ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.,None — The jury in the east-side rape trial was abruptly excused on Wednesday because of an issue that attorneys on both sides could not agree on.
Joel Pappas is on trial for allegedly raping a woman in May 2009.
Lawyers were back in court Wednesday afternoon, but not the jury.
The issue was how much of the conversations jurors will hear between the defendant and his nephew, and the defendant and his wife.
"You are excused until 9:00 tomorrow morning," said Judge Margaret Schreiber.
Court recessed before the state presented any new testimony in its case against Pappas.
The 31-year-old has been linked to four East Orange County sexual assaults that occurred between May 2009 and October 2010.
Pappas is standing trial for the 2009 sex assault at the Fountains Apartments.
The state planned to share redacted conversations between the defendant and his nephew on Wednesday. Investigators said admissions were made during those conversations.
However, jurors must wait to hear those conversations, as well as some others recorded at the jail between Pappas and his wife after objections were raised by the defense.
"Since he elected not to participate in discovery, I'm under no obligation to give him a heads up about those things or for him to have things in advance," said prosecutor Deborah Barra.
"For the record, any redaction of those jail telephone calls was publicly made yesterday during trial," said defense attorney Kim Hartung.
Pappas' nephew, Brandon McFarland, cooperated with Orange County investigators who hoped McFarland might be able to get his uncle to talk about the May 2009 incident.
"I know for a fact she seen me, you idiot," McFarland is heard saying to Pappas in recorded conversation.
"Dude, dude, shut up! I don't even want to hear you talk about this again. It has nothing to do with that," Papas said.
The recording does not reveal exactly what "that" is, but both men had pending burglary cases at the time.
"That makes it very difficult to understand why this is admissible against my client," said Hartung. "Clearly he is trying to save his own skin."
Hartung argued unsuccessfully that the conversations with his nephew left too much open for interpretation.
"If they had any proof, any inclination of anything, they would be kicking down my door. Do you understand?" Pappas said in a recording.
Schreiber allowed some references to other possible criminal behavior committed by Pappas to be redacted.
WFTV
