TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Beating suspects charged as adults

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Trench Reynolds

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Social Media Crime

Report: Teens Behind Florida YouTube Attack to Be Charged as Adults:

All 7 suspects in the beating of Veronica Lindsay who are juveniles will be tried as adults.

Mercades Nichols, 17, Brittini Hardcastle, 17, and Britney Mayes, 17, face charges of felonious battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping in connection with the attack. Cara Murphy, 16, Kayla Hassell, 15, April Cooper, 14, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18, face charges of felonious battery and false imprisonment.

Since Schumaker is 18 it goes without saying that he’ll be charged as an adult.

The article states that three of them have been charged with tampering with a witness but it doesn’t say which 3.

Hopefully, this means that it’s gone beyond ‘a slap on the wrist’.

April Cooper beating Britney Mayes Brittini Hardcastle Cara Murphy Kayla Hassell Mercades Nichols MySpace Stephen Schumaker Victoria Lindsay Zachary Ashley

Comments

30 responses to “Beating suspects charged as adults”

April 10, 2008

Anonymous

Amen to that. They need to be tried as adults. I was beaten up when I was in junior high. One gang member started attacking me first and I fought back. Then, other two ganged up on me. I did not report this incident because they may come back to me unless I can imprison them for life without parole. There has to be a clear-cut legeslation that allows more severe sentences for mob beating in addition to attempted murder charges. Call your congressmen.

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April 10, 2008

Brielle

I think it goes without saying that the group will be charged as adults. What they did was heinous and disgusting! They deserve every minute of their punishment! I remember sitting glued in my chair, horrified at such this cruel display!

And if they even dare to fight to be tried as children, hell no. Let America speak up and defend the poor innocent girl that was victimized in this. All eight attackers were COMPLETELY aware of their actions. No insanity case involved, no adolesence case involved.

And the eight have completely shamed their families too. All of their parents have disconnected their phonelines and there are many people being dragged into this for just having the same last name.

God bless you Victoria Lindsay.

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April 10, 2008

jackie

Everyone is so shocked….yet most of the people who are so “disgusted” by this couldn’t give a damn about americans perpetrating deadly violence on others around the world. A few punk brats slapping up a friend and you’re appalled. US soldiers raping a 14 year old and you don’t give a toss. SICKENING!

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April 10, 2008

afraidtothink

Every crime is carried out by a child. It is the ones that are adults that we should treat as adults.

This video and the surrounding circumstances are shocking without a doubt, but I think they are more shocking to most people because these is the acts of children. Because of this our emotional response is greater, our anger and indignation is greater, and our desire to make an example of these children is greater, perhaps even our desire to punish these children is greater. However, it is exactly in the times when our emotions are high, that we must pause and think clearly.

As adults we like to think of children reminiscently as if they are innocent, or at least should be. This is unfair to them and to ourselves because this is far from reality. The reality is that all human beings are emotional beings, and have emotional responses. Children are just as capable, if not more so, of anger, hate, rage, indignation, embarrassment, outrage, shock, disgust, envy, lust, fear and every other emotion you think of as negative, or even sinister and more importantly, adult. Study after study shows that the vast majority of all human decisions are based on instinct and emotional response rather than carefully thought out plans. Children are more vulnerable than any of us to emotional reaction and deserve to be treated as such.

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April 10, 2008

afraidtothink

…not to mention. We do not possess all the facts of this case. We have only the video, the testimony of state officials, the mother of one of the alleged assailants, and the endless spew of the generally biased news media. There are bound to be mitigating factors, unreleased facts, witness statements, expert opinions, and other evidence of the case. The facts is that these people are innocent until proven guilty. Remember that.

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April 10, 2008

Megan

What these teenagers did is the most disgusting display of human cruelty I’ve ever seen. They absolutely should be tried as adults. What they did was planned and you could see the excitement on their faces while they beat that poor girl senseless. The only justice in this is if they were to go to jail for at least a decade and face the kind of violence they carried out on that young girl. An eye for an eye, right? And it sound like Victoria has lost her hearing and also some sight so that saying is so appropriate for this situation. As to the person who said they’re innocent until proven guilty, they taped themselves doing it. What more proof do you need? Regardless of what Victoria may have said about them, nothing deserves the kind of brutality that she got. And the one mother who is defending her daughter should be locked up for being a neglectful parent. She doesn’t even have custody of her child. My mother loves me but would never defend me if she saw a video of me beating someone until they were unconscious. All 8 of these teens need to pay for what they did.

