All right, baby, see this. All right, welcome back. Ladies and gentlemen, I will commence with closing arguments, Mr Roberts. Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, on behalf of the people of the state of Michigan, I want to thank you for your time and attention to these matters uh as we've repeatedly indicated. And as now you've seen through the evidence and the testimony in this case, these are incredibly difficult, incredibly sensitive matters and we certainly do. Thank you for your time and attention to them. I usually like to start opening or excuse me, closing statements in homicide trials such as this by showing you a photograph and that photograph is usually the victim in the case prior to their death. In this case, our victim was a child would hope to be able to show you a photograph of what he looked like within a few months of his death. We can't do that. I can't do that because the defendant apparently took it upon herself to make sure there were no photographs taken of the victim in the six months leading up to his death. An opening statement I told you about that song What's the matter here? The line from that song, answer me and take your time. What could be the awful crime he could do at so young an age? So ask yourselves that, what was the awful crime that Timothy committed to have these atrocities perpetrated upon him? What did he do? He stole some food, he took some things apart. That's all I heard. And he paid for that with his life. And like I told you, I can't answer the why I can't answer why the cold and lowly things were done to him because it doesn't make sense. It does not make any sense that a 15 year old should be made to suffer the way Timothy was to be made a prisoner the way Timothy was and make no mistake. He was a prisoner in that home. We give prisoners rights. Prisoners of war have rights. Timothy had none of those because the person charged with his care and custody refuse them, kept him locked up in the basement of that home with motion sensors and alarms to make sure he didn't even go upstairs let alone anywhere else but not to even go upstairs alarms on his body to go off. He didn't like the noise, motion sensors on the stairs. If he tried to go upstairs, alarms on his small room closet door. If you tried to get out motion sensors, if he put his arm down during a punishment, cameras watching every moment and at the heart of all of this, the defendant that alone, ladies and gentlemen is a basis for first degree child abuse. The serious mental infliction of harm upon Timothy as a result of her actions is all you need to find to find that the defendant is guilty of first degree child abuse. And that's the tip of the iceberg towards the end of Miss Van Ark's testimony. Yesterday, I kept pressing her on that question. What did he do? What is it that he was doing? Apparently so desperate for food that he ate frozen chicken nuggets and uncooked hamburger. Explain this to the jury so they can understand so they can make sense of why it was that you chose to do these things to. And she got mad at the end towards the end of her testimony, it became clear that she was still mad at Timothy. He was sneaky and deceitful over and over again. He was sneaky and deceitful. He'd sneak things when he wasn't supposed to. He was deceitful. He would lie about things and you heard over and over again in the text messages. He's lying about that. He's not gonna get away with it. This is all fake, all of those things. So why should solve this question? Who do we know was sneaky and deceitful here, the defendant. And it started when after 18 min minutes of her son being unresponsive and so obviously deceased. She finally decides to call 911 but she better get her story straight before we call 911. So what's the last thing she says before? She calls 911 to Paul? We'll have to tell him he's been on a hunger strike before that. Where's your belt? Put your belt on him? I wanna make it look like he's been this way. No emotion in her voice. No tears start with. Why does it take you 18 minutes to call 911? You saw, you saw the image, you saw Timothy laying there on the floor. You heard them repeatedly talking about how he was stiff, how he wasn't moving, how he wasn't breathing, how his eyes were fixed open and they don't call 911. Who does that? How does a parent do that? Paul asked her, should we call 911? Should we call for name minutes? Not yet. And it's almost another 10 minutes before she calls after that. Then when she calls 911, the lies start. I came to check on them at 530 and then when I came down, he was unresponsive on his bed both completely false. We know he wasn't checked on at 530. We know the last thing that she did and said to her son, you could hear it. Lieutenant Hooks in his testimony today. The last thing she did to her son used to drag him into the small room, throw him down on the ground like he was a piece of meat on the tarp in the room where she says he wanted to be, that was his comfort positions in in front of the camera. So she can see, calls him stupid. And when he has the and dignity to roll over, no, that's not good enough. She comes back, positions him again in front of the camera makes the dog lick his face to get a reaction from it. Holds his mouth closed. He said, see, dummy, you don't need to open your mouth to breathe. Imagine those