Robert alfrey trial

Testimony and a video played for the jury both indicated Alfrey stepped into the parking lot, looked back, pulled out his wallet, and headed back into the Walmart. That's when Laio said she saw Alfrey first touch the girl's thigh, and then move his hand to touch her genitals. She yelled "Hey! She testified that Alfrey mumbled something, and left quickly. When Laio told the mother and grandmother what she had just witnessed, the two left the store to follow him. The grandmother confronted Alfrey, and the mother called the police, according to testimony.

As Alfrey fled in his car, witnesses got his license-plate number, which helped police find out who he was. And according to the video surveillance, the two times Laio saw Alfrey touch the child were not the first incidents that evening. The girl's mother, through tears, testified as a video played an earlier encounter during that shopping trip, showing the three in the produce aisle as Alfrey approached from the other direction.

Once inside, he touched the child again on the leg and then on the genitals, according to testimony. Laio hollered at him, and Alfrey fled the store with the mother and grandmother following.

His attorney argued that Alfrey's action occurred because Alfrey was confused, suffering from attention deficit disorder and anxiety. Ferro told the jury they were calling him "child molester," and did "pretty much everything but get pitchforks," so Alfrey panicked and fled. But the jury seemed to believe the witnesses' testimony and what was revealed on video, and rendered a guilty verdict after about an hour Thursday morning.

Following the trial, York County Deputy District Attorney Steve McDonald said a lot of credit in the prosecution winning this case goes to the Laio, an eyewitness who chose to speak up when she saw something she thought was not right. A standard sentence in this case would be 3 to 12 months in prison, and McDonald said he intends to ask the judge for prison time for Alfrey, who remains free on bail until his Dec. The second incident occurred as the mother and grandmother were leaving, but stopped to look at the Redbox movie selection in the store vestibule.

As they had their backs turned again, Alfrey touched the child on the leg, and left the store, McDonald told the jury. But this time, witness Dawn Laio was walking in, and said she saw Alfrey do this, and thought it was strange. She stopped to watch him, and testified Alfrey walked out of the store, then came back in, and touched the child again, this time on the leg, and then the genitals.

That's when Laio hollered at him, and told the mother and grandmother what she had seen Alfrey do. But Laio misunderstood what she saw, Ferro argued in his opening statements before both juries. This is because Alfrey is an older man of a different generation, and he said we now live in a time of hyper-sensitivity that can "make the innocent become nefarious.

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