Accused Murderer Josie Dikeman Testifies

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]My mentor taught me when I was a young prosecutor that the number one way that a jury will convict a person is by their own testimony. They'll they'll sometimes disregard everything else in the case.

[00:00:15]So the moral of the story was as a prosecutor try to be as prepared as you can for the cross-examination. Now, keep in mind, Cody, many times prosecutor, you're in a little bit of an information deficit because a defendant has a right to remain silent and you can't compel them to speak during the course of the litigation. So many times when I had a defendant on the stand while I was like a tiger in a cage waiting to get at them, I had to listen very carefully because I was hearing the story for the first time. So, I'm judging credibility right now as a prosecutor. I'm gauging like I don't want to beat her up too much unless she goes there. I don't want to go there, but I also want to be able to take, if she's really good, all the facts of the case that are good for me as a prosecutor, and I want to hit her with those facts. But I got to be careful that I don't rehabilitate her in a way where she sounds believable. I will say last point, this defense lawyer and her clearly have a well rehearsed and worked out, and I don't mean that in a negative way. Uh I we see a lot of sloppy lawyering where the it's clear the lawyer didn't know the answer to the questions. That is not the case here.

[00:01:20]This is well prepared. But let's wait for Cross.

[00:01:23]>> We got to wait for Cross because we know that's where all the drama comes in in every single trial that we cover. Bob, I do want to bring this up because you mentioned credibility. And you know, to me, at this stage in this trial, this has become a credibility war. It's just come down to credibility. Whether it's not well, not only Josie Dykeman versus Derek Pedran, it's also now Josie Dykeman versus the testimony of these multiple children inside that courtroom that testified that she was abusing them. She was the only one they saw abusing uh children in that house, which you know, of course, there could be some credibility issues there with this ch with these uh kids testimony. And you know, I generally feel like a jury believes children. But a good point as I was talking to the producers, Bob, I hadn't realized that Derek Pedran was actually sitting in the gallery through all of this testimony. Meaning, if he's that bad of an abuser, if he's that horrendous, which I feel like we've firmly established, if those kids are looking right at him and he's looking right back at them, that could compel them to lie under oath. I mean, we're dealing with kids under 10 years old here. Yeah, I agree completely. And and that was a mistake to have that environment in there. First of all, it's not good for the kids in my opinion.

[00:02:30]It's not good for the case as a prosecutor because there could be manipulation. I may be the only person and I I'll go out on a limb here that found that the testimony was haunting like not haunting like halting is the word I want to use. It seemed uh manufactured. It seemed as if they were being very careful with what it was they were saying. And we all know from the Margaret Kelly Michael's case at Michael's hearings that child witnesses can be easily manipulated both in their recollection as well as in their motivations and how they testify. So, that's a really big thing. I I can't You brought that up, but I got to say the last time I was with you, Cody, I wrote whatever was going on at the time, a circle here on my notes that said blaming kids for roughousing. I wrote that last week and then today we open up with another story about roughousing with these kids maybe as an explanation as to why some of these injuries are there.

[00:03:26]>> Absolutely, Bob. Is it's it's it's blooming. We're going have to see how it goes. And like you said, we got to wait for that cross where all that drama comes in. Stand by, my friend.