Pacific Cruiser Murder Saga

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Mexico's cool innit..

Originally Posted by zeehag

sc must not live in mexico, then, as here you are guilty until proven innocent.

but yes i love i there. my check makes it thru to end of month --is magical.....

No...I don't live full time in Mx. I go back and forth periodically during hurricane season...and yes...I was referring to the U.S.

[SV DestinyAscen]

Originally Posted by zeehag

sc must not live in mexico, then, as here you are guilty until proven innocent.

but yes i love i there. my check makes it thru to end of month --is magical.....

In France it is your guilt is unknown until the investigating judge has decided. Pretrial detention is soooo long there. At least the food was good.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

No...I don't live full time in Mx. I go back and forth periodically during hurricane season...and yes...I was referring to the U.S.

In that case.. only if you can get bail..

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by SV DestinyAscen

In pretty much any judicial system - whether the trier of fact is a panel of judges or lay jury - running from the law never helps your case.

As for reporting her death - we don't really know how she died. Perhaps he had hoped it would seem like an accident. Most homicides are not committed by rational calculating people, it is why there are so few first degree murder convictions as opposed to lesser degree/manslaughter charges.

I think it is plainly obvious to anyone cruising that if someone aboard wish to do you ill, they can just get up while you're on watch - knock you over the head and throw you overboard and go back down for a "nap." Your companions probably won't even know better.

The Tongan authorities deserve some credit for keeping the details of her cause of death confidential.

Not that I'm advocating guilty or innocent, I was just looking at the possibility of him having a reason to run. You're right...it doesn't look good. But the alternative might have bee a Kangaroo court with lost evidence.
Another scenario might have been he was past out drunk while his wife fell overboard in the anchorage and could not get back on the boat which the authorities could have been seen as negligence. We'll have to wait and see what the investigating powers to be come up with. In the US if they could not present a case with tangible evidence, they would have to let him go. Banana republics, maybe not.
Hopefully, we'll get more information as time goes on. But I would think if it was premeditated murder, He would go out on a multi-day sail and she would go overboard. That kind of "accident" is not uncommon.

[surb]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Well...I live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty.

This depends on the media coverage. Media has turned into an opinion machine and no longer reports just the news.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Not that I'm advocating guilty or innocent, I was just looking at the possibility of him having a reason to run. You're right...it doesn't look good. But the alternative might have bee a Kangaroo court with lost evidence.
Another scenario might have been he was past out drunk while his wife fell overboard in the anchorage and could not get back on the boat which the authorities could have been seen as negligence. We'll have to wait and see what the investigating powers to be come up with. In the US if they could not present a case with tangible evidence, they would have to let him go. Banana republics, maybe not.
Hopefully, we'll get more information as time goes on. But I would think if it was premeditated murder, He would go out on a multi-day sail and she would go overboard. That kind of "accident" is not uncommon.

He was likely being held in jail because he was a 'flight risk'.. a fact he's proved.#


Tonga a former protectorate of Britain, adopted the English common law system including the jury system, as its own. Jury trials have been a feature of the Tongan legal system for more than 100 years. As has been noted, in Tonga, ‘One of the hallmarks of a free and civil society is the existence of a judicial system that is independent, respected and protected. The right for an accused person to have a jury trial is one of the features of such a judicial system. This is a value that was recognised by King Siaosi Tupou I, the founder of modern and civil Tonga, when he created Tonga’s Constitution in 1875.’4

[surb]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Well...I live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty.

This depends on the media coverage. Media has turned into an opinion machine and no longer reports just the news.

[Celestialsailor]

Lets hope justice is done then.

[goat]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Well...I live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty.

Or can pay enough money to be innocent. O.J. springs to mind.

Sent from a boat somewhere

[Teknishn]

Whether or not he is guilty, I can understand the desire to make a run for it. Laws and investigation procedures vary across the world and are not always in line with one's own country's legal practices. And like most legal systems, many of the laws, statutes, procedures are, at best, vague to the un-indoctrinated (meaning that if you ain't a lawyer in that country, you don't know much, if anything). And getting good honest answers is difficult.

I currently live in Egypt where if one finds a body floating in the Nile, buried in the desert, or in your neighbor's apartment...the general rule-of-thumb held by the police is that the person that found said body is the primary suspect. Lacking compelling evidence otherwise (i.e. natural causes, disease, suicide, witnesses coming forward, etc.) a murder conviction is almost certainly guaranteed. Guilty until proven innocent is the rule here. Somebody has to be blamed.

A bit off topic but I was out at a Roman era site a few years ago about 75 Km from the Red Sea coast taking some pics and measurements (used to do a bit of archaeological work to assist colleges abroad and would go out on my own to provide follow-up data). Dog, my desert companion (found him in the desert when he was 3-months old and never told me his name...so he's just Dog) smelled something interesting and started digging. First thing that came up was bits of cloth, and not Bedouin garb, and then a slightly desiccated arm. Grabbed Dog and got the heck outta there. Later, stopping at a Bedouin camp to drop off sugar, tea, and some canned meat, mentioned that I had found something "interesting" at this place. Through typical Arabic nuances was told to forget about it. It would be in the best interests of everyone in the area. As the old Ma'aza Bedouin Sheikh told me: "The desert is full of holes....not all of them are empty." A warning, as well as a truism when you venture into places unknown...

[ejs]

There is a bit more evidence reported here than the L&A article implied.

see;

http://www.looptonga.com/content/american-court-causing-death-wife-tonga

The link didn't work, here is what it said.

The husband of a woman who was found dead in a yacht in Vavaʻu on July 7 has appeared before Magistrate Paula Tatafu in the Neiafu district court today



The 54-year-old man from Florida, United States has been charged with the manslaugher of his 56-year-old Canadian wife.
The accused remains in Police custody. Police have also seized and impounded the yacht, the Sea Oak.
Vavaʻu Police Superintendent Netane Falakiseni told Kaniva News this morning Police arrested the man after an autopsy established the deceased had suffered what appeared to be severe bruising to her body.
He said Police have also talked to eyewitneses who claimed they saw an incident near Puataukanave wharf in which the accused allegedly beat the victim.
Earlier reports said the husband told Police he found her wife dead when he went to wake her up on Thursday.
Falakiseni said the woman’s body is now being kept at Ngu Hospital for further post mortems today.
The couple arrived in Neiafu on 26 May.
While in Vavaʻu they were staying on their yacht and were expected to depart Tonga next month on 21 August.


Eric

[JPA Cate]

Well, I'd imagine that an autopsy could determine the cause of death. Aggravated assault in public followed by death a possibility.

Too bad. Poor dear.

Ann

[Pelagic]

Yes...I feel sorry for their families who must now prepare themselves for bad or very bad news