| A 21-year-old Needville man who set his former girlfriend's house on fire five years ago spoke in court Monday to ask a jury for leniency, saying he has changed dramatically since spending almost two years in the Fort Bend County jail.
Jonathan Silva was 16 in 2002 when he and another man used gasoline to burn the Greatwood house of a former girlfriend. The victim and her family were not in the house, but the fire nevertheless resulted in extensive damage and the loss of most of the family's belongings.
Silva has pleaded guilty to first-degree felony arson in the 400th District Court of Judge Clifford Vacek, and is leaving punishment in the hands of a jury. He has been certified to stand trial as an adult, and prosecutors now are asking for a severe prison sentence.
Over the past week, jurors have learned not only about the 2002 fire and the rocky relationship preceding it, but have also been presented with evidence of a series of crimes that allegedly happened before and since that time. Silva has denied those charges, which remain unindicted or pending in the court system. He spent 2005 to 2007 in jail.
“I changed my whole life. I've changed my whole attitude,” he said. ”I just hope someone in that (jury) box grasps that I am changed.”
Silva said he has taken domestic violence counseling, where he learned to manage his anger and make compromises, and in the past few months has held a job and volunteered in the community.
Prosecutor Mike Elliott fired back at Silva, asking if his actions are part of a larger strategy to affect the outcome of the trial, contending through his questions that Silva has lied in the past and cannot be trusted now.
Silva was arrested in 2005 on felony charges of sexual assault and aggravated assault with a vehicle, and those cases have not gone to trial. Also in court, prosecutors presented a child who said he was sexually assaulted by Silva in 2001, an unindicted charge that Silva denied on the stand.
In a trial to determine guilt or innocence, extraneous offenses cannot be presented. However, they can be presented as character evidence in the punishment phase.
Silva is eligible for probation, which his attorney will be asking for, as well as a prison sentence from five years to life. Also charged in the case is Jaime Charles of Rosenberg, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for assisting Silva in carrying out the crime.
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