Jennifer Trayers was convicted of second degree murder late yesterday afternoon in a San Diego courtroom. Reporters noticed a great deal of shock and disappointment in her expressions when the verdict was read out loud. I suspect, Jennifer thought she would get off with the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. A generous jury has lifted the levels of premeditation with the second degree sentence, in the face of bountiful evidence presented that points to plentiful planning, malice, and aforethought.
Yet the jury took more than three days to decide Jennifer’s fate. Some of them (made up of seven women, five men) must have leaned in the direction of sympathy for Ms. Trayers, who had caught her cheating husband’s web of deception, utilizing treacherous spyware to monitor his romantic email communications with a cool Hitchcock-like blonde professional, Danielle Robins. Jurors had strong evidence of premeditation, but chose to ignore it.
They favored the spirit and circumstances of the ‘situation,’ as opposed to the beaucoup cornucopia of flagrant incrimination (presented by the prosecutors), such as Fred’s military-issued butcher knife, or an eight-page email which reads more like a prescription manual on what would likely happen to this doomed bunco of a bamboozler, who probably didn’t care one tiny bit if his wife discovered his libidinous game of boondoggle.
Well, that read as a muddled mess, but you get the gist of it! Certainly, the jurors didn’t buy the defense’s claim of a total blackout while she (at the same time), accurately plunges the dagger right in the center of the bullseye. You’d have to be about your wits to exact these kinds of wounds. And yet the jurors must have sensed she was possessed with an irrational passion when performing this homicidal feat, or else the verdict would have read first degree.
Levels of compassion were mined from the hearts of the jurors, where it didn’t (and perhaps shouldn’t) have to be this way. Nonetheless, Jennifer Trayers will serve a good amount of time behind bars. The time sentence will come down on March 9th, when a judge (San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Weber) can fine-tune an allocation of time, fitting how she interprets the intentions of the jury, or alternatively, (the judge can take a position) on what JT did the morning of December 4, 2010 (both before and after the act itself).
A second degree murder charge sentence in California can range anywhere from 16 years to life. A middle point to that would be more than 20 years. If this is how it goes down for poor JT, who suffered a nasty spill last weekend, injuring her chin (which since has become infected), then she will not leave jail until she’s around 64. She’s 43 now. Newspapers described her as ‘shellshocked,’ upon hearing her loathsome fate.
Jennifer Trayers will be one tarnished moll when she finally experiences her freedom. She looks fairly beaten down now anyway. She’ll more resemble Seahag from the old Popeye cartoon once the star-crossed, cuckolded wife escapes the miserable life (which much more mirrors death) of a callous, institutionalized state slammer, where everyday is spent in dawdling despair, dereliction, and damnable drudgery.
Well, maybe I’ve watched too many of those women behind bars flicks made popular back in the ’60s? But at least JT is still alive! Her poor husband Fred never had a chance to wake up from his sleep medication of Ambien. And we’ll never hear from these people ever again. No one cares what happens to you once you go to jail. You’re doomed!
