Cross-Examination Turns Heated as State Spars With Accused Wife Killer

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Good afternoon. How are you? [00:00:27] Speaker 2: I am okay. [00:00:28] Speaker 1: How are you? So let's understand, this is the first time you've told this story or any story about what happened in the bedroom on February 24th, 2023, correct? Yes. Okay. And you did not tell the police on that day in the bedroom, you did not tell the police on that day in the hospital, you did not tell them when you were back at the station, correct? [00:00:52] Speaker 2: Judge, I'd object. May we approach? [00:00:55] Speaker 1: May we approach? - Sorry, thank you. Let's try that again. You didn't tell the police in the house, you didn't tell them in the driveway, you didn't tell them in the driveway, you didn't tell them in the driveway. You didn't tell them at the hospital, you didn't tell them back at the station, correct? [00:01:33] Speaker 2: - I said what I did on the 911 call. I was not questioned by the police at the house, in the driveway, in the ambulance about what had happened. [00:01:45] Speaker 1: - Okay, but you were questioned at the police station. You didn't tell them then, right? [00:01:49] Speaker 2: - Actually, I was not questioned at the police station. [00:01:51] Speaker 1: - Okay. It's been three years. You have not had an opportunity to tell the police in the last three years what happened? [00:01:59] Speaker 2: - Yes, they have requested to speak to me. The police did request, Detective Bryant, I believe, requested to speak to me at the hospital, not at the police station. - And yes, they did request to speak to me through my attorney subsequently. [00:02:18] Speaker 1: - Okay. And you were given the opportunity to tell a court what happened when you were brought in to testify at Juliana's preliminary hearing, correct? - Yes. - Okay. And at that point in time, you didn't tell anybody this story, right? [00:02:33] Speaker 2: - I was advised that defense of others is not relevant for preliminary hearings, and it was my intention that I was going to testify at Juliana's trial. [00:02:50] Speaker 1: - Okay. But at the preliminary hearing, you didn't even admit to Christine being your wife, correct? [00:02:56] Speaker 2: - That's what I was instructed to by my attorney. [00:02:59] Speaker 1: - Okay. So now that you've heard all of the evidence, every possible hearing that could happen in this case has happened, now you are ready to tell us what happened. Is that accurate? [00:03:09] Speaker 2: - I was ready to tell what happened at Juliana's testimony, at Juliana's trial when that was scheduled for November, and I've been waiting to do that for mine. I was expecting my trial to be earlier than this, too. [00:03:23] Speaker 1: - But at no point in time have you reached out to law enforcement to tell them, at no point have you had your counsel reach out to law enforcement to tell them this story of people protecting your wife. Excuse me, I'm not finished. - You have not asked anyone to talk about how you saved your wife or tried to save your wife, have you? [00:03:40] Speaker 2: - Actually, I did. I told counsel that I would participate in any of the civil investigations that was going to be involved with my agency, and that I would talk to them regarding this case as they required. [00:03:55] Speaker 1: - Okay. Did you do that? [00:03:57] Speaker 2: - They did not. They did not take it up, was my understanding, because I believe that the Fairfax police did not want them to. [00:04:03] Speaker 1: - Okay, understood. Your affair with Juliana began in August of 2022, correct? [00:04:11] Speaker 2: - Yes. [00:04:11] Speaker 1: - Okay, you took trips together, correct? [00:04:14] Speaker 2: - Yes. [00:04:15] Speaker 1: - You communicated with her on Discord, is that correct? [00:04:19] Speaker 2: - Yes. [00:04:20] Speaker 1: - Tell us a little bit about Discord. Is that a messaging app that is secret, if you will? - No. - No? Okay. It's on your phone? [00:04:28] Speaker 2: - Yes. [00:04:29] Speaker 1: - Okay. And the two of you elected to communicate that way. Why not with Facebook Messenger like you communicated with Christine, your wife? [00:04:38] Speaker 