Newtown Search Warrants to Remain Sealed

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Thu Dec 27, 2012 at 10:06:10 PM EST
Tags: Adam Lanza, Sandy Hook shootings (all tags)

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A judge in Connecticut today extended the time period 5 search warrants executed on the Lanza's home and cars will remain sealed. There were three search warrants for the house and two for cars.

[One was] for the 2010 Honda Civic Adam Lanza drove to the school and [the other was] for Nancy Lanza's 2009 silver BMW, which was parked in the garage attached to the home.

Why keep the search warrants sealed if no one is under criminal investigation? [More...]

[Danbury State's Attorney Stephen ]Sedensky said in his applications that the affidavits contained information "not known to the general public" and that premature disclosure would "seriously jeopardize the outcome and success of the investigation" by "divulging sensitive and confidential information" known only to investigators.
Although no arrests have been made and "none are contemplated," Sedensky also said the possibility has not been ruled out, and that releasing the information would make it difficult to solve crimes that others might have committed.

What crimes besides the shootings were committed by others that remain to be solved? Did they uncover communications between Adam Lanza and persons claiming to have committed or be planning other violent crimes?

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Newtown Search Warrants to Remain Sealed | 25 comments (25 topical)

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I can believe that A.L. (5.00 / 0) (#38)
by TeresaInPa on Sat Dec 29, 2012 at 05:49:08 PM EST

did it because he was crazy. I just find it hard to believe anyone with the kind of plot you have described wouldn't have been better prepared and operated on a larger scale.... you know, farther removed from the mess, more dramatic results.
Is that second shooter for real? I'd like to have some of those questions answered too. Guess we will know in good time, or not.

Confiscated in the home (none / 0) (#1)
by Towanda on Thu Dec 27, 2012 at 10:38:34 PM EST

also was the computer with the trashed hard drive that the feds are hoping to recover, and that could take more time, too.

Who survived to provide useful information in the affidavits, though? The father and brother?

What could you do at this point (none / 0) (#2)
by TeresaInPa on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 05:06:22 AM EST

other than speculate? I wonder if we are going to get some sense of motivation or reason for this crazy event.

that does seem kind of odd, since the target (none / 0) (#3)
by cpinva on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 06:36:12 AM EST

individuals are both deceased. unless, they weren't the only targets of the investigation. at some point, i expect we'll find out. it costs nothing to keep the warrants sealed.

Another strange thing is (none / 0) (#4)
by MyLeftMind on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 07:52:41 AM EST

the destruction of Adam Lanza's hard drive. Imagine you are a person who grew up estranged from others. Even if you weren't bullied, you never fit in. You weren't accepted and welcomed, you weren't appreciated for who you are. You're planning to murder your mother and kill a bunch of innocent little kids in a violent rampage that will show the world how hurting or angry you are. Maybe this is your last chance to get people to feel and understand your pain.

So why would you destroy evidence of what your life was like and what you had to go through to get to this point? You'd want the world to know you so they could fully understand their mistakes and failures. Why destroy the hard drive?

A strong conviction it's not (5.00 / 1) (#5)
by oculus on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 09:22:49 AM EST

anyone else's business.


If I am him, I am acting out my pain through (5.00 / 2) (#19)
by ruffian on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 04:22:55 PM EST

my destructive act. That is all I want people to know or see. I didn't want them to know me when I was alive, I sure don't want them to know me when I am dead.


You Want Us To Image... (none / 0) (#10)
by ScottW714 on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 10:48:15 AM EST

...why we would destroy a hard drive before killing a bunch of kids ?

The rest of us normal people destroy hard drivers because after years of use we have absolutely no idea what is on it, but certain it's nothing we want others to see. From passwords and bank information to NSFW stuff us guys always seem to accumulate without even trying.

If I were to do this and I wanted to get a messages out, I wouldn't kill myself. The problem is these people are all selfish, they, for whatever reason, are more important than others, these dead people are shock value statements, not human beings. If they actually cared about others, they wouldn't kill them. The world is filled with estranged people, only the truly selfish kill people to make a point.

