A Silence of Mockingbirds (21 page)

A
t 10:13 a.m. on October 31, 2006, minutes after Dr.
Chervenak stepped down from the witness box for the final
time, Joan Demarest announced, “The State rests, Your Honor.”

“Counsel for the defense, you may call your first witness,” Judge Holcomb
said.

“The Defense rests, Your Honor,” Dan Koenig said. His voice steady and certain.

A stunned silence followed Koenig’s announcement. No one had expected the
defense to put Shawn Field on the stand, but to rest without having offered
one bit of evidence to the contrary?

Just the day before, expert witnesses for the defense were milling around
the hallway outside Courtroom Number Two of the Benton County Courthouse,
waiting for their turn to offer testimony that would help persuade the jury
that Shawn Field was innocent of this murder.

It was a bold, cocky move, a strategy intended to convey to the jury that
the defense didn’t think the state had done its job; they had not proven Shawn
Field guilty. The defense was banking that the jury would agree on that.

“I was totally shocked,” Joan Demarest said. “It’s not uncommon for the defense
to lead everyone on like that and then ‘Surprise!’ Sometimes it’s the only
strategy they have. But I didn’t really expect it in this case. I thought
they would have offered some expert testimony regarding their theory of Karly
dying from previously inflicted injuries.”

Perhaps, Demarest reasoned, the testimony offered by Dr. Chervenak was too
strong to dispute. “I don’t know if they just gave up or what. They had made
so many promises about the evidence they were going to put on. So I was absolutely
shocked.”

Judge Holcomb, however, was not. “The defense is not required to put on a
case, and in a lot of cases, they don’t,” she said.

Judge Holcomb turned toward the jurors. “Members of the jury, that concludes
the testimony in the case. It’s now time for lawyers to make their closing
arguments. Ms. Demarest, you may address the court, the jury.”

Discombobulated by the defense’s move, Demarest wasn’t yet
ready with her closing arguments. She needed a few moments to gather her thoughts.
She asked the judge for a brief recess. Demarest was hoping for two hours;
Judge Holcomb gave her twenty minutes.

After the recess, but before the jury was brought back, Dan Koenig
asked Judge Holcomb to dismiss all twenty-three counts against Shawn
Field, from aggravated murder to torture, to the last two counts of
growing the marijuana Shawn had been so panicked about hiding.

“We ask for a judgment of acquittal due to a lack of evidence,”
Koenig said, going through each count, one by one.

Judge Holcomb denied his repeated requests. The jury was brought
back and seated around ten o’clock that last day of October, 2006. For
the next hour they would listen and take notes as Joan Demarest, her
voice sometimes thick with emotion, presented her closing arguments.

“You have heard a lot about what kind of child Karly Sheehan was,
about how she touched a lot of people’s lives,” Demarest began. “She
liked to play princess until the defendant entered her life. Toward the
end of her life, Karly told her daddy she didn’t think she was a princess
anymore.”

That was because as soon as Shawn Field entered her life, a marked
change came over Karly, Demarest said. “She stopped wanting to spend
time with her mother because when she was with her mother, Karly was
exposed to the defendant.”

Demarest continued, detailing the ways in which Sarah Sheehan
was manipulated by Shawn Field. “She was freshly single, a single mom,
who was desperate for approval, desperate for a successful relationship,”
Demarest said.

Sarah was neither newly single nor a single mother, given that
David did the bulk of parenting, but the point Demarest was trying to
make was that Shawn preyed upon the unwitting Sarah. “The defendant
trained Sarah Sheehan not to question him,” Demarest said.

But, the prosecutor added, it’s your job as jurors to do just that: to
question Shawn Field and judge his intent.

“It’s one of your toughest roles as jurors, because a number of the
charges you are considering require proof of intent, and there’s no
magical tool that allows you to see into someone’s mind to determine
intent. You have to determine intent by the evidence of the crime,”
Demarest explained.

