Huge Rulings In The Pike Co Massacre, Menendez Brothers Hearing Update, & Sheriff Stines Arraigned

Update on the Menendez Brothers Resentencing hearing. The judge has delayed the hearing that was set for December 11, 2024. 
The judge in the Pike Co Massacre case granted the defense request to move Billy Wagners trial out of Pike County. He also set a sentencing date for Jake & Angela Wagner - will they still testify against Billy at his upcoming trial?
Sheriff Mickey Stines was arraigned today after a grand jury handed down an indictment for murder of a public official last week. His defense attorney says the former sheriff's defense in the case is "compelling" 
 
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Pretty Lies and Alibis. Let's seek the truth
and travel the long road to justice together. What you
know alibiers, Welcome to another episode of Pretty Lies and Alibis.
I'm Gigi's good to have you here. Still Monday, November
twenty fifth. I didn't think i'd do a second episode today,

(00:25):
but we have breaking news popping off. It seems like
every hour for half the day, and I'm gonna bring
you the latest. It's a good reminder though, if you're
not subscribed on YouTube, go do that and click the
little bell icon for notifications, because today I posted three
breaking news updates and if you don't have that enabled,
you miss it until I can get around to do

(00:47):
an episode on it. So let's break down what all
happened today. We're gonna start with the Menindez brothers. The
resentencing hearing that was set for December eleventh has been
rescheduled for January thirtieth and possibly into the thirty first
of next year. Now that current District Attorney George Gascon

(01:07):
was voted out and Nathan Hockman set to take the reins,
he needs time to review the case. Also, Los Angeles
County Superior Court Judge Michael Jessic said he also needed
more time to review the recommendation because he's new to
the case after it was transferred to him. Just a reminder,
Eric and Lyle killed their parents with a shotgun back

(01:29):
in nineteen eighty nine at their home in Beverly Hills
and say the reason is they suffered sexual abuse at
the hands of their father, Jose, four years since early childhood.
The first trial ended in a hung jury. Second trial,
they were not allowed to bring in much of the
abuse claims, and both were found guilty and sentenced to life.
The brothers attended the hearing remotely today. There were technical difficulties,

(01:54):
so they ended up and had to listen over the phone.
They did not speak at the hearing. The judge is
considering a habeas corpus petition filed by the defense team,
which cites two new pieces of evidence that were not
presented at that first and second trial. The first new
piece of evidence is a letter that Eric sent to

(02:14):
a cousin back in nineteen eighty eight before the murders
talking about the abuse, and the second piece of new
evidence are claims by former Menudo member Roy Rosello that
Jose Menendez drugged and sexually assaulted him. The brother's attorney,
Mark Garrigos, also asked the judge to downgrade their charge

(02:35):
from first degree murder to voluntary manslaughter. If the judge
were to do that, the boys would be released immediately
because they have served three times the maximum for that sentence.
They've been in prison thirty years now, and Mark Geragos
called two of Lyle and Eric's ants, Joan, who is
the sister of Kitty. She's going to be ninety three

(02:58):
years old tomorrow, by the way. He also called Terry,
who was a sister of Jose's. They both told the
judge they want the brothers home. Jose's sister, Terry cried
as she told the judge she was close to Jose
and said, we miss those we lost, but we missed
the kids too. I asked for some leniency to have

(03:19):
them back. She said her daughter and Eric are the
same age and she would like to be able to
see and hug the brothers again. Joan, Kitty's sister, said
no child should have to endure what they went through.
I love them and wait for them to come home.
The judge invoked AB six hundred. He has jurisdiction to

(03:40):
do so under California law. What is AB six hundred.
That's a new law that allows California courts to recall
or take back a previous sentence and then re sentence
the person, potentially with a lighter or shorter sentence if
there is a change in the law that might impact
the previous sentence. ABY six hundred insures the new sentence

(04:03):
is not worse than the initial sentence. After the hearing,
Mark Garrigos came out the brothers to answer. Joan and
Terry also came out and very briefly spoke. Janes said
they want them home and what can a kid do
when their fathers and then she trailed off and just
said I can't stand it. Jose's sister, Terry said, thirty

