TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • Zarate attacks prison guard

    Zarate attacks prison guard

    ‘Trunk killer’ teen erupts, blackens jail guard’s eye:

    This is a story that I’ve been following here for a while.

    Unfortunately, I haven’t reposted any of the previous entries since the Great Site Meltdown of 2005. Let me bring you up to speed.

    18-year-old Jonathan Zarate invited his 16-year-old neighbor Jennifer Parks over to watch TV. He killed her by bludgeoning her and repeatedly stabbing her. He then dismembered her body, stuffed her in a trunk, hid the trunk in his parents’ Jeep for 24 hours, then solicited his teenage brother and a friend to help him dump the body into the Passaic River.

    At the time of the original postings, I got a lot of comments saying that either he couldn’t have possibly killed her or comments that attacked the victim. Well, Zarate’s latest escapade is that he attacked a prison guard unprovoked…

    Jonathan Zarate, 18, of Randolph, allegedly punched a 26-year-old corrections officer three times in the face and head as he was being escorted back to his cell after a shower Thursday at 8:30 a.m., Warden Frank Corrente said.

    “This was unprovoked. He has issues with authority and has been a management issue since his arrival,” Corrente said of Zarate. “He shows violent behavior.”

    Yeah, someone with this kind of rational behavior couldn’t have possibly killed someone. Yeah, right.

  • Intent

    Intent

    While I’ve been doing entries about Ken Bartley Jr. and the Campbell County High shooting, some people have been saying that Ken Bartley did not intend to shoot Ken Bruce and that they can’t prove intent. These people are either confused or unclear on the word “intent”.

    Their main argument is that Ken Bartley did not take the loaded gun to school with the intent of killing Ken Bruce or shooting Gary Seale and Jim Pierce. That may, in fact, be true. However, if when Ken Bartley was approached about the gun, then he decided to raise the gun, aim it at Ken Bruce, and pull the trigger, killing Ken Bruce then he did, in fact, intend to kill Ken Bruce.

    What you’re thinking of is premeditation. If Ken Bartley did not take the gun to school with the intent of killing Ken Bruce, then it wasn’t a premeditated killing. However, that doesn’t mean there was no intent.

    If rather than going to jail, Ken Bartley decided to shoot his way out of the situation, then that shows intent, In my opinion, the only way to show there was no intent was if the gun discharged accidentally. Since the gun fired repeatedly, striking four different people, I doubt that can be called an accident. Hopefully, I’ve cleared this up for you because that was my intent.

  • Victims’ families shut out of Jourdain trial

    Victims’ families shut out of Jourdain trial

    Shut out of trial, families frustrated:

    I am no longer torn on the decision to keep the trial of accused Red Lake accomplice Louis Jourdain closed to the public. Yes, he is a minor. No, the media does not have the right to be in on every little thing. However, I do believe the victims’ families of the Red Lake shootings should be entitled to attend the proceedings.

    A day after a federal judge ruled court proceedings for the only person charged in the case will remain closed to the public, the father of one victim said he and other families have hired an attorney to seek access. A victims’ rights group says getting answers is an important step in the healing process.

    “If nobody is going to go into the courtroom, we will all have unanswered questions,” said Al Thunder, a cultural coordinator and Red Lake tribal courts judge, whose grandson Cody Thunder was one of seven people injured in the March 21 shootings. “All the ruling is going to bring is frustration.”

    “We have never had access to any evidence gathered,” said Francis Brun, a retired tribal administrator and the father of Derrick Brun, a security guard slain at the high school. “I would like to know what exactly happened and whether people could have done something to prevent what happened.”

    Hopefully, they will allow the victims’ families to attend while keeping the vultures of the press at bay.

  • Bartley’s parents removed him from help program

    Bartley’s parents removed him from help program

    Parents of alleged Campbell County shooter sought help:

    This is an article I briefly touched on Friday. It’s about the school for troubled kids that Ken Bartley’s parents placed him in when he was 12. It’s called the Kingswood School, and it’s a private Christian home that is funded purely by donations.

    Ken Bartley was there for a year and a half. The article doesn’t say why he was there, but it states that counselors were teaching him how to handle problems like drugs and alcohol. But administrators said that Bartley was not doing well enough to go home when his parents removed him from the school…

    Helton says parents initially agree that therapists will decide when a child is ready to go home.

