...The original sentencing day was scheduled for mid September but was moved to mid October as our wheels of justice delay so frequently. On October 12th I did as I had done several times before, getting up, driving to the courthouse, and entering the courtroom and as the other times I was nervous, anxious, etc. It looked like a replay of June 13th during the closing arguments. I was greeted by Joe and his team and seated with the other women. We nodded and smiled to each other but all of us had the same pained look on our face. It would soon be over but what was the judge going to say? and what sentence would he impose?
The judge came in and sat down and then Marsalis came in and sat down and took a moment to flirt with his female attorney. Oh did I forget to mention that the other women and I noticed during the closing arguments that they were openly flirting? It was so obvious that we looked back and forth at each other to confirm what we had seen! How repulsive! The judge began speaking immediately. He had clearly taken some thought as to what he was going to say to Marsalis. The first order of business was to say that upon his release from prison he would be classified as a sex offender under Megan's Law. The victims all acknowledged this was a good start and turned our attention back to the judge. He began to speak to Marsalis with visible signs of disgust in his voice. Then the judge said the following:
"I believe you are a menace to the women who you meet on the Internet or in any manner - even at a long distance. "What you were was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Your lifestyle was a fantasy, but what happened to your victims was reality."
He was then sentenced to 10-20 years in prison (the maximum) and an additional year for a no contest plea of unlawful imprisonment for a victim who didn't choose to testify at a trial. I didn't realize it until afterwards but I was holding my breath through the entire thing and although the judge had asked the members of the gallery to please stay quiet I gasped out loud when he uttered those words. It was a spontaneous release of emotions. I wasn't the only victim to speak out, another one uttered "Thank God!" After that we stayed quiet until the judge left the bench. On the other hand Marsalis had no emotion whatsoever but that wasn't surprising as he was a cold, calculating monster who didn't have the capability of feeling.
Once the court emptied out and all the victims were left with Joe and his team we had a lot to talk about. We discussed the judges statement, what the sentence meant and the sex offender registry once he was released. We also talked about what was next with the Idaho trial. Joe had a few details and we had lots of questions too. At this point the victims and I had been through so much together we asked if it was now OK that we exchange our information and he reluctantly said yes. The trial was over and it would be alright for us to speak to each other. I think he knew how important it was for those of us who wanted to connect be able to do so. Our experience was so unique that most of us had a real need to talk to the others about what our individual experiences were with Marsalis. We had been reading news reports of our testimonies and had an idea but putting faces to those stories was important and we wanted to support each other. No one else would ever know what it was like to have unfortunately crossed paths with the monster.
*A side note: I frequently call Marsalis a monster not only for the heinous crimes he committed but it reminds me of a Philadelphia Daily News cover photo and article written the day after the Halloween preliminary hearing date. They cleverly took one of Marsalis fake astronaut pictures from his Match.com profile blew it up to the full cover size and splashed Monster Match above it. The photo was so ridiculous and mocking I couldn't help but laugh and show it off. During this time period there were very few things about the case that made me laugh but that certainly did. A big thank you to that reporter at the Daily News!
We stayed behind talking for a long time and it was getting very late. All of began to funnel out of the courtroom and I walked out of the building with several other victims. My feelings were all over the place. Even though he had been given a hefty sentence it wasn't enough in our opinion because we knew once released from prison he would go back to doing was he did before entering. Marsalis never thought he did anything wrong and only his permanent placement in prison would be satisfactory. Next up was the Idaho trial and we were hedging all our bets against that one...
No comments:
Post a Comment