KILLER GIRLFRIEND: Opening Statements - WI v. Ezra McCandless — TRIALS ON DEMAND

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: This case is about an extreme anger and a twisted form of love, a love so dangerous that the defendant killed Alexander Woodworth in an attempt to recapture the relationship she wanted with Jason Mingle. This is not a case of whodunit. The person whodunit, the person who brutally killed Alex by stabbing him over and over again, is sitting before you today, the defendant Ezra McCandless. The defendant that acted on March 22nd, 2018 is not the meek, mild, fearful girl that you might want to see. Throughout this trial, you will see who the real defendant was. So who was Alex and how did Alex and the defendant meet? Alex wasn't your typical 24-year-old. He had a Bachelor of Science degree from UW Eau Claire with a major in philosophy and a minor in biology. At the time of his death, he was applying to graduate schools to fulfill his lifelong dream of obtaining a PhD and becoming a PhD and becoming a professor in philosophy. In many ways, reading philosophy and writing about philosophy was a big part of Alex's life. Alex spent hours upon hours reading books, reading different philosophy books and writing about those interpretations in his journals. In fact, those journals will be used in this trial in an attempt to show that the defendant was afraid of Alex. However, when you don't take bits and pieces out of context, when you read the whole journals, you will realize that these are philosophical musings of a young man who wanted to be a philosophy professor. And in fact, the evidence will show that it was the defendant who sought out Alex on the date of his death. Not once, but twice that day. Alex spent most of his days at Racy's coffee shop in Eau Claire. Some would say it's the place he felt most at home. Or he felt safe. He was going to Racy's through college. He would sit there all day, reading books, drinking coffee, writing in his journals. Most of his friends were from the Racy's crowd, and he also worked at Racy's coffee shop. Unfortunately for Alex, that's also the same place where he met the person who would later take his life. The defendant and Alex met in October of 2017, and shortly thereafter began dating. Also, unfortunately for Alex, the defendant was involved in a complex series of other relationships. At the time, she was involved in a relationship with Jason Mengel, and later she was also involved in an intimate relationship with John Hanson. You will hear information regarding these relationships throughout this trial, in the months leading up to Alex's death. And the reason why you are hearing these is to gain insight into the defendant's state of mind, and what drove her to her actions on March 22nd. In February of 2018, Jason Mengel learned of the defendant's relationship with John Hanson. He learned that while he was away from military training, the defendant had an intimate relationship with his good friend, John Hanson. He also learned that the defendant had an intimate relationship with Alex. And Jason Mengel confronted the defendant about that. And she responded by saying that Alex had taken advantage of her. And after these relationships came to light, the defendant's relationship with Jason Mengel ended. And the defendant's life began to spiral out of control. She had to move back to Stanley, Wisconsin, a place she did not want to be. She had to live with her parents, where she was away from the art scene in Eau Claire, away from her friends at Racy's Coffee Shop. And most importantly, she was away from the love of her life, the love of the man that she was truly obsessed with, Jason Mengel. In her journals, she describes her relationship with Jason Mengel as an ancient love so powerful that it scares them both. The defendant then began to blame Alex for her relationship problems with Jason Mengel. And around February 24th of 2018, the defendant sent a message to Alex instructing him to not talk to her ever again. And Alex obeyed that demand. From February 24th to the date of his death on March 22nd, there was no communication between the two of them. Instead, it was the defendant who sought out Alex. In an interview to law enforcement, the defendant was asked, "What was so important that you had to see Alex that day?" And she explained that she had a heating pad and a bookmark that she had to return to Alex. And despite returning those items to Alex, she insisted on going someplace in Nature to talk. You will hear that the defendant's acts on March 22nd, 2018 were particularly unusual. And I have a timeline of events to show you, and I realize it will be hard for you to read these. But it's more of an aid to help me. But you will be able to at least see the pictures. So on that day, the defendant ends up taking her car, despite being specifically told by her dad not to drive. And despite her dad hiding her car keys, she takes her keys, finds her keys and somehow drives to Eau Claire. And she is seen on the traffic cameras in the city of Eau Claire in an area near Alex's apartment at 10:43 AM. And law enforcement were able to identify the defendant's car as it's rather distinctive as it has a number of drawings on it. At approximately 10:53 AM, she arrives at Bracey's Coffee Shop. And when she arrives at Bracey's Coffee Shop, she sees Jason Mengel before she goes inside. And Jason Mengel will later tell you that he sees a fire in her eyes. The defendant then goes inside Bracey's Coffee Shop, buys a cup of coffee, and leaves a tip. While for most defendants that wouldn't be unusual, for this defendant, she very rarely paid for her coffee. She either got free coffee or got someone else to buy it for her. And she certainly never left a tip. The person serving her coffee that day describes her appearance as different in that she was disheveled. She wasn't wearing makeup. The defendant then leaves and goes to Max Martinson's house to do some sort of art exchange. And she comes back to Bracey's. And during this time, her ex, sort of boyfriend, they were on shaky ground, gets particularly concerned. He recalls seeing this fire in her eyes and he has a bad feeling. He also realized that the defendant had been doing some journaling about feeling taken advantage of and feeling like she had been assaulted. Jason also remembered that the defendant said that she felt like her voice had been taken and she wanted to get her voice back. So Jason Mingle, he gets concerned and he decides to go on his bike and he starts to head to John Hanson's house. And as he goes to John Hanson's house, he remembers, oh no, John Hanson moved. So he goes to Alex's house. So he rides his bike to Alex's house. And when he arrives, he sees the defendant's car in the driveway at Alex's house. The car is running, the door is open, and music is playing. Jason Mingle gets concerned again. So he decides to go sort of across the street from where Alex's house is. He's sitting at a picnic table, smoking some cigarettes. And then he decides, I'm going to go in Alex's house. So he goes in Alex's house and learns that everything's okay. And as he's exiting Alex's house, he is confronted by the Eau Claire police. So a janitor who had watched Jason Mingle while he was smoking some cigarettes thought this was unusual. So the police come and Jason Mingle describes to them, you know, this bad feeling, the fire in her eyes. And then the police go and talk to the defendant and Alex. And the defendant specifically tells the police, everything's fine. She doesn't mention that she's afraid of Alex or fearful of Alex. And so the police leave and the defendant leaves Alex's house at approximately 1:05 p.m. The defendant's in the driver's seat and Alex is in the passenger seat. And Alex would never be seen again. At approximately 1:25 p.m., Chester Davidson, a man who was driving to work on 430th Avenue, described seeing a vehicle at approximately 1:25 p.m. blocking his lane of traffic such that he's traveling on 430th Avenue and he needs to kind of weave around this vehicle. And he described seeing a female in the passenger seat, a male, excuse me, a female in the driver's seat and a male in the passenger seat. It's not until three hours later, or almost three hours later, at 4:15 p.m., that the defendant is seen again. So let's take a look at what this nature location was where the defendant took Alex that day. So this was a narrow field drive in a very rural part of Dunn