2: - I think Discord is my favorite Messenger app, and I use it a lot, both with my friends and the gaming groups that I was in. Christine did not use Discord. [00:04:55] Speaker 1: - Okay. She was only doing this when either you or Juliana were home, correct? [00:05:02] Speaker 2: - It appeared to me that it happened when I was not home, based on what was presented today often. [00:05:10] Speaker 1: - Right. But Juliana was home, correct? [00:05:13] Speaker 2: - I don't necessarily know where Juliana was at those points. [00:05:16] Speaker 1: - You just know that you weren't there, correct? [00:05:19] Speaker 2: - Well, we went through lots of the evidence that showed that there were many times that I wasn't there. There were points that showed that the messages were logged into from the CBRN email that Juliana states that she has no knowledge of, never logged into, doesn't know the password to. And so if Juliana is the home, whether she is or not, the only other person that is home is Christine that can use that can. [00:05:49] Speaker 1: - But most importantly, you are not home, correct? [00:05:53] Speaker 2: - It appears that there was many messages that were sent while I was home and many messages that were sent while I wasn't home. - That's not what I asked. [00:05:58] Speaker 1: - I am asking, you were not home. [00:06:01] Speaker 2: - There is both messages that from when I was home and when I was not home, it appears. [00:06:05] Speaker 1: - Okay. Okay. So, the person that she picked again was one who was willing to come to her home, not a hotel, without any sort of public meetup first, as seemed to be the ask for most of the other participants on FetLife. Accurate? [00:06:24] Speaker 2: - I didn't read the other messages between other people. [00:06:26] Speaker 1: - Okay. And this person needed to be willing to bring a knife, correct? [00:06:31] Speaker 2: - I don't know. - Okay. - I didn't see an ask for the knife. [00:06:35] Speaker 1: - No problem. You were present for your daughter's birth. You remember that? - Yes. - Okay. And at that time, were you aware that Christine received medication to address her blood clotting disorder? [00:06:50] Speaker 2: - My experience is that she did not, that they were, that they tested her in her prenatal experience, and that she did not require a medication for it, but they were going to monitor her for it during the delivery. [00:07:04] Speaker 1: - Okay. Because you were aware she had a blood clotting disorder, correct? [00:07:07] Speaker 2: - I am aware that she has a blood clotting disorder. [00:07:09] Speaker 1: - Okay. When you set this whole thing up... [00:07:16] Speaker 2: - I didn't set this whole thing up. [00:07:18] Speaker 1: - I'm sorry. When Christine set this whole thing up, it was scheduled to occur minutes after her family was leaving the house at 7:00 AM-ish, correct? - I don't know what time her family was leaving the house. - Oh, you hadn't shared with her your plan to go to your meeting early the next morning? [00:07:38] Speaker 2: - I don't have a... I didn't have a meeting the next... I'm sorry. Could you ask the question again? [00:07:42] Speaker 1: - Sure. The night before on the 23rd, right? - Oh, the 23rd. Sorry. - When she is setting this up, she's scheduling it to occur at 7:20-ish AM, which was going to be minutes after everyone had left the house to go to the zoo, to go to the big meeting, right? [00:08:01] Speaker 2: - That is what the messages seem to say. [00:08:04] Speaker 1: - Okay. And are you telling us that your wife was not aware that you had this big meeting scheduled for the 24th? [00:08:10] Speaker 2: - She was aware that I had the meeting scheduled. [00:08:13] Speaker 1: - Okay. And was she aware that the nanny was taking your daughter to the zoo? [00:08:20] Speaker 2: - It appears to me that she arranged to take Valerie to the zoo. She got the tickets, the parking tickets to take her to the zoo. She had planned it, I don't know, a week, 10 days prior. [00:08:35] Speaker 1: - Right. And the zoo opens at eight o'clock and everyone's leaving at seven, but she scheduled Joe Ryan to come over at 7:20. Is that correct? [00:08:43] Speaker 2: - I don't know what time she