So, the Jury came back. As I said, I was an Alternate so I did not participate in the end of the trial. The Clerk called me today & knew I wanted to know the verdicts. She said Guilty on one count & hung on the other three.
From my post yesterday, it probably seemed like a civil trial. It wasn't. It was two counts lewd & lascivious with a child under 14, showing child under 14 obscene material & possession &/or control of child pornography.
Mark Wayne Mosley was found guilty on the fourth count. I verify that. I saw many of the photos found on his computer.
The other counts were hung. As they should have been if he wasn't found not guilty for reasonable doubt.
This whole case was horrible. This family was horrible. These were the biggest bunch of dirt bags I have ever seen.
Mark was the step Grandfather to the young boy & the step father of his Mom & step father-in-law of his Dad. They all seem to have been in these relationships for 12 years, so they were long term. And Mark & Peggy obviously gave a lot of money & assistance to Eric & Mary & their kids.
And apparantly the house & property in Whitmore had belonged to Peggy & Mary's Dad, who had died, & there was a belief by Eric that if something happened to Peggy the house & property should go to Mary & himself rather than to Mark. That seemed to cloud everything in the entire situation.
I said yesterday that no one was completely innocent & no one was completely guilty. I actually should have said that the truth always seems to end up being between the stories told. It just depends on which side it's closer to help figure out what happened.
We had to listen to testimony from a 10 year old boy. I'm sure something inappropriate may have happened, but the story was so jumbled, so influenced by outside motives, so tainted that I couldn't believe it.
I know if I press my son to really tell me the truth, I had damn sure better know what the truth is because if I don't, his four year old mind can get confused & then neither of us is sure.
This kid would have been more believable if his Dad hadn't been on the stand before him. If his Dad hadn't gotten into an altercation with his common-law wife's Mom's common-law husband. Hadn't fired a gun at him while living in a camper trailer on the Mom's property. Hadn't been a prior felon & arrested & convicted because of that incident with the gun, ammunition & the cultivation & sale of marijuana. He was the king dirt bag.
I did feel terrible for this kid & his little sister. They have no chance.
But the kid may have started with the truth but after the two years time span, 8 months since they filed the charges & 2 years since they'd lived on the property when the events were said to have occurred, the story had gotten mixed up. It had even seriously changed since the first police interview.
This kid's family was on SSI, they never worked & they apparently did not make their kids go to school regularly based on all the SARB letters they received. But they did grow & sell pot & likely meth stemming from the Dad's conviction from 2001.
The prosecutor did a really good job making me try to look past the family & focus on the boy's bravery for testifying with Mark in the room. I had tears in my eyes when he was up there. But some of his story just sounded made up. And it's hard to know what to believe.
I'm glad I was an alternate. I would have been one of the hold-outs for Not Guilty. But Not Guilty does not mean Innocent. Because the adults in this case were not innocent. The 10 year old was innocent. But he was tainted.
By his Dad. By the venom between his parents & his "grandparents."
This family is fucked for life. How can it ever heal?
What I said about privacy is relevant to the pictures found on Mark's computer. There were photos of thumbnails blown up that Mark had looked at on his computer two years ago. He didn't click on most of them so they were just thumbnail pictures of websites he had visited. He had viewed some of them so there was no way to discount that but he hadn't downloaded them. He had looked at them.
They were found by a Detective that specialized in computer forensics. That part of the case was fascinating. All of the photos were seized just from what he had viewed. So he didn't really control the pornography in his possession because he couldn't get back to it unless he revisited those websites, but it was still on his computer. He had viewed it. He admitted it. He admitted he did it for sexual gratification. He's a sick s.o.b. I think he'll be in jail for a while, as he should be. I think kiddie porn charges will get your ass kicked in prison, too, which is as it should be. He's still getting less than he deserves but as much as could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
I'm rambling, I know, but I'm rattled.
Let me know what you think. It was very interesting & upsetting & I'm a little changed.
I am very protective of my son already, but I will be even more so in the future.
Have a good night. Thanks for reading.
Keep him from the dirt in the world by knowing that it exists, and applying education to his upbringing. Both of you stay well!
ReplyDeleteSecretia
Life is interesting, confusing and frightening. By making our children aware of the dangers we are helping arm themselves to be better protected when we aren't around. It's sad though...because when you expose children to this element and make them aware it exists...it kills a little bit of their chilhood enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteThat's the part that I hate to watch. The light grows a little dimmer every time we have to expose them to something of this nature. Unfortunately that's the facts of the world we live in. It's always been there...we are just that much more aware of it now than ever before. Sorry about having reality come crashing in...but court room cases always change you...in one way or another. Sometimes for the better when you see justice served...sometimes for the worse...but you are never the same when you leave. Take care and rest assured...that boy will always be ready to take on the world with a mamma like you at his side.