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Hey everybody, Lady Luck here and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now all summer long I'm going to be celebrating by playing on spinquest.com which is an American owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to spinquest.com get yourself a 30 coin pack for just 10 bucks.
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Refreshers contain caffeine
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this week we have a new case out of Ohio that's already being called the House of Horrors. A shocking twist involving an anti vaccine activist whose 18 month old twins died last year. A high profile murder trial gets underway in New Mexico, plus the latest developments in the Barry Morphew case, Karen Reed and more. This is the 13 juror podcast where we explore the trials, investigations and true crime stories that everyone is talking about. I'm your host, Brandi Churchwell and this is Court Report, your weekly roundup of the biggest courtroom headlines, breaking stories and the legal developments shaping the nation's most talked about cases. Before we jump into this week's episode, I do want to acknowledge what is probably the biggest courtroom headline of the week, the Tyler Robinson Case. Now, if you're not familiar with it, Tyler Robinson is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, the conservative political activist and the founder of Turning Point usa. This was during an event at Utah Valley University last September. Now prosecutors have charged Robinson with aggravated murder and are seeking the death penalty. Since the shooting, the case has drawn national attention and become one of the most closely watched criminal cases in the country with intense media coverage and packed courtrooms throughout this week's preliminary hearing. More on that coming. Now I know that so many of you have been following every minute of that hearing with me on my YouTube channel and there is simply too much to unpack in just a few minutes here. So instead I'm dedicating an entire episode to it where we will walk through the testimony, the evidence, the legal arguments from both sides and what it could all mean moving forward. And some bombshell court moments too. Now that full breakdown will be released tomorrow morning. So be sure to keep an eye out for it. But this week wasn't just about Tyler Robinson. We've also had major developments in several other cases that we're following. So let's get you caught up. First, a quick update on the Carmelo Anthony case since we just covered it in a full episode. Now if you missed it, Carmelo was found guilty in June in the Fatal stabbing of 17 year old Austin Metcalf during a confrontation at a Texas high school track meet. Now Carmelo's new legal team is asking the judge to throw out that guilty verdict and is also requesting that Judge John Roach be removed from handling any post trial proceedings. In the case of the defense argues that Carmelo's constitutional rights were violated during the trial. Among their claims, they say that members of the public were improperly excluded from parts of the proceedings, that prosecutors backed away from an alleged off the record agreement that influenced Carmelo's decision not to testify and that the jury received improper instructions before deliberating. Now they're also taking issue with comments that Judge Roach made in interviews after the verdict. So according to the defense, the judge went beyond simply discussing the case by saying that Carmelo seems like a nice young man who committed a crime. So the defense says that that suggests that the judge was basically affirming the verdict that the jury had reached. And they argue that those comments create at least the appearance that Judge Roach has already taken a position on issues that he may now have to rule on during the post trial process. So as of now, these allegations are raised by the defense in their post trial motions. The prosecution will have an opportunity to respond and ultimately it will be up to the court to decide whether any of these claims warrant a new trial or whether Judge Roach should be removed from the case. So that's where we're at with that one. We will continue to follow it and let you know what happens next. All right, let's move on to an update on a case out of Idaho. All right, y' all know that there has been a lot of debate about vaccines and what's safe for children. One case that has gotten a lot of attention involves an Idaho mother named Andrea Shaw. She became a prominent figure in the anti vaccine movement after the deaths of her 18 month old twins. Now Andrea claimed that her twins, Dallas and Tyson died as a result of routine immunizations in May of 2025. The two children were found dead together at the family's home in Payette, Ohio. Now according to Andrea, she had expressed concerns to her pediatrician about vaccinating the twins, particularly the flu shot, because she said that her husband's family had a history of vaccine reactions and it made her nervous to give that to her twins. She said that the doctor reassured her and convinced her to go ahead and move forward with the vaccines anyway. Now Andrea claimed that about two days later the twins became very lethargic and they developed diarrhea. So she took them to the hospital, but the staff told her no big deal, those are typical post vaccination symptoms and they sent the family home. Now Andrea said that two days after that, she found both children face down in their cribs. In interviews afterward, Andrea said that she wished she had been anti vaccine. Now following the twins death, Andrea became closely associated with several prominent anti vaccine activists and a fundraiser raised more than $12,000 for the family. But y', all, this case took a dramatic turn on June 30th of this year because Andrea was actually arrested in connection with her children's deaths. A grand jury indicted her on two counts of first degree murder. They said that she willfully and with premeditation suffocated both of those babies. She is currently being held on a $2 million bond. So now in a newly filed motion, Andrea's attorneys are asking the court to reduce that bond so that she can care for her newborn baby while she is awaiting trial for the deaths of her other two babies. Now in the filing, her attorneys describe Andrea as sweet and quiet. They say that she keeps to herself and she is not a threat to anyone. So right now she remains in jail. We will see what happens. We'll be right back.
