Court TV Host: Chat with Kathy Sommese, one of the jurors in the Susan Polk trial...we're starting our chat right now! She was just on Catherine Crier Live. Welcome, Kathy Sommese, thanks for being our guest today.

Kathy Sommese: I'm happy to be here.

Question from jolee: Did you get annoyed with the constant rambling?

Kathy Sommese: Yes. There were days it was a struggle to stay awake in the jury box. There was a lot of information that was irrelevant. Susan really likes the limelight, she would read from her diary and talk about movies that she liked or books that we should read - that all was irrelevant to her case.

Question from Lady: How many votes did it take for the jurors to reach consensus on Murder 2?

Kathy Sommese: We did have a split between murder one and murder two, with some strong murder ones and strong murder twos. So it took about a day, day and a half to really try and make sure we had the facts to help us decide what the correct decision was.

Question from Lady: How many jurors argued for Murder 1? Did any jurors initially believe it was manslaughter?

Kathy Sommese: Yes. We had one that really had a hard time saying the word murder. So we really took the time to write out the evidence on pieces of paper and put the facts up all around the room. After seeing the facts all around the room, that person was able to come up to murder.

Court TV Host: Did anyone initially lean towards acquittal?

Kathy Sommese: I think we all walked in with a certain verdict in mind, but the first thing we did was rule out self-defense. We actually re-enacted the events that Susan said happened, and after doing that, we determined it wasn't possible for her to inflict those stab wounds the way she said she did, so that ruled out self-defense.

Question from EssEss: Hi Kathy. Have you had a chance to see any of the things about this case that were not allowed in testimony?

Kathy Sommese: Susan would blurt out stuff that we weren't supposed to know - numerous times. However, I did see the letter to Dr. Cooper from Susan, so that was kind of interesting. We knew most of it, it was a little bit difficult to disregard the inadmissible evidence. So when something came up, we'd say what about this, and someone would remember, oops, we're not supposed to take that into account in our decision, and we wouldn't use that in our decision.

Question from nkd: What do you think was the defining piece of evidence, witness, or testimony for you in your decision?

Kathy Sommese: Two things for me: her youngest son's Gabriel's testimony - and the fact that Susan had not one wound on her. With Gabriel, he was 15 at the time of the murder, and his first reaction after finding his father's body was not to go and tell his mother, but to hide from his mother and call 911 and say "my mother shot my father." So that was very telling - what 15 year old would react that way? And I don't see how Susan could be in an altercation, the way she described it, and not be in one injury.

Question from tantre: Do you think she should have stuck with a lawyer? Would that have made a difference with the jurors?

Kathy Sommese: Yes, I think she should have stuck with a lawyer. I don't know if it would have made a difference in my decision, but it certainly would have made the case shorter. And also, a lot of time was spent on Susan arguing with the judge and looking things up in the lawbooks, and her general disrespect for the prosecutor, judge, pretty much everyone in the courtroom, would have been reigned in a bit with a defense attorney. And good or bad, I got to know who Susan Polk is, as a person, and there was a point where I looked at all the facts in the deliberation room, and I asked, could Susan Polk have killed someone, and because I knew her, I felt the answer was yes. With a defense attorney, I might have questioned it a bit more. So I think it would have bode her well to have a defense attorney. However, I think the DA said it well, that a defense attorney wouldn't have changed the crime scene, wouldn't have changed the fact that she had no wounds or cuts on her and wouldn't have changed the fact that she made death threats in the days leading up to the murder, so it still probably would have ended in a murder verdict.

Court TV Host: Do you feel that Susan Polk's not having a lawyer placed an unusual burden on you as jurors?

Kathy Sommese: I agree with you - it did put an undue burden on the jurors because without the legal knowledge, she was second-guessing herself, and we were second-guessing her, and with her constant requests for mistrials and objections, it was hard to know if she was just being irritating, or if it was legitimate. And I think some jurors started out with feelings of sympathy for her because she didn't have a legal background.

Question from Lady: DA Sequeira seemed likeable and funny, but some trial watchers thought he should have been more "professional" and above arguing with Susan. How did the jurors see DA Sequeira?

Kathy Sommese: He was very personable and funny but he did let her get to him. But she does wear people down. There were times where I'd say that every one of the jurors just wanted to climb over and shake her. The judge and the DA are very patient people, and there was a time she even verbally attacked the court reporter.

Question from Cissy: Did the jury ever feel the judge should have taken a sterner stand with Susan?

Kathy Sommese: There were times, and I think the judge walked a fine line, there were times when we felt the judge didn't stop Susan's rambling, but I think that since it was such a unique case, the judge didn't want to appear to be biased because Susan wasn't an attorney, but we did get frustrated at times at the judge for not reigning Susan in. Also, I think the judge's hands were tied a little, because if Susan had been an attorney, the judge could say I can hold you in contempt - she didn't have as many options for consequences with Susan.

Question from Lady: Susan said she was 16, 15, 14 when she began a relationship with Felix. Did any jurors believe that? Was there any sympathy because of that?

Kathy Sommese: The way Susan told it, and the way Susan's mother told it, was that Susan was excited to have a relationship with Felix. And I do think it was wrong and manipulative of Felix on his part of a young girl -regardless of whether she was 14, 15, 16, she was still a young girl. I do believe she was that young and he seduced her or manipulated her, and it does seem like she didn't have a lot of parental involvement when she was young, and I do feel sympathy for her, I think there are things that happened to Susan as a young girl before she met Felix that damaged her. I don't know what they are, and I will never know, but it's contributed to who she is today.

Court TV Host: What has it been like now, going back and reading and seeing news coverage of the trial that you couldn't see before?

Kathy Sommese: We saw all the same people everyday in the audience, the reporters, and we didn't know who they were really, so now we've learned who they are, and to read some of the blogs, we didn't realize how the public was interested in us as jurors. I mean, my nickname was "Blondie" on the Court TV blog, which I didn't know until now. They talked about what we wore and what we ate, it just surprises me what attention we got as jurors - we thought it was all focused on the trial.

Court TV Host: Any closing thoughts?

Kathy Sommese: I think the whole thing is a tragedy. No one wins. It's just unfortunate how things turned out. If this hadn't happened, Susan would now have three sons, watching them go off to college, spending a retirement type life with Felix, or if they were divorced, she could have been building her own life now. But instead, everyone, their whole family has been affected by this.

Court TV Host: thank you for being our guest online today and taking us into a place that ordinarily we could never learn about.