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Erin Vickers, 23, Found Guilty of Raping Her 1-Year-Old Daughter; She Faces Life In Prison

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Erin Vickers sat impassively as bailiffs brought in the television screen that would be used to show an incriminating one-minute video Vickers had shot of herself while performing oral sex on her daughter. (© FlaglerLive)
Erin Vickers sat impassively as bailiffs brought in the television screen that would be used to show an incriminating one-minute video Vickers had shot of herself while performing oral sex on her daughter. Vickers was found guilty of rape today.(© FlaglerLive)

The time the jury took to find 23-year-old Erin Vickers guilty of raping her 1-year-old daughter in circuit court this morning says it all: 25 minutes, or roughly the time it would have taken for the four men and two women of the jury to get organized in the jury room, pick a foreperson, take an initial vote, exchange a few thoughts, and fill out the verdict forms. Vickers was also found guilty of promoting the sexual performance of a child. She faces life in prison without parole.


By her own account Vickers’s raping sessions, which she performed in her mother’s R-Section home, on Skype and through selfies to gratify her boyfriend Paul Dykes, would last twice or four times as long at times as it took to convict her, sometimes more, sometimes less. In her words, “Sometimes it’d be an hour, sometimes it’d be two.” It was not a one-time thing. And her daughter? “Sometimes she’s asleep, sometimes she’s awake.” (Dykes is going on trial later this year or early next on his own set of equally grave charges, and Vickers still faces 47 additional, grave charges.)

The jury did not believe, as Vickers had briefly claimed to two Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents before her arrest, and as her attorney tried to argue to the jury, that it had merely been an attempted rape. It did not believe that Vickers was only making it look as if she were orally violating her daughter. The jury was made to watch a one-minute-four-second video of Vickers in the act, with sounds, which made it difficult, if not impossible, to believe either her claim or the attorney’s claim that she never touched her daughter.

Erin Vickers shortly after the guilty verdict was read. co
Erin Vickers shortly after the guilty verdict was read. (© FlaglerLive)
There was little that the prosecution submitted as evidence that wasn’t in and of itself fatal to Vickers’s case: any one of those elements in the prosecution’s case could have led to a conviction. But as a jurist confirmed afterward, the single most damaging part of the two-day trial in the case against Vickers wasn’t the hours of testimony from state law enforcement agents, much of it about the forensics of searching computers and phones for evidence of child porn, and finding it, or of the confessional interview Vickers gave an agent when her home and devices were searched two years ago, though those parts of the day did their share of damage.

It wasn’t necessarily that one of the prosecution’s witnesses was Vickers’s own mother—a woman of powerful faith and poise whose maternal instincts never failed even after her daughter’s arrest—who was key to identifying her daughter, her granddaughter and intimate belongings that connected the incriminating videos and pictures to Vickers beyond doubt.

It wasn’t the four selfies the prosecution had printed and passed to the jury, of Vickers in the act of orally violating her daughter, or the one-minute-four-second video ostensibly showing Vickers doing the same. It may not even have been the final closing argument by Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis, whose verbal sallies quoting Vickers, playing back her own confessional words on an audio system, or ridiculing the defense’s assertions of “no contact” became a barrage of nails in Vickers’s coffin.

Rather, the most damaging part of the trial lasted three or four seconds. It was the length of another video clip, also showing Vickers allegedly in the act. But that one burst with the sound of the infant’s sobs, just five or six spasms from a child just 13 months old at the time. It was the only sound from the victim that the jury would hear. It had more weight than any testimony the prosecution could present, and prosecutors knew it.

Sidebar: from left, Judge Dennis Craig, Assistant State Attorney Joe LeDonne, defense attorney Garry Wood, and Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis. (© FlaglerLive)
Sidebar: from left, Judge Dennis Craig, Assistant State Attorney Joe LeDonne, defense attorney Garry Wood, and Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis. (© FlaglerLive)
Vickers knew it, too. That was the clip that made her cry, the only time she openly cried during the two-day trial, at least until the verdict was read and she realized that, absent an unlikely twist on appeal, her life outside of prison was over. (To investigators, she had said of her daughter, during the rape sessions: “sometimes she cried a little bit, but sometimes she’d be asleep.”) Though Vickers never testified, as is her right, that moment when cried to the sound of her child’s sobs might as well have made her a witness for the prosecution. (The child has been adopted by her foster family.)

