January
26, 2007
JUSTICE!
The
jury resumed their deliberations at 9:30 this morning. Obviously, Gary’s family and I could not
know what was going on inside the jury room, so we spent most of the day
hanging around the court house, drifting between the court room and the
cafeteria – waiting. It was in the
cafeteria, at around 3:40PM, Michelle (Gary’s sister) received a call on her
cell from the bailiff that the jury had reached a verdict; we headed back
upstairs and waited for the attorneys and the defendant to arrive. By 4:PM, everyone
had arrived (including Sergeant Kazakos – it was the
first time I had ever seen him in his uniform).
The jury was brought back into the court room, and at around 4:05PM, the verdict was read; let
me tell you, those were the longest 25 minutes of my life. The jury found Seima Moloi guilty of murder in the 1st degree,
and found that special circumstances existed (that the crime was committed
during the commission of a robbery & burglary); Seima Moloi is never getting out of prison.
After
the verdict was read, and the date for sentencing was set (March
2, 2007),
Gary’s mom & sister, Howard
Gundy, James Kazakos and I were able to go out and
talk to the jury. The jurors all hugged Gary’s mom & sister; all the
women hugged me & the guys shook my hand.
The jurors had been pretty well convinced of Moloi guilt early into
their deliberations; two of the jurors felt a little uneasy about sending
someone as young as Moloi to prison for the rest of his life, but in the end, they
new that Moloi was guilty and he had to answer for what he had done. With the trial over, I was able to tell the
jury about the charges against Moloi in Palm Springs, and they all felt a lot
better about their decision. Two of the
younger jurors particularly liked Howard’s Power Point presentation. As for my concern about Howard’s questioning
of the grandfathers, it turns out I had nothing to worry about; with every
witness that testified on behalf of the defense, the jury became progressively
more convinced of Moloi’s guilt.
I
wished I had never had to go through this, and that Gary were still here, but I
could not be more pleased with the final result. The people who gave justice to Gary and made Moloi answer for
what he had done did an excellent job, and I will never be able to thank them enough.
As
stated earlier, sentencing is scheduled for March 2,
2007.
