Your Honor:

The day the defendant stole my son away from me was the beginning of a nightmare no one should be forced to live. He made Shawn live a life that I never would have made him live. He made him do things that I would never have made him do and he exposed him to things that I would have never exposed him to. He kept him from his loving family, all the while knowing how much we loved him and missed him. Knowing he was breaking our hearts into many pieces.

The defendant kept Shawn from his family for 1,558 long, miserable days. He made feelings come out in me that I didn't even know existed. I felt the deepest loneliness, the most anger, the deepest loss and betrayal that any person could ever feel. My family's world was turned upside down and inside out. My husband and I went on TV every chance we had, begging him to let our son come home. But he decided that what HE wanted was more important than Shawn's life with his family.

The defendant forever took Shawn's innocence and childhood from him -- something that we can never bring back. He took the years of my son's life when his father and I were supposed to be influencing him and molding him into a responsible teenage boy again, something we can never bring back. He victimized him in so very many ways, ways you and can't begin to imagine. I don't know how long it will take to heal these scars- or if they all ever will.

I have wished more than once that the law would allow for his execution as punishment for the crimes he committed against my son. But I have come to realize that it is a far greater punishment for this predator to have to spend every hour of every day for the rest of his life knowing that he no longer has any power or control over my son or our lives. It is my hope that he will live a long life behind bars in that miserable, powerless place where he can not touch or even see another child. I pray that he is reminded every minute of every day that Shawn is home, where he belongs, with his loving family.

My son is a survivor and the defendant should never have the chance to see Shawn grow up and become the wonderful person he is going to be.
Today is the day that my family gets to close a chapter in our lives that we have wanted to close for 5 long years. In the end I know that true judgment will come the day that the defendant gets to answer to the good Lord above and spend eternity paying for his actions.


Thank you