True Crime Stories

My list of cases to look into and research is well over a 1,000 names long. I do not always have a plan on how to find a case but from time to time I will start at the beginning again and work my way down, first looking for one that grabs my attention, and second, looking for one that has maybe finally gone through the courts. This case was number fifty-four on my list and when I searched once again I was surprised to learn the trial had finally taken place. In fact, the trial just ended on January 31, 2018. Sentencing is not scheduled to take place until April 11 th so I will make the effort to come back and update this after that time. Normally I would not go ahead and do this case, but it is one that I have been waiting for. I have done several cases over time, and especially lately that involve feuding neighbors. One thing that a lot of these cases have in common is that the neighbor who ends up taking action, almost always deadly force, tend to a) claim self de...

I have said before that neighbor dispute crimes interest me quite a bit due to the fact that it could happen to any one of us. You never know when you move into a home or someone new moves in just what you may be getting into or who you are getting. This particular case proves this almost more than any others that I have blogged about. This neighbor dispute began over little more than a piece of dirt that has been described as no bigger than a surfboard. It measured about ten foot by four foot and it cost two people their lives. On January 29, 2007 Elizabeth Grimes called 911 from her Carmel Valley California home. The call to the operator would record all that would happen next and would be used later in court to dispute the what the defendant said happened. Melvin and Elizabeth Grimes got married and bought their home in 1995. Four years later John Kenney would move to the property adjacent to the Grimes home. John Kenney has been described as an eccentric geologi...

As I have stated before I attempt to find cases that grab my attention at any given time. For example, while this may sound bad, domestic, spouse on spouse cases do not always do that. Sadly in our world it is such common place that it is almost unusual for a spouse to not be accused, and/or charged and convicted of murder, in some form or another when their spouse dies. There is almost always an underlying reason, greed and jealousy are the big ones. Then again as I say this there are times I sit down and those are exactly the ones that “grab” me on that day. However, almost always a case involving neighbors both intrigue me and frustrate me, but so much so that they bring me here. First I believe these sorts of cases catch my interest because in many of the stories, it could be any one of us reading this today. I would gander to guess that most of us have at the very least lived in a neighborhood where there is at least one cranky neighbor that for the most part peo...

As an animal lover this case bothers me, not just because at least one animal died because two men could not get along, but because the animal was a Pit Bull and seemed to feed into the idea that the breed itself is especially dangerous.  Regardless of the size of a dog, any breed can be "vicious" but they do not become that way all by themselves.  Their treatment and "care" can make any dog mean and scary. We just do not become fearful when a poodle comes after us like we do when a bigger dog does.  I have been around many pit bulls in my life, sometimes without even knowing it for a while, and I have not been around one I feared. I used to have a joke because a friend of mine had a Pit Bull and although I had never been around it he allowed me to walk past him and go to the door of the home. I nicknamed him "Killer."  The vast majority of Pit Bulls I have been around are loving, caring dogs, but again, any breed can become dangerous and in fairness a dog...

An argument would not be an argument if people agreed with each other.  As is so often the case each side tells their story and those closest to them believe their side. And then when one side takes it too far the tides turn.  The one who has gone too far now looks to be the more wrong of the two and there is usually little they can do at that point to resolve that.   Tom and Lisa Wess moved into a gated community called Lake of the Pines in California about forty-five minutes from Sacramento in 1998.  This community is not your average, run of the mill communities with at gate.  They have their own golf course and even lounge behind those gates. In 2000 Bill and Mary Weismann moved in next door to the Wess' after Bill had retired.  It seems that almost immediately there was trouble. It seems as if the Wess' had begun constructing a boat dock before the Weismann's moved in.  I question whether the Weismann's knew prior to closing on the house ...