WYNNE — It took jurors only two hours to decide that Lillian Wilson - bludgeoned to death two years ago in her hometown church - wouldn’t have wanted her killer sentenced to death.
So they voted - 11 to 1 - to send Rene Bourassa, 36, to prison for the rest of his life, with no opportunity for parole.
Juror Jonathan Edwards, 28, of Wynne said the jury voted only once using “scratch” paper ballots.
“We could write life or death. Some just wrote ‘L,’”he said. “It was the first vote back. Ten votes life. One vote death. One vote blank.”
Edwards said several of the jurors decided to impose the life sentence for the same reason he did.
“One of the ones said, ‘Lillian Wilson would not have been in favor of the death penalty,’” he said.
As Circuit Judge Richard Proctor read aloud the jury’s decision, Bourassa’s mother, Tina White, and his younger brother clasped trembling hands.
Just a few feet in front of them, Bourassa blinked furiously.
Meanwhile, Wilson’s two sons sat impassively, arms folded, as other family members shook their heads and looked down.
Moments later, the family embraced outside the courtroom.
Wilson’s youngest son, Mark Wilson, sat alone in a chair, staring ahead as his eyes welled with tears.
“It’s curious,” he said, after a long pause. “I’m just anxious for us to move on down the line.”
A FAMILY’S REMEMBRANCES
Earlier Friday, both of Wilson’s sons took the stand, describing to jurors how the loss of their mother had affected not only them but Wynne as well.
Lillian Wilson, 80 - known around town as Miss Lill - volunteered for 16 to 18 organizations and charities, Mark Wilson said.
Indeed, she was so busy, he had to call each day at 7:30 a.m. if he wanted to catch her at home, he recalled, laughing.
“My mom was not ‘elderly,’” he declared.
Wilson took no medication, and the only time she’d ever spent at the hospital was as a nurse or, after her retirement, at the bedside of a sick friend, Wilson explained.
When a tornado hit the old family farm, including the house that Wilson’s husband, Art, had built, she joined the family in picking up shingles and hauling away debris, he recalled, adding that she did all this on her 80th birthday.
Wilson also took care of the Central United Methodist Church, where her father was a charter member. He even helped build the church, Mark Wilson said.
Wilson celebrated her life’s most significant milestones in that church. Which is why, even after she was killed there, her family didn’t want to see the congregation move elsewhere, Mark Wilson said.
“We had church services the very next Sunday,” he added.
And in honor of the strength and fortitude for which she was known, the family agreed they would sit in the courtroom every day of Bourassa’s trial, even though they knew that hearing the details of her death would be painful, Mark Wilson said.
“If it had been me, she would’ve been here.”
In closing, he told jurors: “We don’t want your sympathy. We don’t want your anger. We don’t want your vengeance. She believed in the judicial system. She would want you to make a fair decision.”
Lillian Wilson’s oldest son, George, cried as he tried to describe his mother.
“We lost a friend. We lost a mother. The community lost a friend. She loved everyone. This was her home.”
BOURASSA’S BACKGROUND
To save its client’s life, the defense team brought in Bourassa’s mother and a social worker, asking them to describe his troubled life.
As White took the stand, Bourassa looked down.
She told jurors that she was 18 when she married Bourassa’s father, Rene Sr. Two years after the wedding, the couple divorced, she said.
At that time, her son was just 2.
White fell apart when her husband left her, especially when he remarried just 33 days after their divorce was finalized, she said. After several suicide attempts, the court gave custody of Rene Jr. to his father.
White cried silently.
Then, her voice barely audible, she added: “I couldn’t take him.”
As White testified, jurors looked at photos from Bourassa’s childhood. The pictures showed a grinning toddler.
When Bourassa was 13, his stepmother left, White continued.
But it was when his father died of Lou Gehrig’s disease seven years later that Bourassa seemed to fall apart, she said.
He drifted through jobs, relationships and several states.
“It was like he was trying to find a place where he could be happy again,” she said.
White also told jurors that both sides of Bourassa’s family - including herself - suffer from mental illness, and that suicides mar the family history.
“It was my fault,” she sobbed. “I shouldn’t have ever had kids.”
As she stepped down from the stand, White pursed her lips and sent an air kiss to her son, who, with tearful eyes, responded with a slight nod.
THE ARGUMENTS
In their closing statements, prosecutors told the jury that the facts of the case warranted the death penalty: After getting stranded in Arkansas when his car broke down, Bourassa killed Wilson for her car after spending several days camping out at the church. He spent an hour alternately hitting her and talking to her before administering one last blow and fleeing, he said in two confessions.
As Wilson lay on the floor, wounded and helpless, Bourassa had an opportunity to stop the deadly chain of events he had set in motion, Cross County prosecutor Michael Ladd said.
“Isn’t that when the human heart steps in and says, “I’m going to take care of this person?’” Ladd asked. “That’s not what he did. He had the opportunity to do the right thing.”
Defense attorney Joe Perry told the jury that Bourassa’s two confessions, as well as his breakdowns during them, indicated remorse.
Perry also cited mental illnesses diagnosed by two psychiatrists and a psychologist.
“You cannot fix this situation,” he told jurors. “If putting Rene Bourassa to death would bring Miss Wilson back, then who could fault you for doing that?
“But it won’t.”
After the sentencing, prosecutors and defense attorneys all said they were satisfied with the jury’s decision.
A statement from the family read: “While we know this conviction can never bring our mom back or change the horrible things that happened in our country church that sad day, it helps to know that justice has been served.”
Bourassa’s mother declined comment.
THE JURY’S DECISION
Jurors deliberated methodically, starting with the lesser charges and working toward the capital murder charge that carried the potential of death.
Juror Edwards said jurors all agreed Bourassa deserved the maximum allowed penalties on each of the lesser counts.
The jury sentenced him to 40 years for aggravated robbery, 20 years for theft of property and 10 years each for commercial burglary and fraudulent use of a credit card.
When the jury arrived at the murder charge, the pages of mitigating circumstances defense attorneys presented, as well as Bourassa’s cooperation with authorities, “weighed heavily in favor of life as opposed to death,” Edwards said.
Juror Brad Morris, 29, of Wynne, said Bourassa’s life story didn’t sway him. He was the sole member of the 12 who voted to put Bourassa to death.
“I spelled it out,” he said, while talking with members of Wilson’s family after the trial. “I was on your side,” he told them.
Morris, who said he had never met Wilson or her family before the trial, said some jurors “changed their viewpoints” on Bourassa between Thursday’s verdict of guilt and Friday’s sentencing phase.
“Most of the jurors had issue with the mitigating circumstances, more along the lines of what Miss Wilson would have wanted ... her being Methodist and the doctrine that was brought up today,” he said.
The Methodist Book of Discipline, which advocates against capital punishment, was introduced by Bourassa’s attorneys Friday.
Edwards said Wilson’s beliefs factored greatly into his decision against a death sentence.
“My reason was it seemed from what we could tell of the victim, it wasn’t what she would have been in favor of,” he said.
He said he also felt Wilson’s family didn’t ask the jury during their testimony to put Bourassa to death.
“Her sons didn’t voice their favor for the death penalty when they had their chance,” he said.
Other jurors were swayed by testimony concerning dreams Bourassa said he was having about the killing. Many said they wanted to sentence him to a lifetime in prison alone with those nightmares, Edwards said.
“Several who voted for life viewed that as a significant reason,” said Edwards, who said he didn’t share the view. “They wanted him to think about what he’d done.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/14/2012