I wonder who is more shaken waiting for the verdict right now, Derek or Jean James?
If she is found guilty, I wonder if the judge will sentence her right away or set a date for sentencing?
Considering it has been 19 years waiting for this, waiting a few more hours or days shouldn't be so hard.
I feel like I'm holding my breath.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Tomorrow...
Tomorrow the judge will give the jury some final instructions and send them on their way.
What are they thinking right now?
What are you thinking right now?
How long do you think the jury will deliberate?
What if Jean Ann James goes free?
The friends and family of Gladys Wakabayashi - along with MANY other people - have been waiting for this day to come. Patiently.
I guess after holding your breath, questioning the system and/or your God, and stewing with emotions for 19 years... waiting until that jury comes back to court with a verdict could be either that slow-motion moment before the final wound is inflicted or a the deepest breath you ever took before a sigh of relief.
What are they thinking right now?
What are you thinking right now?
How long do you think the jury will deliberate?
What if Jean Ann James goes free?
The friends and family of Gladys Wakabayashi - along with MANY other people - have been waiting for this day to come. Patiently.
I guess after holding your breath, questioning the system and/or your God, and stewing with emotions for 19 years... waiting until that jury comes back to court with a verdict could be either that slow-motion moment before the final wound is inflicted or a the deepest breath you ever took before a sigh of relief.
Jury to begin deliberation after further instruction, TOMORROW
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PROVINCE - NOVEMBER 2nd, 2011 - KEITH FRASER
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Defence cites flaws in Mr. Big sting at murder trial of Jean James
The motive for Jean Ann James murdering her friend was that she was in a jealous rage over news Gladys Wakabayashi was having an affair with her husband, a prosecutor argued Wednesday.
During final submissions, Crown counsel Kerr Clark told a jury that James, 72, felt betrayed after discovering the affair and drove to Wakabayashi’s Shaughnessy home.
He said the evidence from a confession James made to undercover cops shows that she used a box cutter to slit her friend’s throat.
“Jealous rage and betrayal is a very good reason for someone to be very, very angry,” he told the jury.
Clark noted James herself confessed that she had a plan and acted deliberately, methodically destroying all evidence of the crime.
James has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the June 1992 slaying of Wakabayashi, the daughter of a Taiwanese billionaire.
No charges were initially laid in the police investigation but the file was re-opened in 2007 and an 11-month-long police sting launched.
James is captured confessing to the murder at a meeting with a police undercover officer posing as a crime boss at a Montreal hotel in November 2008.
Clark said there may be some discrepancies in the details James gave of the murder, but he argued that was understandable given the passage of time.
He said there was evidence James’s husband, Derek James, had had other affairs but that the accused’s anger at Wakabayashi was heightened by the fact she was a friend, not a stranger.
“One thing that’s very clear is that this was a very, very violent attack. It’s a crime that only can be committed by someone with exceeding anger and resentment.”
He added: “It appears it was almost an attempt at a decapitation.”
Aseem Dosanjh, James’s lawyer, told the jury police stings like the one targeting his client result in confessions which, by their very nature, are unreliable and which some would say are “notoriously” unreliable.
“I want to be clear, this is not a DNA case, this is also not a fingerprint case. This is a false-confession case.”
Dosanjh said the lack of hold-back evidence — evidence that would only be known to the killer — should raise a reasonable doubt for the jury. client made a
“If the design of the undercover operation has flaws in it, that should raise concerns and that would raise a doubt.
“And if the police put too much pressure on a 69-year-old woman, that is a flaw and should also raise a doubt.”
Dosanjh argued the police investigation that led to the “so-called” confession lacked reliability safeguards.
“Mrs. James’s version of events in that video recording is just not reliable. It’s not reliable because she did not do this crime.
“She is making up a story, putting together various pieces of second-hand information she had available to her and trying to make it all seem consistent and impressive.”
B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Catherine Bruce told the jury she expects to give them final instructions on Thursday before they begin deliberations.
