Jury Convicts Man of Stalking Thurman
By SAMUEL MAULL, AP
Posted: 2008-05-06 13:24:35
NEW YORK (May 6) - A lovesick former mental patient was convicted
Tuesday of stalking and harassing Uma Thurman for more than two
years, showing up on her front doorstep and movie set and sending
the actress a series of creepy love letters.
Former mental patent and out-of-work pool cleaner Jack Jordan faces up to a year in prison after a New York jury convicted him of stalking 'Kill Bill' star Uma Thurman over a two-year period. The trial lasted a week.
Jack Jordan, a 37-year-old out-of-work lifeguard and pool
cleaner, faces up to a year in jail. He was convicted of stalking
and one count of aggravated harassment, and acquitted of two other
harassment counts.
The verdict comes after a weeklong trial that featured riveting
testimony from the Academy award-nominated actress, who told the
jury she was "completely freaked out" by Jordan's behavior.
Prosecutors say he had stalked her since 2005, when his crush on
Thurman become so intense that he just had to be with the "Kill
Bill" and "Pulp Fiction" star.
He showed up at her doorstep and the SoHo set of her movie "My
Super Ex-Girlfriend" and sent a series of bizarre cards and
letters to Thurman, including 20 of them while he was locked up at
a mental institution.
Jordan testified in his own defense, saying Friday he now
understands how Thurman could have been frightened by his attempts
to see her, and by the letter in which he said her two children
didn't exist, that they were "an illusion," among other bizarre
statements.
"In a misguided way I was trying to give her an opportunity to
meet me and give myself an opportunity to meet her," Jordan
testified.
"I was feeling distressed," said Jordan. "I had this feeling
of longing for Ms. Thurman and I was trying to explain it. I was
not trying to scare her in any way."
Thurman testified for three hours on Thursday, captivating the
jury with her story about how the stalking frightened her so badly.
She testified about a card Jordan delivered to her movie trailer
in Manhattan's SoHo area where she was filming "My Super
Ex-Girlfriend." It bore a drawing of an open grave, a headstone
and a man standing on the edge of a razor blade. A spiral of random
words referred to "chocolate, mouth, soft, kissing" and declared,
"My hands should be on your body at all times."
"I was completely freaked out," Thurman, 38, said of the
drawing, which was on a religious confirmation card. "It was
almost like a nightmare; it was scary."
The defendant explained the drawing this way:
"I felt I was walking on the razor's edge," Jordan said. "I
felt that it reflected this relationship that I unfortunately
imagined that we had. ... This cartoon was meant to amuse her, to
endear me to her."
Actress Uma Thurman is escorted into Manhattan criminal court where she is scheduled to testify against the man accused of stalking her, Thursday, May 1, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)
AP
Nena Thurman leaves court on the second day of the trial for a man accused of stalking her daughter, actress Uma Thurman, in New York April 29, 2008. Jack Jordan, 37, is accused of sending harassing e-mails to Thurman's father and brother, loitering for hours on the steps of Thurman's Manhattan apartment and visiting her trailer on a movie set, and faces misdemeanor counts of stalking and harassment. REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
Robert Thurman leaves court on the second day of the trial for a man accused of stalking his daughter, actress Uma Thurman, in New York April 29, 2008. Jack Jordan, 37, is accused of sending harassing e-mails to Thurman's father and brother, loitering for hours on the steps of Thurman's Manhattan apartment and visiting her trailer on a movie set, and faces misdemeanor counts of stalking and harassment. REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
Robert Thurman leaves court on the second day of the trial for a man accused of stalking his daughter, actress Uma Thurman, in New York April 29, 2008. Jack Jordan, 37, is accused of sending harassing e-mails to Thurman's father and brother, loitering for hours on the steps of Thurman's Manhattan apartment and visiting her trailer on a movie set, and faces misdemeanor counts of stalking and harassment. REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
Nena Thurman leaves court on the second day of the trial for a man accused of stalking her daughter, actress Uma Thurman, in New York April 29, 2008. Jack Jordan, 37, is accused of sending harassing e-mails to Thurman's father and brother, loitering for hours on the steps of Thurman's Manhattan apartment and visiting her trailer on a movie set. He misdemeanor counts of stalking and harassment. REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
Birgitte "Nena" Thurman, mother of actress Uma Thurman exits Manhattan criminal court following her testimony in the trial of the man accused of stalking her daughter, Tuesday, April 29, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)
AP
** FILE ** In this April 15, 2008 file photo, actress Uma Thurman arrives at the Cinema Society screening of "The Life Before Her Eyes" , in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)
AP
Actress Uma Thurman poses during a press day promoting the film "The Life Before Her Eyes," in New York April 15, 2008. Picture taken April 15, 2008. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
Actress Uma Thurman poses during a press day promoting the film "The Life Before Her Eyes," in New York April 15, 2008. Picture taken April 15, 2008. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
Actress Uma Thurman poses during a press day promoting the film "The Life Before Her Eyes," in New York April 15, 2008. Picture taken April 15, 2008. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
The defendant also admitted that he told Thurman and her family
he would kill himself if he couldn't meet her. He said it "was a
clumsy and poor way of expressing my emotions for her. I wasn't
feeling suicidal, but I was expressing a depth of feeling that was
very distressing."
Jordan said he was "humiliated" by the trial and by the fact
that his private affections for the actress had become so public.
Jordan said he first developed a crush on Thurman in high school
after seeing her in the 1988 Terry Gilliam movie, "The Adventures
of Baron Munchausen." His feelings for her intensified, he said,
after he saw her in the Quentin Tarantino-directed "Kill Bill" in
2003.
Jordan, who lives with his parents in Gaithersburg, Md., said he
was involuntarily committed to a mental facility in late 2005 after
being questioned about his obsession with Thurman.
He was eventually released, and started repeatedly showing up at
her apartment last year. At the time of his arrest, he was living
out of his car and working part-time as a lifeguard and pool
cleaner.
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