#556 - Incurably Crazy Killer - Lewiston, Idaho

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Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another insane edition of Small Town Murder Express. As you know, 10 pounds of murder, 2-pound bag.
It's a lot. We're stuffing it in here.
We got a crazy story today. Of course, as usual, seems to be the Expresses are nuts always.
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And you guys, holy. Thank you for coming through.
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For the low, low price of $5. For crime and sports this week, we're going to talk about it's Christmas.
We're going to do some light stuff. We're going to do sports songs where we are going to watch athletes try to sing and we're going to laugh at them.
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We got Macho Man. We got some very fun Carl Lewis stuff.
And they're taking it serious. Oh, they're taking it real serious.
They think they're good at this. It's a lot of fun.
Then for Small Town Murder, we're going to talk about remote viewing, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars for the CIA to try to figure out if you concentrate enough, can you see into a cave 10,000 miles away? Who signed that check? I'm going to punch you in my dick. Wow, lots of people.
That is wild shit here. Oh, through multiple administrations.
This is a bipartisan fuckery, is what we'll call that. Jesus.
Patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all that. That said, I think it's time, everybody.
Let's go. Let's do this.
Let's get this started. Let's all clear the lungs.
Arms to the sky. Let's all shout.
Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.
Let's go on a trip, shall we? We shall. Let's do it.
We're going to Idaho, everybody. Hell yeah.
Oh, boy. This is northern panhandle Idaho, too.
Yikes this is on the like kind of on the washington border right there okay yeah western folks western panhandle this is militia country is what we're talking about here yeah it's everybody that wants to move that panhandle into washington yeah there's a lot of like um quaint towns here too and stuff and stuff. But, I mean, obviously.

Probably not when the marches have come through on Saturday afternoons.

I'm not coming by.

So it's about five hours to Boise from here, so way up there.

God damn.

Yeah, it's about eight and a half hours to Idaho Falls, which is our last Idaho episode.

So completely on the other side of the state. That is episode 509.

Almost got away with it is the name of that one. Is it that fuckingaho i know it's huge yeah it's a big goddamn state and this is practically canada you know what i mean yeah it goes that's what it does it goes from the top of utah all the way to canada it's wild it's pretty long population here 33,964 so a decent amount of people actually uh median home price here median here, or median income, household income, normally it's about $69,000.
And the rest of the country here, it is $60,581. Median home price, $327,500.
Is that right? Nicknames for this town. They don't have any mottos, but they do have two nicknames that they proudly put out there.
What is this town? Lewiston. Yeah.
Lewiston, Idaho is this town. Nicknames here.
One is L-Town, which sounds like a failed boy band from 2001. It's very bad.
Also, now that L means just losing, you know what I mean? You don't want to be called L-Town. No, that doesn't work.
L-Town also. How many of those are there? Pittsburgh.
Every city on the river. Cincinnati, Poughkeepsie, you name it.
They're all on the river. There's a lot of cities that are bigger than you called River City.
History of this town here. It's believed to have been named after Meriwether Lewis from Lewis and Clark.
Okay. There's a lot of Lewis and Clark shit up here.
There's a Lewis and Clark colleges up here and all that kind of stuff. And also after Victor Trevitt's hometown of Lewiston, Maine.
But people did not know that that was the reason Trevitt had the idea. So basically he named it.
Trevitt? Really? He came up with the idea to name it after his hometown but was like we'll name it after lewis so that way yeah nobody noted uh he simply stated the journal of lewis and clark talked about being in the valley he didn't tell anybody that he was also from lewiston here now the city of lewiston's reservoir failed on january 18th 2023 just and when i say failed i mean mean, you wouldn't think, how does a reservoir fail? Is there a leak in it? This is catastrophic. This failure caused flooding with the release of 3 million gallons of water.
That's a lot of water. That's a lot.
So things to do here. Surfing.
You wouldn't expect that, would you? Northern Idaho. Reviews of this town.
Got to go through these quick because they vary vastly, we'll say. Really? We'll do a five, a three, and a one star and see how it goes down the line.
Here's a five star. This person loves this fucking place.
First time I saw Lewiston was at night coming from the north. You come to a steep grade.
You look right down to a valley. The view was incredible to me.
Lights from the town expanded. Then, then, then, not then.
That's why I messed that up. Then you saw the river running through the town.
I guess that's gorgeous. G-O-R, I'm sorry, G-O-U-R-G-O-U-S.
Gorgas. Town, Gorgas.
The town has a feel of the old meets the new with their brick old buildings in the lower half,

but clean, nice, and family friendly.

To the other half of the town, which has new hip stores and the old and young alike can shop at.

Of course.

Oh boy. The streets are clean and maintained, patrolled regularly, makes you feel safe in a crazy world.
Jesus Christ. There's 33,000 people.
How fucking unsafe can you feel? That's what I'm saying. I've only been here a short time, but if I was to recommend a town to a couple about to start a family, without hesitation, I would say Lewiston, Idaho.
Yeah. Without hesitation.
Wow. I just found out it existed.
Jesus, that's what I'm saying. This guy is, first words off his dog louis denino beautiful view coming from the north oh you didn't say anything about the south no no you come in from the north boy that's the view invade this mother from jesus from the north you're gonna see something amazing three stars it's a retirement community there isn't much going on it's a calm, and I'm not sure I would like to see it change.
I think it's meant to be that way, except they said it's meant to be that Y, which probably makes more sense if you've been here. If I could recommend it to a young person, I would.
I would. I just feel as though I don't belong here so this person's like i don't think

it's right for me but you might like it you may enjoy it old enough yeah and then one star a great place to start a militia or a meth lab now we're there you go there you go the town smells like rotten eggs and garbage because of the paper mill and composting plant yeah this is not what composting plant

Jesus

we take all of our poop

and we mash it together here

yeah

this the paper mill and composting plant. Yeah, this is not.
The what? Composting plant. Jesus.
We take all of our poop and we mash it together here. Yeah.
Oh, boy. They didn't mention that when they were driving into town and seeing the lights in the river.
They didn't mention the composting. That must be on the south side.
The composting plant in the distance also. There's nothing but junk food and everyone is obese.
I am 190 pounds, which is skinny by Lewiston standards. I am moving tomorrow.
To fucking Lewiston. So things to do here.
Hot August nights. That's what they got.
Yeah. Hot August nights, which is it's kicked off in 87 and began as a way to bring the Lewis Clark Valley a taste of great music and artists they've never had a chance to experience before.
After the initial success of the first few years, a classic car show was added to the mix. They all always have a classic car show.
How do we get old men to come here? Put out a fucking car and put its hood up, and they'll just show up. Men over 50 will just wander in.
They don't even know why. We're thinking about having a festival.
We're thinking about a classic car. I don't know if they've earned it yet.
Let's have a couple successful ones first. Let's see a few years first and see if they can handle a classic car show.
Before we burn some 91 octane down. Literally, though.
Fuck that. Guys just wander to these.
They don't even know why they're there. They're like, why am I here? Like, aliens drew them there.
And if they brought their car there, they are the most jacked person on earth. They're like, I get to park it and have people look at it.
A hood up on a 69 GTO and here I am. I don't know why.
Lewiston's Hot August Nights is truly a community event. Downtown Lewiston streets are closed down so all the classic cars can be displayed.
The event kicks off on Thursday at the local Toyota dealership. What I think of when I think of classic cars.

