District court hosts elementary students' mock trial

It took less than two minutes of deliberations on Friday for a jury to find Jack Ingrey, of "Jack and the Beanstalk" fame, guilty of two felonies.

Judge Christian Eckert, presiding over Douglas County District Judge Dave Gamble's courtroom in Minden, read the sentence to a shocked audience before pounding his gavel.

"Your punishment is a $375,000 fine and eight years in prison," Eckert decreed.

It was a harsh sentence, but young Jack need not worry because the sentence won't be binding, at least not in most states. His sentence was all part of a mock trial put on by gifted and talented students from Gardnerville and Minden elementary schools and teacher Angelyn Nichols.

Judge Eckert, a Minden sixth-grader, presided over what might be the trial of the century.

Prosecutors Sam Brees and Chandler Howe had charged the defendant, an out-of-luck farm kid portrayed by Zach Ingrey, with three felonies: theft, burglary and aggravated battery.

The victim was fifth-grader Brandon Easley, the giant who'd tumbled down the magic beanstalk after Jack allegedly cut it down. Jack also stood accused of stealing the giant's harp, three bags of gold, and a golden egg-laying goose.

Though the charges were clear, the circumstances surrounding the case were anything but. As the trial proceeded, four witnesses, including Jack himself, spun a web of conflicting accounts and morally ambiguous motives.

"My client is innocent of these charges," defense attorney Hanna Grisell, a Minden fifth-grader, proclaimed in her opening statement.

However, prosecutors called up witnesses to paint a condemning picture of Jack's misdeeds.

"My wife told me she let a boy into the house named Jack," the giant testified under oath. "I went to go look for Jack after I set out three bags of gold, but Jack and the three bags were missing."

It was this allegation that led to the charge of theft; but the giant continued, describing how he and his wife, played by Ali Cronin, were burglarized the following day.

"The next day, I saw him (Jack) running out of the house with the harp and the goose," the giant said.

But fifth-grade defense attorney Matt McTee challenged the witness on the first charge.

"Did you ever see Jack leaving your home with the three bags of gold?" McTee inquired. "Do you like your wife inviting strangers into the house?"

The giant's wife admitted this much when she took the stand after her husband.

"Yes, there was a little boy who answered at the door and said his name was Jack and wanted some breakfast," Cronin said. "So I gave him some breakfast, but I guess he was afraid of my husband."

Choking up with tears, Cronin recalled her husband's harrowing fall from the beanstalk.

"I was returning from the laundromat, and I saw my husband climbing down after Jack," she said. "When I came back, the beanstalk was cut down, and my husband was lying on the ground half-dead."

When Jack himself was called to the stand, he strummed the jury's sympathetic heartstrings with a story of poverty and wretched living conditions.

"We were very poor and desperate for food and money," he said. "Our house was falling apart."

Jack told jurors how his mother was furious when he traded their cow "milky-white" for five magic beans. In a rage, he said, she threw the beans out the window, where they later sprouted into the magic beanstalk.

It was desperation that drove him up the stalk, Jack said, and fear that drove him down.

"At the top, there was a magnificent castle," he said. "There was a very nice lady, but then this big man came in and started singing a song about grinding up English people's bones to make bread."

Jack admitted taking the gold. He said he went up the stalk the next day to "explore," but was tempted by the harp and golden goose.

"We're very poor and desperate for money," he pleaded. "We only took what was needed."

Prosecutor Chandler Howe blasted Jack for portraying himself as the victim.

"Was the gold given to you as a gift?" she demanded to know.

"No," Jack whimpered. "But I only borrowed the goose and the harp."

Jack then claimed the giant's injury was nothing but an unfortunate mistake.

"The giant was chasing me, and I thought that when I cut the beanstalk, he hadn't reached it yet," he said.

Jack's mother, played by Olivia Swearingen, testified that indeed the family was poor. She also admitted helping Jack cut the beanstalk, but said she though the giant would be able to climb back up.

"Did you tell Jack to steal the three bags of gold?" questioned prosecutor Brees. "Isn't true that Jack made his own decision to take the gold?"

In his closing arguments, Brees accused Jack of not only robbing the giant of his wealth, but also of forcing the giant to now wear a neck brace due to the fall.

"We request you find the defendant guilty of all three charges," he told the jurors.

In his closing arguments, defender McTee again played the sympathy card.

"As Jack described in his testimony, it was an accident that hurt the giant, and he was desperate for money," McTee said. "These charges are a misunderstanding. If Jack didn't get the money for food, he and his mother would have died."

Judge Eckert advised jurors to be impartial in their deliberations.

"Your supposed to follow your own opinions, not those of your friends," he admonished.

Minutes later, the jury returned with a guilty verdict on the first two charges, but an acquittal on the charge of aggravated battery.