After testimony from the defendant’s oldest daughter, no one in the courtroom would have been surprised if a jury member, say the oldest man or woman, had stood and said, “Your honor, we find the defendant guilty as charged on all counts. There are two or three big oak trees outside, with limbs of a sufficient nature, and we recommend taking up a collection to buy a proper size rope at the hardware store, and that you charge the sheriff to hang the defendant by the neck until he is dead.”
No one would
have spoken in opposition. Everyone in the courtroom would have given the
jurors a standing ovation.
A Red River
County Grand jury had charged Darrell Lee Smythe with 49 counts of aggravated
sexual assault on his two oldest daughters, then 12 and 11 years old. As the
prosecution pointed out, the only reason D.L. had not yet assaulted his third
daughter was that the girl was 8 years old, and the defendant did not consider
her old enough.
For the
trial, the prosecution brought D.L. up on nine of the aggravated sexual assault charges. The jury, following the
law and not what citizens wanted, found D.L. guilty on all charges. Jurors sentenced
D.L. to two concurrent life sentences and seven consecutive life sentences. D.L.
would begin serving the consecutive sentences after 30 years on the concurrent
sentences. He would serve – is serving – the consecutive life sentences in the
same manner – a new life sentence kicks in every 30 years. The difference, the
prosecution explained, had to do with a change in sentencing law.
That’s OK.
Two hundred forty years should be enough.
During the
trial, the prosecution alluded to D.L.’s murder of his wife a couple of weeks
before the sexual assault charges were filed. Investigators discovered the
sexual assaults during the murder investigation. The nude body of D.L.’s wife had
been found on a logging road in a pine plantation in Red River County. The
oldest daughter said the last time she saw her mother, the woman was lying
drunk in the yard, with D.L. spraying her with a garden hose. The mother was
reported missing by workers at a café near town.
The
prosecution never tried D.L. for killing his wife. There was no reason, the
county attorney said, for more taxpayer money to be spent on further trials.
During the
trial, too, prosecution witnesses testified that D.L.’s father and an uncle had
sexually abused “every female in the family.” Both men were arrested. One died
in prison.
Also, a few
years before, D.L.’s mother left the father and moved out of state. A witness
testified that D.L.’s mother’s sister then moved in with the father.
As the
prosecutor wondered during trial testimony, “What kind of family is this?”
When I worked in the child welfare system, I had occassion to get involved in child sex abuse investigations. Often the perp came from some seriously perverted families. In some cases we found 3 generations participating or facilitating. One time I was just doing an annual guardian ship review for the local court. a great grandfather had guardianship of his 6 year old great grand daughter, something didnt smell right so I did some digging. This guy perped his step daughters, his grand daughters and was grooming his great grand daughter with the support of the the childs grandmother(his first victim). I'm sorry to say the local child protection office bumbled their investigation and no one was ever taken to trial. I was able to get the guardianship rescinded and the child placed in a safer place but there were multiple generations of screwed up people in that family.
ReplyDeleteI would think that some people you wanted to take out back and shoot. Not dead, but with punishing holes in places. When I was a news editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and those stories came up for me to edit, I didn't even read any after the first. Second, third, fourth stories recounted the abuse. I didn't care about typos and misspellings or if anybody was libeled. In the trial, after the oldest daughter testified, there was not a dry eye in the courtroom.
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