Re: ROBERT MANWILL - 8 yo (2009) - Boise ID

by mermaid55 Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:55 pm

Jury sees interrogations of Daniel Ehrlick: 'All I know is I love those kids and they love me,' he said

The jury in Daniel Ehrlick's first-degree murder trial watched two video interviews and listened to more audio-taped interviews between Ehrlick and Boise police and FBI agents from July 30 — during which Ehrlick is seen and heard getting upset as he is asked about what happened the day Robert Manwill went missing.
When asked if he thought the boy's mother, Melissa Jenkins, had anything to do with the 8-year-old's disappearance, Ehrlick said he didn't know.
Ehrlick told investigators he never confronted Jenkins about it — even after five days had gone by.
At one point, Ehrlick began crying, saying he "loved Robert very much" and buried his head in his hands and cried harder when he talks about how Idaho Health and Welfare took custody of Aidan, Jenkins' toddler son, from them.
"All I know is I love those kids and they love me," Ehrlick said on the tape.
Ehrlick consistently said he didn't know if Jenkins is involved in what happened to Robert and that the last thing he knew is that Robert may have gone to a birthday party.
In two of the interviews, Ehrlick got mad and left when officers ask him to detail his timeline for July 24, even getting in a shouting match with Det. Mark Vucinich.
At the end of the third interview, Vucinich can be heard directly asking Ehrlick if he had anything to do with Robert's disappearance and telling him that this was his last chance to cooperate. Ehrlick angrily denied the accusations and can be heard saying "How much more do I have to cooperate with you?" before leaving the police station.
He later relented and came back for a fourth interview with Det. Brent Quilter and an FBI agent, but the results were the same.
Also Monday, an emergency room doctor from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center said Daniel Ehrlick didn't show symptoms — or evidence from lab tests — of having a drug overdose the morning of July 31, 2009.
Ehrlick had spent the night at Melissa Jenkins' sister's house, and she called police that morning saying she suspected he may have taken a large amount of anti-anxiety pills and anti-depressants. Once at the hospital, Ehrlick was uncooperative, refusing to give a urine sample and acting agitated with nurses or other medical staff, Dr. Randy Barnes said. Barnes recommended Ehrlick be put on a mental hold, based on how Ehrlick was acting.
Prosecutors and police say Ehrlick faked the overdose to avoid talking to investigators.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/20/1696432/jury-sees-interrogations-of-daniel.html#ixzz1Q1b0smuG

by mermaid55 Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:59 pm

Police: Ehrlick faked overdose to avoid telling truth
Jeffrey Blevins testifies that the defendant promised to say what happened to Robert but never did.

After a long, emotional day of interviews between law enforcement and Daniel Ehrlick on July 30, 2009, FBI agent Jeffrey Blevins thought he and Ehrlick had an understanding.

From the time he reported his girlfriend’s son missing six days earlier, Ehrlick had stuck to the same story through at least four interviews: that he didn’t know if Melissa Jenkins was involved in Robert Manwill’s disappearance and that the last time he saw the 8-year-old was the night of the 24th, when the boy repeatedly asked to go to a nearby birthday party.

But Blevins told the jury Monday at Ehrlick’s first-degree murder trial in Boise that he thought Ehrlick’s body language was saying something else altogether.

When asked if maybe there had been some kind of accident, Ehrlick asked to stop the interview and privately speak to Blevins.

Ehrlick “said he would come back the next morning, and he would tell the truth, let me know what happened,” Blevins said Monday.

It was not the first time that day that Ehrlick had stopped an interview cold. At least three of his earlier interviews with police ended with him storming out after officers asked him to give them a detailed timeline of July 24 events.

In that final discussion, Blevins revealed that Jenkins had told police earlier that day that Ehrlick used corporal punishment on Robert, including a punishment called “dead bugging” and hitting him with a board — and that the two had hid the bruised boy from Idaho Health and Welfare workers.

After Ehrlick pulled him aside, Blevins said he told the man he didn’t want to deal with another contentious interview the next day and asked him if he was a man of his word.

Ehrlick said yes, and they shook hands, Blevins said.

But the following day, Ehrlick was hospitalized at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, after Jenkins’ sister said she feared he had overdosed on anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medication.

Blevins told the jury the two made eye contact, but Ehrlick looked away.

