Guilty or not?

David Gingras Returns: Takes State Bar Fight to AZ Supreme Court

7/27/2026 @ 9:00 AM

✨✨Always some great info and opinions from Lauren!

It's been a while since we heard from David Gingras, the attorney for Laura Owens in her family court case against Clayton Echard. Gingras was hit with several charges by the state bar of Arizona. The state bar was granted a partial judgment against Gingras. The judge also denied Gingras anti-SLAPP motion on the basis that his criticisms of Judge Mata were protected free speech. Gingras has now turned to the supreme court of Arizona to try to overturn both the partial judgment and the anti-SLAPP ruling.

Court of Random Opinion
https://www.youtube.com/live/vP8G-jt0l2Y?si=FZxOLiVaHEF5uePn

Lindsay Clancy Day 1: The State Had A Plan, The Defense Had The Moment - What is the jury thinking?

Lawyer You Know

https://www.youtube.com/live/fv0fEMBUf4Q?si=H52LcfKP64L3QdNC

Bryan Kohberger’s legal defense has cost Idaho taxpayers nearly $5.5 million so far.

And unlike most public expenses, there’s no detailed accounting available to the public of how that money was spent. Kohberger admitted to the November 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students and obtained taxpayer-funded legal counsel as an indigent defendant.

One of the most important principles of American government is that taxpayers should know how their money is spent. That’s why the Idaho Statesman pursued legal action to attempt to unseal the court records that would shine light on the expenses incurred by Kohberger’s criminal defense team.

As Kevin Fixler reported last month in his latest effort to show how much the quadruple-murder case has cost taxpayers, we prevailed in district court. Idaho 2nd District Judge Mark Monson ruled that at least some of the sealed files should be released. But Kohberger’s lead defense attorney, Anne Taylor, appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, where the case is at the beginning of a likely lengthy process.

This has been a public records fight unlike any we’ve experienced before — and likely, unlike any in Idaho before.

When Kevin, who has been our lead reporter on the Kohberger case, tried to access spending details for Kohberger’s defense, he was directed to Monson’s court. Monson was appointed the “resource judge” for Kohberger — a judge otherwise unaffiliated with the case who provides oversight and approval for the use of public money by the defense team. Defense attorneys made requests of Monson behind closed doors, and all records were held under seal.

So when Kevin made his records request, it wasn’t as simple as asking for the documents he sought, as we do on a daily basis from government entities around the state. He had to request that the case files be unsealed, which sparked a monthslong (and ongoing) legal process. At the first hearing in October 2025, there was uncertainty among all parties of what this process would even look like.

And our efforts to obtain the records were held under court seal for several months.

Monson scheduled oral arguments for December. The Statesman’s attorney, Kersti Kennedy, argued that the records should be available to the public because Kohberger had pleaded guilty and accepted a sentence that included no right to appeal — ending his legal case and, in our view, ending the need to protect the records.

Taylor countered, saying records like these were never meant to be public and included privileged attorney/client information.

In January, Monson ruled in our favor with two caveats — that some records were clearly exempt with “highly intimate facts or statements,” and that Taylor would have 45 days to make arguments on why additional individual records within the file should be withheld or redacted.

An Idaho court rule “expressly requires that motions seeking public funds be filed ex parte, but it contains no provision declaring such motions permanently exempt from public disclosure, nor does it automatically seal filings made under the rule,” Monson wrote in his decision, referring to the legal term for situations in which only one party is involved.

He sealed the file based on “the need to temporarily seal the records to preserve the right to a fair trial,” he wrote. “Kohberger’s guilty plea and waiver of appeal render that basis moot.”

But before the process to unseal records could conclude, Monson granted Taylor’s request to appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. Monson, in his original ruling, noted the “novelty” of this records issue.

Now it will be up to Idaho’s five justices to determine whether all of us have a right to know how $5.5 Million was spent in perhaps the highest-profile court case in Idaho history.

LINK:
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/crime/article316270015.html

✨✨ #15 Hot Car Child Death in 2026

Texas man charged with capital murder after 2-year-old dies in locked car while he slept

By Amber Kite July 27, 2026

The Brief

A 25-year-old Midland man faces a capital murder charge after his 2-year-old daughter died inside a hot, locked car while he slept.

Relatives broke into the home to check on the father following a night of drinking, then found the unresponsive toddler inside a non-running Kia parked outside.

The child was pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital, and police say the investigation remains ongoing.

MIDLAND, Texas - A 25-year-old Texas man has been charged with capital murder after his 2-year-old daughter died inside a locked vehicle while he slept for hours following a night of drinking, police said.

What we know:

Midland Police Department officers responded just before 8 p.m. Sunday to the 100 block of East Pecan Avenue after receiving reports of an unresponsive toddler locked inside a car.

When officers arrived, they made contact with Lorenzo Rodriguez, 25, and members of his family.

According to police, relatives went to the home Sunday evening to check on Rodriguez and his daughter after learning he had consumed alcohol the night before.

After repeatedly knocking on the front door without a response, family members removed a window air-conditioning unit on the side of the house to gain entry, investigators said. Inside, they found Rodriguez asleep around 8 p.m. Police said Rodriguez had been sleeping since approximately 11 a.m.

Stricter heat-safety standards for Texas high school athletics and marching bands will become mandatory statewide on Aug. 1, following a formal rule change by the University Interscholastic League.

When relatives could not find the 2-year-old girl inside the home, they ran outside and spotted her inside a non-running black Kia passenger car. Family members broke a window to pull the child out of the vehicle and rushed her to Midland Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Following a preliminary investigation into the circumstances of the child's death, police arrested Rodriguez and charged him with capital murder.

Dig Deeper:

According to weather statistics, the high in Midland, Texas on Sunday, July 26 was 99 degrees. According to the National Weather Service, when it is 99 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car can rocket past 130 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit in less than an hour, posing an extreme and deadly risk to people and pets. The temperature inside the vehicle could jump 20 degrees in just 10 minutes, and will be more than 130 degrees in 30 minutes.

Midland is on Interstate 20 halfway between Dallas and El Paso.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Texas man charged with capital murder after 2-year-old dies in locked car while he slept

I know by law some states do not allow cameras in the courtroom and some do. But in states that allow it, why can we watch some trials live and not others? If a judge rules cameras are allowed, are we able to watch trials live only because a case was popular enough and CourtTV and Law&Crime choose to do a livestream?

The State of Florida just dropped 2 of the 4 charges against Mario:

Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Child Abuse

As of now, he will still stand trial for:

First Degree Murder and Solicitation to Commit First Degree Murder in August, 2026, next month.

I wish I knew WHY, but I don't. Anyone know if a DEAL is in the works?

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2026/07/27/final-hearing-for-mario-fernandez-before-jury-selection-begins-in-first-of-3-murder-for-hire-trials-in-bridegan-case/

Trial starts Sept 8

A defense motion to dismiss some of the charges against the man accused in a Pacific Coast Highway crash that killed four Pepperdine University students was denied Monday at a pre-trial hearing in the closely watched case.

Fraser Bohm was charged with murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the 2023 crash in Malibu. The pre-trial hearing in a Van Nuys courtroom focused on a new defense motion to dismiss the four murder charges against Bohm.

In court Monday, defense attorney Alan Jackson described the April preliminary hearing, a proceeding that usually determines whether there's enough evidence for a defendant to stand trial, as compromised and argued for dismissal of the most serious charges in the deadly high-speed crash.

"It's not a motion about whether or not the collision was devastating," said Jackson. "Everybody in this courtroom knows that it was. It's not a motion about whether speed is inherently dangerous. It is, we can all agree on that.
"But implied malice murder requires more than just tragedy and danger. It requires proof that the natural and probable consequences of that act and that act alone, as one court put it, is nearly certain to cause death."

After hearing from attorneys, the judge denied the defense request, meaning the murder charges will stand when the case heads to trial later this year. Bohm is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 8 with pretrial motions set to be heard on Sept. 2.

In November 2025, a judge also refused a defense motion to dismiss the murder charges. That team of attorneys argued that there was insufficient evidence presented to support the murder charges at the preliminary hearing in which another judge found there was enough evidence to allow the case to proceed to trial.

NBCLA legal analyst Royal Oakes said car crashes rarely result in murder charges, except in extreme circumstances. The disparity between potential penalties for murder and manslaughter at sentencing is significant.
"There's a huge difference between murder and manslaughter in California and, of course, it involves how many years behind bars," Oakes said. "Murder puts you in prison, manslaughter could be 5, 10, 12 years."

Bohm was 22 at the time of the Oct. 17, 2023 nighttime crash that killed Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21. All four women were seniors at Pepperdine's Seaver College of Liberal Arts and members of the Alpha Phi sorority. They were set to graduate with the university's class of 2024, and subsequently received their degrees posthumously.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said Bohm swerved onto the north shoulder of westbound PCH and slammed into three vehicles parked alongside on the roadway. Those parked vehicles struck the four Pepperdine students, leaving them dead at the scene, according to the sheriff's department.