I just finished doing my civic duty as a juror. For those who have successfully dodged getting picked for a jury, I urge you to stop trying and serve. It's a great experience. Saying that, I got a downer of a case. Being a juror was still a very interesting experience, but the charge was aggravated sexual assault of a minor under 14. I'll say that I wasn't feeling much up for sex when I got home each day. Here's the story. It'll be long probably, but has plenty of juicy stuff in it, if you're in to that kind of thing. The case involved an old guy (58) down in the small towns near Victoria. The complaint was brought by a 19-year old who said he raped her when she was 8. Eight. Once she grew up, she finally got the courage to tell someone. The case only came to us because the guy happened to have been living in Harris county for a little while and committed the rape here before heading back down to El Campo. These were all poor Texan-Mexicans. The girl has had a hard life. Her mother was deaf and mute, and, I think, either mentally-handicapped and/or a little insane. On the stand, the mother was obviously in her own little world. She was completely neglectful of her children. So much so that CPS eventually took them all out of her care. The girl's father took off and the father of her half-siblings was divorced from the mother and later killed in a car accident. So, she basically had no one looking after her. The defendant was a friend of her half-siblings' father who befriended the mother after her ex-husband's death. He helped the mother paying bills and such. And, when the mother would disappear, the kids would come to his place and watch movies and such. I was trying very hard to not let child-molester stereotypes affect my judgement. He's an old guy and extremely unattractive. He lived in a trailer parked in the driveway of his mother's house. He was a loner without many friends (he had character witnesses from his church testify on his behalf, but they only met him a couple months ago). So, he'd fondle the girl a bit, when she was 4 or 5, and her older sister who was around 10. Later, when the girl was 8, he drove from Houston to Ganado (where they lived, which is down in the Edna/Victoria area) and picked them up (the girl and her mother -- the siblings have already been taken by CPS) and drove them back to Houston to spend the night. In the middle of the night, he comes and takes the girl from her mother while they were asleep and has sex with her. The mother, of course, is deaf, and doesn't realize. The next day, he buys the girl toys and drives both back to Ganado. When the State rested, apparently some of the jurors were not ready to convict. It was, after all, a he-said/she-said deal. The girl had actually given good testimony -- she had me convinced -- but she was essentially the only witness. But, the defendant chose to testify in his own defense and he hanged himself (so to speak). He decided apparently to go off the cuff while being cross-examined by the prosecutor. After the trial, the defense lawyer told us that was the first time he heard that version of the story, which isn't a good thing. He told the prosecutor that the girl had come to Houston to visit his daughter. But, his daughter lived in Ganado with the man's mother at that time. His daughter was 8 years older than the girl too. He eventually said his daughter was staying with his ex-wife who also lived in Houston and that when they couldn't find the daughter, the girl and her mother ended up staying at his place. His credibility completely shot at this point, we are sent to deliberate. With picking our foreman and everything, we convicted him in about 5 minutes. But, it wouldn't be right to send a man to prison without talking about it first, so we spent almost an hour talking about various aspects of the case before signing the paper and calling the bailiff. Yesterday, we got the sentencing part of the trial. The prosecutor presents witnesses for another case that couldn't make it to trial. They allege the man picked up a 32 yeard old r****ded woman (she was tested to have the mental capacity of a first grader, though she sounded surprisingly mature, considering, on the stand) and kept her as a sex-slave, essentially, for 3 weeks. The prosecutor in Victoria, where this happened, didn't pursue it though. But, we were allowed to consider it, if it was proved beyond reasonable doubt, in sentencing. I decided there was no doubt he committed a "bad act" but some doubt on the "crime" part, and sentenced accordingly. The guy was a predator with multiple victims. The defense testimony was pretty pathetic, really. We heard from his mother (who was 12 years older than him, as an aside) about how close they are and how he does everything for her and she'll have no one to take her to the doctor. We heard from one of his daughters (don't know where the other was) about what a good father he was. We heard from a friend about how he found God -- but he made this friend 4 months ago, and I'm sure his lawyer told him he needed to make some friends who could testify on his behalf. We heard from the minister's wife about how he found God and goes to prayer meetings all the time -- again for several months now. We heard from his employer and how he might have a job if he were to get probation. That's what he was asking for: probation. For raping an 8 year old. We were allowed to sentence him from 5 years to 99 years and a fine of up to $10,000. If we gave him 10 or less, we could give him probation. I was almost offended the defense lawyer suggested it. The prosecutor asked for at least 20 years. In the jury room, we had one guy vote for 99 years. He said he was a predator and didn't want him to ever see the light of day again. Most people started out in the 15 to 20 range. Our lifer kept coming down and a couple of folks went up. We had 3 people voting 30 years for awhile. I started at 15 and moved up to 25. Eventually 10 of us agreed that 20 or 25 would be fine. We had our lifer saying he'd compromised enough and wouldn't go under 25. And we had a lady there saying she only wanted 10 and wouldn't go over 20. The jury was 11 men, 1 woman, 1 female alternate (now gone). The lawyers each got to eliminate 10 people. I think the prosecutor eliminated as many women as possible because they'd be softer on sentencing -- that's my guess. Our one woman was holding the sentence down. She was also our only black person, but I don't think that mattered. We had 1 hispanic and 1 vietnamese and everyone else was white. Our woman, unfortunately, felt put on the spot, I think, and she didn't want to discuss the decision. She just said, I'll do 20 and that's it, and I don't want to talk about it. So, our lifer (who was the hispanic, by the way) eventually conceded. The fine was an afterthought and we didn't see the point. So, no fine, 20 years in prison. Last night, all my dreams were about the case. Hopefully, it'll go away. I have no doubts about the conviction at all. But, I keep wondering, were we to heavy on sentencing? Too light? Now that I've gotten to the bottom, I figure I may as well stick a poll on this: did I get the sentence right? The judge said she thought juries pretty much always get it right. Btw, if you're voting for judges and don't know one name from the other, she seemed to be competent and fair: Joan Campbell.
