Defense Opening Derails: Attorney Fined $1,000 for Contempt | Faust Trial

Описание: The defense attorney got held in contempt mid-opening and fined $1,000. That's how this went.

Attorney Ahmad Cruz spent nearly two hours trying to convince the jury that Tara Baker's boyfriend Chris Melton is the real killer. He showed photos of Melton's hands two days after the murder. He accused investigators of trying to "explain away" Melton's DNA. He pointed out that every hair found on Baker's body, in her hand, and on the murder weapon was Caucasian, while his client Edrick Faust is African American.

But Cruz kept implying Baker and Faust might have had prior consensual contact, violating Georgia's rape shield law without filing the required motion. The judge warned him once. He did it again. Then came the contempt finding and the $1,000 fine, due by 9 AM the next morning.

⏰ KEY MOMENTS

00:00:25 - Defense opening begins
00:05:38 - "DNA is not an issue in this case"
00:12:08 - Photos of boyfriend's hands after murder
00:18:19 - Neighbor saw white male running at 7:45 AM
00:30:08 - Melton's behavior after Baker's death
00:34:08 - Law enforcement failures
00:37:27 - No evidence of forced entry
00:49:30 - Forensic evidence breakdown
01:04:01 - First 412 violation, jury sent out
01:49:59 - Held in contempt, fined $1,000

From The Desk of Justice:
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CASE BACKGROUND REPORT:
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📖 CASE BACKGROUND

Tara Louise Baker was a first-year UGA law student from East Point, Georgia. On January 18, 2001, she was last seen at the law library and called a friend around 9:46 p.m. saying she planned to leave around 10. That was the last time anyone heard from her.

The next morning, firefighters found Baker's body inside her burning off-campus apartment on Fawn Drive in Athens. She had been beaten, stabbed, strangled, and sexually assaulted. The fire was intentionally set. The only item taken was her laptop. She was one day from turning 24.

The case went cold for 23 years. In 2023, the Coleman-Baker Act, named in part for Tara, created a GBI Cold Case Unit. That unit matched DNA from Baker's autopsy to Faust through the FBI's national database. Faust lived in Baker's neighborhood but was never a suspect. Investigators say they did not know each other.Defense attorney Ahmad R. Crews has challenged the DNA evidence and stated he believes Faust will be acquitted.

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This channel continues the work of Steven M. Askin, a criminal defense attorney who was disbarred in 1998 for refusing to violate attorney-client privilege, then criminally convicted in 2010 for teaching people their constitutional rights from a coffee shop in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He passed away in February 2024, but not before he and I started this channel together.

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