An insider’s look at spending 18 weeks on the Holmes jury
SAN JOSE, Calif. — If you wondered what it was like to serve as a juror in Silicon Valley’s trial of the decade, Susanna Stefanek can tell you.
For 18 weeks, Stefanek juggled her family, her work as an editorial manager at Apple and her duty as one of 12 jurors in the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of failed blood testing startup Theranos. Holmes, whose case was viewed as a referendum on Silicon Valley’s startup excesses, was found guilty Jan. 4 of four of 11 counts of fraud for lying to investors about Theranos’ technology.
Her case was closely scrutinized because Holmes was the rare entrepreneur to be indicted, igniting a media frenzy and many hot takes about what her conviction meant — or did not mean — for the tech industry. But for the eight men and four women on the jury, such issues were far from their minds, said Stefanek and another juror in the case, who declined to be named.
Instead, they said, the trial meant rearranging their lives. Initially anticipated to last 13 weeks, the proceedings stretched on. As other high-profile criminal trials started and finished around the country, Holmes’ trial schedule was episodic, with testimony sometimes happening three days a week and sometimes not. All the while, jurors were barred from talking about Holmes or reading media coverage about her.
Inside the federal courthouse in San Jose, California, jurors heard from 32 witnesses, with testimony frequently lasting at least five hours a day. Jurors were fueled in part by court-provided sandwiches, Stefanek and the other juror said. In their downtime, they worked on a puzzle of Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” and played the tile game Rummikub.
“It was like I was living two different lives during the trial: the life where I’d go to court, and the one where I’d sit down at my desk and log in to work as usual,” said Stefanek, 51.
She said she had little idea about the trial’s broader implications. “I didn’t realize the impact of this verdict could potentially have an effect on how business is done in Silicon Valley,” Stefanek said.
Holmes’ trial began with opening statements Sept. 8. That started a new routine for Stefanek: She often woke up at 5 a.m. to squeeze in some work and pack lunch for her 12-year-old daughter before driving from Mountain View, California, where she lives, to the San Jose courthouse.
During testimony, Stefanek said, she took 541 pages of notes. At times, she said, jurors struggled to stay awake. Other times, they were shocked to see star witnesses like James Mattis, the retired four-star Marine Corps general and former defense secretary, who had served on Theranos’ board.
After closing arguments in December, the jury began deliberating a verdict. They had a method for discussions, Stefanek said, recapping each witness’s testimony on sheets of paper that were hung around the courtroom where they spent time when the trial was not in session. They also enlisted the courtroom deputy, Adriana Kratzmann, to make photocopies of one juror’s handmade worksheet that listed the criteria for a conviction on each count.
As the verdict was read, Stefanek said, she avoided eye contact with Holmes, who faces up to 20 years in prison for each guilty count.
“It was a stressful moment for me, because even though our work was done and that was a good thing, knowing the impact that our decision was going tohaveonthedefendant’s life was still a burden,” Stefanek said.
With the trial over, Stefanek caught up on months of media coverage and funny tweets, saved for her by a friend. She said she was heartened by analyses praising the jury’s decision.