If Nick was actually going to plea out, why would Kayla have filed such a strange document just before anything happened?
Never forget that it was Kayla's attorney, not the court, that conveniently set her briefing deadline exactly one day before Nick's hearing:
To whatever extent the defendants coordinate on strategy somewhat (which would not necessarily be unethical especially if it went through White instead of from Nick directly), it's not a stretch to think it was intentional to select that date so that the last-minute filing of Kayla's brief on Monday night could be used by Nick and White as a cudgel in backroom negotiations with the prosecution on Tuesday.
In that sense Nick's statement in that $100 superchat to the nonce would have been more or less accurate: he
was going into that hearing with every intention to eventually plea, but because he always has to be the smartest guy in the room, he still planned on putting the screws to the state one last time about any "changed circumstances" like what could happen to his chances on appeal if Kayla's hours-old motion brief prevails, not to mention him likely thumping his chest about what could happen to Aaron's credibility on cross-examination if he gets pinched for what Nick (per his tweet today) at least
thinks was an HRO violation just this morning (which it wasn't).
In his mind there was at least some chance of some small W to brag about to his whores or to the
iInternet if that last-minute brinksmanship could eke one last marginal concession out of the state to make the deal happen, like shaving off a year or two of the probation period, or like dropping the child endangerment charge only while keeping sentencing unchanged, or like shaving alcohol only off the list of things to be tested for during probation, etc.
Instead, there's nothing we're seeing that's inconsistent with the possibility that the state balked and said "fine, if you really think these changed circumstances matter, then how about we just postpone until the outcome of Kayla's motion and the outcome of Aaron's case are resolved, and then you can come back and do the same deal that was already on the table before today." Thus the new settlement conference is scheduled to December 17th, which is exactly 8 days after the state's brief on Kayla's motion is taken under advisement, for what should be an unusually quick decision from Wentzell since it's the second time rehashing old issues:
Even better, December 17th would be 6 days after revelation of Aaron's own plea deal at his December 11th hearing, which he seems to think will be so plainly final that he's already gleefully gloating about being able to speak freely about Kayla after that date:
Sammich Enthusiast: [unintelligible] is gettin' too cold for naked twister. People are gonna stick together, that's not good.
Aaron: You know what I used to say in my old friend group, it's never too cold for naked twister.
Sammich Enthusiast: Especially if you do some snow angels?
Aaron: After December 11th, Sean, after December 11th.
Sammich Enthusiast: *laughs* December 11th.
So then the real question becomes this: even
if Nick truly had every intention to plead out under the original offer's terms or with whatever marginal concessions he tried to get today, will he really be able to go through with it on December 17th in the midst of seething at what a shocking slap on the wrist his nemesis just got on December 11th, and outright malding at his nemesis' suddenly "unshackled" gloating and shit-talking that would surely ensue in the 6-day interim? Or will
that get his rage boiling over to the point that he tells the state to shove their deal up their collective ass and takes this to trial like a man, just to grasp for any slim chance at getting less punishment than his ex-boyfriend did?
