October 7, 2015 Session﻿

October 7, 2015 Session

10/16/2015

1. The defendant from the first cases seems to have an unhealthy relationship with his mother as he does not see her as a role model do you think this is going to pose a problem during his probation period?

2. The defendant was inconsistent with his story do you think he was keeping information from the jury because he was scared of his parents or was he saying the truth? His sentence was also equal to the first defendants community service hours why was this if he was inconsistent with his story line?

3. How can we improve jury questioning in the court room?

Rocio

10/16/2015 08:23:31 pm

1. It might be a problem during his probation time because since the mom isnt really around to check on him, he might not be able to keep up with probation since the mom is mostly at work.

2. I dont think he was telling the truth, he kept looking over at his parents when he was answering to the jury's questions, it looked like he had previously talked with his parents about what to say. I think he got the same amount of hours as the other case because he has a learning disability.

3. The questions were good, but it could improve by not repeating questions.

Adrian Loera

10/23/2015 08:17:18 am

1) Absolutely, there'd be a miscommunation between him and his mother that would most likely lead him to commit yet another mistake while on probation because she can't really seem to control him or find a way to keep an eye on him.
2) The second defendant seemed to have something already played out with his parents because it did seem a little suspicious that both his parents are strongly Christian but would somehow let this slip through the cracks so easily. As for his sentence, he did have a few flaws in his story that we caught therefore it's justifiable.

Adrian Flores

10/19/2015 11:53:47 pm

1. I feel the defendant will have a problem during probation because of the fact that he doesn't see his mom as a role model. Since he doesn't view his mom as a respectable figure, he will most likely not care if he disappoints her and not coincide with probation's regulations
2. I do believe the defendant was maintaining important information from the jury because of a fear towards his parents. During the case, it was brought up how widely religious the family was and usually, these parents tend to be more strict. I believe this was the reason why he kept information from the jury. The second defendants community service hours were the same as the first defendant because the second defendant seemed to be more willing to change his attitude even though his story was sketchy.
3. The questioning of the jury could be improved if the questions from the jury were more consistent. If the jury were to stick to one topic, the questioning would be much smoother and the defendant would most likely be able to respond better.

Randy Valenzuela

10/22/2015 05:07:24 am

1. I believe the defendant will have a problem with his probation due to the issue of his mother not being a role model for him, since the defendant doesn't look up to his mother he wouldn't try or care to impress her and he will eventually cause problems with his probation
2. I feel the defendant from the second case was holding back on some key evidence and I also feel he had the whole story plot made with his parents before entering the court house, the reason why he got the same amount of community service hours as the defendant from the first case was probably that the jury believed his story was mainly true off his inconsistent story.
3. Jury questioning can be improved with more practice.I feel that the jury tends to ask questions that are not on the current topic and due to that we get limited information that affects the whole case.

Andrea Chavez

10/23/2015 07:01:03 pm

1. After analyzing the unhealthy relationship between the defendant and his mother, I have concluded that this will greatly pose a problem during his probation period. In order for a positive outcome to occur, it is vital for the defendant and in this case, his mother, to work together to get through the probation period. Communication plays a key role in being able to accomplish this task, and after having listened to the way the defendant sees his mother, it is evident that there is a high possibility of issues arising during the period in question.

2. Due to the fact that the defendant was inconsistent with his story, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact events that occurred during the time of the incident. Taking into account that the defendant and his family were religious, it is not too far from coming to the conclusion that there are specific "things" that they hold highly. For example, using the evidence from the day of the session, the defendant's father responded to the questions being asked in a very detailed manner. This comes to show that he most likely sets certain expectations for his son. It is not for certain but the way that the father spoke leads me to believe that the defendant felt pressured to the point where he couldn't respond with a straight and true answer. In my opinion, I deeply believe that the defendant should not have gotten the same community service hours as the first case because of his inconsistency in his story. It is unacceptable for one to lie, especially in a court room, therefore the defendant should have answered to the consequences.

