“I agree with the statement from the DA (district attorney) that this is a horrendous crime,” said Judge Fancy Jezek. “I cannot fathom what must have gone through your minds on two occasions . . . I am granting you probation, not because you deserve it, but because I want your victims to be made whole.”
Fulfilling the terms of the probation will not be an easy task. But if both Collin Mayo of Temple and Dennis Schlieper of Troy are successful, neither will have a felony conviction on his record.
Levi Gameson of Moody also was scheduled to participate in the hearing but his attorney, John Galligan, was granted a continuance because he was involved in a federal trial that went longer than anticipated.
Gameson’s hearing has been reset for Monday.
“I am absolutely serious that you comply with every term of your probation,” Judge Jezek said before warning the men that any probation violation would entitle her to find them guilty and subject them to the full range of punishment, which is up to 99 years in prison.
The courtroom was again filled to capacity. Sheriff’s deputies added eight seats in the aisle. Family members wept as Judge Jezek announced her decision but later declined to comment about the outcome.
“I think it’s very fair,” Patricia Benoit, managing consultant for Hillcrest Cemetery, said about the sentence. “This is something I’ve really, really wrestled with for over a year. This is something where nobody wins. I want them to be taxpayers and good citizens. I hope they make it.”
For the first time, District Attorney Henry Garza showed pictures of some of places that had been vandalized. A large Bible that had a pentagram painted in its pages sat atop an ornate sacrament table that had the words “this do in remembrance of me” carved into the wood across its front.
In his closing argument Garza called the vandalism acts “hateful, mean-spirited, vulgar, vile and horrific.”
“It’s one thing to talk about what was spray painted,” he said. “It’s quit different to see it.”
A family friend testified in Mayo’s behalf. Bob Browder, a business consultant from Temple, described him as a first-class young man.
Steve Blythe, Mayo’s attorney, said he had five other people ready to testify who had known Mayo most of his life. Rather than continue the procession of people in his client’s behalf, Blythe told the court their testimony would have been similar with all asking the court for deferred probation.
In addition, Blythe submitted to the court a letter of support from one of Mayo’s former teachers and from a counselor he has been working with. He also told the court Mayo had given him $960 as a restitution payment, which he was prepared to turn over to the court at the appropriate time.
The testimony was in contrast to the role Mayo appeared to play in the scheme.
Tracy Zimmer, mother of Schlieper, testified that her son told her the leader of the group was Mayo, that he drove the group around in his car and stole spray paint used in the spree from his former employer.
All of the people who testified in the hearing said the crimes were committed while the participants were sober. No drugs or alcohol was involved.
Schlieper, who graduated from Troy High School last year, was an honor student. His mother testified that he was just not thinking right when he committed the crimes.
“He’s a smart young man,” Garza said. “How is a smart young man not thinking? Over a two-day period he was busting up churches and a cemetery. It’s more than just not thinking.”
Garza argued that the case was an opportunity for Judge Jezek to set a benchmark that could be a tool to deter other youths from such behavior.
“In the next week or so kids are getting ready to go back to school,” he said. “What kind of message are you sending to kids - and this is one of the worst I’ve ever seen - that this is a probation case?”
Blythe suggested that none of the participants in the vandalism would have done the acts alone but a pack mentality somehow influenced the group.
He asked Judge Jezek to consider the contrast of Wednesday’s courtroom compared to courtrooms where lawyers argue probation and the defendant has nobody in the courtroom to support him.
“Time after time you see a blank wall,” Blythe said before pointing out all the family and friends who came in support of Mayo.
“Give him that key to the penitentiary and let him hold it in his hand as opposed to locking him up and throwing it away,” Blythe said.
In the end, that is largely what Judge Jezek did.
“I’m a real believer in second chances,” Browder testified.
A fourth person charged in the spree, Kristen Solis of Temple, has a hearing scheduled for Monday.
