Seize the Vatican Bassist’s Murder Reportedly Streamed on Facebook
I can’t decide if this speaks to the pros or cons of social media.
This past November, Jason Moody, the 40-year-old bassist for a Maine-area band called Seize the Vatican, was brutally beaten to death in the city of Bangor. Even more terrifying, Moody’s murder occurred in out in the street — police found him unconscious at a public intersection.
Days after Moody’s death, police arrested 29-year-old Donald Galleck and charged him with both depraved indifference murder and intentional or knowing murder. According to authorities, Galleck was visiting Moody at his apartment when he got into an a phone argument with his girlfriend. Moody asked him to leave the apartment and, for reasons on which I’m not clear [Update, 4:43 pm — Moody was apparently accompanying Galleck to another apartment, where Galleck hoped to spend the night; unfortunately, no one was home.], followed him outside, where the conflict between the two men turned physical. Earlier this week, Galleck plead not guilty.
Now, this would be an upsetting story regardless… but here’s the truly insane part: Galleck may have accidentally live-streamed the entire thing on Facebook… and that video will likely not be used as part of the prosecutor’s case against him.
The Bangor Daily News reports that according to an official court affidavit, Galleck allegedly pocket-dialed an unidentified woman on the Facebook Messenger app shortly before the fight with Moody began. The woman accepted Galleck’s call, at which point she heard “what sounded like someone hitting Galleck and heard him say something to the effect of ‘What the fuck? You just hit me!’” Then the Facebook call switched to video, and…
“[T]he woman told police that ‘she saw Galleck turn and face the male and punch him once in the face… At that point, the other male put his hands up and said he was sorry and he was drunk.’
“But ‘Galleck hit the male twice more, knocking him to the ground… Once on the ground, Galleck grabbed the victim by the throat and bashed his head off the ground seven times.’
“The woman described witnessing Galleck continuing to bash the victim’s head into the pavement. At that point, according to the affidavit, ‘[s]he stated the victim appeared to be unconscious. Galleck then fled the scene and appeared to jump a fence.’”
Unfortunately, the affidavit doesn’t specify whether or not the woman was able to save the video or record it with a separate app — meaning a jury may never actually get to see it. And if you’re thinking, “Well, okay, but can’t Facebook help the authorities out with that?”, you have not been watching the news for the past two years:
“Under its policy concerning access to information by law enforcement, Facebook provides basic subscriber information, but not content, when the requested information ‘is indispensable to the case’ and a subpoena has been served.”
You can learn more about the case here.
[via Metal Hammer]