Aside from the counts and the evidence against her, Vickers faced another challenge: she did not have much of a defense, nor did her attorney, court-appointed Garry Wood, have one beyond what amounted to a plea to the jury: believe Vickers when she says her mouth never touched her daughter’s genitals. Believe her when she says it was just for show, not for real. Wood argued she was guilty of attempted sexual battery, but not of actual battery.

It was not a vacuous argument, daunting though the evidence against it was: the last 20 years have seen many a trial hinge on the interpretation of video footage that only looks obvious, only to be deconstructed into something different from what it appears. And Wood’s opening arguments, just eight minutes long, hinged his entire defense on that point: “Watch the evidence in this case, look at the evidence in this case, I know it’s going to be difficult for you to do,” Wood said, “we’re going to show to you at the end of this case that although she’s not guilty of the main charge of sexual battery, there may be lesser-included offenses, and maybe not guilty depending on your determination of what elements have in fact been proven in this case.”

Garry Wood and Erin Vickers. (© FlaglerLive)
Garry Wood and Erin Vickers. (© FlaglerLive)
The brevity of Wood’s opening argument—echoing the brevity of his questions to prospective jurors during jury selection–portended the thinness of what was to come from the defense.

Even looking past Wood’s jargon-filled language that the jury at that point had no reason to understand, and that only diminished the human side of the person Wood was representing at the very point when lawyers usually try to humanize a defendant, however monstrous the acts in play, Wood was literally telling the jury that his defense would “show” them that Vickers had not, in fact, gone so far as to violate her child.

But he never did. He never presented a case beyond his verbal assertions that the prosecution was not proving its case, and that what Vickers had confessed to state police agents had at one point included her claim that she never touched her child sexually. Startlingly, when the prosecution rested at 3 p.m. Tuesday, just six hours into the first day of trial—less, when lunch and breaks were included—Wood told the judge he had no witnesses of his own. The defense rested, too. It did so after barely cross-examining the prosecution’s witnesses.

A jurists after the trial said the absence of a defense was startling.

Wood had tried to make Vickers seem meeker and less aware than she was at 20, when she was questioned and arrested. He repeatedly referred to the armed agents and sheriff’s deputies who questioned her, trying to suggest that she had been intimidated or coerced, though when the prosecution played the entirety of the tape of Vickers’s interview with two state police agents, none of that seeming coercion was in evidence.

Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis, during a break this morning, centered himself before delivering the prosecution's final closing argument. (© FlaglerLive)
Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis, during a break this morning, centered himself before delivering the prosecution’s final closing argument. (© FlaglerLive)
Vickers, who briefly cried at the beginning of the interview—in a Florida Department of Law Enforcement vehicle—quickly gained her composure, claimed at first that Dykes had made her do it for his pleasure and that she’d only mimicked the acts (“I might have went down there but I never licked, it just looked like it”), but then conceded, time after time, that she had orally raped her child.

“During that whole hour you’re touching, making contact with her genitals with your lips?” an investigator had asked her, point blank.

“Yes,” Vickers answered unhesitatingly.

On how many different occasions? “Sometimes we’d go a couple of weeks without doing it, sometimes a few days.”

After the long recording of Vickers’s interview with agents was over, the jury was sent to the jury room and Wood made a motion for mistrial and another over the introduction of prejudicial information that went beyond the parameters of the counts Vickers faced. He insisted that the video, which by then had been shown the jury, did not show penetration.

