Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This has got to be one of the more bizzarre/funny crime stories I've come across lately:
Quote:
OTTAWA — An offer of a free SUV from an affectionate stranger at 5 a.m. was too good to pass up, a man on trial for attacking an Ottawa couple in their home with a pair of knives testified Monday.
Little did Richard Blake know the vehicle he had just been handed had just been stolen in a home invasion on Rideout Crescent where homeowners François Renaud and Amalle Thomas had been held captive for hours. Renaud was stabbed 20 times; Thomas had her throat slashed. Both survived.
Yeah, I don't think our perp is going to brain surgen school anytime soon:
Quote:
Blake explained that he was thirsty for milk after a sleepless night and was on his way to the corner store when he had a chance encounter with the stranger, who gave him a big chest-to-chest hug on a narrow pathway.
The man promised him there was nothing wrong with the SUV, said Blake.
Moderator cut: quote shortened, copyright protection
Hmmmm.... I think he did a few stupid things before that, too.
Pardon me for sounding naive, but is there something in the article that proves that he did not do it?
Well, you need to read the article. It's not all that long...
I didn't see anything but guilty, guilty, GUILTY!
Like the part I already quoted above:
Quote:
A “naive” Blake said he was skeptical at first, but soon convinced himself it was a good idea.
“I was pretty excited about it,” said Blake. “Free car, you know. Never had one before.”
“The excitement of the car won out over the skepticism that the car could be stolen,” he said.
Blake said he couldn’t remember what the stranger’s face looked like.
Prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham suggested the man must have looked a lot like him, because both Renaud and Thomas picked Blake out of a photo lineup as their attacker
So, a guy gets a free car on the sudden whim of a total stranger. Maybe that happens all the time in your neck of the woods, but no one around here has ever given me or anyone else I've encountered a free car.
Still, OK, I can accept that some numbskull would take a free car, no questions asked from a stranger who came up and hugged him in an alley. (Wouldn't the title at least have to be signed over? What about insurance? Never mind.) And the recipient of the car was so excited that he can't even remember his benefactor's face.
But the story now hangs by a thread which is cut when - the two people who had the car stolen from them idenitify in a police line-up the guy who claims he got the car from someone else.
Well, you need to read the article. It's not all that long...
I didn't see anything but guilty, guilty, GUILTY!
Like the part I already quoted above:
[/b]
So, a guy gets a free car on the sudden whim of a total stranger. Maybe that happens all the time in your neck of the woods, but no one around here has ever given me or anyone else I've encountered a free car.
Still, OK, I can accept that some numbskull would take a free car, no questions asked from a stranger who came up and hugged him in an alley. (Wouldn't the title at least have to be signed over? What about insurance? Never mind.) And the recipient of the car was so excited that he can't even remember his benefactor's face.
But the story now hangs by a thread which is cut when - the two people who had the car stolen from them idenitify in a police line-up the guy who claims he got the car from someone else.
That pig just won't fly.
Please don't be insulting. I posted after having read the article.
Eyewitness identifications have been found to be notoriously bad at times.
I think the preponderance of evidence says he did it. As you say, you should always look a gift horse in the mouth. He was good at deflecting every indicator pointing to him, though. This would have been funny had there not been blood on the knives.
Please don't be insulting. I posted after having read the article.
Eyewitness identifications have been found to be notoriously bad at times.
I think the preponderance of evidence says he did it. As you say, you should always look a gift horse in the mouth. He was good at deflecting every indicator pointing to him, though. This would have been funny had there not been blood on the knives.
No, the knives weren't funny. My reply was not meant to be insulting. I was surprised that you seemed to miss the last part of the story which was the nuttiest of all:
“My brain kind of shut off,” said Blake, who ran into the woods.
Blake said he “ended up stopping and waiting” but decided to climb six metres up a tree because he was being “attacked” by black flies.
OK, I’ve done my best to gag down this entire story and feel sorry for poor Mr. Blake and the incredible series of coincidences which occurred, making an innocent man appear guilty. But I can’t get past Mr. Blake claiming that he was attacked by black flies in Canada in January If this makes me wonder if you’ve read the entire story or seem rude, I apologize.
Wow, there are holes in this guy's story big enough to drive...a stolen SUV through. My question is, did the surviving victims identify him as the perp? It's not beyond reason that the killer handed the car off to someone chosen randomly, in order to throw off pursuit. But accepting a free vehicle from a total stranger...what could the guy have been thinking? Then again, he thought he was being chased by blackflies in January, so...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
