Baby Gabriel's Daddy Did Not Leave the Baby

Please visit the Bookstore tab above to browse

Pssst! Going to jail, buying documents, and everything else it takes to get this kind of info for the blog takes time and money! Every time you make a purchase here, it helps me be able to do more for you!


Now that the Elizabeth Johnson story has hit Huffpo and other venues, a lot of people are newly enraged upon seeing the story for the first time. And once again I find myself defending a man who got dragged down into a crime story by a mesmerizing woman.  Logan McQueary is the father of Baby Gabriel. Many commenters on the net are venting some of their rage at him.

Here's a typical one:

A lie's a lie, even if everyone believes it.

965 Fans

Become a fan

18 hours ago (11:34 PM)

"Yeah, sweetie, I'm leaving you and the baby so you can get your life back together. Later!"

And then he leaves the obvious mental case with the baby. Can we say "contraceptives?"

And another:

Fighting ignorance makes you an enemy of the right

275 Fans

Become a fan

21 hours ago ( 9:18 PM)

"i am confused, he left her with the child, did not want to put it up for adoption, sooo did he expect her to take care of it without him and then come and go as he pleased? not excusing what she has done but if the father did what it appears from this article he must not have cared for the child that much."

**************

These comments can only come from newcomers to the case, which we have many of starting today.  Here is a quick recap for them of Logan McQueary's conduct during Gabriel's life and disappearance.  This is information presented at trial and undisputed by her lawyer.

Logan was in jail on a skipping probation charge when Gabriel was born. Logan used his work-release time to go to the hospital to visit the baby and his mother every day, including the day he was born.  The being in jail part is not a feather in his cap but it also demonstrates he made a big effort NOT to abandon his child. As soon as Logan was out of jail, he created a two parent family for Gabriel and lived with Elizabeth. Neighbors testified they often saw him working on the house (trailer) with the baby in his stroller nearby while daddy watched over him. Elizabeth, the neighbors testified, was not seen in a similar manner. 

Logan McQueary testifying. His quiet sadness came through,

There was disallowed evidence that even when she was with the baby, Elizabeth was often in the other room while Logan took care of him. This info was disallowed not because it was not reliable, but because the prosecution was not allowed to argue whether or not Elizabeth was a good mother or even loved her child. 

By the time he was 7 months old, Gabriel's parents were bickering so much that Logan left. Elizabeth told him to "take that thing with you." "That thing" was their infant. While the "that thing" comment was not allowed in court (too inflammatory), Logan did pack up the baby and leave with him that morning. A few hours later, cops came looking for him, saying Elizabeth had reported the baby kidnapped by his father.  Logan was forced to return the baby to Elizabeth. He requested the police accompany him to her house. Gabriel was handed over to Elizabeth under this escort. 

The next day, Elizabeth --without Logan's consent or knowledge-- took the baby to a woman named Tammi Smith and began conspiring with her ways to adopt the baby out without Logan's consent. For about 10 days, this young father did not know where his baby was. And during this time, Elizabeth yet again reported to police that Gabriel had been kidnapped by Logan!  All the while, Elizabeth knew very well the baby was with Tammi because she delivered him to her. 

Logan attempted relief in Family Court. Elizabeth made nice with Logan for one night and in court maneuvered for Joint Custody. In a snap decision he must surely regret forever, the judge in the custody case awarded the split custody. The judge never knew that the baby was right that minute at Tammi's house, being plotted over with fake paternity documents. 

The very day after this joint custody decision, Elizabeth cleaned out her bank account, picked up the baby from Tammi and skipped town. A few days of confusion followed as Tammi manipulated Logan's understanding of Elizabeth's whereabouts and her intentions. But after just 4 days, Logan went back to court and was granted Sole Custody of Baby Gabriel. 

It was too late now. Elizabeth was alone in San Antonio, her rage growing and her determination never to let Logan have his baby boiling over.  When she first texted Logan--who did not know how to reach her since she did not have her own phone at the time she skipped--that she had killed the baby, he did not believe her. But his terror at her words made him contact police.

So for all the newcomers to the case who believe that Baby Gabriel's father cavalierly left his son with a distraught mother, here is the real information. Maybe he fell in love with the wrong girl and maybe he made some blunders, but at no time, starting before Gabriel was born, did Logan McQueary ever abandon his baby.

There are heartwrenching electronic conversations between the two young parents where Logan begs Elizabeth for custody. Her adoption scheme was carried out against his will, without his knowledge. Elizabeth Johnson even reported the baby kidnapped by his own grandaddy on a day when Logan's father, by Logan's request, picked up Gabriel from daycare.  All evidence shows that Logan actively cared for the baby and so did his extended family. He tried to salvage his relationship with Elizabeth but after being reported as a kidnapper, having your dad reported as a kidnapper, and the baby flat out disappearing, who wouldn't want to split up? 

