E1: Dee Dee Blanchard Murder Trial: Prosecution Opening Statement

May I please support? Yes. Outside of Claudine Glancher's bedroom door stood the defendant, dressed in all black wearing blue late-text gloves holding a knife. For the defendant, he was in love with Gypsy Glancher Claudine's daughter. As he stood there, the only thing that stood between him being with Gypsy was Claudine. And so he stood there holding that knife for a minute, considering and deliberating the murder of Claudine Glancher. But this was not the first time the defendant deliberated. Before he got to the house and walked in the front door, he was handed the blue gloves and the knife. And he deliberated. In his words, he had two thoughts, benevolent thought that he described as an angel, he just taped Gypsy and run, and a malevolent thought, a devil on the other shoulder that said, "The bitch is dead." Even that wasn't the first time the defendant deliberated. Hours before getting to the house, he sat in his hotel room at the day's end texting Gypsy, making sure everything was ready. Making sure the knife was ready, the gloves, duct tape, telling Gypsy that he was planning on wearing a scary outfit that would scare Claudine and telling Gypsy not to underestimate his will to kill. That wasn't the first time the defendant deliberated. Thirty-six hours prior, knowing he was coming to Springfield to murder Claudine, that bus stopped in three different cities. As the defendant sat on it, knowing he was coming to Springfield to murder Claudine. It was a year prior. When the defendant, while speaking with his girlfriend Gypsy, was first introduced to the idea of killing Claudine Blanchard, a year prior. The evidence will show that although it was Gypsy's idea, it was the defendant's deliberation that led to him standing outside of Claudine's bedroom door with gloves on, dressed in black, holding a knife and thinking the bitch is dead. The evidence will show that after that deliberation on June 10th, 2015, he entered that bedroom and stabbed Claudine Blanchard to death. Back in June of 2015, Claudine Blanchard lived at 2103 West Volunteer Way with her daughter, Gypsy. On June 14th of 2015, neighbors and friends of Claudine and Gypsy became concerned because they saw a Facebook post. It was posted on a joint account that Gypsy and Claudine shared and the post hinted that Claudine was dead and that Gypsy had been raped. These neighbors and concerned friends, they go to the house, nobody's answering so they end up calling the Green County Sheriff's Office. They respond. They're not able to get anyone to come to the door. Eventually they make entry to the house. There's no sign of Gypsy, but Claudine Blanchard is found in the back bedroom, dead, face down, blood soaked to night down with multiple staffings. The police then tried to determine who made this Facebook post and they end up determining that it was made from a residence all the way in Waukeshaw County, Wisconsin, a residence that's associated with Nicholas Goudachon. At this point in the investigation, the police don't know if Gypsy's also a victim, if she's alive, if she's dead, and they don't know who Nicholas Goudachon is. But knowing that that's the location where the Facebook post originated, they coordinate with the Waukeshaw County Sheriff's Office who ends up serving a search warrant on that residence and they find the defendant, Nicholas Goudachon, and they find Gypsy. To their surprise, Gypsy was not injured. She was not being held captive. They for the first time find out that Gypsy is their willingly as the defendant's girlfriend. And that's the first relationship between the defendant and Gypsy Blanchard becomes known. Gypsy is a victim of a victim who is not being treated as a victim. They decide to become committed and they carry on for almost three years in almost exclusively online relationship where they communicate over Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, and Scott. You're going to hear about and see some of the dynamics of this relationship and how it started to become very sexual and they introduced fantasy role playing into their relationship. They each developed alter egos, evil sides, and they would fantasy role play with one another while talking about sexual things using these alter egos. Eventually, the defendant learns that Gypsy who he initially knew within a wheelchair didn't have to be in one. He learns that Gypsy is not happy at home and he learns that Claudine is never going to let Gypsy be with him. It is around that time back in May of 2014, a year before the murder that Gypsy first introduces the idea to the defendant about killing her mom. That idea is what culminates in the defendant ultimately standing outside of Claudine's door with that night. It was after deliberation, after considering alternatives. They considered alternative ways to be together. They were trying to get Claudine to like the defendant or even trying to get Gypsy pregnant, but ultimately after considering those alternatives to defendants' deliberation that ended in Claudine's murder. Once the defendant and Gypsy are found in Waukeshaw County, they're taken to the sheriff's office there and the defendant's taken to an interview room. He sits there for a long time because he has to wait for detectives from the Green County Sheriff's Office to fly in. Eventually, Detective Pantula Maholi with the Green County Sheriff's Office arrives and she goes in and interviews the defendant. You're going to see that interview. Throughout this week, what you're going to see is that the defendant