Prosecutors say Ehrlick faked that drug overdose to avoid talking to police — an ER doctor testified Monday that neither Ehrlick’s actions nor his blood tests showed any kind of overdose.

But Ehrlick refused to give a urine sample and acted agitated with nurses and other medical staff, so Dr. Randy Barnes said he put Ehrlick on a medical hold.

Ehrlick didn’t talk to police again until Aug. 9 — after spending more than a week in Intermountain Hospital — and he never did change his story.

Testimony will continue Tuesday, though it is unclear when Jenkins will be called by prosecutors as a witness in the case — or whether they have decided not to put her on the stand.

Ehrlick’s attorneys said they had originally planned on starting their defense case Monday, but prosecutors have not finished their case.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/21/1696975/fbi-agent-ehrlick-faked-overdose.html#ixzz1Q1bS7rYx

by mermaid55 Wed Jun 22, 2011 5:01 pm

Prosecutors don’t use Melissa Jenkins as witness in Ehrlick murder trial
The most anticipated testimony in Daniel Ehrlick’s murder trial may have proved too risky.

After more than a year of legal skirmishes to ensure Melissa Jenkins could testify against the man accused of killing her 8-year-old son, Ada County prosecutors rested their first-degree murder case against Daniel Ehrlick without calling her to the stand.

Jenkins, who pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a second-degree murder earlier this year, has been at the center of the case against Ehrlick for the past two years, as well as the past five weeks of court testimony.

The decision not to call Jenkins is a surprise — especially since what Jenkins told police, co-workers and others in the days following Robert Manwill’s disappearance on July 24, 2009, seems to comprise much of the evidence prosecutors ultimately used to charge Ehrlick with murder.

The issue could be credibility.

Jenkins’ own attorney has called her a “habitual liar.” Fourth District Judge Darla Williamson lectured Jenkins during a court hearing last week, telling her that if she didn’t tell the truth when called to testify, she could be charged with perjury.

Prosecutors fought for — and won — the ability to ask Jenkins to tell the jury she had pleaded guilty to aiding in Robert’s murder, but she couldn’t name Ehrlick as her co-defendant.

But the risk of what could have happened during her cross-examination apparently outweighed the benefits of her testimony — at least for now.

Jenkins could be called as a rebuttal witness if Ehrlick’s attorneys mount a defense, which was scheduled to start Thursday.

Defense attorneys are generally able to ask witnesses only about the evidence they present when they take the stand — but in this case, Williamson told lawyers on both sides they would likely have broader latitude.

Ehrlick’s attorneys would be able to ask Jenkins about statements other witnesses attributed to her — and these have come up repeatedly throughout the trial.

Any evidence attributed to Jenkins — including statements that question her credibility, like making inconsistent statements — would be fair game for cross- examination. That seems to cover pretty much everything Jenkins told police in the summer of 2009.

Williamson has allowed some “hearsay” about what Jenkins told others because Ehrlick also is accused of conspiring with Jenkins to cover up the murder.

The jury has also heard Jenkins on audiotaped interviews with police.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/22/1698434/prosecutors-dont-use-melissa-jenkins.html#ixzz1Q1cf5nr8

