ROBERT MANWILL - 8 yo (2009) - Boise ID

Mom likely to testify against boyfriend in son's death


BOISE -- An Idaho woman is likely to testify at the trial of her boyfriend, who is accused in the murder of her 8-year-old son.
Prosecutors mentioned Monday they could call Melissa Jenkins to take the stand in the first-degree murder trial of Daniel Ehrlick on Tuesday, but need a motion heard before she will testify.
On Tuesday morning, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Longhurst filed a motion asking the court to allow certain testimony about Jenkins' plea deal. Attorneys will argue that motion on Monday afternoon, and she could be called to the stand next week.
Jenkins pleaded guilty in January to aiding in Robert's death as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
She lost custody of Robert in 2008 and the boy was visiting her the summer he disappeared.
Ehrlick pleaded not guilty in the beating death of Robert Manwill during the summer of 2009. The boy's body was found in a canal about a week after his disappearance set off a search across Boise.
In court Tuesday, a Boise Police sergeant testified that the longer the investigation went on, the more inconsistent Ehrlick's stories got.
He testified that his timeline was getting farther and farther apart.
On Monday in court, detectives explained why from the first night Robert Manwill was reported missing they suspected Ehrlick and Jenkins may have been involved in foul play, perhaps organizing a cover-up.
"There had been inconsistencies in the story, the odd behavior from both of them, and the past tense statements that were made, it was alarming enough to think there could be some other type of foul play involved," Boise Police Detective Glen Rawson said.
The defense denies Ehrlick was acting guilty the night Robert went missing.

http://www.ktvb.com/news/Mom-expected-to-testify-against-boyfriend-123367333.html

June 05, 2011
Robert Manwill murder trial focuses on birthday party
BY PATRICK ORR - porr@idahostatesman.com
Was there a birthday party at the Oak Park Village Apartments the night in 2009 that Robert Manwill went missing?

That question dominated the third week of Daniel Ehrlick’s first-degree murder trial. The prosecution case, expected to last at least two more weeks, resumes Monday.

When 8-year-old Robert disappeared July 24, 2009, Ehrlick told 911 dispatchers, Boise police, family members and neighbors that was where Robert might be. He said he’d told the boy several times that night that he couldn’t go but that he might have snuck off to the party.

Ada County prosecutors say that’s a cover story. They say Ehrlick killed Robert that day, following weeks of abuse, then dumped the body in the New York Canal. They presented almost a dozen witnesses to back up their claim that the birthday party story was bogus.

Four of the first police responders that night — officers Guy McKean, Paul Jagosh, Cory Bammert and Adam Schloegel — testified that they searched the apartment complex and surrounding neighborhood that night and the next morning but found no evidence of a party anywhere.

Several residents of the Oak Park complex who were with their small children at the apartment pool that night also told the jury they knew of no party — and they likely would have known had there been one.

At one point Friday, defense attorney Gus Cahill asked the jury to leave, then complained to 4th District Judge Darla Williamson about the number of witnesses called on the subject.

“In essence, this is the state’s case,” Cahill said. “They are using a myriad of witnesses to make a closing argument.”

Williamson overruled the objection, and testimony continued.

Other highlights from the week:

Æ Several officers testified that Ehrlick and his girlfriend, Robert’s mother Melissa Jenkins, acted strangely on July 24: Jenkins was stoic and Ehrlick unstable — sweating, agitated and angry one minute, calm the next. At one point, Bammert said, Ehrlick lay on the ground and flailed his arms while the officer tried to talk to the couple. Bammert said he thought Ehrlick might have sunstroke and asked if he wanted an ambulance.

Schloegel, the primary investigating officer that night, said he was frustrated that neither Jenkins and Ehrlick seemed willing to cooperate with the investigation and would not give direct answers to his questions.

Æ Three former girlfriends of Ehrlick’s testified that he was physically and emotionally abusive to them in 1990, 1997 and 2004.

Æ Of 42 text messages sent between Ehrlick and Jenkins the night of July 24, 36 were selectively deleted from the phones, Boise police testified.

Æ Ehrlick told a counselor in late 2008 that he didn’t believe in corporal punishment. Ehrlick met with the counselor as he tried to get custody of Jenkins’ toddler son, Aidan (Jenkins had lost custody after fracturing Aidan’s skull).

