Accountability

We were both pretty nervous about what we wanted to say to the judge, so we met with the prosecutor the morning of sentencing.  I was concerned about what Mark had prepared.  Because of his brain injury, he struggles with social cues and seeing outside of himself.  He was desperate for the judge to understand that HE didn't borrow the trailer from Chuck and that the damage was minimal.  He wanted her to understand that he almost lost his life over a $100 repair.  Both the prosecutor and I tried to explain to him that all of that was covered in the trial and didn't need to be addressed at the sentencing.  He couldn't remember most of what was said at the trial, so he and I went over it SEVERAL times before he prepared his remarks.  But once he got up to speak, he didn't know what to say.  He started talking about the trailer and the judge stopped him and told him that all of that was taken care of in the trial.  He said, "Ok, I'm sorry.  I don't really know what I'm supposed to say."  She said he could say what he feels and he said, "I want him to go to prison."  Then he sat down.  I had anticipated that it was going to happen like that, so I prepared my remarks as the voice for my family.  The voice for Mark.

Just before our hearing started, the prosecutor was doing a sentencing hearing for a man who has sexually molested his 13-year-old daughter.  She was seated on a pew two rows in front of us.  Before the judge gave her sentencing, she spoke directly to this young woman.  She talked to her about choices, and how none of this was her fault.  This was the result of the choices her father made.  Nothing she did could save him from going to prison because that is the consequence of HIS choices.  When I approached the podium to speak, all I could think about was what the judge had said to that girl.  And how it was EXACTLY what I had prepared to read in my two-page statement.  But I couldn't read it.

I told the judge that this case was not about a trailer.  It was about a choice made by Chuck to allow his anger to control his actions.  Chuck had several OTHER choices he could have made, but he CHOSE to assault his brother.  I told her that just one week before the sentencing when Mark had gone to his parents house to talk to his Dad, that Chuck wasn't there and had seen Mark in the neighborhood and came back to the house and was yelling at Mark and flipping him off.  Chuck called the police and so Mark had to stay there until they arrived so he could explain himself.  The officer that spoke to him said that he was familiar with the case and that it would be best if Mark would call before he came down to his parents' home as it was now Chuck's residence, as well.  I told her that as Chuck stood there and apologized for "his part" in all of this, that his actions speak differently.  Someone that is truly penitent doesn't flip off and yell at the person they've wronged.  I told her how our life is now.  How Mark's life is now.  I quoted from the scriptures where it says that mercy cannot rob justice, because God would cease to be God.  My closing words were, "Chuck was out of jail just two hours after Mark got out of surgery.  He has served 14 hours.  Only fourteen hours.  My husband has a LIFE sentence.  Please do not let mercy rob justice and send Chuck to prison."

The judge said that this was one of the most difficult trials she's had to oversee.  She said that after reading all of the letters from various people in the family and now having presided over this trial that this family was broken long before this assault.  She then told Chuck that this case IS about choices.  And he made, by his own admission, a choice to hit his brother because he was "tired of it."  She then sentenced him to 1-15 years in prison.

We were relieved.  Not happy, not ecstatic, not joyous.  Relieved.  The judge does the sentencing, but it's the parole board that decides how long he actually serves.  The earliest he would be able to leave prison is May 11, 2013.  There will be an administrative hearing in November that will determine when his first parole hearing will be.