County. A place where no one could see or hear what was going on. So approximately 4:15 p.m., well, what happens between those three hours? From 1:25 p.m. to 4:15 p.m., the defendant brutally stabs Alex, takes the knife she used, takes Alex's phone, and goes to Don Sippel's house about a half a mile away. She ditches the phone and knife, though, before she goes and sees Don Sippel. And she makes contact with Don Sippel and asks him to call a doctor. Well, Don Sippel decides to call the police. And when the police arrive, the defendant can provide very little information. She's eventually able to provide her name as Monica Carlin. She's able to describe that she's been attacked by an unknown person or persons. She can't provide much other information than that. But when asked if there's anyone they can call, she's able to say the name Jason Mendel. So the defendant's taken by ambulance to Mayo for an evaluation. And during that evaluation, she's examined from head to toe for any injuries. And the injuries that Dr. Tillotson, or wounds if you want to call them that, I guess, that Dr. Tillotson observes, are some scratch marks on her left forearm that have the words B-O-Y carved into her arm. On her left palm, three slight superficial lacerations or scratches on the palm of her hand. On the right outer thigh, three linear scratches, or not three, but some linear scratches on the right outer thigh. A red mark along her jawline that's not there two days later. And some scratches near her underwear or crotch area. Dr. Tillotson describes these as self-inflicted scratches or wounds on the defendant. The defendant also undergoes a sexual assault exam. Pretty long, takes a number of hours for this examination. And during that sexual assault exam, she's again unable to provide very little information. But when asked, "How did this B-O-Y get carved into your arm?" The defendant states, "Alex did that to me." When asked, "What's the last thing she remembers?" She states, "Being at a park with Alex with a frog statue." Remember that the defendant states she's right-handed and that the alleged wounds are within arm's reach of a right-handed person. The defendant is then talked to by Deputy Emery Shields and Officer Corey Reeves of the Eau Claire Police Department. And she again tells them that Alex carved "Boy" into her arm. And the last thing she remembers is being at a park with a frog statue. And Officer Reeves from Eau Claire realizes or believes that this is Owen Park. The next day on March 23rd, 2018, the Eau Claire Police Department gets concerned. Alex is missing. And so Detective Kroc goes and talks to the defendant. And during that interview with the defendant, she is less than forthcoming. She's able to describe what happened earlier in the day. And then she's able to describe leaving Alex's house. But after that, she says everything just kind of goes blank for her. She remembers being scared and walking to Don Sipple's house. She makes, she has no idea, she makes no mention of stabbing Alex. No mention of Alex being by her car. And so Detective Kroc, after that interview, decides to go back to Don Sipple's house. He and some other investigators decide to be proactive and try to find Alex. And they see that narrow dirt road. And as they go down that dirt road... Oops, sorry, wrong one. Who gets on the screen? They see Alex's body hanging out at the back of the vehicle. And so Detective Kroc decides he's going to go talk to the defendant again. So they begin their interview and Detective Kroc asks about the defendant's relationship with Alex. And the defendant describes that they were friends and then their relationship turned sexual. And even though it was consensual, they had a consensual sexual relationship, it just felt wrong to her. She's then able to provide some information how Alex was calling her the wrong pronouns. Where she used to have more, or I guess be called by more masculine pronouns. But now she was identifying with more female pronouns. But Alex was continuing to use the masculine pronouns. And then Detective Kroc asked her again about the boy, B-O-Y carved into her arm. So let's take a listen and see what she has to say about that. [00:17:56] Speaker ?: Okay. And Alex was talking about using pronouns that weren't my pronouns. Okay. I used to go by more mutual pronouns in high school and more masculine pronouns. And I talked a little bit about it, how I was kind of going through identity things. Okay. But now I go by her pronouns because that's how they're comfortable. Okay. But he kept using my key pronouns because he preferred them. Okay. And he used to call me your boy a lot and stuff like that. And I was just kind of like, I don't want to identify that way anymore. Okay. Because like I identify kind of fundamental stuff. Because in the past I just kind of was more masculine for kind of self-production. Okay. And so what, so this injury, so what happened? How did this get, or I guess I, the way you describe it is like I'm over your arms. Yeah. [00:18:57] Speaker 2: Something happened. What happened there? I remember like, that's when my anxiety got really bad is because I remember just kind of being really uncomfortable because I don't like it when people grab me. Okay. I remember just kind of like being grabbed and then it just kind of like the anxiety went [00:19:16] Speaker ?: crazy. Like completely through the roof, the anxiety went up. [00:19:21] Speaker 3: Okay. And then sometimes when that happens, it's just like everything goes black for a while. All right. [00:19:27] Speaker 4: So where were you when you were grabbed? I was in the car. Okay. And how did he grab you? He grabbed me by the arm, like right there. Okay. Where was he? [00:19:38] Speaker 3: He was in the, he was in the driver's, I was in the passenger. I don't know if, I think we probably were parked. Okay. It went, I think it was before we started driving again. [00:19:51] Speaker 4: Okay. [00:19:52] Speaker 3: And it was just, because I remember it happening, like being grabbed and just feeling hurt and anxious and then it just starts getting really, really dark, fuzzy for me. Just feeling so anxious. [00:20:05] Speaker 4: Okay. And so how does your arm get cut up? [00:20:09] Speaker 3: Um, Alex, like he grabbed it and then he kept telling me about being a boy and stuff like that. How frustrating it is. And then he like threatened me. Me. [00:20:24] Speaker 4: What do you mean he threatened you? What do you mean he threatened you? [00:20:26] Speaker 3: He just, he didn't say he was gonna do something, but he grabbed me and started doing something. What do you mean he started doing something? He started like carving something into my arm. [00:20:38] Speaker 4: And so, what is this? I don't know. Can I see him? [00:20:41] Speaker 1: After that conversation, Detective Prock asked Alex, or excuse me, asked the defendant, you know, I know you had a sexual assault exam. Do you believe that you were sexually assaulted? And the defendant responds, well, she doesn't know. She just. [00:21:04] Speaker 4: And so she asked, or he asked her about, you know, do you think you were sexually assaulted? [00:21:16] Speaker 1: And the defendant says, well, I don't know. I just thought that maybe I was sexually assaulted because my pants were, were cut near my crotch and then Detective Prock confronts the defendant. He tells the defendant, we found your car. And I think you know what happened. And the defendant responds in the same interview, yeah. The defendant is unable to say and provide a detailed explanation of the stabs that she made on Alex's body, the different locations, as well as a detailed description of the sequence of events that happened that day. And then Detective Prock asked her, are you sure you carved, or Alex carved boy in your arm? So let's listen to what she says during this time. [00:22:15] Speaker 4: Well, one of the questions I have is, after this incident, did you do anything to yourself? Did you harm yourself in any way? [00:22:29] Speaker 3: No, I didn't want to. [00:22:31] Speaker 4: You said, well, what happened? [00:22:33] Speaker 3: I didn't harm myself. [00:22:34] Speaker 4: You didn't? [00:22:35] Speaker 3: No, when I fell, I hurt my hand and I bit my tongue. [00:22:39] Speaker 4: Okay. And then, the boy carved in your arm. Okay. The part that throws me off on that is, if I'm sitting here, and he's going to be carving it in, it's written perfect with a right-hand person like