www.turnto23.com
The footage pretty much showed the two boys were never with them. If it is the footage I know of. Showing they were long gone.
West trial: Prosecutor focuses on surveillance footage in murder trial of adoptive parents
A prosecutor steadily built his case Tuesday that two toddlers were murdered by their adoptive parents by calling multiple Bakersfield Police Department detectives to testify how the defendants weren’t seenwww.bakersfield.com
I haven’t spent a lot of time on this case, because of real life and spending time on the Vallow case, but I can’t see where they’re finding any videos where he’s with the other kids either. I assume that’s what this is all about with the video testimony, so I’m probably just missing that part.
www.kget.com
I thought they had to have beds and dressers for each child and no more than two to a bedroom? At least I thought that’s what the law was in California. I moved in 1998 so maybe they’re allowing much less these days due to housing issues.
www.kget.com
Or someone helped them out and passed them on it all or never even looked into it. OR the rules have relaxed that much. None of these things would surprise me.
www.kget.com
Heartwrenching that their own children will have to testify against their own parents to help put them away. Not sure how the adopted ones would feel but still a scary experience.West Trial Day 13: Jury hears testimony on DNA evidence, call records
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Jurors on Wednesday heard hours of testimony regarding DNA testing of items seized from the California City home where Jacqueline and Trezell West were living whe…
by: Jason Kotowski
Posted: Apr 26, 2023 / 05:15 PM PDT
Updated: Apr 26, 2023 / 08:17 PM PDT
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Jurors on Wednesday heard hours of testimony regarding DNA testing of items seized from the California City home where Jacqueline and Trezell West were living when they reported their two youngest adopted sons missing.
In painstaking detail, Kern Regional Crime Lab criminalist Jeehak Kim went over multiple items he tested — blankets, car seats, mattress covers — and the DNA evidence retrieved.
Most items did not test positive for DNA from Orrin, 4, or Orson, 3, who were reported missing Dec. 21, 2020, and are presumed dead. But under cross-examination Kim acknowledged certain items were not tested for DNA as no stains were found on them, not every stain found was tested and it was inconclusive as to whether the boys’ DNA was present on certain items located in a bedroom.
<snip>
The trial will resume Monday morning. Judge Charles R. Brehmer said they’re ahead of schedule and the jury could receive the case around May 17, instead of the original projection of late May.
The Wests have four other children — two biological, two adopted. They’re expected to testify next week.
<snip>
Also Wednesday, Kern County District Attorney’s office investigator Darren Wonderly testified to call detail records he obtained for the Wests, as well as Ryan Dean, the boys’ biological mother.
The records for the Wests show frequent usage of cell towers in California City beginning Sept. 11, 2020. Numbers associated with Jacqueline and Trezell West went back and forth from Bakersfield to California City from that date to Sept. 20, 2020, according to Wonderly’s testimony.
Prosecutor Eric Smith has said both boys died that month. The Wests moved from an apartment in Bakersfield to a house in California City.
A number associated with Dean didn’t use a cell tower in California City until Dec. 23, 2020, two days after the reported disappearance, Wonderly said the records showed. Dean has testified she went to the Wests’ home on that date to question them.
www.kget.com
I’m not surprised because kids don’t remember as they’re growing up. I hope this doesn’t hurt the case.West Trial Day 14: Prosecution begins calling West children to testify
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A 16-year-old boy who lived with the couple charged in the deaths of Orrin and Orson West testified he witnessed the wife on multiple occasions place younger chil…
by: Jason Kotowski
Posted: May 1, 2023 / 12:38 PM PDT
Updated: May 1, 2023 / 08:01 PM PDT
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A 16-year-old boy who lived with the couple charged in the deaths of Orrin and Orson West testified he witnessed the wife on multiple occasions place younger children in a chokehold to get them to stop crying.