Then, in order to emphasize the evidence one last time, Demarest
put up the poster-sized photos of those pictures of Karly taken on
Shawn’s camera.

“What evidence showed you is that even after Karly looked like this
on Thursday night, Shawn kept going. Karly ended up with sixty external
injuries. She’s got at least ten in these pictures. Each one, according to
Dr. Chervenak’s testimony, caused Karly significant harm and pain. Dr.
Chervenak told you how children recoil when they are in pain to protect
themselves and withdraw. Karly might have been scrambling away from
the defendant on the floor, trying to get away, covering her head, trying
to protect her internal organs. But the defendant kept going. Blow after
blow after blow to her little body,” Demarest said, pounding her hands
together on the first mention of the word blow. “Shawn Field kept
going. Karly was likely screaming, crying, recoiling, and even twenty
minutes, before she was dead, Karly was trying to please the defendant,
responding to a likely command to smile for the camera. Up until the
very end, Karly Sheehan was trying to please the defendant to try and
stop him from abusing her. But we know after this picture was taken,
the most brutal injury of all was inflicted upon her—the injury that
killed her.”

Some of the jurors were weeping. Demarest, pregnant with her
second child, allowed the tiniest bit of emotion to sweep over her as she
envisioned Karly cowering. The prosecutor maintained her professional
demeanor, but the wrongness of what Karly suffered could be heard in
the slightest quiver of Demarest’s voice.

“The defendant had told Sarah Sheehan that someday it’s all going to
come down to who lies the best,” Demarest said. “Ladies and gentlemen,
the defendant engaged in an ongoing pattern of abuse, mistreatment,
and torture of Karly Sheehan. After the defendant entered her life, never
again was there a picture showing the joy in her eyes, the smile on her
face, and her carefree nature. The defendant destroyed Karly’s life, and
he tortured the soul out of her, and we ask that you find him guilty.”

Judge Holcomb excused the jury for a short break. When court
resumed it was Clark Willes, co-counsel for the defense, who stood before
the jurors.

Not that Sarah Sheehan was on trial, Willes was quick to point out.
She wasn’t, but perhaps she should be, he suggested. Willes displayed
various exhibits that included details of Shawn Field’s bank statements,
and what Willes considered some of the most damning evidence
against Sarah Sheehan: copies of the text messages she sent during the
last hours of her daughter’s life.

On Thursday, June 2, 2005, David sent Sarah a text message asking
how Karly was doing, and whether she’d made it back from daycare
all right. David worried less when Karly was with Delynn than he did
when she was with Sarah. At 10:03 a.m., only minutes after David sent
that text, Sarah texted back: “Staying home. Karly much better 2day
despite jumping on bed when told NO!”

That text, Willes told the jury, was a setup. Karly already had injuries.
The nurses who tended to Karly on Friday, June 3, 2005, said they
knew from experience that some of her injuries had to have been several
days old. “Sarah knows she’s going to have to deliver her daughter back
to David Sheehan in two days, and she’s setting up the excuses,” Willes
explained. Just like in December 2004, when Sarah told David, “This
happened on my watch.”

Sarah had gone so far as to call her boss on Thursday morning to
say she wouldn’t be in to work because Karly had fallen from the bunk
bed and Sarah needed to take her to the doctor, Willes said. Only Sarah
didn’t take Karly to the doctor on Thursday, or on Friday. Instead, Sarah
worked later in the day on Thursday, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., although
she didn’t get back to Shawn Field’s home, and to Karly, until midnight.

“Sarah wanted to convince you that she worked off the clock during
those hours,” Willes said. “But when did the manager go home? Nine
o’clock. The manager went home at nine because the raffle was over.
Sarah wants you to believe she was working off the clock,” Willes said.
“And the district attorney wants you to believe that Sarah is a controlled
woman, who doesn’t have an independent thought or an independent
mind. But when she wants to go out and play, Sarah goes out to play.
When she wants to go out and drink, and party, and go to the parking
lot with somebody else, she does it. Remember, she has her own place.
She lives with her child by herself sometimes. She has her own job, her
own checking account, and she pays her own bills, sometimes.”

