I watched two episodes of, I think it was, Dateline last night. I was bothered by them too. There are things about each case that makes me mad, or confuses me. I guess the first thing is to refresh your memory on these totally unrelated cases.
First I want to talk about the murder of Ilan Nissim, but it involves the murder of yet another man. Orlando Mesa was a family man. He was married to Janepsy "Cindy" Carballo and had a son, Noah, that was about 20 months old. Mesa was outside with his son playing with him one day.
Their house had a security camera and you can see him walk down the sidewalk and just as he passed out of view of the security camera, a white car pulled up. Two people jumped out, all dressed in black with guns. You cannot see what happened, but you see them return to the car, they back up, turn around then fire at Orlando again as they drive away.
The bastards that shot him had no qualms with shooting the kid too. A baby! The boy was not even two yet! Thank the good Lord above for the fact that the boy had injuries that were not at the center of the body. I think he was shot in the arm and the leg and the injuries weren't life threatening.
A few months later, his wife calls 911 and says she killed Nissim, Mesa's real estate business partner. She said he entered her home, uninvited, while she was moving. She said he was threatening her and so she pulled out a gun that she says the police told her to get, and shot him 5 times.
She went to the police station who seemed satisfied with her explanation. The police released a statement to the press, saying it was self-defense and the whole incident was dropped. That was that.
She restarted her life and opened a pain clinic, which was probably a bad idea anyway because it is not a good business to get into. A lot of pain clinics are simply drug dealers and they just pass out pain pills without batting an eye. The DEA said that they had received "complaints" about her clinic in particular, so they sent in a wired undercover informant who was a computer technician. He was there to install her computer system.
I had to wonder something though. How did she run a pain clinic long enough to get noticed by the DEA without a computer system? They never explained that part of it. Maybe the computers were upgrades but that's not what they said.
One day, they somehow fell into a conversation about how she was angry that the police had not arrested Nissim for the murder of her husband and the shooting of her son. She said she finally decided to take care of it herself and so she lured him to her home and shot him. She did say however that she had to protect herself and that she was afraid of him.
At first glance, her revelation on that tape sounds like a real confession. It seems cut and dried, except that when I heard what the prosecution said about another matter, my reaction was a suspension of disbelief. The prosecutor, Abbe Rifkin, at Cindy's trial said that Cindy's whole "I'm so scared" act was just that, an act. Ms. Rifkin said that Cindy was calling and texting Nissim and that Cindy even had a miscarriage, which resulted in an emergency room visit, where Cindy even texted him while she was there. Ms. Rifkin claimed that the two were having an affair.
Cindy says however that police told her to not let Nissim know that he was a suspect and to stay in touch with him, which was what she was doing. That sounds reasonable but the judge did not allow the defense to present a large number of evidence too, which included those police statements. These things that may have made a difference. I won't get into that now though because the part that bothers me even more, and the reason for my post, is what I'm about to say.
Now, if Cindy was having an affair and sleeping with Nissim, then why did she kill him? Let's think about this. You're attracted enough to be actively having sex with him, but then you kill him because he killed your husband? How could you be attracted to him by having sex with him if you're so angry you want to kill him?
Ms. Rifkin did not bother to try and explain how she felt this was possible. Was she trying to say that the whole lover thing was an act? If so, then why didn't Cindy claim he was raping her when she killed him? That would have been believable! At least, I would find that believable.
Obviously the trial took a long time and Dateline only had 40 minutes to explain the entire story. It's just that this was never addressed with the information that they provided and it should have been. For now, I cannot believe what Ms. Rifkin claims. What Cindy said was plausible.
Also, that tape doesn't mean anything. Everyone tells tall tales. I've been a nurse for 25 years and I can say that many people will design a story to avoid guilt. It very well could be that Cindy made this story up, so that it makes her feel better about what had happened. It's easier to be angry, than to feel guilt. Those that aren't familiar with it, may want to read up on rationalizing, what it means and how it manifests itself.
Cindy may very well have planned it, but from what I heard on Dateline I have to say that it doesn't look like she had a fair trial. I'm not the least bit convinced that she did do it and I'm saddened to hear that she lost the case.
Next is John Marmo Jr., which is a totally different situation. John Marmo wanted to make the Navy his career. He was stationed in Italy when he met Rebecca Braswell, who was also in the Navy. They fell into a relationship, she became pregnant and they married. It wasn't long before the tensions between them set in.
They argued a lot and one thing Braswell did consistently was tell Marmo that he needed to take care of their daughter. She was tired, she had worked hard, she had a million reasons why she didn't need to be the one doing it and he did.
The military was shrinking and becoming more restrictive. Marmo needed to get a promotion to stay in the Navy and unfortunately didn't get the promotion he needed. Braswell however did. She was accepted into the Seabee program and was restationed at Port Hueneme (pronounced why-nee-mee) in California. It's located between Malibu and Ventura and is in Ventura County. I'm very familiar with the place since I go there about once or twice per year.
Marmo got out of the Navy and became Mr. Mom. Braswell raged on about his not having a job, he doesn't take good enough care of the child, Heather. She worked all day and she was so tired and when he wanted a break, which all parents do when they take care of a small child all day, she would rant and rave saying he didn't deserve it.
Eventually their relationship deteriorated and they divorced. Braswell defied the custody agreement, not allowing Marmo to see the child when it was his right. Then she started saying that he beat her so she needed a restraining order. She invited him over then called the police saying he violated that order. Then her lover, Shannon, lied to their friends saying she was beat up at a bar by friends of Marmo.
Braswell's friends and co-workers were asked if they knew anyone that would kill her husband, or if they had a gun so she could kill him. Of all of them, only one reported that to their superior who actually said "Well... people often say things they don't mean."
Meanwhile, Marmo had his car looked at, though I'm not sure why he did, but the mechanic found an amateurish bomb that was so bad that it didn't go off. Marmo went to the police who said he needed to report it to the Navy and he did but nothing ever came of it. He told both he was sure Braswell was behind it but they let it go.
Then a second bomb was discovered and the same thing happened, no one did anything. We're talking the sheriff's office, the local police, NCIS and the DA's office. None of them looked into anything at all.
Then poor Marmo was shot to death about a month after the last bomb was found. When questioned by the press on why none of the Navy leadership, NCIS, the local police and the sheriff's office investigated any of the evidence that Braswell was clearly trying to kill him, they all blamed each other. The leadership couldn't be commented on, of course, but NCIS said that since the bombs were off base, that was a local police issue. The police and sheriff's office said that since the perpetrator was in the Navy, it was a Naval issue and the DA said the same thing. Even then Governor Schwarzenegger even said it was a federal issue!
Seriously? How many people were aware of what Braswell was doing and did nothing? The number is incredible. Were I a federal senator or representative, I would have called for an investigation into dereliction of duty on all fronts. Were I the family, I would sue the pants off them all.
I am a staunch conservative and I don't believe in frivolous lawsuits but this one takes the cake and would be absolutely warranted. He is dead, because not one single person did their job. NOT A SINGLE ONE!
I'm furious about this entire situation. I want to reach out to his family and tell them how sorry I am and if I had money, I would do everything I could to help them.
This article outlines the dereliction of the agencies involved... or rather, not involved.
Any thoughts by my fine readers?
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