Tag: stabbing

Zarate found guilty of murder; jury rejects ‘psychotic state’ defense:

It’s a word that the parents of Jennifer Parks have been waiting over three years to hear. Guilty.

After three years and many delays, a jury has finally found Jonathan Zarate guilty in the murder of Jennifer Parks. The jury only took two hours to reach their verdict.

In July of 2005 a then 18-year-old Zarate of Randolph, NJ invited his 16-year-old neighbor, Jennifer Parks, to come over and watch TV. At some point, she said something about Zarate’s brother James. Jennifer had previously had the younger Zarate brother removed from school because he was bullying her. whatever she said sent Jonathan Zarate into a rage. He beat her with a metal pole until she choked on her own vomit then stabbed her repeatedly. To hide what he did he dismembered her body and hid it in a footlocker. He then hid the footlocker in his family’s Jeep for 24 hours while he attended a birthday party for a relative.

The next day Zarate, his brother, and a friend were caught by police trying to dump the footlocker that contained Jennifer’s body into the Passaic River.

Zarate was far from what you would call a model prisoner. He had to be transferred out of the Morris County prison for assaulting a guard. While in his new prison he inquired to other inmates on how to fake an insanity defense.

During the trial, Zarate’s attorney tried arguing that Zarate was in a ‘psychotic state’ when he killed Jennifer Parks. A psychologist even testified to that. Luckily today the jury had no part of that and did the right thing by sending a brutal killer to prison.

Zarate’s brother will be tried separately for his part in the murder.

This was one of the first stories I started following when I first opened the News of Doom site. NoD opened officially on July 31st, 2005, the day after Jennifer was killed. I have been in contact with Jennifer Parks family and I have exchanged e-mails with Laurie Parks. Even though I can’t even imagine how Mrs. Parks’ emotions have been since her daughter’s murder I actually felt butterflies in my stomach when I read the headline that Zarate had been convicted.

My prayers and thoughts constantly go out to the Parks family.

Speaking of which I wanted to post this comment Jennifer’s father, David Parks, gave to The Daily Record about Zarate’s alleged psychotic state of mind…

“I don’t care what his state of mind was, it will never bring my daughter back,” father David Parks said. “Conversations at the grave suck. It’s one-sided.”

I’m glad that was remembered by the jury that Jennifer Parks was the real victim in all of this.

No word on sentencing yet. Anything less than life without parole would be a travesty.

Thanks to Helen and Keb for the tip.

Zarate murder trial jury to deliberate Monday:

The trial of Jonathan Zarate for the 2005 murder of Jennifer Parks wrapped up yesterday and the jury will begin to deliberate on Monday.

Both attorneys gave their closing arguments yesterday.

Defense attorney Richard Mazawey argued that only mental illness could explain the brutal way in which Zarate killed Jennifer Parks.

The diminished capacity defense “is not a gimmick…not a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Mazawey said. “There’s nobody that can look at those pictures and the evidence and not see sickness.

Morris County Executive Assistant Prosecutor Robert Lane said to the jury that the verdict should be a no-brainer.

Lane said the “viciousness and brutality” of what Zarate did “can only be defined by one word…and that’s murder.”

I was going to say with any luck the jury will return a guilty verdict but we shouldn’t be relying on luck. The jury has to return a guilty verdict so the Parks family can know justice.

Psychiatrist in Zarate slay trial contradicts defense’s mental health expert:

Yesterday, because I’m always a day late with this story, psychiatrist Daniel Greenfield testified for the prosecution in the murder trial of Jonathan Zarate. He testified that in no way was Zarate in a ‘dreamlike state’ when killed and dismembered Jennifer Parks.

“He was not in a psychotic state,” psychiatrist Daniel Greenfield said. “He was acting in purposeful and goal-directed ways.”

He referred to psychiatrist Diana Riccioli’s assertion that Zarate was in a psychotic state as ‘outrageous’.

Greenfield also said that he found no evidence that Zarate ever used PCP.

Zarate himself opted not to testify.

Yesterday psychiatrist Diana Riccioli testified in the murder trial of Jonathan Zarate. Riccioli claims that Zarate was psychotic and not responsible for his own actions when he brutally killed Jennifer Parks and that he should not be held criminally liable. Zarate claimed to Riccioli that he entered a ‘dreamlike state’ when he was beating Jennifer Parks. He also told her that he had addictions to PCP, pot, and alcohol.