this. [00:22:59] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. [00:23:00] Speaker 4: Okay. If he would ride it in, it would have been reversed. Right? Mm-hmm. How did boy get put in your arm? I tried it. He didn't do that to you, did he? No. You carved boy into your own arm. Is that right? No. Okay. When did that happen? That happened when I was in the car. In the car with him? When I was in the car after I woke up the second time. So, after you stabbed him and you came back into it as you put it because you blacked out, that's when you carved this in? [00:23:47] Speaker ?: Yep. [00:23:48] Speaker 1: So, within the same interview, the defendant then explains what really happened with the boy on her arm. Detective Prock then asked her, "Do you think that Alex was trying to sexually assault you that day or have sex with you?" And the defendant says, "No. I just think he wanted to look at me." Ladies and gentlemen, this was not a knife fight, as the defendant would like you to believe. The defendant used this knife. A knife she had taken from her dad's house within days before Alex's death. A sharp EMT knife. And she took this knife and she brutally and forcefully used the knife to stab Alex in the back of the head. Through the scalp, through the right temporal bone, into the brain, piercing the brain. She used this knife to slit him across the throat three times on the right side. She stabbed him three times on the left side. And if that wasn't enough, she brutally stabbed him three times on the left side of the chest with one of the blows piercing Alex's lung. She stabbed him in the back right of the shoulder. And she stabbed him in the back, also piercing the lung. And of course, she stabbed him in the genitals, piercing the scrotal sac. Ladies and gentlemen, this was not anger. This was rage, and this was personal. Even after Alex has been stabbed 16 times, does she use Alex's phone to call for help? No. She has the time and apparent presence of mind to carve B-O-Y into her arm. And why does she carve B-O-Y into her arm? In her very own words, so she wouldn't forget. Because she felt bad, and so she wouldn't forget. But moments later, when she walks to Don Simple's house, she forgets. She forgets everything that happened. The physical evidence, and the DNA evidence in this case, are important as they contradict the defendant's statements. The defendant describes with detail during her interview with Detective Kroc that as she was stuck in the mud in that nature location, as she called it, she was looking for something to get some traction under the car. And she realizes that Alex is behind her with the knife. And so then she kind of rolls over onto the back seat of the car, and Alex is cutting her clothes. And she claims that she's able to grab the knife, and forcefully take that knife by grabbing the blade, despite having scratches on her left hand. Despite the fact that she's right-handed too. And she claims that the majority of the fight happened inside the car. But when you look at the DNA evidence from inside the car, these points are all Alex's DNA. The only DNA that was found in the vehicle that belonged to the defendant was on the rear side of the door, over there. [00:27:55] Speaker 2: Over there. [00:28:03] Speaker 1: You will learn that the results of the defendant's sexual assault exam excluded Alex's DNA on the genital and cervical swabs of the defendant's body. The only place Alex's DNA is found on the defendant's body is near those scratches by her underwear line. And so when you examine the DNA evidence, think to yourself, how could Alex's DNA get there? If she used the same knife to carve B-O-Y into her arm, could she also have used that knife to carve herself there? Ask yourself, is it possible for Alex's DNA, his blood on that knife, to transfer onto her body? You'll also hear that Alex's DNA was under the defendant's fingernails. Of course it was. She brutally stabbed him 16 times. That blood is going to drip down the blade of that knife under her hands and fingernails. You will hear a lot of testimony over the next three weeks. This isn't like what you see on TV. We're not going to be done in an hour. We're going to be here for a number of weeks. And during that time, I want you to pay close attention to the demeanor of witnesses on that witness stand. I want you to examine carefully that testimony with the physical evidence, with the photographs, with the Instagram records, text messages. And then I want you to take the law as the judge describes and apply the facts to that law. And when you do, and when the state has met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant killed Alexander Woodwork, I will ask that you return a verdict of first degree intentional, a verdict of guilty of first degree intentional homicide. Thank you. [00:30:12] Speaker 5: It's ten after four. Ezra is hysterical. She's running. She's falling. She's running. She sees a house. A farm. A door. She follows the driveway. She gets to the back. She walks up the steps. Comes to the door. And rings the bell. And over. And over. And over. And over. Again. A farmer. [00:30:51] Speaker ?: From our community. Sees her. She's disheveled. She has blood on her face. [00:30:55] Speaker 5: A bloody lip. A cut on her lip. A red mark. [00:30:58] Speaker ?: On her neck. [00:30:58] Speaker 5: She's wearing a flannel shirt. Sweater underneath. [00:31:00] Speaker ?: Cut open. [00:31:00] Speaker 5: Shirt. [00:31:01] Speaker ?: Cut up. [00:31:02] Speaker 5: Pants. Cut. Cut. [00:31:05] Speaker ?: Cut. [00:31:05] Speaker 5: Cut. Cut. Cut. Up. There's blood on her legs. There's a little blood on her front. Her pants are covered in mud. [00:31:12] Speaker ?: And she has no shoes. [00:31:12] Speaker 5: She has no shoes. A farmer opens the door. And she has no shoes on her neck. She's wearing a flannel shirt. Sweater underneath. Cut open. Shirt. Cut up. Pants. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut up. There's blood on her legs. There's a little blood on her front. Her pants are covered in mud. She has no shoes. Her farmer opens the door. She says, take me to the hospital. He brings her in. Finds her a seat. She says, I was attacked. She's in shock. She's confused. She's disoriented. He sees she's in distress. She's upset. He asks, who attacked you? She doesn't know who attacked her. She doesn't know what happened. She doesn't know where it happened. She doesn't know much. She doesn't even know her name. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Our farmer calls for help. Let me take you back in time a little bit. couple of hours before. Ten minutes to one. Ezra is at her ex-boyfriend's house. She's going there for a conversation. A conversation to confront him about their past relationship and how he treated her. a conversation for closure about how they had broken up. A conversation to perhaps continue their initial friendship, but without the sex. No rough sex. No rough sex. And they're talking in his house. And they're interrupted by a man named Jason Mengel. A 35-year-old man who was outside looking in, checking up on this young woman that used to live with him. And the police arrive. Ezra and Alex come out and they talk to the police. Ezra, in her easy-going, cooperative manner, speaks with them. Eau Claire Police Department Officer Christopher O'Neil talks with both Ezra and her ex-boyfriend. And he says, "Everything's okay. Everything's good." "Twelve-fifty. Everything's good." "Four ten. She's suffering from what our experts say is post-traumatic stress disorder." "How does she get from here to here?" [00:34:53] Speaker ?: "What happened?" [00:34:55] Speaker 5: "That's what this case is about." [00:34:59] Speaker ?: "What happened?" "That's what this case is about." "What happened?" [00:35:07] Speaker 5: "Ezra and her ex-boyfriend are out in the middle of nowhere." "Her car is stuck in the mud." "While it's the middle of nowhere, it's a place familiar to men." "She's on her back, in the back seat of a car." "Her ex-boyfriend holding her down with his weight." "You came back." "You still love me." "He takes off her glasses." "Puts them in the back window well." "He touches her." "Ezra is beautiful." "Ezra is handsome." "Ezra is my shining star." "They're in this back seat with him on top." "Her head is to the passenger side." "Her feet are near the open door." "There's one open door." "There's one open door." "It's on the driver's side." "As he's on top of her, he