More on Karen Irby's assertion that Stuart Irby assaulted her in the car that night

Yesterday, I took a minute and examined the court's files on State v. Karen Irby. and the wrongful death action  In the criminal case file, there were some motions, in limine and otherwise, that were interesting, but the plea petition itself shed a bit of light on things as well.

As was rumored, there was a defense motion to obtain the "blackbox" from the Irby Mercedes.  It was granted, so we can assume that angle was explored by the defense prior to plea.  Also, there were two motions in limine concerning beverage containers found at the scene.  The defense wanted to keep the State from mentioning a beer can apparently found outside of the Mercedes, and a "drinking glass" found in it.  In addition, there was a defense motion to prevent the State from mentioning Karen Irby's prior DUI conviction from the late 90's.  The conviction was overturned on appeal.

Then it gets interesting.  In Mississippi plea petitions, the defendant states what he or she believes the elements of the crime to be.  Then, the defendant states what actions he or she took, and swears that those actions meet the elements of the crime.  In Karen Irby's petition (filed March 29), she says that while she was driving the car Stuart Irby began yelling at her and assaulting her.  She then says she sped up and crossed into oncoming traffic, and that she had consumed two glasses of wine, and that her BAC was .09. Oddly enough, she doesn't make a causal nexus between the supposed assault and the bad driving in her plea petition.


We flash forward to May 11, and Karen Irby's claiming that she's not liable for civil damages because of what she alleges in the plea petition.  In addition to that, the families of the victims are right there with her, blaming this whole ordeal on Stuart Irby.  That's disjunctive to me.  So what happened between March 29 and May 11?  Well, in the wrongful death file, there's a notice of deposition for Karen Irby, set for May 10 in Courtroom 6 of the Hinds County Courthouse.  My guess is that the families were in attendance, and that they heard Karen Irby's allegations there in detail, and believed them.

Interesting development in the wrongful death cases against Karen & Stuart Irby

Today, Karen Irby filed a cross-claim against Stuart Irby in the Hinds County Circuit Clerk's office.  She did so pro se, meaning without a lawyer.  In it, she claims that Stuart Irby "screamed at, threatened, attacked and assaulted" her, "causing and/or contributing to" the wreck that killed Drs. Dedousis and Pogue.

That's odd to me, because that sounds like a possible defense to the charges she pled guilty to...

Hinds County DA Smith wants a grand jury investigation of Jackson PD over handling of Irby case

I caught this on WLBT's 10 p.m. report, and I couldn't help noticing something incongruous.  To make a really long story short, Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith is concerned about how the Jackson Police Department handled the investigation of the wreck involving Karen Irby and two young doctors.  Originally, JPD investigators determined that Karen Irby had been driving around 114 mph when she crossed lanes into oncoming traffic and collided with the truck carrying the doctors.  As the DA's Office prepared for trial, they discovered that there were numerous mistakes in the crash investigation, and they blame the accident reconstruction detective, who isn't board certified.  The DA now wants the grand jury to investigate JPD.

Here's the problem: For 12 years, nearly every law enforcement agency north of I-10 sent nearly every corpse it had to a guy who wasn't certified to do autopsies, and nobody wants to investigate that....

Court of Appeals Delivers Some Ominous News for Karen Irby

Kingfish at Jackson Jambalaya was the first to suggest that Karen Irby could be indicted for depraved-heart murder in her vehicular homicide case. She was, indeed, indicted on that charge.

Yesterday, the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed a life sentence on a conviction for depraved-heart murder -- in a vehicular homicide case called Nichols v. State.

That's not the first time the state appellate courts have applied Section 97-3-19(1)(b) to motor vehicle accident deaths. In Sanders v State, 942 So. 2d 156 (Miss. 2006), the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed a conviction for depraved heart murder arising from a fatal car crash.

And in White v State, 964 So. 2d 1181 (Miss. App. 2007), the Court of Appeals affirmed a conviction on that theory where the defendant ran down a police officer (who was on foot) while trying to flee the scene.

But it can't help Mrs. Irby that even super-lawyer Jim Waide, representing Nichols, couldn't prevent a vehicular homicide from resulting in a life sentence for murder -- even though the Court noted there was no evidence of intent to kill.