BLAKENEY TRIAL UPDATE: Guilty, gets death penalty | Local News

UPDATE: Justin Blakeney sat next to his lawyers without showing any emotion as the jury foreman stood up in Jones County Circuit Court at 10:25 p.m. on Friday and read his fate: “We unanimously find that the defendant should suffer death.” The Greene County jury — made up of eight white women, three white men and one black woman — deliberated for an hour and 15 minutes that afternoon to find him guilty of killing 2-year-old Victoria Viner back in August 2010, then they went back in the jury room for almost two hours to decide his punishment — the death penalty or life in prison. Judge Billy Joe Landrum polled the jurors individually and accepted their sentence. He set Blakeney’s execution for Nov. 19, but it won’t happen that day because all capital punishment cases are automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court. Assistant District Attorney J. Ronald Parrish and defense attorney William LaBarre made impassioned closing arguments during the sentencing phase of the trial, which has been in and out of court for motion hearings and continuances for almost four years. LaBarre, who is with the Jackson-based Office of Capital Defense, told the jury that a sentence of life in prison is a death sentence for his client. “The different is, God decides,” he said. “If he’s given the death penalty, you decide.” Parrish responded, “God didn’t decide when Victoria Viner died. Justin Blakeney took it upon himself to decide.” Blakeney told investigators that the toddler, who was his girlfriend’s daughter, fell on a carpeted floor and never regained consciousness while she was in his care on Aug. 10, 2010. Medical experts said it couldn’t have happened that way and determined that the child died of blunt-force trauma to the head. Several family members and friends pleaded with the jury to spare Blakeney’s life. Family physician and great uncle Dr. Charles Hollingshead testified that the defendant’s mother “got an abnormal satisfaction from him being sick,” and always insisted that he be sent to a specialist when he could find nothing wrong with him. He was allowed to stay out of school when he said he felt bad, the doctor said, and his mother’s parenting style “kept him from developing a normal male personality.” Dr. John Goff, a neuropsychologist from Tuscaloosa, Ala., said Blakeney was diagnosed with anxiety and personality disorders and he has a low IQ. Earlier testimony said that Blakeney was on several kinds of medication for depression, back pain and irritable bowel syndrome. He became depressed after going through a divorce then finding his pit bull run over in the highway, and because of that, he received Social Security disability payments. “I’m sorry if he had a bad momma or his dog got run over … Call him to account for this heinous crime against this little baby,” Parrish said as he held up a poster-sized photo of the blond-haired, brown-eyed girl in a pink dress with a pink bow in her hair. “You are not here to judge his mortal soul,” Parrish told the jury. “Let God judge his soul. You judge his right to live among decent, law-abiding people.”

Fiery closing before jury begins deliberation A cup of coffee steamed on the table in front of Assistant District Attorney J. Ronald Parrish. Minutes later, the fiery prosecutor was steaming in front of the jury. He and defense attorney William Labarre made their closing arguments in front of a Greene County jury on Friday in Jones County Circuit Court, the third day of the trial of accused child killer Justin Blakeney. “He made an accusation about selling our souls,” Parrish said, pointing to LaBarre and referring to a statement he made in his closing argument. “There’s a prayer I make before every case: Help me to never want to win a case so bad that I lose my soul.” LaBarre said that there was outrage at the death of 2-year-old Victoria Viner, and because of that, there was “a rush to judgement” from the time first-responder Lee Garick arrived at the scene until the time investigators interviewed him and fellow inmates heard about his charges. “I’m outraged by the rush to judgement,” said LaBarre, who is with the Jackson-based Office of Capital Defense. Blakeney, 30, said the little girl fell and hit her head on a carpeted floor the morning she lost consciousness. Parrish emphasized the medical evidence from three experts who said that the little girl’s death was caused by “blunt-force trauma” to the head, not an accidental fall. There were only two people at the home the day she suffered her fatal injury, and the medical evidence showed it wasn’t a natural death or an accident, Parrish said. “That little baby didn’t commit suicide,” he said. “Justin Blakeny lied.” LaBarre talked about the state getting testimony from Aryan Brotherhood leader Randall “Satan” Smith, 45, who last month got Blakeney to sign a letter of recommendation that stated he had “spilled the blood of a mixed race” to gain entry to the powerful prison gang. Victoria was half-Hispanic. “They sent Satan himself in to steal his soul,” LaBarre said, “just so he could help himself.” Smith is getting three felony charges dropped — grand larceny, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and sale of a controlled substance — in exchange for the evidence he produced and the testimony he provided. Parrish didn’t deny that as he stood in front of two poster-size photos on easels — one of 2-year-old Victoria with a pink bow in her air, the other of a shirtless Blakeney with a swastika tattooed on his chest. “If I have someone in the Jones County jail who committed a non-violent crime and can give me information on a baby-killer, I’ll let them go in a heartbeat,” Parrish said. He said that Smith and fellow “jailhouse snitch” Greg Hancock were both “despicable” and part of a “thug organization.” Parrish then pointed back at Blakeney and said, “Why is he trying to join up with Satan? Is he Satan Jr.?”

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