15 year old boy handed 15 life sentences in rapes - sentence modified to 65 years

(Original Post 3-14-10) A 15 year old boy was sentenced to 15 life terms Wednesday, March 10 for raping and kidnapping two Apollo Beach restaraunt workers. Jose Walle, 13 when he attacked the woman, entered a blind plea to 19 felony counts last month.

The women were abducted from the Apollo Beach restaurant Aug. 15, 2008, held for several hours and repeatedly sexually assaulted before being dumped along Interstate 75. One said Walle got in the back seat of her truck, pointed a gun at her and raped her.

One of the victims said in her impact statement, "There was no doubt in my mind that he would kill us. He chose to rob us. He chose to abduct us. He was the one who raped me." The other victim said that "I think he should be shown the same mercy he showed us - none."

Walle's parents, friends, soccer coach and attorney, as well as a psychiatrist hired by the defense, portrayed him as a youth soccer star who got caught up in drugs and came under the sway of bad influences - co-defendants Rigoberto Martinez, 22, and Vincente Reyes-Carbajal, 21, who are awaiting trial.

Walle's explanation of his attack on the women was "I was angry. I was on drugs."

But Assistant State Attorney Rita Peters said Walle laughed and smiled his way through a presentence interview with a state corrections official. Walle told the official, "I'm a nice guy, but if you mess with me I have no problems killing you," Peters quoted from the report.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe used those statements to justify his 15 life sentences. This is one of the most disturbing cases I have ever come across...If he is not stopped, he is going to do it again. And, quite frankly, I'm not willing to take that chance. It is my intention that you never ever walk the streets of our community again as a free man. He's going to kill; it's just a matter of time."

Walle's life sentences will be served concurrently to one another and consexutively with a 27 year sentence handed down for the rape of a third woman. Two other Florida youths have been jailed for life without parole terms for non-murder crimes committed at 13.

(Update 5-21-11) After a 2010 US Supreme Court ruling stating that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole for crimes other than murder, Judge Tharpe resentenced Walle to 65 years imprisonment on Wednesday, November 17, 2010. Judge Tharpe said at Walle's second sentencing, "Jose Walle knew the difference between right and wrong. He has forfeited his right to live in a free society."

After listening to both sides re-present arguments made during the first sentencing, Judge Tharpe said to the defense, "Let me start out by saying, what's wrong with this picture? Shouldn't our focus be first and foremost on the welfare of the victims? Is it not cruel and unusual punishment for the victims to have endured the rage, the brutality, the terror that your client exacted upon them? What about the fact that these ladies have to live the rest of their lives worrying about whether or not they will become a victim again of another person like Jose Walle …Isn't that cruel and unusual punishment?"

Tharpe also gave the opinon that the juvenile justice system does not give enough accountability to youths convicted of serious crimes and that "grave crimes bring grave sentences.""Why don't we focus our money and our resources and our time on fixing the problems as opposed to trying to coddle a Jose Walle?"

Victoria, BC teens sentenced to 10 to life for rape slaying of 18 year old girl

By Louise Dickson, Postmedia News [Vancouver Sun]

Kruse Wellwood, one of two teens sentenced to life in prison for the brutal rape and murder of 18-year old Kimberly Proctor last year, is the son of a convicted murderer.

On Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Johnston sentenced Wellwood, 17, and Cameron Moffat, 18, as adults and lifted the publication ban that had been protecting their identities since their arrest last June. Proctor was lured to a home, then tortured, beaten and sexually assaulted before she was killed. Her body was dumped and burned on a hiking trail in March 2010.

In eerily similar circumstances, Wellwood's father, Robert Dezwaan, is serving a life sentence for the 2001 murder of 16-year-old Cherish Billy Oppenheim in Merritt. Dezwaan got her drunk, sexually assaulted her and beat her to death. He left her badly damaged body covered with rocks and debris off a deserted road -where he later took RCMP after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Dezwaan committed the crime while out on bail for a previous sexual assault.

At Monday's sentencing in a packed Victoria courtroom, Johnston ruled a youth sentence would not be long enough to hold the teens accountable for their crimes. He imposed the maximum adult sentence available for young offenders.

"It goes without saying first-degree murder with intent to kill is the most serious of offences. The circumstances of this murder as admitted by the young persons are so horrific that no words can adequately convey the inhumane cruelty these young men showed Miss Proctor," said Johnston. "They planned in advance to sexually assault and kill Miss Proctor. They chose her because they thought she would be an easy target, not necessarily because either of them had any ill will towards her."

Members of Proctor's family, including mother Lucia and father Fred, filled the front row of the courtroom. Lucia wiped away tears as Wellwood stood, hands clasped in front, with lawyer Bob Jones by his side as he was sentenced to life in prison.

