go up seven floors and wait for the verdict to be announced. judge james ginn asked the attorneys yesterday i would like you guys here within 30 minutes. now we saw special prosecutor dan webb walk in and smollett team walk. in i asked him if he had any comment he didn t provide any comment, bret. bret: was there any thought of having cameras in this courtroom? is that a thing in that courtroom? there was a request for cameras and judge james denied it this is an older courthouse as many are. the courtrooms aren t adequately equipped for television or live broadcast. special equipment had to be brought in just for the exhibits. there is not even large screens in these courtrooms. and a short while ago we saw some of the staff come down and remove large screens since the trial portion is over, bret. bret: yeah. the first jury first heard from the special prosecutor dan webb and saying that smollett not only committed a crime by falsely reporting a hate crime,
now that yesterday we heard a lot of details come out about this relationship between the parents and ethan and in the same respect it s been days later since you executed the search warrant on the home. have you at this point noticed or found any other evidence in the home, anything that would have pointed or indicated to this event happening? any sort of any red flags? well, again, i m not going to get too awfully specific because we re transitioning to the trial portion, but as we have said and as the prosecutor said, we have clear evidence that this was premeditated, and he was actually looking forward to it. sheriff, will you have any police presence when the kids go back to school? absolutely. and i don t know if you were here for the other press conference we had about these unrelated threats and every police chief pretty much in the county was here. we re all united in doing
plan is and the anticipation is that the prosecutor and i are working hand in glove to hold them accountable. now that yesterday we heard a lot of details come out about this relationship between parents and ethan and the same respect, it s been days later since you executed the search warrant on the home. have you noticed or found any other evidence in the home? anything that would have pointed or indicated to this happening? any sort of, any red flags? again, i m not going to get too awfully specific because we re transitioning to the trial portion, but as we had said and as the prosecutors said, we have clear evidence this was p premeditated and he was actually looking forward to it. sheriff, do you have police presence when the kids go back to school? absolutely. i don t know if you were here for the other press conference
morning. by about lunchtime they have a verdict so take from that what you will. closing argument yesterday in the final moments of this trial portion, the prosecution really emphasized something they had not hammered on too much prior and that was the element of the sexual assault is a potential motive. the prosecution said that salt sadly molly tibbets was found without her her underpants were moved away from the body, they argued that christian rivera wa angry and that he was rejected by molly tibbets. that he initially confessed tha he had found molly tibbets hot, he approached her and she rejected him. in the final moments yesterday the prosecution really emphasized that elements. it seemed like they had stayed away from something so sensitiv throughout the trial and throug all of their pretrial publicity but yesterday they hammered on that final element. so now, seven hours into the
tibbetts. she was 20 years old. this man now claims that his confession was not the whole truth and he didn t speak up sooner because armed men had threatened his daughter and her mother. matt finn is live at the courthouse in iowa where the defense has just rested its case. matt? martha, as we were inching closer to the end of the trial portion, it was quite a moment when cristhian rivera took to the stand in his own defense. we now have stunning testimony from illegal immigrant, cristhian rivera. some of his testimony contradicts what he previously told police in his confession about how 20-year-old molly tibbetts was brutally stabbed to death. rivera claims on the night tibbetts went missing, he took a shower at home. two masked armed men got into his house. they instructed him into his car and to drive to molly tibbetts town where they circled here on her jog. rivera says one of the masked