Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Sometimes you feel like a nut

    Sometimes you feel like a nut

    Teen guilty in Rocori killings to challenge murder conviction:

    John Jason McLaughlin, the Minnesota teen sentenced to life in prison for the shootings of Rocori High students Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins, is now challenging the insanity law used in Minnesota.

    If you remember, McLaughlin was found sane in the killings. His attorney is now arguing that the insanity law, known as the M’Naghten Rule, is outdated and doesn’t apply to juveniles…

    McLaughlin’s attorney, Davi Axelson, is expected to challenge the sentence.

    “The M’Naghten Rule is outdated for everyone, but it’s worse when it’s considered for a 15-year-old, whose brain may not fully develop until the age of 21,” said Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, a mental-health advocate. Greiling said she plans to again introduce a bill seeking to update the M’Naghten Rule or replace it with a standard developed by the American Bar Association.

    We’re not talking about a toddler here. We’re talking about a 15-year-old boy who made the conscious choice to shoot and kill two other students, one at point-blank range. Most people know by the age of 15 that shooting and killing someone is illegal.

    More information on the M’Naghten Rule…

    Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, who is among the many Minnesota county attorneys who support the M’Naghten Rule, counters: “It’s clearly the best test out there.”

    According to the M’Naghten Rule, only people who do not know right from wrong or who do not understand the nature of their acts can be found not guilty by reason of mental illness. People found legally insane are then committed indefinitely to a secure mental hospital rather than a prison.

    Twenty-eight states use the rule or a variation of it because “it’s such a simple, easily understood concept,” Backstrom said. “Other tests focus on ambiguous terms or are subject to experts’ opinions. M’Naghten is pretty straightforward.”

    Now let’s hear from the Helen Lovejoy’s of the world…

    But that doesn’t mean it’s not outdated, said Sue Abderholden, executive director of the Minnesota branch of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

    “Even England doesn’t use it anymore,” she said. “The M’Naghten standard is so strict. It’s: Do you know right from wrong? What if you do … but the voices inside your head override what you know is right and wrong? So, you don’t meet the standards.

    “The children’s thing is a whole other issue. As a society, we have to decide, Do we treat children differently? And what is the cutoff?”

    Except for the fact that McLaughlin didn’t hear voices in his head. He was faking it specifically for an insanity plea. Is this really the kid you want to use as your poster boy to challenge the M’Naghten Rule? One who wasn’t crazy, to begin with?

    Luckily, the Minnesota Supreme Court has summarily rejected challenges like this to the M’Naghten Rule.

  • Osantowski pleads guilty to gun theft

    Osantowski pleads guilty to gun theft

    Teen imprisoned in massacre plot pleads guilty to stealing guns:

    The original Michigan mutant, Andrew Osantowki, has pleaded guilty to stealing two guns that were unrelated to his school shooting plot conviction. In June 2004, he had stolen an AK-47 and a shotgun from a gun shop. Osantowski still has to go to yet another trial in January for theft charges for a stolen golf cart that was taken from a golf course and tools he stole from a cemetery.

  • Hainstock school records to remained sealed

    Hainstock school records to remained sealed

    Judge Rules Accused Teen Shooter’s Records Sealed:

    A Wisconsin judge has ruled that the school records obtained by the prosecution against Eric Hainstock will remain sealed and will not be used by the prosecution…

    The ruling comes after Eric Hainstock’s attorney argued that the records are confidential and the subpoena to get them does not show how they could tie into the September shooting of Principal John Klang at Weston Schools in Cazenovia.

    Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart issued the ruling denying the prosecutors’ request on Monday.

    Hainstock’s lawyer, Debra O’Rourke, argued at a Nov. 3 hearing that the subpoena was far too broad and that prosecutors were searching for more charges to file. Hainstock faces a charge in adult court of first-degree intentional homicide and a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

    Another Hainstock attorney, Catherine Ankenbrandt, said Tuesday they were pleased with the judge’s ruling and that he had decided correctly.

    Honestly, I don’t think the prosecution really needs them, since Hainstock kind of shot John Klang dead in front of witnesses. But I guess it never hurts to have more ammunition to put someone away, so to speak.

  • Trial set for Spring in murder of Ashton Glover

    Trial set for Spring in murder of Ashton Glover

    Spring trial set for Sugar Land teen murder suspect:

    You can read all my entries about the murder of Ashton Glover and the sick freaks that killed her here.

    RICHMOND–Trial dates for Matthew R. McCombs and Sean H. Brown, charged with fatally shooting their 16-year-old friend Ashton Glover in July, has been tentatively scheduled for next spring.

    McCombs and his next door neighbor Brown are charged with shooting Glover and burying her body at a muddy construction site off of Oil Field Road. Workers found her body July 10.

