MONROE - A jury found a Brodhead man guilty Friday, Aug. 2, on charges of repeatedly sexually assaulting two young girls, despite the girls' recanted accusations, a lack of physical evidence and the defense's assertion that the case was sloppily investigated.
Norberto Santiago-Castellanos, 33, faces life in prison for the two Class A felony convictions. His sentencing is Oct. 1.
On a third charge, that he showed one of the girls pornographic movie clips, the jury found him not guilty.
Closing arguments in the grim three-day trial in Green County Circuit Court came Friday morning. The 12-member panel - four women and eight men - brought back their unanimous verdict mid-afternoon after deliberating about three hours.
The jury's foreperson, Michelle Soddy, declined to elaborate on the jury's decision-making process to reach consensus.
"This has been very emotional," she said.
The prosecution's case relied on interviews the girls gave last year, when they were 6 and 8 years old. Under questioning from a social worker, the sisters described how Santiago-Castellanos regularly had vaginal and anal intercourse with them starting in 2010.
Both girls recanted these accusations on the witness stand this week and said they wanted Santiago-Castellanos back in their lives. The older girl, now 10, dissolved into tears in the midst of questioning and refused to go on. Her sobs froze the courtroom in silence. The jury leaned forward, stunned, some wet-eyed. After she recovered, she testified that "nothing happened" with Santiago-Castellanos.
Prosecutor Jeffrey Kohl wasn't buying the girls' retractions.
The accusations from last year were too graphic and specific to be made up, especially for children so young, he told the jury. He ticked off examples from their testimony - for instance, one girl talked about how she would arch her back to try to get Santiago-Castellanos off her.
"These are all specific little snapshots," Kohl said. "This isn't something you make up."
Frank Medina, public defender, countered that the case is based on "rather sloppy police work" and the lack of evidence is significant.
Medical examinations and DNA tests showed no physical damage to the girls or a link to Santiago-Castellanos. The social worker who interviewed the girls last year did not explain the consequences of lying to the girls, which protocol requires. The sheets, pajamas and other evidence collected by Brodhead police were not properly tagged and identified, Medina said.
In addition, he said, "there was no evidence offered, scientific or otherwise" for why the girls retracted their accusations.
Medina also took issue with the taped interview a Brodhead police officer conducted last spring in English with Santiago-Castellanos, a native of Mexico whose English skills appear to be remedial. (He has since been assigned an interpreter in court.) The video was the defendant's only testimony presented in court.
"That cop was really drilling him," Medina said. The officer made judgments during the interview instead of purely investigating, he added.
In his conclusion, Medina used a visual aid. He held up a chain of paper clips, each representing a piece of the case against Santiago-Castellanos. One by one he took the paper clips off the chain and tossed them in a cup. Each hit the bottom of the cup with a clink as he ticked off issues with the case - the retraction, the lack of physical damage to the girls, the mistakes investigators made - until he had no more paper clips.
"It's all disconnected," he told the jury. The prosecution is "expecting you to connect the dots."
In his rebuttal, Kohl again reiterated that a lack of evidence does not lift the possibility of guilt.
He mocked Medina's assertion that rape victims never want to go back to their rapist.
"You beat a dog (and) it still comes back to you," he said. He also pointed the jury to Santiago-Castellanos' denial. Santiago-Castellanos told the Brodhead police officer the girls had somehow learned sexualized behavior and exhibited it by, in Kohl's words, "coming on to him."
"That's just the twisted way his mind works," Kohl said.
Jeffrey Gempeler, one of the jurors, said afterward that some on the jury had argued for a not-guilty verdict. The discussion had been "very intense" and not easy. The deciding factor was the videotape of the girls' accusations.
"Everybody ended up coming on the same page," said Gempeler, a 25-year-old from Monroe.
Gempeler said he recognized issues with the case, such as Santiago-Castellanos not having an interpreter during his police interview.
But, in the end, the jury came to consensus over the safety of the children and wanted to prevent the potential for further abuse, he said.
Norberto Santiago-Castellanos, 33, faces life in prison for the two Class A felony convictions. His sentencing is Oct. 1.
On a third charge, that he showed one of the girls pornographic movie clips, the jury found him not guilty.
Closing arguments in the grim three-day trial in Green County Circuit Court came Friday morning. The 12-member panel - four women and eight men - brought back their unanimous verdict mid-afternoon after deliberating about three hours.
The jury's foreperson, Michelle Soddy, declined to elaborate on the jury's decision-making process to reach consensus.
"This has been very emotional," she said.
The prosecution's case relied on interviews the girls gave last year, when they were 6 and 8 years old. Under questioning from a social worker, the sisters described how Santiago-Castellanos regularly had vaginal and anal intercourse with them starting in 2010.
Both girls recanted these accusations on the witness stand this week and said they wanted Santiago-Castellanos back in their lives. The older girl, now 10, dissolved into tears in the midst of questioning and refused to go on. Her sobs froze the courtroom in silence. The jury leaned forward, stunned, some wet-eyed. After she recovered, she testified that "nothing happened" with Santiago-Castellanos.
Prosecutor Jeffrey Kohl wasn't buying the girls' retractions.
The accusations from last year were too graphic and specific to be made up, especially for children so young, he told the jury. He ticked off examples from their testimony - for instance, one girl talked about how she would arch her back to try to get Santiago-Castellanos off her.
"These are all specific little snapshots," Kohl said. "This isn't something you make up."
Frank Medina, public defender, countered that the case is based on "rather sloppy police work" and the lack of evidence is significant.
Medical examinations and DNA tests showed no physical damage to the girls or a link to Santiago-Castellanos. The social worker who interviewed the girls last year did not explain the consequences of lying to the girls, which protocol requires. The sheets, pajamas and other evidence collected by Brodhead police were not properly tagged and identified, Medina said.
In addition, he said, "there was no evidence offered, scientific or otherwise" for why the girls retracted their accusations.
Medina also took issue with the taped interview a Brodhead police officer conducted last spring in English with Santiago-Castellanos, a native of Mexico whose English skills appear to be remedial. (He has since been assigned an interpreter in court.) The video was the defendant's only testimony presented in court.
"That cop was really drilling him," Medina said. The officer made judgments during the interview instead of purely investigating, he added.
In his conclusion, Medina used a visual aid. He held up a chain of paper clips, each representing a piece of the case against Santiago-Castellanos. One by one he took the paper clips off the chain and tossed them in a cup. Each hit the bottom of the cup with a clink as he ticked off issues with the case - the retraction, the lack of physical damage to the girls, the mistakes investigators made - until he had no more paper clips.
"It's all disconnected," he told the jury. The prosecution is "expecting you to connect the dots."
In his rebuttal, Kohl again reiterated that a lack of evidence does not lift the possibility of guilt.
He mocked Medina's assertion that rape victims never want to go back to their rapist.
"You beat a dog (and) it still comes back to you," he said. He also pointed the jury to Santiago-Castellanos' denial. Santiago-Castellanos told the Brodhead police officer the girls had somehow learned sexualized behavior and exhibited it by, in Kohl's words, "coming on to him."
"That's just the twisted way his mind works," Kohl said.
Jeffrey Gempeler, one of the jurors, said afterward that some on the jury had argued for a not-guilty verdict. The discussion had been "very intense" and not easy. The deciding factor was the videotape of the girls' accusations.
"Everybody ended up coming on the same page," said Gempeler, a 25-year-old from Monroe.
Gempeler said he recognized issues with the case, such as Santiago-Castellanos not having an interpreter during his police interview.
But, in the end, the jury came to consensus over the safety of the children and wanted to prevent the potential for further abuse, he said.