by mermaid55 Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:53 pm

Daniel Ehrlick's defense against a first-degree murder charge begins Thursday

06/23/11

It took Ada County prosecutors more than a month to make a case that Daniel Ehrlick killed Robert Manwill in summer 2009.
Ehrlick’s attorneys say they only need a few days to put on a defense.
When the trial began last month, defense attorney Gus Cahill told the jury that there was no direct evidence Ehrlick killed the boy, and that his defense was simple: Ehrlick didn’t do it.
The jury now knows that Ehrlick never confessed — despite many intense interviews with Boise police officers and FBI agents in the days after Robert was reported missing July 24, 2009.
No eyewitnesses testified about what happened to Robert the day he died or how and when he was put in the New York Canal — in fact, it appears the last time anyone besides Ehrlick and his then-girlfriend, Melissa Jenkins, can even say they saw the boy at all was four days before Ehrlick called 911 to report him missing.
Jenkins — Robert’s mother — is the one person who might have the most answers, but she wasn’t called to testify even though prosecutors had worked for more than a year to make sure they could force her to address the jury.
Defense attorneys haven’t said what they plan to present, but they likely will address a lack of DNA evidence. The trial was delayed in October after prosecutors did not turn over DNA evidence in a timely manner, and ultimately none was introduced in their case.
Notably absent: DNA residue from a hole in the apartment wall that prosecutors have said could have been left from Ehrlick slamming Robert’s head into the wall.
Prosecutors told the jury Ehrlick weighed down Robert’s body with rocks when he threw it in the canal, but a Boise police crime lab employee testified that a rock found on the body was not tested for DNA.
There has been no indication Ehrlick himself will testify.
THE STATE’S CASE
When she started five weeks ago, Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Jill Longhurst told the jury that evidence would prove Robert spent his last days in “fear, pain and helplessness” and was killed by a “man who beat and tormented him and a mother who didn’t care.”
She never pinpointed an exact moment when Ehrlick might have killed the boy or tied direct forensic evidence to the killing. But her team painted a picture of the boy’s desperate final months.
Neighbors testified that they didn’t see much of Robert in summer 2009, unlike the year before, when the boy made an impression as an outgoing, talkative kid. Ehrlick’s family members said Robert was in trouble almost every time they saw him, and that he was always grounded, isolated and not allowed to play with other children. Two family members told the jury they saw a baseball-size bruise on the boy’s back that summer, and that the already slight 8-year-old appeared to be losing weight.
Prosecutors called three of Ehrlick’s old girlfriends, who all said he was physically abusive toward them.
The jury heard dozens of police officers and neighbors say they searched the massive Oak Park Village apartment complex the weekend of July 24 and found no evidence of a birthday party. Ehrlick maintained that was where he thought Robert had gone when he disappeared.
Detectives and FBI agents told the jury they were frustrated by Ehrlick’s inability to produce a good timeline about what happened that day, and how he often reacted to questions with hostility and anger in the days that followed — anger the jury heard in recorded interviews.
Those officers said both Ehrlick and Jenkins acted alternately agitated, disengaged and detached more often than they showed the normal concern that parents usually have for a missing child.
Investigators testified that Ehrlick originally told them he didn’t use corporal punishment on Robert but later admitted that he did — but only after he learned Jenkins told police first. Ehrlick acknowledged the couple had hid Robert in a closet so social workers wouldn’t see bruises on the boy.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/23/1699939/its-daniel-ehrlicks-turn.html#ixzz1QEG2IZdU

by mermaid55 Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:55 pm

Daniel Ehrlick’s first-degree murder trial: 3 say they saw Robert Manwill on July 24

Prosecutors hone in on inconsistent stories and possible mistaken identities in Daniel Ehrlick’s trial.

06/24/11

Jurors in Daniel Ehrlick’s first-degree murder trial spent the past five weeks hearing how no one saw Robert Manwill near his Boise Bench apartment the day he was reported missing.
On the first day of Ehrlick’s defense, though, they heard from three neighbors, including a 15-year-old boy, who say they did — either by the pool or the playground of the apartment complex.
That’s where Ehrlick told police the boy had been before he went missing.
Ada County prosecutors found holes in those stories, however, either inconsistencies in what the witnesses have said in the past or indications they may have mistakenly thought another boy was Robert.
• Melanie Robinson said she was visiting a friend at the apartment pool and saw a boy she said was Robert in the hot tub with some other kids.
But she said the boy she saw had short, close-cropped hair — definitely shorter than the hair in a picture she was shown on the stand. The photo was a close-up of Robert’s hair after he was found dead in the New York Canal on Aug. 3, 2009.
• Oak Park Village resident Ollie Jaber, who was 13 in 2009, said he saw Robert twice that day after lunch and talked to him once, when Robert told him he was going to the store later.
The teen said he met Robert about two or three weeks before that at the pool — he remembered because 8-year-old Robert told him he couldn’t swim.
He acknowledged that another boy who was playing in the complex on July 24 looks very similar to Robert — but he was sure he saw Robert.
But when prosecutors pointed out that the teen once told police that he had seen Robert in the morning and that he told FBI agents he had seen Robert at the pool, Jaber said it was hard to remember back that far.
Jaber told a KTRV reporter in 2009 that he had been friends with Robert for months, but he said Thursday he had only known Robert for weeks and they weren’t really friends.
• Jennifer Hastings said she saw Robert by the pool that night while she watched her kids. She said one of her sons mentioned hearing something about a birthday party from another child at the pool that night.
Hastings said she and her kids left the pool that night sometime between 8 and 9:30 p.m.
When prosecutors pointed out that she had told the FBI she worked until 9 p.m. on July 24, she said she was sure she was at the pool that night.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/24/1701932/3-say-they-saw-robert-on-july.html#ixzz1QEGePAJ6

