Keith Morrison

I asked Blake about that.

If you were to take the popular conception of what it does to a case to move it to L.A.

and give it to an L.A.

jury, then most of the country would say, oh, you poor sap.

You're stuck with an L.A.

jury.

I've had as much success in Los Angeles as I have up here.

So you weren't worried about that?

No.

No.

We're going to an experienced judge on the ninth floor, which is where the most experienced long cause judges are in the central district of Los Angeles.

Michael Blake seemed to take a certain presence with him to the courtroom.

Intelligent, tough, lantern jaw, youthful vigor.

Blake told the nine men and three women of the jury, and then later us, that Raymond Jennings assaulted Michelle O'Keefe for his own ugly reasons and escalated his attack when she resisted.

He knows she's still alive.

That makes those remaining three shots to her face an execution.

At first degree.

Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

In fact, said Blake, Jennings in a way convicted himself when he talked so freely to investigators, even to civil attorney Rex Paris without a lawyer.