Chapter 8 - The Gavel Falls
The jury deliberated for exactly forty-two minutes.
When the foreperson stood to read the verdict, the tension in the courtroom was thick enough to suffocate.
“On count one: Attempted Second-Degree Murder. How do you find the defendant, Carter Sterling?”
“Guilty,” the foreperson announced clearly.
Carter buried his face in his trembling hands, a ragged sob tearing from his chest.
“On count two: Aggravated Domestic Battery resulting in catastrophic injury. How do you find?”
“Guilty.”
“On count three: Tampering with Emergency Communications. How do you find?”
“Guilty.”
“On count four: Child Endangerment with depraved indifference. How do you find?”
“Guilty.”
The judge nodded solemnly, looking down from his high bench with the stern, unforgiving gaze of an Old Testament prophet.
“Carter Sterling,” the judge pronounced, his voice booming through the silent chamber. “In my thirty-two years on this bench, I have rarely encountered a display of such callous cowardice. You were an officer of this court, sworn to uphold justice and protect the vulnerable. Instead, you used your legal knowledge as a weapon to abuse, silence, and nearly slaughter the woman who loved you and the innocent child she carried.”
The judge adjusted his glasses.
“For the charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery, running consecutively, I sentence you to thirty-five years at the Sullivan Maximum Security Correctional Facility, without the possibility of parole for the first twenty-five years.”
*THUMP.*
Carter’s head hit the defense table as his legs gave out entirely. He began to hyperventilate, screaming incoherent apologies toward the gallery, begging for mercy.
Two bailiffs hauled him to his feet, dragging his limp body toward the iron holding cells at the rear of the courtroom.
As he was dragged past the rail, Eleanor—who had already been convicted in a separate proceeding for felony assault and sentenced to fifteen years in state prison—stood up in her inmate jumpsuit from the prisoner transit bench, shrieking at him.
“You ruined us!” she screamed, clawing at the air between them. “You worthless boy! You should have treated her like a queen! You destroyed my life!”
“Take her away!” the judge commanded.
May you like
The heavy steel door clanged shut behind them, sealing the Sterling family into the dark annals of the penal system, their wealth, their vanity, and their arrogance extinguished forever.
***
