Monday, February 23, 2009

11 yr old boy kills father's live in girlfriend, gets charged as an adult


An eleven year old boy kills his father's girlfriend who is pregnant with the shotgun the father bought for his christmas present. Not only is he being held in a county jail, in isolation from adult inmates, but he is being prosecuted as an adult. the prosecutor says, he has no choice, there is no equivalent murder charge in juvenile court. Duh....he misses the point, there is not equivalent charge because juveniles are or were not judged to be responsible for a crime like criminal homicide.

The boy needs a psychological evaluation. Also, a complete history of his family. What was going on in the house that led up to this? jealousy? Jealousy is not uncommon in blended families, but an 11 yr old killing his live in step-girlfriend with a shot gun is very uncommon.

Supposedly, the boy went to school after the killing. What did he think would happen? Nothing? That is a good question, what was going on in his mind.

The prosecutor is dead wrong: an 11 yr old should not be tried as an adult. I think the prosecutor is playing to the voters. The boy will not be adjudicated as an adult, and even if he is, he will be sent to a juvenile detention center until he is 18, then transferred to an adult jail. he will probably be released when he is 21 yrs old.

Divorce: the adults all want to start a new life, only they have children left over from a prior marriage, children that may remind them of a spouse they now hate. When adults divorce, at least one of them should be responsible for keeping the children the center stone of their life. in this case, dad was about to remarry, his girlfriend had two children from a previous marriage living with them, with one on the way (she was pregnant, the baby also died, suffocated). the boy must have felt like an outsider, someone awkwardly left over from a prior family. The father must take some responsibility here.

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