14-Year-Old Charged with Raping and Killing 65-Year-Old Teacher Hannah Wheeling

• I do wish to make only a couple additional comments: first about resources. It costs less to keep someone locked up for life than it does to execute them. The reason being that being put on death row automatically puts you through the appeals process, which is far more expensive than keeping someone behind bars for life. This being said, I still advocate the death penalty for this child. Second: Having a strong background in psychology I can tell you that the only way to reduce the crime rate, especially in dealing with these types of crimes, is to expedite the justice system. By implementing a system that is capable of dealing with crime swiftly and surely, we can seriously reduce the amount of violent crime in our neighborhoods. Is this possible? Somewhat. We will never catch everyone swiftly and surely, but if we can reduce the amount of time spent dawdling in courts and going through lengthy legal procedures (expedite the process) we can seriously improve the safety of our country.

• @mouse and everyone else who believes this "child" is up for redemption. How old are you? Do you remember being thirteen? I'm a college student about to graduate, join the work force, and start a family. I'm a lot closer to thirteen than most of the people posting here, so I'm going to say that I probably remember it a lot better than most of you do. At thirteen, you are not a "child". At thirteen you have a deep understanding of basic morals. You know that rape is wrong, you know that murder is wrong, and you know what defines these acts. This is not a child on trial. This is an individual who clearly crossed a line no decent human should ever cross. He took the life of another at an age where he understands the consequences of these acts. This was not an impulse he couldn't control, this was a decision he made as an individual capable of understanding right and wrong with an ability to comprehend complex issues beyond what most humans are capable of. This "child" shouldn't be locked away for life. He was already locked away when he raped and murdered a woman. He needs to be put on death row and executed swiftly before he commits more acts like this. I'm not sorry in voicing this opinion. Being under 18 does not blur the moral boundary. Murder is wrong no matter your age, thus changing the punishment based on age is an idiosyncrasy of an outdated legal system. I'll hope and pray for this child's swift execution as well as for the wellbeing of all those hurt by his actions. No human should be allowed to live after committing these acts.

• judgments.... biologically, we are born animals animals. its the refinements of our "cultures" that separates us from the beasts. when we were brought out to this world, it is this world that gave us that refinement, or it is this world that failed to instill that refinement.. then, we say.. we failed in you .you may look like "us" but you actually a lower form.. then we say, goodbye, you're locked! did the boy really choose as he did or is it us that failed to craft him to be one of us?

• The game. He just lost it.

• I have worked with juves in detention for a decade and I can honestly say most staff come with good intentions and soon realize you cannot help those that do not want help and relish in their criminal lifestyle. Just because these criminals are young does not mean they are not extremely dangerous. Some people are not salvagable. To discontinue giving such dangerous people "chances" is not giving up on America's future, it's protecting our future. Murder without justification cannot be taken back. This young man chose to end his chance at freedom.

• @mousepovna, what makes you think I want the Nazi to change? Don't be ridiculous. He can stay a Nazi. Just not around me, the people I care about or comfortably in my society. You continue avoid the other question: Would you agree that the hating they do, namely hating Jews simply because they are Jews, is the kind of lazy and ineffectual mental masturbation you refer to? I regret we have fulfilled Godwin's law, however, it lends itself so readily to anchoring the furthest touch point.

• @alexa kim, I'll be right behind you and the Nazi you've hated into change.

• So many irresponsible parents are spilling out kids like they are baking cookies. It is easy to make a kid, it's a whole different matter to raise them. So kids end up in the streets with no discipline, and the parents don't care or show any responsibility to them. There are so many cases such as this one, where I think abortion is justified. China limits families to two children each - I hear it might even be one soon. If we did that, we wouldn't have all these aimless, stupid, moronic, undisciplined little creeps draining our resources and filling our jails and prisons.

• @Reid, spot ON.

• The kid was 13 and already locked up in juvie for a "series of break-ins". How much do you want to bet that was not his first run-in with the law before being sent to juvenile hall? Seems only likely that his next step was rape and murder with the company he kept. This is not a child. He was obviously a "fully-functioning" male who was able to overpower a woman. Children know when they are being naughty. Psychopaths don't care.