Victoria, stay strong. You are in my prayers.

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April 10, 2008

tdub

These kids should totally be tried as adults and they deserve to lose their freedom. If they are this messed up at this age, they will get worse not better. People need to take responsibility for their own actions. Granted this screams of bad parenting, but everyone knows that it is wrong to ambush someone and give them a mass beating. If more people were forced to face the consequences of their actions instead of being allowed slack because they are juveniles or they came from broken homes, the world would be in better shape. Jackie, I don’t know what incidence you are referring to, but I am all for going after a serviceman if they did something like that as well. I am tired of all the lawyers and psychologist giving people excuses for outrageous behavior.

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April 11, 2008

Mrs Garda

Jackie Most of us Americans, were we to be SHOWN or TOLD about that sort of thing would be quite outraged. I haven’t heard about it myself, but There’s no way I’d support a troop that did something like what you’re speaking about. Stop being so general about us. We’re not all as evil hearted as you seem to want to make us out to be.

As for the kids, it’s horrid that this happened in the first place. I blame the parents originally, yes, but we are all in the end responsible for our own actions. I still think boot camp might do better for them because it’s more structured and goal oriented than prison, and it’d teach them better ways to cope with their feelings than a jail or their parents would of /have done. It however is not my decision, and I believe any restitution against them for this heinous crime is a drop in the bucket.

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April 11, 2008

Robyn

…afraidtothink? The facts are in your face, look at the video. These people are GUILTY!!!!!!! we dont need any other facts. What these “people” have done is absolutely disgusting. They make me sick and everyone of them should receive one hell of a beating themselves.

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April 11, 2008

Drewster

All has been said about this sickness surrounding these kids….Any words used to describe just how all of us feel would honestly delete the true meaning.
My question is this…where are the parents of these selfish self-indulgent demon seeds? I have to always remember that we have all reflections our parents in one way or another.

Why are the parents escaping the media?
Why are they not hunted down as well. You can’t tell me that these kids didn’t act this way at home, perhaps even acted out this way as well. This behavior didn’t just materialize over night. In my head, they need to bring each and every parent involved down down down. Let them take some responsibility as well. That is the key word RESPONSIBILITY….these children with raging hormones need to face and take full responsibility for their actions.
I can’t wait for them to get into a real prison and become a prison bitch…that includes the wimp ass guys that no one seems to be looking at right now. What a wonderful day for all of them. They will learn what real hard love is all about.
Guess I am pretty pissed…

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April 11, 2008

John Toland

These kids have the greatest names:

Brittini Hardcastle – her parents were too original to have her name spelled Britney, Brittany, or one of the more common forms. They’d probably name their son Tomass.

Mercades Nichols – how much do you want to bet she was named after the car brand?

Zachary Ashley – your last name is Ashley, a girl’s name. Kill yourself already.

Britney Mayes – another one? Seriously, how many people have to name their kids Britney? At least Brittini’s parents were creative enought to change the spelling of her name.

Pure class, these kids exude. Pure class.

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April 12, 2008

Just a point

You know what the interesting thing is beatings like this happen all the time. It’s just this person’s grandmother decided to tell the police. Most people who are victims of beatings like this don’t have the chance at justice, I know people who have gotten it worse then this *in no way am I saying what happened to this girl is minimal* but, she is not the only one just keep that in mind

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April 12, 2008

Mrs Garda

Most definitely, Just a thought. What I’m hoping is that if we’re serious enough on these guys, the next might think twice.

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April 12, 2008

Cheryl

I’d love to see these little punks try this shit on me. wow, so brave to try to beat up a girl with six other girls and two guys nonetheless. yep, you can tell how badass they are.

wait until they get to prison. they’ll wish they really knew how to fight.

