Hideous
A plea agreement was made in Carroll County yesterday in the case of a McKenzie man named Jonathan Wayne Goodrum who was accused last year of raping a one-day old baby.
According to the story from today’s Jackson Sun, the district attorney made a plea agreement where this man gets a year in jail (he’s already spent 11 months so he gets out next month) and then another nine years in a community corrections facility as well as on the Sexual Offender’s State list.
The mother of the baby also entered a guily plea for failure to report child sexual abuse.
The plea came from what the D.A. said was serious time-line problems regarding who was around the baby and DNA evidence regarding the rape itself and whether or not it had actually occurred.
“There was a conflict of who was around the baby and when they were around the baby,” McCadams said. “There was also a conflict of time when the defendant was in contact with the baby that included comparing the video monitoring they have at the hospital with the statements of medical personnel and witnesses.”
McCadams said his office also found conflicting medical proof as to whether a rape actually occurred.
McCadams went on to say that there was evidence that something, did indeed, occur and Goodrum plead out.
Rape, in any form or level, is disgusting and horrifying.
Raping a baby, one that is less than 24 hours old, is horrible. Absolutely horrible.
I don’t think there’s a question of how bad rape is. What appears to be the case here is that there is conflicting evidence of whether a rape ACTUALLY HAPPENED or not, and if it did happen, exactly who did it is in question, as well.
Now, if I were a DA, and I had a REASONABLE chance of conviction with a jury on a baby rapist, no WAY I’d offer a plea . . . and definitely not basically time served. In this environment, a “baby rape” trial would be like the Monty Python witch trail. No WAY a jury isn’t going to convict as long as there’s an OUNCE of reasonable proof.
Think about it. They basically gave this guy an offer like “look, take the offer and you’re home in a month” i.e. “we don’t have squat, but there’s just enough there to threaten you”.
What’s more scary, people, a baby rapist or a system that allows a DA to do that to a VERY possibly innocent person.
Innocent people take pleas DAILY. Who’s next?
Oh, and he didn’t get x months. He got a life sentence. Forever, he’s on the sexual abuser list. Some states require those people have a different colored license plate so EVERYONE knows . . . that this guy took a plea . . . because he was threatened with more . . . from a DA who didn’t think he had enough evidence to get a jury to convict.
Better think about this the next time you pick up a baby . . .