On a questionnaire, Ehrlick strongly disagreed with the statements that “A certain amount of fear is necessary for children to respect parents” and “strict discipline is the best way to raise kids.” He disagreed that “spanking teaches children right from wrong” or that “a good spanking never hurt anyone.”

That same counselor told the jury he had concerns about Ehrlick’s impulse control. He didn’t explain why, because defense attorneys objected to the question. After a short conference, prosecutors discontinued the line of questioning.

Æ At least one of Jenkins’ co-workers at Blackhawk Industries disliked her so much that when she left work on the night of July 24, he called 911 to make sure a child had really been reported missing.




http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/05/1676794/robert-manwill-murder-trial-focuses.html#storylink=misearch

Day 16 of Ehrlick trial concentrated on days following Robert Manwill's disappearance


There were a few more notable witnesses in the Daniel Ehrlick first-degree murder case Wednesday:

* The jury heard testimony from Ann Moser, who handles a cadaver-smelling dog for the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue team. She said her dog did not detect any decomposition in Ehrlick’s apartment when they searched on July 25, 2009. Moser told the jury she would have liked to had 45 minutes, but only had 15 minutes to search. She also told the jury if someone was killed at the apartment and the body was moved quickly, there likely would not have been any decomposition smell in the first place.

* Boise police officer Mattie Chally, who helped search Oak Park Village Apartments for Robert Manwill on July 25, told the jury that both times she saw Melissa Jenkins that day Jenkins appeared emotionless, including when fire crews drained a duck pond to look for the boy. Chally said Jenkins’ demeanor appeared different when she saw her later at press conferences, when Jenkins appeared to show emotion.

* Janet Lawler, a victim witness coordinator for the Boise police who spent a lot of time with Ehrlick and Jenkins in the days after Robert was reported missing, said the couple seemed very suspicious of police. She also said Ehrlick refused to talk to her when she asked if he wanted to talk about Robert, while most parents who have a missing child appreciate the chance.

Lawler also said Ehrlick told her that if he got really angry, he liked to hit things.

* Pamela Anderson, who lived in one of the condo units by Oak Park Villages, said she told Ehrlick twice in the days following Robert’s disappearance that she thought the birthday party story was bogus, because she talked to kids who live at the apartment and none of them knew about party that night. She told the jury she confronted Ehrlick about the issue July 26, after she found out an Amber Alert hadn’t been issued. Anderson said she and a neighbor walked over to the apartment and he let them in.

“I told (Ehrlick) he better lose the birthday story, no one believed it.

“He told me we are not going for that story, we lost that story.”

Anderson said she was stunned, that his statement confirmed her suspicion with Ehrlick’s story all along.

Every other witness who has testified, including police officers, has said Ehrlick never stopped saying Robert wanted to go to a birthday party.



Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/08/1681234/day-16-of-ehrlick-trial-concentrated.html#ixzz1OjDTvDa6

Melissa
Jenkins, the mother of the Boise child murdered in 2009, made her first
appearance in the Daniel Ehrlick trial on Monday.
On day 18 of the trial of Daniel Ehrlick, the
man accused of killing 8-year-old Robert Manwill, attorneys cleared the
way for Jenkins to testify.
Melissa Jenkins, Manwill's mother, has
already confessed to aiding and abetting in Manwill's murder. The
prosecution argued a motion to extend Jenkins' immunity to any
interviews before her testimony.
The judge granted that and gave the okay for Jenkins to testify, but gave a stern warning to Jenkins.
Jenkins credibility has been questioned.
"I remind you that if you don't, then you can
be charged with perjury and the penalty for perjury could be up to 14
years in prison - and that could be in addition to the 25 you're already
looking at," said Judge Darla Williamson of the Ada County Fourth
District.
Jenkins will be interviewed by the prosecution before she takes the stand.
The trial is now in its fifth week.
http://www.kivitv.com/story/14900062/judge-gives-okay-for-mother-of-robert-manwill-to-testify

Ehrlick’s father gives emotional testimony against his son


‘I’m here for the state and Robert. That’s all I care about,’ Daniel Ehrlick Sr. says on the witness stand.


06/15/11

Daniel Ehrlick Sr. had to fight back tears Tuesday when a large picture of Robert Manwill was shown to jurors at his son’s trial for first-degree murder.

Minutes later, Ehrlick Sr. covered his face with his hands to regain his composure after telling the jury about the boy.

