Jan 26 2023
Cody Brooks Moore
file photo from Nov 2020
There are a bunch of crimes, druggies, criminals, in County Clay. As for having jury trials, there ain't many. Instead of every case going to Court and decided by a jury of peers, plea deals are the norm. Our guess, over 90% of those charged with a crime, even serious crime with long jail terms, over 90% wind up a plea deal.
There's a good reason for accepting a deal. For many, that means reduced jail times. For others that were under the cloud of drugs, they had already cooked their own goose with statements like, I wasn't that stoned... or, I did that but so did my buddy.... , or, Ohhh come on ! I've done drugs all my life and you didn't do anything!!!
Those plea deals are also cheaper on the court system. No jurors to pay. No Court appointed attorneys to pay.. and stuff like that.
With three generations of druggies in our midst, finding a thinking juror can be hard to do. In Clayberry, parents and grand parents are, have been, drug addicts. Those folks may have different thinking when it comes to finding others guilty of the very things they did or are still doing. Such is troubling for a Prosecutor.
It's our understanding Cody Moore had managed a plea deal that specified, only 10 years in the slammer for killing Ben Laughlin on Nov 4th 2020. The deal was turned down and to trial they did go.
Disclaimer: We did not sit thru the entire three day trial. Each day we sat in for a few hours. That was enough to provide a complexion on what happened leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself. Having said that, here goes.
Cody Moore was represented by a couple new faces, Steve Nanners and James Hawkins. We think the well seasoned attorneys are from the Northern part of this state. Nanners handled most of the questioning while Hawkins spent his time on Cody himself.
In this day of everything on a puter, it wasn't. On the Prosecutor's desk were stacks of papers and pictures. Everything may be filed on the puter but in the Courtroom, it's still paper documents with scribbled notes on the edges.
During the three day trial, upwards of a dozen or so were in the peanut gallery including family members of the deceased guy, Ben Laughlin.
Cody was dressed in his best Oxford blue shirt and tan slacks.
Based on testimony, it was Nov 3rd 2020 and a big bunch of folks were partying over at Jamie Morris' place in Maysel. All were doing drugs, a bunch of meth, all night long. On the morning of the 4th, some were still stoned out of their heads while in upstairs bedrooms and otherwise, laying about, recovering from the high. So stoned were those in Jamie's residence, most could not even remember providing the Green Shirts with a statement.
Ronnie Welch testified after lunch on day one before Judge Jack Alsop. The one time Boy Scout had changed. For the last many years, Ronnie has been into drugs. The scruffy lookin Ronnie testified that he had gotten into a fight with Cody on Nov 4. The fight was over someone stealing Cody's drugs according to Ronnie. During another part of the trial Mr Moore said someone had stolen $90 from him. Ears perked up as Welch informed the world, he uses drugs almost every day of the week including that morning, just before coming to the trial.
According to their statements, all of em were at Jamie's place for drugs, to use drugs and did so on a regular basis. When all of Prosecutor Jim Samples' eyewitnesses said they couldn't remember this or that, they meant it. Every one was still in a buzzed out cloud of haze, with few details comin out.
Jamie Morris has been a druggy for decades. We've seen Jamie during more than a couple trials. The sad thing is, Jamie has talents. He is, was a top notch heavy equipment operator. Additionally, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His Dad had grown quite the empire of car washes. Everything was set up for Jamie to walked into and make a good life for himself.
The first time Jamie made the news, it was for pot possession and use.
Trying to negate that first public exposure to the Courts, his Dad (Joe) came to us and explained, his son did not do pot but instead, he was merely in a vehicle where others were smoking joints. IE: just being around the smoke, that's what showed up in Jamie's blood test.
We knew that spiel was BS back then (1992) but we listened to the Dad trying to cover for his son. It was sad back then and in fact, it was the first step toward staying in trouble with Badges and jail time. The Dad and Mom both tried hard to keep their son out of the slammer.
On Nov 4th Jamie was upstairs in bed. He did not see Cody blast Laughlin on Nov 4th. When he did come down the flight of steps, Morris testified, he saw Cody standing over Laughlin. He did not see a gun at that time.
This ain't Morris' first rodeo, he knew what not to say and what to avoid. During cross examination, defense attorney Steve Nanners went thru a big long listing of charges and convictions on Morris from the last 30+ years. Nanners asked how he got off of so many charges. Response from Jamie: I had a good lawyer. He said that over and over.
As for getting his drugs, Jamie wouldn't say where he got his drugs but said, he finds them at a car wash and and and he does NOT make $$$ off drugs.
The Defenser asked again about all those DUI and drug charges outstanding. He asked Morris if he was cooperating with Badges, a snitch so to say. Jamie said he wasn't a cooperating witness.
During his 30 minutes on the stand, Jamie Morris whispered. He never raised his voice or showed emotion.
McKenzie Johnson was first to say she saw what happened. From her statements: she saw the Cody v Ronnie fight as well as the Cody Ben Laughlin battle. On that second fight: Cody pushed Ben, shot three times with one of the shots fired while Laughlin was walking away from Cody.
During cross examination, McKenzie admitted to being stoned out of head that morning.
