Teen’s death
This is one of those columns I’m inclined to use profanity because I’m so (expletive) (expletive) off over last week’s verdict in Hidalgo County district court. But being a family newspaper, I’ll watch my language.
Why am I so (expletive) (expletive) off?
Because a 16-year-old girl is dead because the defendant in last week’s trial, Carmen Gonzalez-Velez, was apparently in too big of a (expletive) hurry Feb. 24, 2014, she couldn’t wait for a school bus to unload, so she raced passed it, and ran over a sweet, innocent La Joya high school student who was just stepping off of it and crossing La Homa road. And it seems like the jury who handed down the verdict in the trial could care less, based on the sentence it handed down.
Am I (expletive) off over her needless death and the verdict that went with it? (Expletive) right. And the entire (expletive) community of south Texas should be (expletive) off right along with me. Brenda Cuellar is dead, and where is the justice? Answer: in this case of criminal negligent homicide against Carmen Gonzalez-Velez, there is none.
The jury’s decision – no jail time -- was handed down last Friday in Hidalgo County district court.
So, where is justice in this county? Were the 12 jurors even awake while deliberating for the entire 15 minutes it took them to render the verdict against Gonzalez-Velez: no prison time?
I mean, it’s not like she’s been in jail since the February 2014 death occurred. After spending approximately three days in county jail after she hit and killed the teen, Gonzalez-Velez posted a $25,000 bond and was released from custody. Since then, she’s been free to walk the streets.
Did the 12 jurors leave their sense of justice at home before leaving for court the morning of sentencing last Friday? Did they feel more sorry for the woman who ran over the victim than the victim? Last time I checked, the victim is still unfortunately dead. Would it have hurt to put the defendant’s (expletive) in prison for, oh, I don’t know, maybe at least a few years. You know, maybe teach the community this simple, yet important, lesson:
When a school bus stops to on-load or off-load students – our most precious commodity, you might say -- you stop your vehicle and wait. You don’t race past the bus because for some reason, you’re in too big of a (expletive) hurry? No time to stop?
School bus stopped on the road with red lights flashing its stop sign out. Pretty simple: drivers must stop. This isn’t rocket science.
Some jury verdicts are more than a little maddening. In a case like this, you want to get all 12 jurors in a room and scream at them: “Have you lost your freakin’ minds?”
It only took the 12 jurors last Friday 15 minutes – 15 (expletive) minutes – to decide that jail time was unnecessary for Gonzalez-Velez. Fifteen minutes? What, was there, a party to go to Friday night? No time to really discuss her penalty? Nails to be done? A hair appointment? A fajita barbecue? The death of a 16-year-old girl and the proper punishment worth meting out in her unnecessary death isn’t worth more than 15 minutes of this jury’s time? Shame on all of you. You’re a disgrace to the jury pool, in my opinion.
Such were my feelings when I heard last week that the Hidalgo County jury who sat through the criminal negligent homicide of Carmen Gonzalez-Velez, 37, decided she won’t serve one single day in prison for the death for which she, and she alone, is responsible. Not one single day. She’s free to walk. She’ll get probation, maybe fiv years, and a $10,000 fine,but forgive me for saying so, but big (expletive) deal. And in the end, will she ever really pay the 10 grand?
After the verdict was announced, Gonzalez-Velez’s criminal defense attorney, John Ball, told a KGBT-TV reporter, Brett Crandall, that sending his client to jail “doesn’t bring the girl back, doesn’t serve justice….it doesn’t do anything to ease the family’s pain…doesn’t do anything to ease the guilt my client feels.”
Au contraire Mr. Ball. Why don’t you go and ask the victim’s family if seeing your client tossed in jail would at least ease a little bit of their pain and suffering, because I’m pretty sure it would. In fact, the victim’s father told the same TV reporter that he had hoped that Gonzalez-Velez would have served the maximum time behind bars: two years.
“I don’t have the desire to live,” he told the reporter. “…to get up and go to work.”
Every parent would undoubtedly feel the same way. After your child’s been killed, how can one still function?
Ball then had the audacity to say, “this is not a get-out-of-jail free card.”
Then what in the (expletive) is it? In fact, it’s just that, a get-out-of-jail free card. Sure Ball’s client will forever be branded a convicted felon and will have to serve probation, but big deal. A girl is still dead because she couldn’t stop for a school bus?
And what about the message this verdict, or non-verdict, if you will, sends to other drivers who may one day prove as careless as Gonzalez-Velez? You kill someone, and you get to walk?
In this case of criminal negligent homicide, this community would have been far better off, the family’s pain eased just a little, if the jurors had done their job and sent this woman up the river for at least a few years. Stuck her in an orange jump suit and let her see how it is to live inside four walls, while she had the time to contemplate the death for which she’s solely responsible.
I mean what’s a reasonable sentence for someone who negligently races past a stopped school bus, and fatally runs over a 16-year-old female high school soccer player who had her whole life ahead of her? The law says two years. But I say, what, 10 years? Twenty?
Obviously, the lives of the victim’s parents and siblings will be forever changed. Worse for the parents. Oh, they’ll function, barely, but they’ll never be the same. A piece of their heart has been ripped away, and there’s no putting it back.
To her credit, the assistant DA, Victoria Muniz, tried to convince the jury that jail time might dissuade another driver from making the same mistake – racing past a school bus when it’s stopped, its red lights blinking, the sign on the side of the bus warning drivers: STOP.
But the only thing this brain-dead jury verdict does is, well, nothing in the way of teaching drivers anything, other than if you’re negligent to the extent that if you run over a kid getting off of a school bus, no problemo. Because in Hidalgo County, with the jury pool from which the courts may pick, there are apparently plenty of people who don’t feel that a person obviously guilty of criminally negligent homicide is worthy of any time behind bars.
Gonzalez-Velez’s defense attorney, John Ball, told KGBT-TV that with probation, his defendant will be sufficiently punished.
Really? If Mr. Ball were standing in the same shoes as the dead girl’s poor dad, would he be saying the same (expletive) thing? I very much doubt it.
Again, sorry for the profanity. But injustices like this drive me around the bend.
My condolences to the family of poor Brenda Cuellar. By the look of her happy face I’ve seen on photos posted online, she was a lovely girl worthy of a far better fate.
In a finalnote of irony, Criminal Defense Attorney John Ball has his own website: www.johnballattorney.com. Part of its text reads: “Juries can usually be trusted to reach the correct result in a case. But there are times that juries make mistakes.”
Ain’t that the truth.
Jan’s note: Karma’s a bitch.