Archive for January 26th, 2010

Murder was the case.

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

And Raynella Leath has been convicted of killing her second husband.

So why do I care about a murder trial in Knoxville? Because it has some rather strange aspects; I was going to blog this NYT article on Sunday, but got distracted by shiny objects.

There was a fatal car crash, a love child, a missing will and, strangest of all, the 1992 death, officially by cattle stampede, of the Knox County prosecutor, Ed Dossett, who happened to be Ms. Dossett Leath’s first husband at the time.

Dossett’s death was ruled an “agricultural accident” by the medical examiner.

Mr. Dossett had been in the late stages of terminal cancer, and Ms. Dossett Leath told the authorities that she had helped him out to the barn to feed the cattle at his request.

The medical examiner who made that ruling

lost his medical license after being convicted of sedating and sexually molesting minors in 1995.

The current medical examiner found

Mr. Dossett’s morphine level was “so extraordinarily high it is unlikely that any human could function in an ambulatory manner or continue to live.”

Les Jones, as I recall, was covering this case for a while.

Ah, Austin.

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

More than 200 people gathered outside Austin Police Department headquarters Monday to protest what they said was heavy-handed enforcement at a gun show held Jan. 16 and 17.

I didn’t find out about this until 6:30 PM last night, or I would have gone and covered the event for my loyal readers (all three of them; and I’m counting the guy with the tapeworm twice).