John Robert Kastner's Upcoming Trial

A little background on this upcoming murder trial.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 John Robert Kastner told a tall tale of waking to discover a man standing at the foot of his bed. The man, according to him, was looking for someone his daughter knew. The 19-year-old daughter wasn’t at home but his other daughter and son were sleeping when the shootings occurred. This intruder proceeded to fight with him and shoot Kastner’s wife twice in the head; during the altercation he was shot in the hand. The evidence did not pan out for law enforcement and on June 27, 2008 they arrested Kastner for the murder of his wife.

Lori Moon Kastner was a judicial assistant with the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She quit her job in May of 2008 to follow Kastner in a fictional world that he’d convinced her was a real world. She’d gone so far as contact a bank about opening an international account for a corporation called ‘713 Corporation’ which would handle millions of dollars. Sadly, Lori’s love covered over her legal training and analytic intelligence.

Since his arrest, John Robert Kastner’s story has changed. Justice for Lori has been fraught with delays due to her husband’s play with the legal system. He pled not guilty, fired his public defender lawyer, wanted to defend himself and then hired a Tulsa high profile lawyer named John Byrd.

More recent news.

Kastner’s attorney John Byrd didn’t show for a couple court hearings this month but before Christmas he did file a motion for yet another delay saying his client was entering an insanity plea.

This motion, if accepted by the court, will likely postpone the Jan 4, 2010 date that was previously set for jury selection to begin. The insanity defense strategy is odd to me since Byrd has mentioned that Kastner stated he did not shoot his wife. Who did then? Surely not the intruder, whose race changed from native American to white, since no such person has ever been found. And too, the alleged shooter must have walked on air since he managed to not leave footprints in the blood during his struggle with Kastner. Then again, maybe that 22-caliber gun Kastner bought a week before the shooting, and allegedly practiced shooting in his backyard, simply jumped in his hand and spoke to him, demanding that he shoot Lori twice.

The probable new trial date is looming large as yet another delay in the cry for Lori’s justice since the Prosecutor, First Assistant District Attorney Doug Drummond, said if Kastner changes his plea to insanity they’d need time to prepare and to have an expert to evaluate Kastner.

I am not saying Kastner is guilty of this murder; it hasn’t gone to court and heard by a jury. But, I do think this man has some mental issues. Is he criminally insane? My personal opinion is no; I think he opted to live in his fantasy world and not in the real world. Unfortunately, he didn’t put his fantasies onto paper as a fictional novel and chose to drag his wife into the fantasy also. Appearances can be deceiving, both physically and mentally, but that choice makes him appear guilty to me.

When this trial does actually go live inside a Tulsa court, it’s possible no cameras will be allowed. The judge has previously stated none would be and they have allowed no recording devices which mean live text updates won’t be available either.





http://www.tulsaworld.com/

http://www.newson6.com/

The Battle Concerning Col. Barfoot's Flagpole

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/columnists_news/article/MIKE05_20091204-222205/309640/


The above article is one that somewhat bothers me. To say Col Barfoot’s battle to fly his flag on his flagpole is about stubbornness is just wrong to me. I appreciate that Mr. Williams gave both sides of the story, the homeowners’ association and Col. Barfoot’s too, but I do disagree with the homeowners’ association and Mr. Williams with this one. If it is indeed an attribute of stubbornness to want the proper height upright pole to properly fly his flag then I, too, say I join and applaud Col. Barfoot in his stubbornness.

Col. Barfoot’s flagpole is not an eyesore, it isn’t something like an overgrown weed-filled lawn, or discarded furniture that trashes the neighborhood and causes the price of homes to drop. What it is, is Honor. That flagpole is part of what America is about. The flag he waves is what America is about. His flag shouldn’t be flown on one of those aluminum poles tilted on the outside wall of his home. That flag should fly on his pole, a proper pole where he can continue to honor it and for what it stands.

I pray Col. Barfoot wins this battle and the extra week he was given to take down his pole becomes more than one week. It should become until death him and his flag and his proper height pole parts.

I think it’s an exhibition of shame for the US and, too, the homeowners’ association of Sussex Square when a decorated war veteran, a veteran of three wars, can’t fly his flag on a proper upright pole. The homeowners’ association should rewrite their rules and regulations to allow this pole to stay as it is, where it is. They should allow other homeowners to honor this country the same way too. The pride the people of that community and town could and should feel knowing a section of their county is filled with American patriotism is tremendous.

More articles on this brave battle of Col. Barfoot and his supporters can be found at the above link site, at face book support sites, and also at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34261317/ns/us_news-life/

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579338,00.html

http://www.wtvr.com/news/wtvr-veteran-flagpole,0,2550197.story

Current Events: Disturbing Recent Trials

I haven’t been in the writing mode for a long time so I’ve neglected my blog. I still feel sadly inept with writing a new piece due to that lack of mode. So much has been going through my mind that I want to write that my mind refuses to allow just one to settle so I can focus only on it. I think it's because the trials are so disturbingly heinous and emotionally hard to watch.


