Hernando Washington

Hernando Washington was the type of man who did not believe the consequences were rational to his actions. He went through his life not knowing what was socially acceptable, and when a crime was committed someone was to be convicted for it. In his neighborhood the violence and crimes was the way of life that he knew. Hernando had a sense of the laws at the time, due to his past of rape and being out on bail. When Hernando was arrested for the second rape and murder he still did not believe he was in the wrong because of the neighborhood and people he grew up around committing crimes and not getting caught. Hernando Washington kidnaps Sarah Gould as she was leaving her work at the hospital, at this time Hernando had no intentions or hurting Sarah in any way. Hernando’s excuse for taking Sarah was solely because he wanted money and he believed she had some. Hernando seemed to give Sarah many unspoken chances to leave or escape, but she never took the chance. Many questions rose from this, and why Sarah never tried to escape Hernando. Quite possibly she never tried to escape Hernando because he kept telling her he was not going to hurt her and she had a hope that he was telling the truth. Sarah Gould may have had a belief that if she had done everything he asked, she would leave Hernando’s possession alive. There is no definite answer on why Sarah did not try to escape from Hernando, she was on her own and had to make a decision that no one could imagine themselves experiencing. After being with Hernando for some time, he saw no issues with raping her and keeping her in his trunk until he took care of business. He made her bounce back and forth between the car and trunk so no one would see her with him. I believe she did not try to escape Hernando because she was in fear, although he kept saying that he was not going to hurt her, she likely thought that if she tried to leave he would kill her. Sarah Gould had to be in fear of her life with Hernando, whether he told her or not that he was not going to hurt her, he just needed to find a safe place to drop her off to leave where there were no witnesses. In the end, Hernando did find a safe place to drop Sarah off and she probably felt relief until she made a mistake of not doing exactly what Hernando asked her to do. Sarah decided to head to the nearest house she saw and ask for help and when Hernando circled around to see if she was following directions he noticed this mistake. At this time Hernando changed his mind and decided to take her life right in the middle of the street where he was then arrested, put into custody and charged with the murder and rape of Sarah Gould.