It wasn’t to be though.

Maybe one day, for you, something you are sure will be in your future, will seem improbable in the end. Maybe even impossible.

I am no idiot, and no sucker, and no, I didn’t “fall” for anything. The reasons I was being threatened by him later on had to do with NOT putting up with bullshit, and ESPECIALLY because of having tried to be a friend and positive force in his life… to be of service as a human being… and then getting dissed hard. So I told him off and he didn’t like it. I paid the price for that and kept going public about the threats and he got even worse.

So… my point is, I shared what I shared NOT to impart details for you to latch onto and argue about (it isn’t up for discussion or argument actually), but to share my true struggle with it. Sorry if you being a super human means you cannot relate to use “regular folks”.

Wanker.

Shock.. I think ‘they’ would have connected as a couple eventually being in the same bb/fitness scene. It is also true …you can’t sway someone “blinded” as D* put it. In a twisted way, they probably did bring each other some much needed, albeit, ’sordid’ happiness. Sounds like Kelly was the best thing Craig ever had in his life… another possible reason for not ‘rolling’ on her after all of his crizzap she endured. Their actions in the end were their own. I’m sure there are lots of people thinking the same way you are that knew Kelly ‘back when’
Hope you don’t continue to beat yourself on this.
Thanks for sharing.

I know that she is a big girl.. I guess I just pride myself on being a good friend to the handful of people I call friends. I just wish that there was something I could have done. Powerlessness isn’t an easy feeling. We all experience it, so I’m not alone, but I have to say, I just wish that I had fought harder and known in my heart, “Yeah, I did all I could do.”

Thanks for being voices of reason, and not ribbing the crap out of me for saying all of that.

Cheers mates!

d* is right. I believe that a whole chain of little occurances happening in succession triggered this tradgedy. We all know no one can guide someone blinded by love or temporary infatuation, whatever you wish to call it.

Dont beat yourself up…you did what you thought was right at the time…looking back it is easy to second guess yourself and wish you had done more…

Sure, its a no win situation, but you do need to remember that Kelly made the decision to get involved with Craig.

I have had similar relationships, some ongoing as we speak, and yes, when you care about someone, it is tough to watch them self destruct and make decisions that put them in precarious and unfavorable situations…

You did what you could. Regardless of the outcome of the trial, I am sure you will still have a personal concern for Kelly. She will no doubt need your friendship after this is all over.

d*

It’s been a difficult year mulling over all of this, and losing a lot of sleep.

I’m sure my loss of sleep is nothing in comparison to the sleep both of these two have lost - guilty or innocent.

She got “slicker” in terms of her “game” and dress, and such. Though some could say it was classless, but she got a lot more “big city” in her dress and demeanor, and attitude, for sure. She changed from a sweet girl next door to this manufactured vixen Craig wanted her to be. Only, she didn’t realize that who she was before was way more appealing. She was truly the Dorothy who thought she had to leave home to find what she was seeking.. and she never did have to.

I need to say this though… not only because I’ve had a few glasses of wine with dinner, but also because it’s been eating at me terribly…

I was friendly - not exactly friends and not exactly close - but friendly, with Craig back in the late 90’s. My ex and I used to visit Craig during his time at Lompoc. We would go and try to lighten his day and be his friend when everyone else had forgotten him, so that he would, hopefully, turn around and see that good people could be his friends and that he didn’t have to take this path. I feel we gave him a lot of ourselves. This was before I became good friends with Kel.

In the meantime, I became good friends with Kelly and we used to go out in Santa Monica and Hollywood and have some good fun. She was a blast and I enjoyed her energy and humor and laughter. She was a good girl.

When Craig got out, I arranged to have a limo and a few of his buddies, friends, acquaintances, a photog in the sport and some of my friends along. We all went to Key Club and partied to celebrate Craig making a new start. Of course as my compadre,, Kel came along. It was that night that Kel had this thing for Craig that you could see growing by the second… She just had it for him..

He said he had it for her, but I knew Craig like a brother, and knew that he was a cad and a dog and all of that - and funny and entertaining and (in better days) fun to be around - a bad boy but in an innocuous way… just bedding fitness chicks, not being a druggie and murderer. I thought it was that. I think in the beginning it was, but then Kelly kind of gave him the benefit of the doubt as a person that no woman had before. I think it truly disarmed him emotionally - it wasn’t waht he expected from any woman. She also gave him a present - some trainers for the gym - and I remember him saying, “No girl has ever given me a gift like this - not even some girlfriends.”

So, what’s all this leading to?

Long story short, I guess I have felt the burden of SO MUCH GUILT for being at the root of their attraction and getting together. It may not make sense to anyone, but I loved Kel like a sister and though I had a lot of genuine affection/ comeraderie with Craig, I really was like “uh-oh”… when Kel said she wanted Craig in a big and serious way. I said, “Honey, I just hope it’s for a one night stand or a one month stand or something.. don’t get too attached.. it’s like the scorpion and the frog, etc..”

