Chapter 15: The Verdict
Chapter 15: The Verdict
The jury deliberated for less than two hours.
When they returned to the courtroom, the atmosphere was thick with anticipation. Preston stood up, his knees visibly shaking, a guard standing directly behind him.
"On the first count of aggravated battery to a minor, how do you find?" the judge asked.
"We, the jury, find the defendant, Preston Bennett, guilty," the foreperson announced.
"On the second count of tampering with evidence..." "Guilty."
"On the third count of reckless conduct..." "Guilty."
Preston collapsed into his chair, burying his face in his hands, weeping loudly. In the back of the gallery, Carolyn let out a soft, broken wail.
Judge Vance looked down at Preston with absolute disdain. "Mr. Bennett, your actions were predatory, cowardly, and entirely devoid of human empathy. Given the severity of the injuries to an innocent child and your attempt to manipulate the legal system to cover it up, I am sentencing you to the maximum allowable penalty under state law: twenty-five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, to be served at maximum security, with no possibility of parole before eighty-five percent of the sentence is served."
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Twenty-five years.
As the bailiffs locked the handcuffs back onto his wrists and led him through the side door, I stood up and walked out of the courtroom. I didn't look back at my mother, who was sitting alone in the bench, clutching her purse like a life raft in an empty ocean.