Really what was the message here, my mom's decision to be me in a home is so absolutely unjust, I had to kill her and a bunch of kids so everyone can understand how mad I was ?

I'm sure he was mentally defective, but the root of this kind of crime is selfishness, they aren't leaving manifestos, the gruesomeness of the crime is their message, pure selfish rage. Just my opinion of course.


total lack of empathy or conscience (5.00 / 0) (#22)
by TeresaInPa on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 07:12:14 PM EST

is more than mental defective. It's the behavior of a sociopath.


I'm trying to figure this guy out. (none / 0) (#11)
by MyLeftMind on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 12:03:01 PM EST

Some of the pieces just don't make sense.


We will never (5.00 / 1) (#17)
by Zorba on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 03:08:46 PM EST

"be able to figure this guy out," MyLeftMind. When you are talking about people who have certain types of mental and/or emotional and/or societal problems, we will probably never be able to connect all the dots.
Psychiatry, psychology and sociology are very far from being "exact sciences."


What I would like to know (5.00 / 1) (#21)
by NYShooter on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 06:24:07 PM EST

is....why such young kids?

I can understand going after peers who have, in your mind, made your life miserable. But, what do we make out of the victims being barely out of infancy?

I inderstand there were adult victims also but, I doubt they were the shooter's primary targets.


I might be able to swallow (5.00 / 0) (#29)
by TeresaInPa on Sat Dec 29, 2012 at 07:49:33 AM EST

the second theory as possible because someone in grief over Sandy Hook wanted "assault weapons" taken away from anyone and everyone. However if you are suggesting that someone would do Sandy Hook out of some "gun grabber" mentality then I think you need to remove your tin foil hat and take a vacation on an island where there is no news...for a very long long time. There is no way to get that to make sense. Adam Lanza was mentally ill. For anyone to suggest he was not, that anyone could slaughter all those children and NOT be mentally ill, just out of some anger issue or political aggenda, well I don't know how to respond to that.


maybe that is the age (none / 0) (#23)
by TeresaInPa on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 07:16:52 PM EST

he first felt rejected and he never forgot it. Maybe everything after those first years just felt like a continuation of that first unhappiness. That is of course wild speculation.


: I think (none / 0) (#26)
by DebFrmHell on Sat Dec 29, 2012 at 01:43:11 AM EST

there is something to that. For some weird reason, I think of Andrea Yates when I think of Adam Lanza.
I don't know that it was a rage that made him kill those children as much as it seems like he was trying to protect them from growing up in a world that only he knew. His was not a pleasant existence, IMO, and I suspect that after he reached school age it only got to be more difficult and more isolated.
Why would he destroy a hard drive? That is the easiest thing to answer. If he kept a journal on it, he never wanted anyone to know the depth of his pain. Killing himself sealed the deal.
He doesn't strike me as a Ted Kaczynski type where he would have some kind of manifesto.
I know that doesn't make much sense because it was such a senseless killing.
It is just IMO.

I Don't Think It's Possible (none / 0) (#12)
by ScottW714 on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 12:31:21 PM EST

Here is a link about all the recent mass shootings going back 30 years. It's odd I don't remember many of them.

The only thing they seem to have in common is a trigger that unleashed their rage and most showed signs of mental illness beforehand.


There's a mental contagion (none / 0) (#13)
by jondee on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 12:58:29 PM EST

aspect to this stuff..

Some types of cognitively-vulnerable people are eminently suggestable. Madison Ave figured that one out decades ago, though people (and their hired mouths) still want to argue about it today.

I'm reasonably sure Newtown was a little tipping point for the guy here who just gunned down four fireman..

Can I prove it? No, Ms Grace, I can't.


They'll want to keep the warrants sealed (none / 0) (#6)
by scribe on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 09:44:23 AM EST

because the government is looking for someone, anyone, to pin some liability on. It's a profound insult to the police-mind to have a crime where no one can be prosecuted or punished for anything.

They're going to be looking at the Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) involved in selling the guns to the deceased to make sure all their paperwork is in order. An FFL has to keep his paperwork for 20 years after closing up his business.

