Victim Witness Trial

then listening to the girlfriend trying to get the victim to “stay with her” as the victim was gasping and gurgling. It was horrifying, but very interesting to me as well. The defendant ran off and was later caught in a high-speed chase in Savannah. His defense is trying to say it was self-defense because she came after him, honestly I can’t believe they are going with this because on the audio recording she was telling him to leave for about 15 minutes, then she said “what are you doing, what do you have in your pocket?” Then screams, there was no tussling or physical sounds heard, just voices. After opening statements there were many witnesses called, the director of the Victim Witness program in Fulton County, the Chief Medical Examiner

I won’t lie, I cried a bit during the prosecutors closing statement. The prosecutor started out with a replay of the audio tape of the killing, the family of the victim broke down as the victims screams before and after she was shot echoed in the courtroom. I heard so much more detail in the audio tape than I heard the first time and it is haunting me, the gurgling of blood as she tried to breathe, the victims friend wailing for her to not leave her. I feel messed up about this case, maybe it was too much for me? Regardless, the prosecutor ended his statements with large pictures of the 3 little boys who are now motherless, it was powerful and my heart sank for the little boys. The defense attorney did a good job with his statement considering, in my mind, the case was a slam dunk. I keep thinking about the little boys that are now living with the victim’s sister. What type of damage was done to them? I wrote a list of things that I noted throughout this case in regards to the kids: they had to endure their mother’s relationship with this man that was twice their mother’s age, who was in and out of jail, who moved them all over the southern states, they never seemed to have a stable living situation, their mother broke away from him and now their only father figure (good or bad) was gone, they then have a new random

I will be sad when I don’t get to walk through the doors with my “VIP” badge anymore. Yesterday I was able to sit in on the verdict and sentencing phase of the murder trial last week. The jury deliberated for over 4 hours, there were 12 charges stacked against the defendant, malice murder, felony murder, aggravated stalking, family violence battery, child deprivation, the list goes on. To make a long story short (for once), the defendant was found guilty and ultimately the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole. I was relieved that this guy will pay for what he did, he did not show any emotion when the verdict and sentencing was read, I’m assuming he knew what was coming. I met a super nice advocate this week named Margaret, my interns had her before me and I heard horror stories, however I really enjoyed helping her! I made a bunch of copies for her of her victim follow up surveys the D.A.’s office sends out then I put the letters in envelopes, she said I only had to do 50 or so, but I did the whole 100 for her anyways. We chatted at her desk for a while as she explained that she had nothing more for me to do. We talked about careers and I listened to her experience as she is quite a bit older than me. I explained that I would love to work in a school district setting until my children are a bit older and she told me she used to substitute teach at the Marietta School