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April 12, 2008

TexasNana

Grandmother to 7, including three girls, I couldn’t sleep for two nights after viewing the tape. One of my granddaughters is being hit by a New Orleans black girl at a Houston middle school every day, but refuses to tell the councilor because she says the girl will bring her friends on and she is very afraid of them. Her mother was attached by a Mexican girl when an 8th grader with a gang of kids surrounding…no teachers around on. She saw them waiting outside the lunchroom to attack her, but no authorities would believe her they made her go outside. In trying to take up for herself, she was expelled for 3 days from school. You try to give your child good self-esteem, but those at school who don’t have it want to chop them down to their size…low self-esteem. I am sleeping so much better knowing that justice may prevail.

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April 13, 2008

Sue

What i would like to know is what the parents of the accused are thinking??? Are they angry at their children or are they supporting them and saying they had a right to do what they did??? It would be interesting to know what they are saying about all of this!! If they are supporting their kids, then i guess we know why the kids did this, the saying of the apple does not fall far from the tree. Let us see these parents of these teens, let us hear their opinions, let us see if they feel bad about what happened. I feel for the victim and her parents, want to see how the other side reacts!!!!! They should be held partially responsible for their kids also. I do believe these teens should be put in a juvenile home for some time, they need to understand that there are consequences to your actions, and not just a slap on the hand!! THat is why our kids are out of control, no punishment, no consequnce, so they feel why not, nothing will happen to us. We need to stop this violence in our children!!

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April 14, 2008

CC

These girls are disgusting. Hope they get their faces beaten in jail. They’ve earned it.

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April 14, 2008

Megan

Sue, many of their parents are coming forward defending their children. Mercades’ mom is putting all of the blame on the victim basically saying she started it and deserved what she got. And one of the dads is saying the fights were one on one and not a gang effort and that the media is just making the incident seem worse than it actually was. I don’t know if everyone is aware but the original tape is 30 minutes long…yes, they beat that girl for 30 minutes!!! The media only released 1 1/2 mins. and they are pretty minimal apparently compared to what else happened. I mean the video they’re showing is the beating after she’d already been knocked unconscious.

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April 15, 2008

anonymous

These children need to be punished. What they did to that poor girl is more than disgusting. A PARENT defending her daughter, saying that the girl got what she deserved. No wonder your kid acts like an animal, look at what the PARENT said about the situation. What kind of parent condones violent behavior?! The short clip that I saw, the girl was stumbling around, holding her head, trying to make it out the door before another child starts beating her again. This went on for 1/2 an hour? Where were the parents when this was being done? Send them to jail and let them get a taste of CONSEQUENCE.

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April 16, 2008

Brenda

this is so horribly sad. i feel so bad for the victim. i only wish someone had the guts to help
her when this was going on. my 9 year old
granddaughter seen it for the first time this
morning and she said “oh, thats so sad”. i just
hope she stays as tender hearted when she grows up to be a teenager.

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April 16, 2008

Laurie

This video and peoples attitudes surrounding it say to me that we as a society are in a heck of a lot of trouble.

Locking these kids up is not the total answer. The parents should be held accountable, and everyone of them needs therapy.

We are not using the right strategies to really take care of this problem – and so many other social problems.

Many human beings do crazy irrational things, especially in a ‘pack’ , and have reeked mayhem for as long as our species’ has been on earth.

The bigger picture is – We wonder why there is murder in the streets? Our country is in a war that murders people every day – and yes, we lose plenty every day in that war – many of our own are murdered.

We do not have any ‘good’ role models these days for kids it seems.

Schools are more like armed camps.

We have allowed so much to deteriorate. We only care about our own little world – but look how some others are living? Everyone’s life is diminished when this type of crime occurs – do a search on the internet, every city in the USA has this and much worse.

Corporate America runs everything, and we, like little lambs follow consumerism.

We really seriously need a do over.

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April 16, 2008

Mark Soldiers

Concerning the vicious assault recently posted on youtube: To blame youtube is ridiculous. Those girls are just bad seeds. And bad seeds bring forth weeds and weeds need to be extirpated. Those girls reminded me of the Charles Mason groupies they are vicious little witches. That poor girl they beat up is lucky she didn&rsquot wind up dead like Sharon Tate. To me a sentence of life in prison seems reasonable.

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April 17, 2008

Joe F Las Vegas

For those trying to justify that this happens all the time my response is that everytime it happens the little animals should be rounded up and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.They only engage in this behaviour because they feel they will never be punished for it.If the authorities fail to act then vigilante justice is fully justified.