by mermaid55 Mon Jun 27, 2011 11:25 pm

Daniel Ehrlick testifies in his first-degree murder trial

ROBERT MANWILL - 8 yo (2009) - Boise ID - Page 5 2npcp_10

Wearing a white shirt and toting tissue, Daniel Ehrlick took the stand in his murder trial Monday morning in a Boise courtroom.
During a tepid, rambling question period by defense attorney Gus Cahill, Ehrlick portrayed himself as a devoted father figure to Melissa Jenkins' two sons, 8-year-old Robert and toddler Aidan. He cooked the meals, washed the clothes and tended to the children, he said.
He said he took Robert on outings to Rhodes Park, a skateboard center in Boise, to ponds fishing and to the community pool in the Oak Park Village apartment complex. Ehrlick is accused of killing Robert Manwill, the 8-year-old son of his girlfriend, during weeks of escalating violence in the summer of 2009. The child's battered body was found in an irrigation ditch near Kuna.
Ehrlick detailed the growing pressure from Boise police and FBI detectives and his anger when he realized he was a suspect. It spilled over when he was at police headquarters and learned cadaver dogs were searching his apartment.
"I was very upset," Ehrlick said. "I was told by Detective (Brett) Quilter that we were not suspects, they didn't believe we had done anything to harm Robert," Ehrlick said. "He only wanted me to go to (police headquarters) and do the interview so we could be excluded. The next thing I knew there were cadaver dogs in our house. I took it as a lie. That's why I became upset."
Ehrlick wept as he described his first encounter with the child the previous summer. He said Robert asked him to be his father. Ehrlick also described the harsh discipline meted out by his girlfriend Melissa Jenkins.
"Melissa would say that he is back talking or smarting off or not doing what he is told," Ehrlick said.
Ehrlick contends he was not allowed to discipline Robert without Jenkins' approval, but admitted to hitting the boy twice with a piece of molding in the summer of 2009. Robert chose that as his punishment for lying, he said.
He also said Jenkins told him that Robert was not to be in the house with her or the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare would take him away. So on two occasions just prior to the boy's death, he admitted he helped Jenkins hide the boy in a walk-in closet.
He made the closet into a "fort" and gave Robert a book to read, he said. He told Jenkins that he wouldn't hide the boy any longer, he testified.
But Ehrlick denied having any role in Robert Manwill's death and disappearance.
Ada County deputy Prosecutor Jill Longhurst began a tense, but short cross-examination regarding Ehrlick's inconsistencies over the timeline and correspondence with girlfriend Melissa Jenkins.
Court ended Monday with a terse conversation with Judge Darla Williamson over Longhurst's attempts to question Ehrlick over custody documents regarding Jenkins's daughter RayLynn. Cross-examination will continue Tuesday.
The defense called Ehrlick after a morning of technical testimony about DNA evidence by Dr. Greg Hampikian, a Boise State University professor.
Hampikian testified that neither Manwill's nor Ehrlick's DNA was found on a rock inside the boy's pocket when his body was recovered.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/27/1705889/daniel-ehrlick-testifies-in-his.html#ixzz1QWPglB00

by mermaid55 Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:37 am

Daniel Ehrlick admits he kneeled on Robert Manwill
But under cross-examination, the defendant sticks to his story that he had nothing to do with the boy’s death.

Daniel Ehrlick once challenged police to prove that he was guilty of murdering 8-year-old Robert Manwill.

Ada County prosecutors will have one last shot to make their case — in a closing argument Thursday in which they will say that Ehrlick killed the gaunt son of his then-girlfriend after weeks of escalating physical violence in 2009.

It will come after two years of delays, seven weeks of courtroom drama and more than 100 witnesses, and then the group of 12 everyday Idahoans will start their deliberations.

“It happened a little sooner than I thought it would,” 4th District Judge Darla Williamson said Thursday.

The last two days of the trial came with two big surprises: Daniel Ehrlick took the stand, and Robert’s mother, Melissa Jenkins, did not.

