WILMINGTON -- A mistake was made in the trial of a man found guilty of shaking his three-month-old son, causing serious injuries.
Thursday we told you a jury found 31-year-old Eric Oakman guilty of one count of felony child abuse, but Oakman was on trial for two counts of felony child abuse.
The judge presiding over the case says he made a mistake and didn't submit the second count to the jury.
Prosecutors tried Eric Oakman for two counts of felony child abuse. The jury found him guilty Thursday on one count, instead of two counts because of Judge Russell Lanier's mistake.
But Lanier says he doesn't think fixing the mistake will make much of a difference.
Lanier sentenced Oakman to ten years in prison on the one count. If Oakman gets another 10-year sentence, he may have serve it at the same time as the first sentence.
The clerk of superior court says this second count is hanging in limbo until District Attorney Ben David decides what to do. The prosecutor could appeal the case, but that does not necessarily mean there would be a retrial.
The DA's office would not comment on its plans.
In 2001 Lanier was the judge in the case of Kyle Berry, a man convicted of killing Teresa Fetter and sentenced to death. That case had to be re-tried because an appeals court found Lanier also made a mistake when he gave the jury its instructions.
the judge
i really think they should reopen the case and try him again on the 2nd count. we all make mistakes but when it comes to child abuse i can not deal with that. i think this man should pull all of the ten years and then turn around and have to pull another ten years for the 2nd count. i really hope they will reopen the case and try him for the 2nd count
judge's mistake
Why didn't the prosecuter correct this at the time of trial and presenting to the jury??????? Sounds like all were asleep in the courtroom
Judge
If he worked at a private company and he made a mistake that was similiar to this but in the business world, that cost the company money....he would be fired.
Time for the man to
Time for the man to retire...not retrial!
get him out of
get him out of there!!!!!!!!!!!!!
is this serious?
why do these judges get away with making these mistakes? they have our trust, concern and uphold our highest standards as decision makers that affect lives of everyone in the communtiy based on their competancy. what are the ramifications for this?
love the blog.... but hate the fact that we have issues like this to post on.
it's past time we have some common sense placed in the positions of power in the city, county, state and local jurisdictions where decisions are made that affect lives of people that vote and participate in everyday matters important to us.
I agree with the previous
I agree with the previous blogger. I understand mistakes are made, we all make them. However, when you are in position such as a judge presiding over a case which could send a man to jail for 10 years, mistakes cannot and should not be tolerated. Luckily in this particular case it seeems it wouldn't matter because he was found guilty on the first count anyways. Still the fact remains that a mistake was made and this something needs to be done to ensure these mistakes don't happen again.
P.S.- Good job WWAY on the blog