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April 17, 2008

Laurie

Joe F Las Vegas – how can you know why somebody does something – i doubt if the reason and only reason is because they don’t think they will get caught.

And, just because it is pointed out that it occurs all the time does not mean it is being justified – merely that we will now be housing a criminal at taxpayers expense, and to what end?

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April 19, 2008

Anonymous

This really pisses me off to no end. and these cretins deserve every bit of their punishment no question about it. To the person saying that we should feel sad for them because they are children, I ask, Why should we?

Why should we feel sorry for them when they didn’t feel sorry for the one they victimized? She is a child too right? Why didn’t they feel sad when they were knocked her head against the wall? Why didn’t they feel sad for her when she was unconscious and VULNERABLE and they still kept beating her? Shouldn’t that count for something?

You get what you give in life and the best way for these animals to learn that lesson, is if they got the same beating from the inmates they’ll be sharing a cell with. The parents need to be thrown right in there with them.

In my opinion, they stopped being a child the moment they formulated a plan, and then threw the first punch.

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April 19, 2008

Anonymous

Back in history, You had child slavery, as well as slavery in general, and even farther back, an adult having sex with a 10 year wasn’t anything out of the norm. Just because it happens everywhere doesn’t make it right.

Regardless of whether or not there are things we are not told about this scenario doesn’t change the fact that 6 girls ruthlessly beat 1 defenseless girl while 2 eunuchs kept watch. It would not change the fact that those responsible deserve every bit of their punishment.

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April 21, 2008

fed up with white tr

This mother and all the parents should also be arrested. GIVE ALL THESE PIECES OF TRASH 5-10 AND SEND A MESSAGE TO THE REST OF THE OUT OF CONTROL GENERATION

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April 24, 2008

Tony

“not to mention. We do not possess all the facts of this case. We have only the video, the testimony of state officials, the mother of one of the alleged assailants, and the endless spew of the generally biased news media. There are bound to be mitigating factors, unreleased facts, witness statements, expert opinions, and other evidence of the case. The facts is that these people are innocent until proven guilty. Remember that”

You’ve got to be kidding right?It’s bad enough that the savage beating of that poor girl, sickened and enraged me to no end.i then come on here and read the most illogical, outrageous and completely maddening post, i’ve yet to read on this subject.Did you even watch the video? what more evidence do you need? what facts are left out of this massacre? These cretins were indicted on all the evidence this case will “ever” need, the infamous video tape, that’s all there is, that’s ‘s all there needs to be and no,”not innocent until proven guilty”, not in this case, they are as guilty as sin.

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April 24, 2008

navigator

I saw a news clip tonight with a “gentleman” defending this by saying that it happens all the time… It DOES NOT MATTER that this has gone on for “decades with no one knowing” . IT IS FINALLY ON VIDEO AND CAN BE PROSECUTED and opening the eyes of parents/teachers/principles/media and police world wide to what the effect of bullying can have on children. This is why some kids are to afraid to go to school. Maybe we can put some kind of halt on this behavior by setting an example of these kids and other kids involved in the recently released video tapping copycat beatings throughout the nation. IF WE DO NOT PROSECUTE THIS TODAY, WE WILL SEE IT GET WORSE AND WORSE. And, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how much worse I can stand… will it take someone being killed on video before we do something? Let’s pray that we don’t have to see something like that.

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June 16, 2008

anymous

why would they do that? they are just stupid 2 beat a girl and then go to jail, i would die!!!!!!! and why needed all 6 girls beat her??? 1 or 2 was enough but no they need 2 overdo it!! and i hope they sit a long timee!!!!! really,, and victoria u needed 2 fight back!! anws and ur ” freind ” Brittini beated the hell of you!! soo do April Cooper, and they aren’t even pretty anws byeee!! they needed 2 think first but yeah now they learning what they did wrong!! to a poor girl of the age of 16 years, Victoria you could of have beaten the hell of April that is 14 years old,, imagine that a 14 year old beating aa 16 years old!! anws i know why u didnt fight back i think bcs if u fought bek they would come 2 a 2 on youu@!! but be carefull take care, i hope your getting better, and pls dnt have trauma!!

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