{"id":1316026,"date":"2019-10-23T22:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T04:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/jury-takes-less-than-10-minutes-for-conviction\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T22:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T04:04:00","slug":"jury-takes-less-than-10-minutes-for-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/jury-takes-less-than-10-minutes-for-conviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury takes less than 10 minutes for conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A jury needed less than 10 minutes to reach a guilty verdict, convicting Ever Valencia of sexually assaulting a 12-year old girl. Valencia vanished and was not in the courtroom for the second day of his trial, or when the verdict was read.<\/strong>
Special to the Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

EAGLE \u2014 A jury needed less than 10 minutes to find a 19-year-old man guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.<\/p>\n

However, Ever Valencia was not in court to hear the verdict. After sitting through Tuesday\u2019s jury selection and openings, he skipped Wednesday\u2019s second day. The trial was scheduled for three days, but prosecutor Jake Lilly needed a day and a half to present the case and gain one of the quickest convictions of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a strong case,\u201d Lilly, a former defense attorney and military prosecutor, said. \u201cWe draw lines between what\u2019s right and wrong, and this is clearly wrong. Sex assault on children cases are always emotional. When a victim is vindicated, it\u2019s a wonderful day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valencia was charged with sexually assaulting a child during the spring of 2018, on the Eagle County side of the Roaring Fork Valley. The District Attorney\u2019s Office offered him a plea deal, but he rejected it, opting to take his chances at trial, Lilly said.<\/p>\n

When Valencia vanished, District Court Judge Russell Granger decided Valencia\u2019s trial would continue in \u201cabsentia,\u201d without the defendant.<\/p>\n

If Valencia ends up in custody, he\u2019ll go straight to Granger\u2019s court for sentencing. He faces between two years and life in prison.<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019re next\u2019<\/p>\n

In his closing arguments, Valencia\u2019s defense attorney Ted Hess said that sometime in the spring of 2018, Valencia got a message from his skateboarding buddy that they were going out. Hess said the girl had consensual sex with Valencia\u2019s friend, and that Valencia got a message from her saying, \u201cYou\u2019re next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lilly was unimpressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody agrees they had sex. She does not get to say yes. The law does not allow that (at her age), and we are a nation of laws,\u201d Lilly said.<\/p>\n

Hess said the girl went through one law enforcement interview, came out and talked to her mom, walked back in and told investigators she had been raped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs she a truth-teller, or not? We submit that she is not a truth-teller,\u201d Hess told the jury.<\/p>\n

That does not matter, Lilly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn 18-year-old man had sex with a 12-year-old girl. We all agree on that. That\u2019s sexual assault whether or not she consented,\u201d Lilly said in his closing arguments. \u201cShe was 12 years old, in middle school, a little girl who sat on that witness stand and was so nervous that she could not get her own age right. That is a girl who no 18-year-old man should be having sex with. She is a 12-year-old girl. Under the law she cannot legally say yes, and we are a nation of laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crime victim\u2019s visa<\/p>\n

Hess declined to say whether Valencia is in the country legally. He said the victim is a U.S. citizen. Her mother is in the country illegally, Hess said, and will probably apply from a crime victim\u2019s visa, or U visa.<\/p>\n

Because the victim is a minor, her mother can show she cooperated with the investigation and prosecutors, and could receive the U visa for which her daughter \u2014 the victim in this case \u2014 would be eligible, Hess said. Hess said his Glenwood Springs law practice does extensive immigration work and deals with U visas regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a victim of domestic violence or other qualifying crimes \u2014 and certainly sexual assault is one \u2014 you can seek a U visa,\u201d Hess explained. \u201cThe motivation to get a U visa is a strong theme underlying this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A jury needed less than 10 minutes to reach a guilty verdict, convicting Ever Valencia of sexually assaulting a 12-year old girl. Valencia vanished and was not in the courtroom for the second day of his trial, or when the verdict was read.Special to the Daily EAGLE \u2014 A jury needed less than 10 minutes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 16:37:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}