A jury convicted a Tri-Cities activist on Tuesday of being a serial rapist who targeted sex workers for two years.
After day and a half of deliberating, the Benton County jurors convicted Brandon L. Jones of 11 counts of first-degree rape, six counts of first-degree robbery and 4 charges of attempted first-degree robbery.
The seven-woman and five-man jury also found that the crimes were committed with a gun, which can carry extra prison time. They were unable to make a decision on one count of attempted first-degree rape.
The verdict came after a three-week trial, where Jones, 28, took the stand and admitted to being with the 10 women but denied raping them.
Prosecutors were not immediately able to say how much time Jones is facing in a Washington state prison.
"I'm very pleased with the verdict in this case," Prosecutor Eric Eisinger told the Herald. "There was so much work (my deputies) put into the case."
Prosecutors cast the women as the "perfect victims." All of them engaged an illegal activity — sex work — and many were using drugs or had previous convictions
"You heard that sex workers really are the perfect type of individual to victimize, to take advantage of, to shame," Deputy Prosecutors Anita Petra told the jurors during closing arguments Monday. "All of their actions are done in private. You learned they are in hotel rooms. They are in cars. They are in houses. No one else is around."
But Brandon Jones' defense attorney argued the women's criminal history and drug use made them flawed witnesses.
The victims claim Jones contacted them through an European-based escort website and arranged to meet them. In each of the cases, he pulled out a pistol and raped them at gunpoint. In most of the cases, he's accused of demanding money first.
Jones admitted to starting to use escorts after his relationship with a girlfriend ran into trouble. He told jurors he bought sex from each of the women, but nothing else.
When cross-examined, he said he didn't know why the women would say he raped and robbed them.
'Perfect victims'
Petra argued Jones knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to target sex workers starting in August 2020.
Some of the women who took the stand were actively struggling with addiction when they testified, she admitted to the jurors.
"Why are those folks going to call the police?" she said. "They won't. They won't. And who's going to believe them? The shame, where are your children? Where were your children that night? The shame. The mom shame."
Petra noted that many of the crimes happened more than two years ago, and details may have gotten lost, but they all told similar stories.
Some of the women pieced together that Jones was responsible before police got involved and one even called his then girlfriend.
Petra said none of the women had an ulterior motive for testifying and that the events left them deeply affected. Many of them remembered the feeling of the gun pressed against them.
"How ironic that the people that they were afraid to call are the ones that gave them a voice," Petra said in her closing argument. "They have their voice. We gave them their voice. You have everything you need to find him guilty as charged."
'Flawed witnesses'
But defense Attorney Tim Dickerson said each of the women gave flawed accounts, and suggested that prosecutors and police were quick to find a suspect and ignore evidence that didn't fit their case.
While prosecutors said Jones had access to four guns, Dickerson said Jones only had one gun. The one he bought in April 2020 for self-defense.
The women gave different descriptions of the gun that was used. Many of the weapons described didn't match the gun Jones owned, Dickerson said. In addition, none mentioned a laser sight like the one on Jones' gun.
He also noted that Jones' phone had been reported stolen during the time of several of the rapes.
He said many of the women were on drugs at the time and didn't report the crime for years. Several of them knew each other and had already decided Jones was guilty, he argued to the jurors.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you were told since the first day of the trial ... that these were the 'perfect victims.' Nobody's going to believe them," he said. "Ladies and gentlemen, I think it is with that level of skepticism you need to consider the position Brandon Jones is in today.
"How do you show that someone else lacks credibility? How do you show that someone is not being truthful," he said.
He said Jones cooperated with police from the beginning of the investigation. While there have been inconsistencies, Jones has been polite, and even offered the pass code to his phone for officers.
Dickerson noted that Jones did volunteer work in the community and held several jobs. He was one of the leaders of Unbound-Tri-Cities, one of the three Black Lives Matter organizations that were active in the Tri-Cities following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