After Tuesday’s short session, Williamson said the case had been “exhausting. It is such a tough case. ... so much preparation (for the attorneys).”

Ehrlick reported Robert missing on July 24, 2009, drawing thousands of people from the community into a 10-day search that ended when the boy’s battered body was found near Kuna in the same irrigation canal that runs just blocks from the Boise Bench apartment where the couple lived.

Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Jill Longhurst spent most of Tuesday morning working to prove that Ehrlick, 38, changed his story numerous times about the last time he saw Robert.

She suggested that he pointed his finger at others — including his own father — in attempts to divert attention from himself.

And she led Ehrlick to admit in court, as he did to police during the investigation, that he and Jenkins hid Manwill from Health and Welfare workers because they had bruised him. Ehrlick said that while the child was lying on his back in the “dead bugging” punishment, Ehrlick rested his 270-pound weight with both knees on the boy’s body.

In February, Jenkins admitted the same things and said she did nothing to stop the abuse.

But Ehrlick never wavered from his story — that the boy simply disappeared that July night — and Jenkins has never offered a description of how the boy died, even as she pleaded to aiding and abetting second-degree murder. She’ll be sentenced in August.

Despite working for two years to make sure they could force her to testify against Ehrlick, the prosecutors never called her to the stand.

Ehrlick’s two days of testimony and Jenkins’ absence are both part of separate legal strategies, said former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy.

“Those are both noteworthy because early speculation is that neither would happen,” Leroy said.

“Those are examples of tactical choices that experienced attorneys will make during the course of any trial, and in a high-profile trial, they come under more scrutiny, and ultimately second-guessing.”

On Tuesday after court, Longhurst was confident.

“When the prosecutor ends, it is probably because they’ve made their case,” Longhurst said.

She didn’t explain the thinking behind the decision not to call Jenkins.

Leroy said it was likely that prosecutors calculated that Jenkins’ testimony would do little to help convict Ehrlick.

Despite inconsistencies in numerous police interviews, Ehrlick’s appearance on the stand was probably worth the risk for his lawyers, Leroy said.

“Even knowing that he would be subjected to vigorous cross-examination,” Leroy said, the defense is expecting that the jury “would be favorably struck by the totality of (Ehrlick’s) testimony.”

Meanwhile, the jurors are likely relieved that they no longer must silently audit the trial, Leroy said.

“By the same token, they are not always eager to sit in judgment of a fellow human being, but that’s what they signed on for long ago,” he said.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/29/1708193/ehrlick-admits-he-kneeled-on-robert.html#ixzz1QfEclD00

by mermaid55 Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:41 pm

Daniel Ehrlick is found guilty of the first-degree murder of Robert Manwill

After just two hours of deliberation, an Ada County jury found Daniel Ehrlick guilty of first-degree murder.
The quick decision was a marked change from the pace of the trial, which saw more than 100 witnesses over the course of seven weeks. Earlier Thursday, attorneys in the case took more than five hours to deliver their closing statements.
The prosecution had called Daniel Ehrlick a "ticking time bomb," prone to violence, who viewed his girlfriend's 8-year-old son as the enemy, prosecutors said during closing arguments Thursday in Ehrlick's first-degree murder trial.
"A young boy was sad, afraid and defeated," said Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Dan Dinger.
Ehrlick had to hide 8-year-old Robert Manwill from social workers because of bruises, and the day was fast approaching when Robert would go home to his father's house in New Plymouth, Dinger said.
He said Ehrlick was increasingly desperate and under pressure because Robert was the one person who could take away what he most wanted: his girlfriend Melissa Jenkins' infant son Aidan.
"This defendant was stuck in that apartment with a little boy who had become an enemy," Dinger said. "If one person, his father or a social worker saw a bruise, they would come in and take Aidan away. He had to do everything he could to make sure that didn't happen."
Manwill's father and stepmother wept in court when prosecutors showed autopsy photos of the young child's body.
Prosecutors also worked to show inconsistencies in Ehrlick's statements to police, investigators and the jurors.
Defense attorney Gus Cahill cautioned the jury to take their time, have an open mind and evaluate the testimony and witnesses for themselves.
"Danny has never admitted to killing Robert and disposing of the body and he has never blamed Melissa either, which would have been easy to do," Cahill said.
Basically, Cahill said, the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Daniel Ehrlick killed Robert Manwill.
Though the defense isn't obliged to provide an alternative theory, Cahill said, he floated the theory of a stranger abduction and mentioned Melissa Jenkins' role as an abuser and disciplinarian.
"He is accused, he's plead not guilty," Cahill said. "He has told you under oath he did not do this."

