A couple weeks ago, I was having this discussion with someone about whether the justice system was fair and just, and I told them that in 34 years of being a court reporter, there are only two times I can remember thinking the jury did the wrong thing. One of those cases really, really upset me, and I still think about it often. This was a cold case in Fayette County in which the crime had happened over 20 years before the trial. The trial occurred about seven years ago, and Judge Hatcher hired me to be his reporter. The case was a murder case, and it was one of the most terrible crimes I had ever heard about. The woman who was murdered was a gorgeous woman who worked for the police department. She was married to this abuser and had finally had enough and left him. It was a good thing she worked for the police department, because she had to get domestic violence orders against him, and he constantly violated them and just terrorized her anytime he pleased. He had told her that she would never divorce him, that he would kill her before he allowed her to get a divorce. And he got it done too, the night before their final divorce hearing. Why was he never tried, you ask? Not sure. There were a lot of crazy things that happened in that case, lots of circumstantial evidence but no real physical evidence. The night before the divorce, the wifes 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage came home from school to find a masked man in the house. This man brutally attacks her, then leaves her naked, taped up with duct tape in the bathroom, where she then has to listen as he attacks and kills her mother in the next room. After she believes he is gone, she crawls out the bathroom window that was high above the commode, still taped together, falling on her head (in December), and crawls to the neighbors house for help. Can you imagine this? I was so taken in by this story, the viciousness of it, the incredible loss of innocence for this daughter, to go through something like this at 15, and then you have no mom or dad to help you deal with the wreckage. There was a very interesting element to the story: They had this guard dog, and he was reputed to be so violent, NO ONE but the three people in the family could get past him. That day when she comes home from school, the dog is tied up. She thought that was odd because she knew neither she or her mom had tied him up, but she thought her stepdad might have stopped by and done it. She goes on in the house to find this stranger. The stepfathers car had been seen in the neighborhood right before school let out (in time to tie up the dog so another man could enter the house), but he had an alibi for the actual time of the attack. There was a man from Montgomery whose name came out in the trial as who they believed had done the actual rape and killing, but for some reason, not much was developed about him. The trial was against the stepdad, the husband, for the hiring of the killer. The daughter had told several different versions of her experience, trying to remember who might have done it, thinking it may have been a neighbor, just really grasping at straws. When confronted with those inconsistencies, she said she was a 15-year-old who had just been raped, tied up and forced to listen to her mothers murder and was just out of her mind. She was being questioned by about 15 male officers, alone. Made sense to me. I didnt question her testimony a bit. Oh, there was evidence that didnt come out in the trial - her stepdad had given her a Christmas present that year (same month of the murder) that was wrapped in duct tape all over and said something on it like, Hope youre missing your mother. Unreal. During the testimony of the daughter, the electricity goes out in the courtroom due to a bad storm occurring outside. We were right in the midst of the terrible story, and the judge decides to just keep plowing on. My equipment had three hours of battery, so we were good to go on that end. She continued to testify, the courtroom dim, thunder and lightning and pouring rain occurring outside - the scene was truly surreal. Several times, the judge barks at her to speak up, Dont you realize we dont have a sound system, that type of thing, and she began to cry even harder than she was. Remember, she is now 35, a beautiful woman just like her mother, but still reliving the most horrible moment anyone could have gone through. I felt so sorry for her. I felt even worse when after all this testimony and the tying up of all the details and circumstantial evidence, the jury comes back and finds him not guilty. I drove home from Fayetteville that night with a sick feeling, just an incredible sadness, that this man got away with it AGAIN! I could not believe they would find him not guilty. His attorney kept saying he had cancer and wasnt going to live through the year, so maybe they didnt want the system to have to pay for his medical treatment or something. In any event, this victim went home, having gone through this ordeal all over, and nothing, no justice. She even stood up in the courtroom and said the words, If this is what Fayette County justice is, I will never enter this county again. Of course, the judge called her down for that, but I could feel her pain like it was my own. Something about her just called to me. After the trial, this daughter called me to talk about becoming a court reporter. She said I had really made an impression on her, and I was so thrilled to hear from her, just to be able to tell her I was truly sorry and that I had been devastated with the verdict myself. I couldnt have told her that at the courthouse, of course, but by the time she called, I was still upset about it and just wanted her to know I had believed her. This week, Tom had to have a carpal tunnel surgery, and while he was in his surgery, I was waiting in the waiting room, of course. After his surgery was over, the nurse called me to come back, and as soon as I looked at her, I felt like I knew her. One of those I know this woman, how do I know this woman feelings. We go on back to where Tom is and begin to talk, and after a few minutes, I said to her, I feel like I know you. What is your name? She tells me, and that rings no bells. I said, Are you from Jackson County? No, shes not, but she has some friends in Jackson County. We discuss that a bit and arrive at no commonality. She says that she felt like she knew me as well as soon as I walked through the door. She leaves, and I tell Tom, I know that girl, I KNOW I know her from somewhere. This is really bugging me. She comes back, and I say, So where are you from? She says she grew up in Fayette County but lives in Charleston now. She tells me where she goes to church in case that was it. Nope. Then it hits me. Its her, its the daughter! I said, Was your mother killed? She stops and looks at me again and she goes, Youre the court reporter. I said yes. Tom is just sitting there staring at both of us, not having a clue. We begin to talk, and she gives Tom a little background, and he remembers how upset I was when I came home, remembers enough to engage in the conversation. She goes on to tell us that shes okay, that she has accepted it, has a wonderful husband and three teenage boys, loves the Lord, loves her church, and has a good life. She told us that the reason it was revived after 20 years is because DNA identification became available, and they had some to test. They got the businessman from Montgomerys DNA, and it was a match, so they KNEW he was the one who had done the killing. But the DNA was Fed Exd somewhere and it got lost. So thats why he got off scott-free! All the while she was testifying, she knew that and the judge knew that and the lawyers and everyone but the jury (and me) knew they had positive DNA, so her frustration of trying to dance around the fact that she had told all those versions of who it might have been at age 15 but now at age 35 knew for a FACT who it was - can you imagine the strain? I tell you, it made my day to reacquaint myself with her - she is doing great, has praise on her lips, is drop-dead gorgeous and has a smile that would just light up the room. It amazes me how God brings people into our lives for a reason and for a season, and He sure brought her to me this week so I could have some closure with that case - honestly, every time I drove into Fayette County, I thought of it myself, just the wrongness of it. She did share that her stepfather had passed away, but not until six years after the trial, just last year. It was also a testimony to what a relationship with the Lord can give you: Peace in the midst of the storm, praise where there could be bitterness, thankfulness for the small things, hope for a future!
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 13:52:53 +0000
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