Accused graffiti painter acquitted
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

Torres

The person accused of vandalizing 16 local businesses last January by spray painting them had his day in court with a jury trial at the end of October. And in the end, the six-person jury did not find in the state's favor.

Jose Torres, 19, of Delphi was charged after graffiti was sprayed on businesses in the downtown area and the outskirts of Delphi. He was appointed a public defender, although he resided with his parents. The county paid for a translator for his father while in court as well.

The case was prosecuted by chief deputy prosecutor Christine Smith in Carroll Superior Court. Smith told the Comet Nov. 2 the majority of the evidence was presented in summary form by stipulation. That measure allowed the 16 counts to be tried in only two days.

According to Smith, trial testimony included a classmate of Torres who said the accused told him he had done the graffiti. The classmate further produced a similar drawing of that which was spray painted around town, which he said was contained in a notebook owned and carried by Torres.

Photographs of the graffiti, three written statements by the defendant and one audio tape of the defendant's admission to the crime were introduced as evidence. The jury deliberated for two-and-a-half hours to reach the acquittal verdict.

"We believed we had a strong case to try in this instance," Smith said. "We felt it was our duty to pursue it."

However, jury foreman MelissaWhiteman of rural Carroll County disagreed with Smith.

"We just didn't have a lot to work with basically," she explained. "We thought a lot more could have been done."

Whiteman said Tuesday that jury members thought the admission "was coerced." She said the general feeling of the jurors was that "the state didn't give them enough evidence."

Whiteman said there was no physical connection made to link the graffiti to the accused. She said no spray paint cans were introduced as evidence.

"There was so much graffiti, we thought others were involved," she said.

According to Whiteman, jurors believed Torres had done the crime or was involved with it somehow, but considered the case presented "incomplete" and "unclear."

"We all left the courtroom thinking yeah, he was involved," she concluded, "but there wasn't enough to convict him."