eventually confesses to premeditation, confesses to deliberation, confesses to murder. What you're going to also see is that all of the evidence that's found at the crime scene matches his confession. All of the evidence that's found in Waukeshaw County matches his confession and everything else in between. The testimony after giving Detective Maholi a pre-planned lie that he and Gypsy had come up with, he looks at her, he takes a minute and he says, "I'll admit it." I actually did stab her, I'll admit it, and he admits that he did it not to save Gypsy, but so that they could be together. And from there, he walks the detective through what happened. Waukeshaw Gypsy had given him money to take a Greyhound bus from Wisconsin to Springfield. That he goes and he stays at the days in to get ready and you will see surveillance video of the days in, you'll see him checking in and eventually the defendant gets a cab that takes him from his hotel room to the residence at 2103 West Volunteer Way. He texts Gypsy that he's there, she meets him at the door with the blue-layed text gloves and the knife. He tells her to get to the bathroom. and now we arrive where I began, where he's standing outside of her door with the knife, except he describes what happens after. That after that minute, his final deliberation, his final reflection, he goes inside, she's sleeping, on her stomach, he straddles her, and he begins to stab her multiple times in the back, and he cuts the back of her neck. He describes stabbing her approximately four times, going deeper than others, because the knife is getting harder to pull back. He can tell that he punctures along, and that matches the autopsy that ultimately reveals that Claudine didn't have four. She has sent teen stab wounds to her back, to the back of her neck, and she had deep cuts to her neck. They went all the way to the vertebrae of her neck. The defendant describes her screaming and some statements that he made to her as he's murdering her. Then he talks about afterwards the fact that he went and got gypsy from the bathroom and that they began to clean up. He adds that he asked Gypsy to clean up the blood, naked, because that turned him on. And that after cleaning up as Claudine's dead, knife-ridden body is laying in her bedroom, the defendant and Gypsy actually go into Gypsy's room and have sex. They then ultimately pack up, take a taxi to the days and a greyhounder Wisconsin, and that's ultimately where they're found. Before they get on that greyhound bus, they take the knife and they take those blue latex gloves, and they actually go to the post office, put him in an envelope, and mail them to the defendant's residence in Wisconsin, so they don't get caught on the bus with it. And that matches what's found in the defendant's room in Wisconsin. They find the envelope with the knife, the gloves, that ends up having Claudine's DNA on the blade, and a mixture of the defendant, Gypsy, and Claudine's DNA on the handle. You'll see this confession. You'll hear the physical evidence. You'll see how everything matches up. Ultimately, what is going to tie it together is the online persona and the online world that the defendant and Gypsy lived in. Computers were seized, cell phones were seized, and you get the full picture by reading and hearing the defendant's conversations, not with police. When he didn't think people were listening, you see that about a year prior, he talks on Facebook with a friend about their plan to kill Claudine, and that they're going to put it off for a while and try a different approach. They're going to first see if the defendant can meet Claudine and maybe she'll like it. Well, that doesn't work. They also talk more about this idea to maybe get Gypsy treatment. That doesn't work. The killing was always supposed to be the last resort. But then, by May of 2015, after reflecting on these alternatives, the defendant's computer search history shows he had already reflected and he had deliberated and he had agreed and chose to murder. He searches for bondage tape, tasers, knives, tactical knives, a jungle primitive knife, a seal team knife, and then lastly, you'll see the text messages between the defendant and Gypsy from about two weeks prior to the murder, all the way up until he is standing out of the door. And what you're going to see and what the evidence will show is that, yes, this was Gypsy's idea, but the defendant on June 10th was ready to kill and these text shows he was enjoying it. He was looking forward to it. He was excited about it. You'll see text messages while he's waiting in his hotel room waiting to take the cab to murder, plotting that, yes, Gypsy's idea, but it's the defendant who's texting Gypsy saying, "Making sure he knows where the address is, making sure the knife and the gloves are ready." It's the defendant who asks if the floor squeaks if clotting is a heavy or a light sleeper. When Gypsy responds to him, she's a light sleeper, he says he's getting excited. It's the defendant that text he's going to wear an outfit that will scare clotting. It's the defendant that suggests he's going to finish clotting no matter what and not to underestimate his will to kill. You'll see those texts go all the way up to where he's standing outside of the door and tells Gypsy to come in. Lastly, you'll hear and interview the defendant with the media in January of this year, where he describes what his thought process was as he stood outside the door, ready to kill Claudine. And he describes the liberty that we will have you to find the guilty of first degree murder. Thank you.