by Colin McEvoy
“The facts aren’t there,” he said to a bewildered Sue.
Then, with an increasingly condemning tone, the alternate turned his accusations toward the church itself. The pastor hadn’t done enough to help Mary Jane, he said. He had turned Mary Jane away, and so had the church community. Sue was floored. She didn’t know what to say. Judy approached just as the alternate walked away, and found Sue even more anxious than when she left her.
“Oh, I’m really worried now,” Sue said. “I’m just not sure.”
Sue told Judy of the conversation she had just had with the alternate juror. This is a man who was almost on the jury, Sue thought. If he was having these thoughts, what must they be thinking right now in their deliberations?
Judy shared Sue’s concern as she processed the new information. Although she had been worried when the trial came to a close, she mostly felt Mary Jane would ultimately be found guilty. There was too much evidence against her, Judy thought. And she showed no emotion during the trial at all. She barely even moved. But now, Judy didn’t know what to think.
The two women found Zellis and shared their concerns with him. By now, the assistant district attorney was very accustomed to dealing with concerned church members in this case, having fielded calls almost every week from Pastor Shreaves after Mary Jane was arrested, checking on the status of the case, or expressing apprehension about the latest newspaper article about the murder.
Zellis felt a tremendous amount of sympathy for the church’s parishoners. In some ways, he thought, this trial was harder for them than it was on Rhonda’s family. For Jim and Dorothy, a guilty verdict would never bring their daughter back. Their lives had already been changed forever. But for the church, there was much riding on whether Mary Jane went free or not. If she’s found not guilty, they’re putting their houses up for sale and moving on, he thought. Their whole lives would change forever.
Zellis put on his best smile and assured Judy and Sue everything would be just fine. But by later that afternoon, he was starting to share their anxiety. More than four hours had passed and the jury was still deliberating. Every lawyer knows the quicker a jury comes out, the more likely they are to render a guilty verdict. But Zellis tried to reassure himself. The trial was almost two weeks, he thought. There was a lot of evidence for them to go through. It’s a serious job they have to do.
Stumpo had a more difficult time rationalizing.
This is torture, he thought. Having attended only one or two trials in the past, and none for murder, Stumpo wasn’t used to a jury taking longer than an hour or so. In Mary Jane’s case, he couldn’t believe the jury would need much more time than that. In order to find her not guilty, they would have to believe Applebaum’s theory that somebody else had fished the gun out of Lake Nockamixon in 1994, kept it fourteen years, then shot Rhonda and discarded it.
What’s to discuss? he thought.
Egan, as usual, appeared much calmer. Juries had surprised him in the past, of course. He had seen people go free when he felt the evidence was extremely strong. Sometimes, Egan felt, a defense attorney just came across better to a jury, or the police come away looking arrogant or incompetent.
Juries, he thought. You never know what they’re thinking.
Nevertheless, Egan felt their case against Mary Jane was strong. We have the murder weapon, he thought. It’s her gun.
Zellis was notified that the jury had come out with a question: They wanted to see the sign-in sheet from the Holiday Hair salon. The inquiry did little to reduce the attorney’s anxiety.
Oh my God, why do they need to see that thing? Zellis thought. They’re going to buy into this timeline thing. The defense had argued Mary Jane couldn’t have possibly had enough time to kill Rhonda and make it to the salon by the time she did, but Zellis had been sure he discredited that argument in court. Could I have been wrong?
Meanwhile, Pastor Shreaves was at his parents’ home in Virginia, although his thoughts were completely absorbed by what was going on back in Doylestown. He had been getting updates from Judy and Sue, but now, like everyone else, there was nothing he could do but wait. Shreaves chose not to attend that day for the same reason he avoided the rest of the trial when he wasn’t testifying: He didn’t want Mary Jane to see him there. He didn’t want to give her twisted mind any indication whatsoever that he was there to support her, or that he harbored any emotional connection to her whatsoever.
He knew his congregation was worried about the possibility of Mary Jane going free, for their safety and the future of their church. Shreaves tried to keep up a brave front in the face of this possibility, but there was no doubt in his mind: If Mary Jane went free, Shreaves would never come back to Trinity Evangelical. He would immediately put in for a transfer and move far, far away from her, from the church, from this whole tragic chapter of his life. How could he ever feel safe there again if Mary Jane was free?
Back in Doylestown, Zellis was sitting at his desk suffering the agony of the wait. It had been about ninety minutes since the jury asked their first question, and there hadn’t been a word since. But suddenly, his phone rang, and he quickly grabbed it. The jury had another question: They needed a clarification for the definition of murder in the first degree and murder in the third degree.
Zellis smiled as he hung up the phone. He turned to Stumpo and Egan and informed them about the question. All three immediately recognized what the question meant for their case: It was good news. The jury was no longer questioning whether Mary Jane did it, they were just discussing whether it was premeditated.
She’s done, Zellis thought. It’s only a matter of time.
CHAPTER 39
Only about a half hour later, the jury was back in the courtroom and Mary Jane was sitting beside Applebaum at the defense table, waiting to learn her fate. Judge Boylan asked the jury for its verdict and, after what felt like an impossibly long pause to everyone sitting in the courtroom, the foreman said the word: “Guilty.”
