Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Humor Blogs -> Legal Juice

Law Humor

: Legal Juice

Um. What Address Did You Say This Was?

By John Mesirow

This is a strange one. See if you make the same call the jury did. Here's the scene, as described in The Oregonian:

The petite 24-year-old Beaverton woman got out of the shower wrapped in a towel, stopped to watch a couple minutes of TV and then sat down on her bed.

While putting lotion on her legs, she realized a man was standing in her closet, staring at her with bright blue eyes. He was wearing a lacy negligee with fishnet stockings open at the crotch, a woman's miniskirt, sheer white blouse and long, brown wig.

Then she screamed twice, ran to another room and called police. The man fled without saying a word ...

The man in the closet was Eric Triton Kincaid, age 29. How did the police catch him? By tracing the DNA on the meth pipe he left in the woman's closet. Mr. Kincaid was charged with first-degree burglary, attempted first-degree sexual abuse, and invasion of personal privacy. His defense?

He was high on methamphetamine, he said [to the jury], and went to the Beaverton apartment complex on March 3, 2007 because he was invited to have sex by a woman he barely knew. But when he saw the woman sitting on the bed half naked, he realized she was the wrong woman and that he was in the wrong apartment. Basically, he was as surprised as she was, he said.

Okay, how did he end up in that apartment?

Kincaid said the woman he was going to meet was staying with friends and gave him directions that neither of them were too sure about. He arrived at what he thought was the right apartment, and when he turned the doorknob, it opened.

Think the prosecutor is buying that explanation? Me either.

The prosecutor told jurors it was more likely that Kincaid tried every basement apartment door until he found one that was unlocked. Investigators couldn't find the mysterious friend Kincaid knew only as "Kate."

Ladies and gentleman of the jury, what do you think?

Full post as published by Legal Juice on April 22, 2008 (boomark / email).