Kenneth Not Dead Yet [PORTABLE]
This is a somewhat unexpected development. Beginning in 2015, conservatives toppled major leftist strongholds, including in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. The socially progressive Latin American left was declared dead many times over.
Kenneth Not Dead Yet
This film is made of guignol setting and mood, music and bold stylized camera angles, coincidence and shock, melodrama and romance. And it is also suffused with a strange, infectious humor; Branagh plays it dead seriously, but sees that it is funny.
Brian Tully of the Beaumont Fire Department testified that he was dispatched to Odoms's residence. When he arrived, Odoms was hysterical, and she pointed toward the kitchen. Tully also noticed that the house felt "kind of stuffy, like somebody had been running a heater." Tully observed that the oven was open, and a young child was in a fetal position inside the oven. Tully pulled the child out and checked for vital signs. Tully found no vital signs, and he saw that rigor mortis had begun, so he knew the child was dead. Tully then removed Odoms and another child from the house and secured the scene.
Justin Arceneaux, a paramedic for the city of Beaumont, testified that he was dispatched to Odoms's residence. When Arceneaux entered the residence, Tully informed him that the child was dead. Arceneaux determined that the child had been dead "for quite some time" because rigor mortis had set in, and there were lividity marks on the body. Arceneaux testified that a white, frothy substance had been expelled from the child's nose and mouth. When police officers arrived, Arceneaux told them that Odoms had said her boyfriend had killed the child. Arceneaux testified that Odoms was hysterical.
As Daniel began to back out in his vehicle, he looked in his rearview mirror and saw Pierott driving Odoms's car. Daniel ran to Pierott's car and flagged him into the yard, and Daniel asked Pierott where Tre-Devin was. Pierott responded that the child was in the oven, but Daniel did not understand what Pierott meant. Pierott told Daniel that Tre-Devin had been in the oven all night long, and Daniel ran back into the house and called Odoms. Daniel testified that when Odoms answered the phone, "[s]he was crying, screaming[,] and yelling, 'He killed my baby. He killed my baby.'" Daniel ran outside and asked Pierott if he had killed Tre-Devin, and Pierott responded, "He's not dead. He just don't have a body to go into." Daniel took Pierott to Houston to see their father, Kenneth Pierott, Sr. Daniel explained that he decided to take Pierott to Houston "[b]ecause I felt like he wasn't in his right state of mind and that the officers would probably do him harm in Beaumont. So, I took him out there for his safety, to turn him in."
Detective Robert Ener of the Beaumont Police Department testified that he was dispatched to Pierott's mother's home on April 16, 2004. Pierott's mother consented to a search of her residence, and the SWAT team conducted the search, but did not locate Pierott. Detective Ener subsequently became aware that Pierott had admitted to Daniel that he had killed Tre-Devin, and he and another detective interviewed Pierott in Harris County, where Pierott was in custody. The detectives attempted to obtain a statement from Pierott, but they were unable to do so. Detective Ener testified that Pierott was agitated during the conversation, and that Pierott said that Tre-Devin was not really dead. According to Detective Ener, Pierott "stomped his feet up and down, kind of imitating a small child running through a room[,]" and Pierott looked around as if he were watching a child run through the room. Pierott also accused Detective Ener of reading his mind, and he told Detective Ener that he could read Detective Ener's mind. Pierott also said that Tre-Devin was scattered all over the world. Pierott also told Detective Ener that Tre-Devin was sucking the life from Jacory, and Detective Ener testified that he "took it to mean that [Pierott] had done something to Tre-Devin so that [Tre-Devin] would not be in competition to [sic] his son." Detective Ener testified that during the trip back to Beaumont, Pierott "talked about that we were trying to get him to confess, and then he started in on he wanted to confess his sins and pretty much prayed out loud all the way back to Beaumont." Pierott never admitted the killing to Detective Ener.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Tommy Brown testified that he was dispatched to the scene where Tre-Devin's body was discovered. When Dr. Brown entered the scene, the oven lid was down, and Tre-Devin was "laying on the oven lid that was lying down[,]" and the oven grates "were over outside of the stove, over leaning against the wall." Dr. Brown performed an autopsy on Tre-Devin's body. Dr. Brown's external examination of Tre-Devin's body revealed the presence of carbonaceous debris consisting of soot, dirt, and burned food on the right side of Tre-Devin's head in the temple and cheek area, as well as on the back of his hands and distal forearms. Because the debris was stuck on rather than smudged or moved about, Dr. Brown determined that Tre-Devin was either unconscious or dead when he was placed in the oven.