being the last words you said to your job. So that's what it was. That's the last thing anybody said to Timothy. You don't need to open your mouth to breathe. Dummy. Shut away in isolation after months and months, physical and mental abuse at the hands of the defendant and Timothy slipped away. No, I went to check on them at 530. Lie. I have, I have to put you on hold because I have to pull him off the bed. He's been on a hunger strike for the last couple of weeks, but I I was just about to call a doctor LA then the lies continue. Officer Pissy detective Pissy interview in the defendant. Why the why is there a lock in the fridge in the freezer? Uh He, he's got access, the locks are on the fridge in the freezer because he would leave the door open but, but he has access to the pantry, lo text messages over and over again talking about how he was able to get into the pantry and her repeated commands to Paul starting in February to make sure that all the food is locked up. And Timothy doesn't have access, including the pantry yesterday on the stand that shifts into, well, he had, he did have access to a small cabinet where there were some canned goods. So this boy who was dying of Emaciation, we're supposed to believe that he's going to have the ability to go into a cabinet to get canned goods, get a can opener, open them and cook himself some food. Well, you know, that's not true. He's not allowed to have food. You can't do that. The only thing you can hear in these text messages that he's allowed to have for those last few weeks after the June 13th photograph which we'll get to in a minute is the bread with hot sauce. Did you hear any testimony from her about full meals that she would cook for him? Anything? No. What's her response when she gets sent the picture? He's too mom mama. We need to actually feed him. That's the phrase we need to actually feed him. He's bone thin mama. I think we honest. I think honestly we need to actually feed him. And what's your response? Give him bread? Give him bread with peanut butter. The unresponsiveness is probably fake, but I see what you mean yesterday. She wants you to believe I didn't see that photograph. She literally uses the word C in her text message. I see what you mean and then tries to split hairs about what that phrase means. Let's assume she didn't see the photograph for just a moment. Your child is so alarmed that he's saying he's bone thin. I think we actually need to feed him. And your first response is give him bread. What does that tell you about her mindset? Her mindset is that's what he gets to eat. He gets bread, maybe some peanut butter. That's what he gets to eat. Not the canned goods that he can get access to under the cabinet. And heaven forbid he commit the crime of sneaking a piece of candy or eating some frozen chicken nuggets. Give breath. Detective Pissy. Well, after the stroke, he went on a hunger strike. That was a lie. Paul told you it was a lie. He never went on a hunger strike. There isn't a single reference here to him being on a hunger strike in January or in July. The bigger binder. More of the text messages just about Timothy, all the text messages just about Timothy. I gave her the option yesterday. I said, show me the text about the hunger strike. You're so concerned about everything. You're so concerned about watching the cameras setting the alarms, making sure the food is what it's supposed to be making sure he's running stairs, doing wall sits getting cold baths, all of that stuff. Show me in here where you're talking about him being on a hunger strike. No, the hunger strike thing isn't real and think about it for just a moment. If your child was on a hunger strike, what would you do? I know what I do remember. We talked about reason and common sense. What's the reasonable thing to do? Get your child to a doctor, get your child to a therapist, get your child to something. But what does she actually do? The first set of text messages? We hear the first text message February 18th. So this would be on or about the time of that first hunger strike. First rude and second wire is hands freight. That's where we're starting. Why are his hands free? Um Because he's a human being and what did he get into that? He felt he needed to brush his teeth to hide it. I think most parents would be ecstatic about their child actually brushing their teeth. I know I am and my kids do it but to her, him brushing his teeth is a sign that he's hiding something. Sorry, didn't know he was up. What do you mean you didn't know he was up? Has he not been upstairs against the wall? So he's supposed to be against the wall? No. What? Why the heck not? What the heck has been going on check, the brownies in the kitchen, check, everything, not locked away, check where the flipping keys have been. This is in February. We're not even talking about the last couple of weeks that Timothy's alive. This is February and she's already started talking about locking away food five months before Timothy dies and she's talking about restricting his access to food lumber strike. No, she realized late last night that he was thin, threatened to take him to the, er, if he didn't eat, we know what she did to him last night. She wasn't remotely concerned about his physical appearance, make no mistake. She could see his physical appearance because she dragged him into the