Tag: stabbing

  • More out of Sudbury

    More out of Sudbury

    Student charged with murder in fatal stabbing at suburban school:

    The name of the suspect of the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School stabbing has been released. He is 16-year-old John Odgren of Princeton, Mass. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges yesterday in court. Which I find kind of strange considering that when police arrived Odgren had blood on his hands, proclaiming to police “I did it. I did it”. Odgren also allegedly said, “Is he OK? I don’t want him to die.” Odgren’s attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, is claiming that Odgren has Asperger’s Syndrome and is obviously going to use that as his defense.

    “The defendant has a history of fairly serious psychological diagnoses and has also suffered from hyperactivity dysfunction for many years,” Shapiro said. “What is clear is John has a serious disability.”

    Asperger’s is not an excuse for murder, and to claim so does a great disservice to people with Asperger’s. If this kind of defense continues, pretty soon people will think that all people with Asperger’s are potential killers. Not only that, but you could also have people who don’t have Asperger’s claiming that they do just so they can use it as a defense.

    In Massachusetts, anyone age 14 or older is automatically tried as an adult. Alenson was stabbed in the heart and the abdomen and had cuts on his neck. This was no accident.

    Students say assailant talked about murder, bombs:

    Classmates of Odgren sure aren’t painting him as some poor misunderstood kid…

    Just hours after a classmate was stabbed to death in a school bathroom, two Lincoln-Sudbury High School juniors yesterday said the student now accused of the killing often wore a trench coat to school and talked about murder, forensics and how he wanted to make a bomb.

    Brianna Hogge, also a junior at L-S, said “Jack” was “always asking how to get away with killing people and talking about how to make acid to make bombs. He was a really creepy kid.”

    Hogge said the student “was always talking about murder, overly interested in forensics and not happy things.”

    She said the young man had, in the past, talked to many students and some teachers about his unusual interests.

    I wouldn’t be surprised that if his claims of Asperger’s and asking if the victim was ok were all part of a plan to try to get away with murder.

    Speaking of the victim…

    Kin: Slain boy was ‘all-around good kid’:

    James Alenson, the studious, sweet-faced freshman brutally stabbed to death yesterday morning at Lincoln-Sudbury High School, was remembered yesterday as an excellent kid and straight-A student who never made trouble with anyone.

    He was just a nice kid. He was just an excellent kid, an all-around good kid, said the murdered boy’s grandfather, James Grotton of New Hampshire.

    Alenson, 15, had just moved with his family to Sudbury in September from Natick, where he completed eighth grade at Wilson Middle School. He has a brother and sister. “He’s a straight-A student,” said Eryn Hearn, 14, a Natick High freshman. “We’re all shocked.”

    His former classmates remembered Alenson as always toting around his clarinet and keeping to himself. A copy of his 2005 middle school year book shows him smiling with social studies teacher Niall Carey for the annual geography bee.

    “You’d see him with (the clarinet) all the time,” said former classmate Anton Wilson, 14, of Natick. “He’s a nice kid who’s quiet.”

    Does that sound like a kid who deserved to be stabbed to death?

  • Mass. school stabbing

    Mass. school stabbing

    Student charged with murder in fatal stabbing at suburban school:

    In case you haven’t heard by now, there has been a fatal stabbing at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

    James Alenson, a 15-year-old freshman, was stabbed by a 16-year-old student and was pronounced dead at 8:12 a.m Eastern Time at Emerson Hospital in Concord.

    The incident appeared to stem from a fight between the two. The suspect is in custody and is not being named at this time and has been charged with murder. I’ll bring you more details as they become available.

    ToF to Jade, Soobs, and Joker.

  • Jonathan Zarate will NOT face the death penalty

    Jonathan Zarate will NOT face the death penalty

    Slaying-dismembering: No capital case:

    Excuse my language, but…fucking New Jersey.

    Jonathan Zarate, the New Jersey teen who killed and dismembered 16-year-old Jennifer Parks, will not be facing the death penalty…

    On the day a grand jury handed up murder indictments against Jonathan Zarate, 19, and his brother, James, 16, Prosecutor Michael M. Rubbinaccio said he could not seek a capital case because the crime’s most-heinous aspects occurred after Jennifer Parks was dead.

