I received a summons in the mail last week to appear before the presiding judge for the city of Lakewood. Out of the 30 applicants the lawyers chose seven of us to sit in the box and I was lucky juror number 7. The case involved the defendant getting arrested for possessing tools that "could" be used for burglaries. He was caught hiding/prowling near a bank and a coffee shop wearing all black clothes and a paint ball mask. He also had a small flashlight and a small crowbar (aka cats paw) in his possession. He told the arresting officer he was hiding in wait to scare his girlfriend when she arrived to pick him up. Make note: it's 5am, very dark and the girlfriend, whom he couldn't recall the name never showed up. Our job as jurors was to determine if the defendant "intended" to use the crow bar for a crime. I thought it was a slam dunk before we went back for deliberations,but several questions came up and as the elected/volunteered Foreman I did my best to keep everyone on track and keep the ball rolling when it got too quiet. A few of the jurors had some doubt in there mind about a guilty verdict, but focusing on the evidence and not on assumptions eliminated the grey area. We talked/deliberated for about 30 minutes and finally agreed on the guilty verdict. We dropped the hammer on the dude!
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