closet. And Detective Lieutenant Hooks described to you in unfortunately vivid detail and the images are, are horrifying, truly horrifying. But you've seen the photos of what he looked like when he died and that was hours before a mother dragging her child into a room, throwing him down on the ground. Does that sound like I realized last night he was ill and I threatened to take him to the, er, if he didn't eat. So I made him a piece of toast with butter on it. She even admitted that was a lie, said he was done after he ate the toast, went downstairs, then we couldn't even move. At that point. You heard Doctor De Young's testimony about what happens to the body as it breaks down as it goes through these stages of malnutrition. He was £69. The average and he was average height, average, 15 year old male is 100 and £32. He was £62 underweight and we saw what he was like three weeks before. Make no mistake. She saw what it was like three weeks before she got ready for work in the morning and went to check on him. No, that's not true. But it's interesting that she mentions getting ready for work because on that video you can hear and she's been working on Timothy for a number of minutes at this point in time. And she says, well, I guess I'm gonna be late for work but we've got to get him responsive talk about cold, I guess I'm gonna be late for work. Your child is dead and all you can think about is being late for work. She had to have Paul help him get off the bed. Why? On a hunger strike? Two weeks ago, lie there would be, there are no pictures of Timothy since January. That, that one's true. And then when the detective starts to ask about the unusual things in the house that what like shackles, what are, what are these like shackles for? Oh, those are, those are, those are Paul's like shackles now bear in mind. This is hours after this has taken place and it's just lie after lie after lie. How do we know it's a lie. May 18th. The wisely transaction is handcuffs and leg cuffs for Timothy from Amazon. Figured it would be ok to get those right away so we can talk about the sensors and stuff. That's her text message, the handcuffs and leg cuffs for Timothy. Well, I would never use them on Timothy. June 27th. He's moved around so we got the cuffs in front of him instead of behind him, but he was handcuffed behind his back. I put the cuffs back behind him. Huh? I put the cuffs back behind him. I will have to deal with less than two hours of sleep today but not letting him get away with this B June 27th. That's two weeks after the photograph goes to her showing how thin he is and he's handcuffed behind his back by her. Could this be any more about her? Could this text message show you any more how this was all about her? I will have to deal with less than two hours of sleep today and not letting him get away with sbs. It's all about her. Fell out of bed at 530. Never happened. Never went to check on him. The last thing you said to your child was you don't have to breathe with your mouth open. Dummy. Well, there's alarms on the that room down there because we had the sewing stuff in there. A lot. The cameras were in the home because Gabriel would strip down naked and wander around. Maybe a camera was in there for that, but she doesn't care about wandering around naked. You heard the text messages Timothy had to clean the garage with it with nothing on below his waist and then stand against the wall with nothing on below his waist. He had to earn his right to get clothes back. She doesn't care for kids that are running around the house, house naked. It's a form of punishment for her, doesn't restrict his movement with shackles all. Now M Vander Ark was up here yesterday for quite some time and she told you about what intelligent lady she is and I will give her that credit. She is a highly, highly intelligent lady. It takes a lot to finish second in your class in law school. Graduate magna cum laude. It takes a lot to get a score of 100 and 82 and pass the bar exam. Heck, it takes a lot to just pass the bar exam, let alone get a score of 100 and 82. So this is a highly intelligent woman we're dealing with. She clerked for not one but two different judges was clerking for a judge at the time her child died yet she wants you to believe. But she doesn't remember any of this. I can't remember any of these things. I don't remember that text message. I don't remember doing that. I don't remember saying that every time she's confronted with something that she did or something that she directed to be done to Timothy, she can't remember. How does this woman hold down a job as a legal clerk? If your memory problems are that bad that you can't send these text messages. How are you not seeing a therapist? How are you not on medication to address these issues? You couldn't hold down a job if you were that, let alone a job as a legal clerk. If you had that many memory problems, let's let's talk about the things that she can remember. Oh, right after mother's day, he weighed 100 and £4 and I asked a couple of times 100 and £8. No, no, no £104. Absolutely certain about that. Somehow she can remember three months before, no, I'm sorry. Two months before Timothy dies. Woody weighed. That's a detail that she can remember the bad things. No, I can't remember any of that. That's the detail that she can remember how self serving