They're also looking for the whole chronology of how it came to Adam Lanza offing himself after killing all those people in the school. This will be to see exactly where and how to "change" and "improve" the laws governing firearms both in CT and federally. My bet is that everything was done by the book and correctly and that, until Adam Lanza's mom let him have unsupervised access to the handguns (someone under 18 having access to handguns w/o a responsible adult over 21 being in charge and present is a federal crime), there were no crimes committed or laws violated. So, to "prevent" future crimes, they're looking for ways to make new crimes.

FFL holders are quite careful to do everything by the book and responsible gun owners no less careful. None of them want to go to federal prison (for years), lose their guns (forever) and their livelihood (probably forever) over a paperwork violation.

you might want to read the law (5.00 / 1) (#14)
by Reconstructionist on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 01:19:27 PM EST

"someone under 18 having access to handguns w/o a responsible adult over 21 being in charge and present is a federal crime."

No, it's not.

18 U.S.C. 922(x)

(1) It shall be unlawful for a person to sell,
deliver, or otherwise transfer to a person who the
transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe is a juvenile--
(A) a handgun; or
(B) ammunition that is suitable for use only in
a handgun.

(2) It shall be unlawful for any person who is a
juvenile to knowingly possess--
(A) a handgun; or
(B) ammunition that is suitable for use only in
a handgun.

(3) This subsection does not apply to--

(A) a temporary transfer of a handgun or
ammunition to a juvenile or to the possession or use of a handgun or ammunition by a juvenile if the handgun and ammunition are possessed and used by the juvenile-

(i) in the course of employment, in the course of ranching or farming related to activities at the residence of the juvenile ** target practice, hunting, or a course of instruction in the safe and lawful use of a handgun;

(ii) with the prior written consent of the
juvenile's parent or guardian who is not
prohibited by Federal, State, or local law from
possessing a firearm,

** (iii) the juvenile has the prior written
consent in the juvenile's possession at all
times when a handgun is in the possession of
the juvenile; and

(iv) in accordance with State and local
law;

***


Yes, and in any case, (none / 0) (#16)
by Zorba on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 03:02:33 PM EST

Adam Lanza was not a juvenile at the time of the shooting. He was twenty years old.
Plus, there is no indication either way that his mother allowed him unfettered access to the weapons when he was a juvenile. It does seem as though she did take him out and teach him how to use the weapons and for target practice. All legal.


Yeah, at this time (none / 0) (#18)
by Reconstructionist on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 03:32:04 PM EST

there is no reason to conclude any laws were broken until he shot mom.

Jeralyn's point is unless the police/prosecution believe someone living may have violated a law what is the justification for extending the sealing period on the warrant application and inventory?

The reported justification is that disclosure might compromise an investigation which begs the question an investigation of whom for what.

We can speculate but nothing jumps out at me as being even a strong guess.

the article linked isn't even clear as to whether the prosecutotr filed a supporting motion under seal with the motion to extend giving the court specific reasons or the court just "rubber-stamped" a boilerplate motion.


: It would seem to me, (none / 0) (#20)
by Zorba on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 05:17:25 PM EST

at least (and I am not a legal professional), that the main reason they have extended the sealing period is, basically, because they can.

Could it have anything to do (none / 0) (#8)
by Militarytracy on Fri Dec 28, 2012 at 10:42:23 AM EST

With the spoofing people? Didn't someone online pretend to be Ryan Lanza? I remember listening to a State Police news conference where they said they were going after people who had done some bizarre spoofing media things.

please stay on topic (none / 0) (#27)
by Jeralyn on Sat Dec 29, 2012 at 03:34:11 AM EST

it's not individual health care costs. It's about the search warrants for the Lanza home and vehicles, and the reasons given for extending it.

Thread cleaned (none / 0) (#39)
by Jeralyn on Thu Jan 03, 2013 at 01:28:55 AM EST

of sniping and insults between commenters and wacko conspiracy theories. You can speculate based on disclosed facts, but not make things up -- that spreads misinformation.