    The three were seniors and classmates at Clements High School.

    In a brief Fort Bend County court appearance today Monday before state District Judge Cliff Vacek, a status hearing was set for Jan. 8 with a trial set for April, May or June.

    The hearing lasted only a few minutes and then both defendants, dressed in green jail uniforms, were taken back to the courthouse holding cell.

    McCombs and Brown disappeared from their Sugar Land homes about two hours after Glover’s body was unearthed. The suspects were arrested July 12 when they tried to cross the St. Clair River and enter Canada from Port Huron.

    Police said McCombs gave investigators a statement admitting he shot the Clements High School student out of “morbid curiosity.”

  • Sebastian Bosse’s farewell video

    Sebastian Bosse’s farewell video

    (The Video Has Since Been Deleted By YouTube.)

    This is the farewell video of Sebastian Bosse, the gunman from the Geschwister School shooting in Emsdetten, Germany.

    His mastery of English is uncanny. My guess as to why he recorded the tape in English is that he wanted his video to be seen worldwide and not just in Germany, and, possibly, he wanted to speak in the language of his cowardly heroes Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

    It’s the usual whiny B.S. that he wasn’t accepted by the “cool kids” which leads me, even more, to believe that a lot of school shootings aren’t about being bullied but about the fact that they’re jealous that the so-called cool kids won’t accept them.

    When I was in school, I wore it as a badge of honor that the cool kids didn’t accept me. Not only that, but once I got out of high school I never looked back. He says that the other kids called him a loser. His recent actions proved them right.

  • On page 42 of the Rolling Stone

    On page 42 of the Rolling Stone

    Yes, it’s true. If you haven’t heard by now, yours truly was interviewed by Sean Woods of Rolling Stone Magazine, and the interview is in the current issue with Borat on the cover.

    It tells the story of how I got started doing this and of my brush with Kimveer Gill. It really is an interesting read, and I’m not saying that just because I’m the subject.

    Mr. Woods also gives a list of what he calls the best crime blogs on the net, including MyCrimeSpace, Steve Huff’s CrimeBlog.us, Mark Gribben’s The Malefactor’s Register, and Kim Cooper’s, Larry Harnisch’s, and Nathan Marsak’s 1947project.

    Steve Huff also gave mention to some of his favorite crime blogs that he felt deserved attention. I’m going to add some more to both of those lists…

    T.O. Crime

    We here in the states are pretty much ignorant of the crime going on in other countries, and we’ve kind of gotten the impression that our friendly neighbors to the north are virtually crime free. Not so says our good friend Harding, who focuses and writes very eloquently about crime in Toronto.

    Crime in Charlotte

    This blog is about the crime happenings in my own town of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is written by a woman who was the victim of crime herself and who is very frustrated about the revolving door policy of the local courts. The Recent Arrests feature, complete with mugshots and arrest records, is my favorite.

    Parents Behaving Badly

    By one of the masters of blogging himself, Jay Allen. This blog focuses on some of the stupid and sometimes downright evil acts parents can perpetrate on their children.

    Bonnie’s Blog of Crime

    Bonnie is a virtual pack rat when it comes to crime news. When a crime story breaks that piques her interest, you can bet that she’ll have all the links you’ll need for that crime.

    Now, this isn’t to say that any of the other blogs on the blogroll are any better or worse. As a matter of fact, all the blogs on the true crime blogroll are worth reading.

    Here are some other mentions about the article:

    1947project

    Media Bistro

    The Rap Sheet.

  • Bosse’s Mutancy Confirmed

    Bosse’s Mutancy Confirmed

    Report: German who attacked ex-school praised Columbine gunman

    Well, I was wrong. Earlier today I said I would be very surprised if the fact that German gunman, Sebastian Bosse, was a Harris and Klebold worshiping mutant would make it to the mainstream press…

    BERLIN: A German teen who stormed his former school with guns and bombs had venerated as “God” one of the gunmen in the 1999 Columbine shooting in the U.S, according to excerpts from his diary published Wednesday.

    “It is terrible how similar Eric (Harris) was to me. I am the further development” of Harris, Bosse said. “I have learned from his mistakes, the bombs.”

    On Friday, Bosse had written: “In three days, it will all be over! The people will lie dead on the school yard, the school will burn and my brains will be blown out!”

    On the eve of the attack, he wrote that he was sad that what he was planning would distress his family, complained that he had never had a proper girlfriend — and hoped that other “outsiders” would “be like me: a Goddamn hero.”

    The article also states that the guns were purchased legally. The article also draws the comparisons between the fact that both Bosse and Harris liked to play “violent” video games. I’m not going to make the argument about video games don’t cause people to kill because that’s just common sense.