    “They thought he was ready to leave and we did not,” Helton said. “So he did leave against our recommendations because we felt he had not completed our program.”

  • Jourdain trial to remain closed

    Jourdain trial to remain closed

    Judge rules Red Lake trial will stay closed: (Log in info)

    A federal judge ruled on Friday that the trial of Louis Jourdain, the teen being tried in connection with the Red Lake shootings, will remain closed. The AP and other local media had sued to open up the trial.

    Like I said before, I’m torn on this decision because, on one hand, I think a trial of this magnitude should be opened up to the public. On the other hand, Jourdain is a minor, and it galls me when the media thinks they have the God-given right to have to know everything.

  • The king is dead, long live the king

    The king is dead, long live the king

    Tenn. Killer Played GTA:

    I knew this was going to happen. I think we all did. Our favorite Miami ambulance chaser Jack Thompson has reared his ugly asshatted head and has come out and said that he will “swear under oath” that Ken Bartley played GTA. Bartley is 15. It’s almost like shooting fish in a barrel to say the kid played GTA…

    The revelation is considered significant by Thompson because initial accounts of the shooting show that the teen did not go to school with the intent to kill, and it appears that an event triggered the teenager into committing homicide, which was programmed into the brain via rehearsal in Grand Theft Auto. Here’s what the press release stated:

    …as it appears, based upon initial accounts of the shooting, that the 15-year-old boy did not go to school with the intent to kill. As has happened in other instances, as in the triple homicide in Fayette, Alabama, by an 18-year-old obsessive player of the cop-killing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a highly-charged emotional event can serve as a trigger for such a shooting. These killing games allow an individual, unwittingly, to rehearse for homicide. When pushed by fear, the game’s rehearsal function becomes the young brain’s “default setting.”

    Jack Thompson has ascended to ranks of assclownery of the likes that have only previously been obtained by Michael Moore. And Mr. Thompson reaches it in the same way, by being a morbid opportunist using as many tragedies as possible to further his viewpoint.

    Back to the point at hand. I’m sure it was GTA that made Ken Bartley kill. I’m sure it had nothing to do with a substance abuse problem.

    Congratulations, Jack, you have usurped Michael Moore’s throne and are now King of All Assclowns. Hail to the king.

  • Prior History

    Prior History

    Prosecutor: Boy should be tried as adult:

    This is just another article about how Campbell County prosecutors want to try Ken Bartley as an adult. However, I found this piece of the article interesting…

    Pam Cannon, a parent who has two sons at the high school, and several students said the boy stabbed Seale in the hand with a pencil when Seale was his middle school principal.

    That would be Principal Gary Seale, who was shot in the lower abdomen but survived.

    So it sounds like not only did Bartley have possibly a prior history of violence, but a history of violence with one of his victims.

  • Bartley’s gun came from home

    Bartley’s gun came from home

    School Shooting: Could it have been prevented?:

    The Campbell County sheriff’s department tells us 14-year old Kenneth Bartley brought the .22 caliber handgun into school from home.

    This leaves many wondering if the gun was locked up, could the shooting have been prevented.

    Um….YEAH!!!

  • Dyleski enters plea

    Dyleski enters plea

    Dyleski pleads not guilty: (Log in info)

    Nearly four weeks after his arrest, Scott Dyleski pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murder in the killing of Pamela Vitale, a former high-tech executive and the wife of a well-known local defense attorney.

    The 17-year-old, who has been charged as an adult in the crime, entered his plea as he stood in “the cage,” a metal and glass structure that is reserved for defendants in custody.

    The District Attorney’s Office has charged Dyleski with murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He faces up to 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

    Outside the courtroom Wednesday, three friends of Dyleski said they had showed up to support him. Immediately surrounded by cameras and reporters, they described him as kind and said they were shocked when they heard about his arrest.

  • D.A. wants to try Bartley as an adult

    D.A. wants to try Bartley as an adult

    D.A. wants accused school shooting suspect tried as an adult:

    Campbell County District Attorney Paul Phillips wants to have Kenneth Bartley Jr. tried as an adult. At present, Bartley is being charged with first-degree murder, among other charges. Also…

    Authorities have identified the source of the gun, although no charges will be filed against the owner.