Day 5 Live Blog Amber McDaniel trial: State and prosecution rest
Editor's note: Check back often for updates on the trial in this blog.
FORT WORTH, Texas — James Irven Staley III had finely honed his skills in the twisted arts of manipulation, control and abuse by the time he met Amber Nichole McDaniel and Jason Wilder McDaniel, her 2-year-old son, in 2018.
More than one woman testified last week that Staley is one of a kind. It wasn't a compliment.
Tara Campisi, the mother of Staley's daughter, knew who she was going into her relationship with him, she told a jury Friday in a courtroom in the Tim Curry Criminal Justice System. But he took a toll.
"Even now all these years later, I still have scars emotionally," Campisi testified for the defense.
Campisi is part of the family known for Campisi's Italian Restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. At the time of Wilder's murder, her and Staley's daughter was 4 years old. Campisi had split with Staley some years before he started seeing Amber.
The jury hearing testimony starting last week about Staley's machinations and how they affected the women and children in his life will decide Amber's punishment.
She pleaded guilty April 28 in 30th District Court in Wichita Falls to child endangerment for bringing Wilder around Staley and to tampering with evidence for deleting text messages between her then-boyfriend and herself. Investigators testified those messages were key to the murder case.
Amber, who was not convicted of a felony previously, is eligible for probation. She faces two to 10 years in prison for evidence tampering, a third-degree felony, and six months to 24 months in state jail for child endangerment, a state jail felony.
On March 13, Staley was convicted of capital murder of a child under 10 and sentenced to life in prison without parole in a courtroom at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center.
Testimony indicated Staley smothered Wilder in his crib Oct. 11, 2018, and then staged the death scene to try to make it look like Wilder had fallen from the crib.
Amber and Staley's relationship lasted about 75 days over which they exchanged over 9,000 text messages. Their tempestuous relationship ended with the child's death.
Staley's trial was moved to Fort Worth because of safety concerns and pretrial publicity.
Thirtieth District Judge Jeff McKnight ordered Amber's trial moved from Wichita County to Fort Worth because of pretrial publicity.
On Friday, Campisi told the jury she "unfortunately" knew Staley and had a short relationship with him. She knew him three months before she moved in with him.
Not long after she started seeing him, she realized Staley was not like anyone else she had ever known. He gaslighted her, manipulated her and isolated her by getting her to move to Wichita Falls for a time.
"When I was pregnant, I started driving back home every weekend from Wichita Falls back to Dallas," she testified.
Her father always told her she was wearing a mask, Campisi testified. Around her family she was smiling and pretending everything was fine. She was too embarrassed to admit what was happening with Staley.
Eventually, she left him and went back home. It took time to totally extricate herself from him romantically.
"I felt sorry for him," Campisi testified. "He said early on, 'No one loves me. I mess up everything that comes into my life.' "
He would cry and send her selfies of himself weeping with snot running down his face.
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Campisi went through several cycles of abuse with Staley, she testified. After she left him, she asked herself why she was in that relationship.
"I thought I could save him," Campisi told the jury.
Staley's ex-fiancee reached out to her through Facebook and shared things that really helped her make sense of what happened, Campisi testified.
"She said that she was emotionally traumatized by being with him," Campisi told the jury. "She warned me she got sucked back in every time."
Staley was manipulative and abusive, and the fiancee called off the wedding and changed her phone number.
During his cross-examination, Gillespie pointed out that Campisi got away from Staley and protected her daughter from him, contending that Amber did not get away from him and protect Wilder.
On Thursday, Staley's younger sister, Martha Bea Staley, testified that her brother was abusive and cruel. He played a game with her little dog that he called, "Coco can't breathe."
He would give the dog alcohol to intoxicate it and suffocate the small animal, stopping short of killing it. Staley also shut Bea up in a suitcase and left her. To this day, she has a fear of confined spaces.
Lisa Tanner, who acted as special prosecutor in Staley's capital murder case, took the stand to testify for Amber.
It was the first time Tanner, lead prosecutor on cases that sent eight people to death row, has ever testified for a criminal defendant.
Tanner told the jury that she has never seen anything like Staley's abuse of Wilder in her career. The amount of effort he put into it shocked her.
