BENTONVILLE -- Jersey Bridgeman liked to chase butterflies and feed ducks. She loved being a big sister. And eating french fries.
"She liked McDonald's," her mother, DesaRae Crouch, told a packed courtroom Wednesday. "What kid doesn't?"
Sniffles could be heard around the courtroom as Crouch testified, but that comment drew laughter from some in attendance.
Crouch testified during the sentencing phase of Zachary Holly's trial. A jury found Holly, 30, of Bentonville guilty Wednesday morning of capital murder in 6-year-old Jersey's death. Jersey's body was found in the closet of an abandon house next where Holly lived on Southeast A Street on Nov. 20, 2012. She died from being strangled around the neck with her pajamas, a medical examiner testified Tuesday.
The jury of seven men and five women began to deliberate at 11 a.m. Wednesday and returned hours later with their verdicts.
Holly stood between his attorneys as Circuit Judge Brad Karren read each verdict. Jersey's family members hugged during a break after the verdicts were read.
Crouch said it was fun to be Jersey's mother.
"She had stories. She was a very colorful character."
Holly rocked in his chair as a tearful Crouch described Jersey.
Vickie Price, Jersey's grandmother, called her daughter and two granddaughters "The Three Musketeers."
Price told jurors that she missed hearing Jersey's voice and getting hugs from her.
"I will never hear her yell "Memaw" to me ever again," Price said.
Prosecutors also called Amanda Gatwalt as a witness. She was Jersey's kindergarten teacher at Sugar Creek Elementary School. She told jurors Jersey learned to spell her entire last name, and Jersey had a story to tell her almost everyday.
Gatwalt described the last time she saw Jersey. She had won a 8-pound turkey at school. Jersey had the turkey in her back pack and was dragging it across the floor.
Jersey was concerned she wouldn't be able to get on the bus with the turkey and the two laughed about it, Gatwalt said.
"The last time I saw her was when she was all hunched over with a big turkey in backpack," Gatwalt said.
People in the courtroom laughed as Gatwalt described Jersey with the turkey.
Nathan Smith, Benton County prosecutor, rested the prosecution's case after Gatwalt's testimony. Smith asked jurors in his opening statement in the sentencing phase to impose the death penalty for Holly.
Holly also was found guilty of rape, kidnapping and residential burglary.
Robby Golden, one of Holly's attorneys, described Holly's childhood to the jury. Holly lived in 39 different homes and attended 23 different schools during a portion of his childhood, Golden said.
The California Department of Human Services was contacted about 16 times about neglect, along with physical and sexual abuse complaints concerning Holly, Golden said.
The defense will begin to call witnesses this morning in an attempt to convince the jury to spare Holly's life. Holly could be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty for the capital murder conviction.
NW News on 05/21/2015