Department, he collected a pension as well as his salary at the medical examiner s office. but he never saw any of the money. both checks went directly into a bank account controlled only by cara. all he did was deposit his checks. he couldn t tell you how much they even were. he was very controlled. he couldn t go out to lunch without bringing home a receipt. if he wanted to help his daughter meghan, he had to ask cara. like, i once needed help with a deposit for my phone and he had to call and have a conversation over $100, just to help me out. and so he was like, yeah, cara said okay. and it s like, okay, thanks. meghan s mom, and j.j. s first wife, sherry tribby, said it was always like that with cara. once when meghan was in elementary school, i didn t have the money to buy her shoes. so, i asked john so help me and he was reluctant, reluctant at first and then he finally helped me but when he did, he said, don t tell cara. but cara said, she had her
Wasn t. j.j. would always call her before he came over, but this time didn t. the detectives counted them all up. cara s versions of what happened in this tiny bedroom. they got to ten, ten different stories. as you looked at those different stories, what did you think you were dealing with here? if you are in a situation that calls for self-defense, and if you lie about the circumstances, then that tells me that you weren t justified in what you were doing. otherwise why do you need to keep changing the story? no question in their minds, said the detectives. cara murdered j.j. they arrested her. the sheriff made the announcement. so i believe this is a domestic related homicide and cara ryan was acting out because she was losing control over him. when i watched the press conference, i was crying my eyes out. fellow teacher debbie rein didn t believe what they were
Meant it suddenly didn t matter what lucinda saw or didn t see. a miranda warning, said the judge, wasn t necessary at that point. you have the right to remain silent. and in fact cara had been read her rights later at the police station. so the jury would get to hear cara s first conflicting statement. futerman was deflated. somehow he was sure lucinda had to be good for his case. but he also knew the judge s ruling was a problem. so futerman switched gears and planned his strategy to pick a jury. we anticipated that women would be favorable to someone who d have been raped. he decided to do a dry run, enlisted mock juries composed of men and women to test their reactions, not just to the evidence, but to cara herself. it s rare to witness the workings of a mock trial. they re usually confidential. and i saw the figure come through the doorway. but this is the actual audio
Accused of murder, j.j. s reputation was fair game, said attorney futerman. i think there was a lot of sides to j.j. that his best friends didn t know. including his cop buddies, said futerman. cops who, he charged, were blind to anything but cara s alleged guilt, and would do anything to prove it. it wasn t an investigation. it was a witch hunt. they sprang up out of their beds like a church choir, and they met at that gate with pitchforks. why would they do that? they were his friends. they were his buddies, his brothers. i told the jury, the police are going to lie to you. lie, as when the deputy said he read cara her rights in the patrol car, said futerman. the deputy originally said it was during the first 15 minutes, then he changed his story. and he said, i no longer read miranda within 15 minutes. i read it an hour and ten minutes later.
Disorder. he was struggling. the therapist, greene, went even further when he offered police a remarkable theory, that j.j. knew if he barged in on cara unannounced, she would shoot. and shoot to kill. my opinion has always been that it was a suicide. how could it possibly be a suicide? because he had trained cara that if someone comes through the front door unannounced you pick up a gun, you close your eyes and you shoot. to a lot of people, it would seem a stretch. he had not announced he was coming over. someone came through the front door and she did as she was trained to do. detectives weren t buying greene s idea. it s kind of a ridiculous theory. so, cara s version? that without her to help him, j.j. was depressed, suffering from ptsd, a suicidal, gambling, alcohol and oxycodone addicted man, who, in the days after he left her, fell off all of his