Guilty Brendan Dassey

On October 31, 2005, Teresa Halbach was raped, murdered, and her body mutilated.

In March 2007, Steven Avery was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in the murder of Halbach, as well as being a felon in possession of a gun.

Late Wednesday night, Avery's nephew 17-year-old Brendan Dassey was found guilty of taking part in Halbach's rape and murder.

Manitowoc -- Eighteen months after Teresa Halbach's family last saw her, a jury confirmed late Wednesday night that learning-disabled teenager Brendan Dassey had helped his uncle Steven Avery brutally murder - then burn - the photographer in a Manitowoc County junkyard.

"We got the verdicts we wanted," said her brother Michael Halbach, who for nearly six weeks of trials in two courthouses had acted as the family's spokesman.

Halbach family members in the courtroom gallery clutched hands when Manitowoc County Circuit Judge Jerome Fox read the verdict: Dassey, 17, was guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault and mutilating a corpse - crimes that could send him to prison for life.

The teenager, who had shuffled through the courthouse hallway without glancing at a bank of brightly-lighted television cameras, did not flinch when the verdict was read and walked out of the courtroom without looking back at his family members in the gallery. Outside the courthouse, his mother, Barb Tadych, said the case had been "set up."

...The closing arguments by each side focused on how much credence jurors should give the detailed confession that Dassey gave four months after the crime and recanted during the trial.

Assistant Attorney General Tom Fallon, one of three prosecutors in the case, focused on the horrific details, and how well Dassey's account fit with the grisly tale told by charred bone fragments, blood stains and DNA evidence. Fallon insisted jurors could not want for stronger proof of Dassey's guilt.

"People who are innocent don't confess in the detail provided, to the extent this defendant provided," Fallon told jurors.

Dassey had told the investigators that, after getting off his school bus Oct. 31, 2005, he took mail to Avery's trailer. There, Avery invited Dassey to have sex with Halbach, who was handcuffed, shackled and screaming. Dassey went home briefly, then returned, stripped, raped Halbach, then, after a discussion with Avery, helped bind and stab her before the pair took her to a garage where Avery shot her. After that, according to the confession, the pair burned her body in a pit.

...[Teresa's brother] Michael Halbach said the most painful part of the trials was seeing Dassey's confession video.

..."Teresa can now enjoy her normal life in heaven," her brother said, "without having to worry about us. The hard part is over."

My heart goes out to the Halbach family.

It must have been torture to hear the details of how their beloved Teresa suffered before she was murdered.

I hope they can find some solace in the verdicts, in knowing that justice was done.

Here's more:

MANITOWOC, Wis. -- Unlike his uncle, who never took the witness stand at either trial, Dassey testified in his own defense, saying he had lied when he told of going to Avery's home, seeing Halbach shackled nude in a bed, raping her and helping Avery kill her and burn the body.

He said he made up the story but may have taken some details from a book he read.

"I don't know," he answered repeatedly when asked why he would say such things.

The prosecution argued that evidence such as leg irons and handcuffs in Avery's bedroom and two bullets — one with Halbach's DNA on it — matched what the teen had told investigators.

Avery's trial drew widespread attention because he had served 18 years in prison for a 1985 rape before DNA evidence showed he didn't commit that crime. Released in 2003, he claimed he was framed for the Halbach murder by the same sheriff's department he was suing for the wrongful conviction.

...In closing arguments, special prosecutor Tom Fallon said Dassey accepted his uncle's invitation to rape Halbach because he wanted to know what sex was like. He helped kill her and burn her body to dispose of the evidence of the crimes, he said.

But defense attorneys argued there was little that tied Dassey to Halbach's death, other than what they claim was a false confession.

I agree with the jury's decision.

I don't buy the argument that Dassey made up such a specific confession, one that he later recanted. I don't think Dassey was capable of fabricating such a grisly story in such detail, a story that was so consistent with the evidence found on Avery's property -- like the charred fragments of Halbach's bones.

He will be sentenced August 6. Dassey may get life in prison. He should.

Dassey's uncle will be sentenced in June. Hopefully, he'll be put away for life, too.

It's beyond me to understand how Avery and Dassey could do what they did to Teresa Halbach.

It's pure evil.

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Listen to audio from the courtroom.

Watch video from the courtroom.