Wed 26 Oct 2005
Sentencing hearing this morning on a man who shot and killed his wife shortly after she obtained a restraining order against him in the midst of their divorce proceedings. I’m normally pretty jaded about these things and don’t even listen much, but I actually lost it a little. I had to look down and busy myself on conforming some paperwork. The victim’s mom addressed the Court and gave us a glimpse of what the children were going through.
The seven-year-old daughter of the victim (and of the defendant) had asked her grandma, the speaker, to ask the judge, “Now that my mommy’s dead, when Dad dies, will he go to the same place that my mommy’s at right now?” The mother of the victim had told her granddaughter, “No, honey, he did the lowest thing possible before God, he took the life of another person. He will never be where your mom is right now.” The little girl had said, “Good, because I know that if he goes where she is, he will keep hurting her.” The victim’s mother sobbed as she explained how her very young granddaughter still lives in constant fear that even when the defendant is no longer of this earth, that he will still keep hurting her mother.
From the 11-year-old son of the victim (the defendant is not his father):
“She was too good for him. I hate him for taking her away from me. She will never see me graduate from high school, go into the army, get married, or meet my wife and children. But I’m grateful that my grandmother will always be on my side. How could he kill his daughter’s mother? He left my sister without a mother or a father. Don’t worry, I will take care of her way better than he ever did because I am more of a man that he will ever be. Not only did he keep my mother away from me, for the rest of my life, he also kept her away from me while she was alive. He never liked me. Before he killed my mom, he told her that he wanted to kill me. Because of that, she had me live with my grandmother to keep me safe. Right before he killed my mother, he told her that he had already killed me just to terrorize her even more.”
From the sister of the victim:
“I go day by day wondering if my sister died thinking her son was dead. Because she knew and we all know this man would hurt all of us in my family.”
It is such an unconscionable, moral violation to turn a mother’s love against her in order to rob her of the ability to rest in peace, even right before he permanently ended her life. I can’t imagine this type of cruelty.
So sad, hearing stories like these just pushes me further into obtaining my new career, I am glad that he was caught before he could hurt the children further.
Yeah, his defense was equally sad. He claimed he was just holding the gun (after he chased her into the storage room of a department store) and it went off on accident, he wasn’t pointing it at her or anything but the bullet ricocheted off a wall and hit her in the back of her head, and that he didn’t even know she was hit, he thought she just passed out so he left. And then proceeded to throw the gun out the car window and abandon the car down a cliff.
It is situations like these which test my feelings on the death penalty
We continued the sentencing because defendant’s attorney needed time to file a Motion for New Trial, so we didn’t sentence this guy. I’ll post what the sentence is (it’s not a death penalty case) on 11-3-05 when they come back.
And don’t worry, people, criminal proceedings are public record. I could even post case number and names legally.
I can’t fathom the amount of pain that the victim’s family is feeling right now.
I also can’t believe that the defendant has no shame, and won’t admit that he even committed the crime. What a ridiculous testimony.
[…] d at 10:34 am Remember that defendant I wrote about in the October 26, 2005 entry The Human Side of the System? I said I’d let you guys know what the sentence is and today is the guy’s […]