• @Kristin, here comes Joel right on schedule, incapable of discerning the difference between the "undesirables" as defined by the Nazi euthanasia solution and the staggeringly savage and cruel criminals we speak of. So, out he flips the raaaaaacism card because he can't tell the difference. If only we could get him to wear rose colored corrective glasses.

• @mousepovna, a lovely view but what do you do about the smell? If you don't hate Nazis then you're part of the problem. Unless and until you bring us a Nazi you've loved into no longer being a Nazi, then your sentimentality is just in the way of the rest of us applying the cure.

• @Kristin- I heard the Neo Nazi's need help at the border. I'm sure they would also agree with most of your ideas, like exterminating the undesirables as they are a drain on society. Sounds like you're nostalgic for the T4 program.

• I am so presumptuous! @cw, you may not have even been talking to me.oops!

• @cw, maybe but they sure do make for a lovely view.

• Hey Sharon-you hit that spot on.

• Pete...I hate to disagree, but most people are not on welfare a min of 6 months. There are bookoodles of career welfare recipients out there. They work it like this, As long as you have a child that is not in kindergarten AND will provide baby's daddy name(for child support) you can be on/in the system. A woman with one child can and does stay on the system for AT LEAST 4-5 years. Others keep popping them out like a Pez despenser. I have seen them at my son's school with literally a kid in each grade, a toddler, and either a newborn or pregnant.You are talking about a total of 12-14 years "getting paid". And funny thing is that is what they say when their stuff (benefits) comes in. "I got paid today, I'm going shopping". I have been behind them and their brood in line and watched as two full carts are filled up with nothing but junk food. Now mind you, I am not talking about people who have to collect benefits because of loss of jobs and todays economy,who have pride and need not a hand out but a hand up. I am talking about women who work the system. And sure, NOW there are obligation like activily "search" for work or job training/schooling. But that is all BS. One case worker cannot call Walmart 100 times because someone said/wrote that they "filled" out an application. On top of everything else, money, food stamps, medical, they also get child/day care paid for while "attending" classes or job hunts. I remember back in the day when food stamps was actually "paper money". You couldn't even begin to pretend it was real cash because you had to tear it out of a booklet in front of cashier. God..talking about embarrassing. You wanted to crawl through the floor because the people who were behind you knew that your were on welfare. Now days, everything is put on "credit cards". So there is no shame having to cash your check or pay with food stamp. Now it is all about "getting paid" for alot of folks.

• rose colored glasses...

• @alexa kim, I like your spirit of open dialogue but as you might have guessed I don't hate Nazi's. I have a profound sense of pity for the ignorant and frightened. I am however deeply saddened at the brutal havoc they or any other hate filled group reek.

• @Pete, did anyone answer your question about the comments acting up? There was a time period earlier today when, for me, and I think others, after clicking "Post" I'd get a blogcomment error page, Try Again button, Resend data dialogue, fail, repeat. In my case, my comment wouldn't post at all. I waited a bit, tried again, finally worked. This is a recurring hiccup, and it's not unusual for it to happen at about the same time of day, several days in a row.

• @diamondgirl9, ok, then what did you mean when you said: "diamondgirl9 said: Kirsten I'll bet all the working class and middle class people who shop at Walmart would be surprised to know they are unintelligent thugs and supported by you personally. Especially the ones who decide to have more than one or two children. Posted 08/02/2010 at 03:59:14 PM"

• I think everyone knows what she meant-no aching detail required.

• Actually, most people are on welfare for six months or less, CCCC. And the stereotypical welfare recipient -- meaning most common -- is a single mother with kids who's just endured some hardship where she temporarily needs help. The main causes: major illness, sudden unemployment and divorce. So in most cases it's actually a very good, short-term safety net. But the problem always come when you're standing in line somewhere and the lady in front of you is buying steaks with her welfare card, and you're the working stiff behind her buying hot dogs with your own money. It's just human nature to get pissed at the chronic welfare queens, even though they're the minority on the dole.

• @mousepova - why not? The death penalty is more than suitable. If he's able to give and comment death, he's ready to receive. Giving any lenience is a disgrace; especially to the victims family. To hell with this little bastard.

