The Williams Trial – Day 26: Closing Arguments Start

Today, Wednesday, Sept 4, 2013 the Prosecutor and Defense for Larry Williams gave their closing arguments.  As always, anything to do with this trial has a serious *trigger warning* and the closing arguments are no exception.  In fact, I can’t stress enough how disturbing this whole thing is.  I am having a hard time figuring out how to summarize without triggers.  All I can say is that the jury was told how the charges work and given instructions on their options of what they can determine. By factoring in different degrees of the charges, they have over a dozen options.  The closing arguments are a summary of what was shown and what each attorney wants the jury to decide.  One of the Prosecutor’s remarks was that they wanted to kill Hana’s spirit and her pride.  Very, very true.

Here is an article about the Prosecutor’s closing arguments in the Skagit Valley Herald. [Link removed as it is no longer working]

And here is a more in depth article in the Skagit Valley Herald which covers the whole day.

Here is the story on Komo News.

Here is the story on KiroTV.

Here is Maurine’s report on the instructions to the jury and closing remarks by the Prosecutor.  Here is a quote from it:

Mr. Weyrich discussed the various experts who have commented on Hana’s age, noting that most put her at 15 years old, via teeth and bone analysis. (The jury needs to believe she was under 16 for the more serious charge of homicide by abuse to stand.)

And here is Maurine’s report on the closing arguments from the defense team of Larry Williams.  I will summarize it with this one quote:

Larry just didn’t know all that was going on, Ms. Forde said several times. “The evidence is overwhelming,” she said, that “Carri Williams designed, planned, and implemented” all that happened in their home.

And here is a quote which I find very interesting:

Why did this happen? Because Larry and Carri were unprepared, said Ms. Forde. They were both naive. They thought Hana and Immanuel would respond to the same disciplinary tactics that their other children had, and they didn’t foresee the mental health problems of older, internationally adopted children.

This ties in with what I suspected from the moment I found out that they were following Pearl’s teachings.  My only quibble is that the adopted children did not have mental health problems.  Quite the contrary.  It was the biological children who were raised to accept the abuse and had been mentally broken down with Stockholm Syndrome.  The adopted children were sane enough to recognize abuse and resist it.

6 Comments

  1. Hope on March 19, 2014 at 2:14 pm

    I think this all messed up no matter what it is just bad i mean isn’t there enough children being abused out there!!!

  2. Cindy K on September 5, 2013 at 8:52 pm

    —These events are certainly ones that qualify…

    See, I can barely think straight about these matters, let alone write about them! Even in a blog comment.

  3. Cindy K on September 5, 2013 at 8:50 pm

    >>>In fact, I can’t stress enough how disturbing this whole thing is. I am having a hard time figuring out how to summarize without triggers.<<<

    I broke out with hives twice today. (It's been almost a decade since that has happened to me.)

    (I was only verbally abused, and I've had tremendous healing and rarely get triggered anymore, even when working with victims or in recovery groups. This is terribly hard for anyone to consider because of what these children endured, mingled with the recalcitrant and bizarre behavior of the parents. I think that as human beings, we should all be triggered by certain things, and these events are certainly qualify.)

    • Hermana Linda on September 5, 2013 at 10:16 pm

      True. I just don’t like to blindside people so I want to warn them. That way, they can either avoid them or brace themselves. I don’t really know how I do it, I think it’s mainly disassociation. Although, I’m sure that it has most to do with God giving me strength.

      • Cindy K on September 5, 2013 at 10:24 pm

        You’re astute to note this.

        Dissociation is a coping mechanism that helps us get through very difficult things. It has four gradations, and the first stage is common and healthy — when everything seems more like a dream, and the next stage is despersonalization — when things feel or seem like they are happening to someone else. It allows us to function and to step away from the pain of threat. And I am told that the more intelligent a person is, the more likely they are to dissociate. In situations requiring more of a pure survival response, the degree of dissociation can be more intense. Ultimately, it helps preserve a person’s sense of self, even though it is not very functional when it comes to interacting with others in a healthy way, and especially not in the long-term.

        • Hermana Linda on September 6, 2013 at 9:46 am

          Interesting. I seem to only use it for blogging and the research involved. When something does impact me, I’m always taken aback and then I take great pains to protect others from the info by flagging it. I do sometimes marvel at how I seem to insulate myself from the horror. I get very clinical and dispassionate about it. I wonder if it is very unhealthy and damaging to me. I also make a point of avoiding these topics as much as possible on Sundays so as to have a day of rest.

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