TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: charged as an adult

  • 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?

  • Dyleski to stand trial

    Dyleski to stand trial

    Judge orders Dyleski to stand trial in Vitale murder:

    A judge has ruled that there is a sufficient amount of evidence to reasonably try Scott Dyleski for the murder of Pam Vitale, and he will be tried as an adult…

    During the first three days of testimony Contra Costa County prosecutor Harold Jewett presented evidence painting Dyleski as a disturbed young man.

    He showed Dyleski’s drawings, that included a figure holding a bloody knife who was wearing a ski mask and a trench coat. Jewett pointed out that some of the clothes found by detectives during their investigation included a bloody ski mask and a trench coat that he believes Dyleski wore during the killing.

    Jewett also presented drawings and printed examples of symbols found in Dyleski’s bedroom that were similar, but not identical, to the mark found on Vitale’s back. Defense attorney Ellen Leonida of the public defender’s office argued against allowing Dyleski’s artwork in, saying a lot of artwork is disturbing and is not evidence of murder. But the judge disagreed, and will allow certain of Dyleski’s drawings to be used by prosecutors in a trial.

    Witnesses who lived with Dyleski at his home about a mile down Hunsaker Canyon Road from Vitale and Horowitz testified that on the morning of Oct. 15, Dyleski came home with scratches or “gouge-like” marks on his face.

    Witnesses also testified that Dyleski became paranoid on the day before his arrest on Oct. 19, and began talking about his fear that his DNA might be found on Vitale’s body. He told a story of a woman who pulled over in a car and grabbed his arm while he was on a walk in the neighborhood as the reason for his concern.

    All that even after Dyleski’s mom destroyed evidence…

    After Dyleski’s Oct. 19 arrest, authorities arrested Fielding as an accessory to murder after the fact for destroying a red writing journal of her son’s, a box of disposable gloves and a written list of the names and credit card information for a number of her and her son’s neighbors. The charges were dropped after Fielding agreed to testify for prosecutors against Dyleski.

    Not only that but Pam Vitale’s DNA was found on Scott Dyleski’s belongings…

    Prosecutors concluded the hearings Friday with testimony from David Stockwell, a DNA expert who said Vitale’s DNA was found on the boy’s duffel bag, with a statistical probability that 1 in 13 quadrillion other Caucasians would share the same profile.

    Detectives discovered the duffel, which was affixed with Dyleski’s nametag, during a search of the property where the teen lived with 11 other individuals.

    The bag contained bloody clothes that prosecutors believe Dyleski wore when he allegedly killed Vitale, and a mixture of both their DNA was found on a ski mask, shoes, and the bag itself.

    Dyleski is ineligible for the death penalty because he was under 18 at the time of the murder.

  • Scott Dyleski’s Checklist

    Scott Dyleski’s Checklist

    Dyleskis ex-roommate finds disturbing checklist:

    I get a lot of comments from people who say that Scott Dyleski is a great kid and couldn’t possibly be capable of killing Pam Vitale. Oh yeah? Well, what do you have to say about this?

    It was in late January that David Curiel — who lived with Dyleski and two other families in a Hunsaker Canyon home about a mile down the road from Vitales — found a number of index cards that included detailed personal and financial information about other Hunsaker Canyon residents who were victims of credit card fraud. The handwritten cards included the dates of birth, frequent flier numbers and passwords to eBay and Amazon.com accounts.

    And prosecutors say one of the cards included this checklist:

    – Knock out/kidnap

    – Question

    – Keep captive to confirm PINS (personal identification numbers)

    – Dirty work

    – Dispose of evidence

    – Cut up and bury

    Things that make you go hmmm?

  • Friend dropped the dime on Dyleski

    Friend dropped the dime on Dyleski

    Friend casts suspicion on Dyleski:

    It turns out that it was Scott Dyleski’s close friend and partner in the alleged credit card fraud/marijuana growing scheme that tipped off investigators to Dyleski in the brutal slaying of Pam Vitale…

    According to sources close to the case, a teenage friend of Dyleski saw him hours after the killing with scratches on his face. Dyleski told his friend he got scratched while walking in the woods.

