I Think the Nisha Call Is Dispositive

The police interview records with regard to Nisha's interview are really disruptive to the whole butt-dial, Jay-framed-Adnan type narratives (respect to u/Seamus_Duncan for raising this elsewhere).

Per the police notes from the interview with Nisha:

• Adnan called Nisha "in the afternoon or maybe later on -- 4 or 5," a "day or two after he got cell phone."

• On that call Adnan "handed phone to Jay to talk to [Nisha] ... Jay didn't seem friendly."

• The call lasted "maybe a minute."

• Nisha "never talked to Jay again, only one time."

• Adnan told Nisha "he went out with a Korean - for a year / she broke up with him / he really cared about her / [Adnan] seemed hurt / he said they don't talk anymore ... he heard she wasn't around school for a few days. He seemed concerned about her."

[Here are the notes: https://app.box.com/s/q1i4ad1s8ax9nmirrexmo0brl4ovjglx]

So, for me, here is what the entirety of the Nisha call does, once and for all:

• Adnan and Jay were together at 3:32 pm, and they called Nisha for an unknown purpose.
• One or both of them decided it would be a good idea to call someone at that time (who BTW didn't go to Woodlawn).
• Nisha told police that this call occurred "a day or two after he got cell phone." The call was short. Jay sounded "not friendly" and apparently didn't ask any questions. Even if her April 1999 (just 2.5 months after 1/13) statement was off (it otherwise sounds credible, so her being wrong on the timeframe would be anomalous), and the call occurred later in time, query the purpose of such an odd call. Doesn't make any sense.
• It creates a pattern of seeking out alibis on January 13. Adnan tries to demonstrate that he's just walking into the store as he's on the phone with Nisha; in other words, he's saying "Look, Jay and I weren't together until just now. See, let me prove it to you by putting Jay on the phone." That was Adnan's alibi idea. Cathy's house was Jay's.
• Adnan was talking about Hae to Nisha in mid-January after Hae was missing. Adnan told Nisha how upset his parents were with him for having a relationship with Hae (not that the girl was missing and the cops were investigating), after police visited Adnan to ask about Hae. The notes don't say anything about Adnan telling Nisha that Hae's body was found in February. That would be an interesting fact to confirm.

So to recap: Adnan and Jay were together at 3:32 near the high school/Best Buy/library when they call Nisha. Then they call a dealer or two (Patrick and Phil(?)) from near the high school/Best Buy/library. About 15 minutes later at 4:12, they then call Jenn from the general area around the park and ride, Hae's car location, and Patrick's house. After a little more than an hour, now at 5:38, they call Krista from the same general area. The two then surface at Cathy's house at 6, and at least Adnan is high (Query how realistic it is that Adnan is high and in Cathy’s house by 6 and if he attended track practice). They leave Cathy’s no later than 6:30. Cell towers around the burial site ping with incoming calls at 7:09 and 7:16 (We’ll see how strong this particular evidence is). Call's to Jenn's pager at 8:04 and 8:05 ping towers moving away from Leakin Park and toward Jenn's/Jay's houses. Adnan makes 4 calls in the 9 PM hour to Nisha and Krista, from the high school/Best Buy/library area.

Here is how Adnan explains the Nisha call in S1E6:

”…I couldn’t really explain it, but I could say for sure, I was a thousand percent sure that the only time I ever put Jay on the phone with her would have been at the video store, and I absolutely was not in the car with him at that time, so whether it’s another way the phone activates or I can’t explain the billing of it but I for sure a thousand percent say I was not in the car with him at that time or did I have access to the phone at that time, because I was at school that day.”

Lingering issues:

• Why would the only time Adnan give Jay his phone to talk to some girl Adnan was talking to would be at the porno shop? Did they not hang out anywhere but the porno shop? Such a weird thing to say without context.
• “I absolutely was not in the car with [Jay] at that time … I for sure a thousand percent say I was not in the car with him at that time or did I have access to the phone at that time, because I was at school that day.” Problem here is that it’s not all clear that the question Adnan was asked had anything to do with a car, at all. Adnan seems to be filling in that giant blank – denying that he was in a car when no one was alleging he was in a car, only that he was with the phone and with Jay. If that’s an editing oversight by the Serial folks, it’s a huge one.

Moreover, recall that the call happened at 3:32. School was out at 2:15. Track started at 4/4:30 (I think). Reading the facts in Adnan’s favor, he was in between school and extracurriculars. He was not indisposed at school at 3:32; maybe he was checking email, but he wasn’t busy at that time and the phone was near the school. Just like he knows that he wouldn’t have asked Hae for a ride because he drives his own car, he wouldn’t have called Nisha because he was at school. How can he be a thousand percent positive of anything when all he makes are conditional statements?

I have to say, I was engrossed by the podcast, and have tremendous respect for SK's work on it -- Peabody deserved. But if this was indeed "a big fat problem for Adnan," why not look at the police records for additional witness statements from Nisha? Why not scratch the surface at all? SK must have seen this, but disregarded it. It could be because they decided it didn't rise to the level of import for the podcast (I wouldn't agree, obvs). But it could also be because it takes away a lot of the mystery of "The Nisha Call" and just turns it into a solid rally point on the map of the day's events. Murderer was with his accuser/co-conspirator at the approximate time of the murder in the approximate place the murder was believed to have been committed. Nothing sexy there.

To this second point, I've always been bothered that SK presented as fact that the call came from the video store. Nisha said both to police and at her testimony (see Urick's re-direct in the first trial) that Adnan told her he was at the video store. SK must know better, but made an editorial choice to never question whether that was bullshit. Nisha didn’t say they were at the video store. Nisha said that Adnan told Nisha that they were at the video store. Huge difference.

That leads me to believe that there is a certain degree of playing fast and loose here. I don't particularly care whether Nisha's police statements are credible, though I believe they are. But I do care that this damaging material was not presented, ostensibly on purpose. We all relished in hearing clips of the obstructive bullshit a desperate and scared Jay spews in interview after interview, but Nisha's interview doesn't fit the whodunit narrative and was discarded. So if we assume that facts and circumstances have to be filtered in order to create ambiguity, I think you then have to assume that the facts and circumstances, in their entirety, point without question in one direction. I think that's where the jury pointed in 2000.

I think I'm done revisiting this matter. Justice was served. Truly innocent people are rotting in prison while clearly exculpatory evidence (as opposed to misinformation, ambiguity, character assassination, logical gymnastics, myopic considerations of incomplete records, and profiteers with skin in the game), sits in a drawer somewhere. Let’s take this energy and put it to worthy use.