Mary Jane stared straight ahead as the jury read their verdict, her face an expressionless mask, just as it had been throughout the majority of the trial. Slowly, she reached for a box of tissues on the table in front of her, but didn’t take one out. Behind her, the rest of the courtroom remained silent, no gasps or murmurs of conversation following the verdict. Judy and Sue, both sitting in the front row behind Zellis, experienced a silent wave of relief. The two women both dabbed at their eyes with tissues as Judy clutched a framed photograph of Rhonda Smith with the inscription, “Always in our Hearts.”
After deliberating for more than six hours, the jury had found Mary Jane Fonder guilty of murder in the first degree and possessing an instrument of crime. Although the verdict came with a mandatory sentence of life in prison, Judge Boylan said Mary Jane would be formally sentenced within thirty days, then ordered she be returned to county prison without bail before dismissing the court.
The sheriff’s deputies directed Mary Jane away from the defense table and led her down the middle of the rows of spectators through the courtroom doors. With her hands secured in cuffs in front of her and tears forming in her eyes behind her oversized spectacles, Mary Jane vigilantly stared straight ahead as she was led through the courthouse lobby, where almost a dozen journalists immediately scrambled behind her to catch up.
“Do you still say you’re innocent?” one of them asked as the television and radio reporters shoved microphones into her face. Mary Jane nodded, moving a little slower than she had in the past few days, but her voice showing little sign of strain despite the tears in her eyes.
“That’s the sad part about it,” she said. “I’m innocent.”
One of the reporters asked whether she had a message for the members of Trinity Evangelical. Mary Jane’s response was immediate, “Good-bye. God bless you all. I’ll miss you. God bless all my friends at the church.”
As Mary Jane and her entourage approached the set of double doors leading back to the jail, one of the reporters asked how she felt
about the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison. With just the slightest hesitation, and with a faint touch of dryness in her voice, she replied, “It doesn’t sound appealing.” Before disappearing through the doors, she quickly added, “But I’ll go wherever the Lord sends me.”
With Mary Jane gone, the reporters turned their attention to the others leaving the courtroom. They first gathered around Zellis, surrounding him as he stood just outside the courtroom doors. Though not smiling, Zellis was visibly pleased with himself and the verdict. He expressed no surprise that Mary Jane continued to proclaim her innocence, and said he imagined she would continue to do so for the rest of her life.
“She’s the most defiant person I’ve ever encountered in my twenty-five years as a prosecutor,” he said. “She will never, ever acknowledge or take responsibility for this murder. You just know that this woman has a stone for a heart. She is a stone-cold-blooded murderer.”
Stumpo and Egan, meanwhile, quietly slipped through the crowd, perfectly content to leave the media attention to Zellis. Both were relieved by the outcome, especially Stumpo, who had barely allowed himself to feel any true sense of relief even after Mary Jane was arrested seven months ago. After all those months of work, his first murder case had been brought to a close, and Stumpo finally felt at peace.
As he walked away, Stumpo remembered how he had sought homicide investigation courses over the years but was never approved for one. Well, I feel like I’ve had one now, he thought. I’ve had absolutely the best course you could ask for in homicide investigations.
Zellis, only too conscious of the berating their police work received from the defense during the trial, went out of his way to compliment the state police to the press.
“This is a testament to the excellent work they did,” he said.
A few of the reporters asked whether he thought Mary Jane would have anything new to say about the disappearance of her father now that she was already facing life in prison. For Zellis, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind: “I would never expect her to say anything about her father, except that he’s still missing.”
One of the reporters asked whether Zellis thought she had killed her father, but Zellis refused to take the bait, shaking his head and saying, “We’re not going to get into that right now.” But, he added, “I think everybody can draw their own conclusions.”
Finished with Zellis, the press turned their attention to Applebaum as he exited the courtroom. He insisted he was not surprised by the verdict and hadn’t decided yet whether there would be an appeal.
“She’ll be all right,” he said of his client. “She feels she’s at peace and puts her faith in God.”
After answering a few more questions, Applebaum expressed sadness that nobody from the church came forward to defend Mary Jane or speak on her behalf as a character witness. It was reflective, he once again claimed, of the disrespect she had received from the congregation for so many years.
“We attempted to talk to the people of that church on her behalf, but they had already closed her off,” he said. “Written her off the books. It’s sad.”
Applebaum later learned that two alternate jurors, including the one who had spoken with Sue Brunner earlier in the day, had believed Mary Jane was not guilty. Given that, Applebaum was shocked that the jury managed to reach a unanimous decision. Every defense attorney knows that you only need to reach one juror, just one, to create that reasonable doubt and get a hung jury.
And we did reach two of them, Applebaum thought. Just not the right two.
Judy, sitting on one of the benches outside the courtroom, still grasping her photo of Rhonda, told an Associated Press reporter that, like Zellis, she was not surprised Mary Jane continued to maintain her innocence.
“She’ll deny it till she goes to the Lord,” she said. But it didn’t make any difference, Judy said. She was just relieved for her church and community.
