sat forever waiting to go into the courtroom, got picked, during the juror questioning a guy wearing a ballcap and filthy jeans says I hate cops, they all lie and one shot me. Yeah, he was gone quick.

Basic assault and robbery. Dipstick jumped a guy in an alley outside a convenience store and sucker punched him to steal a flip phone, a bottle of Mt Dew and a pack of cigs. Best part was the defense witnesses.

Baby mama (she has 2 with him of her 8 including the 4 month old in the carrier she had with her) says it couldn't be him because he isn't allowed to go places without her or one of her kids because "he strays". He was only gone for 10 mins (from where she said they were to the store was at least a 10 min walk). They were there (her brother's house) because they were staying with her mom who was at work and when mom wasn't in the house, she and her kids weren't allowed to be there.

16 year old son takes the stand, hoody, pants around his thighs. Settles down on the stand, sticks his hand down his pants. Def atty asks him his relationship with the defendant. Blank stare... re-ask...How do you know Joseph. Response: "he my mama baby diddy" Repeats the only gone 10 mins, but couldn't remember if it was him or one of his brothers that was with him when he went to the store.

Baby mama's brother then comes up and pretty much blows all that out of the water and adds in something about the police being there because one of her kids was riding a motorcycle and the police said it was stolen. The well rehearsed and repeated time frame completely blown out of the water.

Defense atty produces a picture from the store surveillance camera, claims it couldn't be Joseph because the witness said his attacker was wearing a grey hoodie, the one Joseph was wearing in the picture was grey with a black stripe.

Prosecutor asks the investigating officer how he identified the suspect. He said he checked the camera footage and saw Joseph. When asked how he was able to ID him, his response, seemed well rehearsed, "contact with him in the neighborhood over the last decade".

Victim picked him out of a photo lineup. We asked to see the lineup and the cops deserve a lot of credit, I watched the guy for hours in the courtroom and it took a minute to figure out which one it was from the lineup.

There were a couple people on the jury that were having doubts. One of the jurors reminded us that the prosecutor had made a point of noting the victim was punched in the right eye. He said he then watched the defendant and noted that he wrote a note on his atty's pad with his left hand. That was a nice catch...prosecutor set it up but didn't complete it. That put the 2 over their doubts.

Judge told us after the trial that the reason took so long to get us seated was the defense was arguing what the police could say concerning Joseph's 20+ arrests over the last decade, mostly for petty assault and battery. Also said that new Iowa law meant that since he committed assault during commission of a robbery, he was going to state prison for 5 years min.

Afterwards, I did some googling, turns out he was arrested in Nov, trial was in May. He was in jail the whole time on 6 outstanding warrants for failure to pay child support to 6 different women.

Part of society I really wish I didn't know about. Really changes your perspective of a lot of discussions.

My wife got called a few months later. Got dismissed. It was a domestic assault case where the gf (tiny girl) attacked her bf. Def atty got into an argument with her about whether or not a girl her size could assault a much larger man. Idiot kept arguing with her for some reason. She had a roommate in college who used to beat up her bf who wouldn't fight back because she was a girl. I suspect his whole defense was gone at that point.