takes a scarf." "He covers her eyes." "Now, he's done this before." "When they've had sex in his apartment in the past." "She's agreed." "He's done that before." "But even when she agreed, it was unnerving." "In the darkness that he created, he pushes forward." "Forces himself on her." "He kisses her." "She turns and says no." "He keeps touching her." "You abandoned me." "You owe me this." "He's touching her." "She's tense." "Her body is not moving." "She regresses in her mind to the times in the past." "And thinks, let's just get this over with." "Then he starts cutting." "He has a knife." "He has a knife." "Takes her sweater." "And he starts short, slow, methodical strokes." "And he cuts her sweater." [00:38:03] Speaker ?: "I want one last time." [00:38:03] Speaker 5: "I deserve one last time." "I want one last time." "I deserve one last time." [00:38:17] Speaker ?: "Oh my God." "She's afraid." [00:38:18] Speaker 5: "Frozen in her fear." "She lays still." "He keeps cutting." [00:38:21] Speaker ?: "As he cuts through her sweater, he cuts through her next shirt." [00:38:23] Speaker 5: "And he cuts through her t-shirt and he cuts through her t-shirt and he nicks her on the stomach." "She's afraid." "Frozen in fear, she lays still." "He's never cut her before." "He's cut her clothes." "But he's never cut her before." "He moves down." "He's cutting her pants." "Cuts the inside of her left leg." "Cuts the inside of her right leg open." "He cuts open her leggings." "He's on top of her." "He has a knife." "He's cutting." "She's terrified." "Frozen in fear, she lays still." "Her boyfriend, her ex-boyfriend, Alex." "She knows him." "She knows that he is a nihilist." "And you'll hear about that." "He believes life has no meaning." "There are no consequences for one's moral actions." "She has been back in his apartment before." "She's heard his ramblings on about Kierkegaard." "And fear and trembling." "One of his favorite things to tell her about." "Was the story of Abraham and Isaac." "The story in which Abraham was gifted a son, Isaac." "And Abraham loved Isaac more than anything, anyone in the world." "But there came a day when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son." "So he took him on in secret." "Didn't tell anybody else." "And Abraham takes his son Isaac out to go to kill him." "God intervened and saved Isaac." "Ezra did not want to leave his sacrifice." "She's heard his ramblings before where he's read to her from his journals." "Read to her while they were having sex." "I've half-heartedly tried to isolate myself from you." "Afraid I would taint you." "Yet I love you." "I am sorry for this failure on my part." "I know my touch would kill you." "Yet I reach out." "That is my sin." "The violence of my flesh that I lack a soul to correct." "She knows of his writings about consent." "Merely doing as one will sexually makes consent irrelevant." "She would hear him repeat over and over and over again." "His personal mantra." "Love and do as you will." "She's read his writings about ritual." "The mutilation of bodies." "Self mutilation." "Severance of our flesh." "Faith demands that we take a razor to our own most." "She's read of his fascination with violence." "The secret is not avoiding the violence, but in living with it." "She knows of his captivation with cannibalism." "All are contaminated with violence and vulnerability." "He writes about eating and being eaten." "Now on March 22nd." "In that back seat of the car." "He's on top of her." "He has the knife." "He cuts her pants." "He's cutting her leggings." "He cuts her leg." "She's terrified." "He moves towards her vagina." "And he cuts right next to her vagina." "She is terrified." "She knows she can no longer remain still." "She must act." "She reaches with her right arm underneath the seat to get some leverage." "And she twists her body so that she's on her left hip, pulling up her right hip." "She pulls her right leg up to protect her vagina." "And as she does so, he jabs the knife into her thigh." "And her upper thigh." "He then starts cutting her pants." "On her thigh, there were no threes." "He cuts through her leggings on her thigh." "He starts cutting up and down along her leg." "She's frozen." "Afraid." "Nows she must act." "Then he jabs her with her legs." "Jabs her with the knife a second time." "And then it all happens in a rush." "She's fighting." "She's wrestling." "She's fighting." "She's kneeing." "She's kicking." "She's using her hands." "She knocks the knife." "Cuts her hand." "She gets the knife." "And she needs to get out." "He is on top of her." "He is in the car." "There is one way out." "It's through that door." "She tries to scoot around through the well of the seat." "Her bottom's through there." "He's still between her." "He's stopping her." "He's preventing her." "He doesn't let her get out." "She moves towards the back of the seat." "Where eventually, if this is the back of the front seat, her back is up against the seat." "Alex is right here." "The open door is here." "He's not letting her out." "She can't get out." "He's holding her." "He's attacking her." "It happens in a rush and she stabs him." "He reaches out and he grabs her throat." "He pushes her head up against the headrest." "She can't breathe." "She can't breathe." "She's struggling for her life." "He holds her neck." "He squeezes her neck and he looks her in the eyes." "And she just stabs anywhere and everywhere that she can." "She is terrified." "And he doesn't stop." "He reaches his hand up and he pulls at her hair and he whips her hair out." "And she screams, 'Let go!'" "And he keeps doing it." "He won't stop." "She stabs him more." "He doesn't stop." "She stabs him." "She wants out." "He won't let her out." "She stabs him in the head." "He stops." "He gets out of the car." [00:46:50] Speaker ?: "That's the red marker." [00:46:52] Speaker 5: "Hours later at the hospital to her neck." "That's her hair." "In the well of the car." "In the driver's side, rear passenger seat, where he left it after he pulled it out." "He's now out of the car." "He's on his feet." "He's walking." "He's up and about." "Look at his pants." "We'll talk more about that later." "He's up." "He's walking about." "He's in this area here." "You can see his blood in different patches on the ground." "He's staggering around." "She's sitting at the edge of the seat." "Overwhelmed." "Afraid." "Confused." "Doesn't know what to do." "He's still up." "She's cautious." "She watches him." "She hears him." "He says," "I need help." "She's afraid." "But she wants to help." "She stands." "She steps and approaches him." "He approaches her." "And then all of a sudden, it's happening again." "He grabs her again." "He pulls her in." "He's pulling her down." "He is in." "He's pulled her in." "She has the knife." "She reaches around." "Stabs him one last time." "He lets go." "She backs up." "He stands there." "He takes off his coat." "Throws it on the ground." "And lays on the ground." "She backs up back to the seat where she sits." "In total shock." "Overwhelmed." "Hyperventilating." "Panicked." "It goes dark." "She's in the present." "It goes dark." "It's present." "She's worried she's gonna pass out." "Her mind is racy." "Her body is not responding." "It feels numb." [00:49:05] Speaker ?: "She does not respond." [00:49:05] Speaker 5: "It feels numb." "She has the knife." "Mindlessly and without thought." "She cuts her left arm." "The clothes on her left arm." "And uses it to scratch the word boy into her arm." "Then she's up." "She's running." "She doesn't know where she's at." "They go back the same way they can." "She runs up the hill." "She falls." "She runs." "She falls." "She walks." "She staggers." "She can see the road." "She gets to the road." "She gets to the road." "She walks." "She runs." "She falls." "She falls." "She drops the knife." "She drops the phone." "She sees the driveway." "Follows the driveway." "She gets to the door." "She talks to our farmer." "She tells him." "I was attacked." "Our farmer." "Saw she was in distress." "Saw she was upset." "He gave her help." "What happened here?" "Her disturbed and obsessive ex-boyfriend attacked her." "Cut her." "Strangled her." "She fought to survive." "You'll see over the course of this trial." "The evidence." "The evidence that there was a struggle in the backseat of that car." "A struggle between two people." "That's not going to be the main issue that you're going to need to decide I submit to