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| Tuesday, Jan 9 2007 1:10 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Jan 9 2007 1:10 PM
Vincent Brothers’ defense attorneys pursuit to prove Brothers’ wife had a lesbian relationship with a close family friend took a blow Tuesday during hearings before trial.
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Brothers, a former vice principal, is accused of killing his wife, Joanie Harper; their three children Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall; and Joanie Harper’s mother, Earnestine. Brothers has pleaded not guilty.
His family was found dead on July 8, 2003, and he was arrested in April 2004 on suspicion of committing the murders.
Brothers attorneys Michael Gardina and Anthony Bryan wanted to ask Joanie Harper’s close friend Kelsey Spann at trial if she had a sexual relationship with Joanie because they believe she may have had something to do with the family’s death.
Spann was the last person to see the family alive and discovered them dead. Friends and family of Spann and Joanie Harper, including Vincent Brothers, deny there was ever a sexual relationship between the women.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush ruled the defense would not be able to question Spann on this issue because the relationship is not relevant to the case.
The defense will also not be allowed to present witnesses who mistakenly believe they saw Vincent Brothers in Bakersfield around the time of the homicides, Bush ruled.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green plans to present witnesses during the trial who say they saw Brothers in Bakersfield around the time of the killings.
But Gardina argued in court that more people spotted Brothers around that time than Elvis.
Bush ruled that Gardina would not be allowed to present people who mistakenly believe they saw Brothers.
Bush also ruled that Vincent Brothers’ mother, Margaret, will not be allowed to attend trial before she testifies about Brothers whereabouts during the time surrounding the killings.
Her exact testimony is not known to the public, but the woman lives in North Carolina where Brothers eventually turned himself in for questioning to police in the days after the killings.
Brothers’ attorneys have said Brothers was in Ohio at the time of the killings.
The prosecution believes Brothers drove back to Bakersfield to kill his family and only flew to Ohio to establish an alibi.
Green fears Margaret Brothers would be allowed to tailor her testimony to help her son if she is allowed to hear the testimony of other witnesses.
Bush also ruled that the prosecution will be able to present witnesses who will testify they had affairs with Vincent Brothers when he was married to Joanie Harper from 2000 to 2001 and again in 2003, before she was killed.
The defense argued that since the first marriage was annulled, Brothers could not have committed any extramarital affairs because an annulment voids the marriage.
Bush said he will allow the testimony because Brothers could not have known that the marriages would be annulled at the time he was allegedly having extramarital affairs. But the judge said he may allow the defense to explain the annulment to the jury.
During the hearings, each side accused the other of not knowing all the details of the case. Bush warned both sides not to make these types of remarks.
Hearings will continue this afternoon when potential jurors will be questioned.