Story originally printed in the Coulee News or online at www.couleenews.com
Published - Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Jury convicts man in torture case
In an emotional scene that sparked anger and tears, a Dane County jury found a 20-year-old Madison man guilty Thursday night of all 14 charges against him in the torture of a man at a rural Cottage Grove home last year.
Carl G. Ware was convicted of kidnapping, two counts of false imprisonment, three counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and two counts of second-degree sexual assault, along with delivery of cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. All are felonies.
Ware was also found guilty of three counts of battery and one count of bail jumping, all misdemeanors.
Ware faces maximum sentences of 111 years in prison and 74 years of extended supervision when he is sentenced in about two months. Dane County Circuit Judge John Markson ordered a pre-sentence investigation by the state Department of Corrections.
As Markson read the jury's verdict Thursday night, friends and members of Ware's family reacted, some with tears and sobbing and some with anger. After the seventh guilty verdict was read, one man got up and stormed out of the courtroom.
"That ain't right," he shouted, and was quickly followed out the door by some of the five sheriff's deputies posted at the back of the courtroom. "That ain't right."
Jurors appeared shaken by the reactions. As Markson asked each whether it was their verdict, all answered softly. One woman on the jury was in tears.
Ware was the first among three men accused of torturing the 21-year-old Spring Green man to go to trial. The victim testified Monday and Tuesday that on April 10, 2007, he was repeatedly beaten, shot with BB pellets and threatened with death by shooting. He was also stabbed in the leg with a kitchen knife and sexually assaulted with a rusty pipe, all after he was accused of stealing cocaine from Ware.
Some of the attack, especially the portion that took place in a basement crawl space under the home on Highway BB, was videotaped by Ware.
The man said the attacks lasted all night and that he managed to escape from the house in the morning when the others in the house were asleep. Most of the BBs shot at him are still in his body, he said.
The man testified that last year he moved back to Wisconsin from Arizona with a heroin addiction. He said he went to live with Ware at the home of Ware's girlfriend, Kim Blucher. He said they supplied him with cocaine, which helped him deal with the side-effects of heroin withdrawal.
Two other men, Dominique Hale, 20, and Emmanuel Usher, 18, are accused in the case but have yet to stand trial and no trial dates have been set.
Hale testified Wednesday during the prosecution's case in testimony that largely agreed with that provided by the victim. Ware did not testify in his own defense, although prosecutors played a videotape of an interview with Ware by sheriff's Detective Dale Anderson.
In the interview, Ware said he was at the home that night but denied taking part in the attack.
Hale, however, put the blame for the attack largely on Ware.
All stories copyright 2006 Coulee News and other attributed sources.