(04:23):
five years is a long time. At this point, Mark
Geogo said he would answer questions if the press left
the elderly sisters alone, and some did not, so Mark
Garrigos walked away and did not come back. So that
was it for today. We'll see what happens in the
near future as far as any filings, I will update,

(04:45):
and then of course we'll follow that resentencing hearing. When
it comes at the end of January of next year.
Moving on to Billy Wagner. He's accused in the twenty
sixteen murders of seven members of the Road and Face family,
as well as Hannah Hazel Gilly in Pike County, Ohio,
commonly referred to the Pike County Massacre. I have an

(05:07):
entire playlist on this case, and I will do a
big update episode of what we know as a crash
course before Billy's trial starts. A judge ruled today that
Billy's trial will be moved out of Pike County, saying
that the jury pool has been tainted, prejudice is presumed,
and no jury could truthfully answer that they have no

(05:29):
prior knowledge of the horrendous facts of this case. He
also said in his ruling, additional media penetration exceeds traditional
over the air media distribution as a result of Internet dissemination,
social media distribution, and subsequent crime show publicity about the case.

(05:50):
In a November twentieth dated court document, the State of
Ohio wrote that they became aware of previously unknown information
following in October seventh. The state wrote specifically, the state
learned that the media outlets that broadcasts to the Pike
County residents are from Columbus, Ohio, not Cincinnati, Ohio. This

(06:13):
information is pertinent to this court's decision as to the motion.
In regard to media coverage, much of the defendant's arguments
stemmed from the number of media outlets still covering pre
trial hearings in the case. In fact, they alluded to
the number of media outlets in the court room on
October seventh, twenty twenty four, and also indicated there was

(06:35):
one hundred percent saturation of this case's coverage in the
Cincinnati area. The media in this courtroom were, in fact
all from the Cincinnati area. They argued Cincinnati's viewership coverage
only goes as far north as Adams County. But in
his ruling, the judge said, the Court finds that making

(06:55):
the venue decision well in advance of trial reduces delay
and reduces implicit bias. Such benefits served the state, the defendant,
the victims, and the judicial process. We do not know
where this trial will end up and be held. Billy
has pleaded not guilty to all twenty two charges, which

(07:17):
include eight counts of aggravated murder. Moving on to more
news that came down in this case. Today we know
that the family of four were all arrested and charged.
His son, George is currently imprisoned after being found guilty
on all charges and sentenced to multiple life sentences. His
son Jake took a plea deal with the state where,

(07:40):
in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the
table for the entire family, he confessed to the murders,
led authorities to very key pieces of evidence in the case,
and part of that plea deal was that he had
to testify to the state's satisfaction at the trials of
his brother George, which he did and then the upcoming

(08:00):
trial of his father, Billy. Billy's wife and mother of
the boys, Angela Wagner, also took a plea deal and
testified against her son George. She admitted to her role
in the murders. She confirmed Jake's testimony about the planning, execution,
and cover up of the murders. Now, both she and
Jake are supposed to testify against Billy at his trial,

(08:23):
which is set to begin January sixth. Before we get
to the news for today, let's kind of go back
in time to a hearing last week which got really
heated between the judge and Prosecutor Angela Caneppa. The judge
said he was suspending the death penalty for Billy Wagner
until the defense and the state could come to an
agreement over how that will be handled in a way

(08:46):
that will.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Move the case forward faster.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Prosecutor Caneppa said, this kind of deal is one of
a kind, and they've been working on a deal to
honor the Plea deal of removing death while at the
same time getting insurance that Jake will testify truthfully like
he agreed to so. Essentially when they made this plea deal,
the state gets to decide at the end of testimony

(09:10):
for both trials whether or not Jake held up to
his end of the bargain. If they feel he didn't,
they could reinstate the death penalty for everybody. The judge
told the attorneys. However, I'm done waiting.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
He said.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
The state was supposed to have an agreement by September
or October of this year, and he told Prosecutor Canepa,
we're getting there. We're getting there. It was like somebody
played a record today. I'm telling you we're not going
forward with trial on a death penalty specification when the
defense isn't ready because the state is not ready. I'm

