James Waczewski, also known on YouTube as Mentour Lawyer, had a channel that was a hub for people interested in the Frasch case where he enjoyed summing up his version of the whole case for viewers new to the drama. And yet, it was this self-proclaimed expert that, for me, revealed the greatest weaknesses of the case—that there was no actual solid evidence against Doc.
Mentour Lawyer had his narrative of the story which drew on Cappleman’s closing arguments and a theory that the Frasch family had borrowed some pages from the OJ case by planting the golf club that HADN’T killed Samira as some kind of a double bluff to demonstrate that the police were corrupt.
Waczewski continued his crusade on behalf of his client, Samira’s mother, to get Hyrah and Skynnah and the million-dollar life insurance settlement to Madagascar. The comments below his online interview with Samira’s mother in Madagascar were things like, “Bless u mentour for helping this family! Good luck to all!”
I asked one of the people who posted a comment below, “Samira worked hard to get from Madagascar to France. And she was enjoying the American lifestyle. Why do people want to send her children back there?”
To Mentour Lawyer, I asked, “I know Samira made A LOT of effort to try to bring her son to America. But did she ever make any effort to bring her mother, Razafisoa, to Florida? Why was Samira's mother never even invited to come stay with them for a visit?”
In the comments of another one of his videos I asked, “If the insurance company paid out (after doing their own investigation) and concluded he was innocent, doesn't that suggest that the criminal trial verdict was the wrong one?”
For that one, I got a reply.
Mentour Lawyer wrote, “They did not pay out because they thought he was innocent- Adam Frasch, through lawyers, convinced the lawyers who were supposed to protect the child who was the alternate beneficiary to give him the money and release the life insurance company.”
If true, that would have made it a highly unusual insurance company and Adam Frasch a highly unusually persuasive man. I could not attest to either of these possibilities actually being true, but after chatting a bit more about the insurance company and the payout to Adam Frasch, rather than to the secondary beneficiary, Hyrah, I wrote, “I've watched everything you've posted about this case. Thanks! I found the 2 Christiansen interviews convincing, though, based on what I saw and based on watching the trial. So from where I'm sitting, he didn't do it because he was in Panama City Beach at that point, a hundred miles away (bank security footage - 10:32am, same time as Christiansen passed by the house) and you're going after an innocent man. The 911 call came 28 minutes later. There was no way he could do it. Christiansen didn't get the days mixed up like Newlin said. It was only two days later that Christiansen and Lauren came in with their report that they saw Samira on the driveway!!”
Waczewski said, “mistakes like that happen all the time - But you are entitled to your opinion.”
I persisted with, “My impression is that the Frasch marriage has been put on trial rather than the murder. The hard facts (an alibi provided by Christiansen and the lack of pruning) should have provided reasonable doubt. The golf club was a red herring. The medical examiner said it wasn't a golf club that caused her injuries and yet, Folsom was put on the stand. This concerns me.”
Waczewski said he had reviewed all the evidence, including a ton that never made it to trial, there was zero doubt in his mind that he was guilty. Well, I had reviewed a ton of evidence that never made it to trial, too, and I had come to the opposite conclusion. Part of that evidence included interviews with neighbours. Did the Frasches fight? Yes, Samira had once thrown pool balls at her husband. Had Adam retaliated? He had overthrown the pool table, according to the neighbour. But nobody could ever cite a time where he had gotten violent with Samira or any other woman, including the women he had dated.
I said to Waczewski that I understood that with his current client, Samira’s mother, his whole case rested on Adam being guilty. I thanked him and told him that he knew more about the case than most do and I appreciated what he shared with me. He courteously replied that it was a pleasure to engage in a debate with someone who seems to be spending time on the case. What is your interest in it? Know any of the parties?
Well, yes and no. Adam Frasch and I had never met in person and yet, thanks to our letters, I certainly felt like I knew one of the parties.
But for me, the greater concern was the story, this narrative that had formed that a beautiful, talented woman living a fairytale life with two daughters who were her princesses was killed by the big bad wolf that was her husband. The true story was just way more dramatic. A beautiful, talented, and at times, troubled, woman had come to America and built a dream life. Her trust in her handyman and willingness to do anything to get back what he had stolen from her had resulted in her death. It might not be the classic fairytale, but in a way, it was in the most profound sense, an American story.
So what was my interest in this case? I didn’t know how to answer Waczewski at first. After all, I’m not even American. What was it about this case that had caused me to look into it and to even go so far as to write a book about it?
Some of us live our lives like a quest with the goal of finding the truth, but in the end, maybe the greatest thing we learn is that you don’t find the truth, it finds you. Isn’t that the case with all great stories, whether it’s one set in ancient times or Middle Earth or in our own time?
So I answered him honestly, “I didn’t find this case, it found me.”
As of 2022, Adam Frasch continues to fight from within prison to prove that his wife was killed by the handyman when she confronted him about her stolen valuables. All the hard evidence says that Doc was two and a half hours away, at their beach house, when it happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment