Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jury begins deliberations in Stiles molestation case

Attorneys wrap up closing arguments after six days of testimony

Stiles trial

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Court officials lead accused child rapist Chester A. Stiles out of the courtroom. Both sides rested their cases and presented closing arguments Monday. Stiles, 38, is charged with 22 counts related to the alleged sexual assaults of two young girls.

Updated Tuesday, March 3, 2009 | 1:09 p.m.

State, defense rest in Stiles trial

Chester A. Stiles smiles while conferring with defense attorney Stacey Roundtree, left, as closing arguments come to a conclusion Monday during his trial.  Sitting to the right of Stiles is defense attorney Amy Coffee. Stiles, 38, is charged with 22 counts related to the alleged sexual assaults of two young girls.
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UPDATED STORY: Jury finds Stiles guilty on all 22 counts

Twelve jurors reported to the Regional Justice Center this morning and began deliberating in the case of accused child rapist Chester A. Stiles.

Deliberations had been scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. but got underway about 15 minutes late. The jury was continuing to deliberate early this afternoon.

The jury of nine men and three women got the case after six days of testimony in Clark County District Court. Stiles, 38, is accused in the videotaped sexual assault of a 2-year-old girl, as well as molesting a 6-year-old girl in her bedroom.

He faces 22 charges in connection with the assaults, 21 of which can carry a life sentence. Stiles has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Both sides rested their cases Monday and finished with closing arguments at about 7 p.m. Because of the late hour, District Court Judge Jennifer P. Togliatti asked jurors to reconvene the next morning.

As expected, Stiles did not take the stand during his trial. His attorneys called no witnesses to the stand during his trial.

In closing arguments, prosecutors hammered on evidence against Stiles: the videotape that allegedly depicts him sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl; letters he wrote and left in a Frappuccino bottle in the desert; letters he wrote while incarcerated; recordings of phone calls he made from jail; and the testimony from witnesses and one alleged victim, who is now 11 years old.

Defense attorneys called much of what the state had presented as evidence "inflammatory" and said it was intended to make jurors think with their emotions, rather than make decisions based on facts.

"His words of self-reflection are not evidence of any crimes in this case," public defender Stacey Roundtree said in closing arguments, referring to letters and phone calls submitted by the prosecution. She said Stiles was aware his writings and phone calls were being intercepted by jailhouse personnel.

"I submit to you that they are evidence of a man full of sorrow and sometimes anger -- there's no question there was a range of emotions," Roundtree said.

She said Stiles’ apologies or implications must be taken in the context of the entire letter or phone call, accusing the prosecution of "picking and choosing" what it highlighted to the jury.

The prosecution insisted its evidence was solid.

"In regard to the crimes committed against (the victim), I have two words: video tape," Deputy District Attorney James Sweetin said during closing arguments. The Las Vegas Sun generally doesn’t name alleged victims of sexual assault.

Sweetin walked the jury through the charges and definitions of terms in those charges, referring back to evidence that had been presented over the past few days.

The first three charges against Stiles are tied to the girl who is now 11 years old and wasn't videotaped during the alleged assault. Charges four through 22 are related to the then-2-year-old girl on the tape, who is now 8 years old.

Sweetin said the two girls have one "horrible" thing in common: Chester Stiles.

The defense on Monday focused on the definition of reasonable doubt and argued that the graphic videotape jurors watched Friday might have been technologically altered. The tape is a central piece of evidence in the prosecution's case.

Roundtree asked FBI Agent Andrew Gruninger, the last witness to testify before closing arguments Monday, whether the videotape could have been edited.

In closing arguments, Roundtree implored the jury to look at all the evidence and weigh each charge independently of others.

"It is the quality of the evidence that rules a criminal case, not the quantity," she said.

She told the jury that the testimony of the older alleged victim and her family isn’t believable and there is no medical or DNA evidence.

"Most importantly, you cannot trust the words of (the victim) in this case, an innocent child," she said, adding that the child's testimony shows she doesn’t remember what happened Dec. 12 and 13, 2003. She also said the girl's mother's story "does not add up."

Roundtree said the two alleged assaults shouldn't have been tried as one case.

