Any
of us could provoke, or we could be provoked by others with power/
intensity, to do evil. vern jensen <phonev6@gmail.com>
1:16
PM (0 minutes ago)to Janice \J,\What an interesting concept.\Where
did you come up with that?\We were all a bit surprised as you
professed that last night.\This morning as I think about brandon p
smith, that is what happened to him. I write him thousands of words a
week.\ Adventurebill1.blogger.com has all my letters to him.
Hundreds and hundreds of pages. He was a resource kid/ special ed
seeking acceptance. He was a return missionary. A big angry
controlling drug dealer from Ogden moved here after being mugged and
shot 3 times to escape the gangs. Trece is a serious gang in Ogden.
The Draper prison has serious problems with them. Paul Ashton
was the creep!!! And he is a physical brute in size, and meanness
emanates from his countenance. I hadn't read the news article below. I
hadn't heard that Brandon had written 3 letters of apology in the
last 6 years. I do know 1- he confessed immediately, 2- he was
concerned anything and everything he said would be used against him.
Referring to #2, can you imagine not being able to talk or fell or
express your innermost self for 6 years? His brain wasn't working and
he felt coerced. My parents used power and coercion from beginning to
end. I like to think I couldn't be forced. But I had to nod my head
last night as you expressed the concept, because I have been there.
Poor Wendy has been there too. She felt she had to kill herself. Her
patriarchal blessing convinced her that she didn't. The voice that
kept telling her it was the only way out was wrong. These are very
extreme ideas. We usually don't go here do we. . .\Smith sentenced to
serve 15 to life for 2010 murder\Written by Mori Kessler\April 5,
2017ST. GEORGE – A somber mood set over the courtroom Wednesday as
friends and family of 2010 murder victim Jerrica Christensen
addressed the court before the judge passed sentencing on Brandon
Perry Smith, the man convicted of killing the 20-year-old Leeds
resident over six years ago.
Fifth
District Judge G. Michael Westfall sentenced the 35-year-old Smith to
a prison term of 15 years to life for killing Christensen, an action
that translated to a first-degree felony count of murder.\Christensen
was killed Dec. 11, 2010, in an incident that also resulted in the
slaying of 27-year-old Brandie Jerden by Paul Ashton. Ashton pleaded
guilty to killing Jerden in 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. Smith originally faced a similar
fate until the jury reduced the first-degree aggravated murder charge
he faced to first-degree murder when he was convicted in
February.\File photo: Brandon Perry Smith sits among his attorneys
with head lowered during the first day of testimony given in a
multiday trial for the part he played in a 2010 double murder in St.
George, Utah, Jan. 31, 2017 |\With the reduction, Smith could be
paroled in the early 2030s.\Smith had also faced the possibility of
the death penalty for a time. However, the Washington County
Attorney’s Office dropped the death penalty at the request of
Christensen’s family due to concerns it would unnecessarily prolong
court proceedings.\
After
the jury convicted Smith for murder, Gary Pendleton, Smith’s
attorney, said the defense planned to file an appeal in order to
address items they believe “were decided wrongly in this case.”/“We
may have to make some more appearances,” Christensen’s mother,
Ellen Hensley, said following the sentencing, “but if we have to,
we will because Jerrica is worth it.”[she has not yet let go. She
has not yet forgiven. Sad. She doesn't understand. She thinks you
could do it again. You couldn't. Not anymore than any of the rest of
us could. We could all go down that same path. “But for the grace
of heaven there go I.”vj]\As he had done throughout a two week
trial earlier this year, Smith kept his head bowed.