    Citing state law, Rubbinaccio said prosecutors must establish the murder was “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman … and that it involved torture” to allow him to seek the death penalty.

    “Certainly you can describe what took place after the homicide as being all those things,” Rubbinaccio said, referring to the dismemberment. “But that is not evidence of an aggravating factor that would trigger a capital case litigation.”

    I don’t fault Mr. Rubbinaccio. I’m sure he did what he could. But the New Jersey law is so incredibly wrong on this. There is no justice for Jennifer Parks without the execution of Jonathan Zarate.

    Mrs. Parks, I know you’re reading this, and I am truly sorry about this.

  • Dyleski gets life

    Dyleski gets life

    Dyleski gets life in prison without parole:

    Scott Dyleski has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of Pam Vitale.

    Some words from the sentencing judge…

    “The one time I saw you show any emotion is during autopsy photos,” Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga told the Dyleski as she sentenced the teenager.

    “I saw you, sir, lean forward and your mouth fell open. And that’s the position you remained in. You were absolutely fascinated by your handwork. You don’t deserve to live among decent people.”

    The pleas for leniency by Dyleski’s lawyer obviously fell on deaf ears, and took the brutal way Pam Vitale was killed into consideration rather than Dyleski’s youth and “troubled upbringing”.

    Personal responsibility wins a rare victory.

  • Dyleski lawyer asks for leniency

    Dyleski lawyer asks for leniency

    Defense asks for leniency for Dyleski:

    Citing his unstable childhood, the attorney for convicted murderer Scott Dyleski has asked a judge to consider handing down the lightest possible sentence for killing his neighbor, Pamela Vitale.

    Dyleski deserves a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, which would give him the opportunity for parole, deputy public defender Ellen Leonida wrote in her sentencing memo to Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga.

    “All he is asking for is an opportunity to demonstrate — many, many years from now — that he can change,” Leonida wrote.

    He showed no leniency on Pam Vitale, so the state of California should not show him any.

  • Dyleski found guilty

    Dyleski found guilty

    Dyleski weeps as jury finds him guilty:

    MARTINEZ – Scott Dyleski put a hand over his eyes, leaned over and wept Monday afternoon as he heard a jury’s verdict finding him guilty of first-degree murder and a special circumstance that will send him to prison for the rest of his life.

    The jury deliberated about 18 hours before deciding Dyleski, 17, murdered 52-year-old Pamela Vitale on Oct. 15, 2005.

    With the conviction on the special-circumstance count of murder in the commission of a burglary, Dyleski will be sentenced to state prison without possibility of parole. He was 16 when he killed Vitale.

    The prosecutor said at trial Dyleski killed Vitale in connection with a scheme to purchase marijuana-growing equipment with stolen credit cards.

    Prosecutor Harold Jewett argued that Dyleski may have killed Vitale mistakenly believing that she was another neighbor. He was angry at the other neighbor for thwarting his plan to purchase the equipment and for running over his dog a month earlier.

    However, jurors did not believe that theory, said 55-year-old Concord resident Peter DeCristofaro, the single juror willing to speak with reporters.

    “That didn’t even come up,” he said. “We didn’t buy that.”

    He said all but one juror was certain from the first day of deliberations about guilt, but it took three days to decide that it was premeditated murder.

    “As far as guilt, we got that nailed down pretty quick,” he said.

    Sentencing is set for Sept. 26.

  • Dyleski jury deliberates

    Dyleski jury deliberates

    Dyleski Jurors Begin New Week Of Deliberations:

    The jury in the trial of Scott Dyleski has been deliberating, and on Friday had requested the following items…

    E-mail correspondence between Dyleski and his friend who is accused of taking part in a marijuana growing scheme

    The emergency contact list of the Hunsaker Canyon Road residents

    Aerial photos of the Hunsaker Canyon neighborhood, where Vitale lived

    Photo of mansion Daniel Horowitz and Vitale were building at the time of her death

    Photos of the content of Dyleski’s red backpack. The items in the backpack were eventually turned over to police by Dyleksi’s mother.

    Hernandez said the jury started deliberations ten minutes ahead of schedule on Friday. Hernandez said by midday, jurors requested even more items submitted into evidence. They included a photo of Scott Dyleski after his arrest, as well as photos from his room. They also asked to see the tape lift of shoe print and a photo of shoe print on a plastic lid.

    As soon as I hear anything about a verdict, I will let you know.

  • Closing statements in Dyleski trial

    Closing statements in Dyleski trial

    Prosecutor: Dyleski misidentified Vitale:

    Scott Dyleski killed Pamela Vitale mistakenly thinking she was another neighbor who had accidentally killed his dog and foiled his plan to buy marijuana-growing equipment, a prosecutor said Tuesday in closing arguments at Dyleski’s trial.

    “It doesn’t make sense any other way,” Harold Jewett said.

    In her closing, Dyleski’s defense attorney referred to her client a half dozen times as “a 17-year-old boy” and a kind teenager, and said somebody else killed Pamela Vitale.

    Jewett portrayed Dyleski as dismal and depressed, blaming the defendant, but also his parents and teachers for allowing a killer to brew.

    “You left me to die in the dark streets with nothing more than broken dreams. … You raised me to hate, and hate I will, because now I live, I live for the kill,” Jewett read from a school poem Dyleski wrote.

    The prosecutor added that influential people in Dyleski’s life did not intervene.

    “That’s really cool,” Jewett read from comments written by a teacher about the poem.

    Deputy public defender Ellen Leonida reminded the jury how her client’s friends testified he was a non-violent vegan who cared about people.

    I don’t know if it’s the way the media is reporting it, but this trial sounds like a complete clusterfuck.

    I won’t be surprised, no matter what verdict is announced.

  • Dyleski defense rests

    Dyleski defense rests

    SCOTT DYLESKI’S ATTORNEY RESTS HER CASE:

    So let me get this straight. Dyleski’s public defender, Ellen Leonida, rested her case after only hearing testimony from character witnesses?

    During her opening statement, Leonida argued that Dyleski couldn’t have killed Vitale because a witness saw him at home at the time of the murder. Dyleski lived a short walk down the hill on Hunsaker Canyon Road from where Vitale and Horowitz lived. That witness testified earlier in the trial that he was no longer sure what time he saw Dyleski that morning.

    Although the prosecution presented extensive DNA evidence connecting Dyleski to the crime, Leonida did not call any of her own expert witnesses to rebut the DNA evidence.

    Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in Judge Barbara Zuniga’s courtroom in Martinez.

    Not much of a lawyer, or did she know she didn’t have much to work with?

  • Witnesses testify for Dyleski

    Witnesses testify for Dyleski

    Friends, teachers say teen murder suspect was polite, nonviolent:

    This past Thursday, character witnesses testified on behalf of Scott Dyleski…

    On Thursday, teachers and friends of Scott Dyleski took the stand for the defense to say the teenager they knew was polite, sociable and nonviolent.

    Dyleski – who is being tried as an adult in the bludgeoning death of Vitale, wife of prominent defense attorney Daniel Horowitz – was a dedicated Ultimate Frisbee player who encouraged incoming teammates, handled conflict wisely and kept cool under pressure, according to Jo Tams, who coached his Acalanes High School team.
    Tams said she was so impressed with the “mature thinker” that she named him one of three team captains during the 2004-05 season.

    “He filled that role admirably,” she told jurors.

    Susan Lane, Dyleski’s graphic-design teacher, testified that he excelled in her class and produced “exceptional art.” She said she was not concerned at all that he focused on dark themes like Satan, noting that 20 percent of her students embraced the Goth culture and created similar images.

    That’s all well and good, but how many of history’s most notorious killers were polite, intelligent, and sociable. Ted Bundy? Jeffrey Dahmer? John Wayne Gacy? Eric Harris? And wasn’t Gacy an “exceptional artist”?

    Just because a killer was polite and sociable doesn’t make them any less of a killer.