Delayed Justice

That was the message 17th Circuit Court Judge Mark A. Trusock repeatedly gave to Malcolm Xavier Jeffries, who is on trial for perjury relating to the 1990 beating death of Joel Battaglia. Under oath, Jeffries has repeatedly told investigators that he had no knowledge of what transpired in the early morning hours of June 11, 1990 when convicted murderer Aurelius J. Marshall beat Battaglia to death on Lake Drive in East Hills, just over the border from Easttown. After opening arguments, the trial managed to get through three witness on today, Detective Pat Needham; Malcolm’s girlfriend a the time, Tammy Warning; and Jeffries’ own sister Velma Tims. Another witness, a jail-house informant, was on the stand, but said he needed to talk with his attorney before testifying when Trusock called it for the day.

What made the session most difficult was Jeffries’ insistence that he would act pro se, for himself. At practically every utterance he was halted either by the judge or the prosecutor who filed objections that his rambling interrogation was an attempt at giving testimony, adding comment, or just so far out of the realm of court procedure as to endanger the integrity of the trial. After his opening statement, Judge Trusock told him (after dismissing the jury) that he “had opened the doors to so many things it’s incredible. … You have made an incredibly poor choice, sir. … You are burying yourself.” Jeffries’ response after the admonishment by the judge was to turn around to his brother and give him two thumbs up.

When the trial was resumed with the jury again in the room, Jeffries was warned again and again that he was likely to spend the rest of the trial remotely listening to it while his stand-by counsel, Dennis Carlson, would carry on. For his part, Carlson was disconcerted, contesting that his client is mentally ill. (At an earlier hearing Jeffries was found competent to stand trial.) Only with the last full inquiry of the day did Jeffries turn over the questioning to Carlson. That witness–a most unwilling witness–was his sister, Velma Tims who wanted nothing to do with the proceedings. Assistant Prosecutor Kellee Koncki tried to square Tims’ testimony today with earlier sworn testimony during an investigative subpoena. In the earlier account she said she was told by Jeffries that he had not told police everything. After protest after protest, Tims finally acknowledged the earlier testimony. More evidence had been forthcoming from the first civilian witness, Tammy Warning, who testified that Jeffries told her he learned about the crime during a lockup that began July 29, 1990 in the Kent County Jail. He told Warning in a phone call that an inmate known as Panda told him about the crime and that he was going to try to use that to get out of jail early.

Expected on the stand tomorrow is Acey Marshall, the brother of convicted murdered Aurelias J. Marshall. Acey testified earlier in a preliminary hearing for his brother that he saw Jeffries at the scene. Further, he said Jeffries administered a kick to the head of a figure lying on the ground, probably Joel Battaglia. There may be other witnesses. Yesterday I said there were three civilians; I now think there are four.

We’ll see tomorrow whether Jeffries takes Judge Trusock’s advice to pass over the duties of interrogation and trial management to his attorney. …All this in the effort to find out whether Jeffries perjured himself…told the police and the prosecutor something–almost anything–that wasn’t true. As Koncki stated in her opening statement, “We’re not here to prove he’s a murderer.”