Smart Case, July 29, 2002

07/29/02 | Jolly Green

[Jolly Green]

Time Line
06/05/01	Tuesday	Ricci steals items from the Smart home while he is employed there as a handyman. Ricci is charged in July of 2002 of 1 count of theft related to the Smart incident.
05/30/02	Thursday	~ Ricci returns to pick up his Jeep at the auto repair shop before the shop has a chance to fully fix it He tells the repairman that it needed for an emergency.
06/04/02	Tuesday	~ Ricci is at work from about 9am to 5:30pm ~ Ricci claims he spends the evening with friends
06/05/02	Wednesday	~ 1:05am - 2 cars are spotted on the SLC Shriner's Hospital Parking Lot by a hospital security guard, two blocks from the Smart residence ~ 1:30am (approx) - Elizabeth is kidnapped from her home ~ 1:30am - Ricci claims to be in bed asleep with his with wife. ~ Ricci is scheduled to be off work all day today. ~ 7:21am - Rachel/Amber alert is issued and national media is involved. ~ 8:30am - Ricci and his neighbor talk about the kidnapping of Elizabeth, Ricci seems to know too much information about it. ~ Sometime during this day Ricci is visited by police in regards to Elizabeth's kidnapping as reported by Angela Ricci (Richard A. Ricci's Wife which is an ex-convict herself) ~ Ricci is seen by his neighbor digging a hole by his (Ricci's) trailer early in the morning. (heard the neighbor say this on TV)
06/06/02	Thursday	~ Ricci is scheduled to work from 9am to 5:30pm today, but instead works from 10:30am to 7:00pm ~ Police talk to Ricci this day about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. (The media is reporting this, so it could be wrong)
06/08/02	Saturday	~ Ricci returns the Jeep to the repair shop to get it fixed. The Jeep is muddy and the repair shop owner sees Ricci remove seat covers from the back of the jeep and place them into a plastic garbage bag that already contains other stuff in it. Also the repair shop owner said a muddy post hole digger was in the back of the Jeep, Ricci removes this also. Ricci has a man waiting across the street to give him a ride. Ricci takes the plastic bag and contents along with the post hole digger with him. Also there is 500 to 1000 extra miles on the Jeep since Ricci picked it up on May 30th, 2002.
06/14/02	Friday	~ Ricci is taken into custody for a parole violation, this being drinking while on parole and association with other ex-cons.
07/11/02	Thursday	Formal charges are filed against Ricci (2 counts of theft & 1 count of burglary) on the theft & burglary of the Smart neighbors home which occurred in April 2001, and 1 more count of theft for stealing from the Smart home on June 6th, 2001.
Special thanks to Brigette for starting this timeline.

[Neenah]

Oh yes !! In fact, I saw that interview with Jeanne Boylan. I also typed a transcript of Boylan from the TODAY show on this running thread.

She is very impressive. I am sure something will come forth, but will it be released? Even she said "sometimes releasing it is not benificial" (said in interview on TODAY show).

I can not understand that, but I am incensed about Tom Smart stopping her from going in, in the beginning. Why now? Who put the pressure on? Why the change of mind after almost 2 months ? Very strange.

[Neenah]

Very possible, Iwo Jima .

[Iwo Jima]

I can see why releasing a sketch may not be beneficial. It may not be clear enough for identification purposes by the general population. Its best purpose may be as a tool to get the witness to focus on what they know that they never knew that they know. It can confirm obscure details which can serve as corroboration for the witness at trial and give clues to the police to investigate.

There are MANY reasons to get a sketch, but the only reason for releasing it would be if it assists the general public in knowing whom to search for.

[Neenah]

Thank YOU !! It is so refreshing , Iwo Jima, to have a clear headed response such as yours, instead of put downs if your thought does not agree with certain people.

Thanks for your thoughts and your answers. It is refreshing to say the least.

[FR_addict]

Who do you think told them to treat the Smarts with kid gloves?

