Emotional, disturbing, fantastic: Lincoln attorney analyzes Boswell trial

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – As the first full week of the Bailey Boswell trial comes to a close, all eyes are on the defendant.

Boswell, who is charged with the murder and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe, could face the death penalty if she’s found guilty.

With the stakes so high, both the prosecution and the defense are looking for every possible edge.

Justin Kalemkiarian, an attorney with Berry Law Firm, says both sides deploy a wide range of tactics to sway the jury their way.

He says the way a defendant appears to jurors, including their physical appearance, can play a role in the outcome of a trial.

“Even if they’re not guilty of the crime they’re charged with, the jury could be swayed by something like that,” he said. “You don’t want to have a drug case where your client wears their favorite legalize marijuana shirt.”

Fresh haircuts and shaves, sharp suits and ties are all things Kalemkiarian recommends to his clients.

As for Boswell, he says he’s not surprised by the softer, more conservative look she’s donned for the trial, having ditched the braided hair and orange jump suit she’s sported in previous hearings where she appeared only in front of a judge.

“A lot of these jurors might envision TV shows and movies about criminals and that’s what they’re expecting, and if that’s what the client looks like then you’re starting off on a bad foot,” he said. “You want the jury to see somebody they might recognize on the street… somebody they know at church, or their own kids – that gets you off on the right foot.”

Kalemkiarian says just as important as a client’s hair and clothes is their demeanor in the courtroom. He tells his clients to react a little as possible to what’s going on around them.

“You don’t want your client scoffing, rolling their eyes, laughing or doing something else to distract the jury,” he said. “Jurors are watching that stuff.”

While he doesn’t provide a lot of coaching to clients, Kalemkiarian says it’s something that needs to be discussed in any case.

He once had a client fall asleep during his questioning of potential jurors.

“I didn’t know that because I’m at the podium and, you know, that reflects poorly upon me that I’m not even keeping my own client awake,” he said. “So those are things that we talk about.”

Kalemkiarian says he’s not sure whether Boswell was being sincere or acting when she cried earlier this week as prosecutors displayed gruesome images of Loofe’s remains.

“The tears from Ms. Boswell, I mean, they might be genuine. She might had time – she’s away from (Aubrey) Trail – she now understands the enormity of her situation,” he said. “They are very possibly tears of genuine remorse and disgust at her actions – if she is, in fact, guilty. Could be also – they were master manipulators – it could be something that she’s doing just to try to sway the jury.”

Jury selection in the case took two days, with both sides working to tailor the panel to their preferences. While Kalemkiarian wasn’t involved in the process, he says the defense generally is looking for jurors with open minds who are willing to think critically.

“Especially with a case like this,” he said. “It’s very emotional. There are some disturbing images. There are some fantastic details about what these two and their followers were doing. And so you want to go through there and make sure the jurors can try to set aside those passions and rule based on the evidence that’s presented, not just upon inflammatory rhetoric or shocking details.”

Kalemkiarian says, while unlikely, it’s possible in a case like this for prosecutors to go overboard with graphic evidence and testimony.

“I’m not sure it would backfire enough to have a jury say, ‘not guilty,'” he said. “But at some point the state could go too far and the jury could feel… like their emotions are being played to and not their intellect or their decision making.”

Boswell’s attorney, Todd Lancaster, asked potential jurors how his client’s decision whether or not to testify would influence their opinion of her.

Kalemkiarian says that decision is always one of the biggest and riskiest in a trial.

“If you think that the case is good enough to win without putting your client on the stand, you might not. The risk might be too great,” he said. “In other cases, there might not be a good chance unless you put your client on the stand – because, in a lot of cases, your client might be the only person that knows the truth.”

While anyone charged with a crime has a legal right to defend themselves, Kalemkiarian says attorneys are trained to pry specific information out of people and to quickly exploit any mistakes.

It’s something he says could be a possible pitfall for Boswell.

“She did those videos, you know, where she says, ‘I didn’t know anything about it, I went on my date,'” he said. “So if she gets on the stand and says something that’s contradicted in one of those videos, she’s going to get called on it – and that’s not going to look very good at all.”

While he’s not a part of the defense team, Kalemkiarian has kept up with the case enough to speculate how it might go.

“My guess is they will probably try to push it all onto Aubrey Trail and, you know, say he was the one controlling everything,” he said. “But again, I don’t know.”

Boswell’s trial is scheduled to resume Monday morning in Lexington.