I think of Toyotas.

Yeah, with a preview of classic cars on their lot.

They got like a 77 Corolla all fucking polished up for you.

There was a guy that put a million miles on a Corolla and they gave him a brand new Corolla for it.

Gee, thanks.

I mean, nothing wrong with a Corolla, but I mean, give me something a little extra for that that's not a reward yeah is there a turbo version or something um and then friday night is valley favorite with classic car cruise and all these lead up to a car show and award ceremony wow we go from the toyota dealer and cruise somewhere park these motherfuckers and give out and then judge bands. Yeah.
Who's playing that? Here's some bands from over the, I don't know which year any of these bands are playing. This is from different times.
Colby Calat. C-A-I.
Oh, Colby Calat. You know her.
There you go. I do? Yeah.
Yeah, you've heard one of her songs. Okay.
She had one song that's very famous. This is a two-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter who sold over 6 million albums and 10 million singles worldwide.
Her breakthrough hit, Bubbly, remains as one of the best-selling, I don't know what that is, digital tracks in history. The cool sounds of Colby will bring a new feeling to the Pioneer Park venue.
I don't know who the fuck that is. I still don't.
You've heard Bubbly, though. I promise you.
God damn it. I hope I haven it and then uh friday night enjoy the beats of local bands the maple bars should wonder if they came down from canada what do you think they came down from the north and mantis have i heard of mantis i don't know that sounds like a slayer cover band is what that sounds like they're pissed they.
Sounds like they're pissed they didn't get signed, too. You guys signed Rat.
Why not us? And then Night Ranger, baby, of course. Oh, is that right? Yes, they're going to have not Night Ranger cover band, the real Night Ranger.
The actual Night Ranger. Okay, let's talk about some murder, shall we? Let's do this.
Yeah, let's do it. Let's go back to June of 2002 here.
Let's go back in time a little bit. Not too, too, too far, but a little bit far here.
20-something years. Let's do this.
Yeah, let's do it. Let's go back to June of 2002 here.
Let's go back in time a little bit. Not too, too, too far, but a little bit far here.
Twenty something years. Let's talk about a man first.
Brian K. Elliott.
Two L's, one T, by the way, which really, really screws up a lot when it comes to newspapers and things like that. Now, he is 43 in June of 2002.
He was born June 16th, 1959 to Alfred and Betty Elliott in Lewiston. He grew up in Lewiston, attended school in Lewiston.
He is Lewiston. He had a beard when he was eight.
You bet. It's a beard and a collection of flannel.
And a beer belly. Oh, for sure.
He is a big, and this is in this area also big deal he's huge into camping hiking that's his yeah that's his jam the outdoors which northern idaho you better like the outdoors because there's a lot of it yeah absolutely that's what's up there you got square print whether it's a flannel or just a regular shirt it's's a lot of squares on that shirt. And some jeans.

A lot of 90 degree angles going on all over the place.

Now, he is one of four brothers here.

So it's him and three brothers to his mother and father.

His favorite thing to do is, because he likes camping and hiking, but he likes to go up to the Snake River sit on the banks of the Snake River and read western novels Really? Like old time, 2002 we're talking the 90s into the 2000s which is interesting Western novels which were big in like the 50s you know what I mean? And before that. He's an old soul James He's an an old soul up here now his father and his older brother both are dead by 2002 god his oldest brother and his father so when we catch up his mother and his two brothers are still alive they live in lewiston um he lives in washington state though but not too far from here just across the border yeah that's it's i think it's right near the.
Yeah, that Koberger kid was in Washington and went over to Moscow. Yeah, it's right there.
It's right across the border. So his brother Dave says he's just a nice guy, likes people, likes to talk.
That's Brian. He's a real friendly guy, makes friends with people, asks them about their personal life and what's going on, and remembers people's, how's your wife so-and-so? He's one of those guys.
Yeah, that backwoodsy shit. They love that.
Yeah, but it's not everybody's like that. King of the small talk.
Not everybody's like that, but he is, apparently. People said that at work, they would tease him about his appetite.
Apparently, he eats like a fucking monster. But he's a thin guy.

Wow.

He's a thin guy but eats like crazy.

He's 5'11", weighs 160 pounds, and eats like a horse, 43.

Yeah, that's incredible.

He's killing it here.

One of the coworkers said, we always teased, boy, I wish I could eat like that and look like that.

So, you know, not be heavy set here. He works at Pallucci's shoe and clothing store.
Is that right? Pallucci over here. Yeah, there's the one Italian man in northern Idaho they found here.
He was tired of how you motherfuckers dressed and opened a store to fix it. He's like, it's a shoe store and clothing store.
He's like, I'm going to fix this fucking place. Now, Jack Pellucci is the owner of this joint, of course.
And he said that Brian was always on time to work. He's on time.
I'll tell you that much right now. I feel like Mr.
Pellucci will tell him if he's late, too. That's the reason he's on time.
What do you think? Is Brian a good guy? I don't know if he's a good guy. He's always on time to work, though.
It's one of those guys.

I don't know nothing about nothing, but he's on time to work.

That's all I care about.

He said, quote, he's a good worker.

You can't find people who want to work anymore.

It's true.

People have been saying that since the 40s.

That's what's funny.

Every time, like, yeah, people are lazy now.

They've always been.

Lazy has never not been a thing that's existed in humanity the very first person was lazy absolutely now the store itself is on main street in lewiston and it's in the 500 block of main street and above the store are some apartments yeah i guess you could call they're more like dorms really than apartments to put it um so So above the store are the apartments. Yeah.
I guess you could call it. They're more like dorms, really, than apartments, to put it.

They're small.

