The Boy on the Porch - 16. Jill Helps Figuratively Bury Her Dad

Jill is sworn in. Once again, her direct testimony mirrored what she said during the deposition, Kathy’s trial, plus what doctor Backle found. The trouble began on cross. Langston went straight for the throat.

“From your earlier testimony, this alleged abuse must have lasted a long time. Are we to believe you put up with it for almost three years without telling anybody?”

“It was over four years, and I already said he threatened to kill me if I told anyone, or he even suspected I did.”

“But he’s your father, did he really say the words, ‘I’ll kill you’?”

“Yes.”

“If you can recall, describe an instance and his exact words.”

“It became a regular thing at one point, every Saturday night when he came to say goodnight. He’d ask if I told anyone that week. I’d say no. Then he’d say one of three things. It was ‘because you know I’ll cut your throat if you do,’ or ‘don’t lie to daddy, I’ll punch your teeth into your brain,’ or ‘you’d better not or I’ll bury you in the back yard.’”

Jill was noticeably upset by the time she completed those statements. Knowing Joey Keys was buried in the back yard now made her realize her father was totally serious.

“So, he never actually said he’d kill you?”

Jill was beginning to tremble and tear up, “I'm sorry, I suppose you could survive your throat being cut or being buried?”

“Again, did he ever specifically say ‘I will kill you’?”

Now actively crying, “I was afraid for my life. I couldn’t say anything to anybody.”

“Your Honor, would you please instruct the witness to answer the question, yes, or no?”

“Miss Taft, you have to answer.”

Jill broke down, hysterical.

“Stop! Enough!”

“Mr. Langston, control your client.”

Langston began walking back to the defense table, but Abel wouldn’t be silenced, “Just stop it. She’s been through enough. I did it. I did it all. Please, let her be.”

The entire courtroom seemed to be responding simultaneously. Judge Carpenter banged his gavel, “Order. Order in the court. Mr. Taft, you are out of line.”

“Fuck it. I want to change my plea to guilty. Guilty on all counts. Just leave her the fuck alone, please.”

“Bailiff, remove the jury. Security, clear the gallery.”

People were moving, but Brendan refused to leave. The security guards looked at the judge for direction.

“Mr. Nelson can stay. Miss Taft, you’re temporarily excused. You may go sit with your uncle.”

The Judge gave everything a minute to settle down.

“Mr. Taft, this is your only warning, please control your outbursts.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Mr. Langston, would you like to confer privately with your client?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Abel was calmer, but still somewhat agitated, “No, I will not.”

“Mr. Taft. I highly recommend you speak privately with your attorney.”

“I don’t need to, Your Honor. I’m not changing my mind.”

“Bailiff, please remove the defendant to the holding area. Counsel, my chambers. Now!”

Abel was led away, the judge and lawyers left for his chambers.

“In all my years on the bench, these two cases have done more to make a mockery of the judicial process than anything I have ever seen. I have no choice but to declare a mistrial. The jury has been irrecoverably prejudiced. If in some way the defendant is actually innocent of even one of the crimes he is on trial for, there’s no chance of even a partial acquittal. And he wasn’t even under oath.

“Mr. Langston and Ms. Smart, you need to resolve this issue. Ms. Smart, speak with your boss, offer a deal of some sort. I really don’t want to make a third effort at trying this case. More antics like these and I’ll have no choice but to free a man who very likely has committed pedicide, and all manner of sexual crimes. I’d fear vigilantism would rear its ugly head, and that is not anything I’d want to see in my jurisdiction. Again. Fix this!”

Jenny replied first, “I wouldn’t want to see him freed either. We’ll get this resolved.”

“Julian?”

“Yes. We’ll figure it out.”

“Okay, let’s get back out there and shut down this circus once again.”

They returned to the courtroom, the Judge explained to the jury, Jill, her uncle, and defendant that he was calling a mistrial. Abel was returned to prison. Brendan took Jill home to calm her down.

Jenny Smart didn't let the grass grow under her heels. Back at the office, she immediately went to see her boss, the District Attorney, Jonathan Sanderson.

"Jon, we need to talk about Abel Taft."

"Um, yes, I'd guess so, since you're supposed to be in court right now."

