So Marine Cpl Cesar Laurean has finally been caught in Mexico. He was apparently caught at a local kidnapping checkpoint. He had been sleeping in fields eating fruit off trees. Even that was a better existence than he denied Lance Cpl Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child. He has been indicted in both of their deaths.

What is still un-resolved in this matter is what Laurean’s wife, Christina Laurean knew about the murders and what if any aid she gave him in evading arrest. She admits knowing about the death at least 24 hours before reporting it.

Hopefully the rest of this case will proceed in a more competent fashion than it started. It first appeared this case would end up going down as one of the most bungled murder investigations in history right there with the Duke Rape Case, O.J. Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey.

The case has already been marred by moronic and frequent news conferences by the Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown

Sheriff Brown had had no shame in doing everything he can to make himself part of the story instead of focusing on gathering evidence and letting the story be told in court. This guy had had multiple news conferences of no investigative value, he has been on Geraldo, he has editorialized the evidence in a public forum, he as commented on the evidence, and he has done everything but keeps his mouth shut and doing his job. Sheriff Brown must have gone to the Mike Nifong school of Investigative Publicity. He obviously aspires to be “Chief Of Police’” Brown in some larger setting….

The Onslow County Sheriff’s department had enough information to arrest Cpl Laurean not prior to the murder but soon after. The failure to take him into custody allowed him to escape to Mexico which effectively takes the death penalty off the table as he was caught in Mexico.

Mexico will not extradite someone charged with a capital offense unless the death penalty is removed from consideration Real time decisions are always based on less than perfect information and mistakes are made but there is a huge difference between mistakes made in innocence and mistakes made in arrogance. Let’s hope that the arrogance and desire for “tabloid time” of Sheriff Brown has not damaged the ability to get a conviction.