scheduled exactly. [00:08:45] Speaker 1: - Okay. And you indicated that you were not aware that she had taken February 24th off until just the day before, right? - That is correct. - Okay. But that's not accurate because her parents were scheduled to come while you were going to be out of town the night of the 24th. Isn't that correct? [00:09:07] Speaker 2: - I believe they were coming in the evening and then she would already be back from work. [00:09:11] Speaker 1: - I see. So your expectation was that she was working that day, but their expectation and everyone else's expectation is that she would be home. [00:09:20] Speaker 2: - I don't believe it was ever stated that she was going to be home, that they were aware that she was going to be home. - My experience was that she was scheduled to work until that day. [00:09:32] Speaker 1: - But her parents were coming for dinner. [00:09:34] Speaker 2: - I don't know if they were coming for dinner. I think they were traveling through. I don't know why they were coming exactly. [00:09:40] Speaker 1: - Okay. [00:09:41] Speaker 2: - Because I think they were going to Florida or continuing on. [00:09:45] Speaker 1: - Okay. And it would be your contention that on the morning of this planned tryst, she took her phone and turned it off herself and put it in the kitchen drawer? [00:09:58] Speaker 2: - I don't know. I did not see her turn off the phone. [00:10:01] Speaker 1: - Okay. You didn't see her with her phone at all. [00:10:04] Speaker 2: - I saw her with her phone in the morning when I was getting ready. [00:10:08] Speaker 1: - You did? - Yes. - Okay. And she was on her phone in the morning when you were getting ready? [00:10:12] Speaker 2: - Yes. She had her phone in the morning. [00:10:14] Speaker 1: - And you said that was 6:30? [00:10:16] Speaker 2: - Roughly. - Okay. - I mean, I was in and out getting ready in that morning. So it's hard to say an exact time. [00:10:23] Speaker 1: - So then would it surprise you if the digital forensics, Mr. Lidsky's work would show that she was not on her phone at 6:30? Or really any time before or after that? [00:10:34] Speaker 2: - I saw her with her phone. It was on the bed. She had the laptop also on the bed. [00:10:40] Speaker 1: - Got it. Okay. So she was just with the phone, not using the phone. - Yes. - I see. Let's talk about what happened in the room that morning. You leave the house, you go to McDonald's and you're in the bathroom there for seven minutes. Is that correct? [00:11:03] Speaker 2: - I believe that's what the time showed. [00:11:05] Speaker 1: - Okay. And you don't leave the bathroom until Juliana calls you at 7:37. Is that correct? [00:11:12] Speaker 2: - I believe that's the time. I don't have the time in front of me. [00:11:17] Speaker 1: - Okay. But as you're leaving the bathroom, you don't call 911. - I did not. - Okay. And you don't tell Juliana to call 911. - No, I did not. - You don't run out of McDonald's. We've seen you on the video. You walk to your car. [00:11:34] Speaker 2: - I thought it looked like I was walking faster than normal. [00:11:37] Speaker 1: - Okay. But you're not concerned. You said at this point in time, you didn't have any reason to worry. You thought maybe she was just having an affair. Another one, correct? [00:11:46] Speaker 2: - That was my original thought. [00:11:48] Speaker 1: - Okay. So out of curiosity, if she's having another affair, why are you going back to the house at all? Why didn't you tell Juliana just to go to the zoo with Valerie? Don't worry about it. It's just another affair. [00:11:59] Speaker 2: - Well, I mean, I'm not going to be telling Juliana about Christine's affairs. That's not something I would discuss with her. [00:12:07] Speaker 1: - Why not? You're having an affair with Juliana. [00:12:12] Speaker 2: - We discussed basically nothing about Christine together. She didn't want to know anything about Christine. [00:12:19] Speaker 1: - Okay. So you're leaving the McDonald's. You're heading back home to catch your wife in the affair then? [00:12:26] Speaker 2: - I was very unsure of what was going on at that point. It went through my mind that it was possibly going to be an affair, but I did not know what it was.