• Fuck this kid; he should be locked up and given a death sentence. Anyone saying that he should be saved is obviously a sympathetic naive person. Let's not waste resources on a fat sack of shit of flesh.

• mousepovna, "attempt to understand the criminal". Why would you want to understand someone who can do something like this? To understand someone implies a sharing of thoughts or the thought process itself. I don't want to go there!

• Welfare fraud is quite rampant everywhere it is not actively prosecuted and vigorously prosecuted. If you are on welfare as an honest claimant, then there are time limits in every state. But if you are a career welfare abuser, then you have developed numerous and nefarious ways to defraud the rest of us for many years. That is also a statistic I would like to see, but it might be difficult to compile as each state does it differently and I'd have to look around for quite a while.

• I read that most people on welfare are on it for 2 years or less. I can try to find the source for that info, should anyone want it. My entire life I have heard about those awful trashy people who won't work, whose kids we pay for. I've heard it recently from the mouth of someone I love, even. But seriously, I've heard it so much and for so many years that it smacks of total bullshit. If someone has real stats on this phenomena, please correct me.

• This person stopped being a child the moment he raped and murdered that woman-he should be put down. I don't care why he did it. He should be put to death.

• @mousepovna, I do the hate the crime. I am realistic about how to stop the committer of the crime from committing more crime. Hating them depends on the depth of their depravity. In certain cases, they merit my hatred, easily. Humans are born with a spectrum of emotions meant to help them survive. Hatred, for the right things and the right people, helps keep us alive. Just as an example of a group universally hated, let me ask, for discussion, would you agree that hating Neo-Nazis is healthy? Would you agree that the hating they do, namely hating Jews simply because they are Jews, is the kind of lazy and ineffectual mental masturbation you refer to? Just to discuss it, I'm curious.

• I'll agree the punishment isn't swift. It's painfully slow, erratic, and faulty. But I guess that's why I'm not into the death penalty. It's not because I don't want to see someone whacked who's deserving. I do. I just think we have a wretched justice system.

• He should not be charged as an adult. He should be charged as an animal! And they can't be re-habilitated.

• Wally World, probably unfairly, tends to appear to host a larger share of trailer trash, ghetto trash, and over-propagating career welfaristas. Of course, it is a great place to shop for the many more perfectly legal, hard-working, clean-living and law-abiding working class consumers. Which is what Kristin meant, I believe, and relied on us to intuit correctly, without insisting on misunderstanding her simply because she didn't spell it out in aching detail.

• Gosh you step away for a moment and things get pretty tense! @Kristin, If your heart, soul, higher power, etc. leads you to want to cull the herd more power to you. As for me I'm going to keep striving for my "cliched Utopia". Would you like another cliche I stand behind? Change begins with you. If you don't like what you see when you look around meet it head on with loving action. @Alexa Kim, Hate is lazy and akin to ineffectual mental masturbation. Can you hate a crime but attempt to understand the criminal. I can.

• @Kristin, you touch on another under-emphasized aspect of crime: the same criminals keep committing the majority of the crimes, repeatedly. If only we'd cowboy up and get rid of them. I understand that for the career criminal, who is greedy for lots of cash fast, no matter who suffers, claiming poverty as justification for turning to crime is just what he hopes we'll fall for. Terrorists around the globe do the same thing. The fact is, the vast, vast majority of the poor do not choose crime, and would never consider it. You don't harm someone else in order to relieve your pain.

• Kirsten I'll bet all the working class and middle class people who shop at Walmart would be surprised to know they are unintelligent thugs and supported by you personally. Especially the ones who decide to have more than one or two children.

• Kristin: Don't you think that maybe a cycle of poverty and lack of access to self-betterment through an education might actually be the root causes? It seems more realistic than "Wal-Mart types" popping out kids.