Willes reminded jurors that as early as October 2004, Sarah was
blaming David Sheehan for Karly’s injuries, and when Karly died, Sarah
blamed David for that, too.

And on that last day of Karly’s life, Sarah claimed that she could not
take Karly to the hospital because Shawn wouldn’t let her, wouldn’t give
her the car—yet, Sarah received fifteen phone calls between 9:48 a.m.
and 1:37 p.m.

“This is what her child looked like Friday morning when Sarah
woke up,” Willes said, displaying a photo of a battered Karly for the
jury to see. “Sarah gets fifteen phone calls on a regular basis that day,
and the district attorney wants to indicate to you that Sarah Sheehan
couldn’t get help, didn’t have a car, couldn’t take her child to the hospital.
Couldn’t Sarah have talked to any one of the people she spoke to that
day, asked for help, including her good friend Shelley Freeland? Yet she
didn’t mention a word of it.”

Shawn Field was not responsible for Karly Sheehan’s death, Willes
said. Shawn had nothing to gain from it. Sarah, on the other hand, did
have a motive. “We have a little girl, Karly, who is getting in the way of
her mother having some fun,” Willes said.

The only reason Shawn Field was taking photos of Karly was
because Sarah told him that David Sheehan was doing this to Karly,
Willes said. “You couldn’t miss the sixty bruises on the little girl’s body.
Wouldn’t you take pictures?” Willes asked the jurors.

Willes offered no explanation for why it was that Shawn Field didn’t
take Karly to the emergency room himself. He offered no explanation
for Shawn Field’s behavior at all. He didn’t have to, he told the jurors.

“We don’t have the burden of proving who did this—the state does.
We don’t have to present anything. The question before you is has the
state met the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Let me put it in different terms. If Sarah Sheehan were sitting where
Shawn Field is now, and evidence had been presented like it is, would
you start considering that Sarah Sheehan was guilty?” Willes asked.

Keep in mind, Willes told jurors, that when Sarah Sheehan was
under oath, she answered, “I can’t confirm or deny that statement”
more than thirty times.

“Wow!” Willes said.

As sirens wailed by the open windows of the courtroom, Willes
apologized for taking up so much of the jurors’ time.

“You are parents, and that’s what the state is really relying on: your
gut reaction, we have to get somebody. Use the facts. Don’t use your gut,
because if guts were right, Susan Smith in North Carolina wouldn’t be
in jail today, Diane Downs in Oregon wouldn’t be in jail today, Andrea
Yates in Texas wouldn’t be in jail today. It’s because somebody followed
the facts, and that’s what Mr. Field is asking you to do in this case.
Thank you.”

Clark Willes finished his closing statements and Judge Holcomb
excused the court for an afternoon recess.

“We will reconvene at 3:45 p.m.,” Holcomb said.

Following the break, Joan Demarest offered a fairly direct rebuttal,
when she replayed the 911 call from Friday, June 3, 2005.

Once more the jurors heard the voice of Sarah Sheehan:

“911. What’s your emergency?” Thompson asked.

“OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” came a female voice.

“I need you to calm down. Where are you?”

Inaudible, hysterical crying.

“Hello? I need you to stop crying.”

“Tww…gasp…Tww…sob. Northwest Aspen Strrrreeeeetttt!”

“I can’t understand you.”

“Twenty-six-fifty-two. Twenty-six-fifty-two Northwest Aspen Street. Twenty-six-fifty-two
Northwest Aspen Street. Aspen Street. Twenty-six-fifty-two Aspen Street.”

“Twenty-six-fifty-two Aspen?” Thompson repeated back.

“Yes. Yes. Northwest. Right across from Hoover.”

“What’s the problem?” Thompson asked.

“Karla! Karla! Come back! Karla! Come baaaack!”