Very interesting! My wife was a foreperson on a jury last year that voted not to convict a few defendants on a drug charge. She said it was a great experience as well. Isn't that the woman who was criticized by her primary opponent for being fluent in French and being certified to practice law in New York?
I think the sentence is fair to all parties. [Edit: I was selected for one jury, a murder case. We convicted. But I never ever want to be on another murder case.]
I voted too heavy, although I think 20 years is pretty fair. I think I would have gone more towards 15 or so, just given that the guy is generally old and will probably die in prison, and that the crime happened so long ago.
Tough to say, but you were there, and you made the choice you felt was right. It sure does seem to be a he said/she said thing, and I generally hate those. Just ask the Duke Lacrosse team, or Michael Irvin etc. DD
If he is not killed in prison (likely since he is a pedo) and behaves well, I bet that he will be out in 4-5 years on probation (not unless there is some minimum mandatory sentence restriction that I don't know about).
In that case, I change my vote to overwhelmingly too light. Like it's been said before, it's tough to make a decision, but from what I read, I'd have gone with about 15 to 20 solid years in prison.
Unfortunately I get to hear stories like this case all the time, because my wife is an ADA. I think the prosecutor would have liked to see more than the minimum they wanted, but probation would have been a disaster. Sounds like you did a great job JV. I keep telling my wife that I would make a great juror, but she says she'd strike me before I walked in the door...
This is not a problem with the law or the jury. This is the problem that the government does lets people go early for "good behavior". The jury voted for 20 years and legally could not have voted for 99 years knowing that that equated to 20 years and out for good behavior. The jury had to assume that probation is not a consideration during sentencing. For all the jury knows, the the government at its discretion could rescind probationary guidelines all together, meaning 20 years is 20 years. [Edit: I cant speel or typp.]
No, that was an error on my part. When I said, "Like it's been said before," I meant to add, "you can't make a decision unless you were at the trial, but I think he deserves the 15 to 20 years...."
I have nothing good to add to this other then I had jury duty for the first time yesterday and we go let out even before we walked into the court (settled out of court).. Too much stress IMO, I'm glad mine ended like it did.. Those new courtroom buldings are HELLA nice though.. I voted "spot on" btw... Sounds fair to me, but I dont know the ins and outs of the system..
JV give yourself a pat on the back (or even better have Mrs. JV do it ) for doing your civic duty. Most people don't even show up ....
I just had an Agg Sex Assault of a Child trial week before last. I charged the defendant with three counts (one for each victim) -- one count of Agg Sex Asslt, and two counts of Indecency w/Child. These are VERY tough cases for everybody. I spent the better part of three weeks getting ready and talking to my victims (the most precious little girls you'd ever see) and my outcry witness. After a four day trial we convicted him of all counts and the jury came back with 80 years on the 1st Degree (5-99 range), and maxed him on the two counts of Indecency (20 years for each one where the range was 2-20). He'll have to do at least half before he's even ELIGIBLE for parole because of the nature of the crime. And they're not paroling pedophiles right away, so he'll be there for a LONG time. And, no, I didn't ask the judge to stack the sentences. They'll run concurrently. The dude is 40 years old, so he'll spend the rest of his adult life in prison as a practical matter.
I've been on 3 juries and been foreman twice. I love jury duty and would become a professional juror if we had a professional jury system. Keep an open mind, weigh the facts, read the charge and decide.
