Sorry for not posting lately. Not much to say. I've been doing a lot of yard work (trimming trees, tearing out bushes, etc). I've also been dealing with a case of identity theft, so that's taking up a lot of my energy trying to get that sorted out. I've been to the bank many times and have been to the sheriff's office many times.
I've been reading John as part of the New Testament in a Year class at my church, and was struck by the following section. You can read mine below, or you can use the new Blogger Bible feature to the very left of your screen. (<--- over there).
John 12:1-3
Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, and expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
One would not typically anoint the feet of a living person. He or she would wash the head. You would only wash the feet if someone were dead. Mary was (rather unconsciously) preparing Jesus for burial, even though he was still alive -- although he wouldn't be for long.
John 12:4-6
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
As each gospel was written, it seemed to me that as time progressed, each gospel portrayed Judas as being more and more evil. I recall Mark simply saying that Judas betrayed Jesus. Matthew and Luke both call him a traitor, and John gives a whole spiel about Judas' thievery. John writes about Judas' bad character even before the betrayal. He breaks away from the story at hand to step up on his soap box.
One thing I have noticed with all four gospels is that they all clearly state that Judas was the betrayer, even before it was to happen in the story. You see, "Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, did yada yada yada....." I'm always like, "Why did you (the author) give it away!?" It's a bad move to give away information like that. It's like me telling you that the dad dies in the movie The Road. "The father, who later dies, caught the man who stole their cart of food and clothes and made him strip naked." See? I gave it away. It doesn't makes sense for me to do that. Why did the gospel writers do that? I guess they expect the reader to be familiar with the story of Jesus and who Judas was. Still, if the reader knew who Judas Iscariot was, why even mention him as the betrayer? This just doesn't make any sense to me.
John 12:7
"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."
Jesus is basically saying, "The poor have been poor for years. They can wait a few more minutes."
John 12-8-11
Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, who he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
It's interesting to note how the high priests want to kill Lazarus. However, you don't see this happen. This never got past the planning stages. I guess they had too much on their plates (Jesus) to deal with Lazarus. In the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, Lazarus is seen being killed by Saul to discredit Jesus.
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Go out and buy the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy (of No Country for Old Men fame) and read it. It's incredibly tragic. After reading it, go watch the movie. Both are heart-wrenching and you WILL cry. This is probably one of my favorite fiction books of all time.
Today, one day after sentencing William Inman II to life in prison without the possibility of parole, I was interviewed by NBC4 out of Columbus, Ohio, and the Columbus Dispatch.
I was interviewed by NBC4's Steve Wainfor for a news segment on the 5 o'clock news. You can watch the resulting video here.
In this blog, I will try to simplify the case as much as I can in laymen's terms.
Evidence
We were shown nearly 190 piece of evidence. However, only one piece of evidence tied the whole crime together. The GPS unit was the only thing GIVEN to the detectives, and it was the one thing that we found to be the defining aspect of our guilty verdict. Without the GPS, the detectives would never have known that the Inmans went to two car washes, (both had recoverable security camera footage), and an auto salvage store, where the Inmans switched the tires on their white 2003 Ford Crown Victoria, a former Streetsboro Police Department car. The second car wash showed the Inmans appear to clean the car and remove the spotlight on the driver side "A pillar," (the one closest to the front of the car).
The owner of the auto salvage store stated during testimony that William Inman I (dad) had bought tires that were not as good condition as the tires that were on the car.
The GPS corresponded with a cell phone call that was made by the younger Inman in front of the Logan WalMart store. Willie made this call to Summer to state that he was broken down near Mansfield and was not able to pick up the kids that day. He was not in Mansfield, he was circling Logan waiting until Summer got off of work. He lied to the police, and he lied to Summer.
I do have to add one thing. Many people are saying that "oh they had 190 pieces of evidence, but one convinced them. They must be stupid." Listen. An overwhelming majority of the evidence was pictures of the same thing, taken from different angles. I think there were 20 pictures of the outside of the car......