It was nearly five o’clock when Judge Holcomb dismissed the
jury. “Members of the jury, that concludes the arguments in the case. I have
fourteen pages of instructions, and given the hour, and as long as the day
has been, we are going to stop. I am sure you have families you’d like to
get home to, and, perhaps, celebrate or give out candy for trick-or-treating.”

J
udge Janet Holcomb gave the
jury instructions on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. “Members of the jury, it
is your sole responsibility to make all the decisions about the facts of the
case. You must evaluate the evidence to determine how reliable and how believable
it is. Remember, any witness who lies in some part of their testimony is likely
to lie in other parts of their testimony.

“Do not allow bias or sympathy. Do not decide on guesswork,
conjecture, or speculation. When you make your decision about the
facts, you must apply legal rules to those facts to reach your verdict.
A defendant has the constitutional right to not testify. This cannot be
considered an indication of guilt.”

It took the jury three days to reach a verdict in the month-long
murder trial. The jury returned their verdict on Friday, November 3, 2006.
They declared Shawn Wesley Field not guilty on all five charges of aggravated
murder and one count of murder, but they found him guilty of the remaining
seventeen charges, including felony murder and torture. Some of the jurors
wept as the verdict was read.

Consensus among the jurors did not come easily. Initially, five
jurors were ready to give Shawn Field the death penalty. One juror
wanted to throw out everything but the manslaughter charge. “We spent
many hours talking a few fellow jurors down from what I considered
an emotional, perhaps even justifiable, impulse,” one juror said. “We
insisted, time and again, to ‘show the evidence’ for intentional murder,
as opposed to intentional, excessive abuse that led to death, which
we’d already voted for unanimously. In the end, we voted unanimously
against these charges, not because everyone was convinced Shawn was
not guilty, but because we couldn’t find evidence to support them.”

The question they hemmed and hawed over was not whether
Shawn was guilty but to what degree he was guilty. Did he intentionally
murder Karly or was he “just” torturing her? Explained one juror: “I felt
a little manipulated by the torture charge, as it was not something that
came to mind during the trial, but was written and defined in such a
way that we had to sign on, and one of the biggest traps, to me, was the
total number of charges against him. We were instructed to consider
each charge independently, and not pick the most severe charges, as
one might think.”

Intent proved to be as difficult to determine as Joan Demarest
warned it would be. “We don’t know that he intended to kill her. That’s
what hung us up for a long, long time,” said a juror. “Was the murder the
result of some other crime? Did he intend to kill her?”

Another juror recalled how fraught with emotion jury deliberations
had been. “We concluded from the evidence we had that the abuse was
not accidental. There had been a pattern of abuse, but there was no
evidence to show that killing Karly was intentional. Shawn would have
gotten rid of the marijuana plants if he’d planned to murder Karly that
day. It was an afternoon of tearful exchange.”

Jurors found little evidence backing up the prosecutor’s claim
that Shawn Field was abusing Karly for financial gain. A more likely
scenario, they reasoned, was that he was abusing Karly as a means of
payback at Sarah. “Who knows? Maybe Shawn became frustrated with
Sarah’s catting around,” said one juror. “I know what he did, but I can’t
tell you why he did it. All I can conclude is there is barely a rational
thought in the man’s head. Nothing stirred him, with the exception of
when his daughter testified.”

The jurors had noticed how pained Shawn Field appeared when his
daughter was on the stand. “It was clear that he loved her,” said a juror.

Several of the jurors were upset that Joan Demarest put such a
young child on the stand. “Kate was traumatized,” said another juror.
“I felt sorry for her.”

The prosecution had taken such care to provide proof of Shawn
and Karly’s DNA on the two large spoons found in the trash can at Shawn’s
house, but the fact that the spoons were recovered from the trash was more
problematic than helpful for the scientists among the group. “Anything in
the trash is a mixing ground for DNA,” a juror explained. “We never accepted
the spoons as evidence because of that.”