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All new drinks are now at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with popping boba to crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six? All new drinks are here now at McDonald's.
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Refreshers contain caffeine.
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All right, I want to talk now, about one case that has absolutely shocked the country, y'.
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All.
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This one comes out of Vinton County, Ohio. And it actually started with something that on the surface, kind of seemed fairly routine. On June 30, deputies went to a home to serve an arrest warrant for a man named Gary Siders Jr. Now, he had been charged with four counts of public indecency after allegedly exposing himself on four separate occasions during the last week of May. But when officers arrived to the house, they found something that they never expected. I don't think anybody would ever expect this. Inside this small home were 16 children, ranging in ages from just 18 months old to 18 years old. Now, authorities say that they were living in what they described as deplorable conditions. And, y', all, we're not talking about, like, a cluttered house. Investigators say that these children were living in conditions that were dangerous to their health.
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Health.
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According to investigators, 20 people, including 16 children and four adults, were living in a house that's only about 1300 square feet. There's five rooms, one bathroom, and a small basement that is 20 people sharing one bathroom, y'.
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All.
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Now, authorities say that most of the children spent the majority of their time confined to a single 12 by 12 foot room that was just like, contaminated with human waste, trash, and filth. Just bad, bad conditions. Now, many of the kids apparently appeared malnourished, and seven of the children were taken to the hospital. Two of them had to be airlifted, and one was listed in critical condition. During a press conference, Ohio's attorney general even said that investigators believed that if authorities had waited another, like, 24 hours, they would have been dealing with the death of one or more of those children. Now, with 16 children involved, a lot of people kind of immediately wondered if this was some sort of trafficking situation. But investigators say that that's not the case. Prosecutors have actually described this as an intra family abuse and neglect case. The children have now been removed from the home and placed in the temporary custody of the state. Now, four adults living in the house were the children's parents and grandparents. So we have Elizabeth siders, Gary Siders Jr. They're married. And then you have Gary Jr. S parents, Christina Siders and Gary Siders Sr. Now, all four have been charged with 16 counts of endangering children. And prosecutors alleged that the abuse resulted in serious physical harm. But all four have pleaded not guilty. Now, one of the biggest questions that I think everyone is asking here is how does something like this happen without anyone noticing? Because y' all remember the oldest was 18 years old. But according to investigators, none of the children had ever really been enrolled in school. They had very little contact with the outside world, and they largely avoided any of the systems that would normally identify children in need. So investigators said that they kind of went under the radar. They also said that many of the children had significant developmental delays. Now, according to one news report, many of the kids were non verbal and the oldest child, who is now 18 years old, could not even spell her own name. But here's where the timeline gets a little more interesting because I did a little digging into the family's background and public records show that Gary Jr. And Elizabeth lived like two houses apart when they decided to get married. They were married in 2008. But okay, here's the thing. At the time, Gary Jr. Was 18 years old and he had completed ninth grade. Elizabeth was seven months pregnant, had only completed eighth grade, and she was 15 years old because she was a minor. All four parents and the judge signed off on that marriage. And then two months later, their child was born. So 18 year old Gary Jr. Married a 15 year old who was seven months pregnant. Now, I don't want to speculate about what all of that means, but learning that Elizabeth herself was only 15 years old when she became a wife and mother certainly adds another layer to this story. And Ronnie Fletcher, who is the uncle to the children, said that Elizabeth had a really tough life at home and before she married into the Siders family. And when she got married at 15, it was basically like an escape from her terrible home life. Now, there are also social media posts from someone who said that he is Elizabeth's brother and he said that Elizabeth had been indoctrinated. He said that he and Elizabeth were estranged for like 15 years, but had recently reconnected. And also her attorney has said that when he met with her in jail, she appeared timid and exhausted and distraught, but that the first thing that she asked about was whether the children were okay and if she could see them. Apparently she said that her and Gary Jr. Had always planned on having a big family. Now, as far as criminal histories, I don't really think there was anything I could find. I mean, there is of course the pending indecent exposure charges for Gary Jr. But other than that, I didn't find a whole lot. There was a ticket almost 10 years ago for Gary Jr. For not having a booster seat for one of the kids. And Gary Senior and Christina both had some small civil claims stuff