Well, it just ignited in front of my eyes, and it was just out of control.. and then he even started isolating her from me as a friend. And that whole cycle began. He reasoned it was because of soemthing I wrote about them (but it was something that Craig had said and then denied later on, to create friction between us as friends - odd, I know, but this is the truth) and that they wanted to be sequestered from all of the negative talk. But folks this wasn’t just negative talk, this was a landslide of opposition. I know it made her, him, them mad to hear it, but these were people saying, “look, I mean, we all find Craig amusing, but you’re NOT of this ilk. You’re better than this and he’ll only drag you down to his depths…. don’t do it.”

But he made her promise him that she would blow the whistle on anyone talking shit about him, and the false, manufactured allegiance began. This was the first stage of his control over her. And she needed to be controlled. It was her Achilles Heel. I knew this as her friend. I knew she was a goner.

Anyhow, I guess though I already made him, her and them mad for speaking my mind about all of it, I wish I’d spoken it stronger. I wish I had said, “Kel, I’m going to do whatever it takes to see to it that you DON’T get together and you fail together..” I wish I’d said that. She would have hated me for years, but we ended up in a massive feud anyhow, so what’s the difference? I ought to have gone for broke. I bet in her heart, today, she wished that I had done that - cared enough to do that. I did care very much, but I was also being threatened by Craig and his goons too. Death threats, threats of bodily harm…. all in emails I couldn’t pin down and couldn’t go to anyone with.

I remember him trying to bury the hatchet at one point and inviting me out to Century Club to party - I got this weird feeling that he would drug my drink (sounded paranoid to people then, but probably not now) and that he would harm me. This was NOT an average or normal feeling that anyone would LOGICALLY feel… but just instinct. I declined as a result of that feeling and I’m glad I did. But we all didn’t talk for 5 years. I then interviewed Kel and it was nice to reconnect, but we never spoke after that. .. Six to seven months later, they were arrested for Melissa’s murder.

It crushes me to this day and it killed me for MONTHS this past year- all of this regret and history and connection to these two. I can’t tell you how utterly sad and disturbed I’ve been.

I know this is a lot and people are going to say “Meltdown” etc, etc. etc.
But this is real for me and this has been what’s so hard about this. At moments like this, I am really sad and tortured.

It does appear that CT is the root of her demise..

Not that that excuses her participation in these crimes…

If CT is not in her life, very likely she would have continued to excel at her craft…and not be facing life at the graybar hotel…

But, like you said, if you play with fire…(bad joke, and not intended….it just popped out…)

d*

Anyway, back to the issue…
I agree with Venice because it’s true… his daughter is an adult. She made her own bed with this guy, against EVERYONE’S urging and married him. I know he doesn’t want to see her go down, but he also probably doesn’t want to see that monetary support WATERED down between them. I can understand that - though stubborn - it’s probably a source of great soreness and grief. Also, remember, he was still close to Kelly’s mom, though divorced, and saw her DIE over this - from the stress of it.

He is probably disgusted with his own daughter, too. I’m sure he loves her, but he’s probably like, “What in GOD’S NAME have you done with the privileged life I gave you!!??” She basically grew up with all advantages, was doing well in her life, and then pissed it away by SLUMMING with Titus.

Lie down in the gutter and you’re likely to catch a fatal disease.
I think that disease, in this case, is called “possible life in prison” -
And just think, if she had never married Craig, she could possibly be on next season’s Housewives of Orange County, in Coto, flitting around in tennis skirts and attending garden parties.

Father knows best in this instance - for sure.

The guy is in his golden years and now he suppose to go broke and live out his life in squalor for an outcome that prob won’t be affected by throwing more money at it…there are 2 sides to that coin - it doesn’t mean he doesn’t lov his daughter

HA! Good one…!!

I have no doubt that CT, one can short of a 6 pack nonwithstanding, fully understands the proceedings against him and is able to assist in his defense…Of course, his “assistance” so far has been questionable, but the law doesnt make that distinction as to quality…

Even if he was unable to participate or understand what was happening, they would simply delay the trial while he was sent to a mental institution until he “recovered”…

Hey, maybe that is a tactic they will use to delay further!

Nah, probably not. .CT is no where near insane…

d*

Delays are nothing new, and I’d guess Titus/Ryan will have a few more…

d*

Well, it looks good on paper, but I think you know as well as I do that the chances of a defense attorney (or some clients as well) keeping quiet and letting the proceeding move forward unheeded is slim and none, and slim just left town…
I dont blame the defense attorneys so much…that is what they are supposed to do, and if I was in a bad spot legally I would want the toughest SOB I could find on my side.
Having said that, there comes a time when CT’s big mouth starts working against him, and his lawyer cant do a thing about it…

d*

Perhaps if CT could keep his big mouth shut and his attorney and the judicial process proceed he won’t owe as much.

Not likely…

d*

It is very simple. Private lawyers need money to stay in business. Its a business. If CT is out of money, he cant pay Saggese. Saggese wont work for free. CT is not worth it.

My take is that Saggese knew that $$ was going to get thin from the get go. If CT does have the money, yet Saggese is trying to get it from the county, well, that’s unethical, and maybe even fraud.

I doubt Saggese would risk that. I do think it is not out of the question that Saggese might withdraw sometime soon.

That’s what happens when you get sucked into the system. It often spirals out of one’s control. I dont know what the local rules are for an attorney withdrawing at this stage, but I think if Sagesse wants out, he can get out without too much problem.

d*