[You were depending on God weren't you brandon? How else could you make it through?]vj Instead of sporting a suit and being clean-shaven as he had during the trial, Smith has grown a beard and once again wore an inmate jumpsuit.[man was I ever glad you did not go to your trial that way!! Ha, ha. Who paid for your suit? Whoever it was, thank you!vj] \All the while, as Smith sat at a table with Pendleton, friends and family of Christensen stood before the court and shared how the murder had affected them.\“The guilt you feel for not being at home to protect your family is overwhelming,” said Elvin Hensley, Christensen’s father.\Elvin Hensley told the court he was deployed in Afghanistan with the Marine Corps from July 2010 until learning about his daughter’s death via emails received from home after a communications blackout was lifted\"’Please, please, please call me. Jerrica is dead. She was killed at 3:15 a.m. She was murdered. This is not a joke,’” he said as he recited the words of one of the emails sent from his wife. “’… I need you at home as soon as possible. Please, please, please.’”\While seeing death on the battlefield can be a seemingly daily occurrence and is prepared for and accepted to a point given what soldiers have committed to do, there still is the anticipation that the family is safe as home, Elvin Hensley said.\“For weeks, all you can do is try to make sense of it, but the sense never comes, and normalcy is gone forever,” he said, noting his initial disbelief and acceptance of Christensen’s death. “But you have to learn to live with it.”\He then expressed his frustration over the case taking so long to wrap up in court. For over six years he and his family have been waiting for their ordeal to end, only to learn it may not be completely over due to the likelihood of appeals.[If they would let go, stop pressing, forgive, look at the freedom they would gain! Holding a grudge, seeking revenge is a heavy burden. It is a burden Satan loves us to be weighed down with. Jesus Christ offers us a freedom from that!vj] \“I promise, we will be fighting for justice for Jerrica as long as we have breath in our bodies,” Elvin Hensley said.[I'm so sorry Elvin, You may be a veteran but you are defending the wrong now. Satan would have eternal misery. Miserable like unto him. Let go. Let freedom ring. Let someone else, who is stuck in the justice of this world bear that burden. Join the mercy of JC. Turn it over to him. He has already born that burden. He has already paid that price. Why pay it again, and again, and again? If we accept Christ's offering we gain eternal life. I and my oldest children were abused, traumatized by my parents. My mother is still alive. Do I seek her demise? Nope. Should she be in prison? Yep. Do I protect myself from her? Yep. Has she admitted anything? Nope. Did Brandon admit anything? Yep. See the difference?]vj \Kim Hansom, Christensen’s sister, said her life was forever changed the day her sister was killed.\“I became an only child Dec. 11, 2010. I lost my only sister,” Hansom said.\Christensen will never know Hansom’s husband and her children, she said, adding she’ll never be able to do anything with her sister again because of her death.\“(This) isn’t something I wish on anyone,” Hansom said. “It’s completely unfair that Jerrica lost her life the way that she did, and because of this my family has to suffer.”\Ellen Hensley spoke with emotion in her voice as she addressed the court.\“This is the thing I’ve been waiting for, for six and a half years and it’s been what’s terrified me the most,” she said.\“Two weeks before Christmas of 2010, she (Christensen) was basically butchered,” Ellen Hensley said. “It was the worst Christmas a mother could ever have. [She is still trying to convince others.vj][her Christmases will be forever changed. They will be more like a crucifixion homage if she can't turn it over to Christ. Who knows, maybe this was in the midst of a turn around for Jessica. She may have been headed in the right direction just in time. HF knows.][I just have to say, this is / was a messed up family. So was mine. Look at my poor siblings.] It was grueling to have to return her Christmas presents.”\The night before she was killed, Christensen made choices that no one could have imagined would ultimately prove fatal, her mother said.\Instead of choosing to stay home and make Christmas treats with her mother, Christensen decided to have dinner with her boyfriend, James Fiske, instead. That would lead to her going to the St. George home of Paul Ashton where Fiske had been asked to help move out a friend who had been renting a room there.\I chose to be angry she would not return my calls or answer my texts that night. [She is using the word chose well. That seems to accept responsibility in today's world. But it doesn't feel real. There is still too much blame in her defiant use of the word “chose”.vj] The next day I never would have dreamed I was texting and calling and leaving messages to my deceased child.”\A St. George Police officer would appear at the Hensley home the next day to inform Ellen Hensley that her daughter was dead.\“Never again will she come home,” she said. “My family has lived and relived this nightmare for six and a half years. Every time we come back to this courthouse, the scab is picked open and we feel the pain again.”\Pendleton said he was torn as he wished he could express his condolences to Christensen’s family, yet noted it likely wouldn’t be received well based on previous interactions between them. He also said that three apology letters Smith had written over the last five years wouldn’t be read in court as it was counterproductive from a legal standpoint.\Smith also did not address the court per Pendleton’s advisement.\Though present in the courtroom, none of Smith’s family chose to address the court.[Observation: By not addressing the court there is no comparison to make between the two sides. Instead we inspect what was said and detect the motivations and flaws in the Christensens. Interesting.vj]\The night of Dec. 11, 2010, Fiske and Christensen went to the home of Ashton to help move Jerden and her boyfriend out of Ashton’s condo. Jerden’s boyfriend was not present at the time the murders occurred after 3 a.m. that night.\Ashton and Jerden got into an altercation in which Jerden slammed a plastic toolbox against Ashton’s head. In response, Ashton shot her and Fiske with a gun provided by Smith. Jerden was killed while Fiske was wounded.\Throughout the court process, the defense argued that Ashton manipulated Smith. Prior to the shooting, Ashton sent Smith a series of texts saying he felt his life was in danger due to people finding out he had been a drug informant for the police. In response to this Smith drove to Ashton’s home and supplied him with a revolver while Smith also brought a pistol for himself.\The defense said Smith was terrified of Ashton after witnessing two people get shot, and wasn’t sure what would happen to him if he didn’t do what Ashton said.(emphasis added by vj)\During this time Christensen had locked herself in a bathroom in the back of the condo. Ashton told Smith “to take care of her” – as in silencing her somehow. This ultimately resulting in Smith’s killing Christensen after beating her, strangling her and cutting her throat.\The way Christensen was killed is what originally led to prosecutors seeking the death penalty in the case.\“Justice was served. It didn’t do anything to bring Jerrica back. She’s still gone,” Ellen Hensley said following the sentencing.\“Our family will move forward and try to heal as best as we can,” she said. [Oops, you were running around with the wrong crowd brandon! And what consequences you have had to pay. I am so sorry. HF understands. He knows you and the intents of your heart.vj]
[You were depending on God weren't you brandon? How else could you make it through?]vj Instead of sporting a suit and being clean-shaven as he had during the trial, Smith has grown a beard and once again wore an inmate jumpsuit.[man was I ever glad you did not go to your trial that way!! Ha, ha. Who paid for your suit? Whoever it was, thank you!vj] \All the while, as Smith sat at a table with Pendleton, friends and family of Christensen stood before the court and shared how the murder had affected them.\“The guilt you feel for not being at home to protect your family is overwhelming,” said Elvin Hensley, Christensen’s father.\Elvin Hensley told the court he was deployed in Afghanistan with the Marine Corps from July 2010 until learning about his daughter’s death via emails received from home after a communications blackout was lifted\"’Please, please, please call me. Jerrica is dead. She was killed at 3:15 a.m. She was murdered. This is not a joke,’” he said as he recited the words of one of the emails sent from his wife. “’… I need you at home as soon as possible. Please, please, please.’”\While seeing death on the battlefield can be a seemingly daily occurrence and is prepared for and accepted to a point given what soldiers have committed to do, there still is the anticipation that the family is safe as home, Elvin Hensley said.\“For weeks, all you can do is try to make sense of it, but the sense never comes, and normalcy is gone forever,” he said, noting his initial disbelief and acceptance of Christensen’s death. “But you have to learn to live with it.”\He then expressed his frustration over the case taking so long to wrap up in court. For over six years he and his family have been waiting for their ordeal to end, only to learn it may not be completely over due to the likelihood of appeals.[If they would let go, stop pressing, forgive, look at the freedom they would gain! Holding a grudge, seeking revenge is a heavy burden. It is a burden Satan loves us to be weighed down with. Jesus Christ offers us a freedom from that!vj] \“I promise, we will be fighting for justice for Jerrica as long as we have breath in our bodies,” Elvin Hensley said.