you." "It's not whether she believed it." "But whether her beliefs were reasonable." "In order to do that, for you to determine that, you need to know more about Ezra and Atlas." "And Atlas." "So let me give you a brief, quick, maybe not as brief as we'd like overview." "Ezra was born in Stanley, Wisconsin." "Her mother Rose was a teenager, 14, 15 years old." "Ezra's father is not a part of their life." "Rose raised her there on her own while trying to juggle parenting as a teenager in high school." "She eventually finds, let me back up for a second." "When Ezra is born, Rose has her daughter." "She names her daughter Monica." "And her and Monica are the two in the world." "Eventually, Rose and Monica, Rose finds Joe Carlin, Joe Shane Carlin." "And Joe Shane adopts Monica." "And she becomes Monica Carlin." "She grows up in that house with Rose and with Joe Shane." "I'm not getting too much into the details now, but what she'll tell you, what she's told others." "Is living with those two in that household is like two tornadoes in the house." "That relationship is tumultuous." "When she's 12, they divorce." "Ezra is in high school." "She doesn't feel comfortable in her body." "It doesn't feel like it fits with who she is." "She starts exploring other names." "Using other pronouns." "She tries out Timothy." "It doesn't really work." "She uses neutral pronouns." "At some point, she changes her name." "Legally, to Ezra McCandless." "She finishes high school." "She goes away to college for a year." "She goes away to college for a year." "And then she comes back." "It's the summer of 2017." "She's in Eau Claire." "She happens upon this coffee shop races." "Where she meets people." "One of the first people she meets is Jason Mengel." "Ezra is 19." "And Jason, a 34-year-old medic within the National Guard." "He starts dating her." "They start having sex." "She moves in." "During this time, she's going to Racy's quite often." "And she meets other people at Racy's." "One of which is Alex Woodworth." "And over the summer and the early fall, her and Alex develop a relationship." "A friendship." "Based upon these non-traditional ideas." "He's accepting of Ezra's fluidity along the gender spectrum." "He also has some odd ideas." "He tells her right away about his journals." "His fascination with violence." "His captivation with cannibalism." "And she finds this kind of a yang to her yang." "Right?" "She thinks of herself as a positive glowing." "And here's this interesting man who has these negative philosophies." "And they get along and they talk." "But at this time she's still dating Jason." "Having sex with Jason." "There comes to be a time in the fall where she's throwing up." "Every day." "All the time." "She starts to figure out, maybe I'm pregnant." "She takes a test." "And sure enough, she's pregnant." "She's 19." "Her mom told her one thing is." "Don't get pregnant when you're a teenager." "You can't have a kid when you're young." "She doesn't talk to her mother." "She doesn't talk to her adopted father." "She goes through this in her own mind." "Sometimes with Jason, who may or may not be supporting her in the way that she wants." "And eventually she decides she needs to terminate that pregnancy." "She drives to Minneapolis on her birthday." "She turned 20." "And the day she decided to have an abortion." "And after that, she gets home and she's recovering." "As you would imagine anyone is, for such a procedure." "Jason, not there anymore." "He's not there to support her." "He's sleeping on the couch." "Their relationship in public may seem as if they're girlfriend/boyfriend." "But he doesn't want any part of her anymore." "In fact, at some point he physically leaves." "He leaves her alone after this to go off on his own spiritual quest." "Two, three weeks out west." "While his 20-year-old girlfriend, recovering from an abortion with his children, is home alone." "Trying to sort that out." "During this time, she seeks solace from others." "And her and Alex get along really well." "They talk." "He's accepting of her regretful decision." "He's accepting of her." "He listens." "The relationship is intense." "And at some point in November, it turns sexual." "She's living with Jason." "She's having sex with Alex." "Her and Jason are no longer in the same bed." "They are not intimate." "Her relationship with Alex continues to grow in intensity." "They don't see each other all the time." "But they're at Racy's, exchanging journals." "You'll see her doodles in his journals." "Where she learns about some of his philosophies." "And in the beginning, sex is rather vanilla." "He likes to have sex with her when she's in the prone position." "Because she comes to learn that he likes that look upon her in the back." "In which she looks more masculine." "The sex grows in intensity." "It becomes painful." "It becomes rough." "Sometimes she just goes along." "Sometimes she says, 'No, that hurts. Stop.'" "And he doesn't listen." "And she just goes along." "Come January, juggling these two, Jason and Alex." "Alex wants more of a commitment from her." "Alex says, 'I want you to be mine. Only mine.'" "She's like, 'No, this is getting too intense. I can't do that. I'm not ready to do that.'" "And Alex says, 'Well, if I can't have you, I don't want to be here.'" "And he calls her up and he tells her that he attempted suicide." "She comes over and she sees him in January where he had taken a knife and he'd cut his wrists." "He tells her about what that meant to him." "He tells her about how easy it was to use that knife because he says he likes suffering." "He doesn't feel pain." "And she's conflicted." "Jason is actually there with her." "Jason helps to bandage up Alex's arms." "And she's conflicted and she's back again saying, 'Okay, I will continue to be with Alex." "During this time, she reads different portions of Alex's German." "I just want to read some of these to you as it evolves through time." "In November," Alex writes, "I was further contaminated. This is all mutated. I wanted to be happy, but felt unworthy. I wanted to be loved, but refused to believe it possible. I wanted to be alive, but lacked a heart. And you hurt me. I hated myself through you. And you were a living death. Everything I said came to be a lie. I had to escape the monster I began. "I had to escape the monster I became with you. You did not deserve it, nor did I." "Later in November," he writes, "I mistook the innocence. I missed the innocence. I did not deserve it, nor did I." "Later in November," he writes, "I missed took the innocent play, your desire for my hunger. I saw cannibalism where you asked to be seen erotically." "Later in November," he writes, "I mistook the innocent play, your desire for my hunger. I saw cannibalism where you asked to be seen erotically." "Later in November," he writes, "Later in November," he writes, "I mistook the innocent play, your desire for my hunger. I saw cannibalism where you asked to be seen erotically." "Later in November," I destroy what I find. I break things apart to see what they're really made of, for better or for worse. I have a habit of breaking people's lives, of destroying and analyzing them. I am attacking this for the sake of my sadism." In December, he writes, "I have been cautious, gentle, tender, and careful. Little do most know that this is precisely how one makes their way around in the dark. In the dark, one touches more to learn than to maneuver." "Devoid of sight, we use our hands to explore." "Utterly vulnerable." "Vulnerable explanation is intentionally gentle, but out of self-concern." "Aggression backfires when obstacles are unknown." "Hunting in the dark," as he likes to call it. In December, he says, "I am in so much pain because you love me, and still you hope to abandon me to my loneliness again." In February, as their relationship is dwindling. "For to give purely to suicide can involve a cessation of violence." "But it is the obligation to not die oddly. I must commit violence against another." "Other to provide for this demanding other." "This forces me to murder in order to provide." "I am doing it either way." "This demanding other has taken my redeeming suicide from me and doomed me to torturous guilt." "That's her ex-boyfriend." "That's her ex-boyfriend." "That's her ex-boyfriend." "She doesn't want to commit fully to him." "She doesn't get the solace that she needs from Jason." "Jason leads." "I am doing it either way." "I am doing it either way." "This