Follow me at twitter @CamilleKimball to read my tweets from inside the courtroom, just a few feet away from the defendant. 

Please visit the Bookstore tab above to browse

Pssst! Going to jail, buying documents, and everything else it takes to get this kind of info for the blog takes time and money! Every time you make a purchase here, it helps me be able to do more for you!

Reporter's Notebook on Elizabeth Johnson Case

Please visit the Bookstore tab above to browse

Pssst! Going to jail, buying documents, and everything else it takes to get this kind of info for the blog takes time and money! Every time you make a purchase here, it helps me be able to do more for you!

Quick thoughts and tidbits from the #ElizabethJohnson #BabyGabriel trial....

In December 2009, young mother Elizabeth Johnson made her baby boy disappear in a cloud of deceit and spite. This isn't really in dispute as her own defense attorney, Marc Victor, told the jury his team accepted most of the evidence against her.

A good view of the "peekaboo" style shoulder cutaways Elizabeth Johnson wore to court.

What Victor's strategy is instead is to make jurors question whether her conduct, while distasteful and "unlikeable," actually constitutes the crimes with which she is charged. These crimes are Count 1 Kidnapping, Count 2 Custodial Interference, Count 3 Conspiracy to Commit Custodial Interference.

It is not known whether baby Gabriel, who would now be 3 years old, is alive or dead. Therefore, no murder charge. Yet.

But the jury is not allowed to know that Gabriel's "current status" or whereabouts are unknown. They are strictly to decide whether certain incidents --without knowing these incidents resulted in the baby's permanent disappearance-- fit the legal definitions of those three charges.

When your client is caught on tape saying, "I killed him, yes, I did, I did" and in text you'll never find "his little blue dead body," a defense attorney has few options left.

Victor has let quite a few witnesses waltz away from the witness stand without a single objection or cross examination.

I can't get inside his mind but my experience tells me he does this because he feels he cannot win his client any Juror Goodwill points by appearing to badger a grieving father and other sympathetic witnesses. Better to just take the hit and then get them off the stand as quickly as possible.

But this afternoon, Victor did start cross-examining a tiny bit. When he did, he showed that his strategy is to use their testimony to draw ire and blame away from his client and onto the almost cartoonish character of Tammi Smith, who has already been convicted in a separate trial for the same incidents.

Victor gets each witness he speaks to to admit, in certain circumstances, that specific actions that served to deprive Logan McQueary of his custody of his baby were performed by Tammi Smith and that the witness had no knowledge of Elizabeth even knowing about that particular action.

It's a valiant effort. But easily pierced when the prosecutor stands up on re-direct and uses the same witness to re-emphasize seemingly unassailable evidence that Elizabeth did participate in Tammi's scheme.

Another prong to Victor's strategy is to claim that Elizabeth cannot be guilty of kidnapping or custodial interference because, basically, she was the baby's mother and she can take him wherever she wants. He is disputing that Elizabeth understood that a family court judge had made an "official" order awarding joint custody to both parents.  I put the word in quote marks because a document was introduced this afternoon allegedly in Elizabeth's words, that on December 20th 2009 she did not understand that Logan McQueary's right to take his son for half the week was "an official order." She goes on to say, in this 2009 document, that she is only handing over the baby because Logan is otherwise threatening to "file something official" against her if she doesn't. The document, with signature lines for both young parents, is signed by neither.

Victor got the witness on the stand, a police detective, to admit he had no evidence that Elizabeth had actually prepared that document, hinting that perhaps Tammi had drawn it up. It's a shame the detective never found the computer upon which this document was written, it would have shored things up a little.

Nevertheless, Victor's strategy immediately took a hit when the prosecutor responded by re-presenting a forged paternity affidavit claiming complete stranger Craig Cherry was the baby's father with Elizabeth's signature right on it. Elizabeth had to know that she had never so much as met Craig Cherry, let alone shared a child with him. Cherry, by the way, is no stranger to Tammi Smith. He is her cousin and an unwitting pawn in the scheme. He has been cleared of knowing what they were up to.

Have a taste for trials? Get this book of crime stories from Camille & 16 other authors!

