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Child Testimony Took Down Violent Offender Wayne Cody Morita

Former federal prosecutor and child protective advocate Francey Hakes discusses some of the biggest U.S. cases involving child pornography and sexual abuse, and also outlines how the Internet is making it more difficult for law enforcement personnel to apprehend and prosecute offenders.

Hakes points out the significance of the case of Wayne Cody Morita - a horrible offender who was ultimately taken down by the testimony of the girl he kidnapped, brutally raped and left for dead.

“Cody Morita was a psychopath, in fact he was a diagnosed psychopath. One of the most interesting and significant things about this case was that without the child’s description of him, after her survival, I’m not sure he would ever have been uncovered as being the offender in the case.”

Even though she was brutally assaulted raped, strangled and left for dead, once the 5-year-old victim recovered, she gave a police sketch artist enough information to be able to produce an amazing likeness of Morita. “It went all over local television and someone recognized him as a person that had worked for them a year prior – that’s how police where led to him, no other way.”

Hakes said that even though there was DNA evidence against Morita, it was a type they call “mixed,” so it was not as conclusive as in typical cases and left some doubt in the minds of a few jurors. “The most frightening part of this case was, we felt 100 percent confident we had the right person, but we found out later that on the first vote of the jury, they voted 10-2 to convict. So two people in the jury room on their first vote voted not guilty.”

She added that even though those two jurors were eventually persuaded to vote for conviction, it was still disturbing to learn that even with the DNA evidence and the testimony of the child, there was still so much doubt left in those jurors’ minds.

Watch the full episode to also hear Hakes discuss other high-profile cases including Philip Gerry and James Bartholomew Huskey.

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