PT 4 - The Mysterious Death of Mrs. Huffington
PT 4 - The Mysterious Death of Mrs. Huffington
PT 4 - The Mysterious Death of Mrs. Huffington
4
Determining Textual Evidence: THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF MRS. HUFFINGTON
Instructions:
1. Read the following police report. As you do, find the DIRECT TEXT EVIDENCE that points to your
suspect as the murderer.
2. The group that comes up with the MOST evidence for each of the suspects makes the best case,
and therefore can PROVE it.
3. Be ready to defend your client using DIRECT QUOTES.
4. Again, the GOAL is to be the group with the MOST EVIDENCE for each suspect.
Mr. and Mrs. Huffington divorced about 4 years prior to the murder.
Apparently, Mrs. Huffington had been seeing the pool cleaner,
Charles, behind Mr. Huffington’s back. This was all discovered when
Mr. Huffington came home from work early on in their anniversary
and found Charles and Mrs. Huffington together. Mr. Huffington
hardly reacted to the discovery, promptly and quietly filing for divorce
and moving to France. Although friends seemed to think Mr.
Huffington still loved Mrs. Huffington, he never contacted her again,
ignoring both her phone calls and letters. However, Mr. Huffington
was found the night of the murder at a hotel two blocks down from
the murder scene. According to Mr. Huffington, he was only in town
for a work-related sales conference. Mr. Huffington sold and
collected rare antique firearms. According to Mr. Huffington, he did not contact his ex-wife at all
and had only been in the country a day. When asked how he felt about what had happened, Mr.
Huffington said, “Good. She gets what she deserves. She was a horrible woman.” Mr. Huffington
seemed quite angry at the interview and was anxious to get back to France now that his
conference was over. Police also found lots and lots of DNA evidence at Mrs. Huffington’s home
that matched Mr. Huffington’s DNA perfectly.
Charles worked for the Huffingtons until that fateful day
when Mr. Huffington found him with his wife 4 years ago.
Charles had been in the pool cleaning business for 11 years
and loved his job more than anything. After weeks of fairly
harmless flirting, Charles fell madly in love with Mrs.
Huffington. She was apprehensive at first, but they soon
started dating behind Mr. Huffington’s back, meeting late at
night and during the day when Mr. Huffington was at work.
When they were finally caught, Mrs. Huffington promptly fired
Charles and explained to him that he was really just a ‘fling’
and she was actually just unhappy with her marriage. For the
3 months after losing the Huffington pool, Charles was jobless and homeless. All he knew was
the pool business and when his employers found out about the affair, they immediately fired him.
Charles would often stop by Mrs. Huffington’s during this time, asking for work and declaring his
unending love for her. These visits became more and more frequent, and Mrs. Huffington became
afraid. She had a restraining order placed on Charles, and he apparently moved on. Since all
this, Charles had gotten married and found other pool-related work with a new company.
However, he had reportedly broke his restraining order not 3 days prior to the murder when he
tried to stop by for a visit. At his interview, the police noticed that Charles had a key to Mrs.
Huffington’s home on a chain around his neck. According to Charles, though, he was out of town
visiting relatives from 4 pm the day before the murder until 11 am the day of the murder.
Investigations showed a love letter from Charles in Mrs. Huffington’s mailbox. In the letter, it
said, “I know Mr. Huffington’s in town. Don’t let him come back. Only I can be the one to love
you.”
REASON #1 (5 points)
REASON #2 (5 points)
REASON #3 (5 points)