The prosecution was having none of that though. Morris County Executive Assistant Prosecutor Robert Lane laid into her stating that Riccioli formed the majority of her opinion from the information she received from Zarate’s parents. I’m sure they would have no reason to lie. 🙄 Lane also mentioned the testimony of a psychiatrist that examined Zarate four months prior to the murder. That psychiatrist said that Zarate’s only problem was a communication problem with his mother.

It seems that Prosecutor Lane was very good at his job because Dr. Riccioli complained to the judge later that she didn’t appreciate Lane raising his voice to her. Welcome to the real world lady.

Daily Record

Star-Ledger

Murder suspect’s mother testifies son suffered behavioral problems:

Yesterday Jonathan Zarate’s parents testified in his defense for the murder of Jennifer Parks.

Zarate’s mother, Flora Mari, testified that four months prior to the murder she had taken Zarate to a psychiatrist because he was crapping his pants and the bathroom floor. Except, the psychiatrist at the time said it was not any kind of psychosis but a lack of communication between Zarate and his mother. A bizarre way of getting attention maybe?

John Zarate, Zarate’s father, testified that he went in the basement to do laundry three hours after the murder and claims that he did not notice any blood or bleach while he was down there. He did clean some crap that was on the bathroom floor.

The prosecuting attorney didn’t believe Zarate the elder and asked him if it was bloody clothes that he was cleaning. The defense objected to that question and the judge sustained the objection.

The trial will continue Monday when a psychiatrist will testify that Zarate was psychotic at the time of the murder.

Jury hears gruesome details of Randolph teen’s death:

Yesterday the jury in the Jonathan Zarate trial heard from the medical examiner about Jennifer Park’s death. I’m going to let the article do the talking…

Randolph slay victim Jennifer Parks was savagely beaten in the face and struck so hard in the stomach that she instantly lost consciousness and choked on her own vomit and blood, a medical examiner testified today at the trial of accused killer Jonathan Zarate.

The girl’s face was severely discolored, battered and swollen. Jurors also heard that Zarate stabbed the girl and that she still was alive, but unconscious, when he started to cut off her right thigh so he could squeeze most of her body into a foot locker. He abandoned the thigh-cutting because it was too difficult and instead cut her legs off at the knees, according to his confession.

The jury also heard from Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Sgt. John Haviland who was the man who took Zarate’s confession. Again the article can do a better job than I can.

The sergeant said he asked Zarate if he felt sad about the killing.

Zarate’s answer was: “It wasn’t supposed to be like that but it is now in the past and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Haviland testified.

The Jury also heard the confession tape. Again to the article.

Later that day, a police officer and a neighbor asked him if he had seen Jennifer because “apparently she was missing,” he said. He told both of them he did not know where she was. He said he went to a party in Florham Park, and upon returning, asked his brother James, then 14, to go for a drive with him.

James noticed a foul smell.

“I told him, don’t worry about it. Just put the window down,” Zarate told Haviland.

The jury was also shown the metal pole used to beat Jennifer and the bloodstained carpet she was killed on.

What really kills me about this case is that through past behavior you can tell that Zarate really thinks he’s going to get away with this. If he does I will have lost all faith in our legal system.

Murdered teen’s mom recalls frantic search for daughter:

Over three years and three months since the murder of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks the trial of Jonathan Zarate finally got underway in New Jersey today.

Testimony started off with Jennifer’s mother, Laurie Parks, recalling for the jury the frantic search for Jennifer.

For those of you just joining us it’s ‘alleged’ that the Parks’ neighbor, Jonathan Zarate stabbed Jennifer Parks to death after inviting her over for some late night TV. Zarate then ‘allegedly’ dismembered her body, hid it in a steamer trunk, hid the trunk inside of a Jeep for 24 hours, then tried dumping her body into the Passaic River.

As a witness, Laurie Parks helped establish what the prosecution claims was the motive: she explained that she pressured the Randolph school board to get Zarate’s younger brother, James, moved out of Jennifer’s seventh grade classes because he cruelly mocked her.

More on the trial as details become available.