• @Milan, I am so very sorry for your suffering. It is people like you, surviving victims, who merit all the money we spend on the criminals. I'd much rather spend money supporting you, helping you recover, than on the criminals of any age. In this world, with these politicians, with our entrenched system, overhauling our current penal system is not achievable in our lifetime, I don't think. What would work a lot faster and would return our focus to helping the harmed, is to: -execute those on death row who have received their DNA test and it did not change their sentence -immediately reduce any payments we make to foreign countries by the amount of the cost of the incarceration of their citizens in our jails, here legally or illegally -make all states and municipalities purchase crime victim rehabilitation insurance, premiums for which would be assessed according to the rate of crime tolerated in those communities -immediately stop all lawsuits filed against police departments currently being allowed by the Church of the ACLU worshipping judiciary I hope you can overcome the horror of your victimization at the pace and manner best for you. If you are taking measures to empower yourself, with self-defense classes, or by exercising your rights under the 2nd Amendment, then bravo and very good for you. If anyone is super entitled to liberal access to her 2nd Amendment Right, it is you. In any case, you are among friends here.

• Perhpas, Pete, but punishment is not swift nor harsh. Obviously, prison isn't too bad, the same people end up there over and over again. The death penalty takes too long, as currently enforced. Too many priviliges exist in prison. The real problems, though, are the underlying causes that generated most of these criminals - poor parenting and absolute lack of accountability and personal responsibility. Plus, frankly, the dumb are outbreeding the smart. The vast majority of intelligent, educated people don't have more than one or two kids. The Wal-Mart type have six or seven that *I* get to pay for in every way conceivable. The current model just isn't working. Money and resources are limited, and some point, push is going to come to shove...

• Naah, you're not banned, grandma. For some reason two of your things got caught in the spam filter today, for reasons I can't explain.

• When you say the comments feature is acting up, what exactly do you mean? Let me know and I'll send the problem over to the maintenance guys.

• I don't know, Kristin. Our rates of imprisonment, our sentencing and the rate with which we put people to death have all expanded dramatically in the past 25 years. You could even call it an explosion of punishment. But it doesn't seem to have done anything to the crime rate. The only thing that seems to move that is low unemployment.

• I would much rather pay to lock this kid up for life than to execute him. There are multiple reasons for this that are obvious to me, but I'd rather address something else: lowering the cost involved with incarceration. Take away amenities (keep the library), serve the most basic of meals(PBJ & Fruit), implement prison work programs with prisoner's pay offsetting the cost of their incarceration, quit housing non-violent offenders, and make non-violent offenders work for the community with their earnings benefiting the community &/or victims. Set aside a minor stipend paid for by any prison work program so that newly released prisoners have no immediate need to re-offend. If we reduce the cost of incarceration & focus only on housing the violent, perhaps it wouldn't be such an issue to permanently incarcerate a broken child. Gram: It at least looks like a lot of posts are popping up late, for some reason.

• @Kristin, hear hear!

• Hey, everyone's entitled to their opinion. Mousepovna, your comments are a cliche that's great in an Utopian world. I, however, live in reality. Caring about law-abiding, good people is EXACTLY my point. We can't do that when the cancers of the world are constantly preying on us without commensurate punishment. Have you ever been to your local Wal-Mart? Time to cull the herd, people. Those of those who choose to break the social contract in heinous ways need to culled, period. Again, we've been "permissive" and haven't held people accountable for the last 25 years. That shit doesn't work. Furthermore, the economic component of trying to "save" everyone is liberal and unrealistic blather.

• I think this boy must have had some bad things happen to him because children dont just view the world this way..something or someone leads them to it. Being an adult who grew up in a less than desirable home I can relate to some of the things this young boy must have had to endure. While me and him may very well have gone through many of the same tortures as young children this boy has commited other crimes and now rape and murder. For all I've had to learn to cope with I've yet to break into a house or car, commit arson, battery or any other crime. I've never been arrested or pulled over. Some people can function through it and others cant. For those of you who say we should just kill him that is wrong and seems very inhuman. Yes he is young and unaware of the full extent of his actions but at the same time 13 year olds of today are far more "grown" than what they were say 50 years ago...or even 25. He may have the 'invincible' thing going but I have no doubt in my mind that he knew what he was doing. He should be tried as an adult & receive 2 life terms to run consecutively with no chance of parole. He should not be given juvenile time and be released. As a victim of rape by 3 men that was spanned over years in my life I have to say that to forgive a person capable of this is harder than you can imagine. And to believe they can change is even harder. I've yet to see any of the 3 men who violated me spend even 1second in handcuffs let alone serve time. This lady has been given more justice than I and I hope they continue to do just that.