So above the store are the apartments. But in these apartments, by 2002, by June of 2002, only one person lives in these apartments above the store.
Really? Even though there's several. There's a guy named John Mark Cope, C-O-P-E.
He's 42 years old at the time and he moved in to these apartments in april 2002 with the help of brian elliot as we'll talk about here now um this is this is not luxury accommodations above the shoe store by the way this is dormitory style rooms with a common bathroom meager as fuck yeah this is sharing a shitter with strangers which is that is i will not do that that's where i'm it's it's not just the shitter it's the shower it's the sink gross it's everything yes i'm not doing that i'm not i'm not fucking doing it i'm not doing it i'm not doing it i don't care i'll shit in the field first before i do that i'll shit in the field in a place where no one else has shat recently that's where i'm not it's it's the because there's ways of like not getting their shit on you or their piss on you doesn't matter there's no way to not get their grime on you imagine sitting down on that seat and feeling warmth like the seat was warm from a stranger's ass i will not do it i will not ever i know but but i would wipe that fucking thing down every single time and that would make it cold you know what i mean what i would spend on fucking lysol wipes would completely wipe out any savings i'm getting for living like this you know what i mean i might as well have a bathroom at that point yeah constant cleaning supplies wear them again i would throw them the fuck out every time i showered. Every time I went to piss, I might as well have a bathroom at that point.
Yeah. Constant cleaning supplies.
I wouldn't wear them again. That's what I mean.
I would throw them the fuck out every time I showered. Every time I went to piss, I'd come in with a cart like a fucking hotel maid with supplies and gloves on.
It would be horrible. I couldn't live like that.
I've had the flu all week. I've showered like 30 times.
I'd have gone through a Walmart shelf of shower shoes this week. I'm telling you, dude, it's gross.
So now apparently the Cope is the only guy that lives up there. The shoe store is below.
Everybody hates John Mark Cope in the shoe store. Oh.
Except for Brian. That's his buddy.
Well, he feels bad for him. Brian is the type of guy, if everybody else doesn't like someone and won't talk to him, he'll may go out of his way to talk to him and make him feel better.
That's the type of guy Brian is. So his coworkers, Brian's coworkers, said that he was the guy who dealt with Cope.
Like whenever Cope would come downstairs to get mail or something like that, they would all turn their backs and Brian would be the one to deal with him because he was the only one who could deal with him everybody else couldn't stand him is that self-preservation you think like if if cope flips out at least i'm gonna be the one taking maybe that was always my strategy in the office i'd find the person most likely to snap and befriend them always that's worked every time the craziest people always were like yeah fuck this guy that guy you're all right you know what i mean it worked worked i did it with comedy too it's gotta be this this too because i knew some of those open micers they could snap at any moment and i was like i'm gonna be friends with that motherfucker because he's gonna kill all of you and not me though i'm surprised there was only one i know it's shocking isn't it shocking but he did it in a in a scenario that was worldwide or at least nation everyone knew oh yeah pretty amazing yeah disturbing more famous more people know who he is than any other fucking local phoenix comic yeah no shit we were competing with him that's who we're competing with that's it so the the uh jack palucci's wife pizzi palucci her name is pizzi pizzi palucci pizzi palucci said brian was the one who was always nice about John, meaning John Cope there he said that most of the store employees did not like Cope and for a reason because Cope's a fucking weirdo as we'll talk about what's he do? oh god he's a mess and a bit of a menace he's got a lot of mental problems, several involuntary you know st, stints. Oh, yeah.
Several in different states, even like. Is that right? Even whatever the standard of that state was, he'd fit it every time.
You can't even call it environmental at that point. Nope.
No, no, no. He's a fucking he's got problems, this guy.
Yeah. And very strange.
Pitsy Pellucci said it felt very uncomfortable when he came into the store. But Brian just said, don't be so judgmental.
And Brian would deal with him and be nice to him. Come on, don't judge the guy.
He's obviously got problems. Yeah, he's obviously got problems.
She said, Elliot, Brian would go outside to smoke and would talk to Cope when he'd go out to smoke. Cope would come down and talk to him and that kind kind of kept him at bay.
It was Elliot who got cope into the apartment above the shoe store. That's how he got there.
At the time, he was homeless, Cope. Yikes.
He had no home. I guess 20 years before this, these bathrooms would be rented out by retired single people on a fixed income because they shared a bathroom and all that uh but recently they had stopped i guess pollucci owns all this they had recently decided to stop renting them out because they said the renters were no longer respectable getting shitty old people coming in here so he said i'm not renting out any of my place.
I'll take nothing. I don't want these people.

I rent nothing any longer. I rent nothing.

It's just I have empty apartments I keep up there, which is crazy.

So Cope was the only person left living up there because it was all empty,

but Brian Elliott convinced his boss to let Cope stay there.

Come on, rent him a place.

The guy he's down on his luck and all that kind of shit.

And Pellucci said that Cope paid his rent on time and didn't cause any problems there's no one to cause fucking problems with no one else lives there yeah you know what i mean once the shoe store closes at what six yeah he can go buck wild up there no one will care go nuts bounce off the walls yeah um at one time pollucci said that cope had a lot of visitors coming and going but then then nobody else, then it stopped. And this is from April to June 2002.
So he had friends and he didn't have friends. A little bit about Cope's past here to get a little window into this guy.
He moved a lot, number one. Never really stays at one place for very long because he always has problems.
And he's known to have lived in california he lived in coeur d'alene and um you know all that kind of thing um he i guess he has a background of commitments in california all up and down the state of california he's been committed to mental institutions and put in places put in hospitals basically. So they said a number of occasions he's been involuntarily committed in California.
I don't know what a number of occasions means, but it sounds like a lot. Sounds like quite a bit.
Since then, since he came to Idaho, he was cited for trespassing three times, which is normal for a homeless person. They get a lot of trespassing charges.
Once for disturbing the peace and once for battery on February 15, 2002. So he attacked somebody.
Oh. So that's three, four, five.
That's five separate police actions in the past six, eight months in this town. That's a lot.
That's a lot. That's an awful lot.
And if he's homeless, that makes sense. In the case of Battery, he was taken into jail and then he battered somebody else as well.
He wounded a fellow inmate at the Nez Perce County Jail in a fist fight over what television program to watch? Hell yeah. This is the guy who goes to jail and fist fights people over what's on tv that's this guy over television television we want any sane person goes to jail whatever's on is on i don't fucking care i'm not fighting criminals over fucking tv time if there's a program i'm watching it i could give a fuck don't fucking care um so he was involuntarily committed for mental health problems in the state of idaho on three occasions prior to this by the way is that right so those are all arrests and then he's been committed number on three different occasions as well just in idaho yeah do we know what the imbalance is is it just a short fuse he's got a lot going on we don't know we'll find out his exact diagnosis later but it's it's he's got a lot of problems.
We don't know. We'll find out his exact diagnosis later, but he's got a lot of problems mentally.
Is it chemical? It's definitely nothing that he can just, like, wish away. It's definitely something he needs to be on some serious medication for here.
The hospitalizations were from June the 7th of 2001 until August 2nd of 2001. Then October 25th, they put him back in right back in.
So, I mean, he lasted not even three months of 2001 and he's in there till January 15th. And then January 15th, he gets out of two in 2002 and then March 1st, they put him back in and then the 20th he gets out.
So it's like he's in for three weeks. He's in for a month out for three in for a month out for three basically and that was the most recent involuntary commitment leading up until june of 2002 was him getting out on march 20th of 2002 and then in april he gets out he's homeless brian helps him get the apartment in april there we go so shortly after discharge the last time the last time he became non compliant with his outpatient mental health treatment.
And they said this made him suffer a decompensation of his illness. He got worse.
Obviously he needs to be on medication. This guy, there's no ifs, buts or two ways about it.
You know, it's one of those things. He's probably never going to be a rich man.
He just needs to on this and this is where you mark your that's the mark of a successful man when you're in this position is yeah get better committed yeah yes try to try to stay out and stay on the on the level here member of society that's success and he has a history of basically when he's non-compliant with his treatment of medications when he's on medication he's fine everybody says he's fine but the problem is he doesn't stick with it at all and they said when he's not sticking with it when he's non-compliant with that shit he has a history of aggression and violence toward people he lashes out at people obviously frustration over a fucking tv show so um he was homeless had no support system had no anything like that um number another factor here is that he is a huge alcoholic too booze yeah so he has mental problems and he's drinking like crazy which is only going to exacerbate mental problems obviously i mean yeah you might drink yeah you might drink to quiet the voices in your head quote unquote but but they're not going to help voices in your head. They're going to make them louder, probably.
Right. And all that does is make them scream because you can't hear them.
Yes, they're going to shout louder now because they can't hear you. Sir, you can't hear them.
So those are a lot of factors to this guy. And they said each time he's been involuntarily committed, that's the pattern.
He gets out. He does his outpatient shit for a little while.
Throws it away. Within a couple more weeks, he's in the hospital again.
Rinse and repeat, basically. That's why we saw that pattern emerging.
That's his pattern. He needs a good cry, man.
He needs a good lot of shit. He needs to be medicated, and then he can figure out what he needs.
For the rest of us, we need him to be medicated. He needs a good—we need him to get a good chemical balance.
That's it. He needs a good cry to figure out what the fuck.
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So June 29th, 2002 comes around.

