup expert who was also rejected by Gessner?

[Edited on September 24, 2014 at 10:21 PM. Reason : Yeah. Masucci or something]

9/24/2014 10:20:36 PM

The backup probably should have been rejected, mainly because his report wasn't even completed at the time he was brought in to testify. Like I said, the defense was scrambling at that point, because it couldn't have foreseen that the judge would ignore the law in admitting an expert witness.

9/24/2014 10:24:55 PM

Not to argue too much, because I think we're of the same opinion, but Masucci just adopted Ward's report. I don't think it's true that his report wasn't finished. They objected because he wasn't on the witness list and the prosecution did not have time to review his report. (Which again is crap, because it was Ward's report, so nothing new to review.) COA agreed he should have been allowed.

9/24/2014 10:28:06 PM

Don't forget they didn't have time to check his Facebook profile, either

9/24/2014 10:53:21 PM

Quote :

"GUILTY AS FUCK"

9/25/2014 1:41:39 AM

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/24/4179227_saunders-brad-cooper-plea-may.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1

9/25/2014 2:19:35 AM

do you guys have an active Innocence Project down there?

9/25/2014 1:27:00 PM

I think it just got a dude off of death row

9/25/2014 1:30:18 PM

Fairly certain the Innocence Project won't get involved where there is a guilty plea and no DNA evidence to overturn. In order to be exonerated, Cooper would have to either have someone else confess or prove that the map evidence was planted, etc. It would have to be uncontroverted I think.

9/25/2014 1:34:27 PM

Yeah the innocence project usually gets people out who have death, life, or a really long sentence.

He is not gonna be a top priority, especially with a guilty plea. There is the possibility some evidence could arise showing a different person did it, but that's the only way.

9/25/2014 1:47:40 PM

It's going to be pretty hard to find evidence that someone else did it, when most of the physical evidence in this case was destroyed or not collected. Blackberry was wiped, footprints at the dump site weren't ever photographed in detail or molded, same with the tire tracks, the maggots died in the storage locker, and there's no DNA in the case at all. The only hope is the computer, and even that doesn't prove his innocence, just proves he didn't google the map. Outlook is pretty bleak for exoneration.

9/25/2014 1:53:26 PM

Or some crazy shitstick sitting in jail for an unrelated crime could start spewing to his cellmate about how he was driving a van and killed a soccer mom in Cary and he heard the lady's husband got charged for it.


Its happened before.

9/25/2014 1:58:47 PM

I was just curious. Obviously there isn't much (realistically) to be done in this case, but maybe there's a few law students out there hungry for JUSTICE FOR BRAD or something that might still be interested in this case and could potentially bring something of use to light.

9/25/2014 3:24:48 PM

^^Lol Andy Dufreisne? Or however you pronounce that name.

9/25/2014 3:28:31 PM