demanding other has taken my redeeming suicide from me." "I am doing it either way." "This demanding other has taken my redeeming suicide from me." "And doomed me to torturous guilt."" "That's her ex-boyfriend." "She doesn't want to commit fully to him." "She doesn't want to commit fully to him." "She doesn't get the solace that she needs from." "She doesn't get the solace that she needs from." "Jason." "Jason." "Jason leads sometime in February to go off on his National Guard duty." "She's not hitting it off with Alex." "They have another friend, a John Hanson." "And John Hanson and her get together." "John Hanson is older." "He brings over alcohol." "He brings her to his house where they have alcohol." "And she drinks." "She gets drunk." "She gets drunk." "She gets throw-up drunk." "Pass out, throw-up drunk." "After which, John Hanson and her have sex." "The next day, still hungover." "They go back to her place." "Where they can have sex." "Jason comes back home." "A couple of weeks later." "And he's looking at her." "Jason comes back home." "Jason comes back home, a couple of weeks later." "He finds this text back and forth." "And he confronts Ezra." "Pushes her on the bed." "Asks her about sex with John Hanson." "He calls John Hanson." "His friend." "Demanding to know why his friend." "Would have sex with his gal." "As if it's his possession." "John Hanson denies it." "And Jason mangles it." " Jason Mangle is wound up." "Very, very upset." "Her, Jason and Ezra go back to their friend Josh's place." "And Josh is worried about Jason." "Worried what Jason is going to do." "Based upon Jason's words, Jason's demeanor." "Everything else." "Josh decides to call the police." "I'm worried about what Jason might do." "So the police are called." "The police come over." "And they start talking to Jason." "Like what's going on?" "What are you so upset about?" "And Jason says."" "My girlfriend was sexually assaulted." "The police asked to talk to Ezra." "Ask Ezra if she wants to talk." "There, in presence of Jason." "Or down at the station." "She doesn't want to talk about it in front of Jason." "She leaves." "With the police officer." "Eventually they agree." "A couple of days later." "To speak."" "She speaks with Detective Prock about this allegation that Jason made about a sexual assault. And Ezra tells Detective Prock about being there, getting drunk, throwing up, having sex after throwing up. And at the end of that, Detective Prock tells her, "Well if under those conditions, if you're too drunk, that's a sexual assault." "Sometime between the time the police are called." "And Ezra speaks with Detective Prock about that." "And is told that it's a sexual assault." "Jason Mengel confronts these other two men." "Confronts Alex." "Confronts John." "And there's a big blow up at Racy's." "A big blow up in which the men are all yelling." And Ezra's inside. After that, Ezra breaks up with Alex, says, we're done. I can't do this anymore. She doesn't want anything to do with John Hansen. She goes home. She goes back to Stanley, where she stays with her mom, she stays with her dad. And it's during this time in March, after she meets with Detective Prock, that she's given information. Victim witness information. Pamphlets about counseling, about getting your voice back, about reclaiming who you are as a person, your empowerment. And she begins to journal and to talk about her life and the traumas that she has suffered in that life. And in the end, she says, I want to be Ezra McCandless again. She's at her adoptive dad, Jo Shane Carlin's house, and she's telling him about this. She's pouring out all of this emotion about what has just happened, the intensity of what's going on for this young lady. And he says, kind of a seize the day moment, kind of a nice dad pep talk, life starts now. Life starts now. Whatever it was yesterday, whatever that was, be done with that. Be the bigger person, be the better person, starts now. So March 22nd comes along. She's up. She's an adult. She has her own car. She finds the keys and she decides to go to Eau Claire to get some stuff done in Eau Claire. She's got appointments later in the day. She's got appointments tomorrow. There's no plan to do anything other than to go and see some people talk about her feelings. She goes to Racy's, gets a coffee. She sees her friend Max, who she wants to exchange paintings with, and she tells Max, I'm going to go see Alex later. She drives over to Max's house. They exchange this painting. She comes back. She's back at Racy's, drops off Max, says she's going to go to Alex's. She goes to Alex's, where she has this meeting with Alex. The police arrive, and everything's good. But she'll tell you that just before the police arrive, when her and Alex were having this conversation, when she wants to confront, when she wants to create, and when she wants to continue different parts of the relationship, that when Jason interrupts, Jason walks into Alex's home, walks into Alex's bedroom, and interrupts that conversation between Ezra and Alex, she can see everything changes with Alex. Alex never liked, as he called it, her gun-toting boyfriend. And there's some tension between Alex and Jason. And Ezra says, we'll leave. We'll leave. Let's go talk someplace in public. That's fine. We don't need to be in his bedroom. Let's go talk someplace in public. She sees the police. Everything's good. And off they drive. Ezra's driving. Alex is in the passenger seat. As they're driving along, Alex starts talking to her. Telling her things about your back. You still love me. You abandon me. And he's reaching out to touch her. And she's getting anxious. She's getting nervous. She's had that happen in the past, where sometimes she just, she gets anxious driving, and she doesn't want to drive. They pull over. They switch. They continue driving in the random direction they are, which is basically just on County Road E, straight out of Eau Claire, going west towards Manali. And at some point, the car turns off E, on to 430th Street, and it's stopped in front of that muddy driveway. I don't know if I have that picture up there. That muddy driveway. And they sit, and they sit, and they talk, and they decide, maybe we'll go up there, we'll park, we'll drive, or we'll walk, we'll talk. She doesn't know anything about a knife. She's anxious, but Alex has at that point never been threateningly violent. He's choked her during sex in the past. He's hurt her during sex in the past. But not outside of that. So she was anxious, but not afraid. Then they drive up, and the car gets stuck. You'll hear from a witness who says, on the one side, the roadway is out of the sun. So it's still frozen. You can drive up that little section of the hill, because it's frozen. Once you get over the top, the back side is on the south exposure. And there, it's softer. There's mud. And the car gets stuck. And they try to get it unstuck. They drive into the grass. They get it stuck in the grass. And they're switching drivers. Ezra's in the driver's seat now, saying, let me try to get it stuck. And then they finally drive forward, and then you'll see the pictures. It's just stuck for good. The wheels are just buried in the mud, next to a trailer. They get out. He's smoking some cigarettes. They're wandering around, trying to see if they can get it unstuck, trying to figure out what they can do. She doesn't have a phone. She just simply doesn't have a phone. Alex has the phone. It's Alex's phone. Whether there's reception out there or not, I don't know. Maybe we'll hear from a witness that there is. I don't know. But she doesn't have a phone. She sits on the edge of the trailer, and she's contemplating, trying to, what are we going to do? Alex is off someplace else, and then Alex comes up, and he hugs her. And she's uncomfortable. She's uncomfortable with that hug. But she's there with that hug, and Alex says, why don't you go back in the car? Why don't you go lay down? Why don't you go there? She's back in the car, looking for stuff, laying down. And then that begins. Alex terrified her. You're going to hear a lot of evidence about what Ezra did after, after this traumatic event. And I will submit to you that, yes, you should consider that evidence, right? But obviously, the order of the events, chronologically, makes it undeniable that her behavior and statements afterward are a result of the previous trauma. That's what happens. If it's not the traumatic event of fighting for her