Okay, June.

Okay.

So Brian's birthday was a couple weeks ago.

Yeah.

Oh, he's getting ready to see the festival.

He better get it together.

Hot August Nights is coming.

He's getting ready to see Night Ranger.

He's ironing his Night Ranger T-shirt that he got in 84 during the tour.

Oh, man. I'm listening to them tonight.
I fucking loved them. You've got to rock some Night Ranger T-shirt that he got in 84 during the tour.
Oh, man. I'm listening to them tonight.
I fucking loved them. You've got to rock some Night Ranger.
Fuck yeah. So it's 2 p.m.
that day. The shoe store is open and bustling, and John Mark Cope is upstairs in his apartment.
Brian Elliott is working at the shoe store. He tells the employees, his fellow employees employees he's got to go upstairs to the apartments to quote check on something so i gotta go check on something i'll be back in a minute okay so he takes off doesn't come back right away gone for quite a while oh boy but he always talks to cope so his employees are like he's probably stuck in a conversation with this guy yeah that's That's what happens.
I mean, how, how busy can a main street shoe store be?

Or we're like, we're, we're flooded.

Come on.

We need somebody all hands on deck, man.

Somebody measure that kid's fucking feet. They're not going to measure themselves.

Get his foot out of that.

Who didn't give him the sock?

Who's got my God.

Where's the sock?

Does anyone know where the cat tell gas Brian where the sock is. No one can find the sock, man.
The sock. So then 3 p.m.
comes around. Yeah.
So it's an hour later. John Cope enters the emergency room of St.
Joseph Regional Medical Center at 3 p.m. Okay.
they said he's super distraught, and that really doesn't even scratch the surface here. This is crazy shit.
Okay. He had a small cut on his hand.
Not a huge cut, but, you know, a decent little gash, maybe a couple stitches. But he is covered in blood.
Oh. Like he was standing in the hallway in The Shining.

Like fucking covered in fucking blood.

And there's a little gash on his hand.

They're like, wow, that's a bleeder, huh?

What happened?

Holy, are you a hemophiliac or something?

What the fuck is wrong with you?

You just get it to stop?

Holy shit.

So he acts so weird.

And the fact that he's covered from head to fucking toe, soaked.

I mean, blood is dripping off of him wow

and he's got a cut on his hand so they're like this isn't normal so they call the police also but he refused to identify himself and his conversation was what they called quote nonsensical in the reports they couldn't even understand what he was talking about so they didn't know any they were like wow this is crazy so they were talking to him and they said would you like some help with your you know pointing because he's pointing at your head she likes some help with whatever fucking dust bunnies are floating around in there about that al dente let's talk and he said yes he was he voluntarily committed himself to the hospital psychiatric unit on the fifth floor. So they check him in there.
All right, he's all checked in. We'll talk about some of the stuff he was saying because it was fucking wild.
They said, what's your name? And he said, Dump Truck. Oh, boy.
He would not give his name. He would only give his name as Dump Truck.
That's his name. First name Dump, last name Truck.
truck so over 20 years and that's a nurse with a big caboose i understand yeah it's a dump truck they're like he he wasn't saying his name he was complimenting that nurse that's what he was doing now i understand him he's just horny likes big asses everyone he's not crazy he's just horny he's just very sane he likes big asses that's understandable we all get that so 4 p.m comes around now brian elliott still never came back to the shoe store and it's only been a couple hours it's been two hours this guy's already in the fucking mental oh he's in the psych warder right so So're like well we should someone should go fucking at least maybe bail him out of a conversation maybe he's stuck up there with this guy come out and go hey we're super busy down there brian could use you that sort of thing so bill lee one of his co-workers ran upstairs to go check on him he's like i'll fucking find him when he gets there he doesn't even get to the top of the stairs when he sees the problem and that is brian elliott is light laid out dead at the top of the stairs and it's a fucking scene man this isn't really this isn't oh is he okay let's go check his pulse he doesn't have a head what his headless corpse is at the top of the stairs holy shit head sitting nearby you know that you know that's not he left it oh it's sitting there yeah he didn't take it with him or anything so yeah why take what the fuck this guy thought he was getting five minutes away from the shoe store and he found something he did not want to fucking find so yeah this yeah, this is the top of the stairs that lead from Main Street

to the second floor apartments.

So, yeah, he's decapitated like a motherfucker.

That's the only way to put it.

He's super decapitated.

Lee, the guy who found him, said it was not a pretty scene.

It was one of those unfortunate things that happened.

That's a little bit more than unfortunate.

I would say so.

His head is not on his body anymore.

