I've finished my civic obligation to Mercer County.

After all the testimony, all the waiting, all the missed work, all the safety concerns -- I was an alternate.

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=6]Gang member guilty[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][B]Jury convicts alleged triggerman in about an hour[/SIZE][/B][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Thursday, October 11, 2007[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]BY LINDA STEIN[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Latin Kings gang member Angel "Ace" Hernandez shook his head "no, no," and put his head in his hands, as a jury convicted him of murder yesterday in the gang execution of Trenton woman Jeri Lynn Dotson, 23. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Testimony in the lurid, cold- blooded killing stretched for three weeks, as gang members on tape and in person detailed violence perpetrated upon orders from a higher-up. Jury deliberations lasted just over an hour. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Hernandez, 21, was also found guilty of conspiracy and weapons offenses in the Aug. 31, 2004 death of Dotson. And he was convicted of conspiracy to attempted murder in the abduction and attempted murder of Alex Ruiz that precipitated Dotson's death. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Prosecutors said Dotson, herself a queen in the Latin Kings gang, was gunned down to silence her because she witnessed other gang members abduct Ruiz, 24, a member of a rival gang, from her house the evening before her killing. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Dotson's family and friends, who cried softly and prayed as they waited for the five-man, seven- woman jury to enter the courtroom, were pleased with the verdict but they know they have a long way to go until the case is over. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Four other members of the Latin Kings, including the leader, Jose "Boom Bat" Negrete, 25, are also charged with the murder and remain to be tried. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] "I'm glad justice is done for Jeri Lynn," said Linda Dotson, the victim's mother, who wears a heart- shaped necklace engraved with her daughter's image. "There will never be closure. No verdict is going to bring her back. There will never, ever be closure." [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] "Justice is served," said Lisa Dotson, Jeri Lynn's sister. "This is the first step." [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] As Hernandez, handcuffed and shackled, was led by sheriff's officers from the heavily guarded courtroom after his conviction, he called out an obscenity. He faces 30 years to life in prison when sentenced on Dec. 17. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] His family and friends also yelled: "Be strong, Angel," and "You put an innocent kid in jail." [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Outside the courthouse, his stepmother Anna Hernandez complained that the jury consisted of no minorities. A Hispanic woma[COLOR=Black]n [/COLOR][COLOR=Black]and an Asian woman were alternates. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] "How do you decide a kid's life in less than two hours?" she asked. "It doesn't end here. ...There was no justice done. This is no justice." [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Miguel Hernandez, the defendant's father, sat on a low step near the courthouse, weeping. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] "He was the only kid without a criminal record, nothing," he said of his son. The other gang members who testified against his son in exchange for plea deals had records, he said. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] James Sacks-Wilner, Hernandez's defense lawyer, promised to appeal. Just after the verdict, he made a motion for a mistrial that was denied by Superior Court Judge Darlene Pereksta. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Evidence that would have cleared his client was not presented during the trial, Sacks-Wilner said. He noted that prior to the trial, Pereksta ruled that the victim's daughter, who was barely 3 years old when her mother was killed, was not competent to testify, and therefore a taped statement made by the girl just after the killing could not be used as evidence. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] On that tape, according to Sacks-Wilner, the girl told detectives that the killer was a black man, whereas Hernandez is a pale-skinned Hispanic. The jury did not hear that tape. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] However, the jury did listen to Hernandez's own taped confession. In that tape Hernandez admitted that he shot Dotson and claimed that Negrete ordered him to do so. He told detectives that he would be killed if he did not comply with a direct order from the Latin Kings' leader or Inca. Hernandez also told detectives the children were sleeping when he and Maurice Young lured Dotson to her basement to execute her. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] According to testimony from gang member Joey Martinez, Martinez and the gang's enforcer, Jorge "Syns" Gomez, 25, followed Young, Hernandez and Josue "Sway" Maldonaldo to Dotson's house around 3 a.m. on the day of the killing. While Martinez and Gomez waited outside in another vehicle, the three alleged hitmen went inside. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] A few minutes later, Maldonaldo ran out and said the gun would not fire, Martinez said. Gomez told him to "mess around with it," Martinez said, and go back in. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Dotson was felled by one shot at close range fired next to her left ear. The jury saw several photos of the bullet wound and also a photo with a tiny footprint in the blood made by Dotson's young daughter, who discovered her mother's body and alerted a neighbor. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Martinez[/SIZE][SIZE=3] also testified about the attack on Ruiz, who had tried to defect from the Netas to the Latin Kings, sparking a gang war. According to testimony, Negrete ordered Ruiz to be turned over to the Netas, but when that group failed to kill him, he allegedly ordered his own men to finish the job.[/SIZE] [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Ruiz, who was nearly choked to death in the backseat of a car, then left in a trash bin on Duck Island, survived to testify against Hernandez. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Negrete, who spoke to The Times in a jailhouse interview, denied ordering the killings and claimed not to have the authority to do so under the gang's manifesto. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]During the nearly four-week long trial, Pereksta agreed to motions by Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Meidt to bar news photographers from taking pictures of the witnesses who were gang members due to fears for their safety. She also acceded to a defense request to bar photographs of two of Hernandez's family members who testified that he had an alibi. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] After the verdict Pereksta revoked Hernandez's bail. [/SIZE][/FONT]

Another article about the witness intimidation that occurred in this trial [nytimes].