"Taft freaked out over how Langston was treating his daughter. He stood up, told Langston to stop, and admitted doing everything he was accused of."

"Ouch. Let me guess, mistrial?"

"Exactly. Judge Carpenter suggested we make a deal. He will not be happy if we all show back up in his courtroom."

"What do you think about Taft's guilt?"

"I think it's possible the jury will believe that his wife may have committed the murder. Maybe only a thirty-three percent chance, but I don't see that as a foregone conclusion. I personally believe he buried the boy alive, but the jury could see reasonable doubt."

"So, accomplice to murder one, likely takes the death penalty off the table. The rest?"

"Oh, he definitely raped and otherwise abused his daughter and made inappropriate advances on the boys."

"Okay. See what Langston thinks about life without the possibility of parole. If he adamantly refuses, how old is Taft?"

"Thirty-five."

"Life with the possibility of parole after forty years. I suspect either Miss Taft or Mr. Nelson will still be around in forty years to argue against parole. If he survives to be eighty-five and gets parole at that point, he's got no reasonable hope of a normal life left."

"I think either will be accepted. Taft knew it was a capital case. Saying he did everything was essentially asking for the needle."

"Which you and I both know; Georgia isn't all that fired up about using it anyway. Life without parole would probably the actual sentence served."

"Thanks Jon. I'll call him now."

"I can't wait until we get the Tafts behind us. What do you know about Kathy?"

"She's awake and aware, but odds are, her situation will never change. Hospital lockup for the rest of her life."

"Not exactly a win for us, but at least the public will know she's not out there being a threat to anyone else. Thanks. Keep me informed on Abel Taft."

"Will do. Bye."

"Bye."

Back at the Nelson/Taft household, Brendan finally got Jill calmed down.

"What happens now, U.B.?"

"I don't know. With any luck, your father will get offered a deal that keeps him in jail a long time but doesn't necessarily include the death penalty. I'd be perfectly happy if we never have to go back to court. I wouldn't want to put you through that again."

"I don't know if I could do it again. How could the lawyer not believe me?"

"It's his job not to. He'll do anything to get his client acquitted, even if only to get a lighter sentence. Let's just hope it never gets back to the courtroom."

"Your lips to God's ears."

"Amen to that."

"Um, I don't know if this is a good idea or not, since we only saw her a few times, but do you think Uncle Rich's girlfriend Theresa would be willing to talk to me about some things?"

"I get it. You'd like a woman's touch or opinion on things. I can ask him. She seems nice enough and without knowing details, was sympathetic to your situation. You can always go to Dr. Denton more often, too."

"Yeah, I know, but that's different. If I get upset, I may not be able to see her right away. If Theresa is willing..."

"I get it. All we can do is ask."

Brendan did ask. Rich passed the question on to Theresa. Even though they'd only seen her twice since Thanksgiving, and Rich calling her his new girlfriend before the closing, they'd been dating nearly ten months by this time. Theresa gladly provided Jill permission to call to talk about anything.

It took another week, but Langston and Smart finally agreed on a plea deal. Langston felt he'd already placed enough reasonable doubt in the jury's heads and was confident he could do so again. The life without parole option was refused, as was forty years before being eligible for parole. Sanderson was reluctant to go shorter, but they finally agreed with a life sentence with parole eligibility after thirty-three years.

EPILOGUE

With having Dr. Denton and Theresa to talk to, Jill recovered as well as could be expected. She kept her promise to herself and waited until her wedding night to have sex with Andrew. Andrew was extremely patient, but they had become best of friends, and by the time they both graduated college, they were deeply in love. The wedding came six months after getting their degrees. Andrew became a chemical engineer, while Jill graduated as a Registered Nurse. Jill cried after the big moment, but they were happy tears. They often say a girl marries someone like her father. Jill had not fallen into that trap. She and Andrew had four children, three girls, and a boy.

Steven and Lanny remained friends through high school, but went to different colleges, effectively ending their close friendship. Lanny never did decide whether he was gay or not. He had relationships with both men and women before finally enjoying a traditional marriage. He and his wife had two children, one of each. Even though Lanny had sexual relationships with men, Steven was never one of his conquests. Mrs. Harper stayed on the right side of the LGBT+ fence.