PROVINCE - NOVEMBER 2nd, 2011 - KEITH FRASER
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Defence cites flaws in Mr. Big sting at murder trial of Jean James
The motive for Jean Ann James murdering her friend was that she was in a jealous rage over news Gladys Wakabayashi was having an affair with her husband, a prosecutor argued Wednesday.
During final submissions, Crown counsel Kerr Clark told a jury that James, 72, felt betrayed after discovering the affair and drove to Wakabayashi’s Shaughnessy home.
He said the evidence from a confession James made to undercover cops shows that she used a box cutter to slit her friend’s throat.
“Jealous rage and betrayal is a very good reason for someone to be very, very angry,” he told the jury.
Clark noted James herself confessed that she had a plan and acted deliberately, methodically destroying all evidence of the crime.
James has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the June 1992 slaying of Wakabayashi, the daughter of a Taiwanese billionaire.
No charges were initially laid in the police investigation but the file was re-opened in 2007 and an 11-month-long police sting launched.
James is captured confessing to the murder at a meeting with a police undercover officer posing as a crime boss at a Montreal hotel in November 2008.
Clark said there may be some discrepancies in the details James gave of the murder, but he argued that was understandable given the passage of time.
He said there was evidence James’s husband, Derek James, had had other affairs but that the accused’s anger at Wakabayashi was heightened by the fact she was a friend, not a stranger.
“One thing that’s very clear is that this was a very, very violent attack. It’s a crime that only can be committed by someone with exceeding anger and resentment.”
He added: “It appears it was almost an attempt at a decapitation.”
Aseem Dosanjh, James’s lawyer, told the jury police stings like the one targeting his client result in confessions which, by their very nature, are unreliable and which some would say are “notoriously” unreliable.
“I want to be clear, this is not a DNA case, this is also not a fingerprint case. This is a false-confession case.”
Dosanjh said the lack of hold-back evidence — evidence that would only be known to the killer — should raise a reasonable doubt for the jury. client made a
“If the design of the undercover operation has flaws in it, that should raise concerns and that would raise a doubt.
“And if the police put too much pressure on a 69-year-old woman, that is a flaw and should also raise a doubt.”
Dosanjh argued the police investigation that led to the “so-called” confession lacked reliability safeguards.
“Mrs. James’s version of events in that video recording is just not reliable. It’s not reliable because she did not do this crime.
“She is making up a story, putting together various pieces of second-hand information she had available to her and trying to make it all seem consistent and impressive.”
B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Catherine Bruce told the jury she expects to give them final instructions on Thursday before they begin deliberations.
Gladys Wakabayashi
I have been wanting to post a photo of the victim, Gladys Wakabayshi, but I have found no photos that I feel do her justice.I want to put a face to a name and help paint a portrait of a lady who was (probably) attacked by a trusted friend.
Someone who played piano, was loved by the few friends she had, attended charity events, helped her daughter with school work, had grace and was soft spoken. I don't know that she was any of these things (Okay - we know she played piano), but I imagine her to be a lovely woman who didn't deserve friends like Mr. & Mrs. James.
How they twisted her life into a tale of jealousy impaled into her legs is a sad tale to tell.
I look forward to a day when I can help create balance in our minds as to Gladys Wakabayashi being more than a victim.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Do you ever wonder?
I use to go to New Westminster Quay all the time. When you read stuff like the article below that says she met with Sandra MacDonald there for lunch and they bloody well talked about all this craziness, do you wonder if maybe you were there?! Over heard a bit of it..? What if you were their waiter and heard some of it?
We've all been on the skytrain or bus or even sitting in a restaurant and heard a bit of a conversation that we thought "WTF?! Did I just hear that?!" When do we know to act on it and when do we just file it away as that bit of crazy that happened today?
What if you unknowingly heard bits of the conversation Jean Ann James was having with Sandra MacDonald that same day they had lunch at New Westminster Quay? Or you saw Jean Ann James walking back to her car, five blocks from the murder and thought nothing of it. Suppose you were a teacher at the school where she took the clothing and incinerated it, and saw her walking with the garbage bag past your door, but at the time that didn't seem odd.
