Boswell’s attorney argues for new trial in Loofe slaying over gruesome photos
Bailey Boswell’s attorney made his case Wednesday for why she should get a new trial for the killing and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe, pointing to the number of gruesome photos prosecutors showed to the jury and testimony at trial about witchcraft and torture.
Todd Lancaster said the Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that such photographs may be relevant to show the condition of the body or extent of the wounds or to establish malice and intent.
Todd Lancaster of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy argued Wednesday that Bailey Boswell should get a new trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe.
Lori Pilger
But in this case, he said, the state put into evidence more than 50 photos of Loofe’s dismembered remains, including five of a tattoo on her forearm that helped investigators to identify her and 10 of her severed head.
“And it’s horrific,” Lancaster said. “They are hard to look at.”
He said he thought of putting them on the screen for the Supreme Court justices to see, but decided against it since they were part of the court record.
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He questioned why the jury, for instance, was shown photos that depicted how animals had gotten to her remains “other than to … horrify them and rile up their emotions.”
“It’s hard for me to see how that is not excessive,” Lancaster argued.
Similarly, he said, the state shouldn’t have been allowed to call three women who testified at trial about how Boswell and co-defendant Aubrey Trail spoke of witchcraft and torture at the home in Wilber and were sexually deviant.
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“They’re not going to be looking at the evidence. They’re going to be looking at the deviant behavior and their emotions and not judging the evidence for what it is,” Lancaster said of jurors.
In November 2021, Boswell got an automatic life sentence, plus 50 years, for conspiracy to commit murder and two years for unlawful disposal of human remains, after a three-judge panel failed to unanimously find she should get a death sentence.
In an earlier hearing, Trail was sentenced to death.
Loofe’s disappearance the night of Nov. 15, 2017, after a date with Boswell, led to a multistate manhunt for Boswell and Trail, who in Facebook videos claimed to know nothing about it. Their cellphone records, though, ultimately led Law enforcement to fields and ditches in Clay County, where they made the grisly discovery of the 24-year-old Lincoln woman’s remains left scattered in trash bags.
Separate juries found Trail and Boswell guilty of murder for luring Loofe to their Wilber apartment, where they killed and dismembered her.
On Wednesday, Assistant Nebraska attorney General Stacy Foust asked the Supreme Court to affirm Boswell’s conviction.
“Regarding the photos themselves, I think the state and the court did exercise extreme discretion,” she said.
Foust said the state introduced a small portion of the 87 photos taken at the disposal scene and 100 or more autopsy photos. And each for a proper purpose, she said.
“(The state) was entitled to present a coherent picture of Boswell’s crimes,” she said. “Boswell did not get to sanitize her crimes by picking the state’s evidence for it.”
Foust said the photos from the disposal sites were essentially crime-scene photographs.
“The difference here is that because of Trail and Boswell’s actions there were actually multiple crime scenes with multiple body parts and the state was entitled to present each one to the jury,” she said.
Photos from the autopsy were important to show that the case involved not just a premeditated murder, but also a deliberate dismemberment, Foust said.
Justice William Cassel asked Foust if she agreed it was possible to have too many photos go before a jury.
“In another case. Not here,” she said.
Sydney Loofe
“How is an appellate court to review what that threshold is?” Cassel asked.
Foust said they would have to consider whether it was an abuse of discretion by the judge, a very high standard.
As for the testimony of the other women, she said: “We will never know exactly what happened in those 24 minutes that Loofe was in Trail and Boswell’s Wilber apartment. But according to Boswell, she was just as much a victim of Trail’s as the girls were. And the girls’ testimony showed that is a bold-faced lie.”
She participated, if not led, every aspect of the recruitment process in setting up the date with Loofe, Foust said.
“Which also evidenced her participation and thus her intent in killing and dismembering Loofe,” she said.
The Supreme Court took the case under advisement.
Listen to the fifth and final episode of the current season of Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles that reviews the Sydney Loofe murder case.
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Photos: Bailey Boswell’s trial
Bailey Boswell Trial, 10.14
Bailey Boswell (left) and Jeff Pickens, the chief counsel for the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, react after the jury found Boswell guilty in the murder of Sydney Loofe of Lincoln on Oct. 14 at the Dawson County Courthouse in Lexington.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 10.14
Todd Lancaster (standing) makes a motion to allow the defendant Bailey Boswell (second from left) to stay at the jail in Lexington until sentencing after she was found guilty of murder in the death of Sydney Loofe on Wednesday at the Dawson County Courthouse. District Judge Vicky Johnson (right) overruled the motion.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 10.14
Bailey Boswell reacts after the jury found her guilty of the murder of Sydney Loofe of Lincoln on Wednesday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 10.14
District Judge Vicky Johnson looks over the jury’s verdict before giving it to Amber Mulberry (not shown), the Saline County District Court Clerk, on Wednesday, at the Dawson County Courthouse. Bailey Boswell was found guilty on all three charges she faced in the murder of Sydney Loofe of Lincoln.
