TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: stabbing

  • 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.

  • Nicole Lambert on Primetime

    Nicole Lambert on Primetime

    Nicole Lambert will be appearing on ABC Primetime tonight at 10 PM.

    For those of you who may have missed this story, Nicole was literally stabbed in the back by her ex-boyfriend Eric Schorling in the middle of Romeo High School in Michigan. Schorling was sentenced to 10–15 years for the stabbing.

  • Jennifer Parks remembered II

    Jennifer Parks remembered II

    Slain Randolph teen leaves legacy:

    Jennifer Parks, the 16-year-old New Jersey girl who was brutally murdered and dismembered by Jonathan Zarate, will be remembered by her high school…

    RANDOLPH — It’s closing in on one year since Laurie Parks’16-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was senselessly murdered.

    Parks, who attended Randolph High School, will be honored on May 13 by her classmates during the Pennies for Jen Memorial Walk, an idea generated by the student council that will raise money for a scholarship and memorial park at the school.

    “I thought it was a great idea,” Laurie Parks said on Thursday.

    “(I’m) really proud of what they’re doing. They’ve done so much for me and my husband.”

    Parks said the scholarship fund already has $900, and that she and her husband, David, will award the scholarship to a student who wants to study editing or journalism in college.

    “That’s what my daughter loved to do,” Parks said. “She wanted to be an editor or in journalism when she graduated.”

    The walk will begin at 9 a.m. at the Randolph High School parking lot and will wind through a nearby trail system that connects the township.

    The event is sponsor- and donation-driven, said Kimberly Standridge, 17, a junior who also is treasurer of the student council’s executive board.

    Proceeds will go toward the scholarship, as well as a memorial garden.

    Standridge said Jennifer Parks’ mother didn’t want the garden to be only about her daughter.

    “She didn’t want the memorial garden just to be for Jen, so it’s going to be dedicated to Jen and other high school students who lost their lives during their high school careers,” Standridge said.

    The walk is open to anyone and donations will be accepted on the day of the event. Standridge hopes the event is held every year.

    I’m working on getting an address to send donations to.

  • 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”.

  • Zarate gets new home

    Zarate gets new home

    Suspect’s transfer called essential:

    Our favorite New Jersey psychopath is in the news again. Jonathan Zarate, accused of the murder and dismemberment of his 16-year-old neighbor Jennifer Parks, is in a new prison.

    He has been transferred out of the Morris County jail and into the Passaic County jail. Like I mentioned before, he was transferred because he is suing the Morris County jail over alleged abuses. What cracks me up, as if any actual humor could be found in this case, it’s his attorney and the things he had to say…

    “Jonathan Zarate is a man with very deep emotional problems,” his lawyer, Anthony Fusco Jr., said Monday. “He was not getting the treatment he needed in the Morris County Jail.”

    Ya think?

    Since his arrest July 31, Zarate has twice been charged with assaulting guards at the Morris County Jail. After the second alleged assault on Dec. 10, Zarate was sent to the Ann Klein Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in West Trenton. He was treated there until Feb. 2, when he was brought back to the jail.

    Fusco said his client’s mental condition has worsened since his return to the Morris County Jail — and Zarate has served notice that he intends to sue the state for depriving him of his proper medical treatment. On Friday, state Superior Court Judge Salem V. Ahto allowed Zarate to be transferred to another jail.

    Well, maybe if he didn’t kill and dismember a 16-year-old girl he wouldn’t be having these problems. It sounds like to me that they’ve been laying the grounds for an insanity defense for some time now.