Steven graduated with a software engineering degree, following in his uncle's footsteps. However, Steve reached higher and after joining a large corporation, he eventually became director with seventy employees in his organization. The stuttering never returned.

Nick was on a field trip with school in eighth grade and was trapped in an elevator for six hours. His time in the hole came crashing back, and he was afraid of the dark, and enclosed spaces from that point forward. He still lived a relatively full life, getting a secondary school teaching degree, and went on to teach middle and high school children. He had girlfriends off and on, but sooner or later, they all reminded him of his mother, and he never married. Between the claustrophobia, nyctophobia and his earlier abuse, he remained in counseling for his entire life.

Once Stephanie Lawson returned as the family's caseworker, Skylar and Brendan continued to slowly build their relationship. Both Steven and Jill had since turned eighteen, but since Nick was still only twelve at the time, he was legally adopted by Skylar shortly after their wedding. Skylar eventually became director of Georgia's Child Protective Services organization.

Brendan beat that clock on adoption, adopting the three children a few months after Jill turned seventeen. Steven was fifteen, and Nick, nine. The adoption was final on the two-year anniversary of Nick's arrival into Brendan's life. He never reached the loftier position that Steven did, but he did retire as the supervisor of a team of project managers.

The kids even had honorary grandparents for about fifteen years. After the Thanksgiving dinner, the Duncans became part of their extended family until they each passed of natural causes.

Kathy Taft never gained any further use of her body and died seven years after being shot. The children, Rich and Theresa, Brendan and Skylar all attended the funeral, Brendan taking care of the arrangements. Brendan had retained ownership of the Taft homestead and rented it out a number of times. Kathy's ashes were scattered over the location of the filled-in hole in the back yard. Fortunately, the house was not rented at the time.

Abel served nearly eight hard years of his life sentence in prison. Judge Carpenter was mostly successful in eliminating prison violence, but there are always exceptions. Technically, Abel died of natural causes, but his body had been beaten and abused so badly over the years, that it simply gave out a few months after his forty-third birthday. He was buried in the current day's equivalent of Potter's field, along with hundreds of other prisoners in unmarked graves. His father, Adam Taft's legacy was sold shortly after Brendan was given control. After closing costs, the four-hundred and two thousand and change was split three ways and saved toward the kids' educations, and for starting out the rest of their lives. Abel generously gave up his parental rights when asked by Brendan about adopting the children.

Abel’s sister Eve was convicted in South Carolina and fined $10,000 and sentenced to twenty-five years for aiding and abetting Criminal Sexual Conduct which is a class "A" felony. Aiding and abetting carries the same sentence as committing the crime itself. She made it through three before becoming intimately acquainted with a shank. Twelve times. There was no proof that she was involved in the kidnapping of Joey Keys, but then in the end, it didn’t even matter.

Joseph Keys senior was initially sentenced to fifteen to twenty years for attempted murder. That sentence was upheld even after Kathy Taft succumbed to her injuries. He was paroled after twelve years with time off for good behavior. Killing a rapist and child killer gave him mad props in prison. He never had a need to misbehave.

Rich retired after sixteen seasons, and three World Series rings, all with the Braves. After retiring, he went into coaching and won two more world series rings, each of those with the cross-country rivals, the San Diego Padres. He and Theresa married and had three children of their own, like his sister, two boys and a girl. Theresa remained a confidant to Jill her whole life.

Greg Ward never found another man as good as Brendan. He tended to gravitate to abusive men and was married and divorced three times before finally giving up on marriage. A couple subsequent boyfriends were more reasonable, and he remained with the last one, but they simply lived together.

Brendan and Jack remained friends, even before becoming in-laws, going out for drinks, pizza, or fast-food dinners almost every week. The Nelson/Taft and Markson families often vacationed together. Even after the children stopped going along, no three-ways ever occurred. Jack eventually married his flight attendant friend and the four of them went on numerous vacations together as well.

Some time after making great strides to curb prison violence, Judge Carpenter was appointed to the Georgia State Supreme Court.

So, aside from Abel, Kathy, and to some extent, Greg, they all lived happily ever after.

The End