“He was a great kid,” Ehrlick Sr. said. “I enjoyed his company a lot.”

But Ehrlick Sr. briefly was considered a potential suspect soon after the boy disappeared in 2009.

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard how Daniel Ehrlick had said his father was likely to blame for the boy’s disappearance — even after the FBI said that the elder Ehrlick had been investigated and pretty much cleared.

Ada County prosecutors say the story was bogus — part of a series of lies and untruths Ehrlick told police to cover up how he beat the 8-year-old to death and put his body in the New York Canal.

On Tuesday, Ehrlick Sr. got to defend himself in person, emphatically telling Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Jill Longhurst, “No ma’am” when asked if he had anything to do with Robert’s disappearance.

While the younger Ehrlick told the FBI he was sure his father was involved with the abduction sometime around 8 p.m. on July 24, 2009, testimony and evidence show the elder Ehrlick wouldn’t have had an opportunity to grab Robert at that time.

A timeline came out in court Tuesday:

Until 6:30 p.m., Ehrlick Sr. was at his wife’s nursing home. Then he stopped at the Tobacco Connection on State Street before going to Ehrlick’s apartment at around 7 p.m. to help his son pay his electric bill. He said he never saw Robert in the short time he was there and that he was told the boy was playing outside. (A boy he glimpsed from behind turned out to be a neighborhood child about the same age, he realized later.)

Receipts and security cameras show Ehrlick Sr. went to WinCo next, and was there from around 7:39 p.m. to 8:08 p.m.

Ehrlick Sr.’s next-door neighbor, Tammy Moon, testified she and a friend helped the elder Ehrlick, still by himself, unload groceries at his house on Bannock Street around 8:30 p.m. Moon said Ehrlick Sr. then drove her to a nearby Maverik store and brought her back. Then he drove to pick up his other son, David, who was at a friend’s house in south Boise. Phone and cellphone tower records show a call between Ehrlick Sr. and David Ehrlick at 9:08 p.m. — while Ehrlick Sr. was still driving.

The next call Ehrlick Sr. got came from his son Daniel at 9:58 p.m., when the man now on trial reported that Robert was missing.

Ehrlick Sr. told the jury he and David immediately drove to the Oak Park Village apartments to help search.

Like other family members and neighbors, Ehrlick Sr. said Robert’s disposition changed between the summers of 2008 and 2009.

In 2008, Ehrlick Sr. said, Robert was a happy boy who talked a lot, about all kinds of subjects — like how he wanted to be like his father, Charles Manwill, and join the military.

But the next year, Ehrlick Sr. said, whenever he saw Robert, the boy was in trouble, and when he tried to find out why, he was rebuffed by the boy’s mother, Melissa Jenkins.

“Every time I wanted to talk to him, Melissa was there to stop him,” Ehrlick Sr. said.

Ehrlick Sr. said he was so concerned about Robert’s weight loss that he offered to pay to take the boy to the doctor, but Jenkins told him Robert was throwing up on purpose.

He said he saw a large bruise on the boy’s upper leg that June, but Jenkins wouldn’t tell him where it came from.

“That last summer was hell ... (Robert) was always restricted, grounded, always doing something wrong,” Ehrlick Sr. said.



Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/15/1689243/ehrlicks-father-gives-emotional.html#ixzz1PLD6B3wR

Day 21 of Daniel Ehrlick's murder trial: Was it torture or punishment?
An NYU expert says Ehrlick’s treatment intended to isolate, terrorize and control Robert Manwill.

Dead bugging. The Chair.

Continually isolating a child alone in room. Making him eat food he hated so much he vomited. Hitting him in the buttocks with a piece of wooden molding. Not allowing him to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water when thirsty. Locking him in a closet. Making the 8-year-old boy sleep in a crib.

These are all the things that either Daniel Ehrlick admitted to police that he did to Robert Manwill or his family members say they saw him do in the summer of 2009.

Taken together, those punishments add up to torture, a medical expert told the jury on the 21st day of Ehrlick’s first-degree murder trial.

Dr. Allen Keller, an associate professor at New York University and a physician who practices medicine at Bellevue Hospital Center, said that after reading autopsy reports and reviewing police reports and interviews that he believed Robert Manwill was the victim of torture.