life, then what is this? How did she get to here? How did she get to PTSD with post-traumatic stress disorder? Is the state's theory that she's faking and feigning that whole thing as part of some big calculated plan? Despite a diagnosis with post-traumatic stress disorder, with aspects of derealization and depersonalization that our expert will tell you about? That'll be for you to decide. But before we go over her post-trauma behavior and statements, I just want to tell you a little bit about our experts and how the brain functions. Because that's going to be a huge part of this, how trauma impacts the human brain, right? We're going to have two experts, right? One of which is a man called Dr. James Hopper. Dr. Hopper got his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. I just want to tell you a little bit about who Dr. Hopper is and what he knows. He's a national expert. He was a fellow at the Trauma Center in Boston University. He was a fellow at the Behavioral Research Laboratory at the McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Since 2006, he's had different roles at the Harvard Medical School as an instructor, a clinical instructor, a part-time instructor, and a teaching associate. Nationally, he's gone across the country. He's done trainings for Special Victims Unit Investigations for the United States military. He's done trainings to the Neurobiology of Sexual Assaults for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, which is supported by the Department of Justice. He's even here in Wisconsin in 2018. He did a training on sexual assault, brain experience, behavior, and memory for the Racine County Sexual Assault Response Team, including investigators and prosecutors. Dr. Hopper will tell you about how it functions in two relations he wants to talk to you about, both in the results, I think, and in the memory. So that is how we respond, how our brain responds to trauma, and how our memory is affected by trauma. He'll talk to you about parts of the brain that I don't want to go into right now, because I don't know it as much as he does. But he'll tell you about the prefrontal cortex, where we make decisions, and it's our rational place where we think. He'll tell you about the amygdala point, but I don't know where it is. The fear circuitry of our brain, which, when under attack, takes over and incapacitates the prefrontal cortex of your brain. He'll tell you about the hippocampus and how that impacts memory as well as response. I want to make sure that I get this right, so I want to read some of the things that he'll say. He'll tell you people react to assaults in a baffling way, sometimes even the total opposite of what we'd expect. A traumatic event can rapidly and massively alter brain functioning by impairing rational brain regions, leaving us only reflexes and habits, the amygdala, the fear circuitry. And the trauma also affects what we remember. After a traumatic event, the survivor's memories can sound confused or unbelievable. And the memories survivors do have can be fragmentary. Some can be in great details. Others, not at all. Others, jumbled and confused. He'll talk to you about the effects of stress on memory formation are time-dependent. So when under attack, after suffering a trauma, your attention goes to certain details, but the peripheral details go away. And one of those details that goes away is time sequencing. And the chronology of events is often hard to keep track of when your brain is under attack. Lastly, Dr. Hopper will testify that based on his review of the case materials, and in particular, his review of some of the statements that Ezra has made, the statements that Ezra made to Detective Prock on March 23rd and March 24th, that her statements are consistent with those principles of the brain being under attack and the concepts regarding trauma and memory. He'll tell you this is a classic example of trauma memory processing over time. You'll also hear from Dr. Steve Benson, a local psychologist. He's from Wausau. He's on the Wisconsin Forensic Unit. He'll tell you about how that's one of the, he's on the group of people that when the judges need to appoint experts for certain things in forensic psychology, he is on that short list. And he's seen Ezra at least three clinical interviews and a fourth time that he's met with her. As part of the clinical interviews, he's also gave Ezra multiple psychological tests, including tests to check if she is feigning or malingering. His professional opinion is that she is neither feigning nor malingering. Dr. Benson's clinical diagnosis of Ezra includes PTSD with depersonalization and derealization. Those are parts of a disassociative disorder in which somebody is confused, shocked, or as in this part, doesn't even know their own name. They're not orientated to time, place, or situation. So again, just to get us back, his clinical diagnosis is PTSD with aspects of depersonalization and derealization. He'll tell you how his opinion is supported by other aspects of reliability, including inter-evaluator reliability, as well as multiple testing dates over long periods of time that demonstrate reliability over time. His testimony will include his opinion that Ezra's presentation was indicative of PTSD due to exposure to threatened death, serious injury, and sexual assault on March 22, 2018. So keeping both Dr. Hopper from Harvard and Dr. Benson, our local psychologist, keeping those responses in mind, let's look a little bit, talk a little bit, about the post-traumatic event behavior. First, she shows up at our farmers, right? And at our farmers, Ezra doesn't know her name or what happened or really where she was or anything, other than she says, attacked. Despite Ezra saying she was attacked, one of the first things you'll learn about is that the police immediately start asking about whether she was in a car accident or that she was on any drugs. And I don't say that to blame the police. I say that the police saw something that was unexplainable to them and they went to things that they knew about. Car accidents and drugs. You'll see that there was a blood test that they took from her during the SANE exam. She comes back clean. No positives on drugs or alcohol. They're also part of the confusion is when they ask, who did this? She says, they. She uses the pronoun, they, to which the police ask, were there more than one person? And it's confusing what, if anything, she says to that. She doesn't respond. But she definitely uses the pronoun, they, which I submit to you that in normal conversation, probably most all of us would think that that means multiple people. But that's the pronoun that Ezra used when talking about Alex. It's the same pronoun she used when talking about Alex when she met with Detective Kroc on March 1st and mentioned Alex and used the pronoun they. But nevertheless, it caused confusion in the investigation. They find an iPod on Ezra's person and they're trying to figure out who she is. And they find the iPod, iPod user's name, is some old college roommate who she bought the iPod from. But it's not her. I think it was Angela Merton. She's not Angela Merton. And then she finally says, I'm Monica. I'm Monica Carly. She regresses back to her childhood and gives them her original, essentially, birth name, which causes more confusion. Nothing at this point is making sense to anybody. The police, the ambulance, they're all trying to figure out what happened. But the facts that you'll hear are, she's crying. She's hyperventilating. She's vomiting. She's in distress. She's upset. Post-traumatic stress disorder. She then goes to the hospital. She makes, has a SANE exam, sees some doctors, makes statements there where she's still being asked questions. And she's giving a lot of, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. The next day on March 23rd, the police come to see her. She's in the hospital. She's in the third floor in the mental health department at the hospital. They come to talk to her. She didn't want to talk. She wasn't ready to talk. This was overwhelming. She didn't know she didn't need to talk. Nobody told her she could wait. She agreed to speak with the police, but she wasn't ready. Because of the trauma, because she wasn't ready, she didn't tell them everything. She didn't tell them what she knew. She handled it the only way she knew how in that moment. She told them she didn't remember. The next day, the police, they found the car. They found