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| Tuesday, May 15 2007 11:32 AM
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 16 2007 7:16 AM
Next week, jurors will be asked if Vincent Brothers should live or die. And with that question, members of both Brothers’ family and the Harper family will tell the jurors of the value of their loved ones’ lives.
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Vincent Brothers reacts in court Tuesday morning as the verdicts are read.
Bakersfield Police officers stood guard outside Kern County Superior Court as security was heightened during the Vincent Brothers verdict.
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The Harpers will tell the jurors of their loss.
Brothers’ family will tell the jurors of the value he could still have if he is sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.
Brothers was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife, Joanie Harper; their three children, Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall; and Joanie Harper’s mother, Earnestine.
The jury also found true the special circumstance that Brothers committed multiple murders, which makes him eligible for the death penalty.
Eddie L. Harper Sr., Earnestine Harper’s son, said he was ecstatic over the verdict.
“This chapter is closed — the chapter of who,” Eddie Harper said. “What brings the joy and the excitement is that we can rest in the knowing of who.”
He is prepared to enter the sentencing phase of trial. Eddie Harper and some of his other siblings are ready to tell the jurors of their loss.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Eddie Harper said. “I’ve been looking forward to it for some time.”
He said he will agree with whatever decision the jury makes.
“No one wants someone to die,” Eddie Harper said. “But what I want is for justice to be served.”
Eddie Harper said he is not angry with Brothers.
“We stand ready to forgive him,” Eddie Harper said. Eddie Harper and his siblings have reserved judgment of Brothers since the killings.
But not all of the siblings felt the same relief over the verdict.
“I felt kind of sad,” said Earnestine Harper’s daughter Elain Byrd. “I would much rather have them here with me to see my baby grow up, for our children to grow up together and I don’t get that.”
But she said the verdict was the “answer to her prayers.” She prayed for justice to be served and that if Brothers had anything to do with the killings, that he be convicted.
Feelings of relief also escaped one of Joanie Harper’s close friends.
“No matter what verdict came in today, it won’t change things,” said Michelle Baptiste. “We’ll never get them back. They’re gone, but they’re still in our memories and our heart and our spirit.”
The Harper family said they pray for Vincent Brothers’ family.
The memories
The friends and family of the Harpers will dig through the memories of their loved ones when speaking to the jury during the penalty phase.
“My mom, if you needed help, she was the one who would help,” Byrd said. She later added: “They were fun, loving, helpful, kind and passionate. Earnestine was so passionate about God first, she was passionate about so many things.”
Friends of the family remember them, too.
“Well, I remember her daily. I don’t know that there’s anything I can do in particular to remember her. She’s always with me, always,” Baptiste said of Joanie Harper.
She declined to say if she thought Brothers was guilty and if he should face the death penalty.
The verdict
As the clerk read the verdict in Kern County Superior Court, sorrow pulled down Brothers’ face. As she continued to read — guilty of killing his mother-in-law, guilty of killing his wife, guilty of killing his three children — Brothers wiped away tears from under his glasses.
His mother, Margaret Brothers, sat on the edge of her chair. But she did not cry. She spoke for just a moment with reporters who created a wall of lenses and microphones as she left the courtroom.
“He’s not guilty and it’s not fair,” she said. As she walked away, a reporter asked if she knew where her son Troy Brothers was. He never showed up to testify for the prosecution as ordered.
“I don’t know. Get out of my face,” Margaret Brothers said.
Before the courtroom opened for the verdict to be read at about 11:45 a.m., Baptiste walked slowly to the side of the courtroom door and waited for the public to be allowed in.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green gave Baptiste a hug and walked into the courtroom.
Baptiste, who sat through almost the entire trial, tried to stifle her emotion, but let out a short cry outside the courtroom as the moment of decision drew near.
The courtroom was packed with people and the raw emotion that had been gathering over the two-month trial.
Most jurors carefully avoided eye contact with Brothers as they filed into their seats. But they seemed confident of their decision when the judge asked them to verbally confirm their verdict.
The jurors deliberated for about 15 hours, beginning Thursday. The case took about three years to get to trial.
The jurors will return Monday for the penalty phase of the trial. The judge warned them not to think about the case or how they will vote until they hear the evidence and deliberate.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush warned the crowd that this was not the time for emotion.
As the verdicts were read, Baptiste made no sound, but looked relieved.
The Harper family members, who live out of town, did not attend the reading of the verdict.
Brothers’ only surviving child, Margaret Kern-Brothers, and her mother, Shann Kern, who both testified for the prosecution, did not attend the reading of the verdict. They, too, were out of town.
Defense attorney Michael Gardina was not present for the verdict because he had to leave the state for his daughter’s college graduation.
Brothers’ second attorney, J. Anthony Bryan, was at his side. Gardina handled the guilt phase of the trial. Bryan will handle the penalty phase.
District Attorney Ed Jagels sat in the audience in the front row behind Green. He hugged her after the verdict was read. He had announced just as Brothers was arrested on suspicion of the murders in April 2004 that he would seek the death penalty.
None of the attorneys can talk because they are under a gag order.
Green, Jagels, District Attorney investigator Charles Brown and Bakersfield police Sgts. Jeff Watts and Donald Krueger left through the back door. As they stepped into the sun, they hugged and walked away.
At the ready
Before news of the verdict became public, Kern County sheriff’s deputies and Bakersfield police officers lined the hallway outside the courtroom.
As word of the decision spread, crowds of reporters, attorneys and a few curious onlookers gathered.
In the morning, hours before the verdict was reached, the Bakersfield Police Department cleared parking spaces in front of the courthouse, squeezing out even the news vans that aired the verdict live to viewers across Kern County.
Officers lined up outside the entrance of the courthouse as well. But there was no struggle. Just a handful of family and friends leaving the courthouse arm-in-arm.
The only disturbance was a yelling man, who appeared to know nothing of the case, as he walked down Chester Avenue.