Verdict
While looking through the evidence during deliberation, we found no evidence that William Inman II pulled the zip tie around Summer Inman's neck because any fingerprint evidence was destroyed when Summer's body was dumped in the septic tank of the Faith Tabernacle Church near Nelsonville, Ohio, (this is the same church where Summer and Willie met and were married). However, while we did conclude that Willie was involved, we were not convinced that he was the sole proprietor (or principle offender, as the instructions said). This simply means that Willie may have pulled the zip tie, but we found no evidence to show us that. I know this is hard for people to accept, but this is how it's done in the court of law. For this case, there were two stipulations for each aggravated murder charge (the highest form of murder in the state of Ohio).
Stipulation 1: William Inman II was the principle offender Stipulation 2: William Inman II was a conspirator, and was involved with the murder, but did not necessarily pull the zip tie.
According to Ohio law, these two are to be deemed equal, and should be treated equally.
Sentencing
As mentioned in the Columbus Dispatch article, my first response was that Willie should get life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. I was quickly persuaded though to accept life with no possibility of parole.
I must stress that no one was forced or pressured into the verdict. Everyone was eventually convinced that life in prison without parole was necessary.
We felt that the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating offenses.
Mitigating factors: William Inman II was, emotionally and psychologically, a 12-13 year old (even though he is 26). He was spoiled by mom, with no restrictions or discipline, and a controlling father. He had no self-identity and was wholly dependent on mom and dad to do everything. Aggravated offenses: William Inman II was a conspirator, and involved with the murder, but did not necessarily pull the zip tie.
Because of our decision, death was to not be imposed, as per instructions from Judge Wallace.
Comments
I personally am against the death penalty, but because it was a secular institution, and because it was law, I felt that I would have been able to sign my name to put William Inman II to death.
Here are some comments that I am seeing on Facebook and the various news sources.
OMG this story is so scary! To think that he could have gotten away with this horrible gruesome murder if not for the GPS.Did the jury not hear or see all the 191 pieces of evidence? I am so sick of people crying about there childhood and using it as an excuse to kill someone.My Daddy made me do it. Bullsh--! He wanted to do it! I hope the next two juries are smarter then this one!
WELL IT'S A DAM SHAME THAT TAX PAYERS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO PAY TO KEEP HIM FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE,I SAW THIS MAN IN JAIL AND HE COULD CARE LESS THAT HE IS THERE,IT'S A FREE RIDE FOR HIM!! THEY SHOULD TAKE HIS LIFE THE SAME WAY HE TOOK SUMMERS!!!!!!!
(My favorite) He deserved to be eaten alive by wild dogs instead of afree ride at taxpayer's expense for the next 60 years.
weak. Why dont they sentence people to death anymore? I swear, we ahve to many people who are too sensitive to people getting punished. Oh well, were all going to pay for his living exspenses. Thank you Jury who voted for life w/o parole.
Should have got the death penalty ! Mental issues is a cop out excuse , if you can figure out how to kill someone u deserve the same !
Such a sleaze!!!!!
They should stuff him in a septic tank.
Then let those jurors pay for his time in prison because I do not want to pay for every meal he has that keeps him alive, all the water and soap to keep him clean and feeling good, the electricity used to power anything to help him read books or news papers. I don't want to pay for that and I'm sure nobody else does either
I still think they ought to tie him up in the town square and let the residents have a go at him. Instead we get to support him for the rest of his sorry life. :/
don't like we are paying for his keep, but the death penalty is too easy for him, he deserves so much more I agree with *********
If this is your first time to my blog, you probably should know that I suffer from clinical depression. I was first diagnosed with depression back in about fourth grade. In September of 2008, I was in a downward spiral, emotionally, mentally, and physically. I was dealing with a lot of issues concerning schooling, family, and friends. The medications that I was taking weren't working. I attempted suicide on September 17, 2008 in my home outside of Logan, (thankfully I was treated and released from the hospital the same night). I think the depression was brought on by the torment and bullying that I experienced all throughout school by the rotten spoiled rich kids. It has affected my life drastically that I have to seek counseling and have to take medication everyday. Folks, psychological issues are real. These feelings don't just come and go, they come and they stay. They stay for long periods of time. They affect my life, my relationships, and my family and friends.
