By Kathy Laird
After nearly four hours of deliberation on Friday, Oct. 20, verdicts were reached in the trial of Jason Westerfield.
At approximately 4:24pm, the jury notified Crawford County Judge Sean Leuthold that they had reached a verdict. The jury found 40-year-old Westerfield of Mansfield guilty burglary. However, they found him to be not guilty on the counts of aggravated robbery and felonious assault.
As soon as the verdicts were read, Leuthold went immediately to sentencing. The prosecution argued that Westerfield deserved the entire eight-year prison sentence based on his prior eight felony convictions. He was also on federal supervision at the time of his arrest on the current charges.
Attorney Adam Stone conceded that he could do nothing about Westerfield’s past, but felt based on the reduced charge that a two-year sentence was appropriate.
When asked if he had anything he wished to say, Westerfield rose and addressed the court. Noting he could not change his past, he said he’d done better and asked not to be judged on it. He told the jury he wished he had testified because the outcome might have been different.
Before revealing the sentence, Leuthold noted that the residence was not an unfamiliar place that Westerfield entered and that he had been there before. Leuthold also said that since Westerfield been acquitted of two of the charges, that worked in his favor.
“You ask me not to judge you on your past, but what else can I judge you on?” Leuthold asked. “The law states I have to take your past crimes into consideration. I’m not handing down a minimum sentence in this case.”
Leuthold then sentenced Westerfield to seven years in prison. He noted that he would inquire and assign an appeal attorney from the Mansfield area.
The decision came from the jury comprised of eight women and four men received the case after closing arguments by both sides.
Westerfield was charged with entering a residence at 515 N. Pearl Street, Crestline occupied by Crystal Caudill, assaulting her guest Christopher Brooks by causing him to have stitches in his lip and a broken leg. It also was alleged that as he was leaving the scene, he took a bottle of liquor that belonged to Brooks.
Citing that this was not a perfect case by any stretch, Assistant Prosecutor Robert Kidd explained to the jury that the state put forward its best evidence from witnesses in the case. He noted that although she testified reluctantly, Crystal Caudill could not seem to remember key details about the assault on Christopher Brooks. He noted that she was under pressure but not by the state, but rather by Westerfield.
“We called her a couple of times, the defendant called her 180 times,” Kidd asked. “We spoke with her a couple of hours, the defendant talked with her about 14 hours. Who is really pressuring the defendant?”
He charged the jury to consider whom she was really afraid of. Kidd then went through each of the three charges facing Westerfield, defining aggravated burglary, felonious assault and aggravated robbery. He explained why he felt the state had met their burden of proof.
In conclusion, Kidd asked the jury to consider the evidence and return a verdict of guilty.
Stone adamantly insisted that if the best evidence the state had was two liars, then they didn’t have much at all. He noted the lack of police corroboration and the fact that the state had to impeach their own witness in Crystal Caudill. He noted that both witnesses lied to police and that Crystal Caudill had given them the name of an assailant that didn’t even exist.
“You don’t get it both ways,” Stone said. “Count all the times she lied. Consider that he told some people he fell, others that he was attacked by three men and yet others that my client assaulted him.”
Noting that there was no proof Westerfield was in the house, no DNA or fingerprints and that no one can verify whether Brooks was hit or if he fell.
In an impassioned rebuttal, Assistant Prosector Ryan Hoovler told the jury that Caudill was under a lot of pressure.
“It’s pressure when you sit in this witness chair, no doubt,” Hoovler said. “She testified she cares about this man. She had to choose to tell the truth or testify to benefit him. That’s the pressure, tell the truth or protect him.”
He asked the jury to use their common sense and convict Westerfield.
The jury chose to have a working lunch and later in the day came back with a question for Leuthold.
Leuthold had given the jury an instruction that if they could not find the defendant guilty of the charge of aggravated burglary they could include the lesser charge of simple burglary. The jury informed the judge that they could not reach a verdict on that charge and sought permission to deliberate the lesser charge. Leuthold gave them permission.
A second declaration came from the jury when they reported to the judge that they had reached verdicts on two of the three counts but was at a standstill on the count of felonious assault.
After calling the jury back to the courtroom and putting his remarks on record; Leuthold said, “Well, you’re not done until I have verdicts on all three counts, so go back discuss this and reason with one another to try to get to a verdict. If you’re unable to reach a verdict we will begin deliberations again on Monday morning. Take as much time as you need.”
The jury returned to deliberation until the third verdict was agreed upon.