Sex offender faces new trial
A Spokane County jury was declared hopelessly deadlocked Tuesday on the question of whether Charles Sean Tillman should be locked up for sex crimes he might commit in the future.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for 17 hours over four days in an unusual trial that resembled a sanity hearing.
In the end, only four of them found sufficient evidence to place Tillman, 35, under state control for the rest of his life as a “sexually violent predator.”
Assistant Attorney General Krista Bush asked Superior Court Jerome Leveque to schedule another trial. Court-appointed defense attorney Tim Trageser said the trial likely will occur in January or February, but no date was set Tuesday.
Under state law, Tillman will remain in custody without bail while awaiting the retrial.
He still faces a gross misdemeanor charge in Lakewood, Wash., for allegedly exposing himself to a 75-year-old woman and making a threatening gesture while he stood in her driveway on July 1, 2001.
Tillman was out on bail on that charge when he was arrested in August 2001 for alleged failure to complete court-ordered payments stemming from several sex-related crimes in 1992. Before he could be released on the Spokane charge, the Attorney General’s Office filed a sexual-predator commitment petition that will keep Tillman in custody until a jury decides the issue.
To commit Tillman, a jury must agree on four criteria:
• That he has been convicted of a sexually violent crime.
• That he suffers a mental or personality disorder.
• That the disorder makes it likely he will commit violent sex crimes again.
• That he has committed a recent act of sexual violence.
In the trial that began Oct. 4, there was no dispute that Tillman had been convicted of one sexually violent crime. But jury foreman Mark Doolittle said the jury had disagreements about the other three elements needed to commit Tillman to the state’s Special Commitment Center at the McNeil Island Correctional Center.
Two psychologists disagreed about whether Tillman is likely to commit more sexual violence because of mental and personality problems.
Bush and her co-counsel, Assistant Attorney General Malcolm Ross, said the July 2001 indecent exposure charge in Lakewood is the “recent act” required to lock up Tillman indefinitely as a sexual predator.
“There was a healthy amount of people with a reasonable doubt,” jury foreman Doolittle said of the “recent act” and psychological testimony.
There was no question, however, that Tillman was guilty of sexual violence when he broke into a 78-year-old Spokane woman’s home in September 1992 and forced her to masturbate him. He pleaded guilty to indecent liberties with forcible compulsion.
The victim, now deceased, told authorities that Tillman had fondled her and attempted to rape her. Afterward, she said, he demanded money. Tillman testified in the trial that ended Tuesday that he was sexually aroused by the woman’s fear. He disputed some of the victim’s allegations, but admitted he told her, “Do this or I’ll kill you.”
That assault was an exception to his usual behavior as a compulsive exhibitionist, Tillman said. He insisted that his motivation for several other crimes against elderly women was the thrill of exposing himself, not a desire for coerced sex acts.
Bush and Ross argued that Tillman has a long history of terrorizing elderly women in crimes that could be considered sexually violent even though they weren’t charged that way.
Tillman was convicted of residential burglary and malicious mischief in 1991 for breaking a 69-year-old woman’s window when she refused to let him in her house about 4:30 a.m. He had been out of jail less than six months when he went on a 1992 spree that included the attack on the 78-year-old woman who said he attempted to rape her.
He pleaded guilty to attempted residential burglary at the homes of another 78-year-old woman and a 70-year-old woman. Tillman testified in his trial this month that he intended to expose himself to those women.
About the same time, Tillman opened another elderly woman’s screen door and grabbed her. She said he pushed her to the floor and got on top of her. He said he was trying to keep the startled woman from falling. He pleaded guilty to residential burglary.
Also in September 1992, Tillman persuaded an 80-year-old Spokane woman to give him a drink of water and let him use her telephone. She became suspicious when he covered his hands with his sleeves to avoid leaving fingerprints, and ordered him to leave.
Tillman testified this month that he grabbed her hands when she approached him, and left when she got a hand free and slapped his face. He had pleaded guilty to residential burglary in that incident.
Since Tillman’s July 1998 release from prison on the 1992 offenses, authorities say, he has demonstrated an interest in prepubescent girls while living in the Tacoma area.
Tacoma resident Tara Shane and Tacoma police Detective Brad Graham testified in the trial that ended Tuesday that Tillman stalked Shane’s daughter and another girl, both 11, as they walked home from school in December 1999.