One is the Christian/Newsom murders and the horrific way they were carjacked, violated and killed by five people. Letalvis Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidison, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman and Eric Boyd. Boyd is in prison for his part in the carjacking, Cobbins was found guilty of the charges against him and was sent to a medium security prison. Vanessa Coleman and George Thomas trials have yet to happen. Thomas’s trial is in jury selection.

The medium security was an anger point for me and one reason I couldn’t bring myself to write about the Davidson trial as it happened. Since they transferred him (Cobbins) to that prison a Senator has taken charge and they moved him to a maximum security prison. If you read my other blog piece on Cobbins you know that I had, when they read the sentencing decision, felt a tiny bit glad they sent him up for LWOP - and I felt guilt for that glad feeling. When I heard he was at a medium security prison, I felt even more guilt and became angry because they sent him somewhere he could have a ‘good life’ behind bars. Cobbins does not deserve a good life behind bars or anywhere else. He should be behind lock and key for 23 of the 24 hours in a day and only let out for that hour to walk around in a cage for exercise. In truth, he should have gotten the death penalty.

Channon and Chris can’t walk around anymore. They can’t know what it’s like to breathe in fresh air or exercise at their leisure so why should Cobbins or any of the others.

Lemaricus Davidson was found guilty of all 46 charges against him, with three of those lesser degree charges connected to Chris, and they gave him the death penalty. Thankfully he will be shut up in a maximum security prison waiting for his death. Another anger point is all the appeals’ Chris and Channon’s families will have to endure before they finally put him to death.
People complain about the monetary cost of putting someone to death. I think that cost would go down quite a bit if we did not allow prisoners more rights than the victims. Victims are demoralized when they are killed and again in the court system. People like Davdison allow their attorneys to try and brand them as foul sewage-slime, useless people. The foul sewage-slime and useless people are the killers, not the victims.

Another reason I can’t focus on one blog subject is the Michelle Kehoe trial. Dear God in Heaven, the impression I got was that she, according to what an expert defense witness said yesterday, seems to have every depressive mental issue in the medical books. And it’s all because of thyroid medication. Ah, so since she took a dosage too high for her or something, it’s okay that she planned how to blame slitting her children’s throats on a ‘bad man?’ All I know is that, when I see her face, her little son’s words play over and over in my head. He asked what his mom was doing and he said, ‘she was hurting my little brother.’ I am worried about the son that survived. I’m worried about what his family is telling him. Are they saying, mom was sick, she didn’t mean to hurt you? I am worried about how he will view abuse as he grows older. Will he think it’s okay to hurt others if he feels sad some days? Will he be able to function in the real world? I hope he grows to become a positive influence on those around him and moves past these horrific events.

I don’t know if a defendant considered mentally insane at the moment of committing a crime can be sent to a mental facility for life. But, I sure hope if the jury decides she is insane and she is sent to one that she can’t stay there a few years and take medications as she should, convince some doctor she is okay to function in society and then released back in the public. She tried so hard to be a perfect mom, or so it was said. Anybody knows there is no such thing as a perfect parent. Does it mean that, in her strange sense of reality, she thought by saying a bad man did it, her children, husband and the public at large would still consider her a perfect mom?

We shall see (or hear) what the jury decides, they should have the case today after closings and they hear jury charges.

Many things are bothering me, running around in my head and wanting written. And because of that, I rambled in this piece and I apologize to my readers for that rambling.

Update:
Since I posted this piece earlier today the jury reached a verdict. Michelle Kehoe was found guilty of first degree murder and guilty on all the other charges against her children. I approve of that verdict.
　

Current Events: Bob's Life and The Death of Diane Elizabeth Ward

James Robert ‘Bob’ Ward and Diane Elizabeth Ward were married in 1986.

Apparently, in 1997 James ‘Bob’ Ward founded a company called Land Resource. His business boomed and he became immensely successful. However, Ward’s company eventually failed, allegedly due to the housing crunch, and in 2008 he filed for bankruptcy. The bond company is suing Bob, claiming he moved monies he should have used to improve properties into trust funds for his children, paid off loans and bought luxury cars and bought a 4.3 million-dollar Florida home. The home is now in foreclosure.

September 21, this year, Bob Ward called 911 and allegedly said, ‘I just shot my wife - she’s dead.’ Diane Elizabeth Ward was found dead of a fatal gunshot wound to the head. A few days later, they charged Bob with second-degree murder in Diane’s death. Diane and Bob’s two children, Mallory and Sarah stand beside their father and the story that Diane committed suicide.

In a video from a jail house visit, Mallory jokes about his jumpsuit and he gives a thumbs-up as he dances and pretends to do a strip tease. Mallory giggles and dances with him while his sister-in-law Paula Saare laughs with him.


A little history on Bob Ward’s life:

During the late 70's, around 32 years ago, Janis Ward divorced her then husband, James Robert ‘Bob’ Ward, on claim of physical cruelty. Her claim was that he was dangerous and she asked for a restraining order to keep him from molesting or causing her physical harm. Allegedly, their later divorce papers do not mention these allegations. Janis died in a car wreck about 30 years ago.