“I think justice has been done, but I hope she gets help,” Judy said. “If she had asked for help, asked for compassion, anything, we were there. We were there for anybody.”
Sue, standing just a few feet away from Judy, seemed to take particular offense to the remarks by Applebaum about the church failing to reach out to Mary Jane.
“She was always included,” Sue said. “We’ll pray for her. I still can’t believe she did such a terrible thing. What drove her to commit this terrible act, I’ll never understand.”
With a sigh, she added, “Rhonda will be in our hearts forever. There was no reason for her to die. I know in Mary Jane’s heart there was a reason, but I can’t find it.”
Back in Lower Saucon Township, Jim Smith was sitting quietly in his favorite living room chair when he picked up the ringing telephone. It was a reporter seeking a comment about the verdict. Jim and Dorothy had decided not to stay to hear it themselves due to Jim’s poor health. Besides, he knew hearing the jury send Mary Jane to prison wouldn’t have made a bit of difference to him anyway, and he said as much to the reporter.
“I just think it’s a sad thing that happened,” Jim said. “I don’t feel any joy in my heart because a woman committed a violent act. We lost our daughter. There’s no joy in my heart for something that should’ve never happened in the first place.”
CHAPTER 40
It was already guaranteed that Mary Jane Fonder would be sentenced to life, but her sentencing on December 5, 2008, still drew a big crowd to the same Bucks County courtroom where her nearly two-week trial was held.
Judy Zellner and Sue Brunner had wanted to give victim impact statements, but the Smiths wanted them limited to family members only. Rhonda’s beloved niece, Amber, read a poem about how much she missed her aunt and the fun they had together, including checking out men, having sleepovers, and eating hot wings.
“She was a fun-loving person who always gave me a shoulder to cry on,” she said. “Just an all-around great person. I can feel her looking down on me today.”
Amber also read a letter from her father, Rhonda’s brother Gary, who was stationed in Afghanistan at the time of the sentencing.
“She touched many souls and had strong, enduring friendships,” Amber read from her father’s letter. “By the way, Rhon’s passion was to teach; she never achieved that personal goal. Please, God, let her teach in heaven. After all, we both know she’s certified to be in heaven!”
Jim and Dorothy Smith chose to read letters Rhonda had written about what her parents meant to her.
“I am very fortunate because she shows me the truth when all I see is black,” Dorothy Smith read. “My mother is the best gift of all.”
Jim Smith read a letter in which his daughter thanked him for helping her through all her struggles.
“You taught me, even with my mental illness I can do anything anybody else can do,” Jim read. “You always dealt with me logically and now that I am living in reality, I know how priceless that is.… Sometimes I think [giving up] would be easier, but I still fight because I know I’m on a good team.”
Judge Boylan said it was the first time a family had ever read letters from a victim at one of her sentencings.
“I think that was the most eloquent and difficult thing you could have done,” she told the Smiths. “You shared with us a little bit of what the loss has been—not only to you, but to all of us.”
Then it was Mary Jane’s turn to talk. She had declined to speak during the trial, but she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity again. She used her time to once again defiantly protest her innocence, as she had repeatedly to reporters.
“I did not kill Rhonda Smith,” Mary Jane said before the judge. “I thought she was a lovely girl [and] I certainly wasn’t jealous of this woman for any reason. I’m so sorry she’s gone, but in the same respect, I will be gone, too. I’m the second person in the church to be murdered, by the system.”
Boylan got the last word in the hearing. She said she felt a life sentence was appropriate in this case, considering the substantial
amount of evidence against Mary Jane and the disturbing statements she made to police.
“I believe it is appropriate, the sentence of life without parole, because I believe there are significant issues that have to be addressed,” the judge said.
Boylan agreed to Applebaum’s request to have Mary Jane’s sentence for weapons possession run concurrently with her murder sentence.
“Given your client’s age … I see no benefit to a consecutive sentence,” Boylan said.
The judge also granted Applebaum’s request to step down as Mary Jane’s attorney. She could no longer afford a private attorney if she appealed the case, Applebaum said.
The Smiths, absent at the trial verdict because of Jim’s health, were finally able to react publicly to the guilty verdict and Mary Jane’s defiance. Speaking to reporters after the sentencing, Jim Smith said he took exception to Mary Jane calling herself the second murder victim.
“You’re certainly not the second person that is injured,” he said, his voice breaking. “Our family was injured very much.”
Amber Smith said it had been very difficult for the Smith family to hear Mary Jane repeatedly maintain her innocence.
“I’m a little upset she can’t be straightforward and admit to the crime she committed, but Rhonda is in a better place now,” she said.
Dorothy Smith said Mary Jane’s life sentence brought some satisfaction to their family.
“She’ll pay the price in there just thinking about what she did,” she said.
Bob Egan didn’t make any statements to the press following Mary Jane’s sentencing, but it made an impact on him, as well. He had attended many sentencings over his twenty-five-year career, but never saw a convict as defiant as Mary Jane Fonder.
Even after she was convicted and sentenced, she stood up in court and denied it, he thought as he left the courthouse. You’re tried, you’re convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, and you still stand up in front of a judge and say you didn’t do it.