3. It is a fact that there are many things to improve on in the court room. One of many being jury questioning. The jurors should be the ones who ask the most questions, not the judges. A possible way to improve jury questioning could consist of not overthinking. Most times, the jurors may feel slightly pressured during the time of the session that their thoughts are clouded. In other words, it should be addressed to the jurors to just carefully listen to the case, and develop questions that are straight to the point but could also give the judges a better sense of the defendant.

Jonathan Contreras

10/25/2015 06:02:40 pm

1) I don't believe the first defendant would have trouble with his mom during probation for the fact that just because she is not a role model dose not mean she dose not respect her as his mom
2) I also think that the second defendant was also uncomfortable with telling the truth in front of his parents because of the high morals they set up for him.I think that the tome he receive was unjust for the fact that the first defendant told and he didn't so he should of had more time.
3)I think if there were more follow up questions from the jury many things would that remained unanswered would have been answered

Sonya Ochoa

10/25/2015 10:58:08 pm

1. I think this is going to pose a problem during his probation period because since he doesn't have anybody that he admires or looks up to, he won't worry or care if she is disappointed in him.

2. I do think the defendant was keeping information from the jury because since his parents are very religious, he didn't want to do anything worse to disappoint them and he wanted them to continue to see him as a good Christian boy.
I think he got the same amount of hours of community service as the defendant from the first case because the jury might have felt bad for him because he has a disability and they felt bad for the way he had to be because of his parents.

3. We can improve jury questioning in the courtroom by knowing who will be part of the jury ahead of time and giving them a brief training on how the questioning should be.

Ernesto Garcia

10/26/2015 09:31:32 am

1. This will be a probably due to the unhealthy relationship between the defendant and his mother. The mother is not seen as a role model so the defendant would not mind of he does not keep up with his probation because he might not care what the mother thinks.

2. I believe that the defendant was keeping information from the jury because he must have been scared to say the truth because it could have cause him a greater punishment. The fact that the defendant kept looking towards his parents sent out the feeling that maybe his parents told him what to say or he was scared of saying the truth in front of his parents. The defendant received the same amount of community service hours because his case was almost the same as the first defendant's case.

3. The Jury should keep track of the questions already asked and try to stay consistent with one topic before moving onto another. This can help the jury remember what the defendant had answered instead of jumping from one topic to another.

Karen Lopez

10/27/2015 05:25:23 pm

1. Yes, the issue with miscommunication will most likely interrupt the process of probation. The mother doesn't really have an eye on the defendant, due to her working hours. Therefore, she cannot be keeping track of her son leading to possible problem during the probation period.
2. The defendant from the second case did seem like he was withholding some crucial points to his story. The fact that his mother mentioned his learning disabilities, geared the jury into giving him that certain amount of hours of community service. Another reason for the amount of hours would be the fact that he did recognize what he had done was wrong and took an initiative in apologizing through a written letter to his father.
3. The questioning can be improved by keeping track of what has been asked, there was a couple of repeated questions. We can also improve by asking more follow up questions.

Leslie Plaza

10/27/2015 07:43:29 pm

1. It might serve as a problem since the defendant and his mother don't have a close connection, meaning there won't be the appropriate attention the defendant is looking for. If this poor relationship carries through, the defendant might not finish his community service.

2. The defendant might have not wanted to get into more trouble than he already was. In my opinion, it seemed like he wanted acceptance from his parents, but wasn't getting the attention from doing something right, so instead, he just did anything for attention, even though he wants to be a "good Christian boy" to his parents. I think he deserved more ours, but since his act was basically similar to the first case, the same hours is understandable.

3. The Jury should have more mock-trials prior to the case, with more people participating and more communication and understanding.