He said, you know. found him said it was not a pretty scene it was one of those unfortunate things that happen that's a little bit more than unfortunate i would say his head is not on his body anymore he said you expect to read about stuff like this in a large urban area but not in a small town like this thank you bill lee for making our premise relevant so we've been done saying that for several years the cops get brought there blah blah blah they do all this shit they get they find the body they do all that they go where's the guy that lives here and they give them they give his name john mark cope and they're like hold on a minute they start putting two and two together they go back to the hospital we saw a guy covered in blood a little while ago that's not good so they're going to interview, which is going to be an adventure, number one here.
Yeah. The detective also said that bloody footprints lined the hallway of the apartments up there, and there was a blood trail leading from the apartment to St.
Joseph's Medical Center. Stop it.
You could follow a fucking blood trail from his apartment to the hospital. My God.
He was dripping blood all over the place. Just left us.
That's wild. So they advise him of his rights.
And he immediately starts making completely incoherent statements. Yeah.
That in the midst of these incoherent statements are the fact that he did kill Brian Elliott. He does admit to that.
He said that. Oh, he'll give you a whole detail of what happened here.
But there's a lot of comments about the beast. He's talking about the beast all the time.
Yeah. And letting the beast out.
And he insists that his name is Dump Truck also. I wish Dump Truck hadn't vented this jar.
This is so bad. This is a lot.
This is crazy. Golly.
So they said, what the fuck happened to you? Tell me. What made this happen? And he said, well, I was sitting in my apartment watching TV, as one does.
Yeah. And I was drinking beer and I think maybe using some Benadryl, too.
Using some Benadryl. So beer and Benadryl will make you think your name is dump truck apparently it certainly isn't good and he said as he's sitting there watching tv drinking beer taking benadryl like i said as one does that's when he started hearing voices in his head all the time just just people shouting at him in there and you know it gets loud in there and so he said that's right when elliot knocked on his apartment door right when he was hearing voices in the midst of the voices well we'll find out here so then he said he went to the emergency room covered and they said he was covered in blood acting psychotic talking about letting the beast out um he told an officer at that point that he was being tormented by the mark of the beast.
Don't you understand anything? I'm being tormented. And when the mark of the beast came to his door, he was being tormented.
And then that's all these voices. And then the knock came.
That must be the mark of the beast. Oh, God.
So he said when the mark of the beast came to to his door he cut the beast's head off with a knife he said obviously dog what would you do mark of the beast is at my door timing that this had to have oh the timing so this is fucking crazy now the the reason why elliot went up there was to remind cope that he had three days to move out of the apartment because I guess his time was coming to an end here. So I guess he knocked once and nobody answered, so he knocked again.
And that's when Cope attacked him and grabbed a knife and decapitated him. Well, the good news is he's got a new place to stay now.
I would say so. He's not homeless anymore.
And then, if that wasn't enough, he severely mutilated the severed head after that. He took the severed head and attacked it with a knife and beat it, and he said that he was trying to stop the head from talking and it wouldn't shut up.
The severed head. So he was stabbing it and just like punching it and kicking it and trying to get it to stop talking.
What do you do with that guy? I don't even know what I mean. What do you do with this guy? Oh, my gosh.
Clearly there's some issues here. So he said he was following the instructions of, and he wrote this down because they were like, what is that? So he wrote it out.
M-E-L-C-I-R-D-A-K. Melserdak.
That's who was telling him what to do. Melserdak.
Doesn't mean a goddamn thing. He said, I heard, H-U-R-D, by the way.
This is his writing. They said, write down what happened for us, will you? Because no one's going to believe you said the shit that you're saying.
So you've got to write it down, and then we'll have it in a report. Heard like turd.
All right. Yes.
I heard God say, finish him off. He's the mark of the beast.
Which, how many times has God told you to do that? I mean, you've got to ignore God sometimes. You know yeah we got a society and i go not this one not today god jesus christ come on he said he's the mark of the beast get your knife and answer the door and there was a man who i thought was the mark of the beast a black man mutated white it's just brian just a white guy from a from idaho just standing out his door this is your yeah this is a white from idaho who got you a room who got you a room helps you out smoke cigarettes with you that's how fucked up he was he didn't even see him as brian he saw him as as a man a black man mutated white and he said and that's when I slit both sides of his neck and ran him down, cut his head off and tossed it so he could not speak or hear.
Wow. He said, I had been taking a lot of Benadryl and hearing voices.
Take Benadryl off the shelves tomorrow. Tomorrow.
If this is true, no Benadryl at all for anybody. You give your kids that shit, you know? Yeah, who knew allergy med and beer would do this? Wow, I know what I'm doing tonight.
Yeah, sort some. Three beers and a couple of Benadryls, I'm going to have a fucking party, bro.
This is going to be great. No one knock on my door tonight at all.
Be careful. Everyone stay away from my house because it's going to be dangerous.
It's going to be pink lines drawn on all the tables in this house. So, yeah, that's what he said.
He decapitated him. He mutilated the severed head.
And he said that's how he cut his hand. mutilating the severed head.
So they go, we're going to go ahead and arrest you. Um, this is fucking crazy.
So they go back. Police find a knife that a witness said he saw cope hide in a shrub at the corner of third Ave and sixth street at pioneer park in pioneer.
That's where the concert is.

By the way,

if you want to go listen to bubbly,

you can walk by the knife bush and that's there.

You're playing by the murder.

Playing right by the old murder weapon.

Shrub.

That's great.

So then there's a,

a mail carrier here,

Carla David,

who was the postal worker who delivered mail to the store. And she also dropped off mail for the upstairs apartments in the store.
She says it amazes me this whole thing could happen. I just talked to him two hours earlier before his death about Brian.
She gave Elliot a letter for cope. Yeah.
And Elliot confirmed, yes, he's still living there. He's leaving in in three days that is the other reason he went up to the apartment to make sure he gets the mail so i'm gonna go give him his mail and tell him he's got three days left and that's what happened so if the mail didn't come he probably wouldn't have gone up there that day that's what's fucked up if he didn't have any mail so goddamn it was probably nothing too it was probably publisher's clearinghouse and this guy got his head was way worse than that it was something terrible yeah fucking money mailer coupon book or some shit and he's so awful so now his mother and two brothers brian's mother and two brothers said they're coping with the shocking nature of this death because they said it's one thing for your kid to die it's one thing for your kid to be murdered It's a complete other thing for your kid to be murdered and decapitated and have his head mutilated, and that's a lot to process.
That's a whole lot. That's a lot.
Dave, his brother, said we're all leaning on each other, and his mom, Betty, said if we don't have each other, if we didn't have each other, I don't know what we'd do. It's like somebody took a slice out of my heart well he took a a fucking head off of your son what are you talking about later took a head off your son why say slice in that moment that's why do people do is it's a weird thing that people can't like their brain stuck into you somewhere that you've got to say something so often it's too much so often where people't.
The last thing I would use is any knife work terms.

Any knife reference at all.

Well, you know, we're trying to sharpen our emotions up on something.

And, you know, it's really that life is a blade, really, if you think about it.

There's edges to it.

It's, you know.

Someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull, cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull.

That's how it feels.

What are you talking about, Lee?

What?

So, Pellucci here, Jack Pellucci over here downstairs, he said it came as a shock, this death.

He said anybody could have been the victim in here.

It could have been anybody.

He said, quote, it could have been anybody, literally.

It could have been anybody. Why did they do that to Brian? Brian didn't have anything to do with it.
Okay, let's break down this statement because I love an old Italian man's statement. It could have been anybody.
That's just a sweeping generalization for the top of this key here. That's how they usually start a denial, but go on.
Then why did they do that to Brian? Like there's 10 people who did it. They make it sound like it was like he went in an alley and a gang attacked him.
You know what I mean? And took all this shit. Then Brian didn't have anything to do with it.
Do with what? Right. I guess the fact that he was leaving in three days.
I don't even know. He didn't get a chance to say you have to be out in three days.
He was too busy getting decapitated. He knocked and then was just eviscerated.
The door dash driver could have gotten this. Anyone who knocked at that point while he was hearing voices, I think it was pretty much over for them.
Could have been anybody. So, wow.
The prosecutor here, the county prosecutor, expressed what he called substantial concerns about Cope's mental health in his first appearance in court. And he said he's prepared to move on with the case, assuming Cope is competent to stand trial.
He said that mental illness doesn't prevent him with being charged with first-degree murder, which requires the act to be willful, deliberate, and premeditated. Which, probably one out of three.
Willful and deliberate. We got two of those.
Yeah, not premeditated which i probably one out of three willful and deliberate we got two of those yeah not premeditated only takes a few seconds to to call that right that's that's what i'm saying yeah i don't i don't see premeditated here so the main street after a couple days back to normal nobody cares what that's it the police captain said all they're doing now is just continuing with the investigation and following up with any potential witnesses. They said the crime tape that they used to cordon off the crime scene was removed.
And the Pellucci's opened their store again on Monday. And that was that.
And so they said there's the espresso card across the street. People are sipping their lattes and doing their normal shit here.
Later on in the day, they said the movies were full. Minority Report was playing.
It was sold out with Tom Cruise. So if only that was true, we could have known anything about this.
So the police chief, Jack Baldwin, everyone's name is Jack in this town. Evidently.
He said, bad crimes sometimes happen in small cities, but his force is prepared to deal with it. He said, we're capable of restoring peace back in the valley when it occurs.
Okay. It's one guy who went crazy.
It's not like there's a rash in a band of fucking vigilantes. If it hadn't happened in the guy who did its house and the guy who did it wandered into a hospital, if both of those things hadn't happened, you'd be fucking stumped.
You wouldn't know anything like anybody else. So they said that they found the knife in his first court appearance.
They said they had the knife. They're convinced Cope did it alone, obviously.
They said, though, they had several officers ready to testify that Cope's speech was nonsensical. And the prosecutor also said he had unconfirmed reports that Cope had been admitted to the psychiatric hospitals in the recent past.
They're confirmed. He definitely was.
So they said the prosecutor said it's important to establish as soon as possible whether he's actually capable of standing trial.

