Contradictory Stories Unravel During Day One of Indecency with Child Trial

SAN ANGELO, TX – This morning at 9 a.m., several San Angelo residents called on to report to the Tom Green County Courthouse downtown for jury duty lined the walkway, impatient to get out of the cold and dreary weather. As they made their way into the building, and after going through security, they ushered into three different courtrooms. For the rest of the morning, State and Defense attorneys questioned them to determine who would help try the cases of Jacob Andrew Ferro, 36, Felix Antonio Pina, 20, and Jonathan W. Gould, 28.

Ferro faces a first-degree injury to a child charge; Pina faces third-degree felony firearm smuggling; and Gould faces indecency with a child through sexual contact, a second-degree felony.

By 2:30 p.m., all three court sessions were underway, and in the 119^th District Court of Judge Ben Woodward, the selected jurors, a diverse group of primarily women, made their way to the jury box as their names were called. Once finalized, Judge Woodward released the other potential jurors and thanked them for their time. He then proceeded to review the rules jury members must follow while hearing a case.

As he did so, Gould, the accused, sat patiently sitting between his two defense attorneys. Once he reviewed the rules, Judge Woodward asked Assistant District Attorney Jason Ferguson to read the indictment of the case, which explained that, on or about Aug. 20, 2015, Gould intended to “arouse and gratify the sexual desire of the defendant” by engaging in sexual contact with a then 12-year-old girl by touching her breast.

After reading the indictment, Judge Woodward asked the Defense how their client pleaded, to which attorney Gerald Ratliff responded, “Not Guilty Your Honor.”

For his opening remarks, Ferguson told the jury that “this is where the evidence comes in.” Two weeks after the victim turned 12, she went to a going-away party with her friends and siblings. While there, she found herself alone with Gould, who allegedly cuddled up next her, reached around and touched her breast. Right after the incident, the victim ran from the room, and after her mother picked her up from the home, she immediately told her what happened. The mother called police.

On behalf of Gould, however, Ratliff said the story told by the victim is “partially true,” but evidence will show that the victim has a troubled life, and through witness testimony, they will learn Gould never hurt anyone.

“He’s been around her most of her life and never made this attempt before,” said Ratliff. “After hearing all the evidence, I think you will find he’s not guilty.”

The Debate Over Defense Questioning

After opening remarks, Ferguson asked to address the court without the presence of the jury. Thus, Judge Woodward granted his request. Once the jury left the courtroom, Ferguson and the Defense debated over cross-examination questions the Defense wished to address with the victim and her mother to show a pattern of behavior. According to Ratliff, the victim made a previous outcry of abuse; she was reportedly hospitalized nine months prior to the offense and said she “heard voices;” she took a medication that the Defense thought may affect her memory; and she Googled the word “sex,” which the Defense said was purposely intended to access pornography. However, Ratliff had no official evidence to prove these claims, including no filed report of another outcry.

Ferguson said any questions related to some of these claims must be based on general opinion testimony, especially being that there was no expert psychological witness testimony to support the Defense’s claims. This debate came up in a previous Pre-Trial. For that story, click here.

“There has to be a connection to this case,” Ferguson told the court.

Upon further deliberation, Judge Woodward decided to allow questioning of the victim without the jury present since she is now 13.5. Her answers would determine if he would allow the questions during the trial without the presence of an expert psychologist.

The Bailiff brought the victim into the court after the recess, and Ratliff asked her, “Were you taking medications at the time of the incident?”

The girl confirmed she was, but could not remember the name of the medicine.

Ratliff then asked if the girl was hospitalized prior to the outcry against Gould, and she said yes. She was suicidal, she said. The victim also confirmed she heard voices, but the voices told her “to kill herself.” She added that the last time she heard the voices was a week after being released from the hospital.

Ratliff then asked about a church summer camp, and if the victim made an outcry of abuse. She said, “No.”

Based on the victim’s answers, Judge Woodward determined the Defense could not ask the victim questions during the trial regarding the voices or other issues.

“She does not know the medication or what effect it had on her memory,” said Woodward. “We’re not going into that because the voices were telling her to kill herself, not to make false accusations.”

The Victim's Testimony

During today’s trial, the victim was the first to take the stand. When Ferguson asked, “Do you know why you’re here today?”, she responded, “Yes.”