[I'm so sorry Elvin, You may be a veteran but you are defending the wrong now. Satan would have eternal misery. Miserable like unto him. Let go. Let freedom ring. Let someone else, who is stuck in the justice of this world bear that burden. Join the mercy of JC. Turn it over to him. He has already born that burden. He has already paid that price. Why pay it again, and again, and again? If we accept Christ's offering we gain eternal life. I and my oldest children were abused, traumatized by my parents. My mother is still alive. Do I seek her demise? Nope. Should she be in prison? Yep. Do I protect myself from her? Yep. Has she admitted anything? Nope. Did Brandon admit anything? Yep. See the difference?]vj \Kim Hansom, Christensen’s sister, said her life was forever changed the day her sister was killed.\“I became an only child Dec. 11, 2010. I lost my only sister,” Hansom said.\Christensen will never know Hansom’s husband and her children, she said, adding she’ll never be able to do anything with her sister again because of her death.\“(This) isn’t something I wish on anyone,” Hansom said. “It’s completely unfair that Jerrica lost her life the way that she did, and because of this my family has to suffer.”\Ellen Hensley spoke with emotion in her voice as she addressed the court.\“This is the thing I’ve been waiting for, for six and a half years and it’s been what’s terrified me the most,” she said.\“Two weeks before Christmas of 2010, she (Christensen) was basically butchered,” Ellen Hensley said. “It was the worst Christmas a mother could ever have. [She is still trying to convince others.vj][her Christmases will be forever changed. They will be more like a crucifixion homage if she can't turn it over to Christ. Who knows, maybe this was in the midst of a turn around for Jessica. She may have been headed in the right direction just in time. HF knows.][I just have to say, this is / was a messed up family. So was mine. Look at my poor siblings.] It was grueling to have to return her Christmas presents.”\The night before she was killed, Christensen made choices that no one could have imagined would ultimately prove fatal, her mother said.\Instead of choosing to stay home and make Christmas treats with her mother, Christensen decided to have dinner with her boyfriend, James Fiske, instead. That would lead to her going to the St. George home of Paul Ashton where Fiske had been asked to help move out a friend who had been renting a room there.\I chose to be angry she would not return my calls or answer my texts that night. [She is using the word chose well. That seems to accept responsibility in today's world. But it doesn't feel real. There is still too much blame in her defiant use of the word “chose”.vj] The next day I never would have dreamed I was texting and calling and leaving messages to my deceased child.”\A St. George Police officer would appear at the Hensley home the next day to inform Ellen Hensley that her daughter was dead.\“Never again will she come home,” she said. “My family has lived and relived this nightmare for six and a half years. Every time we come back to this courthouse, the scab is picked open and we feel the pain again.”\Pendleton said he was torn as he wished he could express his condolences to Christensen’s family, yet noted it likely wouldn’t be received well based on previous interactions between them. He also said that three apology letters Smith had written over the last five years wouldn’t be read in court as it was counterproductive from a legal standpoint.\Smith also did not address the court per Pendleton’s advisement.\Though present in the courtroom, none of Smith’s family chose to address the court.[Observation: By not addressing the court there is no comparison to make between the two sides. Instead we inspect what was said and detect the motivations and flaws in the Christensens. Interesting.vj]\The night of Dec. 11, 2010, Fiske and Christensen went to the home of Ashton to help move Jerden and her boyfriend out of Ashton’s condo. Jerden’s boyfriend was not present at the time the murders occurred after 3 a.m. that night.\Ashton and Jerden got into an altercation in which Jerden slammed a plastic toolbox against Ashton’s head. In response, Ashton shot her and Fiske with a gun provided by Smith. Jerden was killed while Fiske was wounded.\Throughout the court process, the defense argued that Ashton manipulated Smith. Prior to the shooting, Ashton sent Smith a series of texts saying he felt his life was in danger due to people finding out he had been a drug informant for the police. In response to this Smith drove to Ashton’s home and supplied him with a revolver while Smith also brought a pistol for himself.\The defense said Smith was terrified of Ashton after witnessing two people get shot, and wasn’t sure what would happen to him if he didn’t do what Ashton said.