Whatever has been going on behind the scenes in the trial of David Jungerman seems to have been resolved, at least for now. I got word this morning that the trial will resume Wednesday morning, and that’s good news.
The trial was suspended last Friday, before the defense began its case, because of what Judge John Torrence described as a “Covid exposure.”
It was very cryptic, however, because the media was not given an explanation of who was exposed — whether it might have been a juror, the defendant or one of many attorneys and support staff involved in the case at the downtown courthouse.
The mystery deepened today, when the spokesman for the Jackson County prosecutor’s office said Jungerman was “competent to continue” and that the jury would return tomorrow.
By text, I asked if that meant it was Jungerman who had been exposed (he’s already had Covid while in custody), and the answer came back that Jungerman’s “neurological health” was the subject of a courtroom hearing this morning.
That was odd, but it didn’t particularly surprise me because, as I reported last week, he looks like a shell of the relatively energetic person he was just a couple of years ago, when I would see him in court for hearings leading up to the trial.
He shuffles slowly and unsteadily, where he used to walk normally. He wears a hearing-assist device on his right ear during the trial, and he often has a vacant look in his eyes.
People have asked me, and I’ve wondered myself, if it’s part of an act to make the jury wonder how an 84-year-old, apparently enfeebled man could even pick up a rifle and fire it, but it seems to me it would be difficult to pull off an act like that without giving it away. (He is charged with shooting lawyer Thomas Pickert in the head the morning of Oct. 25, 2017 with a .17 caliber rifle.)
We may never find out the truth — whether the change is an act or what we see is what it is — unless he’s found innocent and starts jumping up and down.
The important thing now, though, is to get the jury back in the courtroom, hear that they are all healthy and have not read or listened to anything about the case, and get jury deliberations underway.
I don’t want this case to extend over another weekend. The longer it takes to get the case to the jury, the more likely it is that something can go wrong.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Justice delayed, justice denied. This trial is already a joke.
It may well be the case that Jungerman isn’t long for this world, in which case he’ll be dealing with another Judge soon enough.
Fox4 covered today’s proceedings quite extensively, including discussion between attorneys and Jungerman’s doctor regarding his mental state. And apparently they had to shake him awake a couple of times during the session.