Dateline NBC: Raven Leigertwood
Dateline featured the story of Veno and Raven Leigertwood this past week–an interesting story indeed. It’s a true mystery, yet unsolved, so what is the truth? What happened to Veno Leigertwood?
If there was ever a tough case to watch on video and wonder what the truth is, this is it. Why? Because the story is complex. Veno Leigertwood was gunned down outside his home early on a Saturday morning when he was on his way to give a presentation to a college class. A witness reported seeing two suspects go into an alley, and come out after gun shots were fired 15 minutes later–the same alley where Veno’s body was found, but they have never been identified. And worse, Veno’s family is pointing the finger squarely at Veno’s wife, Raven.
Raven’s behavior is interesting. She talks very controlling in the first clip we see of her on Dateline. “You…don’t…think…it’s possible… for…someone…this…good…to have this happen to them.” Is she thinking on her feet, censoring what she is saying? Why? Notice the stark pauses between words? It’s telling that she is not talking freely and without thought.
She also flagged me when she talked about the morning Veno was gunned down. Her account of events that morning is oddly missing details. She is very scattered in what she recalls, which I find odd. The story doesn’t coherently go from hearing foot steps to looking out the window, to wondering what was going on. She jumps from footsteps to the police inside her house. Did they break in or did she let them in? Why does she skip the details here? In my opinion, we do not have a normal memory progression recollection. She also is extremely emotionally flat. Why is she so flat? Was this common for Raven?
Yet when I see her cry on the news clip after Veno was killed, while I don’t see tears, I do see genuine stress or sadness. It could be either, however. I can’t tell by that clip alone. I wish I could see that entire clip. That would be helpful.
Furthermore, Raven says, “In the beginning, my immediate thought was, this was an accident, it has to be. Someone didn’t mean to do this.” I find that statement very odd. Is that how you would feel it someone killed your husband with a semi-automatic gun? It was an accident??
She further says, “You can’t focus on anything but trying to prove everybody wrong.” What? That doesn’t make sense to me. Did she show classic signs of denial or not? I’d like to find out.
And later she tells Veno’s family maybe someone killed him because of bad debt. What? Why would she say that?
Another point made by the police that is was not common for Veno to leave the house on a Saturday at 6:30, so either this was a random event, yet not a robbery, or someone tipped someone off that he would be leaving that morning.
Also, Veno’s cell phone was missing. This is interesting. Why would they take JUST his cell phone?
When Raven is asked if she didn’t want to go back to work during the economic downturn, I don’t believe her when says it wasn’t a problem. She said, “Going back to work (shoulder shrug) really wasn’t….ah…a…problem.” I believe Veno’s mother that is was an issue for her, but would that cause her to kill Veno, I don’t know.
Later in show, Raven also is questioned by Dateline that she told different people different stories of what she was doing that morning. This definitely raises my eyebrows. Honest people don’t get these details mixed up. They are clear as day and never changed. This is a whopper of a red flag. If this is true, then that cements it for me, and I don’t believe Raven’s story.
Raven raises my eyebrows to say the least. She is high on my radar of “want to see more” because it is possible that she did have some involvement in Veno’s death, but didn’t actually do the deed, if you will. In these situations, people can convince themselves they are innocent and are not lying, which makes clues a lot harder to come by. So, I would like to see more, but I am clearly suspicious of some involvement outside of pulling the trigger.
If anyone finds any video footage of Raven shortly after Veno’s death, I would love to see it!
Casey Anthony’s Emotions
Many of you have requested that I review a video of Casey Anthony, that is void of audio, showing Casey after her mom Cindy testified in her trial.
Starting at 0:16-0:20, we see Casey display anger as she lowers her eyebrows and points her finger as she is talking. Her emotions then morph into sadness. Look at how her eyebrows knit together and raise up in the middle. If you look, you will also see stress lines in Casey’s forehead. Casey then shakes her head, as if in disbelief, as she appears to potentially blow her nose from the tears she is shedding.
Casey starts talking at around 0:31 and says, “She….(blah, blah, blah)” as she then points her finger. You can clearly tell she is frustrated by her mom or whoever she is talking about. I suspect they did not do what Casey wanted. Casey also displays oblique eyebrows again, which I interpret as genuine sadness.