And they said that the judge appointed the defense attorneys and he said, I can't imagine why Mr. Chapman or Mr.
Van Eater, those are the attorneys, would want to contest this evaluation.

But two hours after being appointed, the one lawyer argued against the evaluation.

I don't know what you're arguing against, saying the defense should determine whether or not to have COPE examined, not the state. So what if they suggested it for you? Why don't you do it too? That's like your stomach's growling.
You're just about to say you're really hungry, and someone goes, you want to go get dinner? And you go, you motherfucker, I was going to say that. Fuck you.
That's so weird. In this case, wouldn't you be like, great, do it, because then I'm going to do it, and we'll have battling people on.
That's the whole point. His lawyer said there was no substantial evidence that Cope was suffering from any mental disease, only the impressions of police officers.
Who do you work for? Right. He said, this is just putting the cart before the horse.
Sir. you talking about believe in mental health apparently it seems like it so the judge admitted that the law was unclear whether the prosecution or defense should move forward with a mental evaluation i think he's like it's never come up that the prosecution says a mental evaluation the defense says no the defense is the one going mental evaluation all the time.
The man said his name's Dump Truck, and he's accused of sawing a man's head off. Let's check him out.
Let's give him a little look-see. Golly.
So the prosecutor described the apartment hallway, which has been sealed as a biohazard due to the large amounts of blood still on the floor, as well as hair and flesh. Oh, for fuck's sake.
Luckily, nobody else lives up there. That's good.
Yeah. Nobody has to step over that.
So the judge grants the defense team $2,500 to hire an investigator also and said that hurry up because the scene needs to be cleaned up, basically. Yeah.
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Now back to the show. Holy shit.
So first July 5th, now a few days later, it says the prosecutor had requested the examination, but cope's attorneys objected. And now they said that he will not be evaluated.
So then the judge finds him, even though he hasn't been evaluated, finds him incompetent to stand trial. And he needs to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for several months.
So he's committed for the 90 days of diagnostic. What the fuck is wrong with this person? Shit going on here.
He says that his attorneys now say that once they said that he's competent, then his attorney said, no, he's not. Okay.
They said they can't communicate with him. So.
Right. Yeah.
That's a problem here. Um, then they get the psychiatrists in here.
Okay. Two psychiatrists both come up with the exact same diagnosis.
Really? Yes.

He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, which is not good.

That's hearing voices and all that.

And antisocial personality disorder, which is also bad. That's real bad.

Those are the two worst together.

Together?

Those are a bad combination.

Oh, boy.

Somebody's going to die.

That is some kind of cocktail right there.

So that's like fucking bleach and ammonia mixing together. So, yeah, he testified in this hearing that he may have been drinking beer.
He thinks he was using Benadryl. He was definitely hearing voices.
Yeah. Yeah.
So the judge said to him, they've indicated that you have a serious mental health problem, a mental health problem, it doesn't appear, that has ever been successfully treated in a manner in which you can manage yourself and society and not cause some kinds of problems. This has escalated to the point where you are before this court for a very serious offense.
I've got some very serious questions about who the fuck was treating him elsewhere. Well, they would put him in for a while.
They'd get him on medication. When he's inpatient, he takes medication, he's fine.
So they have to release him after a while, and he's supposed to do outpatient medication, but then he just stops taking his medication when no one's watching him. Did they fucking figure out that these two things are his problem? Probably.
He's been in several mental hospitals, I assume so, but off he goes and moves somewhere else yeah oh that's a good point if you're moving then that doesn't help either get help up there yep that's it glad to be rid of that guy that's what people think probably so four months later they finally deem him ready for trial all all fixed up now holy all sane now here is the thing there is no insanity defense in the state of ohio or idaho i'm sorry there is no not guilty by reason of insanity in idaho it's one of four states that does that where they do not you could be rip roaring insane running around with a fucking terrier's skin on your head as a hat.

You're fine.

Wow.

Isn't that crazy?

Wow.

There are crazy people.

They exist.

People who literally cannot control their actions and don't know right from wrong.

Yes.

We know that.

So to say that they don't, not in Idaho they don't, is crazy.

Not in Idaho. Impossible.
Yeah. Not in Idaho, Kansas, Montana, or Utah.
know that so to say that they don't not in idaho they don't is crazy not in idaho impossible yeah

not in idaho kansas montana or utah now luckily that's like like 150 000 people total so that's not a lot of people luckily but still but utah the amount of mormons those people are clearly crazy yeah right no Planet? Your own planet, huh?

Yeah, not crazy at all.

Sure thing. So, yeah, this was challenged in 1990 by a guy named Barrington Eugene Searcy, who challenged Idaho's ban on the insanity defense.
He argued that the unavailability of the insanity defense violates due process. but the Supreme Court of Idaho upheld the statute and uh holding that neither the idaho constitution nor the united states constitution expressly requires the insanity defense feels like feels to me like that's about money right it's got to be cheaper to hang on to somebody longer in prison than it is to hang on to somebody in a fucking insane asylum.
That's about politics.

That's about somebody got away with something.

Someone didn't get prison time because they were crazy, and some politician ran on,

I will make it so none of these people claim they're crazy anymore.

And all this shit happened in the early 80s after Hinkley.

That was the thing.

Hinkley was a big one that drove people to say that crazy doesn't exist.

Or even if it does, if they do something I'm mad enough about,

it doesn't matter.

Right.

