FAYETTEVILLE — A Washington County jury took about an hour to find a former University of Arkansas student guilty of nine felony counts of video voyeurism Friday.
The jury of 11 women and one man acquitted Leiabrently Washington, 21, of one count of video voyeurism related to taping a clothed man in a dorm study area. The other nine counts were occasions when Washington recorded men in the shower during the fall 2009 semester.
Jurors, after three hours of additional deliberation, recommended eight years in prison and a $15,000 fine. Each count was punishable by between zero and six years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Washington’s mother, Cassandra McDaniel, who took the stand and told the jury while growing up, Washington was a quiet child who never partied and who had never been in trouble. Former teachers and employers only had good things to say about him, she said.
However, he grew up in a religious home with expectations that he would some day marry and have a family. When he found himself attracted to men, he felt he had no one to talk to about his sexuality and couldn’t deal with his feelings, she said.
“We try to make it socially acceptable, but it’s really not socially acceptable and he didn’t want to be ostracized because of it,” she said.
McDaniel pleaded with the jury to spare her son from prison. She said Washington, who stands just over 5 feet tall, will not be able to defend himself.
“I know if my son goes to prison he won’t be coming back,” she said, choking back tears.
University of Arkansas police arrested Washington in December 2009 after a Pomfret Hall resident spotted a hand reaching under a shower stall with a cell phone to record him. When police confiscated his computer, memory cards and thumb drives, they found he had been recording dozens of male students for more than a year.
Washington’s attorney, James Miller, asked few questions of witnesses during the trial, and asked the jury Friday to acquit based on the argument that video voyeurism should not be a felony. Many states, as well as the federal government, consider it a misdemeanor.
“What I’m asking you is that the law is wrong,” he said. “It should not rise to this level.”
Before the jury could consider Washington’s sentence, Brian Lamb, deputy prosecuting attorney, recalled university police Detective Kim Bertschey and Washington’s former roommate, Nick Arguellas, to the stand.
Bertschey said when she analyzed Washington’s computer, she found many images he apparently pulled from social networking websites such as Facebook. She said text conversations from his cell phone indicated he was trading photos, though he testified he kept the images to himself.
Arguellas told the jury despite having enough scholarships that he only had to pay $500 per semester for college, he was so distraught by what Washington had done, he had to withdraw from school.
“I tried to stay in the dorms, I saw a therapist, it didn’t help,” he said. “I couldn’t shake the feeling of someone watching me.”
It will be up to Circuit Court Judge William Storey to determine the full sentence, including which portions are consecutive or concurrent. He scheduled Washington’s sentencing for the afternoon of March 14.