As a new year begins, Kamerin Hopkins dares to dream again — of returning to school, of earning a degree, of designing a famous structure.
Only a few weeks ago, however, those dreams seemed lost. Then a Summit County jury delivered not guilty verdicts on four counts of rape.
Hopkins, of Akron, was a free man, but Common Pleas Judge Alison McCarty still had a strong message for him — a reminder about what easily could have happened.
“You have narrowly escaped something, young man. I hope you realize the gift this jury gave you — and not necessarily supported by the evidence,” McCarty stressed.
Hopkins, 22, was facing up to four life sentences because the alleged victim was a minor — a family friend who had lived in their home — under the age of 13.
In the aftermath of the verdicts early last month, Hopkins, his mother, Jacqueline Morris of Akron, and his attorney, Michael Wartko, spoke openly to the Beacon Journal about what they described as a life-changing experience that their faith pulled them through.
“It was a constant nightmare for what was almost the past two years,” Morris said. “Every single day, you’d wake up and ask: ‘This is really real?’ ”
What made it worse, Morris said, was the close relationship the family once had with the girl, who had said Hopkins sexually abused her four times in March and April 2010.
“The conversations we would have about this individual were: ‘How could she?’ She was family. She was like my daughter and his little sister,” Morris said.
The trial began Nov. 28 and lasted five days. Jurors deliberated over parts of two days for a total of nine hours.
Wartko, who defended the case with his mother, Christine Finan, as co-counsel, said 20 to 25 family members gathered in the courtroom each day. During breaks, they stayed together on the long benches in the courtroom lobby.
“Our family is extremely close-knit,” Morris said. “We have a very strong support system with our church. We’re a huge family of faith.
“The Bible says all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed. We have Mount Everest faith. As much as we told Kamerin: ‘We’re here for you,’ he relied upon his faith as well.”
Hopkins, a 2007 East High School graduate, played middle linebacker in football and joined the JROTC program, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his father, a retired government agent who was with the Federal Air Marshal Service after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The soft-spoken Hopkins said the trial “put my entire life on hold.”
“When all this got brought up, I was in the process of joining the Marine Corps,” he said. “I had a $1,200 surgery that I had paid to get done to remove a tattoo from my wrist, because you can’t have anything visible there through your uniform.
“It took three or four weeks for it to heal, enough so that I could go to boot camp, but then all this got brought up, so I couldn’t join.”
Hopkins said he followed his lawyers’ advice during the trial and kept his mind occupied by jotting notes at the defense table.
As serious as the consequences were, Wartko said, Hopkins’ notepad caught his eye for reasons he did not immediately understand. The notes were crammed with intricate drawings of bridges and landscapes.
It is only now, Wartko said, “that it all makes perfect sense.”
Hopkins said he was looking years ahead, planning and hoping to achieve his next objective of designing a city structure. He said he plans to return soon to his studies at the University of Akron, where he hopes to earn a degree in civil engineering.
Late in the afternoon when the second day of deliberations ended and the panel’s decision was announced, Hopkins said he heard only the first word, “Not,” after the verdict on the first count was read.
“I didn’t hear the rest. I couldn’t even stand up,” Hopkins said. “It was the greatest feeling I ever had in my life.”
Summit County Assistant Prosecutor Brad Gessner, however, said the outcome did not mean Hopkins was innocent.
Evidence still leaves doubt
Gessner pointed to McCarty’s post-verdict admonishment and what he called “a very good job” in the police investigation.
“The jury’s decision in this case was that they did not feel the case was proven,” Gessner said, “not that nothing happened.”
He said semen from Hopkins was found in the alleged victim’s underwear and that those findings were verified by investigators from the state crime lab.
But, Wartko said, it was only a speck of semen, and his cross-examination of the crime lab investigators showed it could have originated from transfer contact in piles of laundry often left in Hopkins’ bedroom.
Gessner also emphasized a brief Facebook message that Hopkins sent to the alleged victim. It began with a short notation from him that the two were going “to have to stop ok buuuuut we have to be friends still.”
The girl replied “cool” and followed with another brief passage saying she hoped Hopkins wasn’t mad at her.
“Nope I promise ^-^!!! lol,” Hopkins wrote back.
Jurors contacted last week said they reviewed the short Facebook message and found it inconclusive, “and possibly taken out of context,” said a juror from Cuyahoga Falls, who asked that his name not be used.
“And why were only three lines brought out? Why not the whole thing? I understand prosecutors show the jury what they want us to see, but why didn’t they show us the entire thing, let’s say from midnight to 4 a.m.?” the man asked.
Dino Moretto of Northfield, another juror, said the panel’s first vote favored acquittal 8-4. Hours of deliberations convinced the entire panel that there was enough reasonable doubt for unanimous not-guilty verdicts, he said.
“We thought there was enough reasonable doubt,” Moretto said, “where we just couldn’t send him away for a major portion of his life.”
Hopkins, who spent the holidays in a large family celebration, with relatives coming in from California, Louisiana and Maryland, said he is thankful he someday can pursue his dream of designing a spectacular city bridge, like Golden Gate.
He said the trial and the verdicts proved to him that “if you have a dream, hold onto that dream, and never let it go.”
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or at emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.