This is especially important to the case being made by Ada County prosecutors, who have said Ehrlick tortured the boy over a series of weeks of escalating violence that resulted in his death around July 24, 2009 — the day Ehrlick called 911 and reported Robert missing.

Keller specializes in treating victims of torture from other countries, mostly refugees, and has taught several seminars on the subject. He told the jury he recently taught judges in Chile how to evaluate forensic evidence of torture in criminal trials.

Keller said Thursday he detected multiple instances in the Ehrlick case that fit the classic definition of torture, which is “severe physical or mental suffering inflicted for a variety of reasons ... (like) punishment, intimidation ... done by someone acting in an official capacity.”

“The concept is how one is separated, objectified, (made to) become less than human, to become an ‘it,’” Keller said. “Control is ripped from them — that is a common denominator of all forms of torture.”

The jury has heard from multiple family members how Robert always seemed to be in trouble in the summer of 2009 and kept away from other children. They have said they saw bruises on the boy and that he seemed withdrawn and sad.

In police interviews, Ehrlick initially told police he did not use corporal punishment on Robert but later admitted that he did — including something called dead bugging, when the boy was made to lie on his back and put his hands and feet in the air. Once, Ehrlick admitted, he put both his knees on the boy to keep him from moving.

Ehrlick also told police he made the boy eat oatmeal and raisins as a punishment, even though it made the boy vomit.

The jury has heard how Robert had to do the “chair” — stand against a wall, with his knees bent in a sitting position, for a period of time.

Being forced to stand in a painful position for an extended period is a classic torture technique, Keller said.

And added up, he said, these actions qualify as torture, designed to take away control from the victim and humiliate him. Even something as simple as forcing a boy to eat food he hated qualified, he said.

“It fits (torture) because it is taking advantage of weakness and fear,” Keller said.

Keller said punishment is an isolated incident, and torture is physical or psychological abuse over time. During cross examination, Keller said he did not attempt to interview Ehrlick and drew all his conclusions from police reports and court records.

Keller told defense attorney Gus Cahill this was his first criminal trial involving children and torture



Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/17/1692366/was-it-torture-or-punishment.html#ixzz1PXIKhGFF

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION


THE TRIAL: DAY 21

The jury also heard testimony Thursday from Robert Manwill’s grandfather, grandmother and stepmother, who all said that when the boy moved to New Plymouth in January 2008 to live with his father, Charles Manwill, he struggled academically.

Afton Manwill, Robert’s stepmother, said that when the boy joined his first-grade class, he could not read. All three witnesses said they had to work hard with Robert on his homework, but by the end of the year, he was a good student.

They all said he ate with no problems and was a good-natured boy who loved his siblings. Afton Manwill said Robert used to throw fits and tantrums after they got custody of the boy in January 2008, but his behavior improved as the months went on after she threatened to treat him like a baby if he continued to act like one.




Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/17/1692366/was-it-torture-or-punishment.html#ixzz1PXIblnY0

Robert Manwill's father breaks silence during Daniel Ehrlick's murder trial
He would have gotten his son back ‘in a heartbeat’ if he had thought the boy was in danger, Manwill says.

Charles Manwill broke down for a brief moment Friday when he explained to an Ada County jury that Robert Manwill was not the only son he has lost to violence.
Manwill, a veteran of the first Gulf War who works at Gowen Field, started to cry when he talked about his first child, Michael Manwill, who was killed by his mother in Louisiana while Manwill was on active duty in 1993.
Manwill’s ex-wife eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and went to prison. His parents took custody of his other son while he tried to figure out what to do next.
“I didn’t know how to deal with loss ... I lost everything that mattered to me,” Manwill said.
He eventually found his way to Melissa Jenkins and a second tragedy: the death of his son Robert in the summer of 2009.
Manwill, who now has two biological children and a stepdaughter he considers his own flesh and blood, has been silent since Robert was reported missing by first-degree murder suspect Daniel Ehrlick on July 24, 2009. Though he appeared with his wife, Afton, at several press conferences during the high-profile search for the boy, he did not comment publicly.
Friday, when he was called as a witness by Ada County prosecutors, was the first time Manwill has talked about Jenkins, their short marriage, how the two shared custody of their son and the events that led up to Robert’s disappearance and death.

