Letter purported to be by Jimmy Mettias published by Rick Baker

Hey Rick, 

We have been in strategy meetings for the better part of the evening. Here are a couple things for your readers:

First of all the Death Penalty decision by the DA changes nothing on our end. We continue to prepare for trial in the same manner as before. We feel like it is actually a benefit to Chase. We will have a lot more access to experts and investigators as well as certain instructions at trial that protect the accused. Our goal is nothing short of an acquittal. While it is not a science, when the proposed penalty is death, jurors are much less likely to vote guilty if they have any doubt this individual committed the crime.

And second, we will continue preparing this case diligently. We are working tirelessly to secure an acquittal. We will be staging a mock trial with a focus group jury panel and we will be able to listen to deliberations through closed circuit TV. It will be quite interesting to hear what the focus group considers the major pieces of evidence and where the prosecution's weaknesses and strengths are. I do this with many of my civil cases and it is eye opening what we learn in these mock trials and while we listen to jury deliberations.  Jimmy