A father has been jailed for 40 years for killing the man who sexually abused his daughter from when she was only four years old.
In 2014, Jay Maynor shot and killed Raymond Earl Brooks, the maternal grandfather of his daughter, Julia. A court had found earlier that Brooks had sexually abused Julia repeatedly from the age of four to nine. Brooks pleaded guilty to the crime in 2002 but served only 27 months of a five year sentence.
Today Julia is a 24-year-old mother of three who says she still suffers from PTSD as a result of the abuse she endured as a child. “My granddad molested me as a child. I vaguely remember, like, I can still remember his smell, which is awful for me,” she told WVTM. “I’ve tried counselling and that didn’t work and it’s still here today. I relive it every day. I struggle to get out of bed in the morning,” she said.
Julia says the consequences of her childhood sexual abuse have even destroyed her marriage to the father of her three children. “I just thought it was better to separate than to keep making him miserable with my miserable life,” she told the news organisation.
Her father, Julia says, was doing what any loving parent would do to protect their children. Jay Maynor accepted the full 40-year jail term offered by prosecutors – for murder and attempted murder as he also attempted to kill an ex-boyfriend of his daughter’s who he believed had also abused her – in order to spare his daughter from testifying. “Basically he took (the plea deal) so that I didn’t have to relive the molestation and also be on the stand in front of a bunch of people talking about and bringing back memories of the molestation,” Julia said. “My father was protecting me, like a father should do. He is an amazing father — actually the best. He loves us so much.”
Commenters around the globe have argued that Jay Maynor’s drastic action should not be punishable with jail time. “Wow can’t believe it… if a father doesn’t protect their children who should do it?” one asked.
“Hopefully he will not serve all of this time. It is a parent’s right and responsibility to protect their family and these sex predators get away with everything, they really do,” wrote another.
But others have argued that the premeditated nature of the murder is inexcusable, whatever the victims’ crimes may have been. “This was not a defensive killing,” wrote one observer. “It was straight up murder. If he had caught the guy in the act and blown his brains out, it would almost certainly have a different outcome. Instead, almost two decades later, the guy shoots up a convenience store, attempts to murder an unrelated person, then goes to this guy’s house after he did his time and murders him. He should be imprisoned.”
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