that were from like more than 20 years ago. And Gary Senior also had a couple of DUIs from decades ago as well. But we do know that there has been an ongoing investigation into the cider's home involving the Ohio Bureau of Investigation, but there are no details yet on that that have come out. So or at least not at the time of this recording. Now we learned the ages of the 16 children. They were 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, 6, 5. And then there were 4 year old twins, 2 year old twins and 18 month old twins. Now records show that the couple had another set of twin girls in 2022. Now those babies were born really early. She was only 24 weeks along and they were conjoined at chest and sadly died right after being born. There's a memorial marker kind of outside of the home in the grass for those two babies. So the this case is obviously still in the very early stages. But we do know a little bit more about what's happening. Now, Gary sr. Who is 73, has reportedly experienced like significant health issues. And questions have also been raised about his competency to even stand trial. And news broke on Wednesday that he had apparently suffered some kind of fall while in jail. So he was taken to a local hospital. Well, that hospital recommended that he be sent to a larger hospital because apparently the medical care that he needs would bankrupt Vinton County. If he ends up being released from the hospital, then he will return home, but will have a GPS monitor. Now his attorney has requested a competency hearing and they are considering a not guilty by reason of insanity defense. And apparently his attorney said that he was having trouble like even understanding the case, the legal process, and was even unable to give basic facts about himself to his attorney. So I don't know. We'll keep an eye on this one as more information comes out because I have a feeling we're only beginning to understand what happened inside that home. All right, we're going from a brand new case to one that we have been following for years. Now this case had a big development this week and that is the case of Barry Morphew. Now if you need a quick refresher, Barry Morphew is accused of murdering his wife Suzanne, who disappeared on Mother's Day weekend in May of 2020 after reportedly going out for a bike ride near their home in Colorado. Now, for years, Barry maintained that Suzanne simply vanished and he was originally charged with her murder in 2021, but that case was dismissed before trial. Then in 2023, Suzanne's remains were discovered in a remote area of Colorado and Barry was indicted and arrested again. Now he has pleaded not guilty and continues to maintain his innocence. But this week, Barry was back in court, and the judge officially set his new trial date for July 19th of 2027. Now, the trial had originally been scheduled to begin this October, but the defense asked for more time, arguing that they are still kind of working through what they described as a mountain of discovery. Now, prosecutors opposed the delay, and Suzanne's family also objected, saying that they have already waited years for answers and they desperately want closure. But the judge ultimately granted the continuance, saying the priority is making sure both sides have enough time to prepare so that this case only has to be tried once. Now, the parties are expected back in court in September for the next motions hearing. And prosecutors also revealed this week that they intend to introduce evidence that they say shows a history of physical abuse in the morphews marriage, Although the defense disputes that domestic violence is an issue in this case. So I'll let you know what happens on that one. All right. We also have a new trial that got underway this week. This one's out of New Mexico, and the allegations in this one are incredibly disturbing. 30 year old Isaac Apadaka is on trial for the 2022 murder of 21 year old Grace Jennings. Prosecutors say that Isaac conspired with his girlfriend Kiara McCully to kill Grace with a sword. So apparently about 10 years ago, Isaac and Grace were together. That means that Isaac was 20 at the time and Grace was only 6, 16. Now, he acknowledges that that was illegal, but Kara, Isaac's current girlfriend, also said that she had been in a relationship with Grace prior to either of them dating Isaac. Okay, so then fast forward all these years and Isaac and Kara are dating. Well, Isaac invites Grace to come stay with them at their house, and Isaac said that the three of them shared a bed, but denied there being any kind of sexual relationship that involved Grace. So according to investigators, Isaac's own mother called 911 after her son told her that he had witnessed his girlfriend Kiara kill another woman with a sword. So when deputies arrived, they found Grace Jennings dead in a detached garage with multiple chop wounds. Y', all, it was so bad, that officer said it appeared that her left ear had been chopped off. And there was a blood covered sword recovered from the scene. And Kiara had fresh cuts on her hands that she had cover with bandages. So investigators looked around the house and they found a washing machine running. And there was only like 15 minutes left on the cycle. So prosecutors said that that was part of an attempt to destroy evidence. Now, Kiera has already pleaded guilty and she accepted a 30 year sentence in exchange for testifying truthfully against Isaac. And originally, Kira told officers that she did not know what happened, but she admitted that she was mad that Isaac had invited Grace to stay with them. She said that she had had some dreams about harming Grace. But prosecutors say that text messages will show that Isaac pressured and encouraged Cara to carry out the killing, basically aggressively coercing her into it. Now, if convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy, Isaac can face life in prison. So that one started this week and it is a trial that we are definitely keeping an eye on. We'll be right back.
