Juan Martinez's Other Big Case

Crime writer Camille Kimball on the courthouse steps of the Jodi Arias trial

I've been inside the #JodiArias courtroom all day tweeting about the war of wills between defense witness Alyce LaViolette, a psychotherapist, and prosecutor Juan Martinez, incipient rock star. This trial contains many references to religious beliefs because the Mormon church played a prominent role in defendant Jodi and murder victim Travis' relationship. He baptized her into the Mormon church shortly after meeting her, they tended to define their relationship with each other in terms of how their interaction fit into Mormon ideals, Jodi was absorbed into Travis' Mormon social life when she moved to Mesa, Arizona to be near him. So we are hearing an awful lot about Mormon practices, beliefs, and social norms in the wide and spacious courtroom on the fifth floor.

At the end of the day, I mentioned to my followers on Twitter that Juan Martinez had been the  prosecutor  in the last big Mormon case we had here which was husband Doug Grant on trial for the murder of his wife, Faylene. I tweeted a link to a newspaper story done by the charming Michael Kiefer at the time for the Arizona Republic. Some twittles are asking me how the verdict turned out?

Well, here's a picture of Doug Grant now. Does the bright orange shirt signal to you that his current address is Guest of the State of Arizona?

Doug Grant was convicted of Manslaughter and sentenced to five years.  Juan Martinez had hoped for a  Murder One conviction and some jurors wanted that, too, but compromised on the Manslaughter to make sure Doug Grant didn't walk out the front door.

Juan Martinez had a much tougher hill to climb in the Doug Grant case than he does in the Jodi Arias case. Faylene drowned in her own bathtub and Doug Grant did make attempts to save her and call for help.

Faylene also left a rich trove of journal entries and letters describing her premonition of pending death, though she was not ill. In these writings, she seems cheerful enough about exiting life. She goes to pains to set up her children with a new mother -- her husband's ongoing affair partner.

This woman, Hilary, was kind enough to oblige the morbidly inclined Faylene 3 weeks after the drowning by marrying the freshly bereaved widower. 

The defense had substantial material to argue that Faylene committed suicide by climbing into the tub with her stomach full of Ambien sleeping pills. But the dose was far from lethal, although heavy - 5 pills.

Faylene also had a real reason to take the pills, she was in pain from a dramatic fall down a mountain just days before. Bumps and bruises everywhere. So the defense also had substantial room to argue that the drowning was a tragic accident of pain and sleepiness.

Doug's own role was a mastery of vagueness and mystery.  He claimed he helped Faylene climb into the tub...but returned to bed and fell back asleep.

He called for help when he found her in the morning...but he called a friend who was in the medical field (not a doctor) not 9-1-1.

Who was with her on that hike where she tumbled dangerously down the side of a mountain? Doug alone.

Faylene was obssessed with death and with Hilary's "joining" their family, but was Faylene highly suggestible? Did her husband, a charismatic man, exploit their shared religious beliefs to plant convenient ideas in her head? Juan Martinez hammered home during trial that Doug had a Svengali-like hold over his wife, capitalizing on the patriarchal authority structure of their religion. Suicide, the prosecutor emphasized through testimony and argument, would have been utterly against Faylene's so strongly held religious beliefs and would have kept her out of the heaven she cherished.

Faylene had no stab wounds, no bullet wounds, no slit throat. She had a well documented history of strange beliefs about her own death and her husband's relationship with another woman and that woman's destiny with Faylene's own children. So it is not a complete surprise that one or more jurors had trouble fully embracing the murder theory. 

Nevertheless, Juan Martinez did put his man behind bars. Doug Grant looks like he has a fairly decent record in prison and is currently working as an aide to the prison chaplain. He will be released next year. 

By the way, if you thought Juan Martinez was playing for the camera in the Jodi Arias trial, well, his M.O. in trials you've never seen on TV, such as the Doug Grant case, is no different. You are getting the Real Juan Martinez in the Jodi Arias case. 

So this is a good opportunity to let all my twittles know that I can't always see all of your questions at @CamilleKimball  If you haven't heard back from me, please feel free to leave a question or comment on Jodi Arias below.  And I'd like to emphasize to all the newcomers, I am inside the courtroom, not following on video.

Look for this truck across the street behind me in the photo at top

I'd also like to hear what you think about Juan Martinez below? Is he an ineffective bully? Or a rock star strategist?

Knowing what you just read about the Doug Grant case, did Juan haul a heavy load to the top of the hill? Or did he let it slip out of his hands? Or did he put an innocent widower in jail? 

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