Renfro trial nearing end

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Hagadone News Network

COEUR d’ALENE — In a courtroom where the number of audience members has dwindled to a handful, attorneys for Jonathan D. Renfro on Tuesday went on the defensive as their evidence was picked apart by a state’s expert.

Tuesday’s proceedings started on time, but were cut short midday as prosecutors waited for additional experts that were not scheduled to testify until today.

The once-packed courtroom, where bench seats had been reserved for family members, media, attorneys and security officers, has slowly emptied as the trial grinds into its sixth week.

Renfro, 29, who has been found guilty of killing Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore by shooting him in the face two years ago, faces the death penalty.

Before the first rebuttal witness was called Tuesday, and after the defense rested its mitigation efforts, presiding Judge Lansing Haynes said he expected to wrap up proceedings within the next couple of days.

“I expect this case will get to the jury this week,” Haynes said. “That’s what we’ll shoot for.”

As their first witness, prosecutors called a Columbia University statistics professor to refute evidence by a defense expert who used a brain scan combined with statistical data to show that Renfro suffered traumatic brain injuries.

In their efforts to show their client shouldn’t be put to death because mitigating circumstances can be blamed for his actions, Renfro’s defense team argued the many head injuries Renfro suffered made him impulsive and irresponsible, The result of those injuries though has been alleviated recently by therapeutic medications, attorneys said.

But Ian McKeague called the evidence of traumatic brain injury rubbish.

McKeague, a professor of biostatistics, said defense expert Robert Adler’s methods used to show a disorder in the defendant’s brain were faulty. McKeague said the forensic psychiatrist was dishonest in his representation of the data.

“The method of his approach is flawed,” McKeague said. “If it’s garbage in, then it’s garbage out.”

Defense attorney Jay Logsdon challenged McKeague’s analysis, but the statistician wouldn’t budge, instead he further accused Adler of attempting to flimflam.

“It’s a shell game,” McKeague said. “That’s not science. That’s not a legitimate use of discriminant analysis.”

Logsdon resorted to calling on the bottom line, to turn the tables on McKeague, but the professor said he was paid just $4,000 to testify for the state compared to Adler who was paid more than 10 times that amount to testify for the defense.

“He has made millions of dollars out of this racket,” McKeague said. “It’s a complete fraud.”

Earlier in the day, before turning the reins over to prosecutors, Renfro’s attorneys called two witnesses whose heartfelt testimony painted the defendant as a thoughtful but wayward young man.

A middle school girlfriend of Renfro’s who still lives in Paso Robles, Calif., where Renfro went to school before moving to Idaho, recalled the defendant as someone who was picked on because of his slight build and ADHD, but whose distaste for bullies was memorable.

Renfro would not back down from bullies who attacked him or others.

The former girlfriend’s statements coincided with earlier testimony in which Renfro told a witness that “when you’re bullied, you don’t tell a teacher,” because nothing will get done. “You take care of it yourself.”

Sergio Rivera, a jailhouse preacher — someone who ministered to inmates while he was a pastor in the Silver Valley — recalled Renfro as an earnest participant in his ministry at the Shoshone County Jail where Renfro was held while waiting to be sent to prison more than a decade ago.

“He stood out so much as one of the inmates who so wanted to change, out of hundreds,” Rivera said. “He’s one of the five or six who wrote to me while he was in prison.”

Rivera apologized for not having time to write back.

“I’m pretty jaded … I’ve seen so many inmates, say so many things,” Rivera told the court. “His sincerity, I know, was deep.”

The final phase of the trial to determine if Renfro should be put to death, resumes today at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 1 of the Old Kootenai County Courthouse.