A bailiff takes the bin of evidence to the jury room for deliberations. Deliberations lasted less than half an hour, and little evidence was sought. (© FlaglerLive)
A bailiff takes the bin of evidence to the jury room for deliberations. Deliberations lasted less than half an hour, and little evidence was sought. (© FlaglerLive)
But that only gave the prosecution one of a number of openings created by the voids in the defense. “The evidence is just overwhelming in the video, and maybe Mr. Wood respectfully disagrees. But it’s a jury question. It’s a factual question. In that video, her mouth and lips are clearly on the young girl’s vagina, and more importantly, if you listen to the video very carefully, you’re going to hear slurping and licking sounds that are indicative of oral sex on someone else. That’s a jury question for the jury. Not only that, but the jury gets to rely on her statements that she gave. It is inextricably intertwined with other stuff, but she admits to having her mouth on her daughter’s vagina multiple times.”

That was on Tuesday afternoon, soon before the defense rested and the jury was sent home for the day, to return this morning to hear closing arguments. For Wood, his closing argument was no different than his opening: he asked the jury to believe Vickers and to doubt the prosecution’s case. The prosecution, as is usual, had two go of it, before and after Wood, with Assistant State Attorney Joe LeDonne going over the prosecution’s case in his first segment—LeDonne in this trial was the equivalent of a long-haul pitcher, Lewis its closer—and Lewis returning for a final argument. Rather than repeat opening arguments, Lewis hammered at what had been revealed the previous day, repeatedly walking back and forth between the jury box and nearer to where Vickers sat, pointing at her accusingly and at one point re-playing her most incriminating confessions.

Several members of the state attorney’s office and court staffers had turned up for the closing arguments, as had members of Vickers’s family, on the other side of the courtroom, including her mother, whose hope was that her daughter would not so soon be sent off to state prison (either in Ocala or in Miami). She got her wish.

Erin Vickers. (© FlaglerLive)
Erin Vickers. (© FlaglerLive)
Today’s conviction will automatically be appealed because it’s a capital felony. Her lawyer is also filing a motion for a new trial, but the motion will almost certainly be denied: it’ll be argued before Circuit Judge Dennis Craig, the same judge who presided over this trial. He’s not about to overrule himself. Vickers’s sentence at this point is a formality: she will have to be sentenced to life without parole. But the formality is being delayed until prosecution and defense again meet for a pre-trial to decide how to handle the 47 remaining charges against Vickers, and for Craig to rule on the motion for a new trial. Craig wants that hearing to take place no later than October.

But there was one more hammer blow against Vickers, moot through it may turn out to be: after the jury rendered its verdict of guilty on both counts—she’d also faced a charge of promoting the sexual acts of a child, because she’d filmed and photographed the acts—the prosecution got to argue that the second count should be upgraded from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony. The reason: more than 10 pictures of child porn showing a child under 5 years old were in Vickers’s possession, and therefore were an aggravating factor.

That argument could have taken place either before the jury or before the judge alone. It was Vickers’s choice. She chose the judge. But the outcome was foretold. He found for the prosecution, and the conviction was upgraded to a first degree felony, adding a 30-year term to her life term, once sentencing takes place.

By then Vickers was no longer crying, but sat almost impassive, taking the blows and waiting until the judge finally adjourned, the courtroom emptied, and she was led away, likely never again to wear the civilian clothes and sandals she was able to wear for the three days of jury selection and trial.

Watch Assistant State Prosecutor Jason Lewis’s Closing Argument:

Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. Jennifer Arroyo Grasso says

    That was one of the hardest things to read!! I had to skip parts because it was so horrific. What a sick individual! That poor, poor child. My heart breaks for her.

    She deserves a lot more than life in prison!!

  10. CL Mcdaniels says

    That poor baby. I sincerely hope her new adoptive family gives her the love and support she will need. This breaks my heart that a mother could actually do this. She deserves to never see the light of day.

  19. Jacquelyn Anderson says

    This literally has me in tears. She’s a disgusting human being who needs to be beaten to death. I have a child the same age and this is the most terrible thing I’ve read in a long time.

  25. Nicole Day Adams says

    I hope that poor baby isn’t being adopted by anyone in their family. Her monster of a mother should never have the chance to see or hear about her daughter again. This whole article makes my stomach turn.