The teen, a foster child who lived with Trezell and Jacqueline West for about a year around 2016 — years before before the Wests adopted Orrin and Orson — demonstrated in court on Monday the move he said Jacqueline West used on the Wests’ two other adopted children, especially one who cried frequently. He said Jacqueline West would sit on the floor with the child in front of her and interlock her arms around his neck while using her legs to grip the child’s legs and hold the rest of the body still.
The teen said Jacqueline West would scream at the child as she held him in that position for a period of time that could last anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. The teen said he got angry but was young and couldn’t do anything to stop her.
Under cross-examination, the teen said he had a bed and room of his own while living with the Wests and had enough food and clothing. He acknowledged telling Wanda West, Trezell West’s mother, that he wished he could return after he was sent to another home.
<snip>
Immediately after his testimony, the prosecution began calling the Wests’ children to the stand. First came the adopted children, 10 and 8.
The 10-year-old testified he remembered living in the apartment in Bakersfield and house in California City, but he struggled to answer a number of questions posed by prosecutor Eric Smith, among them the names of his adoptive parents. The boy was able to identify Trezell and Jacqueline when shown photos.
He went back and forth as to whether Orrin and Orson lived in the California City home. He told Smith the last time he saw the boys was at the apartment, but later indicated the boys had moved to California City with the rest of the family.
When asked about being dropped off at his grandmother’s house days before the boys’ disappearance was reported, the child said Trezell and Jacqueline West and the other children were in the van with the exception of Orrin and Orson. His response remained the same for both the prosecution and defense.
During his interview with police the day after the boys were reported missing, the 10-year-old said the last time he saw Orrin and Orson was at the Bakersfield apartment.
A number of the responses the children gave Monday differed from what they told police in 2020.
The 8-year-old on Monday said “I don’t know” to many of Smith’s questions. He said Orrin and Orson stayed at the California City house for “a long time.”
In the police interview played for the jury, however, the boy said Orrin and Orson were in California City for one day “but then they left.” He told police he didn’t know where they went.
The 9-year-old biological son of the Wests, who, like the other boys, wore a white collared shirt to court, said he doesn’t remember Orrin or Orson. Shown photos of the children, he said he still didn’t remember them.
But the boy told police Orrin and Orson lived with the family in Bakersfield but not in California City.
An officer, in another video played in court, asked why the boys didn’t make the move to California City.
“Because they were crying a lot,” the boy said. He said the Wests told him Orrin and Orson went back to where they used to live.
The boy resumes testifying Tuesday at 9 a.m. The Wests’ other biological child will also testify.
www.kget.com
None of this surprises me. Not a bit. Not Jacqueline or the two abusing the boys either. It was a no brainer.West Trial Day 15: Eldest son in video says Orrin died, body was cold
The eldest son of Trezell and Jacqueline West said he knew his brother Orrin had died.
by: Jason Kotowski
Posted: May 2, 2023 / 12:00 PM PDT
Updated: May 2, 2023 / 12:59 PM PDT
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The eldest son of Trezell and Jacqueline West said he knew his brother Orrin had died.
“I touched his body and it was cold,” the boy says in an interview recorded Dec. 28, 2020, a week after Orrin, 4, and Orson, 3, were reported missing by adoptive parents Trezell and Jacqueline West.
That remark prompted gasps and sniffles in the audience as the video played Tuesday morning, the 15th day of the Wests’ trial. The couple are charged with murder and other crimes in the deaths of Orrin and Orson, whose bodies have not been found.
In the video, the boy, then 10, says Orrin died about a week before the family moved from Bakersfield to California City. The move happened in September 2020.
His parents asked him if they should call an ambulance, the boy says, and he said no because they told him he and the other children would be taken away. He says he agreed not to tell the other children what happened. The Wests had six children in total, two biological and four adopted.
In the video, the boy says he doesn’t know what his parents did with Orrin’s body. He says Orson left about four days after they moved. He says his parents told him Orson went to their grandmother’s house. He says he never saw him again.
