Reporter Matt Sledge live tweeted today from a packed court room in Louisiana.. Sledge has the been the ADVOCATE reporter covering the death of Pottsville’s Patrick Murphy since it occurred at the Treme Empress hotel in February..
Sledge was the sole reporter that countless Eastern Pennsylvania news watchers, including the Coal Region Canary, were paying close attention to as he live-reported the inner workings of the courtroom where MEGAN HALL was beginning her long court odyssey set to take place..
A New Orleans homicide detective testified Thursday that Murphy was stabbed three times in the front part of his body on the morning he was found dead in a Treme hotel.
We also followed the story live as it developed on our Facebook page today..
According to Sledge’s reports from the court room, Hall’s defense lawyer John Fuller said the location of the wounds and the fact that other guests heard a struggle should amount, at most, to a manslaughter charge against his client..
From the MATT SLEDGE REPORT, not to be confused with the Matt Drudge Report, but a cool reporter name nonetheless,
The sole witness at the hearing was Police Detective Patrick Guidry, who said Murphy was found inside a room at the Empress Hotel with one stab wound to his neck and two to his abdomen.
Guests in the room next door heard a roughly two-minute struggle and a woman shouting at a man, Guidry said.
“Get into the bathroom!” the woman shouted, according to the witnesses.
Surveillance video established that Murphy and Hall were the only two people to enter the hotel room early on Feb. 28 before a housekeeper discovered Murphy’s body shortly before noon, Guidry said. The only other entry point to the room was a small window that police found locked from the inside.
There is additional intrigue about what was not said at the hearing..
Sledge goes on to describe a brief moment where pre-murder misdeeds may have been hinted at..
Hall has a history of arrests for prostitution, and Fuller asked the detective at one point whether police recovered any evidence of “adult relations.”
He also asked, “Were you able to recover any video of any interactions they had that night, whether it was at a barroom, a club?”
However, after objections from prosecutors, Friedman cut off that line of questioning as irrelevant for Thursday’s hearing.
From the defense,
“It’s clear that my client did not go to the hotel with any intent whatsoever to harm the deceased in this case,” he said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if you want to commit a crime or a murder or any crime, the last thing you’re going to do is leave a copy of your ID at the front desk.”
He added that “the wounds are consistent with two people facing each other … the gentleman received no wounds to his back whatsoever.”
Assistant District Attorney Inga Petrovich said there was ample evidence supporting Hall’s arrest on a murder count. “There were three stab wounds. … I don’t know what gets more specific intent to kill than that,” she said.
The final report of the hearing today: Friedman says state has “probable cause” to arrest Hall on second-degree murder. Hall’s bail remains at $750,000. Instructs Atty. Fuller he can apply for reduced bail at a later date…
There has been a tremendous amount of confusion as to what Megan Hall’s name is.. various versions exist, but today, as SLEDGE reports, the final conclusion of the spelling may be the most noteworthy news from the hearing: Fuller declined to say if self-defense would be the eventual course of action, but he did confirm, for the record, her name is Magen.
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