Tag: Jennifer Parks

Pal’s statement: Zarate brothers plotted to slay Randolph teen:

More information in the case of Jonathan Zarate and his younger brother who killed and dismembered Jennifer Parks…

Two brothers plotted to lure teenager Jennifer Parks to their father’s house in Randolph, where they beat, stabbed and shared the grisly task of cutting off her legs, according to a statement given to police by a friend who tried to help the siblings dump the body.

Recktenwald said that V.B. told her and another detective that the brothers confided on July 31 that Jonathan Zarate was communicating with the 16-year-old girl next door over the Internet and invited her over.

“They were planning to kill her,” Recktenwald quoted V.B. as saying.

V.B. said the brothers told him they killed Parks because she had gotten the younger brother in trouble so that he had to pay some fines. Recktenwald said the Clifton teen gave the following account, based on what the brothers told him:

Jonathan Zarate talked a few minutes with Parks after her arrival at his home around 2 a.m. on July 30. Zarate started choking the girl. His younger brother, who was hiding in a basement closet, jumped out, started punching Parks all over her body, and then grabbed a knife and started stabbing her. The elder Zarate put a bandanna over her face to stifle her screams. Both brothers then shared the job of cutting off Parks’ legs so they could fit her body into a trunk that normally held camping equipment.

“They cut her legs off and put her in, like, a box,” V.B. related, Recktenwald said.

Authorities have said the Zarate brothers — who allegedly used to bully Parks over her weight and appearance –recruited the help of the Clifton friend to help them try to toss a trunk containing the girl’s body over a bridge in Rutherford into the Passaic River.

The trio was caught by passing police officers around 3 a.m. on July 31 before the trunk could be heaved. Jonathan Zarate confessed, saying that he alone invited Parks over to watch television around 2 a.m. on July 30, after which he flew into a rage, beat her with a pole, stuffed a bandanna down her throat, stabbed her and cut off her legs. The younger Zarate –whose full name has not been publicly released because he is a juvenile — told police he learned of the murder after the fact. The Clifton teen originally gave two statements: in one, he denied any knowledge of the killing; in the second, he claimed Jonathan Zarate did the murder. His story changed on Sept. 20.

Authorities said that the younger Zarate got in trouble several years ago when he damaged Laurie Parks’ car by throwing rocks at it. School officials also rearranged his classes in Randolph so that he and Jennifer Parks did not run into each other. The 15-year-old wound up leaving Randolph a few years ago to live with his biological mother in Garfield but was visiting his father on Old Brookside Road the weekend Parks was slain.

Jonathan Zarate was transferred last week out of the Morris County jail to a psychiatric facility after two episodes of punching corrections officers and relieving himself multiple times on the floor of his cell. His lawyer said Jonathan Zarate admits the killing and a psychiatric defense is being pursued.

Try the younger brother as an adult and send them both to the needle.

Teen accomplice pleads guilty in body dump case:

One of the teen accomplices of Jonathan Zarate pleaded guilty to improperly disposing of human remains and hindering apprehension. This is the 16-year-old accomplice known as “V.B.” the friend of Jonathan Zarate’s brother who is only identified as “J.Z.”. “V.B.” faces up to four years in juvenile detention. “V.B.” and “J.Z.” allegedly tried to help Jonathan Zarate dispose of Jennifer Parks’ body in the Passaic River.

‘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.

Slain Randolph girl’s mom pushes for death penalty:

The mother of Jennifer Parks, Laurie Parks, is calling on prosecutors to push for the death penalty in the murder of her daughter…

“I feel if you take a life, you give a life,” she said. She said her grief has been overwhelming some days, for herself and Jennifer’s father, David, and that she hopes to start counseling soon. She hasn’t been ready so far for therapy, she said.

“I’m not doing good right now. It’s very hard,” she said.

Can you blame her? Considering her daughter was killed and dismembered by Jonathan Zarate.

Prosecutors have not yet stated whether or not they will pursue the death penalty. While New Jersey does have the death penalty it’s rarely used.

We also have news out of the Zarate camp…

Slay case leaves kin wondering:

The relatives of Jonathan Zarate are saying they knew that he had problems. As a matter of fact, he was supposed to have been sent to his aunt in California who is a psychiatrist. He was supposed to go on August 2nd but he killed Jennifer Parks on July 30th. Still, no motive was given but the article uses this as a turning point in Zarate’s life…

He changed from a happy youngster to an angry kid during the breakup of his parents, according to his mother, Flora Mari, who spoke through Fusco. The couple split when he was 8 and divorced when he was 11, according to court records.

Even years later, Zarate spoke about the divorce all the time, according to Moises Mari, a stepbrother who lives in Newport News, Va.

So he was down about his parents’ divorce. Boo-freakin’ hoo. I don’t care if his parents beat him with barbed wire it’s still no excuse to choke, bludgeon, stab, and dismember a 16-year-old girl. If this is what the defense will be basing their insanity defense on then they have their work cut out for them. Then again this is New Jersey. So we’ll just have to wait and see.