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/30/1710425/closing-arguments-begin-this-afternoon.html#ixzz1QrR1Y4zy

by mermaid55 Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:44 pm

Jury finds justice for 8-year-old Robert Manwill, family says, as Daniel Ehrlick is convicted of first-degree murder

At the end of a day’s worth of arguments, gruesome photographs and impassioned pleas, an Ada County deputy prosecutor pointed at Daniel Ehrlick and told him he was about to be held accountable for the death of a child.
Less than three hours later, the jury handed down the decision: Guilty of first-degree murder by torture and aggravated battery.
Ehrlick slumped in his chair after sitting upright and attentive throughout the trial. Afterward, he would not look at the jurors and stared at the defense table.
He faces up to life in prison.
In a short statement to reporters, Robert Manwill’s father, Charles, thanked police, prosecutors and the community. As he turned away from the cameras, he pumped his arms in an emotional show of victory.
Earlier Thursday, he and his wife, Afton Manwill, had wept in court when prosecutors described Ehrlick’s abuse and showed autopsy photos of Robert’s body alongside his happier school pictures.
When the jury announced it had made a decision just two hours after closing arguments — a good sign for the prosecution —the Manwills hugged in the hallway. Charles Manwill joked with friends and family that he’d never done a cartwheel in his life but would consider it Thursday night.
The speed of the jury’s decision was a marked shift from the pace of the trial, coming after seven weeks of testimony and exhibits, more than 100 witnesses and over five hours of closing arguments on Thursday.
Prosecutors had left the 12 men and women with a description of Robert’s terrifying final weeks: Ehrlick was a “ticking time bomb,” prone to violence, who viewed his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son as the enemy — a dehumanized “thing” to be tortured physically and emotionally, they said.
By his own admission, Ehrlick forced Robert to live among junk in a tiny room, eat food he hated and choose his own punishments — from torturous positions with names like “dead bug” and “the chair” to being struck by a plank of molding Ehrlick kept in the kitchen for no other apparent reason.
The jury was given the option of finding Ehrlick guilty of a lesser murder charge, but it never came to that.
Defense attorney Gus Cahill had asked the jury to take its time and evaluate the facts. With no eyewitnesses and no forensic evidence detailing how the boy died, the state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, he said.
He argued that Ehrlick admitted hiding and punishing the boy, but that didn’t mean he murdered Robert and disposed of his body. Ehrlick isn’t sophisticated enough to have come up with such a convoluted plan, he said.
Prosecutors said Ehrlick killed Robert after weeks of escalating violence in summer 2009. About 10 days after Ehrlick called 911 to report the boy missing, the child’s body was found near Kuna in the same canal that runs near their Boise apartment.
And though prosecutors could not say exactly when the boy was killed or how his body was taken to the canal, they said they didn’t have to — showing Ehrlick’s systematic torture was proof enough.
His actions, demeanor and behavior after he reported Robert missing showed his guilt, Deputy Prosecutor Dan Dinger said.
“A young boy was sad, afraid and defeated,” he said.
Ehrlick was increasingly desperate and under pressure, Dinger said, because Robert was the one person who could take away what he most wanted: Melissa Jenkins’ infant son, Aidan.
“Ehrlick had to hide Manwill from social workers because of bruises, and the day was fast approaching when Robert would go home to his father’s house in New Plymouth,” Dinger said. “If one person, his father or a social worker, saw a bruise, they would come in and take Aidan away. He had to do everything he could to make sure that didn’t happen.”
The night before he reported Robert missing, Ehrlick had a confrontation at a party — he was asked to leave — and a heated conflict with the boy. It caused his temper to boil over, prosecutors said.
“I feel justice has been done,” said Sue Fellen, who has worked in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault for 25 years and watched the trial nearly every day.
She lauded Charles Manwill and the rest of the family.
“Things pained them, and you could tell that,” Fellen said. “For a family in grief like that I thought that they were very courageous and they just astounded me at the strength of the whole family.”
Ehrlick becomes the second murder conviction in this case. Jenkins, his girlfriend and Robert’s mom, pleaded guilty earlier this year to aiding and abetting a second-degree murder. Her plea deal recommends a fixed 25-year sentence. Though expected to, Jenkins didn’t testify in Ehrlick’s trial, and his attorney tried to use her as a potential foil.
She is the one convicted of hurting Aidan, Cahill said. She is the one who abused another child in front of Ehrlick’s family.
“As you evaluate how you are going to deduce what he is responsible for here, you have to keep in your mind: what role did Melissa play in this?” he told the jury.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/07/01/1711080/guilty.html#ixzz1QrRoVecv