  41. Kim Legg-Spencer says

    I just hope the swiftness of all the parts of this trial do not give her cause in an appeal. If even a juror commented on her lack of defense, it could give cause for a re-trial. I don’t want her to ever get out. If anyone knows someone where she is sent, make sure everyone in jail knows what she is there for.

  44. Martino James says

    The poor kid I hope none of this horrific reality ever comes up again in her life. Let her think her real mother died when she was young…I dont know…it’s just incomprehensible.

  47. Nicole Day Adams says

    Her and pj (the bf) will be in fear for their life everyday for the rest of their life. That’s the only good thing about the prisoners, they don’t let these sick monsters get away with what they did

  48. Violet says

    I don’t even have words…she and her boyfriend should never again see the light of day. She obviously has mental issues. He’s obviously sick and depraved. I hope the child has been adopted by a loving and helpful family.

  53. Ray Vickers says

    All you good less assholes hope all you go to hell for judging her you have now right to speak like that if believe in God and if isee any of your kids in trouble for anything I will return fire on them so all you can kiss my butt

  57. Melanie Provencher says

    I couldn’t bare to read this article entirely. The amount of disgust I have for this woman is overwhelming. I hope she gets exactly what she deserves in life and in hell. My heart breaks for this little girl. I hope she is able to overcome this inconceivable situation by a person who was to protect her, not hurt her & grow to be a beautiful person of society.

  59. Amber Walker says

    I understand that this young lady’s father is on this thread. Sir, I apologize that you are going through this. However, what your daughter did was unforgivable. She stole that child’s innocence – as a parent we are supposed to protect our children not abuse our children and place them in harm.

  61. Ryan Smith says

    My God. This woman is pure evil. She knew what she was doing and all. I watched the closing argument and I am shocked. May she never see freedom and rot in hell after.

  62. Worried Grammy says

    perverted…for a mans approval? Not much of a woman, animals treat their babies better. Jail is too easy for her. She will rot in hell.

  63. Stephie Mattera says

    I knew Erin I was very close to Erin. And this breaks my heart for her daughter and her family. I am happy that her daughter is in a loving home. I am sad that one day she will end up finding out what her mom did to her. This is sad for her. Erin deserved what she is getting 100%. I will not defeat her when it comes to this.

  65. Ryan Smith says

    I wouldn’t defend her if I were her dad. She and her boyfriend are the ones to blame, not those shocked and disgusted by it. I’m sure you’re embarrassed by this, but the facts speak for themselves.

  67. Karen V Neufeld says

    Unfathomable, disgusting, horrific. She got what she deserved Life in prison. She will in severe circumstances in prison when the other inmates find out what she did to her child.

  70. Patricia Nausedas says

    I wonder if she was also violated by someone she knew as a kid and grew up to be this way…anyway you look at it she violated her daughter numerous times and hurt her maybe for life it sickens me !!!

  72. Adealiah Kozimor says

    Would you have ever guessed that she would have done something like this? I give my condolences to you and your children as I’m sure as a mom you feel all kinds of different ways.

  75. Angela Goodson Abbott says

    My disgust is such that I can’t even verbalize it. Suffice it to say, I’m glad she’s going to prison for the rest of her life. She deserves worse, but considering what life will be like for her in prison, I think she’ll be getting what she deserves. I’m glad the little girl is safe, with a loving family. I hope she has a good life.

  82. Gina Castillo DeLello says

    Mr. Vickers- you should be grieving the loss of your child right now. You should not be on here arguing with people over this. Emotions are high..what she did to your innocent grandchild is truly disturbing.

  90. Eileen Luther Araujo says

    I don’t want to support this sick perverted excuse of a woman for the rest of her life. Definitely doesn’t deserve the title of mother. Animals treat their babies better. Jail is too good for her.

  93. Jan Brevard Smith says

    Inmates call a child molester/ rapist “Short Eyes”…many inmates have children that they love and miss, and have particular loathing for an inmate that abuses a child. She’ll find that out pretty soon.

