Following the guilty verdict in the trial of Travis McGraw, who was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his wife, Vanessa Mintz in 2011 on Wednesday, June 4, Mintz’ family members said, “God’s will was done.”
Mintz’ daughters, Andrea Little Gray and Jessica Freeman along with Mintz’ father, Carl Mintz, gathered outside the Polk County Courthouse after the verdict with emotional responses to the verdict, showing appreciation of the all the work that went into the case over the past three years and three months.
Carl Mintz said until the verdict there was always the question if something would camouflage the evidence and his daughter’s death be null and void.
“As though she’d wiped out,” Carl Mintz said.
He continued saying he doesn’t take pleasure in seeing McGraw go to prison.
“And I don’t take pleasure in seeing this man go for the balance of his life to prison,” Carl Mintz said. “I have not nor my children have not travelled this three and a half years with a vengeance to get even because there is no getting even. Their mother’s gone.”
Carl Mintz said to find out he’d been betrayed (by McGraw) was the hardest part of the entire thing.
“My daughter was gone,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything about it. But then to have to live for three and a half years with the person who murdered my daughter, betrayed me and my children and left me with an outstanding debt that I’ve had to pay.”
But, he said, he doesn’t want to have feelings of anger because McGraw is going to be getting his just reward.
“And I feel as though today, God’s will has been done,” Carl Mintz said.
Little Gray said she’s looked forward to the day of the verdict for so long, but she’s been scared to look forward to it.
“I just wonder what the new normal is going to be and what’s going to be left of the new Andrea after this is all done,” she said.
But she said she’s thankful that the jury listened and had open hearts and open minds in the trial.
“And I’m thankful that the Polk County Sheriff’s Department and EMS, the SBI and the FBI; they all worked weekends and nights and took time away from their family on and off for over three years now,” Little Gray said.
She said she’s just thankful there are people who care about their jobs, even though they don’t get much pay and never ask for a thank you.
“Put the time in, so fathers and daughters can get some justice with their mother whose been murdered by someone who said that he loved her,” Little Gray said.
Freeman said what her sister said is so true.
“It makes you feel so vulnerable when there’s a monster in the midst that you’ve let pick up your child from school and that was a part of your Christmas and your holidays and your everyday life,” Freeman said. “But then to experience the support and the whole-hearted effort of the agents that we had working for us; the SBI, the FBI, the prosecutor, all the state agencies, the local agencies, even though it was three years ago, they came out of retirement, they came back. It just absolutely restored your faith… These people were…they’re the real heroes.”
Little Gray said when she heard the verdict of guilty of murder in the first-degree she just immediately thought, “praise God. I mean, God is in control of everything. God is what provides closure, not a courtroom.”
She said God is who gives support and peace and understanding and “His will was done today.”
God was obviously a part of the process in every piece of evidence and the team He put in place to support their mother to solve the murder,” she said.
“Thank you God, I knew you weren’t going to forsake us,” Little Gray said.”
When asked if she sensed her mom with her through the trial, Little Gray said her mom is at peace. She said there’s a comfort that comes with the way their mom raised them and they fall back on those memories and lessons she instill in them.
“But to think my mom was looking down from heaven,” Little Gray said, “this would tear my Mama up to think we got drug through all this. That’s not heaven.”
The jury went back for deliberations on Tuesday at 3:40 p.m. and recessed at 5:17 that day and continued from 9:30 a.m. Wednesday until 3:45 p.m. Wednesday when they came back with the verdict. McGraw expressed no emotion when the verdict was read and shook his head as each juror was individually polled to say that guilty of first-degree murder was their verdict and was still their verdict.
McGraw’s father, Willie McGraw spoke briefly after the trial to say the Mintz family is a good family and they are the ones who lost in this but he believes his son is not guilty. McGraw’s mother, JoAnn London was unable to make a statement, crying both inside outside the courtroom. She told the Bulletin last week that she knew her son did not do this.
McGraw appealed the verdict.