Town Torn Over Boy Accused of Murder

[Lewis]

Town Torn Over Boy Accused of Murder
Oct. 1, 2007,CNN
Posted: 2007-10-02 12:24:21
Filed Under: Crime News, Nation News
GREENVILLE, Ohio (Oct. 1) -- A 10-year-old boy charged with arson and murder in the deaths of his mother and four others was released to the custody of his grandmother Monday in a case that has shocked and divided a small Ohio town.

The child denies all the charges, the boy's attorney, David Rohrer, told Darke County Juvenile Court Judge Michael McClurg on Monday morning. Rohrer also said that while the boy was read his rights before questioning, his age prevented him from fully understanding the situation.

About three dozen people gathered outside the county government center cheered when it was announced outside that the boy would be freed immediately from a juvenile facility in nearby Troy.

The boy escaped the September 16 fire that killed his mother, Chanan Palmer; his half-sister Kaysha, 8, and three children of Christy Winans: Kayla Winans, 6; Je'Shawn Davis, 5; and Jasmine Davis, 3.

Christy Winans and her boyfriend escaped the blaze with minor or no injuries.

Neighbors in Greenville, Ohio, about 30 miles from Dayton, said the duplex became a raging inferno within five minutes.

Darke County Prosecutor Richard Howell told the Dayton Daily News last week that the boy didn't give investigators a clear motive. But when asked whether he was certain the boy was behind the fire, Howell told the newspaper, "Yes, I am."

Winans' mother, Sabrina Jones, screamed at the boy's supporters outside the court Monday.

"My grandkids didn't even see the age of 10," Jones yelled at the crowd as she hurried to her car.

While police have said the boy confessed to setting the blaze, his supporters say he gave in under three days of questioning.

"He was just made a scapegoat for the whole thing," said Burke L. Goines, the boy's uncle. "It's traumatizing to put a 10-year-old boy in a situation like this, to make other people look better in their investigation," Goines said.

"A lot of people know what really happened, and no one will come forward," said Vicky Perez, who described herself as a friend and neighbor of the boy's family.

William Zink, pastor of the New Life Pentecostals of Greenville, said the boy was a regular churchgoer, overcoming difficulties including the death in July of his stepfather from AIDS and what he said was the family's "wild lifestyle."

"It was not just your 'American pie' family," Zink said. He said the boy had no bed and slept on the couch in the duplex.

The boy will now be under house arrest and staying with grandmother Tammy Reed. He will be home-schooled at the grandmother's home, the court said.

A forensic and psychological examination was scheduled for Friday.

The judge Monday did nothing to change the charges against the boy: one juvenile count of arson and five counts of murder. The arson count carries a minimum of one to three years in detention. The murder counts could keep the boy in custody until age 21.

But the boy could be labeled a serious youth offender under Ohio law, which could lead to imprisonment for life.

Zink said the boy is worth saving from the juvenile justice system.

"You can't want a kid to be a scapegoat for something this horrific," he said.

"This little boy got taken away from his family and community," neighbor Perez said. "We just want him to come home."

 

[Lewis]

But you know, sometimes the can cops lead a person to confess even if they did not do the crime. They apply a lot of constant pressure. And in this case it is a 10 yearl-old, and 3 days of constant interrogating pressure, is to much for a 10 year old. The cops have used this pressure on kids a lot of times, and most kids confess because they want it to stop, or they are promised if they do that they can go home. Or they will agree to anything to make the cops leave them alone.

 

[handy]

Let me guess, this boy is black.

If he was a white, 10 year old boy who had just underwent the horrible trauma of being in a fire that killed his mom and sister, they would never be questioning him for 3 days about murder. And this just several months after losing his step-father to AIDS. Poor child, poor poor child. I get furious about this, way too many little kids are held on serious charges like murder, and they are always black.

Well, I guess my blood is up now. If they convict this child of murder, it will confirm every bad thing Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton has ever said about the kind of justice blacks get in this country.

I'll eat these words if the boy is white, but without Googling the names of the victims or knowing anything else about this story, I would bet money on the fact that he is black.

 

[Lewis]

Nope he is white. And yes Handy African Americans, do get more injustice, but there are a lot of cases where whites get injustice also. It is just that the African Americans get it more. I am a person of color and I have been a victim of injustice, and I have seen a lot of it. The thing is all people need to start loving each other. Genesis 9 from these 3 was the earth overspread. We are all brothers and sisters.

 

[handy]

I got to admit, I am surprised, because pretty all the other cases I've seen where an extremely young child is held for such a serious crime, the child has been black.

This poor child. I read on another site that he is being held in the Juvenile Detention Center and can only see (what's left of) his family three days a week. Also, the boy's grandmother's husband requested many times that he be allowed with the child during the questioning and at no time was the boy or his grandfather told that they had the right to have an attorney present during the questioning.

 

[Lewis]

I always thought that the law said that little children, are supposed to have parents or a lawyer present when being interrogated by the cops. Because sometimes the cops do the wrong stuff with these kids. But from state to state laws vary, but in the cases of children it should not when it comes to interrogating children. There have been case for black and white kids, where they were put away for something that they did not do, because of the tactics of the police.

 

[handy]

My cousin is a policeman, my two nephews are deputies, so I'm all for the cops and normally will always give them the benefit of the doubt.

But, not this time. It was totally inexcusable that they did not have a lawyer or at least a social worker with this child during questioning.

Stupid too, for now the child's lawyer will have an excellent reason to request that the 'confession' not be admitted as evidence. As it shouldn't be.

Really, they should have very carefully trained interrogators for young kids, because children, even kids as old as 10 are most likely apt to say what they think adults want to hear. This not only results in kids being charged with crimes that they cannot even comprehend, much less plan and execute, but it also results in horrors such as the McCaffery day-care sex scandal where people were convicted of child-rapes and sexual abuses that now pretty much everyone admits never happened.

What really bothers me is that this little boy, who has been so scarred by the fire, a traumatic experience for any child, the death of his family, the interrogation of the police, which you know must have been frightening for him, now has to sit in Juvenile Detention, rather than being with his grandmother. I cannot understand why he hasn't been released to his family, what to they think, that a 10 year old is a flight risk?

 

[Lewis]

I am all for the ops too, but I have seen them do some wicked stuff. And that is just some of them. Most cops are good ones, and we sure do need them. The world would be in trouble with out them. I also have some family members who are cops and a couple have retired. I have one who now goes all over the country teaching other cops. But we do need them. Romans 13