is that, that you can only remember the good things and you can't remember the bad things and three weeks later, that's how he looks. Does that look like 100 and £4? Sure. Doesn't look like it. To me. There isn't a single text message in here or in there. The larger binder where she says, what are we doing? I don't understand why we're doing these things. How are, why are these things happening? Why is, why is Timothy on a camera? Why is Timothy in handcuffs? Why is Timothy locked away in a small room if she has all these memory issues? Where are those text messages? Where are the memory issues in here? She knows everything that she wants to have done and she's telling Paul day after day after day what to do to Timothy not struggling to remember what it is. Not struggling to remember what it is that Timothy had done to be punished in this way. Not struggling with any of that. She doesn't have memory problems. She might have chosen at this point to block those things out from her memory but make no mistake. All of these things happened. She did all of these things. It's only now that suddenly she has memory issues so stressed out, so much stuff going on, not so much stuff going on that you can't spend half of your time at work, especially in those last couple of days just watching the camera watching while Timothy's Timothy's in the bathtub for hours on end the day before he dies telling Paul to pour more cold water on him, telling Paul to take a pizza roll, take a pizza roll, warm it up, hold it in front of his face and see if he reacts but be ready to snatch it away if he tries to eat it. This is supposedly when he's on a hunger strike and you're gonna bait him with food. She did all of these horrible, horrible things and she doesn't get to hide behind saying I just don't remember doing them or I didn't intend for Timothy to come to any harm. Of course, she intended for Timothy to come the heart. Of course she did light and John, no rational person, no person who can score 100 and 82 on the bar exam, let alone any other individual, no parent, nobody with the logic and reasoning skills that she has could not understand the consequences of what she was doing. I didn't intend for any of this to happen. We don't even know if that's true. It's not. But we we couldn't even say that that was true anyway, she can barely even say that because by her account, she doesn't remember doing any of these things for all we know she did intend for all of these things to happen, which of course she did. I remember we talked about the cookbook in voir dire went over it a couple of times unless you hear a defense from the judge in these instructions that says if you find that the defendant just doesn't remember these things that she could be found not guilty, she doesn't get the benefit of that. Don't add to the cookbook. Don't give her a defense that I just don't remember doing these things. I hope on some level maybe she doesn't remember these things because they are so cold. They are so lowly, they are so dangerous that they took Timothy's life. Sleep. No clothes, hot songs. You heard the description of the hot sauce today? Oh, no, that was, that was Paul's idea. The hearts are with Paul's idea. Paul text to her July 2nd, three days before Timothy dies. So apparently this hot sauce isn't just Carolina Reaper. It's also Trinidad Scorpion chili pepper. Her response. Yep. Do you know what it was? She went out of her way, whether it was her or whether it was Paul at her direction or the two of them doing it together out of her way to find a hot sauce. That would be too much for him to take. Let's set aside the logic for just a moment that how is it that you decide you're gonna punish a child with hot sauce if the child likes hot sauce? It's ridiculous that that's the form of punishment. Of course not. That doesn't make any sense again, common sense. Don't check it at the door. He didn't like hot sauce. You know, he didn't like hot sauce because they wouldn't be using it for a punishment if he liked it. This is July 2nd. This is weeks after this photograph is taken and sent to her when she can see how thin he is hot sauce, hot sauce on bread, four slices with hot sauce, four slices as long as there's plenty of hot sauce on it. Then if he waits 30 minutes, he can have some without hot sauce. So his reward for eating four slices of bread with hot sauce on it is if he can wait 30 minutes, you can have four regular pieces of bread. 30 seconds after she sends that text, she talks about getting chicken nuggets and fries for G. She can process all of this in her head. Oop punishment, hot sauce, Timothy O fries. Chicken nuggets for G. That doesn't sound like somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. That doesn't sound like somebody who has memory issues. That doesn't sound like somebody who's not in control of their actions. She's in control of everything. She is watching everything. She knows everything. Even when Paul is supposed to be watching, she's watching as well and critiquing how well Paul is doing watching. He's with Timothy at the tub and she's watching to make sure that Timothy doesn't look too comfortable in the tub, move his head. Looks like he's trying to get comfortable, pour some cold water on him. Do the pizza roll thing somehow is an in an act of grace. Mercy, whatever you wanna call it, go