Alex. They go back and they speak with Ezra. They don't immediately tell her of their findings. They have an open conversation with her. She still didn't want to talk. She still wasn't ready. She was still overwhelmed. She agreed to speak with them again even though she wasn't ready. Because of the trauma, because she wasn't ready, she didn't tell them everything she remembered. She held back. It didn't feel safe to her. Then, they told her they found the car. And then she tells them. You'll hear. It comes pouring out. Pouring out. And she can tell them. Tells them what happened. This case is not about the boy being scratched in the arm. We understand everybody wants to know why she did that. We get that. But we may never know. It may be beyond our understanding. Those of us who haven't had that life-threatening situation come upon us may never be able to understand why. The experts will tell you post-traumatic stress disorder is a response to an unusual or abnormal situation. It's a response. It's not normal. It's not abnormal. It's a response to an abnormal situation. We can all agree that in everyday life, scratching any word in your forearm, that's abnormal. That's not everyday life. The experts will tell you that everyone's response to trauma is unique. Unique to them. Unique to Ezra. The mental health world, in the mental health world, this behavior isn't classified as normal or abnormal. It's just a response to severe trauma. So listen to the evidence, but consider again the diagnosis and the trauma that she was under. Right? And how the trauma changes everything. Scratching a boy in her arm doesn't mean she's calculating. It doesn't mean it's part of a plan. It's actually proof of trauma. It corroborates that there was a life threat to her. Now the state's also going to want to tell you what this case is about her lying, about scratching that in her arm. They've already told you that in their opening. We submit to you that the evidence will show that the fact that she lied about that unexplainable behavior and then corrected her mistake isn't proof of guilt. It's proof she's human. It's proof she was afraid to talk about this traumatic event. Right? She'll tell you she knew she couldn't explain the unexplainable. She still doesn't even really know why. She was afraid she wouldn't understand. She was afraid they would judge her based upon her abnormal behavior. Sure enough, they are. They're trying to discredit her based upon her unique response to trauma. Before I end, I want to talk to you about three particular pieces of evidence or sections of evidence that I think are going to be important for you that corroborate the trauma that she suffered in the back of that car. One of the first things is the order of events. I'm sorry, one of the first things is his movement. Ezra says that there's a fight in the back of the car and that he's up on his feet moving around and then he's down on the ground when she leaves. I suspect the state's going to contest that because when the police find him, he's not down on the ground. He's back in the car. And that's something you should consider in deciding about this number that they're going to talk to you about. 16, 16, 16, 16, 16. Remember what she says about what happened to the back seat. He didn't stop. He didn't stop. And even when she stabbed him that many times, as you can see from these pictures, use your common sense. The evidence I submit to you supports he's on his feet. Gravity is affecting the blood in a downward way, showing that he's standing after he's stabbed. that's something to think about in deciding that this happened in the back seat. He was still up and moving and she used the amount of force that she thought was possible that was necessary for a man who was still fighting her. He's on his feet. Second part. Her clothes. You're going to see lots of pictures of her clothes. She's got four items of clothing on. Outside item is a flannel shirt big jacket. You'll see three pieces of evidence to show that that's the outside piece of evidence. I suspect the state's going to show you one, pictures from her at Racy's that day that you'll be able to see she's got this flannel on on the outside. Two, video from the police that saw her at ten minutes to one on that same day as she's sitting in the car. She's got the flannel on on the outside. Three, our farmer Don Sippel says that she had on a flannel. And that's important because one of the state's witnesses you're going to hear from who took these pictures and was told by the prosecutors how to analyze the evidence, they've got the shirts all mixed up. Her outside layer is the flannel. The next layer is that sweater. You'll hear that that sweater is never tested tested for blood. No testing for blood. We'll ask witnesses whether faces observed any blood and I submit to you the reason it wasn't tested is because nobody saw any blood on it. There's not blood on her sweater. There's blood on this shirt. Right? That's the shirt underneath the sweater. So one of the things that the state's order of event is is basically their theory as they stood up here and said is she stabs him and then she cuts up her own clothes and then she runs off. We submit to you that that couldn't have happened. If that shirt isn't cut if that shirt is together during the knife fight where's the blood? Where's the blood on it which then afterwards her hands as they said which would be dripping in blood grab the shirt to go and cut it herself. Where's the blood? That shirt was cut before anybody took a knife to anybody. Alex had the knife and cut that first. You see the next shirt which we talked about and it has blood on it. How did the blood get past the uncut sweater to the next layer if it wasn't already cut? That's a question that you should be asking. Unfortunately you'll never know whose blood that is because despite all the other things that they're going to bring for you here to test they never tested that. The reasonable hypothesis is that's his blood. And how does his blood get past that sweater unless he'd already cut the sweater open? Sequence of an event pay attention to the clothing. Lastly today this afternoon you're going to hear from Dr. Mills. She's going to tell you about the stables. She's also going to talk about this injury. An injury to his knee. An injury if you it's an abrasion. An abrasion in which his skin has been raised. There's cuts nicks and bruises all over his knee. Remember his pants they're out at the driveway in the mud everybody says Ezra's covered in mud whether there's mud or not mud on his pants is something that you'll need to decide whether it's on his knee. How would that abrasion occur other than upon a hard dry surface? That's a question you should be asking because we submit to you that abrasion occurred in the backseat of the car. In the well of the car. He is on top of her his left knee is in the well of the car there is a fight she's struggling for her life he is resisting back and his knee is on the ground stopping her from getting out. That happens in the backseat of the car. That happens because there's a fight that happens because he attacked her he cut her he strangled her. so let me just take you back to the beginning Ezra's stumbling up to the farmer our farmer's house she rings the bell our farmer comes there he answers the door he invites her in perhaps you could think of it as a duty not a duty in a legal sense a legal obligation that one has but perhaps a moral duty a moral duty to help those in need our farmer accepted that duty he brought her in found her a seat gave her a blanket he didn't understand what was going on he didn't need to he saw she needed help he gave it he didn't judge her upon her character he gave her the benefit of the doubt as one human being to another and he gave her help she just finished a fight for her life now 18-19 months later here we are in this place in this courtroom on your doorstep and in the end we will be back up here asking you to do your duty because the state will not prove that she is not acting in self-defense and they will not do that because that's what happened that's the evidence they won't bring you any other evidence because it does not exist we'll ask you to do your duty and follow the law and repeat her verdict of not guilty her disturbed and obsessive ex-boyfriend attacked her cut her strangled her she wanted to live she fought to survive she's here fighting again to survive vote not guilty