THE ‘RIGHT THING’

Manwill said he and Jenkins had a brief relationship that resulted in her pregnancy.
He told the jury he decided to “do the right thing and get married,” but, ultimately, his marriage to Jenkins didn’t even last for a year. Robert was born June 8, 2001.
Manwill said he didn’t remember when the two got divorced because their marriage meant little to him.
A short time later, he married Afton, and the family decided to settle in New Plymouth, where her parents lived, because they thought Boise was too big a town in which raise a family.
Manwill said Robert lived in New Plymouth enough that he called Afton “Mom,” but the boy moved around a lot with Jenkins. She married again, another short-lived union with Frank Seiber, and then had a series of boyfriends — so many Manwill said he couldn’t keep track. She had two other children with different men.
He said custody of Robert was shared in various forms until January 2008, when Manwill asked for — and was granted — full custody. Jenkins had visitation rights, and Manwill said Robert seemed to enjoy weekend visits with his mother.
In October 2008, though, Jenkins was arrested and accused of fracturing the skull of her youngest son, Aidan. Manwill said Idaho Health and Welfare officials told him Robert could no longer be alone with Jenkins at all, so there were no visits for a while.
Later, he said they told him that the boy could visit if Daniel Ehrlick Sr. — Ehrlick’s father — was there. By spring 2009, Manwill said he was told Ehrlick himself had been approved by Health and Welfare and Robert could visit Jenkins if he was there.

SUMMER IN BOISE

The custody agreement allowed Robert to spend several weeks with Jenkins in the summer, but Manwill and his wife were supposed to have him back at the end of July.
Manwill said he had concerns about letting his son stay with Jenkins, especially after what had happened to Aidan, but also felt that Robert loved his mother and deserved to spend time with her if that is what he wanted. He called Health and Welfare and said officials told him it was OK.
Manwill said he was never told by social workers that Jenkins was not allowed to stay overnight in the same apartment with the children, and that she could only be around them during the day if Ehrlick was present to supervise. He said he was also under the impression that the couple got back full custody of Aidan. That was not the case. Ehrlick shared custody of the boy with the state, but Jenkins had not yet regained her custody rights.
Robert went to Boise on June 6, 2009, the day after his stepbrother’s high school graduation. Manwill said that when he left, Robert weighed about 60 to 70 pounds and had no health problems of any kind.

A REGRET

Later that month, Manwill said Jenkins called to complain about discipline problems with Robert, saying he was not listening and was lying to them.
He said he told her that corporal punishment did not work for Robert and suggested “timeout” as a disciplinary tactic.
But he said Friday that he later worried that perhaps Robert had been in the room and overheard part of that conversation, and Jenkins and Ehrlick may have told the boy that his father supported their punishment of him — punishment prosecutors call torture and say ultimately killed the boy.
“I pack a lot of guilt for that,” Manwill said.
He said he had no idea Robert was being punished so severely and being hidden from Health and Welfare workers. If he had known, he said, he would have gotten him right away.
The last time he saw his son was after a dentist appointment in New Plymouth that June.

THE NIGHT HE DISAPPEARED

Manwill said he first heard from Jenkins the night Robert was reported missing at around 10:30 p.m., when he got a message on his cellphone, played in court Friday, that said: “Robert is missing. Bye.”
Manwill said he and Afton decided to drive to Boise to help find Robert, but when he called Jenkins back on the drive she twice tried to discourage him from coming.
He said he was angry and concerned, and didn’t think the 8-year-old should have been out and about by himself so late, or at a stranger’s birthday party, which is where Ehrlick told police he figured the boy was.
Manwill said he had every intention of bringing his son home when he was found that night and planned on calling a lawyer the next day to get full custody.
“There was no doubt in my mind, when we found him, he was coming home,” Manwill said.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/18/1693803/roberts-father-breaks-silence.html#ixzz1PjrrTTHI

Police: Ehrlick faked overdose to avoid telling truth
Jeffrey Blevins testifies that the defendant promised to say what happened to Robert but never did.

After a long, emotional day of interviews between law enforcement and Daniel Ehrlick on July 30, 2009, FBI agent Jeffrey Blevins thought he and Ehrlick had an understanding.

From the time he reported his girlfriend’s son missing six days earlier, Ehrlick had stuck to the same story through at least four interviews: that he didn’t know if Melissa Jenkins was involved in Robert Manwill’s disappearance and that the last time he saw the 8-year-old was the night of the 24th, when the boy repeatedly asked to go to a nearby birthday party.

