It was about six months after the breakup when I was driving in my car, running an errand for my day job. Over the radio I heard the craziest thing I ever thought I would. They said Jason had been arrested for the alleged murder of a 19-month-old. No details. I think I stopped breathing for a second when I heard that. I knew it was MY Jason, because of his age and the location, but I also knew with absolute certainty that he was incapable of such.
Jason is the oldest of 3 boys, and he grew up in a home where his mother ran a daycare, so he had always been surrounded by young children. In fact, he loved kids so much that when we were dating he begged me one night to have his child! I had been sure that I never wanted to be a mom, having no maternal instincts myself, and being the baby of my family, I had not been around kids much, but he assured me that he would take care of our baby. I had seen his wonderful interaction with his own baby, and I knew what an awesome father he was, how much he loved children, and for a moment I considered his request. Unfortunately, that was not in the cards for us. Anyone who knows Jason will tell you that he is the most gentle soul you will ever meet. Luckily for him, he was raised a rough a tumble boy, always playing football and other sports (which would prepare him for the hard road ahead, having to defend himself), but he was not a fighter, and I had never--not one single time--seen him even get angry with anyone. When Jason gets angry, you get a cold stare, and he walks away. The thought that he could harm anyone, let alone a toddler, was inconceivable.
Back in those days, we didn't have cell phones. We didn't have Facebook. If your phone line was disconnected, you pretty much lost touch. That was what had happened with us. I had no way to contact him, to comfort him, to give him my support. The only way I got information was on the news or in the newspaper. I have now been able to fully investigate and fill in the blanks, I have read trial transcripts and spoken to people who attended his trials, and have even spoken with the child's mother, and here is that story:
A child's death is one of the most horrible things imaginable, and my heart goes out to everyone who loved this child. The short of it is that Jason was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was babysitting while the mother was at work. When he went upstairs to check on the child, she was turning blue in her crib. I believe a friend who was with him called 911 while Jason attempted CPR. Unfortunately, the baby died on the way to the hospital.
Jason was charged with murder despite the fact that there was no weapon, no motive, no confession, no witness, nothing at all to indicate that he had any part of this poor child's death. As I said, simply wrong place/wrong time. Now for the crazy legal road he was forced to travel...
I have asked him a million times why he put his faith and trust in the judicial system as he did. All he can say is that he knew he was innocent, and he thought that there was no way they would convict an innocent man. On the surface with no evidence, I might have been inclined to agree with him. But since the advent of DNA testing, tens of thousands of innocent poor souls have been freed from prison. Unfortunately, Jason's case is not a DNA case. So here's the kicker: Jason was tried FOUR TIMES. That's right, four times. I didn't even know that was legal. It should not be legal. In some states it is not legal. But in Georgia, you can try someone for the same crime an unlimited number of times until a verdict is reached. For his first three trials, it was a hung jury. Important facts to come out of these trials is that (1) The autopsy performed on the baby was the physician's FIRST UNSUPERVISED AUTOPSY. Really? Something that important (an alleged homicide), and you're going to put it in the hands of an inexperienced, unsupervised physician? and (2) someone from the GBI Crime Lab testified on Jason's behalf that if they had done that autopsy, they would NOT have ruled it a homicide. Okay, there's nothing else to know. There was no other damning evidence, no skeletons brought out of the closet. In fact, the "victim's" mother testified on Jason's behalf, as well as the mother's family. They had known Jason for YEARS.
So what do we think really happened? They know that the baby fell and hit her head on concrete the day before. The day of her death, she hit her head again going through a doorway on the door frame while being carried on her mother's hip. Two head traumas in a very short time period, both while not in Jason's care. Cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head. Head injuries can manifest symptoms many hours after the injury. Medical experts testified to this on Jason's behalf. Unfortunately, the baby was not showing signs at the time that she needed medical attention, just being whiny and crying as kids often do when they bump their heads. I'm sure many parents can relate.
After the third trial ended with a hung jury yet again, I thought surely the DA would drop it. There was never any new evidence, the child's family didn't want another trial, and there was no reason to believe that a fourth trial would end any differently. I was not in attendance, but people who were have told me that the presiding judge told the DA not to bring the case back into his courtroom without new evidence. Yet somehow Jason was made to go through a fourth trial. This time he was convicted. How? I'm not sure. I do know from reading the entire fourth trial transcript that his attorneys did not bring up the fact that the autopsy was this physician's first unsupervised autopsy, nor was the testimony for the defense by the person who worked for the GBI crime lab brought up. That amazes me. Without those important facts being brought up, it was just anybody's guess what had happened, and he must have gotten a bad jury. If I am ever on any jury, I will not convict anyone without sufficient evidence.
I got the news via a TV news blurb in February of 2001. I was in graduate school at the time and spent a lot of time at my mom's house, which was only 10 minutes from the University. I was getting ready to go to my evening class, and as soon as I heard he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, I lost it--literally. Luckily my mother happened to arrive home about 5 minutes after, finding me in a heap on the floor, inconsolable. I don't even remember how I got out what was wrong, but she somehow pieced it together and calmed me down, as only my momma could. She knew that keeping me busy was the best thing for me, so she encouraged me to go on to my class. I went, but after about five minutes of sitting there trying to act normal, I knew I couldn't do it. My soul mate had just been convicted of a crime he did not commit, and had been sentenced to LIFE IN PRISON.
In graduate school, you are not allowed to get anything but As and Bs. If you get a C, you are on probation, more than one C (or any Ds or Fs) and you get kicked out of school. So I dropped that class to maintain my GPA, and thank goodness it was an elective. I wrote Jason a letter and sent it to the Columbia County jail where I knew he was, sadly finally having a way to reach him. I did not hear back from him, and my heart ached every day. I couldn't imagine was he was going through...My man with the gentle soul who couldn't stand to be alone, always the life of the party, always with friends or family, locked up...isolated in God only knew what conditions. I was scared for him, sad for him, and just wished that I could do something. Anything. But it would be a long time before I would know; I had to wait until our Chapter 2.
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