Testimony in Fort Worth child kidnapping trial begins with victim’s mother
It had rained off and on that Saturday in May and when the evening sky cleared a bit, a mother and her 8-year-old daughter decided to take an impromptu walk.
They had been cat-sitting for a friend in a garage apartment behind a house in the Ryan Place section of the city. They set out without shoes.
“The ground was wet and it felt good on our feet,” the child’s mother said Tuesday from the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth. It was the first day of trial for Michael Webb, the man accused of kidnapping the second-grader.
The pair encountered a man in a sedan whom the mother rebuffed when he asked if she liked money, she testified.
He would return when they reached Lowden Street at 6th Avenue. This time, the man left his car, grabbed the girl and pushed her through the driver’s door into the passenger seat.
Her mother also got inside the car and sat on the man’s lap, searching for the brakes and considering whether she should steer the car into another. The abductor eventually slammed on the brakes and forced her outside.
“Get out of the car, you (expletive),” he said, according to the mother’s testimony.
The next time she would see her daughter it would be eight hours later, in the early hours of May 19, at Cook Children’s Hospital. The little girl smiled, and her mother gave her a kiss. She said she was “so proud of her.”
The girl’s mother was the first witness that prosecutors called Tuesday in the trial of Webb, who has been charged with kidnapping.
The case’s players gathered in U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s courtroom in downtown Fort Worth. There were the jurors, attorneys, law enforcement officers and employees of the hotel where the girl was taken. Everyone but the defendant.
Before the jury was selected, Webb told O’Connor he had trial strategy disagreements with his attorneys and concerns about the potential jurors who would decide his case.
Webb, 51, did not explain in detail the trial plans he disputed, but his attorney shared them with O’Connor privately. Ultimately, the judge determined that the trial should move ahead. O’Connor asked Webb whether he wanted to change from an orange jumpsuit to street clothes, the protocol for criminal defendants during trial.
“Actually, I don’t even want to be here,” Webb said.
After a round of questions to be certain Webb understood that he was waiving his right to attend the trial, O’Connor directed deputy U.S. marshals to escort Webb from the courtroom but keep him in the building. It appeared that on Wednesday, when the trial resumes, Webb will not be brought to the courthouse and will remain in jail.
Opening statements were delivered by Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. It is unusual for the top federal law enforcement officer in any federal district to personally handle a case.
Cox said she and Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem intended to prove four elements in the case. They would offer evidence that Webb abducted the girl “straight from her mother’s arms” and sexually assaulted her.
The government’s case would also demonstrate that Webb terrified and threatened the girl and that he hid her to avoid being caught. She was found in a Forest Hill hotel inside a storage container of his clothes.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Brook Antonio offered an opening statement of no more than a couple of minutes that asserted Webb is not guilty. The defense team, which also includes Assistant Federal Public Defender John Stickney, did not cross-examine witnesses Tuesday.
Testimony also revealed new descriptions of the moments when the girl and Webb were found.
About six hours after the victim was abducted, a Forest Hill police sergeant inspected some locations inside Webb’s hotel room but did not find the child. On a second trip to the hotel, law enforcement officers again knocked on Webb’s door and forced their way into the room.
Two civilians who had been searching for the suspect’s car found it in the parking lot outside the WoodSpring Suites hotel.
There was a large amount of blood smeared on a seat in the car. The blood suggested the girl could be injured and might be dead, testified Special Agent John Kochan, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations.
As he described the scene and the girl’s face when he entered Room 333, Kochan’s voice broke.
“All I said was, ‘You’re going to be OK,’” he testified.
At the start of the trial, 66 prospective jurors were questioned about their thoughts on burdens of proof and news media coverage of the abduction. Some said they were familiar with the case and struggled with the age of the victim and the nature of the crime. They questioned whether they could set those elements aside and consider only evidence presented in court.
Seven women and six men were selected for the jury that includes 12 regular members and one alternate.
If convicted, Webb faces a maximum of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Testimony is expected to continue Wednesday, and the jury may get the case for deliberations by late in the day.
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 1:16 PM.
