Was found in William's body.
Um at the time of his death, however,
not a single medical expert that spoke to us could
tell us the dosage whether it was toxic or therapeutic.
Therefore,
um the law states that if, if it's done with malice,
then we can convict someone of cruelty to Children
and malice in this instance
does mean
um to do something willingly doing something knowing that
it will cause the victim mental or physical pain.
And we could not come to
say that
what she did
with the medicine
did that
and that's why we couldn't convict on the first felony, the second, the, the,
the other felony is um cruelty to Children by not seeking medical care
and that one was a little bit more difficult.
However, at the same time, once again, there wasn't enough evidence to support that
Teresa knew her child was
um showing enough symptoms to take
medical care or to seek medical care.
We also don't believe that William was here very long
and that also helps in our findings about the case. Let's talk about the jawbone,
the fracture of,
did you think that she didn't abuse him? Um Well, I guess tell us why.
All right, as far as the aggravated assault charge,
um,
there was zero evidence that suggested that the
fracture happened to William before he passed away.
And unfortunately, that's all we could go on was
what the evidence was.
The medical examiners and people that looked at the bones,
it was at least three people that had
medical certified reports as experts that stated that
this could have happened with animal scavenging
post mortem and that's all we had to go on.
Therefore, we could not convict on assault.
You don't think that the fact that a friend had seen her abuse
her child in the past that that played into this at all,
that was a part of the discussion.
However, due to the actual, the actual
statement that she made, she mentioned,
she did mention seeing Teresa push her son once
or twice, she also stated that
it was never any sign of abuse and she never was worried about abuse.
So we, that's all we could go on is what she said.
And for her, for Ava to have been with her almost every day for at least four years.
As stated,
only two times is not enough to
assume that Teresa Black did hit her child. How did you feel about her lying at
first when she
pretended to not know?
Um Well, me personally,
I
have come to the conclusion that yes,
she was a liar and it was very disgusting to go back and look at all of her lies.
However, in the, in this case,
none of her like her lies were not
what she was being charged with. Yes, she may be not a great human.
She may have been a failing mother who was trying her best.
However, those were not the charges that the jury had to find Teresa Black guilty on
the
public.
You,
you guys spent about six hours deliberating this. I mean,
you guys put a lot of thought in this to
make sure that you guys came to the right conclusion.
How are you feeling with the,
the
what you guys came to
your
verdict?
I, I honestly, I am
satisfied that we were able to come to a verdict. However, I personally
am I happy that we were not able to find her guilty on these charges.
No, I I'm not happy. It makes me, it does make me a little unsettled. However,
the charge of the jury was to find the defendant guilty or not guilty
based on the evidence and testimony her in court and they did not do that
and it is not our fault
that
they weren't successful
to do that. We just had to do what we had to do.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Yes, you did do it
a than middleman. M I tt Le ma N. OK.
My first question is,
did the public defender's closing arguments have a lot
to do with what you guys came up with.
I mean, they did to some degree, of course, but we were told at the end that
we needed to make sure that we listen to
the evidence and that closing arguments were not evidence,
but they certainly had
an effect on everyone. It's the last thing you hear in the courtroom
for sure. Is this a case that like,
I know for us, we were all feeling emotions and like was that,
can you tell us how you guys were feeling as you were doing?
It was emotional for all of us. There was one lady who was crying in the jury room,
we had to, you know, calm everybody down.
It was a difficult case for sure.
We all
wanted to see things go differently. But at the end of the day, as Samuel said,
we had to go with what the law was.
That's what we
did.
What
were the hardest?
Definitely the second charge, which was the felony,
not seeking medical attention.
So not seeking medical attention. She didn't
we know that
the hard part was uh was their malice and intent.
That was what was not proven. It was the malice intent portion of that.
Do you feel like justice was done
to the best of our ability? Yes,
we, I think all of us went in
wanting to have a different outcome, but we did what we had to do at the end of the day
when you, I
don't know
when the judge was reading the verdict. Were you looking at her as, I
mean, who were you?
I was looking at Theresa
did
not much, not much reaction at all. She wasn't
elated. I think at the end of the day, the
defense attorney maybe thought that they would get off on all accounts
and maybe the fact that the sixth one didn't
go their way, but I didn't see a lot of emotion at all.
I've never been on a,
can you explain what it was like to be back there on a case like this?
It was tough.
It was
every day was
gut wrenching and long
and we all spent a lot of time thinking about things.
You're here from 8 to 5 every day.
You're mentally drained at the end of the day and
you want to see the right outcome.
And I think we did that at the end of the day based on what we were given.
Um,
but at the end of the day, we all, as Samuel had said,
we all didn't want the outcome that we got,
but we felt this was the fairest based on the law.
And do you think this is a case in a
trial and an experience that will stay with you forever?
For sure.
That was