He's Guilty
Bar-Jonah convicted on three counts, could face up to 130 years in prison
By Kim Skornogoski, Tribune Staff Writer
Originally published in The Great Falls Tribune, February 26, 2002
BUTTE — After two years of waiting, Nathaniel Bar-Jonah was found guilty Monday night of fondling a now-17-year-old boy, locking him in his bedroom and hanging his 11-year-old cousin from his kitchen ceiling with a rope and pulley.
After only six hours of deliberations, the Butte jury deadlocked on a second charge of sexual assault and found the 45-year-old Great Falls man innocent of fondling a 7-year-old boy.
With no family or friends there to support him, Bar-Jonah sat passively, his hands in his lap, listening to the verdict. Only as the jury of 10 men and two women left the room did he lean over to talk to his lawyers.
His lawyers promise to appeal to the Montana Supreme Court or higher, saying their client could not escape the ghost of Zachary Ramsay, the Great Falls boy Bar-Jonah is accused of killing, butchering and feeding to friends and neighbors.
"It's a human impossibility to set aside accusations of killing a child and cannibalism," defense lawyer Greg Jackson said after the verdict. "Obviously, we're disappointed. But for the publicity, we feel we would have gotten a full acquittal."
"I think he's numb right now," co-counsel Don Vernay said of Bar-Jonah, now facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.
Bar-Jonah was charged in July 2000 with kidnapping and sexually assaulting the 17-year-old boy, sexually assaulting and hanging the 11-year-old and sexually assaulting the oldest boy's 7-year-old brother.
The five felony charges carried a maximum sentence of 330 years; his conviction on the three carries a maximum of 130 years, a minimum of two.
As he waited for the jury to return, Cascade County Attorney Brant Light paced the courtroom, hands behind his back. Sitting in the row behind Light, Great Falls police Detective Tim Theisen held his hands to his face, as if in prayer.
The dozen law enforcement officers, attorneys and their supporters who filled the courtroom began hugging and shaking hands when the verdict was read.
"I had absolute confidence in these three young boys, and that the jury would believe them," Light said. "We were always hoping for all counts, but the counts they found him guilty on were the strongest we had."
The lawyers had agreed not to try charges again if the jury deadlocked, so District Judge Kenneth Neill declared a mistrial on the sexual assault charge involving the 11-year-old.
Although he could not do so at trial, Light can use Bar-Jonah's history of kidnapping and choking boys, and the information gathered in the investigation of Zachary's disappearance, against him when Bar-Jonah is sentenced April 9. Victims from Massachusetts, now adults, will be able to testify about how Bar-Jonah's abuse 25 years ago changed their lives.
"We will bring up everything the judge needs to hear to show this guy needs to be off the streets for the rest of his life," Light vowed.
Light said he plans to wrap up sentencing in this trial, then will turn his attention to Bar-Jonah's May 13 trial in Missoula in the Ramsay case, which is sure to be an expensive trial and the subject of intense national media scrutiny.
Neither side thinks that date is realistic, however, given the publicity of this trial and the hours of preparation that must go into the sentencing.
Monday's verdict followed five days of jury selection and four days of testimony.
The defense wrapped up its case Monday morning, calling their lone witness, Phoenix forensic psychologist Phillip Esplin.
Esplin supported Jackson and Vernay's contention that police, through their tone and questions, lead the three boys to believe Bar-Jonah had abused them.
Normally, an 11- and 17-year-old wouldn't be susceptible to such persuasion, but because they are developmentally disabled, they weren't mature enough to handle police pressure, he testified.
"I think the mistakes that were made (during the initial police interviews) seriously compromises the information received in those interviews," Esplin said.
But the questioning took a surprising twist when Light asked Esplin about a renowned author in the field of suggestibility—the same author to whom Esplin referred in many of his research papers.
Esplin described the author's 31-page paper about child witnesses as a good overview of the issue—then Light told him the paper was found in Bar-Jonah's apartment in December 1999.
"What does this mean, ladies and gentlemen?" Light asked in closing arguments. "That you can take their defense and throw it in the trash. He groomed them not to tell, but if they did tell, he was prepared."
Light began his closing arguments with quotes from the boys: "He touched me on my butt and my penis." "He started choking me and I went up." "He told me to take down my pants."
"The defense wants you to believe that (Bar-Jonah) was simply the neighborhood's Mr. Rogers," the prosecutor said. "But did you ever see Mr. Rogers entertaining children in his house wearing nothing but his underwear? He gave them a lesson, but not in math or reading. He gave them a lifelong lesson in abuse."
Flipping through a 3-inch-thick binder of photos as he walked in front of the jury, Light said police found thousands of pictures and were obligated to find and talk to the three boys.
When the boys told them what Bar-Jonah had done, officers then found evidence that supported the 11-year-old being hung from the kitchen ceiling, and the long grooming process.
Light pointed to pictures of the boys sleeping shirtless on Bar-Jonah's plaid couch and playing in his bed. Then he reminded jurors of the rope, the hole in the kitchen ceiling and the articles about autoerotic asphyxiation and knot-tying found in Bar-Jonah's home.
To believe the defense, jurors had to believe that every witness was lying, and that the gut-wrenching sadness in the 17-year-old's tears as he talked about being locked in a room and fondled was caused by the police, Light said.
Vernay countered that the defense wasn't attacking the police or the boys, but instead was concerned about the atmosphere and the manner in which the initial police interviews were conducted.
The boys showed no signs of depression or trauma until after they talked to police, he said.
"These kids are not liars," Vernay said in his closing statement. "They are frightened and confused because the only person who ever showed them any affection and attention was arrested and charged with a heinous crime."
Pausing and clasping his hands together, Vernay asked jurors to judge Bar-Jonah on the evidence—or lack of evidence—not on who he is or on the horrible things they've heard about him, referring to the disappearance of the 10-year-old boy, was last seen walking to Whittier Elementary School on Feb. 6, 1996.
Vernay reminded jurors that photos show a caring guy and an affection between Bar-Jonah and the children. He also said a rope found in his messy apartment is not enough to send him to prison for life.
Vernay also said if Bar-Jonah is the fierce child predator that the prosecution suggests, he would have abused the boys more than once.
"You may go into deliberation thinking maybe he did it, and maybe he didn't," he said. "If you do, then you have to come up with the verdict of not guilty."
