Jury finds Farries guilty on all counts in dragging death
The slogan on her T-shirt read “Only God Can Judge Me.”
But on Friday evening, six men and six women brought Judgment Day to Detra Farries:
Guilty on all counts.
After a nearly month-long trial, Farries, 33, was convicted one year and one day after the death of Allen Lew Rose, the Colorado Springs tow-truck driver who was dragged for more than a mile behind Farries’ SUV on Feb. 23, 2011.
Jurors deliberated for about 9 hours over two days.
Rose’s widow, Renee Rose, was comforted by supporters and court personnel after hearing the verdict. Their two children weren’t present. Afterward, Renee Rose joined mourners at a roadside memorial at the site where Rose’s body came loose – near Platte Avenue and Babcock Road.
Farries displayed little emotion as she was convicted of fatal hit-and-run, manslaughter, vehicular homicide and seven lesser counts. The verdicts were read to a packed courtroom by 4th Judicial District Judge Jann P. DuBois. As each guilty verdict was announced, the room remained in eerie silence.
The jury also found that Farries’ actions led to a “torturous, cruel and painful death,” making her eligible for a doubled sentence, or up to 24 years in prison.
Farries will remain free on bond until her April 20 sentencing. Any other penalties will likely be served concurrently, prosecutors say.
One count of reckless endangerment was dismissed during the jury’s deliberations.
With armed guards escorting, Farries quietly left the courtroom with a half-dozen supporters and her 18-year-old daughter Shannon Mills, who quietly wiped at tears after her mother’s conviction. Photographers and television news cameras were kept out of the hallway under judge’s orders.
Her attorneys, public defenders Eydie Elkins and Jeremy Loew, declined to comment.
Prosecutors Jeff Lindsey and Mike Ringle expressed gratitude to the jury and called the outcome a vindication of their handling of Farries’ case.
“We clearly had done our work, and I think that came out,” Lindsey said.
Rose was dragged 1.4-miles past dozens of people, who bore witness to unforgettable images of suffering and heroism.
Police say the crime scene was the largest in department history.
Prosecutors down played the effect of missing police DVDs cited by Elkins before trial as Farries’ best hope for a defense, as well as testimony by two Colorado Springs police crash reconstruction specialists who said other investigators ignored appeals for more testing. Disagreements between police and prosecutors over charging and how best to handle an investigation are commonplace, they said.
Nevertheless, the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office directed significant resources to rebut the officers’ testimony, flying in a competing expert from Indianapolis.
He testified that work done on the case was sufficient to conclude that Rose would have been visible in one or both of Farries’ side-view mirrors the entire time she fled Hill Park Apartments, 360 N. Murray Blvd.
To arrive at guilty verdicts on the manslaughter and vehicular homicide counts, jurors had to believe that Farries’ recklessness caused Rose’s death.
The most serious felony, hit-and-run, didn’t require that Farries’ knew she had been in an accident – only that one occurred and she didn’t report it.
The defense argued throughout the trial that Farries’ GMC Suburban was in such poor condition that she was unable to see or hear Rose behind her. The SUV was lifted and had broken side mirrors and her family’s belongings piled up in back, completely obscuring the view from her rearview mirror.
They said Farries didn’t know a cable was on her car.
Her court-appointed attorneys subjected police witnesses to withering questioning over the missing DVDs, pressing them on how they managed to lose the only video-recorded witness interviews helpful to Farries.
The videos captured the recollections of two men who say Rose attached the tow cable as Farries drove away and then ran after her toward the apartment complex exit, where he was ultimately snagged.
Elkins and Loew described the death as a “tragic accident” for which Farries shouldn’t be held criminally liable.
The prosecution in its closing asked the jurors to hold Farries accountable for what they described as “excuses, not defenses” and drew on witness testimony that she was trying to shake Rose from the back of her vehicle.
Others did anything they could to help him, Lindsey told the jury, after letting a tow hook fall with a clatter to the courtroom floor.
“They can hear the ruckus of Mr. Rose’s final moments on Earth,” he said at one point. “And she can’t hear that?”
Jurors left the courtroom through restricted corridors, accompanied by guards. They declined to speak with attorneys in the case, and couldn’t be reached for comment.
http://www.gazette.com/articles/tow-134116-delivers-truck.html#ixzz1nq7xxBMg
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