Jurors In Sean Taylor Murder Trial Hear Letter From Alleged Killer
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - During day three in the murder trial against Eric Rivera, the man accused of killing famed football player Sean Taylor, jurors got to hear the contents of a letter written by Rivera in which he asks his cousin to tell a witness to lie to police.
"Ariel's statement is the only one that's going to hurt the worst cause she's saying she's seen all of us together that night. So all I need you and CJ to do, is to get Ariel to say the story I want her to say," the letter read.
Rivera, 23, wrote the letter while in jail.
The end of the letter reads, "read this a couple of times, then burn this letter." Clearly, that did not happen.
Boston is the state witness who testified Tuesday that Rivera and the other suspects went to her home after the alleged murder of Taylor in a home-invasion robbery of his Palmetto Bay home in November 2007.
Boston testified that they did not talk about the murder and instead laughed and joked as usual.
Rivera, if convicted, is facing life in prison.
Wednesday afternoon, the judge ruled not to allow media to photograph any of the state's exhibits until the trial is over. CBS4, along with news partner's the Miami Herald, and the Associated Press, had sought access to those exhibits.
"I'm going to rule in two parts. The first part is you don't get anything until the trial is over, OK. I have exhibits that have gone through the process of protection with regard to chain of custody and presentation to this jury that I don't want any chance of them having been disrupted, co-mingled misidentified or anything else in this process because somebody wants to film it to sell more Christmas toys," said Judge Dennis Murphy.