One of the stronger witnesses was Brandon Nottingham who was in attendance with his wife. While not in the shooting room, Brandon was in a garage area, heard everything including many gun shots. Nottingham and wife left that room to get further away from the trouble.
During cross exam from Nanners, Brandon: he was there to buy drugs, his wife was pregnant, he was on drugs the night prior, and most importantly maybe, Nottingham testified that he heard Cody say: I F!!!! up. I killed him, My life is over.
We told ya that Jamie was artful with his words. That part about him not doing drugs and not selling drugs, that was over the top and made everything else he had to say, it made his words worthless. Maybe he meant it to be taken that way!
Day one of the trial was over around 4pm on Tuesday Jan 24th.
A couple notes before we get back to the trial. The Courtroom PA system was not working. It was next to impossible to hear their whispered words. Only the strongest of voices could be heard. After the lunch break on the 25th, we were back in the gallery to hear the State's expert witnesses.
In real life, things are a lot different than what you see on the boob tube where the actors can tell you every detail on every subject.
For this real life trial, Green Shirts had a weapon, retrieved bullets, casings, , etc. Our forensic and medical experts were professional lookin and soundin but in a couple areas, they couldn't provide an answer.
Like: the retrieved bullets were "similar" but they would not say they were exact matches; they couldn't say how far away the shooter was from the victim; they could report on the bullet paths once inside the body but not where they came from.
For us listeners, most interesting, the Glock 9mm would not eject the casings. While test firing the thang, each casings had to be removed from the Glock one at a time by hand.
Prosecutor Samples milked the experts for all they had. Samples zeroed in on the "stipling" on Laughlin's check. Stipling is the excess, unfired, gun powder found on the victim's check at the entrance wound..
It was important for Jim to establish, Moore shot the now on the ground Laughlin from close up, point blank distance. Samples also established that since there was blood in the abdomen. the heart was still pumping after at least the first shot.
Jurors were paying attention, listening, and making notes. Sometimes that ain't the situation in court land. Sometimes they are barely awake.
In a bold move, Cody Moore took the stand Thursday morning at 9:24. His attorney James Hawkins handled this part of the trial duties. Summation: After the fight with Ronnie, Cody and Ben Laughlin got into a scuffle; based on the picture passed to the jury, Cody was covered in blood; he testified he thought "they" were going to kill him with the kicking and punching; Cody had a pistol at his waist; he turned over on his side and fired three times; he said he was in panic mode. Moore, "I was defending myself."
Keep something in mind. If memory serves us well, Ben Laughlin was a State champ wrestler for at least a couple of his high school years.
Moore said a fourth shot went into a wall.
The Defense team was peddling, Cody was the guy down on the ground and firing upwards to stop the threat in HIS life.
Keep in mind, somewhere else in the testimony, a witness remembered Moore spitting on Laughlin's limp body laying on the floor.
Cody Moore left Jamie Morris's house in his truck and headed toward Hansford Fork.
Moore was nabbed by Badges including one time Clayberry Black Shirt, Tyler Caruthers. According to Moore, he had his hands raised and was down on the ground but but Tyler Caruthers beat him, kicked him big time.
More, "I never wanted this to happen... For him to die..... I have two kids..... I just dropped in there."
Jim Samples uses the same tactics case after case. His intentions are to get the bad person to mess up one word, and then zero in on that for the rest of the trial. Like: What color was the sky? Blue. I think it looks blue gray. Well maybe it looks a little gray... So, did you lie with your first answer or this answer!!
He got so bad with badgering Mr Moore, Alsop told him to "Move Along" several times.
The defense team got into the objections. Judge Alsop,"QUIT! All of You!" Alsop took all three attorneys up front for a whispering Come to Jesus huddle.
After 40 minutes testimony time, Cody Moore left the hot seat.
With Jury on break (out of the room), Hawkins / Nanners demanded a mistrial. Then went over all the BS stuff Samples had pulled in front of the jury. Samples got yelled at again but the demand for a mistrial was denied.
Closing arguments provide a chance for added clarity. Attorneys can go out on a limb and put snippets into the jurors minds. On day three of this trial, closing arguments got underway at Noon:30.
Samples: Cody Moore executed someone... it was malicious and willful... the witnesses are not on trial here.... He shot Ben while standing over him... Cody changed his story....
From the other side Nanners went to work with: This was self defense... It is believable.... It was a fight that got out of hand.... Cody was legally defending himself....All the witnesses were high on drugs ...There was no blood test done, No saliva test performed .... There is NO scientific evidence! .. There was no blood splatter on Cody's clothes... They did not secure the carpet... Cody had blunt force trauma, he was blacking out ... Ben said, I will tear off your head! ...The Forensic man said there were infinite possibilities .... Cody felt bad for the victim....
Around 1:05pm, the jury headed into the side room to deliberate. In two hours, they had their answer.
Cody Moore could have been convicted on first degree murder, second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, or not guilty (self defense)
Cody Moore was found guilty of manslaughter and will be sentenced March 23, 2023 at 11am.
Readers, you are seeing an inside look at the problems with out of control drug use. It goes on in every neighborhood in County Clay. This one turned deadly. There is no end in sight.
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