Boswell Trial, 10.13
Assistant attorney General Mike Guinan speaks during Bailey Boswell’s murder trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe as Boswell and Jeff Pickens, the chief counsel for the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, look on Tuesday.
Boswell trial, 10.9
Omaha forensic pathologist Dr. Michelle Elieff testified Friday about the autopsy done on the remains of Sydney Loofe.
Boswell trial, 10.9
Bailey Boswell, on trial for the murder of Sydney Loofe, mostly looked down, avoiding a look at autopsy photographs, as a forensic pathologist testified Friday.
Boswell trial
Katie Brandle testified Thursday about a “dominant-submissive” relationship she entered into with Bailey Boswell. Questioning her is Sandra Allen, one of the prosecutors with the Nebraska attorney General’s Office.
Boswell trial
Katie Brandle testified Thursday about a “dominant-submissive” relationship she entered into with Bailey Boswell. Questioning her is Sandra Allen, one of the prosecutors with the Nebraska attorney General’s Office.
Boswell trial
Lincoln police investigator Robert Hurley, left, testifies Monday about cellphone data that he used to track the movement of Bailey Boswell and Syndey Loofe Assistant attorney General Mike Guinan is at right.
Boswell trial
Bailey Boswell listens to testimony in court Monday at the Dawson County Courthouse in Lexington, Nebraska.
Bailey Boswell
Bailey Boswell listens to testimony during her murder trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe on Thursday.
Bailey Boswell
Bailey Boswell cries as FBI Special Agent Eli McBride testifies Thursday, describing how Sydney Loofe’s remains were found in pieces while jurors saw gruesome photos from the scene.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
District Judge Vicky Johnson gives instructions to the jury at the start of Bailey Boswell’s murder trial for the 2017 killing of Sydney Loofe on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
FBI Special Agent Mike Maseth (left) and Assistant attorney General Mike Guinan talk quietly as Bailey Boswell’s attorney, Todd Lancaster, gives his opening statement at the start of Boswell’s murder trial on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell’s attorney, Todd Lancaster (left), and Assistant attorney General Mike Guinan talk after opening statements were delivered on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse. Boswell is on trial for murder in the 2017 killing of Sydney Loofe.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell (left) and Jeff Pickens (right), the chief counsel for the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, talk following the conclusion of opening statements Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse in Lexington. Boswell is on trial for murder in the 2017 killing of Sydney Loofe.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell, on trial for murder, listens as Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen delivers the opening statement for the prosecution on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell’s attorney, Todd Lancaster, listens as Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen delivers the opening statement for the prosecution on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse. Boswell is on trial for murder in the 2017 killing of Sydney Loofe.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Jeff Pickens (left), the chief counsel for the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, and Bailey Boswell’s attorney, Todd Lancaster, listen as Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen delivers the opening statement for the prosecution on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse. Boswell is on trial for murder in the 2017 killing of Sydney Loofe.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell, on trial for the murder of Sydney Loofe, listens as Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen delivers the opening statement for the prosecution on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell, on trial for the murder of Sydney Loofe, takes a note as she listens to Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen deliver the opening statement for the prosecution on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
FBI Special Agent Mike Maseth (left) and Assistant attorney General Mike Guinan (center) listen as District Judge Vicky Johnson gives instructions to the jury at the start of the Bailey Boswell’s murder trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
District Judge Vicky Johnson gives instructions to the jury at the start of the Bailey Boswell’s murder trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse in Lexington.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Defendant Bailey Boswell (left) and Jeff Pickens (right), the chief counsel for the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, listen as Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen (center) delivers the opening statement for the prosecution in Bailey Boswell’s murder trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Defendant Bailey Boswell (right) looks down as District Judge Vicky Johnson (not shown) tells the jury the charges against her on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen delivers the prosecution’s opening statement in Bailey Boswell’s murder trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe on Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell (left) and Jeff Pickens (right), the chief counsel for the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, listen as Assistant attorney General Sandra Allen delivers the opening statement for the prosecution on Friday during Boswell’s murder trial for the killing of Sydney Loofe at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Bailey Boswell Trial, 9.25
Bailey Boswell (right) looks towards the jury as District Judge Vicky Johnson (not shown) tells the jury the charges against her Friday at the Dawson County Courthouse.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSpilger
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