What? You think someone killed a child and you haven't called the police? I don't understand.
No, I KNOW someone killed a child. The police were contacted, and no one pressed charges. But I was not present for that, so I am now doing my part.
The body is at the morgue, they have even done an autopsy. It's not like this is going on in a weird way.
Murder isn't the kind of crime that one can choose not press charges on...the state always presses charged for the crime, you can't stop it...but there must be some evidence to charge someone...and it does not require funding to prosecute. I'm confused...
Murder IS the kind of thing to can choose to press charges on. Look at the Walmart Heiress, she committed vehicular manslaughter but the family decided not to press charges.
And it is being treating as a "death from natural" causes type thing, but I do not call a bad parent "natural causes".
There is evidence. He has claimed on record, at the hospital and to family members that he brought the M&Ms home, HE put them in a bag separate from the one labeled with warnings. And he coaxed my brother to eat them.
Intent or not, there was a murder committed the way I see it. The rest of the family sees an accident. I see a bad parent that deserves to not raise another child (which he has one, one year younger, which is also my brother).
My daughter and I were shot, and she died. I have been through a murder trial, and I have read the relevant law carefully and discussed it with the district attorney. While I am not a lawyer, I do have at least this much direct experience.
There are two broad divisions: criminal and civil. Murder is criminal. The two parties in a criminal action are the defendant (your stepdad) and the state (whatever state you live in).
The prosecutor represents the state. While his interests may be close to yours, he does not represent you. You will not have standing in the case. At most, you can be a witness. Everyone will be watching you for a variety of reasons, including your emotional stability with a view toward whether you will act improperly in the courtroom.
Let me expand a bit on "you will not have standing in the case." This means that no lawyer can represent you in this criminal matter.
My general impression from reading your threads is that, yes, you went through a horrific event. By the way, this is true for every witness or family member in a murder trial, so you are just "the next case" in the prosecutor's office. My impression continues that you appear to be a hot head, emotionally driven, and you tend to try to fit the facts to your emotions. That is a dead end approach, and it will make the prosecutors believe that they have to "manage" you.
The defense attorney will do everything he can to put your stepdad into a good light. For example, he might say that he was just playing, and that you brother knew that the peanuts were moved. Presumably anything the defense attorney says is true, but "true" can be very slippery when he says "My client says ...."
In a bigger picture, and without knowing the answers to lots of important questions, I think your larger responsibility in the present is to your mother and brother. Presumably she is in danger, and presumably she at one time was very devoted to your stepdad. She is probably very conflicted in her thinking right now. Some basic questions for you to consider are whether she herself is in immediate and clear danger, and as a completely separate question, whether she will remove herself from the danger and stay removed. If she will return to your stepdad, it becomes much more difficult to help her.