I am not familar with the area at all. I just think the police would have pushed for a sketch if there hadn't been a warning to leave the family alone. Perhaps Ed really did think he was doing the best for MK, or perhaps he knows something he didn't want MK to reveal. I just think normal police procedure would have been to bring in a sketch artist from the beginning and if the family wasn't amenable to this that the police would have put the pressure on to get the family to cooperate.

I think it would have been pretty easy to get the family to cooperate if they weren't told to treat the family with kid gloves for some reason. I believe the police were probably happy when Mark Klaas originally tried to get the family to let Boylan do a sketch. Obviously MK saw enough to describe a cap and hair on arms. Someone said they only had 3 hours for the Rachel alert. I don't know why this would have prevented them from getting a sketch after the original alert went out. Evidently they decided to try 2 months later to get a sketch, so obviously, MK had enough of a description to try and attempt a sketch recently.

[Iwo Jima]

Tell me about the theft which Ricci has confessed to. What items does he admit that he has stolen from Ed Smart and when? Are we taking about the items which came up missing last year which led to Ricci and the others getting fired? Or are we talking about a more recent event? Who keeps stolen goods around for a year?

I don't understand why Ricci, being the lowlife liar that he is, would so easily own up to this theft, especially since as I understand it will send him back to prison for a lon-n-n-g time. Why didn't he just say "Ed gave me those items. Ed and I are real close, you know. Ed gave me a Jeep and other gifts." Whether true or not, I think that that would be a good enough defense to keep him from getting convicted. Especally if Ed did not file a stolen goods report at the time.

And why, since Ricci he knew that he would be questioned in connection with Elizabeth's disappearance, did he keep these stolen goods at his house so that he could be linked to Ed?

This makes no sense to me. It's almost as though he WANTS to be in jail for now.

[Bella]

Why now? Who put the pressure on? Why the change of mind after almost 2 months ? Very strange.

It's probably due to all the flack they've been taking due to the Samantha authorities releasing the pix within hrs..It leads to the question of WHY don't they want a sketch released, is it someone they KNOW and are protecting.

[Vinomori]

What a defense! "I'm an important person and therefore statcially I did not commit this ctime." Sheesh!

If there is a "defense" going on, then that presupposes someone has been charged with a crime. I agree that this would not serve as a good defense once someone is charged. I do believe statistics, however, serve as a good factoring-out process as we contemplate likelihoods. I think it is more responsible to look for what is most likely, versus what is most pruriently satisfying.

[Bella]

I just think the police would have pushed for a sketch if there hadn't been a warning to leave the family alone.

I just think since some of the cops are mormon and probably do know this family, believed the family was telling the truth. Which explains the statement from the aunt that IamHD posted awhile ago, that the authorities are cooperating with them! I've always known it to be the other way around!!! This alone tells me things aren't on the up and up. This case doesn't pass the smell test at all.

[Iwo Jima]

I understand that a death in the family after a long illness can cause a family's routine to change. But I do not think that the valuable information which Ricci and company would have had would have been new. The layout of the house, whose bedroom is where, who shares a bedroom/bathroom, where the various entrances/exits including windows are, how to approach/leave the house other than from the street, the amount and nature of traffic on the street, how the door locks work, the fact that there is a burgular alarm which is not set up to be zoned and so is rarely used, how the garage door works, and on and on. The information which Ricci could have given to the mastermind of this operation was so valuable that he may not have had to contribute anything else to get a share of the take.

[FR_addict]

I do believe statistics, however, serve as a good factoring-out process as we contemplate likelihoods. I think it is more responsible to look for what is most likely, versus what is most pruriently satisfying.

Hillary and Bill were important people. I bet a lot of Freepers would agree that they were guilty of more than white collar crimes.

It's more the circumstances surrounding a case than over all crime stats. For instance, this is a kidnapping. What is the percentage of similar cases of abduction from a home in which a family member is involved? In the Poly Klaas case, it was a stranger, but I don't know the over all stats. I think it has been show to be more likely a family member, but I really don't know.

We can eliminate divorce cases, since that's not the problem here and that would skew the results to a family member. I have no idea if they even have statistics like this (divorce vs. non-divorce, child abuse complaints vs. non child abuse, runaway vs non-runaways, etc). Bottom line statistics can be skewed to prove both sides of an argument.

