An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
More On Matt
When I made this post on Wednesday, I failed to do a little more reading, and I really should have, because I missed a couple of really important articles that were connected, and now I’m even angrier than I’ve been since I found out about Matt’s murder, if that’s possible.
Defense case: Toste slaying was justified
A lawyer for a Santa Rosa man on trial for the slaying of Matthew Toste in a downtown parking garage more than three years ago conceded Wednesday his client did the shooting, but insisted it wasn’t murder.
Rather, defendant Joseph Lopez Jr. thought Toste had shot his father during a scuffle between the two in which Toste knocked the father to the ground, said George Boisseau, the younger Lopez’s lawyer.
WHAT????? What a total load of male bovine excrement! I realize that lawyer’s are suppose to give their clients the best defense possible, but this is so much garbage, I can’t even imagine even a bottom feeder with a law degree trying to pull off such a tactic.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Brady said Toste, a 32-year-old construction worker, his date, a female cousin and her husband had just parked their car and were walking through the garage to a nearby nightclub when they were confronted by a group of at least six men.
The men, later identified as members of the Norteño criminal street gang, made catcalls and whistled and touched one of the women on the buttocks, Brady said.
When Toste objected, the men surrounded him and began taunting him. “They were saying, ‘Hey whiteboy. What are you going to do?’ ” Brady told jurors.
Not only was this MURDER, but it was also a racially motivated MURDER!
Juror intimidation charged in Toste murder case
The uncle of a Santa Rosa man on trial for murder pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of felony juror intimidation.
George Lopez, 36, the uncle of Joseph Lopez Jr. — charged in the 2006 slaying of Matthew Toste — is free on $60,000 bail for the incident that prosecutors said happened Feb.1.
(…)
Lopez is the brother of former co-defendant Joseph Lopez Sr. and the uncle of Lopez Jr. His criminal history in Sonoma County includes a conviction for felony assault in 1997 and a felony drug conviction from 1999. He has been sentenced to prison twice.
On Thursday, Lopez requested a public defender. He told the judge he was unemployed and had no money. Chouteau asked him how he raised bail and he said: “I don’t know. Somebody bailed me out.”
Bail or bond? Since the judge is under a gag order, obviously, only the parties involved know the details, but I’m not real sure why bail was set. This is obviously not an upstanding citizen of the community. Even if bond was posted, $6,000 is quite a chunk of change for someone with no job. And not knowing who posted it? Give me a freakin’ break! I pray the jury will be safe, and the scum that tore a hole in Sally’s family will pay dearly!
Addition provided by Sally:
Witnesses unable to say who killed Toste
This does not bode well.
This STINKS all the way around?? Bail? Not in my court and 60,000 for murder, with eye witnesses? I am sorry, this sounds like the Lopez’s are getting away with not only murder, but assault and drugs, the question, Why were they even out of prison with that record. STINKY!!!
The 60K was for the jury intimidation.
You hear so much about gang violence, and how they mostly come to a bad end. God forgive me, but I wish this bunch had found the pavement BEFORE they could murder little Matt in cold blood! Well, he wasn’t so little anymore, but….
you like to depress me… those basterds deserve to be buried under the court house… matts the one who pushed me to stand up for myself.. and no matter how much we fought he always stood up for me.. he didn’t deserve this and my only comfort is that if he had to die, he died as matt… standing up for someone and not putting up with any crap!
Well, wasn’t exactly my intent, but….
Ya know, something has been bugging me…..where was the other guy while all this was going on? What was he doing? Why wasn’t he standing up for his date?