The evidence that ultimately persuaded the jurors that Shawn
Field killed Karly Sheehan came down to the photos of the battered
Karly taken on Shawn’s own camera; the timeline, which included text
messages from Sarah Sheehan’s phone; and lastly, the expert testimony
of Dr. Carol Chervenak.

“Finally, we just decided we couldn’t figure out what was going on
in Shawn Field’s mind, it is so twisted and dark,” said a juror. “There was
a lot of crying but I think everyone realized, let’s go with what we’ve got,
or we’ll be a hung jury, and none of us wanted that.”

In regards to the defense’s closing argument that Sarah Sheehan
had played a part in the killing of her daughter, Karly Sheehan, many of the
jurors agreed. “I don’t understand why the district attorney didn’t charge
her with reckless endangerment at the very least,” said one juror.

Sarah may not have delivered the blow that killed Karly, but she
was complicit in the murder, said another. “We saw the pictures of what
Karly looked like that last day of her life. I couldn’t see a total stranger
looking like that and not do something.”

The jury was not swayed by the emotional abuse argument presented
by the prosecution. “They tried to paint Sarah as being scared of Shawn,
but everyone saw Sarah as a much stronger woman than that. She’s not
the type to put up with that, but apparently she didn’t care if her child
got beaten.”

But ultimately, the defense attorney’s closing arguments directed at
Sarah Sheehan proved to be of little merit. The evidence against Shawn
was too great, and, besides, the district attorney had not charged Sarah
with any crime for the jurors to consider.

“We weren’t there to judge Sarah. We were there to judge Shawn.
Whether I thought she had fault in the crime didn’t matter. Shawn Field
killed that little girl. I would have been perfectly happy giving him life
without parole,” a juror related.

Every juror I spoke with expressed the greatest degree
of compassion for David Sheehan. David was, several jurors said, a real class
act. They remain distraught that the system failed Karly and David. So many
people got so many things wrong, and nothing was more glaring than early suspicion
by the state and the police that David Sheehan was abusing his daughter. “I
think David felt hunted,” said one juror.

After the verdict was read, the jurors headed over to McMenamins
pub, where they drank frothy brew and freely talked about the aspects of the
trial they had not been able to discuss previously. On their way out of the
courthouse, they were greeted by Gene Brill. The grandfather, who had shown
up in court every single day wearing a suit, wanted to thank the jurors for
all their hard work on his granddaughter’s behalf.

“I was amazed he was thanking me,” said one juror. “I would have thought
he’d be upset at us for not coming through on capital murder charges. Gene
Brill is such a gentleman.”

The defense responded to the verdict by moving for a mistrial.
Judge Holcomb denied the motion. Sentencing began on Wednesday, November 8,
2006. The day opened with Dan Koenig asking Judge Holcomb to allow Shawn Field
to be taken back to the jail and given the opportunity to dress in a suit
and tie, rather than the jail jumpsuit and shackles. Koenig said that Shawn
was “not dressed in appropriate attire for the proceedings in a case of this
gravity.” The state opposed the defense’s request, noting that Shawn was a
convicted murderer. Koenig responded that Shawn was not a convicted murderer
until sentencing took place.

Judge Holcomb assured Koenig that the court would not be
prejudiced based on what Shawn Field was wearing. “I will not allow
the defendant to go back and change his clothes,” Judge Holcomb ruled.
Given his obsession with his looks, Shawn Field couldn’t have been too
happy with Judge Holcomb’s decision.

Six months pregnant and stricken with a winter bug, Joan Demarest
apologized for her scratchy, almost-gone voice as she asked the court to
hand down the maximum sentence for Shawn Wesley Field. “This is
so much more than a murder case, Your Honor, and the jury’s verdict
indicates that. Shawn Field tortured Karly Sheehan. The defendant
intentionally inflicted intense physical pain on her.”

