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LARGO – Since the death of Phoebe Jonchuck four years ago, when her father dropped 62 meters from a bridge, screaming as she plunged into the cold water of Tampa Bay, the region was waiting for closure.
This moment could come soon.
After more than three weeks of testimony in John Jonchuck's murder trial and four hours of oral argument on Monday, the jury began deliberating as the courthouse closed for the evening.
Day 20: Final arguments and deliberation
Chronology and who is who
The long fall of Phoebe Jonchuck
John Jonchuck's trial comes down to a question: diabolical or crazy?
The seven men and five women will have to decide whether Jonchuck, 29, was crazy when he killed his 5-year-old daughter. Or if he committed this act out of spite, to take revenge on Phoebe's mother and punish her own mother.
In Florida, unlike some other states, there is no possibility of a verdict that a person is guilty but suffering from mental illness. So, even though a policeman saw Jonchuck wearing Phoebe from her car on the Dick Misener bridge and knocking her down over the railing – and there is no doubt that Jonchuck was responsible for the death of her daughter – if the jurors agree that he was crazy. when he lets her down, they must find him not guilty because of insanity.
This verdict would mean that the judge could send Jonchuck to a mental health treatment center, order him to go on an outpatient treatment program, or even let him go, in theory. If he is sentenced to the psychiatric hospital, as the judge has announced, he could stay there until the end of his days. If the doctors deemed him fit later, he could be released.
But if the jurors declare Jonchuck guilty of premeditated murder or first degree murder, he will be sentenced to life imprisonment without appeal.
In presenting their final submissions to the jury, prosecutors and public defenders followed the same chronology of events but presented the most accurate versions of their differing interpretations of the case.
"It's never going to make sense. We did our best, we listened to everything. It's crazy, "Public Defender Jessica Manuele said. "John has never had any ill-will or criminal intent against his daughter. He loved his daughter. Over all."
But the state had the last word.
"It was not madness," said Attorney Doug Ellis. "It was all the problems of his life: lack of money, lack of friends and support from the family, lack of housing."
The jury left the courtroom to start deliberating at 4:47 pm. They still had not delivered their verdict at 18:45. and went home for the night.
"This is the most interesting trial I have ever had," Judge Chris Helinger said before leaving the seat. "Probably never."
• • •
The final day of oral proceedings began as the first, with prosecutor Paul Bolan trying to show the jury how Jonchuck was in the "here and now" when he killed his daughter. He urged jurors not to choose the easy way out, declaring Jonchuck insane because they could not understand such a heinous murder. And he pointed out that just because someone has a mental illness does not make them mad.
The prosecutor reminded the jury of a statement that Jonchuck had made in his lawyer's office hours before killing his daughter.
"He said that none of this would matter tomorrow," said Bolan. "The day of the murder. So why not think about it for a moment?
The case of the state rests on revenge. Jonchuck, they say, was an erratic and angry addict who for years had been abusing his family. According to prosecutors, Phoebe's mother, Michelle Kerr, was dating a new man and posing a greater threat than ever to the custody of this girl. Jonchuck's mother, Michele, had never shown her much love as a child, but now Phoebe was the center of her world. During this time, Jonchuck felt alone and rejected.
According to prosecutors, to harm the two women, he killed his daughter.
The defense argued that Jonchuck was acting on a lure, that he and Phoebe had to die to save the world. State attorneys responded with a simple question: if Jonchuck really believed him, why is he still alive?
"If he really believed that he and Phoebe were to die, he would not do it," said Bolan, raising his voice and showing Jonchuck. "He is not dead. He did not jump.
The long-time prosecutor of the prosecutor, Doug Ellis, partner of Bolan, marched in front of the jury later in the afternoon, trying to bring his case home. He showed a picture of Phoebe on the spotlight in the courtroom, the smiling face on the television screen hanging on the left shoulders of the jurors. The picture was slightly crooked – a portrait of kindergarten, Phoebe in a ruffled pink blouse, her favorite color.
"Her body temperature was 44.6 degrees" when rescuers took her out of Tampa Bay, Ellis said. He pointed at the screen and the jurors followed his finger. In the gallery, the prosecutor's wife gasped, then shook her head and sniffed.
"This little girl died in cold, cold water," Ellis said.
Jonchuck, sitting at the end of the defense table, lowered his head and rubbed his face.
"This case concerns the death of this girl," said Ellis. "And who did it?"
• • •
Defense lawyers pointed to Jonchuck's long struggle for his mental health problems, pointing out that he had begun to see a counselor and take mood stabilizing medication at the age of 5 years. They claimed that his psychosis had begun to appear weeks, even months before he was killing Phoebe's Bible Beat, seeing Phoebe's eyes turn black and hearing voices telling him to kill himself and kill Phoebe.
Jonchuck's lawyer told the jury that he did not make these things. He was sick.
Manuele spent a lot of time in her pleadings to try to discredit the prosecution's expert witnesses, especially psychiatrist Emily Lazarou. Of the five psychologists and psychiatrists who spoke, Lazarou was the only one to believe that Jonchuck did not suffer from any mental illness, but simulated the situation – inventing things to his advantage.
The other expert witness for the prosecution, psychologist Peter Bursten, agreed that Jonchuck was suffering from mental illness, but that was not what made him kill his daughter. Jonchuck knew what he was doing on this bridge, Bursten had said. And he knew it was wrong.
The three defense experts said Jonchuck was crazy at the time.
"If five out of six doctors said you had cancer, you would not want to go home, take NyQuil and continue.
Manuele also recounted Jonchuck's statement after the arrest of the police that evening. He asked the officers, "Is Phoebe doing well?" Then he said, "She was my daughter" – using the past.
Instead of acknowledging that he knew that Phoebe was dead, as the attorneys had said, Manuele argued that Jonchuck could have always been delusional. Did he think that Phoebe was no longer her daughter because she had become Archangel Michael? Or because the archangel had taken? "Another explanation for the same statement," said the lawyer.
"It is irrational to try to make sense of these psychotic symptoms," she said. "So, the illusion does not make sense" and "it does not give reason" to the voices that tell him to kill himself. "But we are also counting on John's memory," Manuele said. "We are stuck with what we have."
The judge interrupted Manuele, saying that she was running out of time. But the defense lawyer had one last chance to speak. "It's never going to make sense. We did our best, we listened to it, "she said.
"He caused her death. He is guilty of this. "But" either he did not know what he was doing or he did not know it was wrong. "
"It's crazy."
• • •
The courthouse closed when the jurors left to begin deliberating.
The judge lowered his eyes and encouraged them:
"You are in charge now."
Contact Zachary T. Sampson at [email protected] Follow @ZackSampson. Contact Josh Solomon at [email protected] @ ByJoshSolomon. Contact Lane DeGregory [email protected] Follow @LaneDeGregory.
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