Ferguson found guilty on 25 counts
Ferguson found guilty on 25 counts
April 24, 2008 at 11:51 am
By MAC CORDELL
After six days of trial and nearly 15 hours of deliberations over three days, a Clark County jury determined a former Union County man abused his five adopted children.
The seven-men and five-women jury found 48-year-old James Ferguson guilty on 25 of the 30 charged counts.
Ferguson was convicted on 17 counts of endangering children, all felonies of the second degree, five counts of permitting child abuse, third-degree felonies, and three counts of felonious assault, felonies of the second degree. He faces as many as 185 years in prison and $400,000 in fines. While he was not sentenced Wednesday following the verdict, he was led away to jail where he will await sentencing.
“We are very pleased,” said Union County Prosecutor Dave Phillips. “I think this is justice for the children. They lived through this for a long time and it took an emotional toll on them, even to testify and bring it up again. I think this brings closure to this part of the case.”
The jury unanimously determined Ferguson did “cause serious physical harm to the child, as a proximate result of permitting the child to be abused, to be tortured, to be administered corporal punishment or other physical disciplinary measure, or to be physically restrained in a cruel manner or for a prolonged period.”
During trial, the adopted children, now between the ages of 12 and 17 and living in other foster homes or facilities, testified of abuse that occurred between July 24, 2000 and Nov. 19, 2004 at three different addresses — 1126 N. Fountain Blvd., Springfield, 23237 Holycross-Epps Road, Marysville, and 1505 Patricia Drive, Marysville. They testified they were beaten with sticks, belts, shoes, fists and hammers; burned with a clothes iron, the stove, and a curling iron; bitten; kicked; stabbed with knives, forks and sticks; urinated on; forced to eat their own excrement; forced to drink urine; fed rotting food as well as cat food; forced into the clothes dryer and the dryer turned on; beaten while naked; duct taped to a chair or their beds for days; strangled with a belt; held under water; held over a banister by their feet and dropped; made to drink hot sauce with red hot peppers; made to drink from the toilet; forced to go without food for days; forced to wear urine soaked clothing on their heads; and body slammed, along with other abuses.
At least two of the victims also detailed sexual abuses and assaults using a toilet plunger.
The victims said they were told they would be killed if they ever told.
On occasion, jurors became emotional during the testimony of the adopted children.
“When they were talking to me about it, they would be moved to tears,” said the prosecutor, who spoke with jurors after their verdict.
As for the other five charges, two counts of felonious assault and three counts of endangering children?
“Essentially, the jury just wanted a little more information about the abuse of a couple of the kids,” said Phillips. “They felt he had done it, there just wasn’t sufficient evidence to say he did it beyond a reasonable doubt, and that’s exactly what they are supposed to do.”
Ferguson did not take the stand in his own defense. In fact, defense attorney Kerry Donahue presented no witnesses.
During closing arguments, he said the state’s evidence showed only that his client spanked the children, which is not illegal, he explained. He called it “reasonable discipline.”
Phillips disagreed.
“That’s not appropriate parental discipline,” Phillips said. “That’s torture, that’s abuse.”
He called it, “heinous, heinous abuse.”
The children were removed from the home in 2004 and the couple — Ferguson and his wife Vonda — surrendered custody of them in 2005. The abuses were discovered following a phone call Vonda Ferguson made to a counseling service. Prosecutors played the voice message for the jury to hear. Once Vonda Ferguson thought she had hung up she began to yell at one of the children to get her a tissue, then about the dishes. She told the child to begin working faster.
“Cause I might take those few knives and stab you in your (explicative) yellow chest,” Vonda Ferguson is heard on the audio recording.
The recording triggered an investigation and the children were removed that night.
Clark County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard O’ Neill ordered a presentence investigation. Sentencing is set for May 9, in the middle of Vonda Ferguson’s trial.
Phillips, who called the trial “long and emotional” said he will present a sentencing recommendation to the court, but wants to speak with the victims before he does so.
During James Ferguson’s trial, prosecutors presented the transcript of a confession from him. In the confession, James Ferguson admits to beating the children. He said those beatings wouldn’t be enough for Vonda. He said she wouldn’t be satisfied until she saw blood.
Donahue told the jury that claims of abuse were all “exaggerations.” Phillips said James Ferguson’s own words “lent a lot of credibility to what the children were saying.”
The prosecutor credited Union County Sheriff’s Det. Jon Kleiber for securing the testimony.
He also praised the counseling service and the Union County Department of Human Services.
“Both those agencies were very, very helpful getting that evidence and investigation together.
Vonda L. Ferguson, 44, is charged with two counts of rape, both first-degree felonies, 20 counts of endangering children, all second-degree felonies, five counts of permitting child abuse, felonies of the third degree, and six counts of second-degree felonious assault. If convicted on all counts, Vonda Ferguson faces as many as 253 years in prison and $490,000 in fines.