Somebody reading this knows more than they realize. Or maybe you do realize. You have an interest in this story for a reason, why? Did you know one of these people? Did you work with one of them? Were you friends or acquaintances? Did you hear or see something that made you wonder all these years?
What if some part of your life, is unknowingly entwined with this story.
We all hear things and see things daily that could be helpful years or decades later in murder trials like this. But where do we draw the line of suspecting everyone around us of being "up to something".
Trust your gut, I say.
We've all been on the skytrain or bus or even sitting in a restaurant and heard a bit of a conversation that we thought "WTF?! Did I just hear that?!" When do we know to act on it and when do we just file it away as that bit of crazy that happened today?
What if you unknowingly heard bits of the conversation Jean Ann James was having with Sandra MacDonald that same day they had lunch at New Westminster Quay? Or you saw Jean Ann James walking back to her car, five blocks from the murder and thought nothing of it. Suppose you were a teacher at the school where she took the clothing and incinerated it, and saw her walking with the garbage bag past your door, but at the time that didn't seem odd.
Somebody reading this knows more than they realize. Or maybe you do realize. You have an interest in this story for a reason, why? Did you know one of these people? Did you work with one of them? Were you friends or acquaintances? Did you hear or see something that made you wonder all these years?
What if some part of your life, is unknowingly entwined with this story.
We all hear things and see things daily that could be helpful years or decades later in murder trials like this. But where do we draw the line of suspecting everyone around us of being "up to something".
Trust your gut, I say.
Only good that came from the police surveillance was that Derek was behaving himself
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PROVINCE - OCTOBER 27th 2011 - KEITH FRASER
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Former friend testifies accused murderer Jean Ann James ‘very angry’ with husband
A former friend of Jean Ann James says the accused murderer was “very angry and upset” about her husband’s affair with murder victim Gladys Wakabayashi.
James, 72, has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Wakabayashi, 41, in June 1992 in Vancouver.
It’s the Crown’s theory that James slit the throat of Wakabayashi, the daughter of a Taiwanese billionaire, after she learned of the affair.
Sandra MacDonald, a friend of James, told a B.C. Supreme Court jury in Vancouver that she occasionally met James for lunch meetings.
Under questioning from Crown counsel Kerr Clark, MacDonald said James quite often brought up the subject of her troubled marriage to Derek James.
“It was very stormy,” MacDonald said of the marriage. “He had been having affairs and she was very hurt and very angry about his behaviour.”
Asked by Clark whether there were any particular people mentioned by James, MacDonald said that the accused mentioned a woman named Gladys.
“She said Gladys was a friend of hers as well as Derek and that he had had an affair with her,” said the Crown witness during testimony Thursday.
“What was her demeanor,” asked Clark.
“She was very angry and upset,” replied MacDonald.
The witness said that at some point she received a visit from detectives who said they were investigating a murder and wanted to know if she knew James.
A short time later, maybe a week, she received a phone call from James asking whether she’d been contacted by homicide detectives, said MacDonald.
James told her that she was involved as a murder suspect and that the police had been “making her life hell” and had been following her and talking to her family.
“She wanted to give me a heads up that they may be calling,” said MacDonald.
“What was your response,” said Clark.
“I was quite taken aback,” said MacDonald. “I believe we didn’t want to get into too much over the phone, so we did arrange to meet after that call.”
MacDonald said that she subsequently met with James for lunch at the New Westminster quay.
“She told me she’d been accused of the murder of Gladys, her friend, and that Derek had had an affair with her, how awful her life had been, that police had been following her.”
MacDonald said James told her that the only good that came from the police surveillance was that Derek was behaving himself.
MacDonald explained that she met James, a former nurse and flight attendant union executive, through a mutual friend and knew her for several years.
“She was always very well dressed, very well put together whenever I met her.”
Under cross-examination from James’ lawyer, Raj Basra, MacDonald admitted she didn’t recall the date of the lunch where the murder investigation was discussed.
She also conceded that she had not taken any handwritten notes of the meeting.
Basra suggested that James actually told MacDonald that other people had told James that her husband was having an affair with Gladys.
“No, she definitely told me herself he was having an affair with Gladys,” replied MacDonald.
On Wednesday, the Crown played a videotaped confession to the murder made by James following a year-long undercover police operation in 2008. James had been a suspect during the initial police investigation but no charges were laid at that time, court heard.
PROVINCE - OCTOBER 27th 2011 - KEITH FRASER
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Former friend testifies accused murderer Jean Ann James ‘very angry’ with husband
A former friend of Jean Ann James says the accused murderer was “very angry and upset” about her husband’s affair with murder victim Gladys Wakabayashi.
James, 72, has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Wakabayashi, 41, in June 1992 in Vancouver.
It’s the Crown’s theory that James slit the throat of Wakabayashi, the daughter of a Taiwanese billionaire, after she learned of the affair.
Sandra MacDonald, a friend of James, told a B.C. Supreme Court jury in Vancouver that she occasionally met James for lunch meetings.
Under questioning from Crown counsel Kerr Clark, MacDonald said James quite often brought up the subject of her troubled marriage to Derek James.
“It was very stormy,” MacDonald said of the marriage. “He had been having affairs and she was very hurt and very angry about his behaviour.”
Asked by Clark whether there were any particular people mentioned by James, MacDonald said that the accused mentioned a woman named Gladys.
“She said Gladys was a friend of hers as well as Derek and that he had had an affair with her,” said the Crown witness during testimony Thursday.
“What was her demeanor,” asked Clark.
“She was very angry and upset,” replied MacDonald.
The witness said that at some point she received a visit from detectives who said they were investigating a murder and wanted to know if she knew James.
A short time later, maybe a week, she received a phone call from James asking whether she’d been contacted by homicide detectives, said MacDonald.
James told her that she was involved as a murder suspect and that the police had been “making her life hell” and had been following her and talking to her family.
“She wanted to give me a heads up that they may be calling,” said MacDonald.
“What was your response,” said Clark.
“I was quite taken aback,” said MacDonald. “I believe we didn’t want to get into too much over the phone, so we did arrange to meet after that call.”
MacDonald said that she subsequently met with James for lunch at the New Westminster quay.
“She told me she’d been accused of the murder of Gladys, her friend, and that Derek had had an affair with her, how awful her life had been, that police had been following her.”
MacDonald said James told her that the only good that came from the police surveillance was that Derek was behaving himself.
MacDonald explained that she met James, a former nurse and flight attendant union executive, through a mutual friend and knew her for several years.
“She was always very well dressed, very well put together whenever I met her.”
Under cross-examination from James’ lawyer, Raj Basra, MacDonald admitted she didn’t recall the date of the lunch where the murder investigation was discussed.
She also conceded that she had not taken any handwritten notes of the meeting.
Basra suggested that James actually told MacDonald that other people had told James that her husband was having an affair with Gladys.
“No, she definitely told me herself he was having an affair with Gladys,” replied MacDonald.
On Wednesday, the Crown played a videotaped confession to the murder made by James following a year-long undercover police operation in 2008. James had been a suspect during the initial police investigation but no charges were laid at that time, court heard.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
My Thoughts on the Latest
Quoted from the article in the Province online article below...
Where are the other women? Still alive?! If they are I bet they have been (a) cursing their luck that they got involved with Derek James, (b) counting their lucky stars Jean had no presents for them and (c) watching their backs for years!
I wonder how Derek has suffered at the hands of his wife, Jean Ann James, because of his unfaithfulness?
BTW - Aseem Dosanjh, lawyer for the accused, is the son of Ujjal Dosanjh.
In matter-of-fact tones, James explains that she did a lot of digging and found out that Wakabayashi was “screwing around” with her husband Derek, an air-traffic controller who had been unfaithful to her numerous times.
Where are the other women? Still alive?! If they are I bet they have been (a) cursing their luck that they got involved with Derek James, (b) counting their lucky stars Jean had no presents for them and (c) watching their backs for years!
I wonder how Derek has suffered at the hands of his wife, Jean Ann James, because of his unfaithfulness?
BTW - Aseem Dosanjh, lawyer for the accused, is the son of Ujjal Dosanjh.
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