• @baf and @A'Grandma, agreed, excellent points. Yeah, the comments feature is acting up; I'm assuming it means there's a lot of traffic.

• @baf, Thank you. I had a post (2 of them) saying same thing. But mine didn't get posted. Thought i was being banned. But you said what i tried.

• @ mousepovna You like the woman who was killed in this story worked with these @ risk children and she believed that she could help these kids. Chances are she did help several kids go on to lead productive lives and for that her family should be very proud. However, this boy was and is beyond help. He not only raped and murdered someone, it was the very person who offered him a chance at a normal life. He should be punished as an adult for commiting an adult crime.

• To my way of thinking, In a couple of years, he will get his GED. Maybe a college degree (or 2). Free room and board. He will "find" jesus. He will act remorseful (key word- ACT) And all of this will be at taxpayers expense. he will assume (thanks to whatever lawyer he gets) that at his age, he will be released at 21. And the kicker: He will get out and be on the streets to continue his evil doings. And this whole time he has "made great strides", he will be plotting what he will do once he is out. The rest will be just time killers. While this woman family will be suffering her lost at his evil hands. God help the next female (or male) that he meets if/when he gets out. the only Jesus he will find is the one in the next cell and he will be coached on how to convience the board that he is a changed person. When in fact, he is more evil then, then now and he will target someone quickly. The only way to prevent further murders by him, is to keep him locked up. He's an animal and needs to be treated like one. he gave up his right to be a human when he attacked this teacher.

• @A'Grandma, you said something in your comment that made me realize something else. Children who are born broken, defective, often act as if they are responding only to the ancient brain stem's orders, as opposed to the higher functioning parts of their brain. If they also lack a sufficiently strong external guiding and shaping parental influence that recognizes that defect and actively mitigates it, then they revert to acting purely as impulse satisfaction beasts. Casting no aspersions on bears, but, a lot like them. In such cases, no amount of external treatment, handling, training, correction or rehabilitation will work. So the question arises: Do we provide room and board for the rest of his natural life, at great expense, to a known natural born human predator? The great expense that cannot then be spent on the victim's surviving family's counseling and assistance in overcoming their terrific loss. So to me, it is not about the great expense. It is about to what we devote the great expense. What are we getting for the money we spend?

• This "article" is horribly written...

• I believe in the "eye for an eye" granted in adults. But our children are now doing crimes that normally we see in adults. So based on that, do i approve of "revenge killing"? No. But i do believe that all criminals need to be judged based not on their age, but by the crime. We, as a nation, can't save all of our children. So we help those that we can save. This "child" choose to rape this teacher. She may have thought she was connecting with him as a role model. When in fact, he was a bomb waiting to go off. and he went off on the woman who tried to help him. He also choose to pick up a rock (brick, block whatever) and bash her head in. That isn't a "normal" child. That is a person who made a choice and followed through on it. Again, i think to my 13 yr grandson. He is so docile that he won't even step on a bug. How much abuse or influence would be needed to develope a child this young with this kind of thought process? I'm sorry if i sound harsh as to what i feel his punishment should be. But, he will not come out of this a great boy with a future to "make right" in his life. he has cast his stone and his future has now been written. he nneds to go to prison for his crimes against humanity and against this poor woman who's only goal was to provide a positive image and maybe a role model to a messed up kid. He now is the garbage he wants to be. And to those who think he is redeemable, wake up, have some coffee and move on with your life. he is beyond anyones help. He is his own judge, jury and excutioner.

• Kristin: I believe this kid should be locked up for life & I have no interest in rehabilitating him. However, advocating the death penalty for a child based upon the cold science of limited resources alone is as chilling as murder, in my opinion.

• Demanding justice that is suitable to the crime is not revenge. If you deliver the justice the victim and their loved ones and our society at large merits in fact returns vision. It drops the scales from our eyes and liberates us to live as a more civilized species, versus less. Facing reality is the opposite of willful blindness.

