harbinger SHAWNEE MISSION EAST
What’s Inside
ISSUE 4, OCT. 21, 2003
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Cars that stand out Kill Bill movie review Coach Barecca works on a comeback
Justice witness verdict jury lawyer GUILTY justice deliberations safety security abuse defendant felon FIRST-DEGREE MURDER juror prosecutor swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the TRUTH objection district attorney public defender isolation decision testimony witness verdict jury lawyer GUILTY justice deliberations safety security abuse defendant felon FIRST-DEGREE MURDER juror prosecutor swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the TRUTH objection district attorney public de ender isolation decision testimony witness verdict jury lawyer GUILTY justice deliberations safety security abuse defendant elon FIRST-DEGREE MURDER juror prosecutor swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the TRUTH objection district attorney public defender isolation decision testimony witness verdict jury
One teacher goes from classroom to courtroom as a murder trial juror THE EDGAR TRIAL
in brief
THE CASE • 9-year-old Brian Edgar was found dead in Dec. 2002 after being wrapped “mummy-style” in duct tape.
THE PEOPLE • Christy Edgar, Brian’s adoptive mother. • Neil Edgar, Brian’s adoptive father. • Chasity Boyd, Brian’s babysitter All were charged with child abuse and first-degree murder.
THE VERDICT • Christy Edgar pleaded guilty • Jury found Neil Edgar and Chasity Boyd guilty
Libby Nelson World Geography teacher Elizabeth Wallace gets off the bus and into her car. It’s been a week since she last taught – a week of isolation, confinement, silence. She drives to East in the dark like she has all week, trying to calm down, hoping she won’t be late for conferences. She cries the whole way. The jury she served on has just found two people guilty of murder. Wallace spent ten days in September on the jury for the Edgar murder trial. Nine-year-old Brian Edgar had died in December 2002 after spending two nights wrapped in duct tape. His adoptive parents Neil and Christy Edgar and babysitter Chasity Boyd were accused of his murder. Wallace was picked from a pool of 600 to spend a week and a half on the jury. It was a week and a half in a small room with 13 others, a week and a half of hearing testimony and saying nothing, a week and a half of feeling trapped, emotionally and physically. After receiving a letter in July that told her she was a potential juror, Wallace came to the courthouse to learn about the case on Sept. 15. She was “shocked and devastated” to learn that it was the trial of the adoptive parents and babysitter of Brian Edgar. All but 80 jurors were excused that day. Wallace was not. She returned to the courthouse on Wednesday to answer more questions: did she know the
defendants? The witnesses? Would racial prejudice affect her decision? Examine yourself, the attorneys said. Ask yourself if you already think they’re guilty or not guilty. After nine hours of questioning, she and 11 others knew that they had been selected for the jury. The trial would begin the next day. “I was overwhelmed,” Wallace said. “It seemed like a huge responsibility that I would be in charge of whether these three people would spend the rest of their lives in prison or not. There were moments where I thought ‘I already have an opinion’… I just prayed to be objective, to be able to listen with an open mind.” The next morning, Wallace drove to the National Guard Headquarters parking lot and met a bus there so that neither her safety nor the privacy of the case would be endangered. A policeman followed the bus to the Johnson County courthouse. The 12 jurors and two alternates were led to the jury room, where breakfast was waiting for them. The room was so small that the 14 of them could barely fit. They would spend the next week in either the jury room or the courtroom. I hope we all get along, because these are tight quarters, she thought. The trial began the next morning. After 30 minutes of opening arguments, the jurors were sent off for a “10-minute
photo by Jessie Fetterling break.” It lasted three and a half hours. They were finally called back in to learn that Christy Edgar, Brian’s adoptive mother, had pleaded guilty. “I was shocked,” Wallace said. “To this day I’m surprised that she went this far in the justice system, sat through three days of jury selection and then pleaded guilty without talking to her attorney.” The trial continued with only two defendants – Brian’s adoptive father Neil Edgar and 20-year-old babysitter Chasity Boyd -- and the 35 witnesses who were called the first day. Wallace watched their body language, their posture, as the attorneys had advised, trying to see if they were telling the truth. ≠≠She was most affected, though, by the testimony of witnesses she never saw. The statements of the other Edgar children were taped before the trial began. One girl showed how they would bind her wrists together tightly with duct tape as routine discipline. Sometimes, she said, if she were especially bad, they would tape her mouth and eyes shut as well. “I thought about how painful that would be and how scary it would be there in the dark with that tape on you. But they never blamed their parents,” Wallace said. “They’d say, ‘My parents are good people, they would never hurt any of us. We were just really bad kids.’ They really loved their parents.”
See “Trial,” page 2