"I'm not assuming anything, if you smash your cell phone in an attempt to cover up a crime, that is, in and of itself, a crime"

Sure. If those things are recoverable, or if the maids testify AH told them to scrub that blood stain, then I completely agree.

That's all fair and a more precise. better worded, version of my second scenario. I doubt anyone will be taking the time and effort to prove the timing aspect we are discussing, however. This is simply a charge to further the murder investigation. I take issue with an ultimately meritless and improvable charge being…

If the charge has no merit on its own basis, it should not be charged. You're basically excusing the fact that one charge is inherently non-provable bullshit on the grounds that it may to support the execution of another, larger charge, that the person may actually be guilty of. These types of legal games are…

I agree with this post, but I think the crucial factor is timing:

But we will inherently never know what was on the destroyed footage or the destroyed phone, therefore never having any evidence that these items were "evidence" at all, aside from circumstantial statements like they one you made ("But if you can sit there and look at the story so far"). I don't know about you, but…

"If he destroyed evidence that one of his friends was the one who shot Lloyd.."

"Smashing your own cell phone in an attempt to cover up a murder - A crime"