Courtroom artist Christine Cornell said that Donald Trump looked demolished as the historical verdict came in on Thursday.
Cornell said that Trump was looking a little upbeat when Judge Merchan announced the jury would be dismissed at 4:30pm.
But at 4:20pm, the note came from the jury that a verdict had been reached.
“He was feeling a little upbeat — that we were all going to be able to go home,” Cornell said of Trump. “So if anyone was the most surprised there was a verdict, it was him.
When the jurors filed in and at 5:05pm the first “guilty” verdict came in, Cornell was situated in the second row across the aisle from Trump, behind Alvin Bragg.
By the fifth “guilty,” Trump was shaking his head as he sat at the defense table.
After the 34th guilty verdict was handed down, Cornell said Trump looked demolished by it.
“He looked very demolished by it. He really did.”
Cornell noted the posture of the foreman.
“It was an unusual stance,” she said of the foreman, a salesman who was born in Ireland and spoke with a slight brogue. “It’s like he was propping one hand forward on the rail of the jury box,” she said. “He was quite serious.”
Cornell said Trump appeared deflated.
“As he walked by me, he started to swing his arms in what was sort of a hopeless gesture,” Cornell said.
Christine Cornell’s 30-year career as a courtroom sketch artist has included Gambino mobster John Gotti, the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, the Central Park Five, the subway vigilante Bernie Goetz, and even the former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos.