3 weeks ago, we told you about Bert Vasquez, and the second guilty verdict that he is now facing for a sexual offense. He was found guilty of attempted rape by a jury of 9 in a trial before Justice Colin Williams.
Today was his mitigation hearing, and Crown Counsel Kileru Awich, who prosecuted the case against him, intended to simply read the impact statement from Vasquez's accuser, who was 20 years-old at the time. But, before Awich could do that, Vasquez, who is representing himself at this time, announced to the court that he wanted to make preliminary objections to portions of the statement the complainant made.
Viewers may know that as part of a mitigation hearing, the judge listens carefully to impact statement of the victim, or his or her family. An impact statement is sworn written testimony from those who were affected by the crime, and it details how their lives have been changed due to the actions of the convicted defendant. After that, the judge gives the defendant a chance to speak, and make a plea for a lesser sentence.
In this instance, the victim said in her impact statement that because Vasquez attempted to rape her in January of 2011, she has severe trust issues, and she suffers from anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.
Before the court could hear her account of the difficulties she's facing since the attempted rape, Vasquez - who is not a trained lawyer - went into full attorney-mode and submitted that the language she used in different parts of her sworn testimony was prejudicial against him, since he does not accept guilt, and he will appeal this conviction. After a lengthy back and forth, he was able to convince the judge to strike out certain offending words that his accuser used in the impact statement.
From there, Vasquez argued strenuously that his constitutional right to a fair trial within a reasonable time was violated because, according to him, the DPP's Office had him languishing in jail for years before they were ready to proceed with the case against him. And, he came well-prepared, citing judgments after judgments from other courts, for Justice Williams to consider in support of his submission.
There was a brief pause for lunch, he was then allowed to make his mitigation plea, asking the court to consider a lesser sentence for his conviction for attempted rape. In total, today's court session lasted for over 5 hours, and at the end, Justice Williams announced that he will return within 3 weeks time with his decision on what sentence Vasquez will be given for this second conviction.
On November 7th, a jury found Vasquez not guilty of forcible abduction, but guilty of attempted rape. The conviction was for an incident that had occurred on January 25, 2011. The complainant testified that Vasquez offered her a ride to her house on Calle Del Mar Street, but instead, he took her to Belama Phase 4. According to her, that's where he attempted to have sex with her against her will.
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