The final day of testimony began when the defense called Susan Cropp, a DNA examiner for the FBI. She discussed her comparison of the six unidentified male hairs found in Jocelyn Earnest’s home to samples provided by eight men known to have been in the home. Defense attorney Joey Sanzone asked her if she had tested Marcy Shepherd’s DNA, and Cropp said she had not.
When she stepped down, the defense rested its case. The prosecution called three witnesses to rebut the defense claim that Jocelyn had been at Logan’s Roadhouse when her security alarm was turned off at 7:30 on the evening of December 18. Restaurant manager Ann Mason said that credit card receipts were preserved for three years, and that she’d been able to locate the one for that Genworth party, which showed that Jocelyn paid the bill at 7:18 P.M. An alarm company official testified that the system was actually deactivated at 7:38. Co-worker Pam Gillespie told the jury that Jocelyn left the restaurant no later than 7:20. These clarifications provided Jocelyn sufficient time to have returned home to shut off the security system herself.
After another motion to strike the case was made by the defense and denied by the judge, the jurors were instructed and the closing arguments began. Prosecutor Wes Nance argued, “To find this man not guilty, you have to believe a liar. Wesley Earnest wanted everyone to believe Jocelyn Earnest committed suicide, but he made mistakes.” Itemizing those errors, Nance pointed to when Wesley told the car detailers that he wouldn’t be in Chesapeake on December 19; when he dragged Jocelyn two feet through her own blood on carpet; and when he typed a cold and unemotional suicide note for a woman who was a prolific writer who filled seventeen journals by hand.
Sanzone countered, “The real story about this case involves two separate days of two separate people whose lives had split.” He pointed to suspicion surrounding Maysa Munsey and Marcy Shepherd, and to the blood drops and hair in the guest bathroom sink that had never been identified. The defense continued on, attempting to make something out of incidental biological evidence left at some time in the past at a location in the home not connected to the crime scene. They wanted the jurors to believe that any number of people could have been there at the time that Jocelyn was killed. “There is great and substantive evidence of other people that did harm to Jocelyn Earnest. If Jocelyn Earnest had two men in her life instead of Marcy Shepherd and Maysa Munsey and she had been keeping the two men apart, kissing one and keeping the other at the house . . . If it was two men, I don’t think any of us would have a lot of trouble with that. Could this just be as old as time? I submit to you that just because it’s two women, it’s not different.”
Sanzone talked to the jurors for quite some time, injecting suspicion into any possible circumstance to create reasonable doubt. In fact, Judge Updike later described it as “the longest closing argument I’ve ever heard in better than thirty-two years.”
Nance then delivered the final words on behalf of the prosecution. “I’d like for you to consider murder as a means of solving a problem. Jocelyn Earnest was killed because she is Jocelyn Earnest and who do we know who has a problem with Jocelyn Earnest? [ . . . ] This mysterious stranger doesn’t have to stage a crime scene because nobody knows who they are . . . [The defense] wants you to think about the hair that’s right over there but the forensic evidence right at her body? They want you to ignore that . . . Wesley Earnest lied to you. He lied to you about his actions involving the death of Jocelyn Earnest.”
• • •
After nine days, hundreds of pieces of evidence, and more than fifty witnesses, it was now time for the jury to deliberate. But since it was Friday, they were dismissed for the weekend and charged with returning to make their decision on Monday, April 5, at 9 A.M. Less than six hours after reporting in that morning, at 2:50 that afternoon, the verdict was announced: Wesley Earnest was found guilty of first degree murder and of a felony firearms charge. Wesley showed no reaction to the announcement. Jocelyn’s family and friends were visibly relieved that justice had been served. Wesley’s mother, Patricia Wimmer, was disbelieving and distraught.
• • •
Wesley’s father Roger Earnest stood at the door when Detective Gary Babb came out of the courtroom. Roger shook the investigator’s hand.
Babb said, “This is nothing personal.”
Roger said, “I know.” He left the courthouse and did not return for the sentencing phase of the trial.
Eight minutes after the verdict was delivered, that portion began with Joyce Young, Jocelyn’s mother, shaking her head as she held a sheet of paper in her hand. The grief of losing her daughter, she said, “felt like a wild animal inside me wanted out . . . Next month is Mother’s Day and my birthday falls on Mother’s Day this year. I won’t get a hug. I won’t get a kiss. I won’t get an ‘I love you, Mom’ anymore.”
Jocelyn’s sister, Laura Rogers, added, “We expected to grow old together, to attend yard sales at eighty years old.”
Wesley bowed his head and shook it from side to side as their testament to endless grief filled his ears.
• • •
Judge Updike instructed the jury on possible sentences. It took the panel half an hour to return and recommend the maximum: Life in prison, a $100,000 fine, and three more years of prison for the firearms charge.
Wesley’s mother, Patricia Wimmer, looked about to collapse to the floor when she heard those words. She told reporters: “I feel that the jury did what they thought that they needed to do, but I think it was done on speculation and distortion of the facts. My son is innocent. I believe that in my heart. I love Jocelyn, but my son did not murder this woman.”
Later that afternoon, Jocelyn’s mother, father, sister, and two friends came out of the Commonwealth’s attorney’s office. Holding up two enlarged photos of Jocelyn, the friends read the following statement: “On behalf of Jocelyn’s family, friends, and those who cared for her, we are pleased with today’s verdict. We realize and appreciate the efforts of all involved—the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, law enforcement personnel, the Bedford County court system, and members of the jury. At this time we hope that Jocelyn can be remembered for her character, integrity, and wisdom. As we continue the next leg of our ‘new normal’ journey, we will always remember her words of encouragement said with a twinkle in her eye and her infectious laugh filling the air.”