As the scales tip.... - Last November I took a look at why Scott Peterson was the media darling when a similar case out of North Carolina didn't even look to generate a text scrawl on the MSM shows.
That similar case concerned the brutal murder and dismemberment of April Greer and her unborn child of eight months by her boyfriend Jerry Lynn Stuart, Jr.
I've been following the little news I could scrounge from Google News and MSN News and this week Stuart was convicted of her murder. The Sentencing phase is taking place now and he is looking at life in prison or the death penalty.
I personally think he should get the death penalty but I'm sure the jurors will arrive at a more informed decision on what sentence to mete out.
At the end of my post last November, I wrote:
Of course the really unfortunate thing here is that the focus isn't the victims, it's the monsters.
That fact remains to this day and apparently was even more evident in the court room during the trial of Stuart.
Keren Rivas writes for the Alamance County Times-News concerning a tactic that the defense took in attempting to make this murderer, Jerry Stuart, Jr., the victim:
Defense attorneys have argued throughout the trial that several factors led Stuart to cut Greer’s throat in their Moran Street apartment on Feb. 13 or 14, 2003, and dismember and dump her body into Back Creek.
Greer, 20, was close to eight months pregnant when she was murdered.
Seeking a life sentence, the defense is now trying to persuade the jury that Stuart’s troubled childhood of abuse and poverty created a personality disorder that was triggered when he found out Greer was being unfaithful.
The defense brought in a so called "expert witness" who testified on how such a terrible background could lead a person to an "abnormal reaction".
Murdering a mother and her unborn child then cutting offer her members is "abnormal"? Go figure.
Jerry Stuart, Jr., is such the victim here.
Pfui!
This expert witness said he didn't analyze Stuart personally so he couldn't say for certain that he followed the "pattern" of a person abused and striking out in rage at his perceived rejection by April. What in the world was he doing on the stand in defense of Staurt if he hadn't analyzed him?!
Oh, yeah. Trying to make Stuart the victim. I forgot.
Argh!
I feel really sorry for the true victims here. The families left behind who now must live with the grief of such a horrible crime.
April Bartlett, who found the Great Separation via a news article ("Case sparks Internet Talk") in the Times-News by Brandee Hayhurst, is one such person I pray for today. She is the aunt to April Greer and this morning left a comment here on this weblog.
She wrote:
I knew and loved her very personally. She lived with her uncle and me for about 1 1/2 years. And like Donna, I miss her very much. Going through this trial has been harder than I could have imagined. I am sorry that the media didn't make her a "darling" but she was ours. She was a bright, outgoing and loving 20 year old when she and the life of her unborn daughter were brutally snuffed out....
She was not perfect-are any of us?-but she offered a lot to the people who knew and loved her....
April was a Christian (though misguided and stubborn) and it was through prayer that I was reassured that she is now in Heaven with Jesus. That has been my strength though all this and the reason I and my husband are praying for Jerry's salvation and for his family. Life will go on without April Renee but a ray of sunshine has been removed from our lives.
You have my prayers Mrs. Bartlett and I will pray for Jerry too. May the peace of Christ rest upon you and your family and may His strength be a balm to the empty wound in your hearts.
Update: 2005-05-25
Jerry Stuart Sentenced To Life In Prison.
