SUPERIOR COURT
A defendant who was found guilty of the charges against him in Jones County Superior Court last week will find out how long he will serve in prison Thursday.
Michael Anthony Lester was arrested June 7, 2021, and charged with child molestation and aggravated child molestation. He was 57 at the time of his arrest.
Lester was indicted by the Grand Jury for charges of rape and aggravated child molestation Dec. 16, 2021.
The charges resulted from the reported rape of a 7-year-old, and the aggravated child molestation charge referred to oral sex.
Following his trial for those charges in Jones County Superior Court that concluded March 30, a jury deliberated for approximately an hour before returning guilty verdicts for both charges.
Superior Court Judge Terry Massey presided over the case. Assistant District Attorney Cara Fiore prosecuted the case, and Lester was represented by defense attorney Keith Fitzgerald.
John Simmons with the Jones County Sheriff’s Office was the lead investigator in the case.
The sentencing hearing took place immediately after the verdict was received and the jury released. Massey decided to take time to consider the sentence and set Lester’s sentencing for 9 a.m., April 6.
The jury was selected for the trial March 27, but the trial did not begin until Wednesday morning, March 29. There was one victim in the case, who was 7 at the time the crimes occurred. The child did not tell what had happened for seven years. When she did talk about what Lester did to her, she found out she was not alone.
Four women, all family members, testified to their experiences at the hands of Lester, all of which took place several years prior. Those witnesses were all older at the time than victim in the case and were able to fight off the unwanted advances. Their emotions on the stand, however, spoke to the impact those experiences continued to have on their lives.
One of the witnesses, who was 16 at the time of the encounter, looked directly at the defendant from the witness stand while testifying.
“He did it and he knows he did it. He always found a reason to come into a room when I was there,” she said.
Those four witnesses shared a common reaction when they heard of what happened to the 7-year-old victim. They cried.
The victim, who is now a teenager, was the first witness to take the stand in the trial. Her story includes several attempts at suicide and other emotional problems that have led to years of therapy.
The victim was followed on the stand by the counselor who interviewed her at the Crescent House Child Advocacy Center, and that interview was shown to the jury.
Simmons was the state’s next witness, and the four women followed. The state rested its case after the last women’s testimony, which was a few minutes before 4 p.m.
Defense
Fitzgerald called Lester’s wife as the first defense witness. She said they had been married 30 years and have a 20-year-old son, who suffers from autism.
“He’s my heart,” she said.
The wife said she is a light sleeper and woke up every time her husband got up at night and stayed awake until he came back to bed. She was asked about a night in 2014, which was when the incident at the center of the trial took place.
The witness said she did not remember Lester getting up that night, and the next morning everyone seemed happy. She denied that anyone in the family ever said anything to her about the sexual advances made to the females who testified.
The wife said her disagreement with her sister was because she owed them rent for a trailer she stayed in.
In her cross examination, Fiore questioned the wife about differences in what the previous witnesses had said about what her husband had done to them. She said no one had told her that her husband had assaulted them.
“Several women in your family have accused your husband of assault. Are they are lying?” the prosecutor asked. “I didn’t say they were lying; they just didn’t tell me,” the wife said.
The court adjourned for the day following the wife’s testimony.
Thursday morning the court heard a different version of Lester. Three witnesses who were former employers or family members of Lester’s employers talked about a man who was hard working, helped people in his community and was of high moral standing. The witnesses said they trusted Lester to the point he had keys to their homes.
These were not recent acquaintances of Lester but people who had known him for at least 15 years, and some longer.
In her cross examination, Fiore asked each one if they had ever spent the night at Lester’s, and each said no. One of the witness did say he had dinner at the defendant’s house and had been to family cookouts.
When asked, the defense witnesses said they were aware of the allegations against the defendant.
The defense rested without calling Lester to the stand.
Closing arguments
Fitzgerald was first to present his closing. He said when a story is made up, it is never told the same way twice and it will start to unravel. The defense attorney also spoke about reasonable doubt.
“The alleged victim gave the only evidence,” he noted.
Fitzgerald pointed out what he saw as inconsistencies in her allegations against Lester. He said her accounts differed from her testimony on the witness stand and the video of her interview at the Crescent House.
The attorney talked about his client’s problems getting around, and he put forth the theory that the victim’s emotional issues started when her parents started fighting and divorced.
He said half of the trial was about things reported to have taken place years ago.
“The defendant is on trial for the charges in the indictment. You have to determine if that happened,” Fitzgerald said. “You need to look at the facts of what happened, and if you have a reasonable doubt, you must acquit.”
Fiore began by talking about monsters children worry about under their beds. She said the victim’s monster was very real. The prosecutor said the defense claimed the child made it up, but she asked what she had to gain.
“These kind of crimes happen in private, and the emotions you saw weren’t faked,” she said.
Fiore reminded jurors that the testimony of one witness is enough for a conviction, but the other witnesses were relevant.
“The defendant thinks he can do whatever he wants to the women in his family,” she said.
The prosecutor said the victim was chosen because she could not fight back. She said it happened when she was seven. She is now 16, suffers from depression and has attempted suicide multiple times.
“You can’t deny the emotions of the witnesses. I ask you to find Michael Lester guilty,” she said.
Following the charge by the judge, jurors began their deliberation at 10:50 a.m. The knock on the door signaling they had reached a verdict happened at 11:54 a.m.