(09:45):
not assigning fault. I'm saying the clock ran out. Caneppa
then asked the judge, we've got the testimony, sworn testimony
of his two co defendants that he participated and personally
killed three people. Why are you trying to sabotage this
case right now? The judge responded, he's not. Prosecutor Canepa said, yes,

(10:08):
you absolutely are. The judge says he is a duty
to get this case done, and Prosecutor Canepa said the
court is demonstrating complete bias in the case and objects
to every single thing the judge said during that hearing.
Prosecutor O'Brien said, I think the court properly can and
should set a deadline if the court wants to set

(10:30):
a deadline. But I've never seen death penalty specifications dismissed
absent the state making the request or the defense making
the request. The judge said he wanted to go ahead
and sentence Jake and Angela before the start of Billy's trial,
and today he did just that. He set sentencing for
both Jake and Angela for December fourteenth of this year.

(10:53):
Angela's is set to begin at nine am, Jake's following
at eleven am. Could this mean and Angelo will not
be testifying in Billy's trial. I think it's entirely possible
at this point. Also, instead of officially taking death off
the table for Billy and putting that in the court record,
he gave both sides until today to come up with

(11:15):
a plan or says he will proceed in taking death
off the table for Billy. And the last bit of
news we have today is about Sheriff Mickey Steins. He
shot and killed Judge Kevin Mullins while Judge Mullins was
inside his chambers on September nineteenth of this year. He
was arraigned today after a grand jury returned a murder

(11:39):
indictment just last week. I did live stream this hearing.
The audio was absolutely terrible, not on my end, it
was just the feed, and sometimes that happens. His lawyer
entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The sheriff
did not speak, and he was denied bond as that
will be a matter for the trial judge to take.

(12:00):
That indictment did not offer any more information on the
motive for the shooting. There's been tons of rumors about
what happened that led up to this murder. Now, his
preliminary hearing was last month, and they did show video
of that murder. Very very disturbing to watch because of
the close community ties of both the suspect and the victim.

(12:23):
The cases being handled by a special prosecutor and a
retired judge was appointed by the state. Stein's defense attorney
says his defense of the shooting is compelling and a
deposition given by Stein's in a separate federal lawsuit is
part of it. Stein's is named as a defendant in
a lawsuit which the plaintiffs said one of Stein's deputies

(12:46):
by the name of Ben Fields, offered her leniency in
exchange for sexual favors. That is alleged to have taken
place in Judge Mullin's chambers. The plaineff was on house
arrest and allegedly told Deputy Fields she could not afford
the monthly fee for the ankle monitor to stay on
house arrest. She says Deputy Fields told her to meet

(13:08):
him at the Lecher County Courthouse after dark. In June
of twenty twenty one, where she says he took off
her ankle monitor and says she would not have to
pay the fees but could stay on house arrest. She
says the two of them met at the courthouse at
least six times between June of twenty twenty one and
December of twenty twenty one. She says Deputy Fields committed

(13:31):
coercive and sexual acts that she did not consent to.
The visits were typically before scheduled hearings for the woman
the next day, where he would put the ankle monitor
back on her so that she would appear to be
in compliance with her.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
House arrest terms.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Steins is named as a defendant in that lawsuit for
failing to properly train and supervise Deputy Binfields, as well
as failing to reasonably respond to report or suspicions. Judge
Mullins is not named in the lawsuit, although his chambers
is allegedly where these events occurred. Stein's says he was

(14:09):
not aware of the allegations until the lawsuit, which was
filed by.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
The plaintiff in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Now Stein's did fire Deputy Fields on February second, twenty
twenty two, for conduct unbecoming. Mickey Stein's faces the death
penalty if he's convicted. So that's the latest today. I've
been keeping an eye out to see if there's a
ruling for Diddy as far as bond goes, so far
today nothing but again, if that happens, I will put

(14:38):
a YouTube short up when a decision comes down. All right,
that I think is it for today, but you never know.
Hope you guys have a good rest of your evening
and we will see soon.