• Most of my fellow commenters fully appreciate the magnitude of this lost human's vile actions, which larger impact merely starts at the commission of this despicable crime. Every time we allow a damaged human, a type of cancer, to continue to prey on us, by continuing to extend to them the benefit of the doubt that we don't extend to our fellow citizens who serve us as police officers, because we too quickly identify with them rather than identifying with the victim, we send the message to our children at large: we will tolerate you doing this and we will feel sorry for you, at the expense of spending time and money directly helping the surviving loved ones of the women killed without due process. Remember, children pay very close attention to the end result. They will draw superficial conclusions because they are not yet mature enough to fully analyze all the causal factors. What they see is that we do not openly hate, with full force, these crimes and we will not deliver swift and punishing justice. In order to save more children, the kind of children who are worth saving, we need to make sure they get the message from our actions loud and clear BEFORE they commit such crimes. Reduce to utter zero our tolerance of such crimes and they will see it and they will believe it. And they will comport themselves accordingly, those that learn the lesson, that is. Those who do not, and there will always be those who cannot or will not for a host of reasons, will have to face the consequences of their actions. Just like we all do.

• @Kristin, I know it's trite but an eye for an eye truly makes us all blind. Revenge killing is not economical in any sense of the word. Going out into the world with the belief that all life is invaluable and acting accordingly is free. It only takes your time and emotional energy and reaps rewards far more fulfilling than any amount of boundless anger and spite can provide. What you hold in your heart defines the world you see before you and it can be as ugly and hopeless as you choose.

• Oh, and Joel (it's Kristin, not Kristen), I find raping and murdering an old lady to be the "basest" part of humanity.

• As a society with too many people and limited resources, I absolutely believe it is equitable to put a teenager to death for raping and killing someone. Some people are evil, can't be saved, and frankly, aren't worth the expense. So maybe, just maybe, if we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a juvenile delinquent, he may turn out to not kill another person, or rape again. Great. Good bang for your buck. We have scarce resources, and we need to stop wasting them on those who can't and/or don't want to be fixed. The bleeding heart mentality has left us with exactly the magnitude of the problems that exist today. No acountability for one's actions. If people knew there would be serious consequences for serious actions, and swiftly, a lot of this shit would stop. Instead, they get a lifetime of being taken care of. It's not an emotional issue, it's an economic one.

• @ccccc, I appreciate what you've said about "mourn the childhood that was lost". It's a genuine sentiment and one I can understand.

• iLLusionS: You said it perfectly. mousepovna: I understand your position and I feel for you- truly. Unfortunately, you can't fix them all. Sometimes, sad as it is, you just have to mourn the childhood that was lost & the person that could have been. It is certainly true that this kid was victim. The problem here is that he has also learned to victimize others in the most violent possible way.

• @Kristen Unfortunately you're starting to become the mainstream. I fear for the dwindling republic as right wing thought turns us more and more toward fascism. Personally I think it's lazy, primal, and speaks to the most base part of humanity.

• I agree. This boy has no recourse to his life except living life in prison. Unless he becomes a serial killer (if he gets out in 8 yrs) he has pretty much jumped a head quite a few spaces on the criminal board game. he passed all the other minor stuff. He jumped the drugs (using and dealing) and extorition (sp) and wnet straight to MURDER! Do not pass go So not collect $200 go directlly to jail with no "get out of jail free card". No matter who attempts to help this child, he is a lost caused. he wants no help. and maybe the next person who attempts to help him won't be hurt as well. I hate to give up on kids. Even at this age. But there is nothing anyone can do. He sold his soul the minute he raped and picked up the rock to bash her head in. No redeemsion. He will never be a productive member of the human race. and whomever started him on this road, well i hope they rot in Hell. He will not repent. he will not believe he should be punished for these acts. and will use the " age", "abusive treatment" insanity plea. He should be jailed not matter what his age. He did a "grown up" criminal act and should pay the piper in a "grown up" way. Prison as an adult. Do give 2 breaths to him. They will be wasted. Bet he has his jail house tats within another year (if he doesn't have already).

• Why not just shoot him after the final hearing? This may sound cold hearted, but regardless of age he raped and murdered a 65 year old woman. He was already in juvie for being part of a series of break-ins. Life in prison is just going to eat away out taxes even more, he's going to perminantly be under our support, why not just kill him now and save all of us money? But then again, if he gets put in an adult prison and lives to become an adult then there's always a chance that he'll kill another inmate, so that might help things out a bit.