The camera zooms in and we see Casey shake her head no. I suspect she is in disbelief at something her mom said on the stand that she does not agree with, and she can’t believe it. At 0:40, Casey displays anger again and we see she is clearly frustrated as she speaks. At one point, she says the word “Nothing”…Maybe Casey was hoping her mom would say something about something and she didn’t? It’s hard to say, but Casey is clearly upset and angry. Her emotions are genuine.
At around 1:34, Casey spouts off to the woman she is talking to. We see her confident and arrogant in whatever she is saying, which is interesting, considering all that Casey is going through. Then around 1:42, Casey seems to be saying something like “It just hurts so bad.” What is interesting is she is likely reflecting on something her mother did or didn’t say, or did or didn’t do — but she never get this emotion when it comes to Caylee. We’ve never heard her say once, “It just hurts so bad” when speaking of Caylee. It’s eye-opening, without a doubt.
At 1:50, we see Casey talk again in anger. I suspect she says, “She…(blah, blah, blah)”
I think one can strongly conclude that Casey is not happy with what her mother did during her testimony. Whatever happened clearly makes Casey angry, upset, and in a state of disbelief. At the end of the video, whatever the woman says to Casey, seems to calm her down.
She Outsmarted Weiner!
How can one not get a laugh at this story? Mr. Weiner? Sending pictures…. Who could write fiction this insane?
While I missed the initial breaking news because I was away from my computer last week, and Rep. Anthony Weiner has since admitted to his obvious lies yesterday, it is fascinating to see one of the woman behind the story: Megan Broussard.
If you want my opinion, she is not a dumb girl. At first, as she says, she didn’t believe she was really speaking to Rep. Weiner. I believe her. She thought someone in his position couldn’t be that dumb, could he? Then when she found out he was, I suspect she decided to see how low he would go, and boy did he! She tempted him and he fell for the bait. She certainly played him a fool! She outsmarted him right down the drain. She was very calculating, if you ask me.
Power makes people think they can beat the system, doesn’t it? And well, when you see Elliot Spitzer on CNN, it sure makes you think they can!
In the end, its not a laughing matter, its quite sad and just a strange story that’s hard to believe is real, true and newsworthy. We live in a society where truth, fiction, lies, and reality all blur into a fuzzy cocktail of insanity. If we all learned to get a little more honest, life wouldn’t be nearly this complicated, if you ask me!
Hannah Overton: Prosecution Withheld Key Evidence
DEATH BY SALT POISONING
Back in 2008, I saw the story of Hannah Overton. Hannah was a woman who loved children, who donated her time to children’s causes and who eventually fostered a little boy in need named Andrew Burd. She wanted to adopt Andrew. Andrew suffered from a rare eating disorder that caused him to have a ravenous appetite. Andrew sadly died in Hannah’s care in 2006 at the age of four.
The prosecution contended that Hannah punished Andrew and made him eat a lethal amount of salt. Hannah was convicted of killing Andrew, and was found guilty of capital murder in 2007 and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
In 2008, I saw the story detailed on ABC, and in the story, I got to see Hannah Overton on the stand talk about the accusations against her. I was absolutely certain this woman truly loved children and had Andrew’s best interest at heart. I disagreed with the juries decision. You can read my thoughts here.
This morning, when I came to my computer, a reader who disagreed with my opinion graciously wrote me and shared an update in this case that I had not heard about.
From MySanAntonio.com, “…San Antonio Express-News staff writer John MacCormack has reported [that] the case against Overton was deeply flawed. Even former Nueces County District Attorney Anna Jimenez, who as a prosecutor helped argue the case against Overton, now concedes that her conviction was “an injustice.”
The article continues, “Overton’s new attorney, Cynthia Orr of San Antonio, contends the prosecution withheld critical evidence about Andrew’s medical history as well as medical evidence that erodes the case for intentional poisoning.”
You can read more here.
Sadly, at this point, the courts are denying an appeal. I hope this changes soon! Hannah deserves to be set free!!
