Trial of man facing civil commitment to island for sex offenders ends in hung jury
A trial over the civil commitment of a convicted sex offender in Whatcom County Superior Court ended in a hung jury Friday.
Jake Unick, 41, was convicted in 2014 of one count of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of second-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation and one count of harassment. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with three years probation.
However, before his release, then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson petitioned for Unick to be held at McNeil Island Special Commitment Center instead, citing the danger he posed to the community.
Unick’s trial lasted about two weeks, and jurors deliberated for two and a half days before telling the court they could not come to a unanimous decision over whether Unick met the definition of a sexually violent predator and should be civilly committed to McNeil Island, where he’s already spent about two years in custody.
A spokesperson for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office said the state plans to retry the case, though no trial date has been set. Unick will remain at the Special Commitment Center pending the retrial.
Closing arguments
In closing arguments on May 20, prosecutor Rose McGillis outlined Unick’s history of sexual offenses beginning with the molestation of a girl who was known to him when he was a teenager. Since then, McGillis said Unick has reoffended multiple times.
Offenses include the attempted kidnapping of two young girls and one woman off the street and briefly taking a 2-year-old girl from the Fred Meyer grocery store on West Bakerview Road in 2013. McGillis said Unick intended to molest the 2-year-old, though the defense argued otherwise.
“The best predictor of the future is the past,” McGillis said.
She laid out the reasons why the state believes Unick is a sexually violent predator, which the state had to prove in order to win the case.
To meet the definition of a sexually violent predator, an individual must have been convicted of a crime of sexual violence and have a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes them likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence if not confined in a secure facility.
McGillis said Unick has been diagnosed with pedophilic disorder, sexual sadism, antisocial personality disorder, exhibitionistic disorder and a neurodevelopmental disorder.
However, the defense’s expert said otherwise, which would mean that Unick did not meet the second condition of being a sexually violent predator.
“Check your bias at the door,” defense attorney Shauna Bean said. “This is not a morality case.”
She said that while Unick has shown interest in young-looking girls both before and after his arrest, none of the girls were pre-pubescent, therefore not meeting the requirements of pedophilic disorder. Their expert witness did not diagnose him with any other mental abnormalities or personality disorders, either.
Bean added that there was no evidence of Unick having difficulty controlling his sexual behavior since his arrest, which the state disputed.