Day Six - Morning Session

Wednesday was filled with twists and turns and technical glitches, so I'm going to break up today's update into two posts. This one is about what happened during the morning session of trial, before the lunch break.

The first witness this morning was Christi Bonar, a criminalist with the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department who is assigned to the firearm unit. She testified that the bolt-action .22 caliber rifle - that either Nichole or Christopher Lee hid in Isabella "Isabel" Megli's bedroom at White Rock Horse Ranch - fired the spent cartridge casing discovered near the opening of the mine shaft where Erin Corwin's body was found.

The next witness was a Nevada resident named Deborah Valek who lived in Twentynine Palms in 2014. Her home was in the 2700 block of Ranch Road, where Erin Corwin's Toyota Corolla was abandoned. Valek said she first noticed the Corolla at around 8:30 the morning of June 28, 2014, the day Erin disappeared. She said she took note of it when she left with her daughter to get doughnuts. When Valek returned at around 9:15 a.m., the car was still there. Valek drove behind the Corolla and took pictures with her phone because, as she put it:

"It wasn't supposed to be there."

She said she kept her distance from the Corolla:

"I didn't get too close because I didn't know if anyone was inside."

Valek said the car remained in the same place for a couple of days.

"I was going to report it to the police, but I just didn't."

The final witness before the lunch break was the defendant's mother. Karen Lee was called by the prosecution to establish that her son and daughter-in-law were the primary drivers of the Chevy Suburban that was registered in Karen's name:

"Whenever they needed it, they drove it."

Important to remember all the evidence, like the homemade garrote, that was found in the Suburban by Detective Woods.

Karen Lee was shown a picture that law enforcement took inside her home of the People magazine issue that featured Erin and Jon Corwin, and Christopher Lee, on its cover. Mrs. Lee quickly said:

"My husband bought that piece of trash."

She explained she hid it in her bedroom:

"I didn't want Liberty to see it. I was appalled."

I will post what happened after the lunch break either later this evening or tomorrow morning.

Just a note: there is no court on Thursday because one of the jurors suffered a death in the family (this happened before the trial began) and she needed to be at the mortuary on Thursday. Friday is a dark day. Court resumes Monday morning.