[Iwo Jima]

I don't consider a theory that this crime was committed by someone other than a lowlife, petty criminal as being "prurient." I think whoever took Elizabeth probably had sex/rape on his mind. If you want to dismiss that as being "prurient," I guess I just don't understand where you're coming from.

[Bella]

Interesting..Any comments on this article?

Harpists aim to raise money, hope

40 will converge on Main St. for concert tonight
By Diane Urbani
Deseret News staff writer
A small army of harpists will converge on Main Street Saturday night, hoping to soften the heart of a kidnapper.

"This is something we can do, to offer some peace and comfort," said Patrice Laurence, Centerville, whose daughters Maren, 10, and Mette, 5, will be among the 40 harpists playing together to raise money and hope for the Elizabeth Smart search effort.

Like Maren Laurence, 11-year-old Kephren Bernhisel has played her harp with Mary Katherine Smart, the 9-year-old who saw her older sister taken from the bedroom the girls shared. When Elizabeth disappeared, Kephren's 17-year-old brother, Matt, and their mother, Debbie, joined the search.

Kephren, too young to go, kept saying, "It feels wrong to not do anything." Like many young musicians who've heard Mary Katherine and Elizabeth play their harps, Maren has been "yearning to lend support," her mother said.

Debbie Bernhisel broke the news of Elizabeth's kidnapping the same morning that it occurred. "I was very straightforward," she said. She told her 11-year-old what to do if she were threatened by an abductor. "You scream and kick, even if he says he's going to shoot you," and try to stay inside the house where parents can hear her. "As soon as you leave this house, it's not going to be good."

"My daughter is not shy," Bernhisel added. "But she said that if a kidnapper told her to keep quiet, she'd keep quiet. Especially in this LDS environment, you do what an adult tells you to do." Bernhisel taught Kephren otherwise, going over the scenario repeatedly.

Laurence had a similar conversation with Maren. "It's an awful thing to tell a 10-year-old. But I had to tell her, 'If anyone pulls a gun or a knife on you and tells you to be quiet,' " don't be. "They're probably going to hurt you anyway."

But Saturday night is a time to set aside the fear and sadness, Bernhisel said, and renew hope that Elizabeth will be found alive. The harp concert "will give people a better sense of what Elizabeth is like. They'll see her peers, who know her on a daily basis."

"The sound of the harp is so soothing," added Laurence. "There's just nothing like it."

It's also unusual for scores of harpists to perform as one.

"We've all played together at some point in our lives. We're all linked," said Megan Jones, Maren Laurence's harp teacher and organizer of the concert. The harpists, age 5 to 24, will begin at 8 p.m. with "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and play their way up to Handel's "Concerto in B Flat." Elizabeth's parents, Ed and Lois, have said they will attend the 90-minute concert at Exchange Place, 350 S. Main. Look for the baby-blue kiosk, Jones said. That's Elizabeth's favorite color.

Admission will be free, but concert-goers can make donations toward the Smart search center, which needs help paying for postage and other supplies, said Smart family spokesman Chris Thomas. If money is left over at the end of the search, it will go to Shriners Hospital or to the Laura Recovery Center Foundation, he said.

[Iwo Jima]

Thanks for your thoughts and your answers. It is refreshing to say the least.

Well, thank you. I have been reading these threads for a long time, and my opinions have beem positively influenced by your posts.

[Palladin]

Bookmarking.

[FR_addict]

I think your reasoning is good, except I don't think Ricci would know whether the alarm would be set at night, assuming he worked during the day. It sounded like the items were stolen when he worked there, not at night. But again the information on the burgarly has not been consistent.

I'm still not sure if Ed reported it at the time. It seems like it would have been easy for the police to have done a background check on the workmen Ed let go at the time and the police would have told Ed that Ricci had a record.

[cookiedough]

Thanks for clearing that up! :-)

[Iwo Jima]

True about the use of the alarm at night. But if Ricci had a key and could come and go, he would have known a code or (what I think is far more likely) that the Smarts never used their alarm at all. My point is that he would know a lot about the family's specific habits and their general attitude toward safety awareness.