Mohammed Javed's Defense: Why he may be INNOCENT

Mohammed Javed is charged with the murder of his wife, Susan Vickers. The police immediately focused on him, and as I told the jury, "since he was the husband, he must have done it." The police, of course, claim that it was because he was the last person to see her alive, and that he made the report of her missing, that he became the focus of their investigation. In fact, there were two sightings of a woman fitting the description in the days after the report was made, and another man also made a report of her missing, as she was supposed to be getting together with him around the time of her disappearance. The police found out that this man was planning on coming down to Fort Myers, but did not research his whereabouts until well after the arrest of Mr. Javed. They also failed to follow up with the leads regarding her sightings, and despite the fact that Mr. Javed provided three pictures of her to assist in the investigation, did not bother to show them to the people who reported seeing her. The missing persons investigator had over one hundred cases pending, and so many leads and potential suspects in this case that she was "overwhelmed." One of those suspects was stalking Ms. Vickers, but the police failed to interview him until well after the arrest of Mr. Javed. The stalker still could not account for his whereabouts, but we do know that he had threatened to kill her on a previous occasion. The state is attempting to downplay the significance of these failings by focusing on the behavior of Mr. Javed, and calling it circumstantial evidence of guilt. Mr. Javed had told people he thought Ms. Vickers may have travelled to Canada, and it was certainly a reasonable place for him to look for the love of his life, as her parents lived there, as did some of her friends. The state did not introduce the return ticket from Canada back to the United States, as it would undermine their theory that he was fleeing the country because he had committed the murder. The defense had to point that out, and introduce the evidence. Given Ms. Vicker's lifestyle, and the huge number of men she had had contact with, both on-line and in person, there were many people with a motive for murder. Thomas Carrol Parker, who claims he helped Mr. Javed dispose of the body, was threatened and pressured by the police to such an extent that any statements he made to the police are unreliable. Moreover, Mr. Parker was living in the house after Susan Vicker's disappearance, and had motive to kill Ms. Vickers from before her disappearance to the moment the police searched the home and found what they claim is her blood. He had access to the computer which, at some point before a body was found, did a search for the location where it was ultimately discovered. The notion that Mr Javed, a highly intelligent man with great knowledge of computers, would leave her blood laying around and a computer "footprint" of where he dumped the body, and then voluntarily surrender that same computer to the police without a warrant, defies credulity. The blood, found in the car Mr. Javed drove, was not visible as blood to an untrained observer, and Mr. Parker and Mr. Javed's father, who is a conservative Muslim who intensely disliked Ms. Vickers, both had access to the vehicle. In sum, none of the evidence against Mohammed Javed proves that he committed the crime, and he has steadfastly maintained his innocence from the very beginning. He therefore may not only be not guilty of this homicide, but may, in fact, be innocent.