TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: stabbing

  • 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.

  • Poker in the rear

    Poker in the rear

    Poker Game Leads to Butt Stabbing:

    Bob The Sports Writer (who is a righteous blogger in his own right at Digital Heartburn and The Fat Kid dot org) challenged my title of crime blogger by ignoring what he called “real crime” and sent me this story…

    A poker game took an unusual turn last week when one Navarre man turned a steak knife on another.

    Jace Moore, 22, confronted Dustin Danner, 23, about money he was owed from a recent poker match. When Danner did not pay up, the situation got ugly.

    Moore grabbed a steak knife and attempted to stab Danner in the chest. When his attempts failed, Moore took the knife below the belt. He proceeded to stab Danner four times in the buttocks.

    I guess that’s what happens when you get behind in poker. He really should have paid his arrears. Now he’ll be the butt of jokes from his friends. I’m really sorry for all these lame cracks.

    I’ll be here all week. Try your waitresses and tip the veal. Good night.

    (P.S. if you use the word “poker” in the comments, it will trip the spam filter)

  • Zarate returns to jail

    Zarate returns to jail

    Teen’s accused killer returns to Morris jail:

    This is an update on the story of Jonathan Zarate, the 18-year-old from New Jersey arrested for stabbing, bludgeoning, and dismembering 16-year-old Jennifer Parks.

    Yesterday, he was transferred back to the Morris County jail after spending two months at Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton for psychiatric observation. He was sent there after punching a few corrections officers and frequently urinating and defecating on his cell floor. If you’re going for an insanity defense, this is not the way to go about it, Sunshine.

    Morris County prosecutors still haven’t decided whether or not to pursue the death penalty. What’s to decide? Then again, this is New Jersey, and they haven’t executed anyone in 40 years.

  • Jonathan Zarate’s brother to undergo psych test

    Jonathan Zarate’s brother to undergo psych test

    New psychiatric test set for boy, 15, in slaying:

    This is an update on the murder of Jennifer Parks. She was bludgeoned, stabbed, and dismembered by her 18-year-old neighbor Jonathan Zarate. His younger brother, known only as “J.Z.” has also been charged with her murder. Prosecutors are looking to have the younger brother tried as an adult, but first, he must undergo a psychiatric evaluation…

    J.Z.’s attorney, Joseph Ferrante, submitted a psychiatric evaluation to Dangler on Friday that said the boy was a good candidate for rehabilitation. But Morris County Prosecutor Ralph Amirata asked the judge to allow him to seek a second opinion. Dangler granted the request, and gave the Prosecutor’s Office a month to have J.Z. evaluated by its psychiatrist.

    A good candidate for rehabilitation? You have got to be kidding me. He assisted in stabbing, bludgeoning and dismembering Jennifer Parks’ body and helped try to dispose of the body in the Passaic River. No, he is not a good candidate for rehabilitation. The only thing he’s a candidate for is a date with the needle.

  • Eric Schorling sentenced

    Eric Schorling sentenced

    Judge hands Romeo teen who stabbed ex-girlfriend stiff sentence:

    Eric Schorling, the teen who was convicted of stabbing Nicole Lambert in the back at Romeo High in Michigan, was sentenced yesterday to 10–15 years in adult prison…

    “In one respect you are fortunate,” Maceroni said. “Either one centimeter up or down or to either side, and Nicole wouldn’t be here today and you, young man, would have spent the rest of your life in the Michigan Department of Corrections. That’s how lucky you are.”

    You have to love a judge who tells it like it is.

    Of course, we had some humorous shenanigans from the defense attorney during the trial…

    During the trial, Garton tried to introduce evidence about the differences between the brains of adolescents and adults. He also sought to include testimony that the bullying Schorling received after he broke up with Lambert helped lead to the attack.

    “This didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Garton said of the stabbing. “If they had just separated and gone their own ways, and there wasn’t this name-calling, this never would have happened.”

    You know what the name-calling was? “Nazi”. Eric Schorling had a swastika tattoo. It’s hard to muster up any sympathy for a Nazi psychopath.

    At least the prosecuting attorney has some sense…

    Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith disagreed.

    “Sorry if I appear harsh,” Smith said. “But this girl almost died. Kids are teased every day, but they don’t go out and try to kill someone.”

    Now, where have I heard that before?

    However, the 10–15 years is not the only sentence Schorling will receive…

    Schorling still faces an additional charge relating to his escape from Macomb County’s Juvenile Justice Center. Schorling, now 17, had already pleaded guilty and was slated to be sentenced to less than seven years in prison, but that plea was withdrawn after the escape.

    You should have taken the plea, Einstein, but I’m so glad you didn’t.

  • More details in Jennifer Parks’ murder

    More details in Jennifer Parks’ murder

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

    More information on 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.

  • Zarate’s brother charged with murder

    Zarate’s brother charged with murder

    New murder charge in Randolph killing:

    There’s been a major development in the ongoing story of Jonathan Zarate. To sum up, 18-year-old Zarate killed 16-year-old Jennifer Parks, dismembered her body, hid her body in a trunk, hid the trunk in his dad’s Jeep for 24 hours, then tried dumping her body in the Passaic River.

    Now, his 15-year-old brother known only as “J.Z.” has now been charged with helping his brothers commit the murder. Originally, “J.Z.” was only charged with unlawful disposal of human remains and hindering apprehension…

    This afternoon, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office served him with a complaint that charges him with being a principal or accomplice to the July 30 beating and stabbing death of the 16-year-old Parks girl.

    Assistant Prosecutor Ralph Amirata would not give many specifics on the reasons for the first-degree charge against the juvenile, but acknowledged it is at least in part based on statements provided by a 16-year-old Clifton youth, who helped the teen and 18-year-old Jonathan Zarate try to throw a steamer trunk containing the girl’s corpse over a bridge into the Passaic River. The disposal attempt was thwarted when police passed by.

    At a hearing tomorrow, prosecutors are going to ask the judge to let them try “J.Z.” as an adult.

  • Esmie Tseng revisited

    Esmie Tseng revisited

    Friends argue 16-year-old girl needs help, not prison, following her mother’s murder:

    This is another story that I’ve been following here. It’s the story of Esmie Tseng, a 16-year-old Kansas girl who is accused of stabbing her mother, Shu Y. Tseng, to death. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a chance to post the previous entries since The Great Website Meltdown of 2005.

    What makes this story attention-getting is the support she is getting from friends and strangers alike who do not want her tried as an adult, which is basically what this article is about.

    I have yet to hear an official motive for the killing, but it may be because I haven’t researched too hard. I just post dribs and drabs of what I get through the media. However, Esmie’s mom has been portrayed as this overbearing mother putting way too much pressure to succeed on her daughter…

    “Her mom leaves a note on her bed that basically said, ‘If you don’t take the state championship, we’re taking the piano away,’” Horwitz said. “(Esmie) puts in (her journal) a couple times that the only thing that defines her is piano and her escape from life is to sit down and play Bach for a few hours.”

    While her mother sounds like a control freak, it’s still no reason to stab her repeatedly if that is, in fact, the motive.

    Unless I hear a better explanation of why she killed her mother, I have no problems at all with her being tried as an adult.

  • Zarate accomplice pleads guilty

    Zarate accomplice pleads guilty

    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.

  • 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.