Bakersfield, Calif. (KGET) – After months of anticipation, the trial of Trezell and Jacqueline West kicked off last week with the prosecutor’s evidence that resulted in murder charges against the couple in the deaths of their two youngest adopted children.
The trial resumes on Monday next week after a long break. Another, as yet unidentified, witness called by the prosecution will take the stand and play an hour-long video for the jury.
Huge interest in the case is building after Orrin, 4, and Orson, 3, were reported missing from their California home in December 2020. Trezell and Jacqueline West were arrested in March of last year after prosecutors said evidence showed the children had been dead for three months. before the adoptive parents were said to be missing.
During opening statements, prosecutor Eric Smith said the couple’s four other children told authorities Orrin and Orson had not been seen for weeks. One boy, 10 at the time, said he witnessed Orrin die, Smith said.
Videotaped footage showed that no one could have kidnapped the boys at night when the couple called the police, Cicero said. Trezell and Jacqueline West’s story — that Trezell piled up wood as the children played outside, entered the home briefly and returned to find the children missing — doesn’t hold up, the prosecutor said.
Agents of the defense of the police have obtained the investigation of failing to interview the report of sex offenders in the area until the week passed, using inappropriate technical techniques in the neglect of other children of the West certain leads, including one of the woman who claimed to have seen Orrin and himself. Orson in Texas.
The order is a joke in the case to prevent prosecutors, investigators and others involved in the case from talking about it. The order of the inquiry documents is also valid.
The trial is expected to last into June.
Videos
Jurors watched several hours of video footage during the first week, the longest being a two-hour interview between West Trezell and the California police and the FBI.
The interview, which took place the day after West reported his son missing on December 21, starts 2020 on a smooth note. Trezell West is quiet and sometimes smiles as he talks about his campus. The inquiry proceeds to the events of the previous night.
More than an hour in, the mood takes a sharp turn. I call the West a little bit of a mouse. They say the boys have never been home before. And they note first, apparently, cheerfully.
“You know where you are,” said West. “You don’t even cry.”
The West becomes defensive. He sticks to his story despite the officer repeatedly telling him it doesn’t fit. When he said he wasn’t arrested, West talks a little longer then leaves.
Jurors also have video surveillance from several homes in the Western California area. Orrin and Orson are not seen in any of them.
Police body camera footage was shown to jurors. Some of the footage is taken of initial interviews with West, including questioning him inside his home on Aspen Avenue.
To the witnesses
California City police officer Brian Hansen made the longest stand on the witness stand. His testimony lasted all of March 29 and part of March 30.
Hansen testified that no children’s shoes were found in the dust where Trezell West had said Orrin and Orson were playing the evening they were reported missing. Police dogs found no scent of them outside the house. An extensive search by multiple agencies and helicopters has come to naught.
Even inside the home, West Hansen said there was little evidence of children.
The defense counsel tried to rebut those claims. Alekxia Torres Stallinga, one of the agents representing Jacqueline West, showed photos taken inside the house of gifts that were wrapped for the children and socks for them, a homeless person placed on Orson’s bed, a used diaper in the bathroom at eight. one dining room chair for each member of the West family.
Torres Stalling suggested those things and more indicated that Orrin and Orson had recently been there.
Under further questioning by Smith, the prosecutor, Hansen said he would search West Saxon’s home on December 22, 2020. The photos shown by Torres Stallings were not removed until eight days later when police were served with a warrant. Hansen testified that he did not know what happened in the house in the meantime.
Some Western neighbors stopped by.
Robyn Plantz lived on Proctor Boulevard in a house directly behind West. He lived there for 21 years before moving to New Mexico.
Plantz testified that he had a pool in his backyard that he cleaned every day. A fence separated his backyard from the west side, but there were gaps in it and he said he had a pretty clear view of his yard.
He said he saw a man in West Saxon’s backyard yelling something about the night a child was reported missing but did not see or hear the children.
“I’ve never had a boy in that backyard in 21 years,” he said.
Jesse Dobbins, who lived across the street from West and has since moved to Texas, testified that he gave police access to his Google Nest camera. The full-length video was disabled because he and his wife were planning to move, but the motion-activated camera still captured images of West’s van parked out front and law enforcement arriving at night to report the children missing.
Later, paying more attention to the accident, Dobbins saw far more people coming down the road than usual. He testified that he saw someone pull out and throw a brick through the window at West’s house and then speed away. On several occasions the men were “monkeys on the floor.”
And finally, troubles also from the public. Dobbins said people were going through their trash, trying to get into their home and getting a relative’s cell phone number.
Dobbins and Plantz were the last witnesses to testify. The trial resumes at 9 am on Monday and will be live-tweeted by 17 News.
