Jurors who sat through 19 weeks of testimony detailing how Anthony Marshall fleeced his failing mother, Brooke Astor, likened the sordid family drama yesterday to a “Shakespearean tragedy” that left them sick to their stomachs.
“We all have our flaws, and you know, of course, the flaw here was greed,” said 52-year-old Yvonne Fernandez, a technical director at truTV.
Ecstatic that the epic trial was finally over, the jurors said they were “150 percent certain” in their verdict convicting Marshall of 14 of 16 counts.
“I feel very happy. It was a very congenial group,” insisted juror Olga Zugo, despite reports that deliberations grew so heated that jurors almost came to blows.
After being released from service, the group gathered for drinks at the Blue Ribbon restaurant on Downing Street in the Village where they downed beers before sneaking out the back to avoid the media — and getting on with their lives.
Fernandez said it was hard to watch the dysfunctional relationship between Astor and her son reveal itself during the trial, and it sometimes made her feel ill.
“Oh, my God, this woman, Brooke Astor, didn’t have any representation. There was nobody watching over her and there were times when I felt sick to my stomach over that,” she said.
Fernandez said she felt that once Marshall’s bullying, money-grubbing wife, Charlene, came into the picture, it was only a matter of time before something like this would happen.
“When she came into his life, she somehow took him away from his own family and then he went on this whole road with her,” she said. “They just went down this path that they couldn’t stop.”