Judge calls codefendants' actions “pure evil” and “an affront to humanity”

Posted Tuesday, November 19, 2019 11:43 pm

Cherokee Judicial Circuit Judge D. Scott Smith did not mince words when he sentenced codefendants Jennifer Lea Short and Javier Murietta in Bartow Superior Court Tuesday morning.





Indeed, he called their crimes against Short’s then 11-year-old daughter not just "an affront to motherhood," but "an affront to humanity" itself.





“I think it wouldn’t be a stretch to say this has been one of the most shocking and troubling cases that this court has observed in many years,” he said. “To do something like this to a child is unthinkable. To do it to your own child is pure evil.”





Short, 38, and Murietta, 43, were initially charged with one count of rape, one count of child molestation and one count of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude in connection to an incident that is alleged to have transpired sometime between Aug. 11, 2012, and Aug. 10, 2013.





During last month’s jury trial , the victim — now 18 — described her mother taking her to Murietta’s residence off Mayflower Circle in Cartersville, where Short was allegedly paid $100 by Murietta to have sex with her. She claimed her mother then used the money to purchase marijuana.





“In the beginning, I thought I was with someone that I could trust and someone who would protect me from the things that shouldn’t be happening,” the victim said before sentencing Tuesday morning. “Jennifer and Javier took advantage of me and they know that they did so … they’re sitting here, acting like the victim and also innocent, while I get to sit on the stand, interrogated and called 'a liar' after 'a liar' after 'a liar.'”









Cherokee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Jana W. Allen requested that the two be given the State’s maximum sentence for the offense.





And that’s precisely the sentence authorized by Judge Smith — 20 years, with the first 19 to be served in prison.





“I never saw any emotion out of you at all until the verdict was rendered,” Smith said to Short. “I don’t know, as a parent, that you could sit in a room and listen to that and not be in someway affected by the emotion and the pain that your children were discussing when they talked about you and your parenting of them.”





Defense attorney Christopher Cahill requested that Murietta receive a lighter sentence — 10 years — stating that the case contained “no violence” or “no aggravating circumstances.”





Judge Smith refused.





“This is not a case of casual touching, this is a case in which the sex organs of a grown man were used to touch the sex organ of a child,” he said. “I will never in my life understand how an adult can have any sexual attraction to a child — furthermore, to even comprehend acting upon such a thing is indefensible.”





Both codefendants will be required to register as sex offenders and abide by sex offender probation conditions, which bars them from having any contact with anyone under the age of 18, including their own children.





Allen noted that Murietta has a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold.





“I do want to inform you that a felony offense in the State of Georgia can have major implications on your ability to remain in or return to the United States,” Smith said. “This may be a case in which you are subject to deportation …. I do want to remind you that this court has no power to pass upon issues of immigration.”









DNA tests determined that one of those criminal acts resulted in the impregnation of the victim, who at the time was just 13 years old. Gallegos was sentenced to life by Judge Smith, with the first 25 years to be served in prison and the remainder on probation.





“I hope that one day that all the ones that looked over my case and reviewed my case — and the ones that judged me — I hope that one day, this never happens to your child,” the victim said on the witness stand Tuesday morning. “Because it will be one burden that you will not be able to carry.”





Short and Murietta have 30 days to appeal, with up to four years to file a habeas corpus petition. Both will receive credit for time served in pretrial detention — for Short, since Nov. 20, 2018, and for Murietta, since Nov. 16, 2018.