Rafael Gonzalez

11/2/2015 08:02:20 pm

1. I believe that the defendant will have trouble during his process of probation because of the miscommunication with his mother. Aince his mother isnt there to ensure that he gets his community hours done, the defendant might get lazy and stop doing them.
2. By analyzing the defendant's religious background, I conclude that the defendant was inconsistent with his story because he didn't want to cause his parents to be ashamed of him, but also because he hadn't been in a situation like that before and his fear and nerves probably got the best of him and forced his story to be inconsistent. As for the community hours, he got the same community hours as the first defendant because even though the second defendant seemed more willing to change, he committed a similar crime to the first defendant.
3. To improve jury questioning in the room, we can be more consistent on the questions being asked and avoid completely moving from one topic to another when the previous topic has not been settled yet.

Alejandro Ortiz

11/3/2015 08:25:45 pm

1)The issue of not seeing his mother as a role model seems like it will cause an issue during his probation, for the reason that it will affect the defendant since he would not try to make an effort to better himself in the eyes of his mother which would lead to more mistakes on his part.

2) The second defendant did seem to have something planned out with his parents since he did continue to look at his parents throughout the session as a form of approval. On the other hand he was trying to think of what he was saying before he said it to avoid even more conflict.

3) One way to improve the questioning of the jury is by asking more follow up questions, as well as ask questions that will lead to a better understanding of the reasoning behind the crime.

Heavenlee Vasquez

11/4/2015 11:34:00 am

1.) I believe that the defendant will struggle with his probation due to the fact that he does not view his mother as a respectable role model, because of this he will not be afraid of disappointing his mother or committing an action that may upset her.
2. The defendant may have held back in order to avoid getting a more severe punishment. The amount of hours given are understandable due to the similarity of the cases.
3. The jury should work on sticking to a certain topic in order to make the questions connect more smoothly

Biane Arias

11/4/2015 06:10:04 pm

I think the first defendant will struggle with probation because he has issues with his mom and doesn't respect her.I think he was inconsistent and his sentence was equal to other Teen Court Sentences.I think the jury can have an equal number of court returners

Bianca Arias

11/4/2015 06:13:13 pm

I think that the defendant will not be successful in probation because of the issues with his mother. The defendant deserved a higher level of punishment but the one that he received was consistent with other court verdicts.I think the jury should not let the judges ask so many questions and do more in depth follow up questions.

Amber Castillo

11/6/2015 12:30:34 pm

I think that if we stayed on topic we would be able to have more follow up questions and therefore the defendants story might be more clear.

Natalie Martinez

11/7/2015 07:59:26 pm

1.The defendants mother is not around enough to keep an eye on him to make sure he stays out of trouble. They have no communication due to her hours at work so yes it will cause a problem during the probation period.

2. The defendants seemed as if him and his parents had the whole thing planned out. They brought their religion to act if their son was a great kid. He was looking over at his parents for every questioned asked and he had to think about it. His story was very inconsistent.

3. The jury questions can improve by asking one topic at a time and a follow up question. They are very good questions that they ask but we just need to organize them.

Jazmin Alatorre

11/9/2015 05:59:28 pm

1) I believe that i the defendants relationship with his mother will be a problem because she won't be keeping an eye on him and he will be getting away with things due to her not being home and at work.
2) It seemed like the defendent and his parents had already practiced what to say and wanted to appear as something they aren't so the jury would not give him so much to do.
3) The jury should do follow up questions and it be on them not so much on the judges

Hoyuki

11/9/2015 09:09:41 pm

Because of the father's dominant and very controlling attitude, I had the perception that maybe he controlled the way the audience might see this case. I got the impression that most of the things that were said seemed to be previously talked amongst the family. There was a moment when the defendant turned to his parents when he was asked a question, as if searching for help and answers from his parents. I think he was just scared overall and he did not want to get in big trouble so he took their parents advice, which maybe was to not say anything that might get into big trouble or do not tell the whole truth.

I thin the jury needs to not ask unnecessary question because of time limit, because then the time answering those could be used to ask more helpful questions. We can improve by participating in more mock trials.

