Two years and three days after James Robert “Bob” Ward called 911 to report that he shot his wife, a six-member jury declared him responsible for her death. Continue reading after the jump.
After the verdict was read this morning, Circuit Judge Jenifer Davis sent Ward, who had been out of jail on bond, to the Orange County jail to await sentencing on Nov. 8.
The jury’s decision was justice for Ward’s wife, Diane, prosecutor Robin Wilkinson said.
“It says that out of anger, out of frustration, Mr. Ward pulled a gun and shot his wife in the face,” she said.
Lead defense attorney Kirk Kirkconnell said Bob Ward had been disappointed by the verdict but remains optimistic.
“He knows there will be a motion for new trial…he knows there’s grounds for appeal,” he said.
Kirkconnell declined to say specifically what aspects of the trial his team will cite in its attempt to win a new trial for Ward.
The jurors deliberated for more than 13 hours over two days before finding Ward guilty of second-degree murder. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years — a term Kirkconnell said was basically a life sentence for the 63-year-old Ward.
Joining Ward in the courtroom on Saturday were several family members, including his daughters, Mallory and Sarah, as well as Paula Saare, his late wife’s sister.
His daughters, red-faced and crying, sat on either side of their father in the back of the courtroom before the jury returned. Each daughter put her head on one of her father’s shoulders. Saare sat with the family, comforting her nieces but largely keeping her head down and at times appearing to be praying.
The daughters’ sobs punctuated the tense silence in the moments before the jury returned and immediately afterward. They left quickly after the verdict was read, one crying out, “How does this help anybody?” The other declared her love for her father as they exited the room.
Ward showed almost no emotion as the verdict was read and did not speak. Law-enforcement officers quickly fingerprinted and handcuffed him before taking him to jail.
Later, Wilkinson said everyone in the courtroom had been touched by the anger and despair of Wards’ daughters.
“It’s hard because the family’s caught in the middle … my heart goes out to them,” she said.
Ward is also most concerned for his daughters, his attorney said.
“He hates leaving his family, obviously, as any man would,” Kirkconnell said.
Ward, a developer whose company had filed for bankruptcy, was alone with his 55-year-old wife when she was shot in the face on Sept. 21, 2009.
In her closing argument, Wilkinson had told the jurors that evidence suggested Bob and Diane Ward had an argument the night of her death, leading Ward to shoot her from a distance of about 18 inches.
Kirkconnell told the jury that Diane Ward might have been trying to commit suicide or shoot her husband.
He said that the recording of the 911 call Ward made was the only reason his client was on trial.
