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Fernandez found guilty in cousin�s murder By Dani Dodge Mark Curtis Fernandez will be spending at least the next 25 years in prison. His attorneys were hoping for treatment in a mental hospital, but a unanimous jury of 10 men and two women rejected the defense�s argument that Fernandez was insane when he bludgeoned his cousin Jaime Fernandez to death Oct. 15, 1999. Friday, the jury found Fernandez, 28, of Prospect, guilty of murder � a charge that carries a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison. The trial took four days, but the jury took less than three hours to come to its verdict. Fernandez also was convicted of first- and second-degree kidnapping for stuffing Jaime�s still-breathing body into the back of his pickup, and driving to a remote area near Lost Creek Lake. There he buried Jaime�s dead body in a shallow grave. As the guilty verdict was read, Jaime�s mother, Lori Fernandez twisted an antique rosary in her hand and dark mascaraed tears ran down her face. Fernandez� family bowed and shook their heads. Fernandez simply kept the look of grim anguish he�d held throughout the trial. His sister, Stacey Fernandez said he was not bothered by the verdict. "He was OK," she said. "It wasn�t his idea to do the �guilty, but insane.� He wanted to be punished. "We�re not saying he shouldn�t be, but we wanted him to get better." People on Jaime�s side of the family, though, were so happy Friday night, they could barely speak through their tears. "We�re got closure now," said Jaime�s grandmother, Beverly Lamb. "Jaime can rest." Jaime�s father and Fernandez�s father are brothers. Jaime and Fernandez were friends as well as cousins. But during the trial, the families sat on opposite sides of the courtroom. They walked past each other without speaking. They haven�t spent a holiday together since Jaime�s death. But most of the facts of the case weren�t in contention. Both the defense and prosecution agreed Fernandez killed Jaime. Fernandez wanted Jaime to go with him to a meeting at OnTrack that day. Jaime declined. They argued. Roughhoused. Then, Fernandez crushed Jaime�s skull with a 25-pound decorative brick he had pulled from the landscaped wall of the Eagle Point home. He carefully replaced the brick before leaving. He washed the blood out of the driveway. After he buried his cousin, he went to a bar and sang kareoke. Defense attorney Gary Berlant insisted that Fernandez was insane at the time he committed the murder. It was a psychosis that began in his teens and continues today. Family members and friends described strange behaviors Fernandez began displaying in high school � everything from simply withdrawing from the family to hearing the house talk. Two doctors testified that Fernandez was schizophrenic. "I concluded he did indeed have a mental illness and I felt Mark was psychotic at the time of the offense," said Dr. Joseph Balsamo, a clinical psychologist. "The psychosis was severe enough that the mental illness formed the basis of his behavior at the time." Prosecutor Judi Harper admitted Fernandez was a bit strange, but said his mental condition did not cause him to kill his cousin. She relied on the medical report of Michael Sasser, a psychiatrist who said the other doctors hadn�t been thorough. Sasser said Fernandez had social phobia � a mental disorder � but not one that caused him to kill. "Often people who commit crimes feign mental illness to get out of them," he said. Sasser called "phony" Fernandez� stories of hallucinations such as having a singing angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. He said unlike real schizophrenics Fernandez had no "belief system" surrounding his delusional thoughts. Instead, he seemed to be just making things up to sound more crazy than he was. "He�s using this," Sasser said. "Presenting symptoms to get out of something." Harper pointed out that Fernandez was able to maintain a normalcy at work and at home. He worked as a seasonal firefighter and his co-workers said although he sometimes went off by himself, he otherwise did well in the stressful job. "There is no evidence that this guy could not control himself," Harper said. Harper ended her summation asking: "Would he have committed this act in front of a police officer? Was he unable to conform his behavior to the requirements of the law, or did he just choose not to?" Fernandez will be sentenced Friday. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.