Me collapsing on the floor. I testified for 3 hours. The defense attorney tried to paint me as vindictive as someone who deliberately provoked my family by posting photos online. He suggested I’d bought the house specifically to make them look bad. I bought the house because I wanted a home, I said simply. I worked hard for 20 years to be able to afford it.
My family’s opinions about my success weren’t part of that equation. But you excluded them from your Thanksgiving celebration, the attorney pressed. They excluded themselves and they excluded a dozen other family members from their celebration. I simply offered an alternative gathering for the people they’d uninvited and posting those photos online.
That wasn’t meant to antagonize them. I posted photos of a happy family gathering because I was proud of the day we’d had. If that antagonized them, they should examine why other people’s happiness makes them angry. The jury deliberated for less than 3 hours. Guilty on all counts. My father was sentenced to 6 years in prison with the possibility of parole after serving four years.
The judge made it clear that strangulation was one of the strongest predictors of future deadly domestic violence and he took it seriously. The breaking and entering, the complete lack of remorse, and the pattern of violent behavior Aunt Diane and Uncle Paul had testified about all factored into the sentence. You invaded your daughter’s property, destroyed her window, broke into her home, and violently assaulted her.
The judge said, “The video evidence shows a sustained attack driven by rage and entitlement. You showed no remorse, no understanding of the severity of your actions. This court hopes that your time in prison will give you the opportunity to reflect on your behavior and seek help.” My mother was in the courtroom. She testified as a character witness for my father, tearfully insisting he was a good man who’d just lost his temper
