Before Berenice Juarez became a convicted killer at age 18, the Delray Beach teen suffered the horror of childhood sexual abuse and witnessed violent attacks in her home. Her resulting psychological problems should be a factor when she is re-sentenced for the Feb. 17, 2010 stabbing death of her mother's boyfriend, Gildardo Ramos Paz, 47, argued Juarez's attorneys on Thursday. "If you grow up in an environment of fear, violence, trauma, stress, it changes the way you think," said Assistant Public Defender Scott Pribble. "We believe the court can really gain insight into why she did this." Archive: New sentence coming for former Delray teen who murdered mother's...
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Former Delray teen who murdered mother's boyfriend to be re-sentenced
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King gets 28-year prison sentence for killing mail-order bride
EVERETT -- Adult life has been a long slide for Indle King Jr. From a University of Chicago MBA to a petty rental income. From an Eagle Scout to a lying manipulator. From the husband of a beautiful young bride to a killer. Superior Court Judge George Bowden sentenced King yesterday to 28 years and 11 months in prison for the first-degree murder of his wife, Anastasia, a mail-order bride from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. The case, which has drawn national attention, was also the inspiration for a new Washington state law that puts tighter restrictions on the foreign mail-order bride industry. The sentence was at the top end of the standard range for King, 40. A jury convicted...
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>King gets 28-year prison sentence for killing mail-order bride
EVERETT -- Adult life has been a long slide for Indle King Jr. From a University of Chicago MBA to a petty rental income. From an Eagle Scout to a lying manipulator. From the husband of a beautiful young bride to a killer. Superior Court Judge George Bowden sentenced King yesterday to 28 years and 11 months in prison for the first-degree murder of his wife, Anastasia, a mail-order bride from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. The case, which has drawn national attention, was also the inspiration for a new Washington state law that puts tighter restrictions on the foreign mail-order bride industry. The sentence was at the top end of the standard range for King, 40. A jury convicted...
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>Mom who left toddler to die strapped in car faces prison
A Snohomish County mother who left her young daughter to die strapped into a car while she tried to buy drugs now faces more than a decade in prison. Nearly two years have passed since 19-month-old Chantal Craig died in the broken down car that was their home while her mother Christina Carlson was trying to score drugs. Her older sister, nearly 3 then, was belted in next to her, and was also hospitalized following the Oct. 8, 2012, incident. Now, federal prosecutors in Seattle have asked that Carlson, 37, serve 13 years in prison for her daughter’s...
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Prosecutors plan to argue for death sentence for Covington
TAMPA — Edward Covington says the children he murdered loved him. He says he was close to their mother’s family, that before he brutally murdered and mutilated Lisa Freiberg and her two young children, he spent the holidays with the Freibergs and learned from her father how to install a transmission in her truck. Lisa Freiberg’s mother says she saw Covington only a few times before he slaughtered her daughter and grandchildren on Mother’s Day in 2008. Barbara Freiberg testified she didn’t even know Covington was living with...
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Court eases power of judges in juvenile murder cases
Detroit — The case of an overnight attack on a couple in a small Michigan town could rewrite the rules for life sentences for teens convicted of murder. The state appeals court said juries — not judges — must decide whether someone under 18 gets life in prison without parole — an extraordinary shift in Michigan’s justice system. Juries determine guilt at trials, of course, but punishment has been reserved for judges. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is certain. “This is certainly a ruling that is unique, and in our opinion unsupported by case...
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Redmond 5 defendant gets resentencing hearing
BEND, Ore. (AP) — A defendant in the notorious "Redmond 5" murder case will seek a lighter sentence when he returns to court Tuesday after more than a decade behind bars. Justin Link, 31, was a teenager in 2001 when he and four friends in Central Oregon killed Barbara Thomas, 52, of Redmond. The cruelty of the case attracted national attention, particularly because one of the attackers...
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Philip Chism begins trial today for allegedly killing, raping teacher
Philip Chism, who allegedly told police that he “became the teacher” when he slashed the throat of Danvers High educator Colleen E. Ritzer, goes on trial today for the 2013 killing and could become the first juvenile to be convicted of murder since the state granted parole eligibility to teen killers. Jury selection in the horrifying case of a promising young math teacher raped, slashed to death and dumped in the woods begins today in Essex County Superior Court in Salem. If convicted, Chism, now 16, will have a shot at parole in 20 years, or 30, if he’s convicted of first-degree murder with extreme cruelty. “None of it...
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Heather Opel, 14, is sentenced to 22 years for role in murder
EVERETT -- Relatives of a man brutally murdered by five teens finally had their chance to confront one of the killers in court. "Heather Opel says she deserves a chance for the future. I ask why," said Colleen Muller, the daughter of Jerry Heimann, who was beaten to death by the teens on April 13, 2001. "Life in prison is what she deserves," said Muller, who noted the 14-year-old girl willingly took part in the group execution after living under Heimann's roof, eating his food and accepting his Christmas presents. "They have ruined so many lives," Muller said. Prosecuting attorneys asked for a...
