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August 8, 2008

After conviction — Jurors’ affidavits say Weeks ‘not guilty’

By Howard Greninger

TERRE HAUTE — Kevin Mark Weeks, 44, of LaGrange, Ky., was sentenced Friday to serve 24 years in the Indiana Department of Correction for robbery resulting in serious bodily injury.

Weeks was acquitted in a trial last month of murder but was found guilty of the robbery with injury crime, a class-A felony.

His attorney, Juliette Stewart House, said she will appeal the sentence. She said she has statements from jurors that indicate they believe Weeks did not commit serious bodily injury on Loretta Keith, but agreed to a charge of guilty believing it would not have any penal consequences.

Judge Michael Lewis, in Vigo County Superior Court Division 6, reached his decision on the sentence by using the presumptive sentence for the crime, 30 years, then suspending six years. Lewis cited a 1985 conviction of murder that still stands against David Lee Scott in the beating death of 89-year-old Keith of West Terre Haute, and that over the past 24 years Weeks has led a law-abiding life.

Scott was released in January from the Department of Correction, where he served more than 23 years, after prosecutors charged Weeks with the murder of Keith.

Under Indiana law, Weeks could be released from state prison in 12 years, getting one day off his sentence for every day served without incident. Weeks declined to comment after the sentencing.

Weeks’ brother, David Weeks, as well as his mother, Dorothy Weeks, and wife, Kim Weeks, plus some fellow workers from a Kentucky company where Weeks worked the past 18 years, took the stand to testify on behalf of Weeks’ character.

After the sentencing, Carol Smith, Scott’s half-sister, who had sought to have the case against her brother reopened based on DNA sampling — which led to the charges against Weeks — said, “I think if David [Scott] served 24 years, [Weeks] can do 24 years.”

Prosecutors had sought a 40-year sentence, while the defense sought a minimum sentence served under probation, without jail time.

“Especially in a crime like this you always want more, but that is our job, so we were hopeful that he would get more of a sentence than that,” said Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt.

“But, we realize in the sentencing guidelines in Indiana, the judge has to fit within those guidelines, or it would be reversed in appeal. I think Judge Lewis is a fair and good judge and I think he did the best and he is the one who gets to make that decision” on the amount of time for a prison sentence, Modesitt said.

David Weeks said he believes in his brother’s innocence.

“We are very disappointed,” he said, speaking for the Weeks family. “It seems to us that the prosecution really failed to prove the element of serious bodily during the course of a robbery, therefore a class-A conviction seems unjust.”

Weeks’ attorney said she has statements from jurors that indicate that nine of the jurors believe that Weeks was innocent, and that the jurors agreed to a guilty charge as a compromise because they believed the statute of limitations would have no penal consequences.

“That seems to us to be an injustice,” David Weeks said. “My brother is being sent to jail for 24 years, because three people [three of 12 jurors] thought he was guilty of a crime. That does not seem to be justice in America.”

House said part of the appeal with include affidavits from jurors.

“I think the judge’s decisions have been tainted,” House said. “He is more concerned about his reputation in the community and his election next year. I think the prosecutor tried to prove a murder [in the sentencing hearing on robbery] after a jury found my client not guilty of murder.”

Lewis, through a court clerk, declined comment. In the court proceedings, Lewis said Weeks can pursue relief with the Indiana Court of Appeals.

House provided the Tribune-Star copies of some of the juror affidavits.

One juror, Angela Paul, said, “I did not believe there was enough evidence to convict Kevin Mark Weeks of any of the charged crimes. Because of three of the jury members, I believed it would be a hung jury. I am surprised it was not.

“The other nine members of the jury decided that a guilty verdict on the robbery charge was the only way to avoid a hung jury. The judge, Michael J. Lewis, told the jury that the statute of limitations had run on the robbery charge and that the charge would be dismissed,” the juror said in a July 14 affidavit.

“That the decision and major question of the jury was whether the breaking into the house comprised the threat of bodily harm. No one discussed anything about Kevin Mark Weeks causing serious bodily injury to Ms. Keith. Had I known the robbery charge would not have been dismissed, I would have voted not guilty on all charges,” the juror said in the affidavit.

Juror Rod M. Bradfield, in a July 15 affidavit, said he was contacted by House to give an affidavit. Bradfield said he was under no obligation to talk to the attorney, but did so “under his own free will. Had I known the robbery charge would not have been dismissed, I would have voted not guilty on all charges,” he said in the affidavit.

Juror Charles R. Conn stated, “I saw no evidence that Kevin Mark Weeks inflicted the blows to Ms. Keith,” he said in a July 14 affidavit.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

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