By TONY MARRERO
lmarrero@hernandotoday.com

BROOKSVILLE - Convicted child abusers Lori and Arthur “Tommy” Allain were convicted Monday for failing to appear for their original court date last fall.

A jury of four women and three men handed down the conviction in Judge Jack Springstead’s courtroom after deliberating for about an hour.

The couple had plead not guilty to the charges. Sentencing is slated for July 14.

The conviction comes two months to the day after they were each sentenced to 25 years in prison for child abuse and neglect.

The Allains were supposed to face those charges on Monday, Oct. 24, 2005 in the same courtroom. But Hurricane Wilma had other plans and the courthouse was closed that day. The trial was to resume the next day, but the Allains did not show up.

The couple did not surface again until January, when they were captured in New Jersey, rearrested and brought back to Hernando County. They were staying in a hotel under an assumed name.

That is compelling evidence that the Allains never intended to show up for trial, argued Assistant State Attorney Sherry Byerly, who asked jurors to appeal to their “common sense.”

If the courthouse was closed on Monday, the Allains should have assumed that the trial would resume the next day, or soon thereafter, she said.

“Instead, they run, and they stay gone,” Byerly said. “They did not return to this jurisdiction voluntary.”

Byerly called to the stand a neighbor of the Allains, who testified that she drove by the couple’s home the night of the 24th and saw Tommy and Allain and some other people “packing up a van to go somewhere.”

But Elliott Ambrose, Tommy Allain’s state-appointed attorney, and Robert Christensen, Lori Allain’s state-appointed attorney, said the Allains were the victim of “momentous confusion” that the jury could not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the couple willfully did not show up for their trail.

They argued that the trial order the Allains signed earlier in October did not specify that the couple should have showed up the day after the hurricane closure.

“The state is trying to take a clerical misunderstanding and make it a crime,” Christensen said.

“The state says they ‘should have known,’” Ambrose said. “That’s reasonable doubt.”

The defense also called the Allains’ bail bondsman, who testified that the couple called him three times on the morning of Oct. 24, asking for advice on what to do because of the courthouse closure. He said that he first told them first to show up anyway, then later that they should expect the trial to be rescheduled.

Two coworkers of Tommy Allain, also testifying for the defense, said that he showed up for work at a delivery company at about 5:30 a.m. the next day. One of the coworkers was with Tommy in their delivery truck at the time and testified they received a call over the radio saying that Tommy was to be in court that day.

Tommy Allain then made some phone calls from the coworker’s house and left work around 10 a.m., according to testimony. That was the last time he was seen until his arrest in New Jersey.

The Allains were convicted in March of starving a 10-year-old girl in their care. The girl weighed 29 pounds when authorities removed her from the couple’s home north of Weeki Wachee in 2004.

The Allains, who were appointed by the state as the long-term caregivers for the girl and her brother, maintained their innocence throughout the abuse trial. They said the girl had an eating disorder that made her throw up.

On Monday, the Allains shuffled into the courtroom bound by handcuffs and leg shackles. They were dressed in street clothes and orange rubber prison sandals.

Several times, Lori Allain waved, smiled and gestured to their four biological sons who sat a few rows behind them.

Before the trial, it appeared as though the couple were reconsidering their plea. Lori Allain and her attorney had an animated discussion with his client. She was tearful and appeared agitated; at one point she was overhead saying, “‘No contest’ says guilty.”

Christensen, Ambrose and Byerly even retreated to the judge’s chambers before the trial began, but returned a few minutes later and jury selection began.

“They were wavering” on their plea, Ambrose confirmed later.

But the judge has the final say when it comes to going to trial and by then, Springstead was ready to move forward, Ambrose said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be contacted at 352-544-5286.

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