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>Heather Opel, 14, is sentenced to 22 years for role in murder
EVERETT -- Relatives of a man brutally murdered by five teens finally had their chance to confront one of the killers in court. "Heather Opel says she deserves a chance for the future. I ask why," said Colleen Muller, the daughter of Jerry Heimann, who was beaten to death by the teens on April 13, 2001. "Life in prison is what she deserves," said Muller, who noted the 14-year-old girl willingly took part in the group execution after living under Heimann's roof, eating his food and accepting his Christmas presents. "They have ruined so many lives," Muller said. Prosecuting attorneys asked for a...
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Why I didn't want my son's killer to spend his life in jail (guest column)
My only son, Ronald D. Simpson III, was murdered on Fathers Day 2001. He was 21 years old. His killer was a 14-year old boy who was under the mistaken impression that my son was physically abusing his sister, who was my sons girlfriend. I was heartbroken. But when it was time for the childs trial, my sons mother and I advocated for his killer to be processed in the juvenile system. We wanted him tried there, held there after his conviction and treated there to prepare him for release. The judge granted our wishes. The young teen...
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Teen killers could walk
Horrified prosecutors said yesterday’s high court ruling making Bay State teen killers eligible for parole was a bombshell they dreaded broaching with the victims’ families at Christmastime. “I’m thinking about the families whose wounds have been ripped apart today — of all days — by this decision,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett told the Herald. Beyond the pending case of 14-year-old Philip Chism, the student accused of slaughtering and raping promising...
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Dueling portraits of Massachusetts teen charged in teacher's murder
SALEM, Mass. - A Massachusetts prosecutor on Monday described a 16-year-old former high school student charged with murdering his math teacher as a remorseless killer, while his attorney portrayed him as mentally disturbed. The suspect, Philip Chism, is being tried as an adult in the murder of Colleen Ritzer, 24, who had been a popular teacher at Chism's high...
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Heather Mack’s Boyfriend Gets 18 Years For Killing Her Mother
Mack claims that she didn’t take part in the actual murder of her mother, and maintains that she was in a panic when she helped her boyfriend stuff her body into a suitcase. Nonetheless, the horrific death shocked Bali — a place where a person can be sentenced to death by firing squad. Even...
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Michigan Supreme Court: Not so fast on resentencing juvenile lifers
LANSING — A U.S. Supreme Court decision that makes mandatory life sentences without parole unconstitutional for juveniles should not be applied retroactively, a divided Michigan Supreme Court said Tuesday in a ruling that brought joy to some families shattered by horrific crimes, but heartbreak to others. Michigan juveniles sentenced to mandatory life without parole prior to the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama do not have to get new sentencing hearings, . The ruling is a defeat for more than 300 Michigan inmates serving mandatory life sentences without parole for murders committed when they were teenagers. And it was a victory for Attorney General Bill Schuette, who...
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Man gets 58-year sentence for pot-dispute killing
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — A judge in Everett, Wash., has sentenced a Tulalip-area man to 58 years in prison for fatally shooting another man in a...
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>Man gets 58-year sentence for pot-dispute killing
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — A judge in Everett, Wash., has sentenced a Tulalip-area man to 58 years in prison for fatally shooting another man in a...
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Cop killer sentenced to death
If at first you don't succeed …. After only four hours of deliberation, jurors sentenced cop killer Ronell Wilson to death by lethal injection for the murders of undercover cops James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews during a gun buy bust gone bad on...
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Convicted Dunbar Village rapist sentenced to 60 years in prison
WEST PALM BEACH – By all accounts, Nathan Walker started out in life with little chance to make it. Raised in extreme poverty in a violent neighborhood, by the time he was 16 he became one of several young men implicated in one of the most heinous local crimes in recent history - the brutal gang rape and forced incest of a mother and son inside the Dunbar Village housing project. Walker had already begun serving a life sentence in prison for the crime last year when U.S. Supreme Court justices mentioned him by name in a court ruling declaring Florida courts were unconstitutional in sentencing juveniles to life in prison for crimes other than murder. The ruling cleared the way for a new...
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>Girl tells about slaying by gang
EVERETT -- Marriam Oliver told the jury yesterday that when Barbara Opel was assigning roles to a gang of teenagers the night they killed her employer, she couldn't hear every word. She knew she was supposed to stab him with a knife. But she wasn't sure about the others' responsibilities because the cartoons on television drowned out Opel's voice. Oliver was called to testify in Snohomish County Superior Court during the murder trial of Barbara Opel, a...
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