• @mousepovna I replied to you previously but apparently it is not going to post. This child has no empathy for other people. If you can not relate to other people as living,feeling,people there is nothing to stop you from doing it again. It does not get more dangerous than rape or murder. I'm sure this child was horribly mistreated-but there are millions of people who have been similiarly mistreated and have harmed no one. He took the life of someone who probably felt just like you do-she was trying to help children. He took her life-he should pay with his freedom.

• @illusions, You're quite right I don't work with kids such as this one but as I grow in my field I truly hope for the opportunity to show boys just like this one that the world doesn't have to be the dark violent one they've come to know and emulate.

• ***breaking

• @ mousepovna I appreciate the fact you work with at risk children, and some of the other points you brought up. But to me "at risk" should mean teens using drugs, maybe braking and entering, graffiti, minor criminals in the making. In the case of this boy I think he IS the risk.

• @ccccc, I understand what you are saying and much of it is very true but if I believed there was any child not worth saving I wouldn't be able to do my job anymore or continue to live feeling safe and hopeful.

• mousepovna: I agree with what you have said about poor impulse control, and other facts regarding youngsters based on sound science. However, you cannot fix a 13 year old who has raped and murdered. It is so beyond normal that all you can do is lock him up & try to treat his issues- issues that even other severely damaged kids just, frankly, do not and will never have.

• @Kristin, You're not seriously advocating the death penalty for a 13 year old child are you?

• @diamondgirl9, I hope the above comment speaks to you too. When we give up on our children, we give up on our future. Life rarely means natural life so rather than grab this space in his development and turn it around we create a true "product of the system" that makes this type of dangerous look like child's play.

• Imagine what he could do when he gets older and wiser. Frankly, it doesn't matter "why" he did it. Clearly he is evil and needs to be put away for life. Anyone capable of such acts at 13 years old should be eliminated from this earth, and quickly. Instead, we get to pay for his life for the next 75 years. SIGH. I wonder if people realize the coffers are going to eventually dry up? We can't just keep putting people in jail for decades at a time. We need to restructure our penal system and include capital punishment for more crimes at a quicker pace.

• @Leah, My life's work is helping at risk children so I deeply understand your sentiment. I don't think this women would want him to give up the rest of his life too. You could lock him up and feel good or you could try and mend him and feel better. 13 is too young to give up on.

• @mousepovna I agree he is a biological child,and obviously has poor impulse control-but he has jumped the broom-he raped and killed this innocent lady. He is more than a scary,alarming child-he is dangerous. The kind that should not ever walk among other people again.

• Children naturally have poor impulse control and lack the ability to understand the long term effects of their actions, in the case of what must obviously be a damaged individual these traits must be magnified and prolonged. Hence the distinction between trying someone as an adult or as a child. This is child, albeit a scary alarming child, but a child nonetheless.

• Yea sadly this kid has solidified his place in the system for life. Ashame this woman was killed trying to help kids just like him.

• Life - no questions about his age.

• I read this and think of my (soon to be) 13 yr old grandson. And i think, i'm blessed. This child must have gone thru a bunch of crap in his young life. and now, he is a rapist/murderer at 13. He must of thought he was in the clear, seeing as they waited a while to charge him. This child is not available for redeemtion. So sad. He life is so over for him. and if they dont try him as an adult, when he gets out in 7-8 yrs, our streets will have another predator on them. Not like we dont have more then our share already. I agree he needs to be tried as an adult and spend the rest of his worthless life behind (or under) bars in prison. he's a bad egg most likely from a bad seed and a bad sperm donater. I hope his "parents" are so proud of what they created.

• What a horrible,sad situation. At 13 he is already a rapist and a murderer. He took the life of a lady who should have been enjoying her golden years,doing fun things,traveling,gardening. But she chose to spend her time trying to help troubled kids. His life is over at 13. He should be tried as an adult. I agree with ccccc,he can not be fixed.

• This kid is irreparably damaged, which is sad in it's own way. 13 year old kids don't embrace rape & murder without having been routinely victimized themselves. But he should get life. No question.

• Well then it is obvious that he needs to be tried as an adult and put away for the rest of his days. Thanks for playing, you loose.

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