Later, he confessed to everything.

Charged with 1st degree murder, he found it hard to plead guilty and check himself into a lifetime of prison, so he went to trial. His only hope lay in two possible outcomes: the jury would feel some sympathy for him and let him off with less than Murder 1 or the facts, as they came out in the trial, wouldn’t support the full charge. A mosquito had more hope of surviving the winter than Jim did of getting any leniency.

I was appointed to defend Jim.  How could I defend a guilty person?  The answer starts with: he was guilty…but of what?

When the Medical Examiner who conducted the autopsy on the victim testified, he broke the case wide open for Jim.

To prove Murder in the 1st degree, the prosecution must show that the killer “premeditated and intended” to kill the victim. That means the killer had some time to think about things, to realize what he was doing and, if possible, stop before death. For instance, if someone shoots a victim once, you could say it was intentional or maybe even accidental. But the third, fourth, and fifth shots would certainly be premeditated. In Minnesota, 2nd degree murder is defined as “intentional but without premeditation.”

Justivce means not only convicting a guilty person but also making sure the conviction fits exactly what the person did. Which one was Jim guilty of?

The Medical Examiner testified about the cause of death—choking around the throat that cut-off air to the victim which suffocated her. But…in this case, when Jim started to choke her, he broke a part of her spine that would have caused death instantaneously, without the long suffocation. For the defense, the Medical Examiner opened a huge door.

If Jim had broken her spinal column quickly, killed her instantly, then how could he have thought about what he was doing? How could he have premeditated the killing? He certainly intended to kill the girl, but did he have time to contemplate it, to premeditate the killing?

The jury decided he did not and found him guilty of 2nd degree Murder.  You may disagree that he deserved a break but to answer your question of how could I defend a guilty person, this case shows you how. I have to admit it wasn’t easy, but I think justice was done here.  What do you think?

The post How Can You Defend a Guilty Person? Part II appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

One of the best parts about being a writer is the opportunity to follow whatever curiosity you have that could be used in a story.  I got the idea of a  serial arsonist from a real case in California in the 80’s where a fire investigator had become a national expert because of all the fires he managed to solve.  It turned-out he could solve them because—he set all of them!

I wondered what would happen if something like that occurred in my town and the fires kept getting bigger and more deadly and no one could figure out who was guilty?

My main source of information was one of the Minneapolis Fire Dept. fire investigators.  Like the character in Flashover, my friend was female and smart.  She was generous enough to spend several hours with me going through all the details of a fire investigation and giving me other resources also.  For instance, she talked about how difficult it is, physically, to investigate a fire.  Even though it’s “out” the fire is probably still smoldering and giving-off toxic gases.  It’s still hot and dangerous to be climbing around the remains of a house or office that has burned.

She showed me some of the high-tech equipment they use.  When they’re looking for the presence of gas, they used to have dogs trained to smell it.  But the toxic environment of a fire was too hard on them and they died early.  Now, the fire investigators have a small gadget which measures gases at the scene.  It’s a hydrocarbon meter and the one she used was the MultiRae Pro .http://www.raesystems.com/products/multirae-pro The investigator collects a sample of gas in one end of the machine.  It’s passed over a heating element and the machine has a meter that shows the presence of different kinds of gases.  Then, the results can be uploaded to the crime lab for permanent storage or further analysis.

If they find the presence of gasoline, for instance, that’s pretty good evidence that someone started the fire rather than an accident.

The other aspect that’s so fun about this kind of research is that most people are proud of what they do for a job and are happy to talk about it.  That makes it more fascinating for me—and, I hope, for my readers!!

The post Flashover Research for Writers appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

It always amazes me to listen to lawyers riding the elevators between court rooms chuckle about how they’ve “beaten” the government again—by getting a tax refund after filing their returns.  Two hundred dollars, eight hundred, it doesn’t matter.  They’re convinced it’s a big score.  What they don’t remember are all the dollars that were withheld by both the feds and the state during each of their pay checks through-out the year.  And the government had the use of that money for all those months.  People in small businesses understand that because instead of withholding, they pay-in every quarter.  Believe me, they know how much the government is taking from them.

The income tax was enacted in 1913.  For several years, people paid their taxes in a lump sum.  So long as taxes were fairly low, people didn’t complain too much.  When the Great Depression came along and people were still required to pay, the complaining and tax evasion began.  Congress was worried that economic times were so tough that most people would either be unable or refuse to pay their taxes.  So, they came up with a brilliant solution—withholding.

Now, from every check you get paid, the government withholds a portion of your estimated total tax bill.  We’ve gotten so used to it, that we don’t even notice how much is being withheld and we trust our HR departments to get it right.  But Congress understood human psychology well.  If they calculated the withholding rates too low, people would still have to pay on top of all the money withheld.  They wouldn’t be happy.  But if the calculation withheld a little too much, then tax payers would received a refund.

