What could trigger the next dose of sensationalism in the newsmedia (at least in New York) walked into a bar.

There is no punchline. I couldn't find a single thing funny about the situation.

He looked like a nice enough guy--handsome, six foot something with dark hair and wire-rimmed glasses. He was leaning casually against the bar for most of the night, talking to friends. His body language made him seem like the type of guy with whom you could start a fun, semi-intellectual conversation.

I might have tried, but what do you say to someone who has just been released on $250,000 dollars bail and who will shortly be on trial for the murder of his father and the attempted murder of his mother?

Over the loud beats of music pervading the bar and the mindless din of a crowd of about 100 patrons, whispers floated. People caught themselves staring.

Yet there he was, laughing and having what by all accounts was a good time. Three weeks ago, he was wearing shackles and an orange jumpsuit. Roughly one year ago, his father was found in his home with his head partially hacked off. His mother was beaten half to death and unable to communicate. And the then twenty-one year old was nowhere to be found.

The details grow hazy from that point until recently. His mother recovered yet bears the marks of serious facial disfigurement, including the loss of an eye. She has no memory of the horror she endured and is convinced her son is innocent. But he remains the only suspect in the case with what so far seems to be powerful evidence against him. Prosecutors have mounted a list of transgressions that gives him not only a motive, but makes him appear mentally unstable enough to have committed something so heinous. Family and friends pitched in to bail him out of jail earlier this month.

If you want to read about the details, the Times Union has done some decent coverage.

He is telling the world that he is innocent, with a bring-it-on type attitude toward his trial. But when I looked at him from across the crowded bar, I saw a dissonance (not heard, saw). No one can assume he is guilty until he had stood trial, and he certainly deserves one. But I cannot reconcile that with the young man I beheld. He looked a little too comfortable in that bar, where I'm positive he knew everyone recognized him. A young man with a past such as he has endured, a history of lying and stealing and cheating and forging, the grisly murder of his father...none of it makes any sense.

All of the ingredients are there. The image of a seemingly perfect upper middle class family, literally hacked to pieces. A good-looking young man who has himself and the family and friends he allegedly wronged convinced of his innocence. A young man who fell peacefully to sleep on his first night in jail.

It had the people from the local news channel hysterical with excitement to see him out on the town...like I said, it's only a matter of time.