  95. Cathy Kuckuk says

    I almost threw up. Couldnt read it all..It is beyond disturbing and so egregiously disgusting, especially her thinking that even mimicking this evil act could possibly be alright! She needs to be killed. There’s no reasoning in my mind to keep her alive. No hope for getting better -she is so mentally upside down she needs to be put down like a mad dog. There is no reason at all that public or state funds should be used to house and keep alive a monster like this. There is NO forgiveness. There is no reason. Kill it off. The world will be a better place.

  98. MannyHM says

    What happened to sexual acts with mature cosenting adults ?
    This woman and her just as sick boyfriend deserve Singapore style public caning.

  114. Linda Rodriguez says

    Hats off to this jury and prosecuting team. This was an extremely difficult case to witness. GREAT JOB!

  125. Ryan Smith says

    I feel bad for her family, as I’m sure this wasn’t approved or encouraged behavior and she made her own choices knowingly, but my heart really goes to that poor little girl who is as innocent as they come. She deserved better and I’m glad a loving family took her in so she can grow up to be a loving and kind person

  126. Beverly Stup says

    Let me please ask all of you a question, why should we as law abiding citizens pay to keep this disgusting bitch in jail for the rest of her life? I don’t understand this poor little child was violated by someone who was supposed to protect her! This is total B S she needs to be given the needle! I’m sick and tired of people hurting children I’m furious! May she burn in hell what a disgusting pig!

  130. Stephie Mattera says

    Adealiah Kozimor no I would have never thought she would. I watched her give birth to her daughter. So it really breaks my heart. It makes me emotional being how close we all were. I had my son a month after she had her and it just kills me to be honest. And I feel so many different ways. It’s still so unreal. I am honestly happy she is in a good home. That is the important thing. Erin got what she deserved for what she did.

  131. Debora Payne Alexander says

    What is truly horrible is what happened to the entire family. Because of a daughters betrayal of her own baby THREE generations have been thrown into a nightmarish hell that hopefully none of us ever experience. Not only do the parents of this woman have to face what their child did but they have to face that it was done to their grand daughter. The grandparents have not only lost their daughter but also their grand daughter. All of their dreams. All of their lives are plummeted into an abyss. God help them all.

  140. Josephine L Robbins says

    No mental sessions , no wasting hard earned working tax payers money ! Her and , her boyfriend need to be totally extinguished from this world we don’t need people like this shame shame on them ! The death penalty for both ! I pray for that little baby girl so so sad .

  142. oops says

    LeDonn is quite a handsome guy ;-) and let’s hope Judge Craig will be a bit more vigilent in this case at the sentencing phase than he has been with other sex crimes…lowering defendant’s bond’s from 300,000 to 40,000

  143. Just My ¢ says

    These are human aberrations, mistakes, not worthy of existence. To let them live – even life in prison without parole – is to acknowledge that they are deserving to be among the living, to be given food and medicine, sustenance – all at the taxpayer’s expense.
    There is something wrong in the legal system that would allow monsters such as these to continue breathing.
    Execution should be swift and nonpublic, cremation, and ashes scattered – so that their memories vanish from this earth.
    What can one possibly say to that little girl when she is old enough to ask questions?

  146. Patti Glembocki says

    This is just so unbelievably heinous I can’t even wrap my head around it! Wtf?! We are supposed to protect our children! I really hope they catch it hardcore in jail! I pray for this poor little girl!!!

  150. Anonymous says

    Death penalty for both of them!!! This is just freaking sick, what the bell is this world coming to?! I don’t understand all this shit.

  154. squirrel says

    I know she did an evil/hard to imagine act but LIFE… Really?! The girl did it for her boyfriend she needs help!! When she goes into prison she is going to become somebody’s Boo and she’s going to be raped on a daily basis. If I was her mother, I’d be calling Pam bondi’s office ASAP!!! The judges in this County are way too strict! They only see black and white and they don’t see the grey.

