Jerry Sandusky has been placed under suicide watch after he was found guilty in a case that has rocked the nation and the area surrounding Penn State University. After a three-week trial featuring emotional and sometimes vivid testimonies from eight of the former Penn State assistant football coach’s victims, a 12-person jury convicted him on 45 of 48 counts on Friday night. The guilty verdict prompted people in central Pennsylvania to breathe a sigh of relief, believing a man many called a “monster” would pay the price for his crimes and their impact on his victims, as well as the Penn State community.
Jurors heard from eight young men who testified that as boys, the 68-year-old forced them to engage in sexual acts in showers in Penn State’s athletics facilities, hotel rooms, the basement of his home, and other places, which spanned at least 15 years. Jerry Sandusky did not take the stand because his adopted son, Matt Sandusky, was ready to testify as a rebuttal witness that he too was sexually abused by his father. Sandusky’s lawyer, Karl Rominger, said the former assistant football coach will be classified at Pennsylvania’s Camp Hill diagnostic facility before he is likely sent to a sex offender unit in the state prison system.
