New Trial In Michelle Mockbee Murder?

[Clyde]

Gary Moore has called for Tally Smith to resign.

[lawildcat]

Will David Dooley get out of jail?

Will David Dooley get out of jail for the first time in five years?

His attorneys on Wednesday tried to convince a judge there wasn't enough evidence to justify the $1 million bond Dooley has been held on as he awaits his second trial in the murder of Michelle Mockbee.

"Since the very beginning of this case, he's maintained he's innocent of the charges against him," said Dooley's attorney, Jeff Lawson.

Judge J.R. Schrand didn't rule on Wednesday, saying he'll issue an order later.

Dooley has been in jail since 2012 when Mockbee's battered body was found at Thermo Fischer Scientific in Boone County where she worked. Dooley was the janitor there. The case garnered national attention with two Dateline episodes. A judge in 2014 sentenced Dooley to life in prison after a jury convicted him.

That conviction was overturned this year when a surveillance video came to light of an unidentified man at the scene of the crime hours before Mockbee was killed. The controversy damaged the credibility of Commonwealth's Attorney Linda Tally Smith and lead detective Bruce McVay. Tally Smith and McVay admitted in a March court hearing an affair developed between the two after the 2014 trial.

Lawson asked to let Dooley on home incarceration without bond or at least lower it to $100,000 cash or property. No physical evidence tied Dooley to the crime, Lawson said. And DNA taken from under Mockbee's arms came from two people other than Dooley, he said.

"He's not a flight risk," Lawson said. "He wants to address these charges straight up. He wants to come before the court and have a better chance to address all these issues, have this case tried before a jury where we believe he'll be acquitted."

Special prosecutors with the Kentucky Attorney General's office opposed lowering the bond. The seriousness of the crime makes a $1 million bond appropriate, said Jon Heck, a special prosecutor with the attorney general's office.

"A woman was found dead on a filthy warehouse floor," Heck said. "Nothing could be more serious."

Heck argued a jury already convicted him and will likely again.

"It's rare we have a case that we can look back and say we think we know what the jury is going to do in this case because it was already tried once," Heck said.

But the surveillance video of the mysterious man wasn't available to the first jury, Lawson countered, as well as other evidence. And the first jury spent a long time deliberating, he said.

Now both sides await the judge's order. Dooley's wife and family declined comment leaving the courtroom. Mockbee's sister, Jennifer Schneider, said she doesn't doubt Dooley's guilt and doesn't think he'll get out of jail.

"We fully expect judge Schrand to not grant lower bond," Schneider said. "He's presided over this case since Day One and he saw the evidence that all points to David Dooley's guilt."

[UKMustangFan]

I think you have to let him out. The fact that they withheld that surveillance footage is disgusting. That footage is the very definition of reasonable doubt IMO. Not too mention that there is no concrete evidence connecting him to the crime in any way.

[BrosefStalin]

And still I set here in Kenton County wondering to myself, WHAT IN THE HECK are the good folks in Boone County doing by NOT demanding this woman be relieved of duty immediately.

Further, I want to know, why is there no investigative work from our crack local journalism outlets doing some work on the other side of this -- i.e. how many people are sitting in jail right now bc of the corruption of this group of buffoons?

Dooley should immediately set free, Tally Smith should be relieved of duty, and - along with McVay - investigated, prosecuted, and penalized heavily for their gross neglect of duty.

This is so disgusting on so many levels. Meanwhile, the poor family who have been clearly brainwashed and need to hold onto Dooley being the culprit blindly support them.

Disgusted at what a joke our justice system is...and I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Shame on you LTS, BM, ES and anyone else involved in proliferating this charade.

[colonel-fan]

Any updates?

[Beck5784]

I agree with BrosefStalin. This is disgusting. They have ruined someone's life and another persons legacy all bc they were more concerned with a conviction. This puts deputies at risk bc the next person they pull over and play dirty with, may just open fire since we now know how corrupt the system really is. Does anyone think things through anymore? If I am Dooley, I come for blood. I'd tell them good luck and start the game of who wants to live bad enough.

[lawildcat]

Any updates?

 

Mr. Dooley will remain in jail. The judge refused to lower his bond from $1M

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I hadn't thought about this in a long while, but figured I'd provide the (way) overdue update.

David Dooley received a new trial following the judge's dismissal of the original trial in light of the affair between the then-Commonwealth Attorney, Linda Tally Smith, and lead detective Bruce McVay who was shown to have withheld evidence - a video of an unidentified individual entering a separate business in the same complex where ThermoFisher Scientific is located. In October 2014, janitor Dooley was convicted of murdering Michelle Mockbee inside of ThermoFisher Scientific on May 29, 2012 and Dooley was sentenced to life in prison.

The case was re-tried, and Dooley was once again found guilty in March 2019 and was sentenced to 38 years for the murder plus 5 years for tampering with evidence. Then in November 2020, Dooley (still imprisoned) was sentenced to two 5 year terms as part of a plea deal in an unrelated child pornography case.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Dooley immediately appealed his second conviction in 2019, but the Kentucky Supreme Court denied the appeal, upholding Boone County Courts' conviction from earlier that year. Dooley's appeal was based on claims that the Boone County judge had incorrectly admitted two pieces of evidence, had improperly allowed witness testimony, and had given improper jury instructions. 

The opinion entered by Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton gives a pretty good summary of the evidence presented for the conviction:

Michelle Mockbee’s dead body was found cut and beaten, hands and feet bound, with a plastic restaurant take-out bag over her head. The body was discovered in the mezzanine area of the commercial building where Mockabee worked, Thermo Fisher Scientific (“TFS”), a large medical supply facility. She worked as an administrative assistant who handled TFS’s payroll and timesheets. On the morning she was killed, Mockbee arrived to work early, before operations had begun, as she customarily would when timesheets were due.

Janet Dooley cleaned TFS’s offices under contract for a fixed monthly salary, plus an hourly wage when she cleaned the warehouse. Her hourly pay was tracked by clocking in and out by timecard. Janet’s husband, David Wayne Dooley, helped her at TFS. Dooley also clocked in to help clean the warehouse. The Dooleys were both scheduled to work the morning of Michelle’s murder, but for a few weeks before and the morning of the murder, Dooley came in by himself while Janet stayed home sick. Apparently, Dooley had been clocking in for himself and his wife, too, for this period.

TFS shares a sprawling four-acre site with an industrial concern, Beckman Coulter, Inc. In and around TFS, several people, including regular employees in various roles and delivery-truck drivers, were onsite when the murder happened. But no one witnessed Michelle’s murder or evidence of her murder being tampered with by a perpetrator, nor did anyone admit to seeing or participating in it. The murder scene was bloody, necessitating investigators to use a blood-search chemical. The investigation showed bi-directionality of blood smearing, indicative of wiping.

Dooley became the primary focus of the investigation after part of the restaurant bag covering Michelle’s head tested positive for Dooley’s male DNA. The janitor’s closet Dooley used tested positive for industrial bleach soon after the murder; employees noticed Dooley on the jobsite that morning wearing noticeably, pristinely clean white shoes not seen on him at the jobsite before; and Dooley apparently left for home around the time of the murder, allegedly to check on his wife. Ultimately, the Commonwealth’s case against Dooley consisted entirely of circumstantial evidence, which affects our analysis of his trial.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

 

[4 Quarters]

15 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

 

So, guilty or not guilty?

[Beechwoodfan]

He was tried and convicted twice, so you gotta trust those jurors.  I do find it interesting that it was apparently a very messy murder but I am pretty sure they never found any traces of blood on him or in his car.  Seems to me that even if he changed his clothes and shoes, they would find blood on or around him.