SAN ANTONIO – A prison sentence was finally imposed Friday in the August 2016 murder trial of Kerry Gittens.
Just as closing arguments in his trial were to begin last summer, Gittens fled.
“Mr. Gittens told me he was going to the bathroom, and that was the last we saw of Mr. Gittens during the trial,” defense attorney George Shaffer recalled following Gittens’ sentencing on Friday.
“You were sentenced in absentia, and I want to confirm that sentence of 50 years in the penitentiary,” Judge Dick Alcala told Gittens on Friday.
In August 2016, a jury found Gittens guilty in the 2014 shooting death of Antwon Jones. The trial judge sentenced him to 50 years in prison.
Shaffer said that his client’s disappearance made closing arguments a difficult proposition.
“It just makes it awkward for an argument to be effective without the defendant’s presence,” Shaffer said. “I would like to think that the jurors did not reach a decision based solely on the defendant’s absence during arguments.”
Gittens was captured near Houston last week. He must serve half of his 50-year sentence before he is eligible for parole.
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