Samantha Leggis

11/9/2015 10:03:21 pm

1) Yes, I believe the defendant not seeing his mother as a role model will pose a problem during his probation because it seems he doesn't care to make her proud so therefore he may not complete what he was sentenced. Even if he does complete his probation, he may commit another mistake like this because he will not care if it disappoints his mother.
2) I believe the defendant was not being truthful because from what I observed, it seemed as he was scared of making the perception that him and his family are not the "perfect" Christian they want to be. The sentences were very similar because they were both very similar crimes so it only makes sense to have a similar sentence.
3) We can improve jury questioning by having more mock trials in order to practice posing questions on the spot. Also, by knowing when to ask certain types of questions such as those regarding the case and restorative.

Bella Pinedo

11/12/2015 07:26:36 pm

1)Yes, the defendant not having a good relationship with his mother with be an issue during his probation. He should be able to see her as a role model, which will have a greater chance of trust.
2) Yes, I believe the defendant was inconsistent with his story and holding potential evidence back. He was mostly studdering during his statement, which he could have lied about a few things. I think the community service hours were similar because the cases were petty thefts.
3) Jury questioning can be improved by not being afraid to ask questions; Also, by not asking the same questions.

Jessica Zapien

11/12/2015 09:23:44 pm

1. Their relationship could definitely be a problem, especially due to the fact that she is not with him very often to check on him. However, the mother did say that they were moving near family and hopefully that might help keep him in check.
2. The defendant appeared very nervous and not too truthful at first, most likely because of his parents (specifically his father). His father seemed to be trying to keep an image of a good Christian man and the son might've wanted to make sure he didn't disappoint them too much. However, he did over share towards the end and seemed quite truthful then. Perhaps he felt restless at that time and simply wished to tell the truth at that point.
3. More mock trials would probably help improve jury questions as it encourages quick and logical thinking that would aid members of the teen court in asking relevant questions. Perhaps going over what questions aren't too useful might help too.

Stephanie Godinez

11/13/2015 08:34:31 am

1. If the defendant does not see his mother as a role model he might not see a reason to do well in his probation. If he begins to form a heather relationship with his mother he is most likely going to want to do well for his mother and for himself to no longer let her and the rest of his family down.

2. I believe the second defendant was not being completely honest with his story because of his parents. It seemed to me that he and his parents had an agreement with what they were going to say during the session. I do not agree with the amount of community service the jury had given him, due to him not being truthful or not telling the whole truth, he should have been given more community service hours.

Jackie Rivera

11/13/2015 10:06:17 am

1. Yes the defendant not seeing his mother as a role model will effect his probation because he see that his mom not making a effort or she not proud of him will make him feel discouraged of his probation and stop with the sentencing.
2.Yes i believe he was hiding the truth from the jury because he didnt want to get more in trouble or make him feel worse and they both had the same sentence because it was a similar crime and he was involved at school.
3. The jury questions can be improved by getting examples on what they want or by mock trails.

Erika Chacon

11/13/2015 12:12:44 pm

1. It's going to be hard for the defendant to keep out of trouble during his probation because he does not have anyone to keep a close on him, remind him, and motivate him to have a successful outcome in his probation. The miscommunication with his mother will cause issues in his probation.
2. I believe it is possible that the family could have planned out what to say in order to keep him from getting a more severe punishment and I think that the truth may have been stretched.
3. The jury can improve questioning by having a practice session before the session and coming to an agree rn on who is asking or saying what.

Anette Gonzalez

11/13/2015 02:51:16 pm

I believe that the defendant will have a problem committing to his probation because he doesn't have his mom behind him. But I think it may make him more responsible if he goes through with it with out his moms help or support.
2. I believe that the defendant was not being truthful.
3. What I think we could do to improve jury questioning is have more mock trials.

