Re: ROBERT MANWILL - 8 yo (2009) - Boise ID

by mermaid55 on Mon Jun 27, 2011 12:25 pm

Daniel Ehrlick testifies in his first-degree murder trial

Wearing a white shirt and toting tissue, Daniel Ehrlick took the stand in his murder trial Monday morning in a Boise courtroom.
During a tepid, rambling question period by defense attorney Gus Cahill, Ehrlick portrayed himself as a devoted father figure to Melissa Jenkins' two sons, 8-year-old Robert and toddler Aidan. He cooked the meals, washed the clothes and tended to the children, he said.
He said he took Robert on outings to Rhodes Park, a skateboard center in Boise, to ponds fishing and to the community pool in the Oak Park Village apartment complex. Ehrlick is accused of killing Robert Manwill, the 8-year-old son of his girlfriend, during weeks of escalating violence in the summer of 2009. The child's battered body was found in an irrigation ditch near Kuna.
Ehrlick detailed the growing pressure from Boise police and FBI detectives and his anger when he realized he was a suspect. It spilled over when he was at police headquarters and learned cadaver dogs were searching his apartment.
"I was very upset," Ehrlick said. "I was told by Detective (Brett) Quilter that we were not suspects, they didn't believe we had done anything to harm Robert," Ehrlick said. "He only wanted me to go to (police headquarters) and do the interview so we could be excluded. The next thing I knew there were cadaver dogs in our house. I took it as a lie. That's why I became upset."
Ehrlick wept as he described his first encounter with the child the previous summer. He said Robert asked him to be his father. Ehrlick also described the harsh discipline meted out by his girlfriend Melissa Jenkins.
"Melissa would say that he is back talking or smarting off or not doing what he is told," Ehrlick said.
Ehrlick contends he was not allowed to discipline Robert without Jenkins' approval, but admitted to hitting the boy twice with a piece of molding in the summer of 2009. Robert chose that as his punishment for lying, he said.
He also said Jenkins told him that Robert was not to be in the house with her or the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare would take him away. So on two occasions just prior to the boy's death, he admitted he helped Jenkins hide the boy in a walk-in closet.
He made the closet into a "fort" and gave Robert a book to read, he said. He told Jenkins that he wouldn't hide the boy any longer, he testified.
But Ehrlick denied having any role in Robert Manwill's death and disappearance.
Ada County deputy Prosecutor Jill Longhurst began a tense, but short cross-examination regarding Ehrlick's inconsistencies over the timeline and correspondence with girlfriend Melissa Jenkins.
Court ended Monday with a terse conversation with Judge Darla Williamson over Longhurst's attempts to question Ehrlick over custody documents regarding Jenkins's daughter RayLynn. Cross-examination will continue Tuesday.
The defense called Ehrlick after a morning of technical testimony about DNA evidence by Dr. Greg Hampikian, a Boise State University professor.
Hampikian testified that neither Manwill's nor Ehrlick's DNA was found on a rock inside the boy's pocket when his body was recovered.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/27/1705889/daniel-ehrlick-testifies-in-his.html#ixzz1QWPglB00

by mermaid55 on Wed Jun 29, 2011 12:37 am

Daniel Ehrlick admits he kneeled on Robert Manwill
But under cross-examination, the defendant sticks to his story that he had nothing to do with the boy’s death.

Daniel Ehrlick once challenged police to prove that he was guilty of murdering 8-year-old Robert Manwill.

Ada County prosecutors will have one last shot to make their case — in a closing argument Thursday in which they will say that Ehrlick killed the gaunt son of his then-girlfriend after weeks of escalating physical violence in 2009.

It will come after two years of delays, seven weeks of courtroom drama and more than 100 witnesses, and then the group of 12 everyday Idahoans will start their deliberations.

“It happened a little sooner than I thought it would,” 4th District Judge Darla Williamson said Thursday.

The last two days of the trial came with two big surprises: Daniel Ehrlick took the stand, and Robert’s mother, Melissa Jenkins, did not.

After Tuesday’s short session, Williamson said the case had been “exhausting. It is such a tough case. ... so much preparation (for the attorneys).”

Ehrlick reported Robert missing on July 24, 2009, drawing thousands of people from the community into a 10-day search that ended when the boy’s battered body was found near Kuna in the same irrigation canal that runs just blocks from the Boise Bench apartment where the couple lived.

Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Jill Longhurst spent most of Tuesday morning working to prove that Ehrlick, 38, changed his story numerous times about the last time he saw Robert.

She suggested that he pointed his finger at others — including his own father — in attempts to divert attention from himself.

And she led Ehrlick to admit in court, as he did to police during the investigation, that he and Jenkins hid Manwill from Health and Welfare workers because they had bruised him. Ehrlick said that while the child was lying on his back in the “dead bugging” punishment, Ehrlick rested his 270-pound weight with both knees on the boy’s body.

In February, Jenkins admitted the same things and said she did nothing to stop the abuse.

But Ehrlick never wavered from his story — that the boy simply disappeared that July night — and Jenkins has never offered a description of how the boy died, even as she pleaded to aiding and abetting second-degree murder. She’ll be sentenced in August.

Despite working for two years to make sure they could force her to testify against Ehrlick, the prosecutors never called her to the stand.

Ehrlick’s two days of testimony and Jenkins’ absence are both part of separate legal strategies, said former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy.

“Those are both noteworthy because early speculation is that neither would happen,” Leroy said.

“Those are examples of tactical choices that experienced attorneys will make during the course of any trial, and in a high-profile trial, they come under more scrutiny, and ultimately second-guessing.”

On Tuesday after court, Longhurst was confident.

“When the prosecutor ends, it is probably because they’ve made their case,” Longhurst said.

She didn’t explain the thinking behind the decision not to call Jenkins.

Leroy said it was likely that prosecutors calculated that Jenkins’ testimony would do little to help convict Ehrlick.

Despite inconsistencies in numerous police interviews, Ehrlick’s appearance on the stand was probably worth the risk for his lawyers, Leroy said.

“Even knowing that he would be subjected to vigorous cross-examination,” Leroy said, the defense is expecting that the jury “would be favorably struck by the totality of (Ehrlick’s) testimony.”

Meanwhile, the jurors are likely relieved that they no longer must silently audit the trial, Leroy said.

“By the same token, they are not always eager to sit in judgment of a fellow human being, but that’s what they signed on for long ago,” he said.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/29/1708193/ehrlick-admits-he-kneeled-on-robert.html#ixzz1QfEclD00

by mermaid55 on Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:41 am

Daniel Ehrlick is found guilty of the first-degree murder of Robert Manwill

After just two hours of deliberation, an Ada County jury found Daniel Ehrlick guilty of first-degree murder.
The quick decision was a marked change from the pace of the trial, which saw more than 100 witnesses over the course of seven weeks. Earlier Thursday, attorneys in the case took more than five hours to deliver their closing statements.
The prosecution had called Daniel Ehrlick a "ticking time bomb," prone to violence, who viewed his girlfriend's 8-year-old son as the enemy, prosecutors said during closing arguments Thursday in Ehrlick's first-degree murder trial.
"A young boy was sad, afraid and defeated," said Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Dan Dinger.
Ehrlick had to hide 8-year-old Robert Manwill from social workers because of bruises, and the day was fast approaching when Robert would go home to his father's house in New Plymouth, Dinger said.
He said Ehrlick was increasingly desperate and under pressure because Robert was the one person who could take away what he most wanted: his girlfriend Melissa Jenkins' infant son Aidan.
"This defendant was stuck in that apartment with a little boy who had become an enemy," Dinger said. "If one person, his father or a social worker saw a bruise, they would come in and take Aidan away. He had to do everything he could to make sure that didn't happen."
Manwill's father and stepmother wept in court when prosecutors showed autopsy photos of the young child's body.
Prosecutors also worked to show inconsistencies in Ehrlick's statements to police, investigators and the jurors.
Defense attorney Gus Cahill cautioned the jury to take their time, have an open mind and evaluate the testimony and witnesses for themselves.
"Danny has never admitted to killing Robert and disposing of the body and he has never blamed Melissa either, which would have been easy to do," Cahill said.
Basically, Cahill said, the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Daniel Ehrlick killed Robert Manwill.
Though the defense isn't obliged to provide an alternative theory, Cahill said, he floated the theory of a stranger abduction and mentioned Melissa Jenkins' role as an abuser and disciplinarian.
"He is accused, he's plead not guilty," Cahill said. "He has told you under oath he did not do this."

