A 3rd District Court jury took a little more than an hour Friday to find Mark James Gray and Christina Lee Gray guilty of second-degree felony child abuse for chaining a 12-year-old boy to a concrete block in their basement.
Witnesses said that the boy was deprived of food, kept in his underwear except when in school and abused in other ways. The witnesses who sided with the Grays spoke of the restraints in matter-of-fact tones, insisting they were necessary to keep the boy from running away.
Meanwhile, Alyce Johnson, an adult family friend, described seeing the boy chained in the basement on two occasions. After trying unsuccessfully to reason with the Grays and give them literature on how to deal with a difficult child, Johnson contacted authorities.
The child, who appeared wan, thin and frightened, testified his stepmother poured jalapeno sauce in his eyes, beat and kicked him, and sometimes poured water on the floor where he slept and turned a fan to blow on him.
"She said she hates me," the boy testified.
Juror Kristen O'Brien said Friday evening she was surprised it took the jury so long during deliberations. "We had a lot to say to each other, but we couldn't speak before that — even though we were together for three days," she said. "After hearing the evidence and seeing the evidence, we were able to come to a conclusion based on the instructions we were given.
"Our foreperson kept us on track," O'Brien said. "We had to pull ourselves back and separate our emotions from the task at hand. We had a great group that tried to do that."
O'Brien said the thing she lost sleep over most was "man's inhumanity to man." Out of 27 potential jurors, several spoke to the judge in open court during jury selection about having been affected in some way by child abuse.
Most jurors also thought the state did "an excellent job" laying out the evidence, O'Brien said. They were particularly helped, she said, by prosecutor Paul Parker's use of a time line during closing arguments.
It indicated that an adult witness saw the boy being chained even before Christina Gray got what defense attorneys stated was permission from a police officer to use handcuffs to keep the boy from running away while being escorted to and from school.
Jann Farris, defense attorney for Mark Gray, 40, argued the boy had been abused by his biological mother and came to the Grays with such severe behavioral problems, including incessant running away, that the desperate couple was trying to protect the child.
Farris said the parents had the consent of a police officer and school principal to handcuff the boy to keep him from running off, and Farris said the boy was known to lie and exaggerate things, especially if he wanted to get people in trouble.
Russell Hartill, defense attorney for Christina Gray, 36, said the child was simply projecting his feelings of hostility toward his biological mother — who did sexually and physically abuse him — onto Christina Gray, who he insisted did nothing wrong.
"The Grays were a family in crisis," Hartill said. "The parents were not the problem."
Hartill said the Grays "resorted to rather interesting method of restraint" for the child. "This is not, however, abuse," Hartill said.
Prosecutor Parker said trial evidence showed the boy had been kept chained in the basement for a long time. Parker noted a nationally renowned expert on child abuse testified such behavior constitutes "torture" and would likely cause psychological damage in a child.
As for the boy's credibility, Parker said the boy now lives permanently with an aunt and uncle and has no reason to lie. Since moving in with them, he has not run away and has no discipline or behavioral problems at school or home.
Parker said Magna Elementary School officials also sided completely with the Grays and took no steps to see why the child ran away at least 21 times.
Parker also expressed doubt about the argument that the Grays received full consent from a police officer and school principal to restrain the child as they did.
"The real issue was, were the police officers and principal an excuse to do what they wanted to do?" Parker asked.
Parker scoffed at the Grays' claim they had no other choices to deal with a troubled child. The boy's aunt had volunteered to take custody of him five years earlier. Friends offered to take him temporarily to give the Grays a break. The Division of Children and Family Services worker who offered help was ordered off the Grays' property.
"They had choices; they made his world stink," Parker said, his voice rising.
"That's his world," Parker said, dropping the cement block onto the courtroom floor. "That's his world," the prosecutor repeated, dumping the heavy chain onto the floor. "That's disgusting and it's criminal — find them guilty."
Third District Judge Robin Reese set Nov. 22 for sentencing.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com