Fischer guilty
 Colorado City man convicted for sex crimes
 
By Aibing Guo
Kingman Daily Miner
 
KINGMAN ­ An eight-member jury unanimously agreed on Friday that Kelly Fischer is guilty on both charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. Fischer is the first convicted of eight Colorado City men charged with similar crimes.

Following closing arguments by both attorneys Friday morning, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn sent the jury to deliberate at 1:05 p.m. The jury received 13 pages of instructions and copies of evidence.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m., jury members concluded that Fischer was guilty on both charges. Asked by Conn to reconfirm their decisions in the courtroom one by one, all of them said "yes" to the decision they had just made.

Terry Head, a long-time Kingman resident and a member of the jury, said after the trial that the jury meeting went smoothly, and fierce discussion rarely happened.

"The fact is more than clear in the first charge. I think we wasted no time to reach a conclusion on that," Head said. For him, the only concern has been whether the crime happened in the state of Arizona. After reading court instructions, he realized the crime did not have to happen in Arizona for Fisher to be considered guilty.

On the second charge of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor, Head said one member had concerns over whether written agreements among members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints had been presented by the state to prove Fischer's guilty. Through discussion, which is probably the reason why the session lasted about 90 minutes, the juror realized the state didn't have to show written agreements to prove Fischer's guilt.

Head has lived in Mohave County for decades and did not know much about the polygamous community in Colorado City before the trial. In his opinion, there were no personal biases involved in the jury meeting, and everything they discussed was strictly based on evidence and testimony presented to the court.

Debbie Henderson, foreman of the jury, confirmed Head's description of the jury meeting and said it was not really hard for them to find the defendant guilty. She said birth certificates offered by the state on Fischer, victim Jenny Steed and her child made it clear to the jury that Fischer had had sex with her before she was 18 years old.

Henderson said the jury also pretty much bought into the testimony offered by the two witnesses from Colorado City, Isaac Wyler and Richard Holm. She believed they had painted a clear picture on how things work in Colorado City to the jury.

County Attorney Matt Smith said after the trial that he is very happy about the result and grateful to everyone who had helped make it happen. Among them, a special thanks was given to Gary Engles, his office's special investigator in Colorado City.

"You are talking about a guy here who is putting his life on the line," Smith said. "He goes up to a hostile area and spends days after days after days trying to help people, trying to help young women over there. I know he had been discouraged because of the lack of cooperation from the police department, the citizens up there, (and) nobody will help him. I think he feels like a lot of time he was just banging his head against the wall. I'm really happy for him."

Engles, who sat next to Smith through the trial, did not show up in the court when the verdict was announced because, according to Smith, he was too nervous to hear the final result.

For the other seven cases against Colorado City residents, Smith said he still needs time to review related documents before taking any of them to trial.

Though he said he would not abandon this winning tactic in Colorado City cases, which are similar in a number of ways, Smith said each case is different and he would of course treat them differently.

The result of Fischer's trial, Smith said, has sent a clear message to Colorado City that the county would not sit by and watch those crimes happen.

"The main message is that the law is applied equally everywhere, particularly in Colorado City," Smith said. "There have been underage sex practices that a man has young girls under the age of 18 assigned to them while the man was legally married. I believe this (trial) will send a message up there that they need to wait until the girls are at least 18 before they can get married to them and start having sexual relations with them."

Defense Attorney Bruce Griffen and his client did not leave the court building immediately after the trial, seemingly trying to avoid the exposure to the media.

Griffen said he was disappointed about the verdict, especially for the fact that he had presented his position, but the jury did not agree with him. But on the other hand, he of course had anticipated a negative result.

"We know it's a difficult environment to try it and the factual issue is difficult; it's not a surprise to us at all," Griffen said.

For the rest of the seven cases against Colorado City residents, all of whom he represents, Griffen said there are some similar components, but every case is different.

"The corrective wisdom is how this (case) settles out, and whether seven more trials are necessary," Griffen said.

After the charges were confirmed by the jury, Fischer faces four months to two years in prison for each count. Smith said it's likely that Fischer could be sentenced to up to one year of probation given the fact he has a clean criminal history. Both attorneys and Conn will discuss details of the punishment in their next meeting.

Fischer's trial started with a whole-day jury selection on Wednesday, followed by direct and cross examinations on evidence and witnesses' testimony on Thursday and ended on Friday with attorneys' closing statements and the jury deliberations.

Smith called two former FLDS members to testify about the religious and cultural environment in Colorado City and asked them to explain why there were no victims or key witnesses testifying to the jury. The two witnesses also testified of their own experiences and why it was acceptable for Fischer to have sex with an underage girl in the polygamous community.

Engles testified to the jury how he tried but failed to contact the victim and key witnesses in Colorado City because of the resistance from FLDS.

Griffen had insisted in his cross-examination that the state did not have enough evidence to prove when and where the instances happened.

He also suggested there was no solid evidence to prove any secret agreement exists for the charge of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

Fischer is one of the eight men from Colorado City charged with sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He is believed to be a member of the FLDS, a sect that believes polygamy is a protected and sacred aspect of religion.

Most of the members of the sect live in Colorado City and Hildale, Utah. The spiritual leader of the sect, Warren Jeffs, has been listed as one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives.
 
KingmanDailyMiner.com
Originally published July 9, 2006
 
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