TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: charged as an adult

  • James Zarate goes to adult jail

    James Zarate goes to adult jail

    Teen charged in Randolph murder moved to adult jail:

    The 15-year-old charged with helping his brother murder and sever the legs of 16-year-old neighbor Jennifer Parks in Randolph last year was ordered held in the Morris County jail this morning on $1 million bail.

    Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto approved the transfer of James Zarate from the county Juvenile Detention Center to the county jail since the youth on June 7 was “waived up” from juvenile status to be tried as an adult.

    Defense lawyer Joseph Ferrante said it would “be a tragedy” if the teen — who was 14 when he allegedly helped his then-18-year-old brother kill Parks on July 30 — was moved to the adult facility. Ferrante characterized the state’s evidence against James Zarate as weak and based upon the statements of a co-defendant and DNA from a piece of chewing gum found in a bag containing supplies used to clean up after the murder.

    “My view is it would not be appropriate for him to be amongst other juveniles,” Ahto said, saying he believes it is in the public’s interest to hold the teen in an adult facility.

    One of the mantras here says if you commit an adult crime you deserve adult time. Have fun in Morris County Lockup.

  • Gag order remains in Dyleski trial

    Gag order remains in Dyleski trial

    Allred loses bid to lift gag order in teen murder trial:

    California attorney and all-around shrew Gloria Allred has lost her bid to have the gag order removed from the Scott Dyleski trial…

    California attorney Gloria Allred lost an emergency appeal Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to lift a gag order in the case of a teenager accused of killing a prominent lawyer’s wife.

    Justice Anthony M. Kennedy refused without comment to lift the order preventing Allred from publicly discussing the upcoming trial of Scott Dyleski, 17, who is accused of murdering Pamela Vitale, wife of television legal analyst Daniel Horowitz.

    Allred represents an undisclosed witness in the murder case, which is set for trial July 17 in Contra Costa County Superior Court.

    Why does she want the gag-order lifted? So her client can make the talk show rounds to make some money? Not to mention tainting the jury pool in the process.

    I, personally, think Dyleski is guilty, but I want to see him receive the fairest trial possible, so there will be no question of his guilt.

  • Zarate’s brother to be tried as an adult

    Zarate’s brother to be tried as an adult

    Teen to be tried as adult in Randolph murder:

    Jonathan Zarate’s brother, formerly known as “J.Z.”, will be tried as an adult, for assisting his brother in the killing and dismembering of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks…

    A youth who was 14 when he allegedly helped his older brother maim and murder next-door neighbor Jennifer Parks in Randolph last year will be tried as an adult, a Superior Court judge ruled this afternoon.

    Family Division Judge John B. Dangler ruled that James Zarate, now 15, will be prosecuted as an adult on charges of stabbing and chopping off the legs of the 16-year-old victim on July 30.

    James and his now-19-year-old brother, Jonathan Zarate, are accused of getting Parks to visit their father’s home on Old Brookside Road around 2 a.m. and then ambushing the girl shortly after her arrival.

    Parks’ mother, Laurie Parks, asked the judge to order James Zarate to be prosecuted as an adult.

    “Our loss is complete. We only had one child; now we only have pictures, videos and our memories,” she said.

  • Supporters react to Esmie Tseng’s sentence

    Supporters react to Esmie Tseng’s sentence

    Friends stand by Tseng, call sentence poor:

    Some supporters of Esmie Tseng react to her sentencing…

    “Nobody’s really better served by this (sentence),” Horwitz said. “When the judge talks about rehabilitation in the prison system … She needs help (after) years and years of challenges and what many argue to be abuse in the home situation.”

    Another Tseng family friend, Grant Mallett, said his daughter used to play with Esmie. He said Esmie would not be forgotten.

    “We’re committed to stay in touch and help her out as best we can,” Mallett said. “I saw her last week. Her spirits seemed to be quite good, and I was pleased and impressed with how she seems to be doing personally.”

    Horwitz said real friends would not abandon Esmie.

    “Everybody wants to visit her and write her. She has a lot of true friends,” he said. “She’s been in the community since kindergarten and the people who have known her her whole life know that this is a really good kid and a terrible set of circumstances.”

    I am neither a supporter nor detractor of Esmie Tseng, but I can sympathize with Esmie. I really do. I also grew up in a house of abuse, so I know to some extent what she went through.

    However, it doesn’t change the fact that she stabbed her mother with a kitchen knife and when her mother got the knife away from her, Esmie picked up another knife and stabbed her again. I have to agree with what the assistant D.A. said…

    Assistant District Attorney Richard Guinn said the sentence, considering all factors, represented a “fair and just outcome.”

    “We feel for the family, we feel for the dad, we feel for (Esmie) in terms of her situation at home,” Guinn said. “But we are also taking a very strong position here.”

    Guinn said stabbing someone multiple times should draw prison time as opposed to the shorter sentence, perhaps three years, available through the juvenile justice system. With good behavior and considering time already served, Esmie faces about seven years in an adult prison, he said.

    In prison, Esmie could advance herself academically through college classes, Guinn said.

    “It’s up to her what she chooses to make of this time,” he said. “My impression in talking with her attorney is that she has put this chapter of her life behind and is now doing everything she can to make a worthwhile life for herself.”

    I know I said I would never do one again, but I may have a special podcast on this sometime this weekend.

  • Esmie Tseng sentenced

    Esmie Tseng sentenced

    Esmie Tseng sentenced to prison:

    The Overland Park teen-ager who pleaded guilty to killing her mother was sentenced today to eight years and four months in prison.

    Esmie Tseng, 17, declined to say anything during the brief hearing in Johnson County District Court. She had pleaded guilty in March to voluntary manslaughter.

