Jury reaches verdict in 30 minutes after ex-Coast bus driver testifies at her own trial
Former St. Martin Middle School bus driver Antioinette Jane Raymond admits she assaulted a disabled student but said she wasn’t in her right frame of mind at the time.
“I was the caregiver for my father and my husband,” Raymond said Wednesday while testifying on her own behalf. “I had to work. I was the only insurance. I should not have been at work. My body should not have been there because my mind was not. I am desperately sorry for that. It was not a good time.”
“I was on a lot of medicine,” she continued. “Some of it I probably shouldn’t have been on. I was functioning, not living.”
A jury deliberated for about 30 minutes Wednesday on the second day of trial before finding Raymond, 58, guilty of contributing to the deliquency, neglect or abuse of a child and simple assault. Both charges are misdemeanors.
Raymond faces a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison.
During her testimony, Raymond cried at times as she admitted she had done wrong.
“I am sorry,” Raymond said “I am sorry. I feel terrible about it. I hate it, I hate hearing about it. I did not do this to harm anyone. And I’m sorry and I’m so sorry for that. I had to look at it (the video footage). I had to hear people say ugly things to me.”
But, she said, “When you don’t know someone, you don’t know who they were and what was going on and I loved those children.”
Jackson County Justice Court Judge Robert Krebs is delaying sentencing until he receives a pre-sentence report on Raymond that will include Raymond’s background and medical conditions.
‘I did not sit on her’
The Sun Herald broke the story on the abuse in a special report that included exclusive video of the Jan. 6, 2015, attack on the special education student at the hands of Raymond and former special education teacher, Kerri Ann Nettles.
In the video, Raymond threatens to send the girl to jail, choke her, put soap in her mouth and even kill her if she didn’t shut up and stop jumping up and down and moving around in her school bus seat.
After the special education student said what sounded like a profanity, Raymond stormed over to her seat and sat on her to get her to stop jumping up and down in her seat and moving around.
The video at one point showed Raymond slap the child in the head.
Despite the video footage, Raymond insisted she never sat on the girl, but instead was leaning over her.
Special Prosecutor Stanley Alexander repeatedly showed her her position was consistent with sitting on top of the girl, but Raymond fired back.
“I did not sit on her,” she said. “I did not sit on her and I will say it until the day die because I didn’t. What I did was wrong and I admit that, but I don’t deserve to go to jail for it.”
Taunting the child
In other footage, Raymond is heard taunting the child after she sat on her.
“Now, go ahead, move, move,” Raymond shouted. “Can you move now? Huh? You going to shut that mouth, huh?, You going to holler anymore?
“You do it again, I’m going to warn you again. You better shut your mouth. You hear me? You hear me?”
In the tape, the student cries out for her Paw Paw and says she wants to go home, but Raymond told her there was no one there to help her, and that her family was gone.
Despite any threats she suggested, Raymond said never intended to harm the girl.
In fact, she said, she went to the girl’s house after the assault to apologize. The child, she said, was happy to see her and kept saying, “’Love you, Raymond.”
In other testimony, Raymond said she had gotten essentially no training during her 27 years on the job.
“I don’t even know how to do CPR,” she said.
Since the Sun Herald made the video public, Raymond said she’s had to endure ridicule and threats because of her actions.
A ‘good’ reputation
Several people, including public officials, testified in Raymond’s defense.
D’Iberville Mayor Rusty Quave and State Sen. Mike Seymour, R-Vancleave, testified about how Raymond had a “good” reputation.
Both and Seymour also admitted they were relatives as well.
Seymour said he had known Raymond for about 40 years because she had been married to one of his relatives, though the two divorced years later.
Quave said he knew Raymond as a “good” person and said he spent many holidays with her and other relatives.
He said he also knew Raymond cared for the students she worked with because she often brought the students by his store at times and bought them ice cream or treats.
Seymour said he knew Raymond by marriage because she had married one of his relatives. He admitted he didn’t spend much time with her in the years since she divorced his relative.
During Wednesday’s testimony, Raymond repeatedly said she knew she did wrong but said some of her threats were no different than anything she had said to her own children.
Alexander asked Raymond if she threatened to kill her children.
Raymond said she had, but never meant it.
Despite what is seen the video footage of the assault, Raymond said she truly cared for her students, many of which are still in touch with her.
