[Monday: 3.5 miles; Today: track day 3 miles]
I still have my 30 days – for – 30 dollars deal on the county circuit court records access, so last week I checked up on my jury-duty case to see if anything had happened. Low and behold, the sentencing date was listed: Jun 12th at 9 AM.
This morning I went back to the court house and sat in on the sentencing hearing. I was the only spectator in the large courtroom where we had done the initial jury selection in May.
There were 4-5 sheriff deputies, another 4-5 court bailiffs, the two lawyers, the court reporter, the court clerk and a couple of law enforcement spectators, along with the judge, and the defendant.
The prosecution submitted some information to classify the guy as a “habitual offender”, a bad thing for him. Also there was a document the defendant needed to sign in order to get a free appeal lawyer. The judge went away for awhile to examine the paper work.
When we were in session again he said that the paperwork showed the defendant had 6 other felony convictions that were applicable to the habitual offender classification. The judge ruled that he was a habitual offender. And that then triggered the maximum sentence term of 20 years.
Along the line the defendant raised his hand on a couple of points and the judge let him talk a bit, this was not via his lawyer but just the guy on his own. The 2nd time, it was after the sentence was pronounced and the guy raised his hand and said basically: the trial was on the basis of not being a habitual offender, so it was not right to later classify him one. It was literally a legal argument, probably the most sensible thing I had heard him say in both the trial and this hearing. But the judge said he should discuss that with his lawyer (meaning his appeal lawyer) and they hauled him out for “transportation” to the department of corrections.
To wrap up: The guy tried to roll another guy, probably for some money, ineptly stabbed him a couple of times, lost the fight (was knocked unconscious). He then spent a lot of time in jail and in psych evaluations and eventually had a trial and was convicted by the jury in about 20 minutes. And now he is spending the next 20 years in prison.
I don’t have any disagreement with the outcome. Maybe the 20 years is a bit harsh, but the guy has spent most of the last 20 years in prison/jail, so nothing new to him. I would hope he would change over time given that his attempts to work the world by playing the “crazy card” aren’t really paying off. It’s a sad situation.