Although polygamy was an obvious underlying issue, jurors said it did not play a factor in deciding whether David Ortell Kingston was guilty of having sex with his niece.
"None of the four charges against Mr. Kingston had to do with polygamy, and it was not part of our decision-making conscious," one juror, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Deseret News. "I think it was obvious in the sense that the situation was obvious.""All I can say is that we went through all the evidence item by item very carefully and analyzed all the evidence for every one of the counts before we made our decision," said another juror, who also asked not to be named.
The eight-member all-male jury deliberated almost four hours Thursday before deciding Kingston, 33, was guilty of incest and unlawful sexual conduct, both third-degree felonies, for having sex with his then 16-year-old niece. The girl, identified only as M.K., testified that she became his 15th wife on Oct. 15, 1997.
At the same time, the jury found Kingston not guilty of two additional counts of incest.
M.K. testified Tuesday and Wednesday that she was married to her uncle in a secret ceremony conducted by her father, John Daniel Kingston, at a West Salt Lake church. The two then had sexual intercourse in January, March, April and May 1998, she said. The jury, however, found reasonable doubts about the January and April incidents and acquitted him of those two charges.
Kingston did not show any emotion as 3rd District Judge David Young read the verdict. Audience members, which included at least one row full of Kingston's relatives, gasped when the first not guilty verdict was read. Some held hands and were obviously overcome by emotion when the two guilty verdicts were read last.
Young ordered Kingston to be taken immediately into custody. The 6-foot-1-inch Kingston stood with his hands handcuffed behind his back while the judge and attorneys set sentencing for July 9. Each charge carries a maximum zero-to-five-year prison sentence.
Kingston's relatives, including his legal wife of 15 years, Sharli Kingston, stormed out of the courtroom without comment.
Opponents of polygamy immediately called the convictions a victory that offers hope to other children who are trying to escape polygamous lifestyles.
"This case makes a difference," said Douglas White, attorney for the anti-polygamy group Tapestry of Polygamy. "It certainly sends a message that the state of Utah is willing to (prosecute) these cases. More will come. . . . It's clear, it's present, there is danger in the courts for polygamists in Utah."
When asked if the verdict sends a message to polygamists in Utah, prosecutor Dane Nolan said, "Yeah, I think so. You run the risk."
In trying to explain how the jury could have believed half of the victim's story and found reasonable doubt for two of the charges, one of the jurors interviewed said the verdict "speaks" of the difference in opinion among jury members.
"Whenever you have eight individuals, certainly you will have the potential for eight points of view," he said. No poll was taken at the beginning of deliberation. Instead, jurors immersed themselves immediately in the task of reviewing all the evidence and then discussed their differences in opinion.
"We kept coming back to the jury instructions, to give us direction on the things we needed to say," he said. "The final verdict was very much my decision."
Nolan said he did not consider the verdict a compromise, but defense attorneys were surprised by the outcome.
"I'm kind of shocked by the verdict," said co-defense attorney Susanne Gustin-Furgis. "I think they just split the baby."
During closing arguments Thursday morning, defense attorney Steve McCaughey pointed jurors to discrepancies in at least eight different versions M.K. gave of her story to authorities since coming forth with the allegations. Whether she had bought a wedding dress, married her uncle in a private ceremony, spent the night of the wedding with Kingston at a Park City hotel or received a wedding ring had nothing to do with whether she and Kingston had sex on four different occasions, he said.
"Marriage doesn't mean sex," McCaughey said. The only crucial thing was M.K.'s testimony, and her desire to break away from a rocky family relationship.
But Nolan said it is M.K.'s testimony that proved she was telling the truth. If the girl, who is now 17, was motivated to lie because of her bad relationship with her parents, why would she lie against her uncle, Nolan asked. He also pointed to how the girl could draw an almost identical diagram of the hotel room where she said David Kingston took her on the night of their wedding.
Sharli Kingston, who testified she had spent the night with her husband in the hotel room that night and not M.K., could not accurately describe the room. Nolan said her testimony should be "completely disregarded."
"She's in a tough situation. Her husband is charged with four serious crimes. She's at home with six children, so you can understand her desperation," Nolan said.
The girl testified that when she first began to talk to authorities, she did not reveal all her family secrets because she was afraid she would have to go back. "Her future at that moment, in her mind, is very uncertain. When you're young, you don't know what's going to happen, you don't know how adults are going to react," Nolan said.
During the trial, the girl testified she had been sexually abused at home when she was about 8 years old. When she turned 16, she said she fell in love with a boy her age, but her parents arranged for her to marry David Kingston, her father's brother. She said she married him on Oct. 15, 1997, because she was to become his 15th wife.
It wasn't until the end of January 1998 that they had sex for the first time in her room at her mother's house, she testified. She continued to live there until David Kingston offered to move her to an apartment at a family owned coal yard a few months later.
She lived at the apartment, 197 W. 3900 South, where the two had sex three more times, she said. On one of those occasions, David Kingston gave her a wedding ring with 15 stones, signifying that she was his 15th wife.
Despite being constantly watched by one of David Kingston's other wives, the girl finally ran away on May 22, she said. That same night, her father took her to a family ranch in Box Elder County, where he beat her until she passed out, according to court testimony. A day later, she walked to a gas station and called police.
John Kingston pleaded no contest in April to child abuse, a third-degree felony, and is scheduled for sentencing June 29 in Brigham City.
M.K., who is now 17, testified that she is living in a foster home and is going to school.