The 33-year-old Jacksonville man who violated a 3-year-old girl with a pair of pliers and clothes hangers in what he told police was a well-intentioned effort to retrieve a crayon that she had lodged in her vagina was convicted of rape and sentenced to 37 years in prison Friday.
The girl, now 5, will be 31 years old by the time Tristan Roger Travis can qualify for parole.
Travis did not testify, but the six men and six women of the jury heard a recorded interview he gave to Jacksonville police hours after authorities learned what had been done to the girl, who is the daughter of church friends, in April 2011.
Travis was baby-sitting the girl and her younger brother at his house while his wife attended a church function with the children's mother. The children's adoptive father had stayed home that evening.
Travis said the girl had, without warning, stuck the crayon, about 11/2 inches long, inside herself while she was in the bathroom. He told police he had first used a pair of needle-nose pliers but switched to the hangers when she began bleeding.
Jurors concluded the three-day trial before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson with about 40 minutes of deliberation, finding Travis guilty of rape and second-degree battery. They spent about 50 minutes deciding a sentence.
With Travis facing a minimum of 25 years in prison, deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill asked for jurors to consider a life sentence or at least a 40-year term, the longest sentence available short of life.
In her closing argument, the deputy prosecutor reminded jurors of the painful ordeal Travis put the girl through, which left her bleeding for hours from the cuts inside her.
Sherrill said Travis admitted that he had to physically restrain the girl, and she asked jurors to think about how the child had cried for her mother as Travis worked on her with what fellow prosecutor Robbie Jones called "instruments of torture."
"He decides he's going to dig into this little girl's vagina and he goes out and gets these," Sherrill said, holding up the pliers.
And when the pliers were not enough, Travis got the wire hangers, she said, pointing out that he didn't have any in the house so he first went to a neighbor's looking for some. Travis eventually had to go to a nearby store -- with the children in his car -- to buy them, she reminded the jury.
He had time for that, but he never called the girl's parents or tried to get her medical attention, the prosecutor said.
"He uses them because he's desperate to get this crayon out," Sherrill said, holding up the bent hangers. "Why would he be so desperate that even while she's bleeding, he's trying to get that crayon out. He was hurting her to get that crayon out."
Travis was desperate to cover up what he had done to the child with the crayon, Sherrill said. Travis had used the girl to satisfy his sexual desires as evidenced by his DNA mixed with the girl's genetic material that was found inside her underpants, Sherrill told the jury.
"Mr. Travis thought he had the perfect victim, this 3-year-old little girl," she said. "He wasn't planning on the fact that [she] could say what happened. He wasn't planning on that crayon getting stuck."
What happened to the girl was an accident, brought on by her own childish curiosity about her own body, defense attorney Sandy Cordi said. She asked jurors not to convict Travis just because they felt sorry for the child. Cordi said the girl's testimony was obviously "scripted" by prosecutors.
"She's an adorable little girl, and she shouldn't have to be here" in court, Cordi said in her closing argument. "It's clear ... her testimony was rehearsed."
Cordi asked the jury to consider how easily the girl was able to answer the prosecution's questions but responded mostly to Cordi's questions by saying she didn't know the answer or could not remember. Cordi reminded jurors that the girl had even said on the witness stand that she lied about Travis. Jurors aren't allowed to pick and choose which parts of her statement they want to believe, she said.
"She was able to answer everything Ms. Sherrill asked her, but she wasn't able to do the same with me," Cordi said. "Her testimony showed you she's not credible and she told you she lied."
Cordi said the girl had wanted to get Travis in trouble to get even because he had hurt her while trying to help her. But all the child could imagine was that Travis would get a spanking, she said.
"I submit to you she wanted to get back at Tristan," Cordi said. "She doesn't understand the consequences of what happens here today."
Cordi called on jurors to examine the police investigation and question why it took Jacksonville police eight months to deliver the girl's underpants and shorts to the state Crime Laboratory for testing. She asked them not to blindly accept the results of genetic testing that showed DNA from both Travis and the girl in her underpants but could not determine who had left the semen found there.
Travis admitted what he had done with the pliers and hangers, both to the police and girl's mother, and that's not the act of a guilty man, she said.
"He did what he could to help. Guilty people don't do that," she said. "I don't think Tristan did anything criminal."
At sentencing, defense attorney Colleen Barnhill asked jurors to consider evidence that Travis had been both abused and neglected as a child but had gone on to serve in the military and become a dedicated member of his church. Travis could once again be a productive member of society, she said.
"Do not throw away this husband. Do not throw away this veteran," she said. "He has served his country, and he has served his community."
Metro on 06/21/2014