ahead and give him two pizza rolls and I don't care if they're frozen. It's difficult to understand how a person can be so detached to another person, let alone a child. Ladies and gentlemen, it's the people's position in this case that the defendant is guilty of two crimes. That first crime is first degree child abuse. In order to prove the crime of first degree child abuse, I do have to prove the following. First that Shonda Vanda Arc is the parent of Timothy Ferguson that goes obviously without question. Second that the defendant either knowingly or intentionally caused serious harm and or serious mental harm to Timothy Ferguson by serious physical harm. I mean, any physical injury to a child that seriously impairs the child's health or physical well being including but not limited to brain damage, skull, bone fracture, subdural, hematoma, subdural, hemorrhage, dislocation, sprain ankle, internal injury, poisoning, burn skald or severe cuts. She killed him. She starved him to death. She directed that he be in an ice bath for hours at a time. What was the story yesterday about the ice bath? Well, they they didn't start off as, as ice baths. Ok. So they started off with cold water. No, they started off with with hot water. Mm. Why would you put ice cubes in a hot bath? And how is that a punishment then confronted with the text again. Don't remember. Let him know that if he tries to sleep at all, sleep deprivation, he'll get another ice bath. There's been one before, sometime before you leave for work and another when I get home, that's the description about three ice bags and one text message I said you wouldn't, you wouldn't make up additional ice and put it in the freezer. Would you? Because you needed it for later? No, no, we wouldn't do that. Might wanna toss the ice that is made into some Ziploc bags in the freezer tomorrow or if we need a bunch more. You heard Doctor De Young's testimony, Timothy had signs of hypothermia. How does a 15 year old in Michigan in July get hypothermia by sitting in an ice bath for hours upon hours upon hours at a time. And that's what Timothy went through on the last day of his life. Tortured with a pizza roll that he could eat cold water, repeatedly dumped on him, repositioned if he started to feel comfortable and she's watching everything. She's directing everything serious mental harm. I mean, any injury to a child's mental condition that results in visible signs of an impairment of the child's judgment behavior, ability to recognize reality or ability to cope with the ordinary demands of life. That's a no brainer. The level of mental harm inflicted on Timothy is difficult to grasp our 15 year old already with special needs, sensory. Uh The, the, the, the sensory issue that she described, she's punishing him with hot sauce. She's punishing him with ice baths. She's punishing him with alarms that make noise that affects his ears. She's depriving him of sleep. She's depriving him of movement. She's depriving him of clothes, she's locking him in a closet. If that's not serious mental harm then I don't know what it is. And again, these are all at her direction and don't let her off the hook. Ladies and gentlemen, just because she stood up here and said yesterday, I didn't intend for these things to happen. Of course, you intended for these things. Of course, you intended for these things to happen. She's guilty of first degree child abuse. It's also the people's position that she's guilty of first degree felony murder. If you find that she's guilty of that first degree child abuse, we turn to the analysis of the, of the murder charge here and in order to prove first degree Moor two sheets at once though first that the defendant cause the death of Timothy Ferguson, that is Timothy Ferguson died as a result of starvation and or physical abuse, phy physical neglect and abuse. You heard Doctor De Young's testimony about the cause of death for Timothy here and all you needed to do is look at the photograph to see how he died. And again, I wish I could have spared everybody from seeing those photographs, but I couldn't cuz I have to prove and this is why I have to prove how he died. Defendant has one of these three states of mind, she intended to kill, she intended to do great bodily harm to Timothy Ferguson or she knowingly created a very high risk of death or great bodily harm knowing that death or such harm would be the likely result of her actions. Let's talk about that first one for a moment. She intended to kill. I wish I could stand up here and tell you that. I think she actually didn't have the intent to kill. I wish I could do that because the notion that you could starve a child to death intentionally over months and months, which is what it would take. I wish she didn't have that intent. I wish I didn't believe that she had that intent. And it's for you to decide whether or not she had that intent. But our actions sure show that she had that intent. If she wanted to kill Timothy, I wish she'd done it a lot faster than what she did because what he would have had to have gone through in those last few days or few weeks is unthinkable, but she had that intent to kill him at a minimum. She had an intent to do him great bodily harm. And you can find either one and even if you had struggle with finding that she knowingly created a very high risk of death or great