Sept. 06--VISALIA -- The killer of a Tulare County sheriff's deputy will spend the rest of his life in prison instead of years in a mental hospital, a jury decided Thursday.
The panel of nine women and three men took 20 minutes to find Jorge Banda, 25, of Ivanhoe legally sane when he killed Kent Haws on Dec. 17, 2007.
That Banda killed Haws was never in dispute. Witnesses described how Banda emerged from an orange grove near Ivanhoe and shot Haws four times, then walked away.
Banda was carrying the pistol he used when he was captured by a sheriff's sergeant responding to the emergency call.
The verdict ends a week of quiet suspense as the trial entered its "sanity phase" to determine whether Banda -- who was found guilty last week by the same jury of first-degree murder with special circumstances of killing a police officer and committing the crime for the benefit of a street gang -- was, in fact, not guilty by reason of insanity.
Haws' family members said they were happy about the final verdict and relieved that the prosecution was near its end after nearly five years. The family did not speak publicly about the case during the trial.
"It's been a long time coming," said Regina Cappadonia, Haws' aunt. "Our lives will never be the same."
Haws' uncle, Phil Cappadonia, wept after the verdict.
"I feel like justice has been served, but I'll miss Kent," Cappadonia said. "He was not only a good cop, he was a good husband."
Haws was a 38-year-old father of three when he was shot to death while checking on reports of crime in the area near Ivanhoe.
Haws' wife, Francis, was not in the courtroom Thursday. Family members said she no longer lives in Visalia but was told about the verdict.
The couple's three sons, now ages 17, 12 and 6, are doing well in school, they said. The youngest was only 14 months old when his father was gunned down.
Haws' mother, Wanda Broesder, who sat through the trial, said she felt physically stressed by it. She wept afterward.
"I'm not sure there will ever be closure," Broesder said. "I always thought I understood what justice is. It's just a word. I'd like to replay the whole day of Dec. 17, 2007. Kent should not be dead."
Broesder said she raised Kent, his older brother, Frank, and older sister, Chemene, in Visalia. She now lives in Big Sandy, Mont., and said she last saw Kent about six months before the tragedy.
Sheriff Bill Wittman spoke with family members privately after the verdict.
"There's no joy in this. There's no final conclusion to this," Wittman said afterward. "When I see the family, it brings nothing but sadness to me. He was part of our family. Our hearts are still broken."
Banda is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 18. The judge has no discretion in sentencing, and Banda will automatically get life in state prison without the possibility of parole, said Assistant District Attorney Shani Jenkins.
Banda was ruled not eligible for the death penalty because his IQ is 66; the court's threshold for ineligibility is an IQ of 70 or lower.
Two court-appointed doctors testified that he was sane, while a doctor called by Banda's defense said the opposite.
If the jury had found Banda not guilty by reason of insanity, he would have been sent to a state mental hospital and might have been set free someday, the District Attorney's Office said.
The Tulare County Public Defender's Office served as Banda's lawyer. Attempts to reach the office for comment were unsuccessful.
The reporter can be reached at (559) 441-6104 or [email protected].
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