14. THE SMALL DETAILS - December 2016 I knew Mandi was innocent from looking at the tiny details. The behavior at the Lofts, the individual steps, the timing, made no sense as a planned robbery. Driving quickly into the garage. Saving a half-smoked cigarette. Plus, I know Mandi. I saw there was a Denny's right before you got to The Lofts, that was open 24 hours. That must be where she left Scott Love, never imagining he would come in. Like she left Primo at Popeyes and Burger King and Walmart. Like she left Chris Dahl at Publix. Like she left her mom and little brother in the street. Like she left poodle boy at her mom's house, and Tywaun at Ale House. The trial looked at the big picture. It tried to tie together the various general events into a robbery plot that made sense. Here is a girl, here is a guy who is dead, here she is using his credit card. The problem is a set of events involving Mandi, do not have the same explanation as a normal person. You can make a styrofoam sculpture that looks like a car. You have to look under the hood, to find out it is not actually a car. You can have Mandi do something that looks superficially like maybe a robbery plot, if you don’t look at the details. Under the hood is Mandi doing what she always does under there. She is having sex with old guys. The outward appearance is not what is really going on, especially not in the hooker business. I don’t care if Mandi takes a hot air balloon to meet the Pope, she is fucking him. And if the Pope spends two hours at GQ Jim's apartment drinking vodka, the Pope is getting more than a straw in his mouth. That is common sense. That is not common sense if just some girl goes to meet the Pope. But that is common sense if you know anything about the girl involved. But there was nothing in evidence that would permit the jury to use common sense. Unless you want to say beyond a reasonable doubt what the average girl would be doing at the average guy’s apartment, when that girl is not Mandi. Mandi entered Dollhouse earlier in the night around 8:30 according to valet Marc Gorewitz and cell tower records. And she was at Dollhouse, or at Stars across the street which is the same business, at least 26 hours that week. The first thing Mandi did the next time she arrived at Dollhouse - the first time she ever arrives at Dollhouse so far as the jury knew, and when her plan to rob the manager began - was provide her real name, and her father's name, on a job application. The last thing Mandi she did before she left work at Dollhouse - supposedly to go commit armed robbery on the manager - was 1) buy a stripper dress for the next day from fellow employee Neisha Cintron, 2) Give Neisha Cintron her real phone number with her name on the account and 3) text Neisha her real name "Mandi", in response to a text where Neisha sent her stripper name "Catalina." Neisha Cintron lied on the stand to hide these small details that did not indicate a planned robbery, and the jury never knew about it. The prosecution showed Mandi's phone bill at trial to prove she committed a robbery. The phone bill proved it was her. But if she really committed an armed robbery, it is unlikely they would have her phone bill to prove it. You could argue Mandi needed to put her real name on her job application to match her drivers license. And she put her work experience at the Veigle’s original location, Rachel's, where Mulrenin also worked, because she needed to get the job. But Mandi would not provide her father’s name as an emergency contact, for someone she was about to rob. She certainly did not need to buy a dress for work the next day if she were going to rob her boss, or provide her name and phone number to another employee last thing before leaving to do the robbing. And she didn't need to spend two hours at an apartment to do an armed robbery. It is worth listing the things Mulrenin did, which make Mandi a criminal for tricking him to bring her home. He flashed money in a money clip. He displayed full shopping bags in his car, Neiman Marcus in the front, Macy's and Apple in the back. He promised to cash out her dancer dollars which none of the other girls got. He brought alcohol to the curb. He stocked weed he didn't smoke. All these things designed to be more interesting than a blob of slime. That's the small details. The big picture is she used his credit card. IV-73