What On Earth Happened To Those Chiefs Fans?
Three friends, frozen to death in the backyard?
Greetings, all! Thanks to those who joined us today on America’s Newsroom with the incisive Bill Hemmer — fastest touchscreen in the East — and the ever-luminous Dana Perino. Great fun, great people, great conversation.
Please tune in Thursday for some more fun on Fox and Friends (perhaps the only thing on earth that gets me out of bed that early). We’ll be discussing some really interesting true-crime stuff…. Two cases (below) that are sure to intrigue.
And please join us on Fox this Friday for the full hour of Outnumbered. “One lucky guy,” indeed….
Now to business. How could three friends freeze to death in their friend’s backyard — and no one notice for two days?
IF you haven’t seen the story, three friends who were watching the KC Chiefs v. L.A. Chargers football game were found dead on January 9th — two days after watching the game at the home of a fourth friend. The fourth friend, Jordan Willis, is reportedly a scientist and respected researcher.
While Willis disclaims all knowledge of what could have occurred, the circumstances surrounding it all just keep getting stranger. Like good detectives, let’s do a timeline:
FIRST, Willis’s lawyer currently states that his client showed the three friends in question out the door when they left to go home, then he went to sleep. If so, how could they end up frozen to death in Willis’s backyard? And Willis didn’t think it was unusual that two of the friends left their cars at his house?
And this report says Willis doesn’t use that back door. So then again: How would they get out back?
NEXT, Willis’s lawyer previously stated that the three men were still in the house when Willis went to sleep, and that Willis pretty much stayed asleep until the bodies were discovered. So which is it? Was he awake when they left or not?
THEN, family and friends of the decedents reportedly tried to contact Willis during the two days the three were missing — with no response from Willis, who was reportedly sleeping with headphones on and a “loud fan” going.
Sleeping for two days? With a loud fan going in sub-freezing temperatures in January?
NOW comes word that there was in fact a fifth man there — who states he left while the remaining four buddies were reportedly still awake and watching Jeopardy.
According to Kansas City Chief of Police Jake Becchina, the case is “100% not being investigated as a homicide.”
But that said, there are clear signs that the investigation is ongoing. First, the police requested from family of the deceased the passwords to the victims’ phones — an obvious first step in ascertaining what might have led up to all this.
Also, after the family for one of the vics obtained a lawyer, the police returned to the house-in-question two days after the discovery of the bodies, to conduct a more thorough search than the consensual they carried out on Jan. 9.
And finally — and likely most significantly — the police are awaiting the results of toxicology reports for all of the three deceased (which are likely still about a month out).
Rickie Johnson Sr, father of one of the victims, has raised some issues. His son’s coat was apparently found inside the house — contradicting the idea that the victims were “shown out” the front door to go home. Johnson and other family members have also raised the idea that the victims were purposely drugged by Willis, who has a science background.
Personally, I do not suspect a murder here. If it does turn out that way, it would have to be one of the most blundering crimes ever.
I do, however, think that Willis has major explaining to do. And I would suggest that the toxicology results are going to shed some major light on all this (see below).
I understand that the families are frustrated at how inexplicable it all is. Who can blame them? But in the end, I think this one will end up being more sad than sinister.
This Is Not The Weed They Had At Woodstock
A California woman, Bryn Spejcher, was convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter in December for stabbing her boyfriend 109 times, killing him. Spejcher and the victim had apparently been smoking marijuana together.
A California judge just sentenced her to probation.
Huh?
(Bryn Spejcher mugshot)
During the trial, an expert testified that Spejcher was in a “marijuana-induced psychosis” during the event. Apparently, when police arrived, Spejcher attempted suicide by stabbing herself in the neck; police had to hit her with the Taser and use batons to ultimately arrest her.
Now, under California law, intoxication is no defense to committing a crime — unless that intoxication is “involuntary.” Spejcher’s attorneys portrayed the victim as a bully who forced Spejcher to take bong hits that she didn’t want — thereby inducing the psychosis.
Conveniently, Spejcher maintained that it was only the last hit of weed that caused the psychosis — thereby allowing her to assert that she was coherent up to that point. Why would that be necessary? Because she needs that previous coherence so that she can claim to recall what happened. If the weed had made her crazy from the start, her recollections would be suspect, at best.
In any case, the jury rejected the argument, finding Spejcher guilty in less than four hours.
Nonetheless, it was that defense — that she wasn’t responsible for her actions — that the judge cited in sentencing probation and community service. (He couldn’t really even sentence her to “time served” — she’s been out on bail since the crime occurred in 2018).
This one reeks. The jury rejected the very defense the judge used to award a slap on the wrist.
Can he do it? Yes. Should he have used the very defense the jury rejected to explain it? No. In a sense, this judge made himself judge AND jury.
Now, in California the prosecution does have the right to appeal a sentence that they consider too lenient. However, that cannot be an opinion; that is, the appeal has to be based on a mistake of law by the judge.
And while Involuntary Manslaughter in California carries up to four years in prison, it does not mandate a prison term.
Which is why the matter almost certainly rests there.
With one more takeaway: The weed that legal marijuana advocates have peddled so gleefully to all of us as the savior of our dying urban economies is largely unregulated; laced with everything from fentanyl to other synthetics; and has been bred to be roughly six-to-ten times as powerful as the marijuana your hippy aunt smoked at Woodstock. It’s poisoning an entire generation who’ve been taught not only that it’s not harmful — but that it’s a habit to aspire to.
There will be a reckoning at some point regarding this. Likely when the current crop of high-schoolers hits the workforce. When they won’t be qualified or able to work.
And lastly: I am of the suspicion that adulterated marijuana is at the heart of both the cases we’ve covered here today.