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All right now. It wouldn't be an episode of Court Report if there wasn't a Karen Reed update, right? If you listened to last week's court report, you know that there was some drama in the Karen Reed civil case. Are we surprised? Of course not. As a quick recap, Judge Mark Guildy ordered an emergency hearing and required all attorneys and parties to appear in court with just 48 hours notice during a holiday week. But when everyone arrived, the judge did not allow any of the sides to speak. Now, the issue centered on confidential medical information involving former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor. The judge believed that information that had been filed under seal may have been improperly disclosed. As in nobody's supposed to see this, but somebody saw it because it was posted on X. Now, after that hearing, Karen Reed's attorneys filed a series of emergency motions arguing the judge's conclusion was based on an incorrect timeline. Okay, so last week, I went over this, and I said, last week it was just a theory. It was pure speculation. It was just based on kind of Internet research. Right. But apparently it was right, because the defense claimed that the information that the court believed had been leaked was actually publicly available already before the sealed filing was ever submitted. Now, according to the defense, that key piece of evidence was the screenshot of the X post that had appeared to be posted after the sealed filing by, like, 30 minutes. But they said, basically same thing we said last week, that that time stamp was displayed in a different time zone. So once it was converted to Eastern time, they argue that the post was actually published more than three hours before the sealed filing, meaning it could not have come from confidential court documents. And also, Turtle Boy, the one who posted it, had already said that he had a source who told him that, and he said that on a live stream, like, a couple days earlier. The defense also argued that they were never given the chance to correct the record during the emergency hearing because the judge ended the proceeding without allowing counsel to respond. And Judge Guildy has now responded, but not in the way the defense was hoping, probably because rather than deciding whether the timeline was correct or acknowledging any of that, he basically ruled that these motions to clarify the record were the wrong legal vehicle basically to raise those arguments. In other words, he didn't decide whether the defense was right or wrong about the alleged leak. He just said they needed to use a different type of motion if they wanted the court to reconsider the issue. So for now, the dispute over whether there was actually any improper disclosure remains unresolved. And given this case's history, it's probably safe to assume that we have not heard the last of it. Well, that'll do it for this week's court report. And as always, I will keep following the cases and bring you the biggest developments as they happen. And also, don't forget, Saturday morning, I will be releasing a full breakdown of the Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing. Now, this wasn't just another hearing. This was days of testimony, hours of legal arguments, and some of the most significant evidence that we have seen in this case so far. We have new information never before seen, never before heard. So we will walk through what the witnesses said, what investigators revealed, and the key evidence that both. Both sides fought over, and what all of it could mean as this death penalty case moves forward. Now, if you've been trying to keep up with the headlines, but you feel like you're missing the bigger picture, that is exactly what this episode is for. So I will see you back here Saturday morning for the full Tyler Robinson breakdown. And that's your court report for the week. The stories continue, the evidence keeps coming, and the legal process is far from over. I'll be back next week with the latest developments. Until then, keep asking questions, keep looking at the evidence, and decide for yourself what you believe. My name is Brandy Churchwell, creator and host of the 13th Juror podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating or review. It helps more listeners discover the podcast. And if you know someone who would find this case as fascinating as you did, share this episode with them. For additional episodes, case updates and more information about the podcast, visit our website@13jurorpodcast.com the evidence has been presented, the arguments have been made, and now comes the same question faced by every juror. What do you believe? Thank you for listening.
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Hey everybody, Lady Luck here and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now all summer long I'm going to be celebrating by playing on spinquest.com which is an American owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to spinquest.com get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks.
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Spin Quest is a free to play social casino, Boyd where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.
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