by mermaid55 Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:47 pm

ROBERT MANWILL - 8 yo (2009) - Boise ID - Page 5 Tuy3t_10

CONVICTED: Daniel Ehrlick listens to the jury read the verdict Thursday night. His sentencing hearing was set for Sept. 2, and since the jury also found him guilty of being a persistent felony offender, Judge Darla Williamson has more leeway to hand down a longer sentence.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/07/01/1711080/guilty.html#ixzz1QrS3vgQO

by mermaid55 Wed Sep 07, 2011 4:04 pm

Melissa Jenkins sentenced to 25 years in prison, Daniel Ehrlick sentenced to life for the murder of Robert Manwill
BY Patrick Orr - porr@idahostatesman.com
Published: 09/02/11

Fourth District Judge Darla Williamson agreed to the 25-year fixed sentence Melissa Jenkins agreed to in a deal earlier this year when she pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a second-degree murder in the death of her son, Robert Manwill.
Williamson said she didn't believe Jenkins' tears in the courtroom, or that she truly felt remorse for allowing her boyfriend, Daniel Ehrlick, to beat Robert over the course of weeks, and hiding the boy's bruises from family members and social workers. She said Jenkins' history — three children with different fathers, a previous conviction for child battery — indicated that if Jenkins were given the opportunity she could have another chlid and she could hurt it.
Williamson earlier sentenced Ehrlick Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the beating death of the 8-year-old boy.
Ada County prosecutors say Ehrlick has never taken responsibility for the death of Robert Manwill, and when he had a chance to address the court Friday — and the boy's family and friends who filled the courtroom — Ehrlick stayed silent.
Ada County prosecutors say Ehrlick beat Melissa Jenkins' son to death over a series of weeks in the summer of 2009 at the family's Bench area apartment. They say the boy died of head and chest injuries some time between July 23  and 24 of 2009, and then he was thrown in the New York Canal.
When the boy disappeared, it turned into national news and sparked a community-wide  search that included more than 2,300 volunteers and the FBI.  
Ehrlick and Jenkins were arrested Aug. 18, 2009, and both were charged with  first-degree murder.
An Ada County jury found Ehrlick guilty of first-degree murder in June, following a two month trial.
Ehrlick has consistently denied killing the boy and even testified on his  own behalf at the end of the trial.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/09/02/1783399/melissa-jenkins-sentenced-to-25.html#ixzz1XHciraa2

by twinkletoes Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:59 am

Child welfare report on Robert Manwill's death released

By Tina Jensen

CREATED Mar. 5, 2012
A 13-member independent panel convened to review the death of Robert
Manwill has provided recommendations to improve Idaho child welfare
practices.

Robert Manwill was an eight year old Treasure Valley youth who was
brutally murdered by his mother’s boyfriend, Daniel Ehrlick, in July
2009. Department of Health and Welfare Director Richard Armstrong
ordered an independent review shortly after the first degree murder
conviction of Ehrlick on June 30th, 2011. The review panel’s primary
objective was to evaluate the case and develop system recommendations to
help protect and safeguard children in the future.

“We sincerely thank the independent panel for their thoughtful and
thorough review and recommendations,” says DHW Director Richard
Armstrong. “We implemented several of the recommendations over the last
two years and will address all of the others. Robert Manwill’s death was
a tragedy, but there are things we can learn from the circumstances to
help protect other children from abuse and neglect.”

One of the primary issues of the case concerned the child protection
system’s oversight of ‘contact’ children. These are children the child
protection system does not have legal authority over, but who may come
in contact with other family members who are involved in an open child
protection case. Robert Manwill was a ‘contact’ child because he was not
in the custody of the state, but was visiting his mother, Melissa
Jenkins, during the summer of 2009. At that time, Jenkins had an open
child protection case for alleged physical abuse of Robert’s younger
half-brother.