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/30/1710425/closing-arguments-begin-this-afternoon.html#ixzz1QrR1Y4zy

by mermaid55 on Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:44 am

Jury finds justice for 8-year-old Robert Manwill, family says, as Daniel Ehrlick is convicted of first-degree murder

At the end of a day’s worth of arguments, gruesome photographs and impassioned pleas, an Ada County deputy prosecutor pointed at Daniel Ehrlick and told him he was about to be held accountable for the death of a child.
Less than three hours later, the jury handed down the decision: Guilty of first-degree murder by torture and aggravated battery.
Ehrlick slumped in his chair after sitting upright and attentive throughout the trial. Afterward, he would not look at the jurors and stared at the defense table.
He faces up to life in prison.
In a short statement to reporters, Robert Manwill’s father, Charles, thanked police, prosecutors and the community. As he turned away from the cameras, he pumped his arms in an emotional show of victory.
Earlier Thursday, he and his wife, Afton Manwill, had wept in court when prosecutors described Ehrlick’s abuse and showed autopsy photos of Robert’s body alongside his happier school pictures.
When the jury announced it had made a decision just two hours after closing arguments — a good sign for the prosecution —the Manwills hugged in the hallway. Charles Manwill joked with friends and family that he’d never done a cartwheel in his life but would consider it Thursday night.
The speed of the jury’s decision was a marked shift from the pace of the trial, coming after seven weeks of testimony and exhibits, more than 100 witnesses and over five hours of closing arguments on Thursday.
Prosecutors had left the 12 men and women with a description of Robert’s terrifying final weeks: Ehrlick was a “ticking time bomb,” prone to violence, who viewed his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son as the enemy — a dehumanized “thing” to be tortured physically and emotionally, they said.
By his own admission, Ehrlick forced Robert to live among junk in a tiny room, eat food he hated and choose his own punishments — from torturous positions with names like “dead bug” and “the chair” to being struck by a plank of molding Ehrlick kept in the kitchen for no other apparent reason.
The jury was given the option of finding Ehrlick guilty of a lesser murder charge, but it never came to that.
Defense attorney Gus Cahill had asked the jury to take its time and evaluate the facts. With no eyewitnesses and no forensic evidence detailing how the boy died, the state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, he said.
He argued that Ehrlick admitted hiding and punishing the boy, but that didn’t mean he murdered Robert and disposed of his body. Ehrlick isn’t sophisticated enough to have come up with such a convoluted plan, he said.
Prosecutors said Ehrlick killed Robert after weeks of escalating violence in summer 2009. About 10 days after Ehrlick called 911 to report the boy missing, the child’s body was found near Kuna in the same canal that runs near their Boise apartment.
And though prosecutors could not say exactly when the boy was killed or how his body was taken to the canal, they said they didn’t have to — showing Ehrlick’s systematic torture was proof enough.
His actions, demeanor and behavior after he reported Robert missing showed his guilt, Deputy Prosecutor Dan Dinger said.
“A young boy was sad, afraid and defeated,” he said.
Ehrlick was increasingly desperate and under pressure, Dinger said, because Robert was the one person who could take away what he most wanted: Melissa Jenkins’ infant son, Aidan.
“Ehrlick had to hide Manwill from social workers because of bruises, and the day was fast approaching when Robert would go home to his father’s house in New Plymouth,” Dinger said. “If one person, his father or a social worker, saw a bruise, they would come in and take Aidan away. He had to do everything he could to make sure that didn’t happen.”
The night before he reported Robert missing, Ehrlick had a confrontation at a party — he was asked to leave — and a heated conflict with the boy. It caused his temper to boil over, prosecutors said.
“I feel justice has been done,” said Sue Fellen, who has worked in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault for 25 years and watched the trial nearly every day.
She lauded Charles Manwill and the rest of the family.
“Things pained them, and you could tell that,” Fellen said. “For a family in grief like that I thought that they were very courageous and they just astounded me at the strength of the whole family.”
Ehrlick becomes the second murder conviction in this case. Jenkins, his girlfriend and Robert’s mom, pleaded guilty earlier this year to aiding and abetting a second-degree murder. Her plea deal recommends a fixed 25-year sentence. Though expected to, Jenkins didn’t testify in Ehrlick’s trial, and his attorney tried to use her as a potential foil.
She is the one convicted of hurting Aidan, Cahill said. She is the one who abused another child in front of Ehrlick’s family.
“As you evaluate how you are going to deduce what he is responsible for here, you have to keep in your mind: what role did Melissa play in this?” he told the jury.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/07/01/1711080/guilty.html#ixzz1QrRoVecv