    A few days later, as the case attracted media attention, Dyleski told his friend he was worried investigators might find his own DNA on Vitale. He told his friend that Vitale saw him in the woods and grabbed him.

    The story made the friend suspicious about Dyleski. He also was worried because he and Dyleski were involved in a scheme to use fraudulent credit cards to purchase marijuana-growing lights and have them sent to the homes of neighbors.

    Originally, it was thought that Dyleski killed Pam Vitale because he was caught having the marijuana growing equipment sent to Vitale’s house, but that has since been abandoned since no evidence has been found substantiating that.

    The friend will testify against Dyleski in exchange for credit card fraud charges being dropped.

  • Eric Smith: What a prosecutor should be

    Eric Smith: What a prosecutor should be

    Macomb Co. crackdown on young suspects raises issues:

    Macomb County, Michigan is like the Bermuda triangle of school violence. Just on my site alone, I’ve discussed the cases of Andrew Osantowski and Eric Schorling.

    Both were or are being prosecuted by Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith. He’s also prosecuting the case of Courtney Hood…

    Courtney Hood, 14, of Warren was charged as an adult with attempted murder for allegedly holding a classmate underwater. She faces up to life in prison, if convicted, and is due in circuit court Monday for a pretrial conference.

    …among others. In the cases of Osantowski, Schorling, and Hood, they were all teens that were tried or going to be tried as adults. The article asks if Prosecutor Smith is going overboard by trying these kids as adults and in some cases using Michigan’s terrorism law to charge these teens…

    Juvenile advocates counter that get-tough prosecution is short-sighted and deprives youthful offenders of counseling, education, and other rehabilitative services. And while some residents applaud his actions, others say they think his office has been too aggressive in charging juveniles.

    Glenn Stutzky, a clinical instructor at Michigan State University’s School of Social Work, said children need guidance — not punishment — to become productive and law-abiding adults.

    “We need to get around to asking children why they are in such a state that they committed an act of violence against themselves or someone else,” Stutzky said. “Charging students with felonies isn’t rehabilitation.”

    Youthful offenders are often victims of harassment at school or abuse at home, said Robert Shepherd, an emeritus professor of law at the University of Richmond in Virginia who focuses on juvenile crime.

    Shepherd said studies show therapy is more effective than punishment at reducing subsequent offenses.

    “A lot of the risky behaviors of kids are very legitimate and natural, and we need to develop programs that deal with what we know about the characteristics of adolescents,” Shepherd said. “The part of the brain that controls impulse and judgment is the last to mature in adolescents.”

    In Oakland County, where 11-year-old Nathaniel Abraham was charged in 1997 as an adult with first-degree murder, prosecutors now tend to opt for therapy and education over punishment, said Deborah Carley, chief deputy prosecutor.

    “We don’t look at our juvenile system as a punishment system,” Carley said.

    What does Eric Smith himself have to say about this?…

    Smith said pursuing rehabilitation “is not our job.” He said his job is to prove the elements of a crime, and it is up to a judge to decide if therapy should be part of the punishment for young offenders.

    Three months before Smith took office, violence crept into local schools. Sixteen-year-old Eric Schorling stabbed his ex-girlfriend in the back in a hallway at Romeo High School.

    Two weeks before that, police found a cache of weapons and Nazi paraphernalia at the home of Clinton Township teen Andrew Osantowski, who threatened to carry out a Columbine-style attack at Chippewa Valley High School.

    Smith acknowledges that the 12-year-old accused of threatening to bomb her middle school was likely “joking” and was a good student, but added, “I have to let other kids know that we take that seriously.”

    Eric Schooling failed to kill his victim, fortunately. Andrew Osantowski was apprehended before he had the chance to kill anyone. But what if Schorling and Osantowski had been successful? Would we still be having this conversation? Would people still say they only need counseling? Light sentencing for juveniles charged with serious crimes sends out the wrong message. If all they receive is counseling, then any kid who is a would-be school shooter could think that they could just walk into their school, pop off a few rounds, kill a few people, and just have to go to a counselor once a week, and it doesn’t take much to fool a counselor.

    Eric Smith should be lauded as a hero for prosecuting criminals. Not vilified for not being sensitive enough.