JACKSON CURTIS - 5 months - (7/2011) / Convicted: Father, Jason Curtis - Council Bluff, IA

'Emotional' murder case ends with father's conviction

10:47 am, Fri Apr 12, 2013.

It took a jury a little more than seven hours to
convict a Glenwood man of first-degree murder in the death of his
5-month-old son.

Jason Curtis, 36, was convicted Tuesday of
first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death in his son,
Jackson’s, July 14, 2011, death.

First-degree murder is a class A felony in Iowa and carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 3.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber – who prosecuted the case with assistant
county attorney Amy Zacharias because the assistant Mills County
Attorney had already represented Curtis on a prior child abuse
conviction concerning an older daughter – said no matter what happened
with the verdict, it was a tragic case.

“No matter what happened in court today, nothing will bring Jackson back,” he said.

After Fourth District Court Judge Mark Eveloff read the verdict in court, Curtis’s
family could not hold back their disappointment.

“It’s wrong,” said one of his family members. “You don’t know how much he loved that baby.”

As Wilber left the courtroom, the family also shouted that he knew the decision was “wrong” as well.

Wilber said the evidence in the case was clear, and he does not take filing charges like those filed against Curtis lightly.

“I can’t imagine anything more horrifying than charging a father for killing his
infant son,” he said. “It is an emotional case for us to handle as well.”

The case was the longest of Wilber’s career – it started with jury selection on Jan.
29 – and also the most difficult, he said, emotionally. Wilber admitted
that he has avoided working on the prosecution of similar cases in the
past because of the emotions involved.

“I have children of my own,” he said. “But Jackson deserved our best.”

Also, what the jury didn’t know, but prosecutors did, was that Curtis had been
found guilty of child endangerment in the past. In fact, defense
attorney Mike Williams suggested that prosecutors zeroed in on Curtis
from the beginning and found what they wanted to find, even questioning
how appropriate it was for investigators to attempt to interview Curtis
an hour after Jackson’s death.

“The jury didn’t hear about the prior founded abuse case involving his 4-month-old
(at the time) daughter, who suffered a broken clavicle and broken arm,” Wilber said.

“To say we rushed to judgment after Jackson died – knowing he already abused a
4-month-old – it would have been irresponsible to do anything less,” Zacharias said.

Wilber cited Zacharias’s work on the case. She said she has been working on little else since December.

Over the 18 months since the case started, Zacharias said she had an opportunity to
get to know Jackson’s mother, Chrissy Vyborny, who testified in the
trial, but did not attend any of the other parts of the court proceedings.

Zacharias said she believed Vyborny has struggled with guilt following her son’s
death. Vyborny cooperated with investigators after the incident, and has
since regained custody of her two girls, one of which is Curtis’s daughter.

“She lost her home, her kids, her job – now she has to rebuild her life by herself
with nothing but those two little girls,” Zacharias said.

Vyborny testified that she left her son in her boyfriend’s care as she went to
work on July 14, 2011, and Jackson was stretching and smiling.

“I don’t think she could have ever imagined that when she left there July 14, it
was the last smile she would get from him,” Zacharias said.

Wilber said after a vigorous defense consisting of doctors from around the world, he
was glad the jury decided the case as they did.

“I hope the spirit of Jackson can finally find some peace,” he said.

http://www.southwestiowanews.com/council_bluffs/news/local_news/emotional-murder-case-ends-with-father-s-conviction/article_1058e154-7594-11e2-a814-001a4bcf887a.htmlC