  163. Anonymous says

    My family has known the Vickers for years. They are a deeply religious family. However, you cannot control what your adult child does. I even took Erin to the hospital to deliver her daughter. Not in a million years would I think Erin would do this. Not once, but twice with two different men. One who got prison and is now out. The baby is such a sweetheart. I am glad that she was adopted to a good family. My prayers are for her Mom, Dad and sister that they can get pass this. I am angry at Erin for what she did and will never forgive her. You sow what you reap! Unfortunately, reality is about to hit her hard. It is well deserved.

  164. Exposo DeClone says

    Floridians are the weirdest and most amoral people on earth. They contrast sharply with the noble Nebraskans, who are virtuous and practically vice-free.

    Aha

  165. johng says

    I have a hard time understanding these disturbing actions. It just does not register to me, the only way i can deal with this – i just have to believe these people are mentally ill, mentally disturbed very sick and need to be removed from society.

  166. Anonymous says

    As for those who wanted her to get the needle, I disagree. She didn’t kill anyone and life in prison is not a substandard punishment for the crime by any means. Most child rapists get off easy, but I can rest knowing this one did not.

  167. dma says

    This article was so hard to read, but very well written. What a sick person, completely unimaginable. Let alone the guy mentioned watched her do this. Absolutely disgusting.

  168. Courtney says

    To everyone saying that she deserves the death penalty, no she doesn’t. what she deserves is to sit out her sentence in a cell while the guilt of what she did to her child eats away at her.

  170. Mamahas says

    I scrolled & viewed comments paying attention to those who know the accused, Erin. The majority of reader’s comments are filled with justified anger & deep hatred over what she has done. And filled to capacity with no room for forgiveness… even from her friend, “Anonymous”. Yes, Anonymous, pray for Erin’s parents, their granddaughter the victim, her sister and the one who doesn’t deserve to be prayed for … Erin. She will receive her punishment, which has already begun in this comment feed, who angrily say she should be eliminated. Checkout this story … “Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect, complained to His disciples “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” In other words to turn away from sin. (Luke 6:29-31). Forgiveness is freely given by the only One who taught us how to do the same … Jesus. Without Him, it’s humanly impossible to think to forgive such evil done to this child. There will no doubt, be an ugly eruption of comments after mine. I will not be adding any further remarks to this. ANYONE OF US, who confesses their wrong (s) to Jesus, are forgiven by Him. The hope of being forgiven, is that the forgiven one will not repeat their wrong. Erin’s sin is on public display, unlike any of ours.

  171. M I a says

    One of the most disturbing articles I’ve ever read. Hopefully she’s too young to remember a thing. Thank God she was adopted by someone other than her family.
    They indicate on FB that they miss her. Really?
    What I really don’t understand is how her parents and sister can stick up for her? Judge? Heck yeah! She’s a disgusting example of an unfit,amoral, demented pig. I truly hope she rots in jail along with her ex!

  172. David says

    The few comments that are upset because people are ‘judging’ her get over yourself. You are judging people for judging her. Judging people is a part of life. We all do it. We have to do it. Judging is a survival technique. If you didn’t judge you would live a very hard life.

    Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be.

    Well guess what you are being judged so go ahead and judge others. Size people up and sharpen your skills of judgement. It could be the difference between making a bad business decision with another person, avoiding a sexual assault, living a life free from arrest, hell it could even safe your life. This notion of not judging people is silly. How about we judge people and live our lives with the knowledge we gain. However with that knowledge we do not stop others from living their how they choose. Unless the choices they make are a burden on others to live their life how they choose.

  173. Arielle Johnson says

    To mr. Vickers. I was in prison at FWRC With Erin. She is doing okay and I was a friend to her as jesus would have been at first when I heard the rumors I was human. But then God convicted me…as a sin is a sin. And just as we want to be forgiven we are commanded..not suggested to forgive others.
    Just wanted to let u know she’s going to be okay in there…granted..I did a lot less time…but Gods got her :) God Bless

  174. John says

    Life sounds more appropriate. She didn’t kill anyone, and the child is too young to remember it. Lots of sick people out there!

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