For each of the 36 counts, the jurors, who were all white, were tasked with both determining the verdict and, in the case of a guilty verdict, recommending a sentence.
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Holtzclaw faced 36 counts. Holtzclaw learned his fate Wednesday, which was also his 29th birthday. “I’m a black female”, one accuser testified in the trial, according to the newspaper. Still, it’s delightful to watch Holtzclaw break down in tears as the verdict is read out loud.
Sentencing is set for next month. The surprise comes not from the fact that Hotlzclaw was found guilty of only half of the charges, but rather that he was found guilty at all.
With the broad-shouldered former college football star sitting behind him, Adams described Holtzclaw’s transition into law enforcement after a failed attempt to play in the NFL. He could spend the rest of his life in prison based on the jury’s recommendation that he serve a total of 263 years, including a 30-year sentence on each of four first-degree rape convictions.
Holtzclaw, a native of Enid, Okla., played linebacker at Eastern Michigan University and was invited to rookie camp by the Detroit Lions in 2009. An appeal is expected.
Black Lives Matter activist Deray McKesson, who has been publicly protesting police brutality cases in the US since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, followed suit with his own take on the case, tweeting that while he was relieved at the verdict, the damage was already done.
The district attorney said not to blame that on the victims. Prater said his objections were overruled by the judge. He says he’s proud of his detectives and local prosecutors.
Police said they used the Global Positioning System in Holtzclaw’s auto and police databases to confirm he had been in contact with numerous women. Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City police officer, was facing dozens of charges alleging he sexually assaulted several women while on duty. Two of his 13 victims reacted to the verdict during a news conference Friday morning.
But the number of cases might be higher.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing some of the victims in civil litigation against the city, criticized the national media for not covering the trial in which the victims were “poor, black women”. “We’re not saying justice can’t prevail but we can be suspicious of it”, Oklahoma City NAACP President Garland Pruitt told Oklahoma City’s KOCO News. He then allegedly told her, “OK, you don’t have anything”. You’re going to shoot me’. The accused said “I didn’t do it” as he was led out of the courtroom.
Among the eight women Holtzclaw was convicted of attacking was a grandmother in her 50s, who launched the police investigation and who was in the courtroom Thursday. “I still live with this”, Liggins said. She testified Holtzclaw forced her on one occasion to lift her shirt up to check for drugs and touched her breasts.
Then he bent her over a chair and raped her. I don’t want to make this any harder than it has to be.’ Something like that. More than 600 officers were involved in sexual misconduct complaints in that period and 354 involved sexual assault or battery, according to the report. He began sobbing uncontrollably after the first guilty verdict was read.
“It means we didn’t meet our burden in those counts”, said Prater.
“We understand there were other women who have called before, whose calls went unanswered. That is a problem”. He also pointed out that most did not come forward until police identified them as possible victims after launching their investigation.
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The majority of those who said they’d been abused by Holtzclaw were middle-aged women with criminal records, though the youngest was just 17. “Without people like Daniel Holtzclaw patrolling the streets, what are we?”