    However, I will comment on something else that’s pretty much common sense. Bosse considered himself and Eric Harris heroes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just like his so-called hero, Bosse is just another cowardly scumbag who couldn’t face up to his own inadequacies. Luckily, he failed to live up to his hero’s “standards” by not killing anyone. He was a failure in life and a failure in death, just like his heroes.

    The flames of hell burn a little more yellow today with the addition of one more cowardly soul.

  • More on Sebastian Bosse and the Geschwister School Shooting

    More on Sebastian Bosse and the Geschwister School Shooting

    Armed to the Teeth and Crying for Help:

    This is a very comprehensive article from Spiegel Online about Sebastian Bosse and the shooting at Geschwister School in Emsdetten, Germany.

    Again, the similarities between Bosse and Kimveer Gill continue, even though I’m sure the two incidents are mostly unrelated. The article goes into detail about how Bosse was an outcast when he attended Geschwister. He also obsessed with his school years even after he left the school. And also, like Kimveer Gill, Bosse had a fascination with guns and taking pictures of himself posing with guns he owned.

    As a matter of fact, on the day of the shooting, Bosse was due in court on charges of possessing an illegal firearm. Of course, he played so-called violent video games and listened to metal, but I personally think that had nothing to do with his rampage, but I’ll get into that a little bit later. And of course, the German government is having the knee-jerk reaction to ban these so-called violent games.

    And like most of his cowardly predecessors, Sebastian Bosse took the coward’s way out by killing himself rather than facing charges.

    There are two mirrors of his farewell letter which are here and here, but both are in German and are frequently exceeding bandwidth. If they ever come back up I will try to make a copy and post it here.

    Here are some excerpts from his farewell letter…

    ‘This revenge will be carried out so brutally… that the blood will freeze in your veins. I hate these people and their kind. They must all die.’

    Source

    “If you realize you’ll never find happiness in your life and the reasons for this pile up day by day, the only option you have is to disappear from this life,” he wrote in a farewell message he posted on the Internet. “The only thing I learned intensively at school was that I’m a loser,” he wrote.

    Peer pressure seems to have plagued him throughout his adolescence. He said he realized he lived in a “world in which money rules everything, even in school it was only about that. You had to have the latest cell phone, the latest clothes and the right ‘friends.’ If you didn’t, you weren’t worth any attention. I loathe these people, no, I loathe people,” wrote Sebastian. “What’s it all for? Why should I work? To break myself and retire at 65 and kick the bucket five years later?”

    Source

    A reader named Toby sent me Bosse’s LiveJournal. It’s in German and the posts are over a year old. However, I did notice in his profile that he was a member of a known Columbine “fan” community. That’s right, kids, Sebastian Bosse was a mutant.

    In my opinion, that was the real reason behind the shooting. He was nothing more than a Klebold and Harris worshiping copycat scumbag. But I’d be very surprised if that makes it to the mainstream media. They’ll be too concerned with the ridiculous notions that video games and metal music had something to do with this.

  • Wrongful death suit filed against Bartley

    Wrongful death suit filed against Bartley

    Campbell County assistant principal’s widow suing accused teen killer:

    It’s a short article, so I’ll just post it…

    The wife of the assistant principal killed at Campbell County High School is suing his accused teenage killer.

    Jo Bruce filed a wrongful death suit against 15-year-old Kenneth Bartley. Bartley is charged with shooting Ken Bruce to death at the school last November. Bruce is also suing Bartley’s parents, Kenny Bartley and Rita Vannoy. In the suit, she claims they were negligent.

    Jo Bruce is asking a jury to determine the amount of damages.

    If a jury does award Mrs. Bruce anything, it won’t be enough.

  • German gunman identified

    German gunman identified

    “Well Prepared” Gunman Dies After Bloody Rampage In German School:

    The gunman from the Geschwister Scholl in Emsdetten, Germany, has been identified as 18-year-old Sebastian Bosse. As it turns out, the similarities to Kimveer Gill are almost uncanny…

    Police confirm they’ve found a blog that partially explains his actions, although the real motive may have died with the gunman.

    “He seems to have been frustrated by a lack of meaning in his life,” state prosecutor Wolfgang Schweer explains. “It appears that he was a loner who decided on his own to do this.”

    Those who knew the attacker, identified as Sebastian Bosse, claim he fit the typical stereotype of the school assassin we’ve all come to know too often since Columbine.

    He liked violent video games, always dressed in black and didn’t have many friends.

    “He was an absolute loner,” 17-year-old Katja Weber confirms. “Guns were his hobby.”

    This was no random act either, as Bosse had set off smoke bombs so police sharpshooters couldn’t get a bead on him.

    Bosse was found dead lying on the floor in a classroom with pipe bombs, two sawed-off shotguns, and a knife.

    I was unable to find the blog belonging to Bosse. If anyone knows where it is, please let me know.