Chapter 12 - The Plea Bargain
By early November, the criminal justice system had closed every remaining escape hatch for Gavin Montgomery. The District Attorney’s office had successfully petitioned the juvenile court to certify the case under specialized youthful offender statutes due to the malicious, premeditated nature of the assault and the severity of Iris’s permanent physical impairment.
Faced with the terrifying prospect of Gavin standing trial before a jury where the high-definition patio video would be played on a fifty-inch screen, Derek’s criminal defense team advised an immediate, unconditional surrender. A plea conference was scheduled at the County Courthouse in the chambers of Juvenile Judge Arthur Vance.
I attended the conference with Sarah Jenkins and Detective Vance. Derek and Valerie sat on the opposite side of the long mahogany table, while Gavin sat between two public defenders, looking shrunken in a oversized suit that suddenly seemed too big for his sixteen-year-old frame. The arrogant smirk that had defined his entire childhood was completely gone; he stared at his trembling hands, his face pale and marked by stress breakouts.
The Assistant District Attorney, a sharp woman named Ms. Chen, laid the plea agreement on the table without a shred of leniency.
"Here is the State’s final offer," ADA Chen said coldly. "Gavin Montgomery will plead guilty to one count of Aggravated Battery Causing Great Bodily Harm—a Class 3 Felony. In exchange for his guilty plea and the waiver of a public trial, the State will suspend immediate adult incarceration and sentence him under the Youthful Offender Act."
She tapped the document with her pen. "He will be sentenced to thirty-six months of formal, intensive supervised probation. For the first twelve months, he will serve mandatory weekend incarceration at the County Juvenile Detention Center from Friday evening at 6:00 PM to Sunday evening at 6:00 PM. He will complete five hundred hours of mandatory community service at a physical rehabilitation facility for disabled children. He will undergo weekly, court-monitored anger management and psychological counseling."
ADA Chen looked directly into Gavin’s wide, terrified eyes. "And finally, a permanent, lifetime Order of Protection is entered into the state database. If you come within five hundred feet of Iris Mercer, her father, or her residence, or if you violate a single term of your probation over the next three years, this plea deal revokes instantly. You will be remanded to the state penitentiary to serve the maximum adult statutory sentence of seven years. Do you understand?"
Gavin swallowed hard, a tear finally escaping his eye and dropping onto the polished wood of the table. He looked at his father, waiting for Derek to pull off some magical legal maneuver to save him, just as he had done his entire life.
But Derek said nothing. He sat with his shoulders slumped, staring at the floor, completely powerless against the crushing weight of the state's evidence.
"Answer the prosecutor, Gavin," his defense attorney whispered urgently.
"I... I understand," Gavin croaked, his voice cracking into a thin, child-like sob.
May you like
"Then sign on the dotted line," ADA Chen said, pushing the pen across the table.
As Gavin took the pen and signed his name, pleading guilty to a violent felony before he was even old enough to vote, Valerie broke down into silent, heaving sobs, burying her face in her hands. The future football star, the Division I prospect, the alpha male who was supposed to dominate the world—reduced to a convicted felon spending his weekends in a concrete cell because his father taught him that cruelty was strength.