One of the more interesting things in history about taxes are the fact they’ve been used to put some of the worst criminals in jail.

In the 1920s, many gangsters, profiting from illegal sales of booze during prohibition, managed to insulate themselves from the criminal act of selling and the further criminal acts of murder that seemed to always accompany the gangsters who fought for turf.  It was almost impossible to convict any of these notorious criminals.

An unlikely pioneer in the field of criminal prosecutions came in the form of an unknown woman named Mabel Walker Willebrandt.  She was a bored housewife in California who went to night law school and became an assistant attorney general under President Warren Harding.  She noticed that many hoodlums had vast amounts of money but paid little in taxes.  She was the first person to come up with the idea of prosecuting these criminals for tax evasion—if they couldn’t be prosecuted for murder.

At first, no one agreed with her including the courts.

But she persevered and eventually convinced the courts to hear the cases.  Within a few years, many of the most notorious gangsters in the U.S. were behind bars as a result of tax evasion trials.

Even the famous, Al Capone, was easily convicted and sent to jail in spite of the inability of the government to get him on bootlegging or murder charges.

The lesson for us—pay your taxes!!!

The post Tax Returns—Why Think About Them appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

Arsonists are fascinating criminals!!

I did a lot of research about arsonists for my book, Flashover.  I learned that they have a very different psychological personality makeup from other criminals.  Statistically, they look like other criminals: low education, low skills, low income, male usually, chemical abuse issues, etc.  But in other areas, they look much different.

For one thing, many arsonists are sociopaths.  The simple way to psychologically define a sociopath is to say that they lack a conscience.  As a result, they aren’t able to emotionally relate to other people.  They don’t follow moral or ethical rules because “the rules don’t apply to them.”  They can certainly understand the rules intellectually, but they don’t care.  At the same time, they can fake having a conscience—which makes them dangerous since the rest of us tend to believe them.

To be a successful arsonist, may require some technical skills.  Of course, it’s easy to set a fire in a garage and run, but many arsonists pride themselves on their skills compared to other violent criminals.  For instance, bombs are often used to ignite a fire and that takes a technical understanding beyond the ability of most criminals.

Many arsonists are gutsy and relish the challenge of committing a crime and getting away with it.  For instance, a common way to start a fire is to tape some wooden matches half-way down the side of the cigarette.  The arsonist lights the cigarette, goes into a store, tosses the smoldering cigarette into a pile of highly combustible material, (pillows, potato chips, plastic products), and leaves the scene.  When the cigarette burns down, it ignites the matches which create a flame.  Meanwhile, the arsonist gets a five to ten minute head start to get away.

Usually, arsonists watch the fires they’ve built.  They take pride at their “creations” and get a psychological high by watching and listening to the other spectators comment on the fire.  As a result, many become addicted to this high and set larger fires and even expose themselves to greater risk of capture.  Combine this with a sociopathic personality and you’ve got a dangerous criminal.

Do the police solve these cases?

Rarely.  Unlike the usual crime scene, a fire destroys all the evidence.  There would be very little for a CSI team to analyze.  Maybe that’s why arson is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country.

The post Serial Arsonists on “Castle” appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

Like my previous books, this is a suspense crime novel set in Minneapolis.  The main character is a young, female prosecutor named Zehra who is ambitious to become a judge.  She is assigned a case of an alleged arsonist and hopes a successful conviction of the suspect will give her reputation a boost and her self a judgeship.

Trouble is, as she works on the trial, she becomes concerned that they have accused the wrong man.  There have been a series of suspicious fires during one of the hottest summers in the history of Minneapolis.  While she’s prosecuting the suspect, Cyrus Miller, other fires break-out, including a huge fire near the Mall of America which kills several people.  Did Cyrus Miller also do that one?  If not, who is the real arsonist?  Will she convict an innocent man?

Meanwhile, the villain is planning the biggest fire of all time—an explosion at Target Field, where the Minnesota Twins play, that will burn it down and kill thousands of people.

I did extensive research into many subjects that will interest readers.  The personality of a serial arsonist is much different than that of other criminals.  This villain is also a sociopath—only 4 % of the American population qualifies as such.  When you combine a sociopath with an arsonist—watch out!

I also interviewed a fire investigator from the Minneapolis Fire Department to learn how they investigate fires to determine if it’s arson, who started it, and where the fire started.   A security expert taught me how to build a bomb—not that I’d ever do that!  The arsonist will use that information to blow-up Target Field.  You’ll find out what the villain knows.

The story builds in suspense and Zehra must solve the case and discover the villain in order to stop the fires and the killing.

Also, if you live in the Twin City area, I will host a book release party at:

Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. So.  Minneapolis September 19th from 4:30-7:00.

There will be free food, wine, and live music in addition to the party!  Come celebrate with me and let me thank you for your support!

The post FLASHOVER — My New Book is Out appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.