    The sentence imposed by Judge Brenda Cameron was recommended by both sides last month as part of a plea agreement.

    Esmie’s mother, 55-year-old Shu Yi Zhang, died after being stabbed to death on Aug. 19.

  • Esmie Tseng not eligible for juvenile detention

    Esmie Tseng not eligible for juvenile detention

    Esmie ineligible for youth prison:

    Supporters of Esmie Tseng, the Kansas girl who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of her mother, had their hopes raised and summarily dashed last week…

    Supporters of Tseng who lost their fight to have her tried as a juvenile were still lobbying last week for the judge to show mercy.

    They were encouraged briefly when they learned the Kansas Department of Corrections was researching whether state law would allow Tseng to be placed in the state’s juvenile facility for females, in Beloit in north central Kansas. Then they were disappointed to find out Friday that she was not eligible to go there.

    Esmie Tseng agreed to a plea of voluntary manslaughter, an adult charge, and a recommended sentence of 8 years and 4 months. The judge is not bound to follow the agreement.

    Sentencing will take place later this month.

  • Hippies file charges in Dyleski search

    Hippies file charges in Dyleski search

    Dyleski’s roommates file claim against county:

    The residents of the “hippy commune” where the accused killer of Pam Vitale, Scott Dyleski, lived are filing charges against Contra Costa County saying that Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputies did not have warrants at the time the residence was searched for Dyleski…

    More than 10 sheriff’s deputies burst into the Hunsaker Canyon Road residence of Fred and Kim Curiel on the evening of Oct. 19, 2005, looking for Dyleski, the claim says. Dyleski, now 17, was a suspect in the killing of his neighbor Pamela Vitale four days earlier.

    At least seven other people lived with the Curiels at the time. The deputies began searching the house for Dyelski, pointing their guns and screaming at each of the adults and children, aged 2 to 16, to get down on the floor, the claim says.

    Deputies threatened that if the residents did not cooperate, the deputies would “blow your head off.”

    One deputy pushed Fred Curiel’s face into the ground, breaking his eyeglasses. Another pressed her shoe against the back of Curiel’s 11-year-old daughter to keep her on the floor, the claim says.

    The housemates allege that the deputies entered without an arrest warrant for Dyleski or a search warrant for the home. The deputies presented a search warrant more than one and a half hours later.

    The residents, who seek unspecified damages, say that the experience has left them with nightmares, flashbacks, and other anxieties.

    I seriously doubt that in a high-profile case such as this that law enforcement would not have all their I’s dotted and their T’s crossed. To me, this sounds like just a bunch of hippies lashing out against “the man”.

  • Bartley to be tried as an adult

    Bartley to be tried as an adult

    Bartley to be tried as adult for school shootings:

    Ken Bartley Jr., the gunman in the Campbell County High shooting that killed one and wounded two more, will be tried as an adult…

    Kenny Bartley, Jr. was scheduled for a transfer hearing Wednesday to determine whether he would be tried as an adult.

    However, Bartley’s attorney, Mike Hatmaker, waived the hearing. He told the judge there was no need to re-live the events of the shootings and waiving the hearing was best for Bartley and his family, since it was likely the state would have won.

    The state had no objection so the judge ordered the transfer.

  • Esmie’s abuse

    Esmie’s abuse

    Teenager pleads guilty in mother’s stabbing death:

    This is just another story about Esmie Tseng’s plea, but I finally get to hear what kind of abuse Esmie went through…

    In Esmie Tseng’s world, a test score of 96 might have gotten the 16-year-old grounded.

    Her mother expected more. Always more. And when the Overland Park girl fell short, she often was punished in ‘unfair and cruel’ ways, Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison said Monday.

    Sometimes, he said, Esmie’s mother tried to teach her a lesson by humiliating her: She made her daughter take off all her clothes.

    But Esmie also was under a lot of pressure, primarily from her mother, to perform at unrealistically high levels, Morrison said. Slight transgressions often resulted in punishments such as not being able to go outside for extended periods of time, he said, or not being able to do the kinds of things that teens like to do.

    “She lived in a highly structured environment,” Morrison said.

    “It was not uncommon for her to be ordered to take her clothes off as a way to humiliate her, if that gives you a flavor of what was going on.”

    I feel bad for Esmie. I really do. That’s not sarcasm. Mental abuse like that from a parent is one of the worst tortures that a teenager can go through. However, that abuse did not warrant the violent response that Esmie gave…

    Assistant District Attorney John Fritz said that Esmie had stabbed her mother with a knife. When her mother took away the knife, Esmie grabbed another and stabbed her multiple times. Esmie did not call for help, he said.

    The way Esmie’s mother treated her would have been grounds to call social services, not a multiple stabbing with two different knives.

    Also, did Esmie’s father know that this treatment was going on?

    Now that I know a little more about the events leading up to the murder of Shu Yi Zhang, I can offer an opinion on the sentencing.

    I think the suggested eight years and four months is very reasonable for the offense and what led up to it. As I said, I feel bad for Esmie, but stabbing her mother to death was a severe over-reaction, and she needs to be punished.

    She will still have much of her life ahead of her when she gets out.

  • Esmie Tseng pleads guilty

    Esmie Tseng pleads guilty

    Esmie Tseng pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter:

    In a shocking turn of events, shocking to me anyway, Esmie Tseng, the 16-year-old Kansas teen accused of stabbing her mother to death, has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter…

    Esmie Tseng, 16, pleaded guilty to the charge after agreeing to have her case moved to adult court. Sentencing was set for May 3.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to recommend a sentence of 100 months in prison, or about 8 years and four months. The defense agreed it would not ask for probation.

    I’m curious as to why she pleaded guilty to an adult charge when so many people thought she should be tried as a juvenile?