by mermaid55 on Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:47 am

CONVICTED: Daniel Ehrlick listens to the jury read the verdict Thursday night. His sentencing hearing was set for Sept. 2, and since the jury also found him guilty of being a persistent felony offender, Judge Darla Williamson has more leeway to hand down a longer sentence.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/07/01/1711080/guilty.html#ixzz1QrS3vgQO

by mermaid55 on Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:04 am

Melissa Jenkins sentenced to 25 years in prison, Daniel Ehrlick sentenced to life for the murder of Robert Manwill
BY Patrick Orr - porr@idahostatesman.com
Published: 09/02/11

Fourth District Judge Darla Williamson agreed to the 25-year fixed sentence Melissa Jenkins agreed to in a deal earlier this year when she pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a second-degree murder in the death of her son, Robert Manwill.
Williamson said she didn't believe Jenkins' tears in the courtroom, or that she truly felt remorse for allowing her boyfriend, Daniel Ehrlick, to beat Robert over the course of weeks, and hiding the boy's bruises from family members and social workers. She said Jenkins' history — three children with different fathers, a previous conviction for child battery — indicated that if Jenkins were given the opportunity she could have another chlid and she could hurt it.
Williamson earlier sentenced Ehrlick Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the beating death of the 8-year-old boy.
Ada County prosecutors say Ehrlick has never taken responsibility for the death of Robert Manwill, and when he had a chance to address the court Friday — and the boy's family and friends who filled the courtroom — Ehrlick stayed silent.
Ada County prosecutors say Ehrlick beat Melissa Jenkins' son to death over a series of weeks in the summer of 2009 at the family's Bench area apartment. They say the boy died of head and chest injuries some time between July 23  and 24 of 2009, and then he was thrown in the New York Canal.
When the boy disappeared, it turned into national news and sparked a community-wide  search that included more than 2,300 volunteers and the FBI.  
Ehrlick and Jenkins were arrested Aug. 18, 2009, and both were charged with  first-degree murder.
An Ada County jury found Ehrlick guilty of first-degree murder in June, following a two month trial.
Ehrlick has consistently denied killing the boy and even testified on his  own behalf at the end of the trial.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/09/02/1783399/melissa-jenkins-sentenced-to-25.html#ixzz1XHciraa2

by twinkletoes on Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:59 pm

Child welfare report on Robert Manwill's death released

By Tina Jensen

CREATED Mar. 5, 2012
A 13-member independent panel convened to review the death of Robert
Manwill has provided recommendations to improve Idaho child welfare
practices.

Robert Manwill was an eight year old Treasure Valley youth who was
brutally murdered by his mother’s boyfriend, Daniel Ehrlick, in July
2009. Department of Health and Welfare Director Richard Armstrong
ordered an independent review shortly after the first degree murder
conviction of Ehrlick on June 30th, 2011. The review panel’s primary
objective was to evaluate the case and develop system recommendations to
help protect and safeguard children in the future.

“We sincerely thank the independent panel for their thoughtful and
thorough review and recommendations,” says DHW Director Richard
Armstrong. “We implemented several of the recommendations over the last
two years and will address all of the others. Robert Manwill’s death was
a tragedy, but there are things we can learn from the circumstances to
help protect other children from abuse and neglect.”

One of the primary issues of the case concerned the child protection
system’s oversight of ‘contact’ children. These are children the child
protection system does not have legal authority over, but who may come
in contact with other family members who are involved in an open child
protection case. Robert Manwill was a ‘contact’ child because he was not
in the custody of the state, but was visiting his mother, Melissa
Jenkins, during the summer of 2009. At that time, Jenkins had an open
child protection case for alleged physical abuse of Robert’s younger
half-brother.

The panel recommended DHW develop guidelines to assess the risk of
abuse or neglect of contact children and obtain copies of any
visitation/custody orders for contact children so they can be closely
monitored. Since the state child welfare system does not have legal
jurisdiction over contact children, the panel also recommended DHW
convene a panel of experts to evaluate possible legislation that would
provide the state with limited investigative and monitoring authority
for contact children.

A copy of the report and recommendations are posted on the DHW website at: http://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov

http://www.kivitv.com/news/local/141433513.html