When a Guilty Verdict Goes Both Ways

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One week ago, a jury went into deliberations for about three hours after hearing closing arguments that morning from a case that took two full days to try during the prior week.  The Ludington Torch was there for all of the court action, so when the Mason County Press (who wasn't there for the trial) came out later that day with a canned story purely from the prosecutor's perspective, we felt there needed to be a bit more said on the story, particularly when Prosecutor Beth Hand brazenly says:  "Emmanuel [Manny] Rodriguez [the victim] was unable to speak for himself. I commend law enforcement who did a thorough investigation that allowed me to be his voice and hold his assailant accountable."

Two things are objectionable in this statement.  First, this wasn't a "thorough investigation".  During the trial we actually found out that law enforcement of Oceana County did a very poor job in investigating Manny's death and didn't even consider Gale as a suspect until they were shown some text messages months after the death (we will explore some of those deficiencies, much like the defense did). 

Second, the prosecutor actually went out of her way to show that there was no "assailant" involved in the death, as she tried to rule out the possibility that death was due to a physical assault, rather than what an incomplete investigation pointed to: a lethal combination of drugs, including fentanyl and meth.  One couldn't even rule out a death by 'natural causes', since Manny's medical records were never sought after his death, and he had been seen aspirating on multiple occasions.

The courtroom drama unfolded Wednesday afternoon on March 19th when a jury was selected with Hand and Defense Attorney Ravi Gurumurthy from Cadillac.  Over the next two days, Hand would trot out police officers of both Mason and Oceana County, other forensic experts in the area, and a few other witnesses to make their case.  Gurumurthy would follow with mindful cross examinations in order to establish reasonable doubt, whether it was in the police and expert procedures, the credibility of the witnesses, or the findings of the forensic evidence.

                            From left:  Mason Co. Prosecutor Beth Hand, Defendant Travis Gale, Defense Attorney Ravi Gurumurthy

Gurumurthy would admit that Gale was not a scion of the community in anybody's standards, but that the jury weren't there to establish whether he was a good character, only if he was guilty or not guilty of the crimes the state had assigned to him.  As we have seen, his efforts were not successful with this jury in either of the three charges, the most serious being delivery of a controlled substance causing death, but it did have the citizen-judges taking about three hours to make that decision despite being deluged with expert and detective testimony over two days.  

The timeline of what happened is that on Friday, April 21, 2023, Manny was watching wrestling at his brother Roman's house in Oceana County and walked a block or so to his home just after 10 PM, near the Ruby Creek Tavern just across the county line.  His landlord, Rick Bowen Jr. who had seen Manny earlier that day, would find him dead on early Monday morning (April 24, 2023) in a secondary apartment above a barn.  He was lying naked on the floor face first.

Forensic experts would determine the body had been there for about two days, suggesting that he had died after going back to his house that Friday night.  They would draw a sample of blood from his chest area for toxicological review in the lab.  The results would eventually show he had fentanyl, meth, THC/marijuana, and alcohol in his system, along with some medication he took for a recent poison ivy episode.  No signs of external trauma to the body were evident.

It seems at this point that the arriving Oceana County deputies, detectives, and medical examiners decided against having an autopsy performed due to it looking to be an accidental overdose.  This preconception also had them ignore certain leads that were proffered, including brother Roman's suspicion that Jennifer, whose apartment he was found in (adjacent to Manny's), may have had something to do with the death. 

Reportedly, Jennifer was at that point behind in rent and in disfavor of their mutual landlord, who had been regularly looking out to see whether her car was around.  It was reasonable to believe that she may park her car close by and walk over to escape detection.  It was undetermined whether she had a close relationship with Manny, but they had adjoining rooms separated only with a door.

The Oceana County detectives failed to follow leads or treat Manny's death as suspicious, leaving a lot of holes in the investigation that almost proved fatal in this case.  Jennifer was never found or interviewed though they knew where she worked.  Fingerprints were never looked for, not even on the suspicious piece of paper with what appeared to be drug residue on it.  A backpack in the room ostensibly belonging to Jennifer who had supposedly moved out was never seized as evidence.  

That changed when a former girlfriend of Manny's came forward with some text messages she had with Manny the night that he died.  He was hoping that she would come over, telling her that he could score some heroin, her drug of choice.  Detectives would then find out through Manny's phone that he had contacted Gale that night and arranged for some meeting in order to get heroin and had told his ex that he had scored some shortly after midnight.  

This is where a character named Chris Bentley comes into play.  Bentley admitted on the stand that he was a person who would arrange drug deals and get his own cut of the drugs for doing so.  He would also admit to being a confidential informant at times, after Manny's death.  His testimony put him in the car with Manny and Travis Gale where he allegedly saw Manny give a wad of cash to Gale at a bar that he thinks was the Ruby Creek Tavern but never saw what the money was for.  The reason why the trial was in Mason County is because that's where the tavern is at.  

The text messages between Gale and Manny dance around saying what kind of transaction is taking place; but what likely worked most against Gale was that after this meeting occurred, he cautioned Manny about what he had just received was some very strong 'S***' in a text.   What seems unconscionable is that the police at this point have not even subpoenaed phone records to geolocate where Gale, Manny, Jennifer and Bentley were on the night of April 21, 2023 in order to strengthen their assumptions in this case.  

Working against Gale's defense was an incident at the Mason County Jail in September 2023, after his arrest for the three crimes involving Manny's death.  Within a short time of being introduced to the general population, Gale allegedly gives a fellow inmate some drugs.  This cannot be confirmed with cameras, but a couple of inmates indicated Gale was involved with it.  Each seemed genuinely surprised when Gurumurthy asked them about whether they were told they were at court to testify in order to be used for another incident. 

The several witnesses that had nothing to do with Manny's death but knew of what reportedly happened nearly half a year later were likely helpful in distracting the jury away from their duty to look at the elements of the April death of Manny, and how the investigation of his death, absent an autopsy and other normal forensics, was almost fatally flawed.  In retrospect, this would have been a brilliant set-up on Gale in order to get justice for Manny in a case with so many investigative holes.

One has to empathize with the family of Manny.  His brother Roman and three others came in each day to stoically watch the proceedings.  If they had any pleasure in hearing the jury declare the defendant guilty, they surely didn't show it.  In truth, we are all probably better off in getting another alleged drug dealer off the street and behind bars, for that's what the verdict of our unconflicted peers tell us. 

But if I was on a jury and saw an investigation by seasoned detectives and medical examiners that had so many problems as this did, so many things left uninvestigated immediately after a drug-induced death, I would insist that they should also be found guilty of dereliction of duty to both the victim, the accused, their respective families, and even the prosecutor who has to fill the holes.