THE TRIAL OF EUGENE VENT
By Casey Grove

Eugene Vent's trial began in July 1999 with Calvin Moses, the passerby who discovered John Hartman.

Nicely dressed in a fresh white shirt, Vent showed no emotion as Moses described finding the battered teenager. Vent faced eight charges that involved the Oct. 11 assaults on Hartman and two other people within a three and a half hour period.

Pile of Charges
In addition to charges related to Hartman’s murder, Vent faced allegations that he had pointed a gun at motel clerk Michael Baca and had also robbed and assaulted a wedding guest, Franklin Dayton, that same night outside a wedding reception.

During his opening statement, Vent’s attorney, Bill Murphree, told the jury of 10 women and two men that the only witness to the assault on Dayton was too drunk and could not know what he had seen. He said that his client had also been very drunk that night and into the next morning, when police interrogated him.

“Evidence will show Eugene Vent was drunk, so he made some halfway admissions,” Murphree said in court.

100 Proof and 100 Yards

An acquaintance of the four accused men, Arlo Olson, testified that from a spot more than 100 yards away from the wedding reception, he saw Vent and the three others assaulting Franklin Dayton. (Others later gauged the distance between the two locations at between 150 and 175 yards.) Olson said he was absolutely sure of their identities despite being “half shot” after drinking all night, even finishing off the evening with 100 proof Wild Turkey.

Defense witness Robert Shomer, a psychologist from Los Angeles specializing in suspect identification, argued that positive identifications are very difficult, especially in the dark of night.

The court rejected another expert witness called by the defense because he “did not meet court standards.” Criminologist Richard Leo, an expert on eyewitness perception and recollection, was not allowed to testify. The expectation had been that he would explain how Vent’s statements could mean many things under the circumstances of the interview.

Sex Assault?

Two expert witnesses, state deputy medical examiner Dr. Franc Fallico and sexual assault nurse examiner Diane Hall, described what they concluded was a sexual assault on Hartman.

Murphree suggested that Hartman’s pants, which were around his knees when his battered body was found, had been large enough to slip down.

After hearing medical examiner Fallico repeatedly mention the trial of George Frese, who had already been convicted, Murphree tried to convince a judge to declare a mistrial on the basis that he had unfairly prejudiced the jury.

Superior Court Judge Ben Esch, deciding that Fallico’s statement would not have significantly affected the jury, denied the request. He reminded Fallico again not to mention the previous trial.

Grilling the Investigator

The defense also challenged the testimony of Fairbanks Police Detective Aaron Ring, keeping him on the stand for almost an entire day. Attacking Ring’s testimony, Murphree said that the detective had made things up to obtain incriminating statements from Vent, who had been extremely tired and still drunk.

“It’s a technique that police officers use all over the country,” Ring said in court. He said that Vent had been difficult to interview, denying any involvement, but eventually admitting to getting in a fight with someone. Ring said he found two things suspicious about the interview: One was that when he told Vent that he had stepped in blood (which was not true), Vent allegedly looked down at his shoe. The second was that Vent later described Hartman’s hairstyle: shaved short on the sides and kept long on top.

Vent allegedly told Ring: “I don’t know why we did it. It just happened. We were just being stupid.”

Vent took the stand and told jurors he had lied in his confession to police. “I was just making it up,” he told the jury. “I wish you understood how I was feeling. I just wanted to get it over with.”

Getting Personal

Vent’s mother testified that she did not know where her son was the night of Oct. 11, 1997, even though she was shown a transcript of an interview with police in which she said that she thought he had gone riding around with Marvin Roberts. In court, though, she repeated, “I don’t remember.”

During closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Jeff O’Bryant hauled a mannequin into the courtroom, “kicking it with loud thumps,” reported the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

By the end of July, a jury deliberating for two days found Vent guilty on all of the counts against him, including second-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault. Three months later he would be sentenced to serve 38 years.

Based in part on Fairbanks Daily News-Miner coverage of the Hartman case as it unfolded.

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