Jurors begin deliberations in Daniel Perez murder trial

The fate of Daniel Perez is in the hands of jurors.

Attorneys in the case of the purported seer and communal family leader, who is charged with murder and child sex crimes, made their final appeals to jurors Tuesday, then turned the case over to the jury for deliberations midafternoon.

Jurors discussed the case for less than two hours before breaking for the day at 5 p.m. They will return to court to continue deliberating at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Sedgwick County District Judge Joseph Bribiesca is presiding over the trial, which is in its third week.

Jurors will deliberate on 28 counts, including rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, sexual exploitation of a child, making false information and the first-degree premeditated murder charge in the death of one of Perez’s followers, 26-year-old Patricia Hughes, whose death initially was ruled accidental.

Perez, 55, originally was being tried on 37 counts, but the state dropped or consolidated some of the charges after testimony ended last week.

He is accused of manipulating his followers by convincing them that he was a “seer” who could foretell the future, of sexually abusing some of their young daughters and of ordering them to falsify car credit and life insurance applications so he could lead a lavish lifestyle.

He is also accused of holding Hughes’ head underwater in the outdoor pool of their home in the 9500 block of North Oliver until she drowned on June 26, 2003, so he would have access to more than $1 million in her life insurance benefits.

Perez, in court Tuesday, has pleaded not guilty to all 28 charges.

‘In charge’

In their closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors asked jurors to convict Perez on all counts because witness testimony and evidence supported claims that Perez – who went by the alias Lou Castro – “was in charge of everything” associated with his communal family, ruling with threats, intimidation and fantastical stories about his origin. Wealth, they said, was the motive.

Alice Osburn, Perez’s court-appointed defense attorney, in her closing arguments told jurors that the evidence necessary to convict her client of any count, including murder, was not presented at trial. She reminded jurors that the burden of proof lies on prosecutors and suggested that Perez was merely an employee rather than the leader of the 20-acre compound called Angels Landing, where many of the alleged crimes occurred.

“You must find him not guilty on all charges,” Osburn said.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett asked jurors to gauge the credibility of those who testified in court – including Perez, who last week tried to explain away witness claims that he presented himself as a centuries-old “seer” by saying both were turns of phrase misinterpreted by his followers.

“Who is this man?” Bennett asked jurors. Was he the foreteller of deaths, the savior and the messenger his followers believed?

“Or was he Dan, the guy from south Texas who got conked on the head ... and forgot who he was for a decade?” Bennett said, referring to testimony from Perez about why he fled sentencing for a 1997 child sex crimes conviction in Texas.

Bennett touched on testimony from several witnesses, including key statements from a woman who said she called 911 with a fabricated story about Hughes’ death at Perez’s direction when she was 11.

He also said a forensic pathologist called to the stand as an expert witness made it clear in testimony that Hughes couldn’t have drowned herself, as was suggested earlier in the trial, and that her injuries were consistent with her head being pushed into the water.

Perez “was the only one capable of doing it. He’s the one in charge out there at the ranch (Angels Landing). ... He controls life and death out there,” Bennett said.

In closing, Bennett told jurors Perez’s “run has come to an end.”

“It’s time to hold this man accountable for the crimes he committed.”

Reasonable doubt

During Osburn’s closing arguments, she told jurors “it is reasonable to have doubt about these charges.”

She said Hughes’ death was an accident and that neither first responders nor the coroner saw any “red flags” in the girl’s story about how Hughes had slipped and knocked herself unconscious while trying to rescue her daughter the day she drowned.

Perez, she continued, was not at the property at the time; he instead was miles away at a west Wichita car dealership searching for a vehicle.

It doesn’t make sense for a person planning a murder to trust an 11-year-old girl to keep a secret, she told jurors.

Osburn also pointed out that the while the state’s expert witness said Hughes’ head injuries likely were inflicted purposely, the local coroner who actually conducted the autopsy testified that even minor injuries can render a person unconscious.

The death, Osburn said, was ruled accidental by an experienced medical professional who had conducted thousands of autopsies, and to date, there has been no changes or additions made to Hughes’ autopsy report.

Hughes’ body also showed no evidence of the defensive wounds one might expect to see on a person who had been attacked, she said.

“Not one person other than those three (girls who testified to sex abuse) ... described a home of terror,” Osburn said. She added that many people, including police officers, called Angels Landing and Perez “welcoming.”

“Was there force? Was there fear? If you have reasonable doubt ... the law says you must find him not guilty.”

Of the 28 counts jurors are considering, one – sexual exploitation of a child – carries a presumptive prison sentence of life without parole eligibility for 25 years under Jessica’s Law, Bennett told The Eagle after jurors received the case Tuesday afternoon. The count is connected to a videotape showing an 8-year-old girl changing in a bathroom, allegedly made at Perez’s direction.

Jessica’s Law, enacted in 2006, strengthened penalties for those convicted of some sex crimes involving children younger than 14. The other sex crimes Perez is charged with either allegedly occurred prior to 2006 or involved people older than 14.

The murder charge also carries a presumptive sentence of life in prison. As an alternative to first-degree murder, jurors will also have the option to convict or acquit Perez of second-degree murder in connection with Hughes’ death.

If convicted of any charges, Perez would be given credit for the more than three years he’s spent in jail awaiting trial.

This story was originally published February 17, 2015 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Jurors begin deliberations in Daniel Perez murder trial."