"I've just never seen anybody like him. Never," Tanner testified.
A jury was chosen Sept. 11 and began hearing testimony Sept. 12 in Amber's punishment trial. Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie finished his case Thursday, and Wichita Falls attorney Mark Barber began presenting Amber's defense.
Chief Felony Prosecutor Kyle Lessor is assisting Gillespie.
Amber's husband and Wilder's dad, Robert "Bubba" McDaniel Jr., was shot Sept. 10, suffering a nonfatal injury to his arm the day before jury selection in his wife's trial. The man who police believe shot Bubba was taken into custody Sept. 11.
Bubba could be seen Monday in the hallway outside the courtroom, wearing a sling on his arm.
The defense and prosecution rested Monday. The jury is expected to hear closing arguments Tuesday morning and then deliberate on Amber's sentences.
Monday's testimony
12:14 p.m. McKnight broke the silence in court and asked about the charge. He had already sent the jury home.
With all the evidence from the defense and prosecution presented, both sides and the judge worked on the charge.
It will provide specific instructions to jurors about issues they must determine and the laws in the case, according to the Texas Judicial System.
The judge will read the charge to jurors to provide guidance in their deliberations. The charge will include questions for jurors to respond to after mulling over the evidence presented to them in the trial. It will be up to the jury to decide the facts and apply them to the law.
Barber told the judge he has no objections to the charge.
Gillespie said that both he and Barber want it included in the charge that a sentence for the state jail felony must be served day for day.
The judge said he will get them a new copy with the changes discussed and work on making copies for Tuesday. He told Gillespie and Barber that they would each get an hour for closing arguments Tuesday, but he will stop them a few minutes after that.
That was it for Monday in court.
11:36 a.m. The state and the prosecution closed their cases.
McKnight told the jury the trial was ahead of schedule, and there were some things that needed to be done. He said they were dismissed until 9 a.m. Tuesday morning when they would hear closing arguments.
After that, they will receive the case to begin deliberating on a verdict.
After the jury left, Amber, her attorney and the prosecutors stayed in court working in preparation for Tuesday.
11:30 a.m. The jury heard a voice mail message Amber left for Detective Chad Nelson on Jan. 11, 2019.
Amber said on the message that she heard the crime scene was contaminated, and police have known all along that her child was suffocated. She said she needed some answers.
11:03 a.m. Gillespie recalled Courtney Bachman and grilled her about Facebook status updates she posted that were negative toward Amber.
Bachman, Amber's sister-in-law, testified that she shouldn't have made the negative posts. Her nephew had just died, and she was posting out of emotion.
11:02 a.m. The defense rested.
10:44 a.m. The judge sent the jury out on a break, and Amber took the stand in relation to whether or not she would waive the Fifth Amendment and testify in her own defense.
McKnight told her that he wanted to make sure that she knew if she waived her right to avoid self-incrimination, then she would have to answer all questions and couldn't pick and choose.
Amber told the judge that she was electing not to waive her rights and testify.
While Barber questioned her, Amber told the judge that she made that choice freely and voluntarily.
It is of note, that Amber gave hours and hours of testimony during Staley's trial, incriminating herself in the process and admitting mistakes.
9:29 a.m. Dina Taylor, Amber's mother, was called to the witness stand.
She told the jury about Amber being exposed to her ex-husband Scott Odom's drinking and abuse growing up. Amber was 7 when her parents separated.
Amber was "exceptional" growing up. She volunteered and was a cheerleader in elementary, junior high and high school. She didn't have to crack a book in school.
Dina testified about the toll of Wilder's death on her family and especially Amber.
During cross-examination, Gillespie went on the attack, contending Amber gave Dina a false picture of Staley as a sweet boyfriend and then failed to cooperate fully with the police investigation into the child's murder.
9:25 a.m. Courtney Bachman, Amber's sister-in-law, read part of the transcript from Staley's capital murder trial with Barber. Bachman reads Amber's testimony, and Barber reads questions from Special Prosecutor Lisa Tanner.
At least one juror was running late Monday, so the trial started a little bit later than planned.
Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Day 5 Live Blog Amber McDaniel trial