(emphasis added by vj)\During this time Christensen had locked herself in a bathroom in the back of the condo. Ashton told Smith “to take care of her” – as in silencing her somehow. This ultimately resulting in Smith’s killing Christensen after beating her, strangling her and cutting her throat.\The way Christensen was killed is what originally led to prosecutors seeking the death penalty in the case.\“Justice was served. It didn’t do anything to bring Jerrica back. She’s still gone,” Ellen Hensley said following the sentencing.\“Our family will move forward and try to heal as best as we can,” she said. [Oops, you were running around with the wrong crowd brandon! And what consequences you have had to pay. I am so sorry. HF understands. He knows you and the intents of your heart.vj]
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
J,
2015,
After a year of writing Brandon, who had been in our ward choir, I
decided to find out what he had done. The above article is more
informative than everything else I have ever found. It is the final
conclusion after all these years of quiet and speculation. What a
relief to see the facts.\I had no idea the mother had had another
extended altercation with her daughter. Her daughter was in an ugly
drug crowd and trying to make a turn around. These drug crowds are
out there. Last night you asked us what we would choose to defend
ourselves. I wanted to raise my hand and say I would choose good friends, saints who
live the gospel like I do. I would not want to have to be alone. I go
to Family Search everyday to be with good people. What a wimpy
answer: friends! And yet it is true. Speaking of patriarchal
blessings, mine says : "Associate only with those sons and
daughters who are living the Gospel as you are living it and I
promise you this day. . . " I have done that. It was/is a good
thing. I had been damaged. If I had run around with the wrong crowd.
. .
The
power of the adversary is real.
Heavenly Father is our true friend.
Satan has all power in some places. We do not go in those places. We
stay away.\In your lessons you go places Heidi Taylor couldn't even
imagine. She is too simple. You are much much more complex. Thank you
for daring to take us there.\Once again, I apologize for my
enthusiasm, intensity. I like you am deeply affected when I think I
have offended someone. At the beginning of the evening we introduced
ourselves at your suggestion. It might have seemed it was getting a
little out of hand. But we were meeting needs. Do you realize that?
We were meeting needs. Sometimes in the past we have gone around the
circle and each has said their first name and we are none the better,
no more involved than we were to begin with. The names go by so fast
no one is the wiser. I have written them on the board at times so we
could refer back to them. Last night I wrote our assigned scriptures
on the board so we could refer back to them. These lessons turn into
a group process that is rich, as rich as the flavors of all the
people in the room if they open up and share. And the scriptures are
our backbone to those lessons. You do a great job in so many ways and
one of those it to get things from the scriptures. And you love the
scriptures. I prayed at length last night. I was much more tense at
1am than I had thought. As I prayed I realized that I wanted to read
the scriptures the other groups were assigned. Hope hurried up and
read to herself our second assigned scripture and told us what it
said in her own words. I had to ask her 3 times your guiding
question: How do they apply to us? (I wrote it differently on the
board, something like what concepts/eternal truths can we take from
their experience to apply to us today?) She said some dumb thing that
didn't answer the question. She wasn't processing she was just
summarizing and trying to get done fast. I may have added to her
impatience. . . I never did get to read her first scripture. I was to
busy trying to get something from what she was saying. So she can't
say she was never listened to!!\ In way of reassurance: She has come
late before, she has left early before, she had an appointment I am
sure. Silly girl. Priorities! This class is not yet her priority. I
gave her my letter last week. No response last night. I was sitting
right next to her had been curious all week at how she would respond
and . . . nothing! :(\Shallow.\So when people start sharing their
patriarchal blessings are they sharing pieces of their hearts? If
they are trying to live their blessings then I think they are sharing
their hearts. Special sacred things.\:) Aren't we glad Ted comes
infrequently. He really was energized last night!\Man, did we cover
territory last night. And smile, it looks like Randal found a
friend. . . David whose eyes aren't working.
--
vern
live
and learn
life
is good
I
am blessed
onward
and upward
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