And if you do something that threatens the actual leader of the free world. Kind of like if you're 14 and you do something bad enough, you're an adult all of a sudden now.
That's kind of like one of those things. If we can make you an adult, we can say you're sane too, I guess.
So 2003 here, they're talking about the death penalty for this guy and all this shit. The trial's about to come up.
He's useless. Let's call it what it is.
I mean, yeah, he's not going to contribute much to society. So he agrees instead to plead guilty to second-degree murder to avoid the death sentence.
That's the only deal. Instead of the death sentence.
Well, first degree murder carries the possibility of the death sentence. Second degree doesn't.
So he pleads guilty to second degree so there's no possibility of the death sentence here. So he has spent the last three months under state psychiatric treatment and he's here.
The prosecutor said questions about his mental state among other, convinced him to make a deal, the prosecutor said. Among other things.
Yeah, among other things. He said, quote, I don't believe that in our justice system a death penalty on an individual who was in a psychotic episode will be upheld.
He didn't say it's wrong. He said I feel like the U.S.
Supreme Court will strike this down later is what he said so why bother they probably won't no but they there's a chance when someone's that fucking crazy that they're gonna at least commute it to life you know what i mean i don't i've never heard of any uh prisoner who got a death sentence uh identifying themselves as dump truck that's the the thing. Dump truck is different.

I don't think that's ever happened.

Although they've executed people with like a 60 IQ that can't remember their fucking name.

Yes, that is true.

That's true, too.

They can't write it.

No, they can't write it.

The prosecutor also cited questions about the validity

of the state's death penalty law following last summer,

2002 summer meaning,

Supreme Court ruling that juries, not judges, must determine if aggravating circumstances exist to warrant execution. Idaho system was not set up like that.
It was still set up where the judge is the one to do that. So they said that legislation reacting to that decision is awaiting a final vote in the Idaho House at the time.
So he's like, I didn't know what to do. I'm stuck in limbo.
So I made a deal with the guy. And he said also not having a trial will save tens of thousands of dollars for the state.
Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
And then we're going to have because also fighting all those appeals later on to the Supreme Court, that's going to cost the state a fortune. He's like, this is just clear it out now.
It's very funny that they said tens of tens.

It's hundreds.

Yeah.

Wow. So the judge said, I just want to ask them, meaning the person putting this plea so that I can determine whether or not you're entering a plea of guilty this morning, knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently.
I don't think he can do those three things, first of all. No.
So they said after a lengthy dialogue with Cope, which the judge reminded Cope of the charge against him, as well as the maximum penalty, said you plead guilty. He said he pled guilty.
They said, has anyone promised you anything? Like, I'd be easy on you if you pled. He said no, all that kind of thing.
So that comes up later, so that's why I say that. The sentencing, the written plea agreement also included the following waiver of cope's right to appeal.
This is part of the deal. Oh, unless the plea is rejected or withdrawn, the defendant hereby gives up any and all motions, defenses, objections, appeals, or requests that the defendant has made or raised could have served hereafter or, uh, to, or against any matters preceding the court's entry of judgment and imposition of sentence.
So you're signing away your future rights to complain if you're pleading here. So the state filed a motion asking that the pre-sentence investigator be allowed to review the psychiatrist reports.
Cope opposes this motion, arguing that prohibited use of that report in the criminal proceeding for any other purchase other than determination of competence, because that's what that was for. So now they're being picky.
And that's going to come up, because the law says a statement made by a person subjected to a psychiatric or psychological examination or treatment in Idaho code, blah, blah, blah, for the purposes of such examination or treatment shall not be admissible in evidence in any criminal proceeding against him on any issue other than the defendant's ability to assist counsel at trial or to form any specific intent, which is an element of the crime charged, except that statements made of a defendant to a psychiatrist or psychologist are as relevant for impeachment purposes. So unless it's to say whether you're competent in a competency hearing, you can't use this in court.

OK, you can't take his shit from there and go, look how crazy he is. He's a murderer.

Yeah. So at the sentencing hearing, the state called the doctor to testify anyway.

Cope again objected, but the court overruled the objection and let him him testify even though it clearly states in the law that he's not allowed to so the doctor testified about statements that cope had made during the competency evaluation as well as his opinions formed there in so um anyway the closing arguments and sentencing here okay because he's already pled. So they're just having these people testify to find out what the judge thinks is the sentence he should get.
Exactly. That's exactly it.
Wow. So the prosecutor argued that Cope would never be safe on the streets, pointing to his failure to take his antipsychotic medications upon release from numerous involuntary commitments to mental facilities.

He said you can't trust

him to, if he takes his medicine, he's fine.

He won't take it. He's proven that in the past.

He won't do it.

Now, Cope, they said anything to say for yourself?

He said, sure. I got a couple

of, I'd like to throw a couple

of things out there.

He says this. This is his whole statement

and it's crazy. Quote, I know it was a bloody mess that's an understatement what are you british now i know yeah no he said i that's what i thought too for him i know it was a bloody mess a bloody mess in it he put in it afterwards and it was very different in it he said there was a lot of blood it was something I've never done in my whole life before.
Hope not. I hope not.
You never decapitated a man? Shocking. Gee, me neither.
How did not... You just let this guy keep going? I know it was a bloody mess.
There was a lot of blood. It was something I've never done in my whole entire life before then he says quote i think a decade behind bars ought to be sufficient i think 10 years should do it right that'll be i'll learn my lesson right there you you say no no no put him...
What the fuck? I think 10 years behind bars ought to be sufficient. That should do.
The flu couldn't kill me this week. That almost did.
This will do it. I think a decade behind bars ought to be sufficient.
What the fuck are you talking about? Right? I mean, less if you think. But, you know, I'm going to say 10 years just to be magnanimous.
But you can say less if you want, and I'll take it. But, you know, 10 years ought to make.
I'm willing to do 10 on it. I'll learn my lesson, I think, in 10 years.
Okay. The judge has a lot to say about this, by the way.
Oh, I can't wait. He has a lot to say before sentencing.
The judge says, and I quote, I am very concerned. I have to be concerned about the fact that there does not seem to be any kind of outpatient setting that can handle your state of mental illness.
If you are involuntarily committed, you are in custody, obviously, during those commitments. You tend to clear somewhat.
You are released. And then as this number one, I read you, I read you states shortly after discharge, you become noncompliant with your outpatient mental health treatment, suffering a decompensation of your illness.
I'm also concerned about your history of aggression and violence when you're noncompliant. And the reason is because the pattern is you become noncompliant.
Then when you become noncompliant, you're aggressive and violent, which obviously creates a great risk to others. And in this particular case, created the greatest risk of all.
Three, I don't find or it doesn't appear to me that your circumstances are going to change relative to this factor. No.
That you are homeless and lacking any support system doesn't help. You're a 43-year-old man and this has been your situation for quite some time.
You're not getting better. Where the fuck is your family? That's the other thing.
We have no idea. He said also chronic alcohol abuse.
He said, and I don't think this is ever going to go away. And from your statement to the court, it just does not appear that that's something you are ever going to successfully manage on your own.
So then he says like he's willing. Yeah.
He said protection of society is the most important goal of Mr. Cope.
I have to tell you, I view you as a very dangerous individual. No shit.
The most dangerous. And the reason I do is because of the four factors that I talked to you about and that are contained in the mental health evaluations.
Because of those four factors, you are dangerous to others. I think there's a high likelihood you'll commit another crime if you're released.
I think so, too. And everyone has indicated those criminal offenses have been escalating in nature.
And some of them may be characterized as kind of nuisance type offenses. But obviously, you are capable of much more than nuisance type offenses.
Yeah, taking someone's head off is more than a nuisance. Yeah, I wouldn't call that nuisance behavior.
Wow. Your conduct caused and threatened serious harm, and there was no justification, absolutely none, for what you did.
We can only describe it as being a particularly chilling and brutal manner in which you took the life of Brian Elliott. He said, in this particular case, your mental illness has been described as incurable.
You're fucked. Yeah, yeah.
It can be treated such as that you can be functional, it appears, in a custodial setting, but the pattern has been anything less than that. You've not been able to successfully function in society, and you've not been safe for others of us who live in society.
I frankly can't conceive of feeling comfortable ever with you residing in the neighborhoods of any of our communities.