"This whole case comes down to a VHS tape that was found in the desert, allegedly, by a two-time loser, runnin' and gunnin', high on drugs, looking for something to run over on his bike," she said.

The defense raised questions as to why the graphic DVD footage taken from Stiles' storage shed wasn’t found until the disc was in the possession of the FBI for a year. Attorneys argued the VHS tape found in the desert -- as well as the DVD that contained the same footage –- wasn’t an original, master copy.

"It could be a copy of a copy of a copy, correct?” Roundtree asked Gruninger during cross-examination, to which he agreed.

Sweetin said the copy of the DVD found in Stiles' storage unit further links the tape found in the desert to Stiles. He said that in 2006, Stiles lived near where the tape was found in Pahrump. He went on to say that hiding items in the desert wasn’t unusual behavior for Stiles.

"What about this Frappuccino bottle? It's further evidence of the way this defendant does business," Sweetin said.

Stiles' former girlfriend, Susan Windrem, testified last week that on two occasions after he learned authorities were looking for him, Stiles took her cell phone and hid it in the desert -- once in Pahrump and once in Las Vegas -- because he feared the phone's GPS tracking ability.

Sweetin detailed how the then-6-year-old girl told her story about "Chet" kissing her and touching her beneath her clothes.

"There is no evidence to suggest anyone other than the defendant committed these crimes," Sweetin said. He said that although there was no videotaped evidence of the older girl’s alleged assault, the girl's own words and testimony from witnesses are enough.

Roundtree called into question the girl's memory of events, but in rebuttal, Deputy District Attorney Mary Kay Holthus said the girl and her family had no reason to lie about what happened the night that Stiles stayed at their home.

Sweetin used a PowerPoint presentation to outline his closing argument. In it, a wild-haired mugshot of Stiles looked back at the jury. Sweetin referenced some of Stiles' letters, which were read to the jury last week.

"So much abuse made me numb to it ... made my conscience a smaller voice than it should have been," Sweetin quoted. "I'm a monster, but monsters are made and not born."

Sweetin also referenced instances in which Stiles apologized for what is contained in the videotape; calls himself "a diddler"; discusses the legal definitions of rape and penetration; and details how he had been "brutally raped" as a child.

Throughout closing arguments, Stiles, as he has for much of his trial, wrote diligently on a yellow legal pad. Dressed in a tan shirt and brown pants, his face showed little reaction as final arguments were made.

Stiles was arrested in 2007 after a nationwide manhunt that began when a videotape of a man sexually abusing a toddler girl was turned in to the Nye County Sheriff's Office. Darrin Tuck, then 26, said he found the tape in a desert area in Pahrump.

In court Monday, Gruninger said he was one of several agents present when a Pahrump storage unit rented for Stiles was searched. During the search, 21 compact discs, 16 VHS tapes and six DVDs were seized. The search occurred shortly after Stiles' arrest in October 2007.

The agent testified that when he initially reviewed the CDs, tapes and DVDs, he found no evidence of child pornography. However, Gruninger said that in 2008 as evidentiary items were being prepared for Stiles' trial, he discovered the same graphic footage on a DVD that was found on the videotape.

On Friday, Togliatti described the tape as clearly being child pornography.

On the VHS tape, the footage loops through twice. On the DVD, however, only one instance of the footage is burned onto it, Gruninger said.

Gruninger referred to the looping as "editing." Roundtree pointed out several times in her closing argument that the FBI had said the tape was "highly edited."

She also honed in on the fact that no video camera, cables, computer or recording equipment was found in the storage shed. She talked about the possible use of special effects and video altering.

She referred to the movie "Forrest Gump" and quizzed Gruninger about how historical footage could be incorporated into a Hollywood movie. A PowerPoint slide in her closing argument included footage from the movie.

Stiles' cased gained national attention in 2007. Because investigators weren’t able to identify the man or the child in the videotape turned over to authorities, they released their photos to the public. A Las Vegas woman recognized the girl and alerted the girl’s mother, who then contacted police.

The girl's mother took the stand Wednesday. She said her daughter has no memory of the alleged assault.

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