 

 

(click to buy)

Some Twittles who joined me late in the day may have wondered what a video tape of a custody hearing was doing right in the middle of this criminal trial? Well, it was shooting serious blasts at Victor's defense strategy, that's what. Elizabeth is seen in the video clearly stating to the judge that she agrees to joint custody and that she understands and supports the idea that this mean both parents fully participate in all important decisions regarding baby Gabriel. These decisions, the judge lists off, include things like where he goes to school and what religion he'll be raised in. It would be hard to conceive that anyone at that hearing could reasonably conclude the judge was excepting adopting out the baby to brand new parents from that list of things that had to be decided jointly.

The judge gave the young couple such a vigorous "talking-to" and lecture on what his order meant that Victor will have to be very creative to convince jurors she A) really didn't understand it or B) it wasn't in reality in effect or did not somehow affect her hiding the baby with the Smiths, obfuscating paternity, and taking the baby out of state.

What Victor may be banking on is the ace up his sleeve, that jurors really don't know where baby Gabriel is right now. Perhaps one or more of them will speculate that the baby is now happily enjoying pre-school fingerpaints and graham cracker snacks while the young father is vindictively pursuing revenge for things that happened in the past. If so, they may be moved to sympathy for the young woman who sobs loudly at the defense table from time to time. They may not want to convict her and deprive her little tyke of his mother any further.

This has to be the reason Elizabeth Johnson's attorneys have fought to keep the jury in the dark about the baby's "current status." It's possible it could be a winning strategy.

By the way, for those of you who were diligently following today, there were fewer tweets in the late afternoon because so much of the testimony was administrative in nature, setting up the introduction of the video and audio recordings, which you then mostly heard for yourselves.

Also, the witnesses have their backs to us when they tell the court clerk what their names are, so it's VERY difficult to hear them. I make my best guess and sometimes get it wrong. Bear with me! And lastly, I did one of my own personal worst peeves late in the afternoon when fingers were losing their contact with the brain. I typed "their" when I meant "there!" Dang! Fifty lashes with a wet Fifth Grade Primer for me!  Mea culpa! Mea culpa! I do beg all of you to have mercy on a tired tweeter, straining to hear, trying to keep up with a fast moving trial at the same time trying to keep an eye on your questions and responses.  I appreciate your patience.

A question I do frequently get is "are you watching on the internet?"  The answer is NO!  I drive downtown every day, schlep through parking lots (and pay for them) and then security, claim-squat a power outlet, and sit within a few feet of Elizabeth Johnson herself.  If anyone wants to retweet that from now and then, it would certainly save me some time!

You are welcome to follow me  @CamilleKimball
or to discuss the case in comments here below. I allow far more characters than twitter does!

Please visit the Bookstore tab above to browse

Pssst! Going to jail, buying documents, and everything else it takes to get this kind of info for the blog takes time and money! Every time you make a purchase here, it helps me be able to do more for you!

Baby Gabriel - Elizabeth Johnson, I'm at the trial

Please visit the Bookstore tab above to browse

Pssst! Going to jail, buying documents, and everything else it takes to get this kind of info for the blog takes time and money! Every time you make a purchase here, it helps me be able to do more for you!

ADD: Follow me on Twitter @CamilleKimball   I'm tweeting this trial live inside the courtroom.
Logan McQueary, Gabriel's daddy, will testify today (Monday Sep 24-2012) I am in the courtroom. He will not be allowed to talk about Elizabeth Johnson's mothering skills; incidents where she trashed their apartment, broke windows and ended up in jail for criminal mischief; or that she did not want the baby. Follow me on Twitter to hear about it as it happens.

No matter what the verdict is at the end of her trial, young Elizabeth Johnson will go down in history as one of those most spiteful mothers in history.  She thought her baby's father, a man to whom she was not married and was battling for custody, was "talking" to girls. So she skipped town with their 8 month old son and told the father, "I suffocated him and he turned blue." Then she stuffed him in his diaper bag, she continued, and tossed him a trash can.

She was leaving the country now, she said.  "When im safe ill email u the exact location of dead gabriels little blue body. if the garbage dont come first."

She repeated this story to a detective but later recanted and said the baby had been "given" to a strange couple she met in a park.

The couple has never been found.

The baby has never been found.

The baby's father, Logan McQueary, called police as soon as he realized she was not joking and could not be found. 

Tomorrow (Thurs Sep 20) Elizabeth who, one way or another, made her baby vanish in order to spite her ex-boyfriend, goes on trial. I'm in the courtroom starting today for a hearing on motions in her case.  

Follow me on Twitter as I tweet from inside the courtroom. @CamilleKimball

Please visit the Bookstore tab above to browse

Pssst! Going to jail, buying documents, and everything else it takes to get this kind of info for the blog takes time and money! Every time you make a purchase here, it helps me be able to do more for you!