Taxpayer Cost
The one thing that I see consistently is that the taxpayers shouldn't keep him alive. In Texas, it costs nearly 4 times more money to put someone to death than to keep someone alive. Check out this website to see how much it costs to put someone to death. We were to not consider the taxpayer cost in our deliberation.
Emotions
I also see a lot of people putting their emotions into this. Putting your emotions and preconceived notions forward was the thing you should NOT do in jury. You have to consider the facts and evidence shown, and NOTHING ELSE.
Advice For Future Jurors
I was asked by Steve Wainfor for some advice to future jurors:
1.) Do not let your emotions show, and do not let your emotions cloud your focus
2.) Leave all your perceived notions outside, and focus only on the facts and evidence.
3.) Leave your baggage and anger outside the courtroom.
Why did I do this? I believe that jury duty is a very serious job. I treated it like a job. I did my job, even if I didn't like some aspects of it. Anyone who has a job dislikes something about it. My mother, who is a clerk, hates doing things more than once. I kept my Christian beliefs out of this because I felt that this was not the appropriate time to bring it up or to be "religious." Remember: Separation of church and state.
God bless the family and friends of Summer Cook-Inman in their time of pain.
In case you didn't know, I was juror number 181 in the trial of the State of Ohio vs. William Inman II. On Tuesday, we convicted Willie of 2 counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Today, we just sentenced Willie to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. We all did what we felt was best.
March 22, 2011, Summer Cook-Inman had just clocked out of her job at the Century National Bank in downtown Logan, Ohio. Her estranged husband, William Inman II, father-in-law William Inman I, and mother-in-law, Sandra Inman, were all arrested days later.
Sandra confessed to Logan Police that the family had kidnapped, murdered, and dumped Summer's body in a church septic tank.
She was found a week later with a large zip tie around her neck, and three zip ties around her wrists.
We just finished the sentencing and final phase of William Inman II's trail.
Willie could have faced the death penalty. I'm morally against putting someone to death, but I would have been willing to do so.
The 10 Commandments say thou shall not murder. There is a difference between killing and murder. The taking of one's life for justice is not murder.
I was looking through an old book at my church today before a wedding rehearsal and I found three really interesting articles that involve Capital University, where I attend school. These articles come from around the 1920s.
Palestine Student at Capital Dies
Afif Nicola Shahla, 26, a native of Palestine who was enrolled in the Theological Seminary of Capital University, died late Tuesday at Mt. Caramel Hospital following an operation of appendicitis. He was widely known thruout [sic] the state by his lectures on the Holy Land
Student Dies
Palestine Youth Succumbs To Appendicitis Attacks
Funeral services for Afif Nicola Shahla, 26, a native on Palestine an a student in the Theological Seminary of Capital University, who died Tuesday evening in Mt. Caremel Hospital, will be held at Christ Lutheran Church in Bexley, of which he was a member. Death followed an operation for appendicitis. he had been ill for 11 weeks.
Shahla was born in Jerusalem and was a shepherd boy in Palestine for 12 years. He worked for the British government for two years and came to this country in 1921. He entered Capital in 1922 and would have been graduated in another year. He was a naturalized citizen of this country.
Shahla paid for his college expenses by delivering lectures on the Holy Land. He leaves his parents, five brothers and five sisters, all living in Jerusalem. Burial in Eastlawn Burial Park.
Mr. and Mrs. Otto Schenk
Wheeling, W. VA. leading benefactors of Capital University, are shown above congratulating President Otto Mees of Capital University (right) on the celebration of his forty-ninth birthday.
Mr. and Mrs. Schenk were in Columbus this week to attend the opera, "Rigpletto," Wednesday night. THey were donors of the [destroyed] which made possible the [destroyed portion of article] of the Divinity Hall the building which houses the theological seminary of Capital University, and which is one of the finest examples of collegiate Gothic architecture in the county. They, in company with Dr. and Mrs. Mees dined at the new girls' dormitory Wednesday evening, and Mr. Schenk addressed the co-eds.
He has said that is very anxious to see the further growth of Capital university, and intimated that he is willing to give his financial aid to the expensive [rest of article destroyed].
I thought these articles were interesting, since they predate the founding of Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