Albert Madueno

11/16/2015 12:20:16 pm

1) The defendant not seeing his mother as a role model will pose an issue in the future because the possibility lack of communication during the probation period. If the relationship between the defendant and his mother is weak then it is more likely for him to commit another unlawful act, without the guilt of disappointing his mother.
2) I believe that the defendant was my being truthful. Due to his scripted tone. He stood on the story that he posed until the very end. His father talked about them going to a "father son retreat" which is for Christian families. They also mentioned the family being very religious, almost trying to persuade the jury to believe they would never commit a sin in the eyes of God.
3) We can improve the performance of the jury by holding more Mini mock trials, and also by doing more follow up questions to get more in depth answers from the defendants

Narai Soto

11/16/2015 06:27:15 pm

1. Yes, not have a healthy relationship with his mother will pose as a problem for the defendant during their probation period because she won't be there to help guide the defendant towards the right choices.
2. The defendant seemed to be hiding information because he feared what his parents would think. The family seemed to have planned out exactly what was going to be said.
3. The jury questioning could be improved by hosting more mock-trials, and encouraging everyone to speak.

Joseph Olvera

11/17/2015 09:23:39 am

1) I do believe that the defendant will have a hard time following through with his probation if he does not look up to his mother. It will be a problem because how can he listen to her if he doesn't respect her.
2) I believe the defendant was inconsistent because he was afraid of his parents knowing the entire story and he received the same amount of community service hours as the 1st case because of the evidence.
3) You can improve the jury questioning by practicing with the teen court more good questions to ask.

Elizabeth Martinez

11/23/2015 07:41:40 am

1. The defendant will definitely have some issues because of the relationship with his mother. He needs to respect her so that she may guide him in the right path.
2. The defendant was inconsistent with his story, I believe, because of his parents. He didn't want them to know the whole truth, so he didn't tell the jury the whole truth. I believe he should have received more service hours than the previous case because it was obvious that something wasn't right.
3. To improve the questioning, the jury could listen to the cases more. To ask good questions, one needs to know the what the defendant said in order to ask them. One also needs to listen to other jury members and the judges to avoid repeating questions.

Derick Villafuerte

11/23/2015 12:08:40 pm

1. I don't think probation will be a problem because even though he and his mom don't really get along that the probation won't interfere with their relationship either way.
2. I think he was inconsistent with his story because he didn't want to be judge by his parents even though he knew he would face severe consequences in the future.
3. If there were more follow up questions I think the defendant would have still try to make himself look good in front of his parents so his punishment at home wouldn't be as bad if he told the truth.

Leanne Caldejon

11/23/2015 12:19:33 pm

1. I believe the defendant will have an issue during his probation due to the fact that he doesn't see his own mother as a role model. She stated during the trial that she works hard to raise all her children and try the best of her abilities to provide whatever her children need.
2. Yes I believe the defendant was lying and not telling the truth during some answers. It seemed as though he was probably scared of saying things in front of his parents.
3. The questions by the jury can improve by doing more mock trials before the cases

Elisha Lugo

11/23/2015 12:25:34 pm

I believe for the first case, the minor will not have a problem with the probation. It's his consequences, his relationship with his mom is another thing. For the second case, he was jumping all over the place with the story and the fact that he was Christian had a lot to do with it because it seemed the parents were really strict with the rules. Follow up questions might have included more questions on the religious part.

Destiny Garcia

11/23/2015 12:29:27 pm

1. I believe the defendant not seeing his mom is not such a big problem, she works hard to support the family. He also has other role models in his life, such as his coaches to look after him.
2. The second defendant seemed scared of his parents, as if he didn't want to tell the truth because his parents didn't know and they would be more disappointed than they already were. I feel they got the same sentence because we felt sympathy towards this Christian family.
3. We can better ourselves by asking more follow up questions

Vincent Fuentes

11/23/2015 12:32:20 pm

I think this will not be a problem during this probation period because he understood his punishment and I feel like he will learn from the past
I do believe the defendant was telling the truth but not the whole truth I feel he was hiding something or scared to say
The jury's question can be more better with a little more practice get my information

Amalia Sanchez

11/23/2015 12:39:13 pm

1.) The probabtion shouldn't be much of a problem due to the mother-son relationship not being so well balanced between them.
2.) He tried to avoid being judged by his parents knowing what he would face afterwards at home.
3.) Maybe if more questions were asked he would've slowly started to face what he had done.

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October 7, 2015 Session﻿

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October 7, 2015 Session