Jury still weighing sex-abuse charges
After five hours of deliberations Tuesday, Fayette County jurors could not come to a verdict in the sexual abuse case lodged against Charles Fuller. Around 4 p.m., Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi called jurors back to the courtroom and sent them home for the night. He instructed the panel to return at 9 a.m. today to resume deliberations.
Over a day and a half, the panel heard testimony from Fuller, and his alleged victim, a now-21-year-old. The woman testified Fuller sexually abused her from 1993 through 1999 when she stayed with him and his family on and off.
State police charged Fuller with two counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. The alleged abuse happened at Fuller’s Dunbar home while the victim stayed there on and off over six years.
Fuller, 35, testified in his own defense and denied ever touching the girl.
The victim testified that some of the abuse occurred on the Fuller family’s couch, while other alleged incidents happened in a bedroom. The victim also testified that Fuller once had sex with her while the two of them were camping in the backyard.
In his closing remarks, Assistant Public Defender David Kaiser pointed out that the girl stayed with the Fullers on and off during that six-year period. He questioned why, if the girl was abused, she came back.
“She testified she thought it was her,” said prosecuting attorney, Phyllis A. Jin in her closing remarks.
“Here is a child who leaves her dysfunctional family for live with the defendant because she thought it was a safe environment. It wasn’t. … I ask you to tell (the victim) that it was not her,” Jin asked jurors.
Fuller testified that he never admitted some aspects of the abuse to state police trooper James Pierce and chief county detective Lawrence Curry as the two testified Monday.
“I didn’t say that I touched her in any inappropriate way. I didn’t say anything like that,” testified Fuller.
“What else is (Fuller) going to tell you when asked by his defense attorney, did you do these acts?” asked Jin.
Although Fuller acknowledged that he regarded the victim as one of his own children, he testified that he did not check on the woman as his wife, Amy, had earlier testified. Amy Fuller told jurors that she woke up one night to find her husband gone from their bed. When time passed and he did not return, she testified that she found him standing in the doorway of the victim’s bedroom. She testified he told her he was checking on the victim.
“She gets up on the stand and tries to make this big leap, trying to dirty him up in front of you people (the jury), to make it look like he was doing something inappropriate,” said Kaiser in his closing remarks.
Fuller also testified that he and the victim occasionally fought about rules in the home, but classified their relationship as good.
“What reason would this young lady have to come here and create this incident?” questioned Jin.