Jurors went home early Wednesday afternoon after testimony ended in the trial of Raul Manuel Magallanez Jr. The 32-year-old Emporian has been accused of numerous sex crimes against young teens under 16 years of age.
Prosecution and defense attorneys stayed with Judge W. Lee Fowler to discuss the judge’s instructions to the jury and set a schedule for getting the combined cases to deliberation.
“This is a very important case with some very serious consequences,” Fowler said. “I’m certainly not going to rush you through. ...”
After discussion, Fowler announced he would bring the jury in at 9:30 a.m. today to give them instructions on what they need to do as they deliberate.
The instructions are especially extensive, he said, because of the number of cases involved — more than 50, after six were dismissed — and the number of different charges that needed to be proven.
Because of the complexities and length of the instructions, Fowler is having copies made.
“Each one of you is going to get a notebook that has all of the jury instructions so you can follow along,” Fowler told the jury. “The law requires me to read them to you.”
The instruction books also can be kept for use during deliberations.
Closing arguments
Jurors will be dismissed today after the instructions have been read, and will return Friday morning to hear closing arguments and to begin deliberations. If found guilty of certain charges among the 50-plus counts that will be considered, Magallanez could face a sentence of up to life in prison.
The case is “very likely to go into the holiday weekend,” Fowler said.
The 12 jurors and three alternates all will need to continue not to discuss the cases, nor to read or listen to news reports about the trial.
Lyon County Attorney Marc Goodman asked if there was a plan in case jurors want to stay Friday or come back Saturday to deliberate.
“I’ve seen that once,” Goodman said.
“I would be surprised if that happens,” Fowler said. “I don’t have any problem staying Friday night.
I’ve done that on numerous occasions.”
As testimony for the defense wound down Wednesday morning, attorney Julia Spainhour questioned Emporia police detective Lisa Sage about another search warrant that had been served at Magallanez’s home. Sage was called as a witness by both the prosecution and the defense.
Lost videotape
Police had obtained a search warrant on Aug. 22 to continue searching for a memory chip or stick for a video camera believed to be part of cases against Magallanez.
Spainhour asked Sage what officers were looking for in the latest search warrant at the Magallanez home.
“The poem book that (Girl No. 3) had testified to earlier and a memory chip or memory stick that goes inside a camera,” Sage said.
The alleged victims and witnesses have testified that Magallanez recorded videos of the girls in various poses. The videos have not been found.
Spainhour and Sage then went through, one by one, a multitude of individual telephone calls and text messages placed between the defendant and his alleged victims.
The records sometimes showed many unanswered telephone calls from one of the girls to Magallanez, as well as calls from him to the girl.
Testimony also included numerous photographs gleaned from the defendant’s telephone and Internet accounts. About 50 of the photographs were of Girl No. 3; some were of a young teenager who was friends with the defendant, and others were of Magallanez.
“There were also photographs of persons over the age of 18?” Spainhour asked.
“I think so,” Sage responded.
Interview techniques
On cross-examination, Lyon County Assistant County Attorney Amy Aranda asked Sage about techniques used to interview young people.
Sage said that age and development were considered when doing the “semi-structured process” interviews of children.
“Because of different children or juveniles of different ages, we have to be able to allow for variancy in the way we conduct our interviews and the way they’re going to respond to our interviews,” Sage said.
Other factors also may complicate interviews with teen victims.
“They may have feelings for the alleged offender,” Sage testified. “They may love them.”
Aranda asked Sage about Magallanez’s MySpace account, which had contained photographs of the girls.
Sage said that one of the teenaged witnesses told her that Magallanez had asked him to delete information from Magallanez’s MySpace.com account after he was arrested on Dec. 7, 2006.
He used “yoohookid” and “kidnapconcept” on some of his accounts, and listed his date of birth as Dec. 24, 1984 — 10 years after his actual birthdate — on MySpace.com, Sage said.
Sage testified that log-ins to the MySpace account were made after Dec. 7, while Magallanez was being held in jail.
Aranda asked if a comment posted after that date on Magallanez’s MySpace account said, “What happened to all the pictures or pix?”
Sage confirmed the comment had been posted.