The victim explained that her friend was moving “with her dad” out of San Angelo, so she and her siblings went to a goodbye party at her house. The house belongs to Gould and his wife, and the victim’s friend is his wife’s daughter. There were several friends present. The victim knew the daughter through Girl Scouts.

When asked about the incident, the victim said she and another friend were in Gould and his wife’s bedroom. They had the door shut, and were talking about “the drama” of the girls at school. They wanted privacy, so asked Gould’s wife if they could go into the couple’s bedroom. The wife approved.

The victim said she and her friend were talking for about 30 minutes when Gould entered the bedroom and sat on the bed with them. He didn’t say anything, she said. He simply listened to them talk.

When asked what they did when he went into the room, the victim said, “We just ignored him.”

She then said she and her friend were “laying on the bed,” and Gould laid in between them. When asked if he moved closer to her, the victim looked down and said yes. She said her friend “left to change” Gould’s young daughter, a toddler at the time.

When she was alone with him, she said, “I was trying to ignore him. He touched my boobs and played with my butt.” She added that he scooted closer to her. She also confirmed that he did this outside her clothes. She then said Gould was playing with the fabric of her shirt, but while doing so, he was “squeezing.” He did that four times until she got up and walked out.

The victim added that Gould said, “I know you like me.”

The victim went outside, she said, and told her sister what happened. They waited for her mom to pick them up. Originally, Gould’s wife was to take them home, but she left. Once her mom picked them up, she told her what happened, and they called the police.

After Ferguson’s questioning, Ratliff asked the victim repeatedly to re-explain what took place, and asked more than once what Gould said during the exchange, and what happened. During this time, the victim’s story changed slightly. She said Gould said absolutely nothing, but said previously that he said, “I know you like me.”

“When you told him to stop, did he say anything?” asked Ratliff.

“Nope,” she said.

He then asked if Gould ever tried anything with her before this time. Gould lived with the victim’s family for at least a year. She said no. Ratliff also asked if the victim ever said Jonathan was “hot” or “cute.”

“Eww! No!” the victim exclaimed.

Next, Ratliff asked if, at some point, the victim’s friend said they should all cuddle; the victim said, “Yes.” When they were all lying down together, the victim said she “just laid straight.”

A Different Version of the Story

After the victim left the stand, Ferguson called the victim’s friend who was in the room with her that night to the stand.

The girl said she knew the victim through Gould’s daughter, and she confirmed the number of people there, and all the events leading to the incident in the room. Her story was also similar about getting the approval from Gould’s wife, and them being on the bed.

However, the girl said she sat at the edge of the bed while the victim sat by the bed post. The victim had a sheet over her and was sitting “hunched over.”

She also confirmed that Gould went into the room and he laid down on the bed.

“He didn’t say anything,” the friend said. “He just looked tired.”

She said Gould closed his eyes and got under the sheets; he also said he was tired.

The girl then said Gould’s young daughter came in and she smelled her, so she changed the girl’s diaper, but stayed in the room when she did so, which contradicted what the victim said. However, she noted that she did leave the room to go to the kitchen and get the toddler’s bottle.

She said when she was returning to the room, she saw the victim leaving in a hurry. The victim wasn’t walking or running, but speed walking. Later, the victim told her friend Gould touched her boob, but Gould told the girl he was wiping something off the victim’s shirt, and she took it the wrong way.

When asked if all three of them laid together on the bed, the friend said no, and said she never mentioned cuddling to the victim. However, she said she overheard the victim say she was “uncomfortable cuddling” twice. She didn’t know who the victim was speaking to, and she never heard Gould say anything. The friend also said Gould remained on the other side of the bed when she left, and he had only moved an inch or two when she returned to the room. By that point, the victim had left, so she didn’t see anything else.

The friend also told the Defense Gould has never tried to inappropriately touch her, and that previously, the victim did indeed tell her that Gould was “cute,” but that “she didn’t want anything to happen between them.”

That’s where the day’s testimony came to an end. The witness was excused from the stand, and Judge Woodward called a recess for 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. However, Ferguson requested the Defense and State meet in the courtroom at 8:30 a.m. to listen to “non-custodial” audio of Gould. They all agreed to do so.