A few years after the divorce of Bob and Janis Ward, Bob, then a loan executive, was in a relationship with a woman named Dianne. According to Dianne, although he was charming, he was also a jealous and possessive man and five years after their relationship began, she broke it off. Dianne intimated that he used drugs and drank and when he did she saw his darker side. After Bob’s arrest for murder of his second wife, Diane Elizabeth Ward, Dianne McClintock Callahan told a story of how in anger Bob had once punched a hole in a wall because he was late for a party. During one fit of jealous anger he hit her with a bedpost and pointed a gun at her. She ran to a neighbor for help. After she left him, Dianne said he had her arrested for stealing a dog he’d bought as a gift for her. Dianne talked about how years after the gun and bedpost incident, and just a few months before Diane died, he contacted her via email. She agreed to have lunch with him. During that lunch he apologized for his past actions, talked about his wife spending too much money and his legal difficulties with bankruptcy. Dianne, now a happily married woman said she had no interest in a new relationship with Bob.

Two years after Bob and Dianne broke up, Bob had married Diane Elizabeth and due to his future business ventures lived a life of luxury; Until, that is, the fateful events that happened inside the Florida mansion on September 21, 2009 where Bob allegedly claims Diane was trying to shoot herself.

I am giving a lot of thought to the question asked by Dianne McClintock Callahan: "So something happened with her, something happened with me and now the wife is dead," Callahan said. "Are you seeing a pattern here?"



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-isleworth-country-club-murder-092309,0,6200567.story


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/realestate/orl-isleworth-murder-background-092409,0,2042157.story


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-isleworth-ward-death-092709,0,985559.story

Quote found in article allegedly quoting Dianne Callahan found on page 2- http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-isleworth-ward-death-092709,0,985559.story?page=2

Personal Entry: I Care

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“Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.” Abraham Lincoln


I care about victims of domestic violence; they have seen and unseen bruises on their bodies; they walk around with sore or broken bones and sometimes make an excuse for their abusers. They blame themselves while living in fear of their spouse coming home, knowing he or she will find faults with the smallest of things. The abused person walks a thin thread; they hide in shadows of rooms and hallways while praying the abuser won’t notice them, that the abuser’s anger won’t rear its ugly head; praying he or she had a good day and no one from work caused them to be frustrated or made them have to go out their way to deal with a situation they didn’t like.

The victims are emotionally captive in their spouses’, their abusers darkness, victims of their environment. Sadly many - too many - feel alone, not knowing where to turn or where to go for help.

We cannot change the abusers’ nature!

I care about the abused child, the ones whose parents treat like an inanimate object that’s a possession not heard, only seen. The ones whose parent slides into their bed at night, those kicked, picked up and thrown against walls, onto furniture or on the ground. The child who lives with the pain of broken bones, the ones who live with both visible and invisible bruises they are scared to show, scared to talk about. The ones who don’t know who to trust because the ones they should trust are violent toward them. The ones violently yanked from their homes, off the streets, the school yards, in the stores and other places where they should be safe. I care.

I care that children and domestic violence victims are not safe because predators stalk the streets while the laws protect the abusers’ rights; I care that the children and domestic violence victims are second class to the abusers’ in the eyes of the laws. I care about all victims no matter their gender, race, economic status, or religious beliefs.

The time has come! The time to tell all the Aldermen, Members of Congress, District Attorneys, Governors, Judges, Mayors, Senators, and Town Council Members in every city, county, parish and town of this great free country that if they don’t care too, they will not get our vote in the future. The time has come to ask when they knock on our door asking for our vote what their stance on domestic violence and child abuse is; what they will do to help the victim, put the abused first. The time to tell all of them that if they don’t battle for laws to protect the victims, to help law enforcement deal with the violence of domestic abuse and child predators that they are not speaking for us. We voted for them to carry our voice, speak for us, and they are miserably failing us. The time has come to ask the President to stand up for victims; to stand on the floor of Congress and the floor of the Senate and demand a review of the laws surrounding domestic violence and child abuse; to tell the lawmakers he demands the victims’ rights heard and that to put victims’ rights first in their minds. Above all, that he demands protection laws written that will put the abused above the rights of their abusers! We cannot change an abuser’s nature!

Child predators will always be child predators, child abusers. They cannot change their nature! We cannot change who they are. The darkness is a volcano deep inside their heart and soul, sometimes the volcano is quiet and dormant but it is always there; its ashes the victims; its fire the rage. The time has come to keep child abusers under lock and key, to keep them off the streets walking in freedom! Likewise, the time has come to keep violent domestic abusers in jail, if they did it once they will do it again! We cannot change their nature! They live in darkness and that darkness is who they are inside, what they are. They are abusers!

The time has come to demand change. The time has come to make sure our children do not have to battle for their children’s rights against predators and abusive spouses. The battle is ours, for them, the ones presently abused and the future abused. The time has come to tell, to show, all the abused we care!

Giving abusers medicines and sending them to anger management and other counseling programs will not change the abusers’ nature!