But Blevins told the jury Monday at Ehrlick’s first-degree murder trial in Boise that he thought Ehrlick’s body language was saying something else altogether.

When asked if maybe there had been some kind of accident, Ehrlick asked to stop the interview and privately speak to Blevins.

Ehrlick “said he would come back the next morning, and he would tell the truth, let me know what happened,” Blevins said Monday.

It was not the first time that day that Ehrlick had stopped an interview cold. At least three of his earlier interviews with police ended with him storming out after officers asked him to give them a detailed timeline of July 24 events.

In that final discussion, Blevins revealed that Jenkins had told police earlier that day that Ehrlick used corporal punishment on Robert, including a punishment called “dead bugging” and hitting him with a board — and that the two had hid the bruised boy from Idaho Health and Welfare workers.

After Ehrlick pulled him aside, Blevins said he told the man he didn’t want to deal with another contentious interview the next day and asked him if he was a man of his word.

Ehrlick said yes, and they shook hands, Blevins said.

But the following day, Ehrlick was hospitalized at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, after Jenkins’ sister said she feared he had overdosed on anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medication.

Blevins told the jury the two made eye contact, but Ehrlick looked away.

Prosecutors say Ehrlick faked that drug overdose to avoid talking to police — an ER doctor testified Monday that neither Ehrlick’s actions nor his blood tests showed any kind of overdose.

But Ehrlick refused to give a urine sample and acted agitated with nurses and other medical staff, so Dr. Randy Barnes said he put Ehrlick on a medical hold.

Ehrlick didn’t talk to police again until Aug. 9 — after spending more than a week in Intermountain Hospital — and he never did change his story.

Testimony will continue Tuesday, though it is unclear when Jenkins will be called by prosecutors as a witness in the case — or whether they have decided not to put her on the stand.

Ehrlick’s attorneys said they had originally planned on starting their defense case Monday, but prosecutors have not finished their case.



Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/21/1696975/fbi-agent-ehrlick-faked-overdose.html#ixzz1Q1bS7rYx

Prosecutors don’t use Melissa Jenkins as witness in Ehrlick murder trial
The most anticipated testimony in Daniel Ehrlick’s murder trial may have proved too risky.



After more than a year of legal skirmishes to ensure Melissa Jenkins could testify against the man accused of killing her 8-year-old son, Ada County prosecutors rested their first-degree murder case against Daniel Ehrlick without calling her to the stand.

Jenkins, who pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a second-degree murder earlier this year, has been at the center of the case against Ehrlick for the past two years, as well as the past five weeks of court testimony.

The decision not to call Jenkins is a surprise — especially since what Jenkins told police, co-workers and others in the days following Robert Manwill’s disappearance on July 24, 2009, seems to comprise much of the evidence prosecutors ultimately used to charge Ehrlick with murder.

The issue could be credibility.

Jenkins’ own attorney has called her a “habitual liar.” Fourth District Judge Darla Williamson lectured Jenkins during a court hearing last week, telling her that if she didn’t tell the truth when called to testify, she could be charged with perjury.

Prosecutors fought for — and won — the ability to ask Jenkins to tell the jury she had pleaded guilty to aiding in Robert’s murder, but she couldn’t name Ehrlick as her co-defendant.

But the risk of what could have happened during her cross-examination apparently outweighed the benefits of her testimony — at least for now.

Jenkins could be called as a rebuttal witness if Ehrlick’s attorneys mount a defense, which was scheduled to start Thursday.

Defense attorneys are generally able to ask witnesses only about the evidence they present when they take the stand — but in this case, Williamson told lawyers on both sides they would likely have broader latitude.

Ehrlick’s attorneys would be able to ask Jenkins about statements other witnesses attributed to her — and these have come up repeatedly throughout the trial.

Any evidence attributed to Jenkins — including statements that question her credibility, like making inconsistent statements — would be fair game for cross- examination. That seems to cover pretty much everything Jenkins told police in the summer of 2009.

Williamson has allowed some “hearsay” about what Jenkins told others because Ehrlick also is accused of conspiring with Jenkins to cover up the murder.

The jury has also heard Jenkins on audiotaped interviews with police.



Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/22/1698434/prosecutors-dont-use-melissa-jenkins.html#ixzz1Q1cf5nr8