Teen blogger murder trial

Steve Wells, defense attorney: As you listen to this evidence, ask yourself: Is Rachelle Waterman an absolutely cold-blooded, psychotic monster? Or is Rachelle Waterman a teenage girl?

From the start, public defender Steve Wells set out to prove Jason Arrant was the one with motive to kill Lauri Waterman... that the man eight years Rachelle's senior took advantage of the vulnerable teen, twisting her dramatic stories of abuse for his own gain.

Wells: There's only really one difference between Rachelle Waterman and every other teenage girl—  Rachelle Waterman had the misfortune to repeat her comments to Jason Arrant.

The defense cast Arrant, the prosecution's key witness, as a deranged child predator who plied Rachelle with alcohol, cigarettes and sex... and then twisted her words, using them as an excuse to get her disapproving mother out of the way.

Wells: Rachelle says "I would be so much better off without my mom." And Jason says, “Well, I can take care of that.”

Defense attorney Wells said Arrant would do anything, including commit murder, to keep his teenage girlfriend. But now seemed willing to do anything to get his ex-lover convicted.

Jason Arrant: She gave us the way to get into the house.

Wells: Which was?

Jason Arrant: It was through a basement window.

Rachelle's attorney cross-examined Jason Arrant and immediately began attacking his credibility -- beginning with his claim that Rachelle helped plan the killing, that she told him Brian could sneak into the house through a window that she used to sneak out of.

In the end, Brian used a different window than the one Rachelle used to sneak out of the house. The defense argued that the Watermans kept a key outside by the back door. If Rachelle had been in on the plot, wouldn't she have just told Brian about that key?

The key, the defense argued, would have easily opened any door in the house.

Wells: If she wanted her mom dead, wouldn't it have been easier if she gave you a key?

Arrant: It would have been easier, yes.

And the defense questioned Jason's motive for implicating Rachelle, saying he'd gotten a "sweet deal," a plea agreement that would cut his prison time in half in exchange for testifying against Rachelle.

Wells: This deal actually salvages your life, doesn't it?

Arrant: Yes, it does.

Defense attorney Wells claimed Arrant duped his best friend Brian Radel, convinced him Rachelle wanted her mother dead. Radel said all the talk of murder was coming only from Arrant.

Wells: Did Rachelle Waterman ever ask you to kill her mother?

Radel: No.

Wells: Did Rachelle Waterman ever tell you, “I want my mom dead?”

Radel: No.

Wells: Did she ever come to you and say, “Let's figure out plans to get rid of my mom?”

Radel: No.

The defense then tried to explain Rachelle's seeming lack of concern as the plot to kill her mother grew.

Dr. Marty Beyer, clinical psychologist: She thought that crying on Jason's shoulder about her mother was nothing more than venting.

Wells called clinical psychologist Marty Beyer to the stand. She explained how Rachelle may not have fully appreciated the consequences of her actions -- her venting her problems about her mother to her boyfriend -- because teenagers use a different part of the brain than adults for decision-making, judgment and impulse control.

Dr. Beyer: They can't think like an adult because they don't have an adult brain.

And, the defense took on what looked like the most damning evidence:  Rachelle's taped confession. The defense had already tried to suppress her confession, saying it had been coerced. But the judge allowed the confession to be admitted as evidence.

So defense attorney Wells attacked the officers' methods, challenging sergeant Randy McPherron, one of the Alaska state troopers who interrogated Rachelle.

Wells: You have in mind what you want her to say.

Sgt. Randy McPherron: No -- I want her to --

Wells: A certain set of facts.

Sgt. McPherron: I want her to tell me the truth.

Wells: You want her to say a certain set of facts, don't you?

Sgt. McPherron: No, I’m not pre-arranging anything; all I want her is to tell me the truth.

Defense attorney Wells asked, “If all they wanted was the truth, why did they ignore Rachelle when she said in the interrogation 19 times she told the killers she didn't want the murder to happen?”

Rachelle (tape): I told them not to do it!

But the officers just kept pressing and wells claimed, in the end, Rachelle -- exhausted and  alone -- outwitted by older trained interrogators -- gave a false confession.

Rachelle: Does it look like I’m gonna go to jail?

Wells: The only way that she could see to get that door to open was to tell them what they wanted to hear.

In closing, the defense said Rachelle never wanted her mother to die and it read from a letter written to Rachelle by her mother: a letter Rachelle kept in her nightstand:

"I want us to be close and you be able to tell us things or just talk about nothing or anything. I wish you understood how much you're loved..."

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