BRADENTON — A father was found not guilty of tying up his teenager daughter and locking her in the trunk of a car Friday afternoon after a six-person jury deliberated for a little over a hour.
David Ingram, 49, was found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment charges.
“God bless ya’ll,” said Ingram to jury members outside the court house Friday afternoon.
Jury members walked over to Ingram and hugged him and his family members.
“We’ve been saying this is not aggravated child abuse,” said Betsy Young, who represented Ingram with Varinia Van Ness. “It was absolutely the right verdict. I just hope this family can come together again.”
Testimony during the five-day trial at the Manatee County Judicial Center revealed the couple, David and Peggy Ingram, did not want their daughter to run away.
So they bound her head, hands and feet with duct tape, put a wool cap over her head and threw her in the trunk of their car.
As they drove away from 27th Street East on Sept. 12, the couple turned up the radio to drown out their 17-year-old daughter’s apologies and prayers to Jesus.
Somehow, the high school senior broke free from the bindings, opened the trunk using a glow-in-the dark release hatch and jumped from the moving car.
“It was never good decision, but it was never a criminal one,” Young said.
The fall caused a serious head injury, Assistant State Attorney Lauren Berns told jurors during the trial.
“I respect the jury’s decision, but I was surprised to find duct taping a child, locking her in the trunk of a car and driving her to a secluded location is not child abuse,” Berns said.
At a stoplight, David Ingram noticed that the trunk lid was open and that their daughter was missing. They turned around to retrace their route, finding the dazed teen standing on the side of the road.
They put her in the back seat, then drove her home, where they noticed blood from a head wound on her shirt. They took her to Manatee Memorial Hospital, where doctors determined she had suffered a skull fracture. She was transferred to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Tears ran down family member’s faces as the verdict was read. Arms were placed around Peggy Ingram.
Ingram pleaded no contest to a false imprisonment charge and was sentenced to 18 months of probation. Under a plea deal with prosecutors, she agreed to testify against her husband.
The couple walked away from the courthouse with their arms encircling each other.
Prior to Sept. 12, the teen had been acting out, Young said. Her parents learned she’d become sexually active and had gotten pregnant by an older man, known only as Eddie. Lawyers did not say how old he was.
“We just couldn’t understand this behavior ... sneaking around with someone we’d never met,” Peggy Ingram said on the witness stand during the case.
— Natalie Neysa Alund contributed to this report.
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