Dr. Brown opined that Tre-Devin "was most likely dead when he was placed into the oven." Dr. Brown also performed a toxicology analysis, which ruled out the possibility that Tre-Devin died from gas asphyxiation. Dr. Brown determined that Tre-Devin "died from asphyxia due to smothering[,]" and Dr. Brown explained that the abrasions, contusions, and bruises on Tre-Devin's face and head indicate that he had struggled. Dr. Brown testified that he prepared an autopsy report, and the trial court admitted the autopsy report into evidence as State's Exhibit 39. The State then rested.
Kenneth Pierott, Sr. ("Kenneth") testified that when Pierott and Daniel arrived at his home in Houston, Daniel told him that Pierott had killed Tre-Devin. Kenneth indicated that Pierott was not crying, did not seem upset, and acted as though he had done a good thing. Pierott told his father that it would not do any good to call Odoms because "'when you put the phone up to your ear . . . you think you're talking to Kathy . . . but she's in your head and she's coming out your head into the receiver and you're not really talking to her.'" Kenneth testified that Pierott's eyes were glazed, he was calm, and he had a smile on his face. Pierott told his father, "'Tre's not dead. Tre's not dead. He's okay now.'" Pierott also told his father that he had left Tre-Devin in the oven overnight. Pierott's father testified that Pierott "talked about a mission, being on a mission. What he did, he did it because God had him do that. He was doing it for him, a good thing. He was doing a good thing." According to Pierott's father, Pierott also said, "'I'm your seed. . . . You are me, and I am you. . . . And I got a mission for you, too[.]'" Kenneth testified that he asked his mother to call the police, and the police arrived and arrested Pierott. According to Kenneth, Pierott never refused to answer any of the family's questions about what he had done to Tre-Devin.
Detective Hughes explained that when Pierott saw him typing into the computer, "he just stopped talking at all." When Detective Hughes stopped typing, Pierott began talking again. Pierott told Detective Hughes that the detectives "knew what happened with Tre and, so, therefore, we didn't need to be asking him these questions because we already knew[.]" Pierott also said that Tre-Devin "was still alive and was shuffling his feet across the floor[.]" Pierott told Detective Hughes more than once that Tre-Devin "was not dead but just outside his body[.]" Detective Hughes also testified that when he began to discuss Tre-Devin's death, Pierott would immediately change the subject. When asked whether he believed Pierott was purposely avoiding answering questions about Tre-Devin, Detective Hughes responded, "You know, he may have been. If he was playing us, then he was doing a good job because I didn't think he was rational[.]" Detective Hughes testified that he did not obtain a written statement from Pierott.
Dr. Gripon explained that when he interviewed Pierott the month after Tre-Devin's death, Pierott "told me that this child wasn't dead, that the child was just released from the child form. And he said that incorporated in a lot of disconnected, rambling, psychotic babbling. It was very hard to follow it." Dr. Gripon testified that "[i]t was the psychotic statements [sic] of a severely mental ill person at that point in time." According to Dr. Gripon,
The record reflects that Dr. Brown testified regarding some of these photographs in the course of explaining the appearance of the child's body, as well as how the appearance of the debris on the body assisted him in determining that the child was dead or unconscious when Pierott put him into the oven. Furthermore, many of the injuries that caused the child's death were located on his head, face, and neck, yet the crime scene photographs do not fully reveal those areas because the child's arm obscures them. We find that because of the numerous angles and injuries each autopsy photograph showed, as well as the different facts gleaned from each picture regarding the nature of the child's injuries, cause of death, and the condition of his body, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by determining that Exhibits 30-36 were not cumulative of the crime scene photographs. See Etheridge, 903 S.W.2d at 21 (finding multiple autopsy photos were not cumulative because each showed something necessary to clearly illustrate the full extent of the injuries and the general state of the body); see also Bacey v. State, 990 S.W.2d 319, 326 (Tex. App.--Texarkana 1999, pet. ref'd) (When two or more pictures depict the same thing, but from different perspectives, the jury can gain information it might not otherwise have when viewing other pictures from other perspectives.).
The question before the jury was whether Pierott had a mental disease or defect that prevented him from knowing that his conduct was wrong. See Tex. Pen. Code Ann. 8.01(a). As previously discussed in detail, both Dr. Silverman and Dr. Gripon described Pierott's delusions and opined that when Pierott killed Tre-Devin, he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia which caused him to become psychotic, and as a result, Pierott did not know that his conduct was wrong. Various lay witnesses testified regarding Pierott's numerous bizarre statements and behaviors before and after the murder. Specifically, Odoms, Daniel, and Kenneth described Pierott's preoccupation with religion, his belief that he was God and master of the planet, his belief that he was reading people's minds or people were reading his mind, the fact that Pierott behaved as though he heard voices, Pierott's belief that he needed to kill Tre-Devin so Jacory could live, and Pierott's belief that Tre-Devin was not truly dead. The detectives who investigated the crime offered similar testimony regarding Pierott's statements and behaviors after the murder. 041b061a72