Under the felony murder charge, Oregon Law provided that
Shawn Field would receive life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Demarest asked the court to consecutively apply maximum sentences
for the additional guilty convictions of assault, criminal mistreatment,
manufacturing a controlled substance, and endangering the welfare of
minor.

“The court can impose another twenty-eight years on top of the
twenty-five years before the defendant will be eligible for parole, and we
are asking the court to do that,” Demarest said.

Throughout the next week the court heard witness statements from
dozens of people whose lives had been impacted, most often regrettably,
by Shawn Wesley Field. One of the first to tesify, and one of the angriest,
was Brenda Baze, Eileen Field’s mother and Kate’s grandmother. She
spoke with such force and power that the courtroom reverberated with
the electricity of her anger.

“I am appalled at what Shawn Field has put my granddaughter through,” Baze
said. “Kate feels guilty for being so afraid to tell anyone what she heard.
Kate blames herself for not telling anyone; she blames herself for not speaking
up to you; she blames herself for being scared; and most of all she blames
herself for leaving Karly with you that morning.
She. Heard. You. Hitting.
Karly
. She will hear you hitting Karly forever. Dads are supposed to
be our protectors, our heroes, not murderers and not torturers. You have destroyed
Kate’s life. Every Christmas, every holiday, every birthday that her dad is
not there will be a reminder of what you did to Karly. I only pray that Kate
will someday realize that what happened to Karly was not her fault.”

When Sarah Sheehan took the stand to give her witness impact
statement she was alternatively weepy and angry, but she was the most
animated she had been throughout the trial. “How can you ask your own
daughter to carry the burden of a brutal murder and torture around?
You are the epitome of a self-centered, narcissistic psychopath,” Sarah
said.

The emotional restraint that David Sheehan had displayed
throughout the months leading into the death of his daughter, and
over the course of the trial, was frayed. As he gave his witness impact
statement, David spoke rapidly, his Irish brogue more pronounced than
ever, and he paused often, sighing heavily and swallowing back tears.
“In the months following Karly’s death, I battled depression and lost
my will to live. I still agonize over what Shawn Field did to my baby. I
can’t imagine what Karly felt when she was left alone with that monster,”
David said. “Karly is the strongest person I have ever known. I urge the
court to remember and reflect on the word ‘torture’ when considering
sentencing.”

On Wednesday, November 15, 2006, Judge Holcomb did just as
David Sheehan bid her to do: she remembered the suffering of Karly.
“Mr. Field, this is a very sober moment in our community. When you
administered that last blow on June 3, 2005, the one that finally killed
Karly Sheehan, you dealt a blow to our entire community, which was
saddened and horrified by that murder,” Judge Holcomb said.

“You have forever changed the lives of David and Sarah Sheehan and
Gene and Carol Brill. You have changed the lives of their community of
friends and other family members. You have changed the lives of fifteen
community members, the jurors, who sat for over five weeks, listening
to evidence that was deeply troubling and viewing photos that no one
should ever have to see. Finally, you have moved our community, which
has closely followed the reports of this case,” the judge continued.

“As a community we have to do some deep soul-searching about
how, or if, we might have responded sooner. Might there have been an
intervention that could have saved this child’s life? I don’t know, but after
hearing all the evidence it seems there was a continuum of failure after
the first hint that there was something terribly, terribly wrong. If we are
really willing to look at ourselves, this soul-searching might be the very
little bit of good that we can create from this otherwise senseless loss.

“Mr. Field, in my nearly twenty years in the criminal justice system,
this is one of the worst cases of brutality I have ever seen. The jury found
you to be responsible, and it is now for me to hold you responsible and
accountable.” With those words, Judge Holcomb handed down exactly
what Joan Demarest and the state had asked for, the maximum sentence
allowed under the law: more than forty-six years without possibility of
time off for good behavior.

When I spoke with Judge Holcomb, she wanted to know if I had
had a chance to interview the jurors. I told her I had.

“They were an incredible jury,” she said.