The panel recommended DHW develop guidelines to assess the risk of
abuse or neglect of contact children and obtain copies of any
visitation/custody orders for contact children so they can be closely
monitored. Since the state child welfare system does not have legal
jurisdiction over contact children, the panel also recommended DHW
convene a panel of experts to evaluate possible legislation that would
provide the state with limited investigative and monitoring authority
for contact children.

A copy of the report and recommendations are posted on the DHW website at: http://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov

http://www.kivitv.com/news/local/141433513.html

by twinkletoes Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:53 am

May 27, 2012

Mother who helped murder her young son enjoys prison: "It's fun. I love it."

This week, a Boise Idaho television news team released startlingly
frank recordings of prison telephone conversations in which a mother who
helped murder her 8 year old son gloated about how much fun she was
having in prison. Serving a 25 year sentence without the possibility of
parole, the mother showed no remorse about her role in the murder, as
she discussed with someone named "Jess" how much "fun" she was having in
prison.

The only seeming complaint that the mother has about prison
is that she doesn't have a photo of her son, shown here with a 2009
smile that is deceptive in that it hid the continuing torture he was
suffering at the hands of his mother's boyfriend, while getting no
protection from his mother who owed him that protection. She also
complained that the person who has custody of her medallion with
Robert's ashes in it won't give it to her in prison. Otherwise, she
says "It's fun. I love it."

The link to coverage of the cavalier attitude of the mother who
helped murder her 8 year old son, by the Idaho Statesman, the leading
daily newspaper in Idaho, Boise, Idaho is: www.idahostatesman.com/.../robert-manwills-mom-likes-prison.html.

As we approach Abused Womens and Children's Awareness Day on June 10,
this first hand coverage of how little remorse a murderer feels over
taking the life of her son, brings home the fact that no amount of
punishment AFTER THE FACT can cure, or even diminish, the problem of child abuse
in America. Just 10 months after helping her ex-convict boyfriend
torture and murder her son, Melissa Jenkins seems to be having the time
of her life in prison.

The tragic story of little Robert Manwill, and the months of
continuous torture he suffered at the hands of his mother's boyfriend
demonstrates just how inadequate is the protection of abused children in
our system. It seems that everyone in the child's life except the
state's child welfare workers was aware of the abuse he was suffering.
When, the state workers came to visit the home, Robert's mother would
hide him in a closet so that they could not see his injuries and talk to
him about his care. Sometimes as many as three times a week, she hid
the boy, telling the workers that he was with his biological father.
Even though, in months they had not seen the child at the home where he
was supposed to be, the workers did not bother to check out the mother's
story with the biological father.

The following insert from the Idaho Press-Tribune, Nampa-Caldwell,
Idaho, pointedly expressed the questions that all Idahoans asked; the
graphic design of the "dead bug" refers to the "discipline" that
Robert's mother's boyfriend imposed, called "dead bugging". The little
boy was required to lay on his back, with his hands and feet up in the
air so that they could not be used to protect himself. Then, the 260
pound boyfriend slammed his knee into Robert's abdoment as hard as he
could. This "discipline" caused extreme abdominal bleeding. The mother
saw this torture, did nothing about it, and hid her son from welfare
workers so that they would not see how badly injured he was.

[Link to the site: https://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm166/crankycrankerson/Robert%20Manwi..." target="_blank">

by twinkletoes Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:05 am

This is disgusting. This would be Skanky Anthony if she had been convicted, as she should have been.

by mom_in_il Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:31 pm

Melissa Jenkins wants relief from prison

Posted by gotcha Monday, September 17, 2012 at 9:03 AM

Melissa Jenkins cried before telling a judge last September that she “was going to prison, where I belong,” for her role in the death of her 8-year-old son, Robert Manwill. Jenkins cried when telling Robert Manwill’s father that it was her fault their son was dead. Jenkins fought back tears when 4th District Judge Darla Williamson told Jenkins she didn’t believe that remorse.

At the time, Jenkins knew she was going to spend as many as the next 25 years in prison. She also agreed not to appeal the sentence to the Idaho Supreme Court. That was the deal Jenkins made with Ada County prosecutors when she pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the second-degree murder of her son to avoid a jury trial.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/09/15/2272593/melissa-jenkins-wants-relief-from.html#storylink=cpy

by Sponsored content