bodily harm, knowing that death of such harm would be the likely result of his actions. She could, she made a situation so dangerous, so obviously dangerous to anyone, especially someone of her intelligence level, that death or great bodily harm was the likely result. Well, death was the result, death was the result because of what she did to him because of the things that she directed to be done to him on the stand yesterday, she tried to say, well, some of this was Paul's idea, Paul did this and Paul did that and Paul did this and Paul did that. If you need to feel free to review these text messages, if you want, you can review the bigger binder of text messages because these are all about Timothy as well. And when I say they're about Timothy, they're not about Timothy. You know, all the good things that he's done and all the good things we're gonna do. It's all about the punishments. This is a small window. This is a larger window into the life to the hell that Timothy's life was for the last six months. Every step of the way her directing her, telling her, ordering her threatening Paul to do the things. This was not on Paul. I told you an opening that you may not like Paul Ferguson and I do believe that he is also in part responsible for Timothy's death here, but you had an opportunity to see Paul testify here. Did, did, did that look like the mastermind behind this or did that look like a as he put it? Somebody who was just desperate for attention, desperate for the love of his mother and doing the things that she wanted him to do that's for you to decide. But I submit to you ladies and gentlemen, that's what it was, that Paul was doing what she told him to do because he knew what was gonna happen to him if he didn't do those things. Quite simply. Ladies and gentlemen, as, as I've said, this is a case of first degree felony murder. The underlying felony being first degree child abuse. That's the other element that you need to find happened here is that she committed that first, that felony, first degree child abuse. And if you find those two things, if you find that she committed the first degree child abuse and that she had one of those three states of mind and it doesn't matter which one you decide. But if she had any one of those three states of mind, is it related to Timothy that she's guilty of first degree felony murder? And she's guilty of first degree child abuse. Ladies and gentlemen, Timothy Ferguson to the defendant had ceased to be a person. Timothy Ferguson had become less than the animals that she trains. You heard her say it would never occur to her to do the things that she did to Timothy to the animals that she trains to the dogs that she trains. He was less than a dog to her. And this was a fight that he was not going to win, but don't take my word for it. Of course, I had it then July 29th. And even if he sits up right before you get there or as you get there. I honestly don't care if you get a little rough with him. July 29th again. Trust me, I know he's thin. That being said he told me a week and a half ago that he wanted to be thin to make me feel bad for punishing him. This is supposedly when he's on his hunger strike, you don't get to grump at him for that though. I already let into him for it. Cleaning up the rooms, directing all to make sure that he cleans up the rooms and please check the carpet to see if it needs to. If he needs to clean that too. There's some different awesome cleaner for the carpet that he can use if he needs to. He will need to use a different green and yellow sponge for that. I do not want him using my nice sponges for either of those July 1st after the photograph that she's got might be best if you give him like four pieces of bread to eat before he starts work just to make sure he stands up while he eats them, please. That way he has no excuses. July 1st. The camera in his room needs to be picked up, please. Uh Lots of hot sauce for that. What do we do if he doesn't finish within the assigned time? Hot sauce? These are all after that photograph. So apparently this hot sauce isn't just Carolina Reaper. It's the Trinidad Scorpion chili pepper. Yeah. While he's on a hunger strike on July 5th the day before he dies. Forgot to tell you this before I left. Timothy was doing his fake, stumbling and falling last night. Of course. So I decided to prove once again how fake it is. I asked him if he would stop doing that, if he would eat a whole pizza by himself. And he said yes, of course. And then I told him how obvious it was that he was being fake. And he had just proven that yet again. And of course, he just looked down and didn't respond. I can't say it any more blunt than she does. She was not gonna let Timothy win plain and simple. And if that many died, the many died, he dies. She kicks into survival mode. He starts to lie to the police. That alone, evidence is a guilty state of mind. Ladies and gentlemen, but you don't need that. You don't need much more than these text messages to prove the Shonda Vander art is responsible because she intended to kill because she intended to do great bodily harm where she at least created a situation so dangerous that death or great bodily harm was a result to her child, Timothy Ferguson. I will ask you to return a verdict of guilty, a first degree felony murder, first degree chic. Thank you, Mr Roberts.