I have to say I'd be checking under the car and very carefully opening the door for a few months after serving on that jury.

I think it was fortunate to be an alternate, for your sake.

They tried to get me on several juries for a day... but I absolutely do not believe in the death penalty, believe in legalization and ... let's just say I have personal experience with child abuse... you are not "allowed" to serve on those juries if you do.
I wanted to serve, but no one wanted me.

Well, this was gang-related murder. No drugs, child abuse or death penalty -- I had no grounds to refuse. We would have been deliberating for a lot longer than 70 minutes, had I been on the jury.

Are you saying you don't agree with the verdict, Pie?

There were 4 counts. I did not think the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt on two of the lesser charges. I did agree with the jury on
the big one (murder).

I've been summoned twice to serve in the 33 years I've been a registered voter. Never even made it to alternate. Pisses me off, because I'd actually *like* to serve that particular civic duty. I believe in our system of criminal justice, flawed though it is.

Pie;394341 wrote:

..... a photo with a tiny footprint in the blood made by Dotson's young daughter, who discovered her mother's body.....

I keep this word for very special occasions:

Fuck

Mummy? Mummy???? Muuummmmmyyy?


Fuck

That wasn't presented to us, Zen. We were not told of the little girl's discovery.

It's amazing what data does and does not make it in front of the jury. I took very seriously the injunction not to read/see anything about the case in the media (easy for me to do, since I had never wanted to read anything about Trenton in the ~30 years I've lived in this county). I guess the judge must have ruled that the little girl's statement, etc. would have been too prejudicial. It may make it into the sentencing phase.

I was only selected as an alternate right before deliberation started. Let me tell you, I was pissed. As anyone who knows me can vouch, I am nothing if not opinionated. Sitting through three weeks of testimony and missing the chance to make my opinions known was hard to swallow. :angry:

So 14 jurors sat through the trial, then they chose 12 of them to make the deliberation? I wonder who, and how, they made that choice?

16. They bounced 4 of us. The rejects were chosen by blind ballot by the court clerk (drawing slips of paper from a box.)

You weren't a reject, you were a trump card. You done good.

I think I hold some kind of record for time spent on a jury: 2.5 years
on a federal Grand Jury, but it was interesting to say the least.

Wow, I can only imagine how much that would suck.

Were you allowed to read the paper or watch TV during that time?

Pie;394673 wrote:

I was only selected as an alternate right before deliberation started.

That's different from the trials I've sat on. They always selected 12 jurors and 2-4 alternates (depending on the length) at the start.

Awesome! The gang leader was convicted, and Judge Pereksta sentenced the him last fall. The article below says he got 80 years, but I see a conflicting report in the trentonian that he was sentenced to life for ordering the Dotson murder, plus 20 years for the attack on Alex Ruiz.

TRENTON - Minutes after Latin King leader Jose "Boom Bat" Negrete issued a rambling indictment on society and blamed his victims for their own deaths, a judge sentenced him to spend the next 80 years behind bars for ordering the murder of Latin "Queen" Jeri Lynn Dotson and another gang underling in 2004.

Meting out the harshest punishment she could, Superior Court Judge Darlene Pereksta on Tuesday called the 27-year-old gang kingpin a bully and a coward for dispatching a group of young men to execute Dotson and Alex Ruiz, who survived.

"You had power over people weaker than you and you abused that power to commit crimes, to kill," Pereksta said.

And 'Ace' himself got life+20.

Angel “Ace” Hernandez was convicted of pulling the trigger as it was pointed at Dotson’s head and was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison.

Is that a bizarre way of saying he shot her in the head, or was there something else going on?

barefoot serpent;394349 wrote:

I have to say I'd be checking under the car and very carefully opening the door for a few months after serving on that jury.

Been there. Years ago, a girl I worked with was very interested in me. Eventually, I learned she was the girlfriend of a major mafia operative. I don't know how powerful. She had move out of his house and obtained this job. She told me of payments she delivered to police Lieutenants and Captains. And listed each by name and department. Therefore she was a ‘problem’. Eventually she quit her job to hide out.

Periodically, she would call me from her ‘location’.

Well, I took caution. At one point, noticed a car following me. I was using different routes. Constantly looking for ‘followers’. I was shocked how dumb obvious they were. So I took a turn off that nobody would take – because I could not believe ‘professionals’ were that bad. I watched the car stop in the middle of that highway intersection. They watched me drive around the curve.

Eventually she decided she had to leave town. I took her to the airport. Sat her in a back table with her back was always to the crowd and watched through large glass restaurant windows. If I started watching someone (while she was talking), she would get nervous, panic, and start looking about. I kept telling her to only look at me; that I was constantly watching over her shoulder. It was that scary for her.

Well, he kept calling her parents home. They said she was not there. But one day, he called when the parents were not home. She picked up the phone. In eight hours, he flew across seven states. Within twelve hours (I am told by her friend) that she was married. Now she was no longer a threat. She could not testify against him.

I told select others what I knew. Told friends that if missing, call the FBI. Not local police (for obvious reasons). Was I nervous? No. Apparently I am that dumb. Taking due precautions (and those precautions were numerous) also means fear did not happen. One who takes charge of his environment has no time for and therefore does not entertain fear. At least that is my theory.

tw;629339 wrote:

She could not testify against him.

Not true. She can't be forced to testify against him.