And if if I can't do that, if I can't conclude that in probability you could be rehabilitated and could function in society if there is a chance for that.

But frankly, with the evidence before the court, your history of mental health treatment and your history of mental illness, your prior criminal conduct and this particular offense, I can't conclude probably that you would ever become positioned to be safe in society. We have years.
I give you 12 dozen years. We've talked about whether or not you might be able to circulate in the general population in a prison setting.
They're i wouldn't even put you in gen pop never mind society i love how you said 10 years in jail when i can't even see you around murderers and rapists i can't even put you with other rapists and murderers you understand i fear for rapist safety with you around you need rehabilitation to be stepped down into population where these people are spending the rest of their natural fucking lives.

Into normal murderer status.

Holy shit.

That's awesome.

Wow.

And that, frankly, is for prison officials and treatment providers to make that determination. And I think they obviously are going to consider that based on the testimony I have heard this morning.
You, sir, may fuck off life without parole. There it is.
Ten years, he said. I think a decade will do.
I think a decade behind bars ought to do the trick, he said. I think maximum probably Baker's dozen, 13 pushing it.
That's it. We're good there, probably.
I mean, if you could put me in for in for 15 I'll be out in 10 I could probably do that. I wish that judge would have laughed when he said a decade.
Out of your fucking mind. Cut him off right there.
So he appeals this even though he's not allowed to appeal this somehow. So laws mean nothing in Idaho.
Crazy doesn't exist. You can put fucking psychiatric evaluations into court when the law clearly states you can't.
You can sign an agreement saying no appeals and then appeal. There's no law in Idaho.
It doesn't matter. Fucking whatever.
He said that he shouldn't have allowed a mental competency report to be included in a pre-sentencing report. Same thing he was arguing that the judge didn't let him do.
He said it violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He said that shit I said to him that you weren't supposed to use for this, which is true.
That's true. He said the district court erred in admitting this here.
He contends the admission for sentencing purposes of this report disclosed statements made by Cope during the court ordered evaluation and infringed. So, the state argues that COPE has no right to an appellate review of these issues because his plea agreement it was a way had a waiver of that so it doesn't matter if he's right or wrong they assert that with his uh exception of his claim of an excessive sentence the issues he asserts on appeal have been waived so he said this none of this matters.
So he also maintains that his waiver is invalid, though, because neither the court nor either party mentioned it during the change of plea hearing. And at one point, the district court advised Cope that he had the right to appeal because they said that to him.
The judge said that to him. So that, I guess, supersedes the agreement? I don't know.
They said both the prosecutor

and defendant are bound by the terms of the agreement

and are correspondingly entitled to receive

the benefits for which they bargain.

Consequently, a defendant will not ordinarily be

allowed to retain the benefits of a plea agreement

while at the same time disclaiming its

provisions that benefit the state.

They said so. It's clear

Idaho law permits the waiver of a rights

appeal as a term of plea bargaining. Anyway, all this shit.
They go, get the fuck out of here. There you go.
You got what you got, man. We're not redoing any of this.
What you did and you pled to. That's it.
I don't give a fuck about any of the plea. And they said he poses a grave danger to others if he should ever be released from prison.
In light of the primary goal of sentencing the protection of society, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in imposing a fixed life sentence. I would, too, because you're fucking nuts and you're violent.
So that's that. Fuck.
He appeals again in 2006, and he is told, This was a gruesome and horrifying crime that warrants the sentence imposed by the district court when all the appropriate information and factors are considered. It would be difficult to rationalize any other sentence.
You're fucking nuts. When asked if you have anything to say, you led with there was a lot of blood.
There was a lot of blood. Let me tell you something.
I get that. He was trying to be like, I get that what I did was bad look i get it was gross but 10 years august 31st 2019 here 3 40 a.m at the idaho maximum security institution in cuna officials find cope hanging in a cell is that right absolutely which is not surprising if he's got mental health problems and all that.
Yep. They said that he's 59 years old.
They said the time of death they have him dying probably just before 9 p.m. But didn't find him until 340 a.m.
Six hours. Oh, my God.
Almost seven hours in that cell here. Jeez.
So that's what happened then. Here are some comments from the facebook post announcing this

announcing his death about announcing his death yes like the news the local idaho news facebook what do these crazy fucks have to say okay this this this is how shit deteriorates okay one says as a family member to brian all i can say is good with four exclamation points my heart is filled with joy knowing this man no longer breathes air.

Okay.

Then. Family member to Brian, all I can say is good with four exclamation points.
My heart is filled with joy knowing this man no longer breathes air. Okay.
Well, there's some dancing in the blood. Yeah.
Then Idaho Cold Cases, who posted this, said, no kidding, were they strangers? Did you not read? You could have read the court documents. I did it.
Then they respond. In a way, he was a renter above the shoe store my cousin worked at the owner of the shoe store also owned the apartments up above cope made a maintenance call and brian responded which that i didn't never heard that in anything they said wow thank you for the info i'm sorry for your family then someone else comments on this thread and says to the original person who said that's my cousin quote the owner is a piece of garbage see what i mean this has nothing to do with anything john pollucci is just not a good human oh my god this has nothing to do with this not that this is relevant to what happened but maybe if he wasn't such a piece of crap landlord then or now so apparently So apparently they're blaming John Pellucci for this.
John was going to kick him out in three days, so he sawed somebody else's head off, and it's John's fault. Unbelievable.
Someone else says, I knew Benadryl can cause drowsiness, but I didn't know it could cause hearing things. That's scary if indeed what he claims is true.
And then someone comments on their thing. If it is, then the family and the victims needs to sue Benadryl.
It's not true, you idiots. Then someone else says, depending on the circumstances, I know that a lot of cold and allergy medicine have interactions with different prescription medication, hallucinations being a common side effect.
And someone else says, that is true. I didn't think about the possibility that he was using other prescription medications.
Then someone says, I couldn't agree more. And someone says, Sue Benadryl.
Someone says, well, of course, the person in the McDonald's hot coffee suit made bank. That's the Internet.
It just deteriorates to nothing. And you know what? We can't have a society.
Her pussy was burned off. What are you talking about? Yeah.
Well, then a lot of people from the comments go stop using that as an example we know now that that was a fucking horrific thing and blah blah blah but that's the internet unbelievable in within 10 comments it will deteriorate away from all this we can't have a society we can't it's impossible we'll never have one again. Anyway, there you go, everybody.

That's Lewiston, Idaho, and some crazy fucking shit.

Wow.

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