Alabama Department of Public Safety photo of Larry Richard Chavers
A new trial has been ordered by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in the case of an alleged rape and sodomy of a 7-year-old child. The new trial was ordered after a juror's dishonesty about being an Alabama resident was exposed.
Larry Richard Chavers was accused of raping and sodomizing the daughter of a woman he had previously dated. The girl told her grandmother about the sexual activity after being caught in sexual behavior with another child in June of 2004. The grandmother reported the allegation to the Escambia County Sheriff's Department, who then brought in the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) to question the child.
The girl, who was 10 years old by the time of the 2006 trial, testified that Chavers touched her or made her do something inappropriate 15 to 20 times, and told her she would be grounded if she told anyone. The girl testified that she told her mother about what was going on, and that her mother only said she would take care of it. The jury found Chavers guilty of both rape and sodomy of the girl.
The trial judge sentenced Chavers to 21 years in prison on the sodomy conviction and to 10 years in prison on the sexual abuse conviction. The judge ordered that Chavers serve the sentences consecutively, and ordered that the sexual abuse sentence be served as a split sentence, with Chavers serving 3 years in prison and the balance on supervised probation. This meant Chavers would serve the 21 year sentence before beginning the 10 year split sentence.
Chavers attorney, Paul Harden of Monroeville, filed a motion for new trial. The trial judge made the parties aware that one of the jurors may not have been an Alabama resident. Harden argued that one of the jurors, Juror No. 216, was not a resident of Escambia County, Alabama, but in fact lived just across the state line in Escambia County, Florida. According to Harden, this disqualified Juror No. 216 from serving on the jury and made the original trial invalid.
Juror No. 216, as well as his wife, were subpoenaed to court to testify about their residency. The juror had an Alabama post office box, paid Alabama income taxes, had an Alabama drivers license, and and had a job that required him to be an Alabama resident. He did not own property in Alabama, and he and his wife owned property just across the state line in Florida. Juror No. 216 denied that he lived at the house in Florida, but also denied that he and his wife were separated. Both he and his wife were evasive about further details, such as how often he actually slept in the house. The juror admitted he did not respond during voir dire (preliminary questioning of potential jurors before trial) when the judge asked questions about the residency requirements for serving on a jury.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals said Alabama law requires a potential juror to be a resident of the county in which the trial will be held for at least 12 months before the trial begins. This requirement is mandatory, and is not a matter within the trial court's discretion. Therefore, whether or not Juror No. 216 was an Alabama resident as defined in the statute would determine whether he was qualified to serve as a juror.
The appeals court looked at the inconsistent and conflicting testimony presented by Juror No. 216 and his wife, and determined that juror actually resided in the State of Florida. Judge Wise, writing the majority opinion of the appeals court in a split decision, said that the juror's actions designed to show Alabama residency “were simply the minimum necessary to maintain the facade that he lived in Alabama so he could keep his job.”
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals held that because the juror was not an Alabama resident, the trial court should have granted Chavers a new trial. The appeals court reversed Chavers convictions for rape and sodomy, and remanded the case back for a new trial on the allegations against him.
“This is a classic case of juror misconduct,” Hardin said. “All too often potential jurors fail to answer questions asked on voir dire.” Hardin also described this case as “an example of an alleged child victim being improperly coached by agents of the State.”
A date for the new trial for Larry Richard Chavers has not been scheduled as of the writing of this report.
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