Defence lawyer Steven Kelliher stood by Moffat, who appeared unemotional as he was sentenced to life in prison.

Outside court, Fred Proctor called the teens "animals" and said they deserve to die a long, slow, painful death."I don't even like to call them animals because Kim was such an animal lover," said Lucia. "To me they're just monsters and monsters are not rehabilitatable."

She lashed out at Wellwood's and Moffat's parents, saying they should have done something about their sons' risky behaviour before it escalated. "This didn't happen overnight this behaviour. You see the signs. You know when something is wrong with your child."

In October, Wellwood and Moffat pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Proctor, whose badly burned body was found under a bridge on the Galloping Goose Trail on March 19, 2010. The two admitted they lured the Grade 12 student to Wellwood's home, tied her up, gagged her, sexually assaulted her, beat her, suffocated her and mutilated her body with a knife. They then put her body in a freezer. The next day, they put it in a duffel bag and took it by bus to the Galloping Goose Trail.

Johnston also sentenced Wellwood and Moffat to five-year concurrent sentences on the charge of indignity to human remains, authorized the taking of DNA samples from the teens, and imposed a 10-year firearms prohibition.

Charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement were stayed last week during the grim two-day sentencing hearing in which Crown prosecutor Peter Juk urged Johnston to impose adult sentences for the protection of the public.

Wellwood's father's crimes bear a striking similarity to the rape and murder of Proctor. The details of Dezwaan's offences can only be published now that the judge has lifted a publication ban on Wellwood's and Moffat's identities.

Before his murder conviction, Dezwaan had been arrested in March 2001 for sexual assault with a weapon, confinement, and robbery of a young woman in Kelowna. That followed a 1993 incident in which he was convicted of unlawful confinement and break and enter after he broke into a woman's home at night, climbed on her and tried to stuff a rag in her mouth.

A letter written by Wellwood and read in court last week, said: "As a child, I hated my father for what he had done. I felt I was less than him and now I find I have become a worse man. If you told me 10 years ago that I would commit one of the worst murders in British Columbia, I would not have believed you."

Court-ordered psychiatric and psychological reports on the teens show they are a high risk to reoffend violently and sexually. The reports also show there is little chance they can be rehabilitated.

Wellwood has been diagnosed as a sexual sadist -someone who derives sexual gratification from inflicting pain -with very strong psychopathic traits and strong indicators for necrophilia, an erotic attraction to corpses. A psychologist found he was aroused by the physical and psychological suffering of others, had rape fantasies and was interested in bondage and sexual asphyxia.

Moffat was not diagnosed as a sexual sadist but has a tendency to sexual deviance and the risk and thrill that go along with it. He has had conduct disorder problems since early childhood that involve defiant anti-social behaviour.

Teenage rapist sentenced to 75 to life for attack on woman

A teenage rapist who attacked a 40 year old woman was sentenced to 75 years to life in a Denver, CO courtroom Wednesday, February 3. Shakiel Madden-Vaughn, who was 16 when he attacked a 40 year old woman who was walking home from a light rail station on January 24, 2009, was convicted by a jury of attempted 1st degree murder, two counts of sexual assault, 1st degree assault, and aggravated robbery for the attack. Madden-Vaughn raped the 40 year old victim, beat her with a baseball bat, then stole her purse.

Madden-Vaughn, who turned 18 the day before Halloween last year, faces charges of fondling a 12 year old girl on a playground January 19, 2009 and hitting a 68 year old woman with a brick. Chief Deputy DA Joseph Morales and Deputy District Attorney P.J. Loew prosecuted the case.

Northwest Territories sex assault case criticized as being too lenient - CBC

A Northwest Territories court ruling, in which a man was spared jail time for sexual assault, has been criticized by a women's rights advocate who says victims should be protected first. Late last week, a Fort Smith, N.W.T., man was sentenced to one year of probation after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman in the summer of 2008. The man was 17 years old at the time of the incident, and cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

His lawyer, Abdul Khan, told CBC News that territorial court Judge Garth Malakoe had no choice but to keep his client out of jail, since there was no evidence of a violent assault or lasting physical or mental harm.

The court heard Thursday that the man, who was intoxicated, groped a young woman who was unconscious. The incident involved no intercourse and she was not injured, the court was told. The woman later woke up in hospital, recovering from alcohol poisoning, and had no memory of the assault, the court was told.

Crown prosecutors had called for a jail term of up to nine months, arguing that the victim had suffered psychological harm. However, Malakoe pointed out that the woman only learned of the sexual assault after she had woken up in hospital. Conditions of the man's sentence order him to undergo counselling and to have no contact with the woman.

Khan said the Youth Criminal Justice Act puts emphasis on rehabilitating young offenders, with imprisonment used as a last resort. But Arlene Haché of the Centre for Northern Families in Yellowknife said Malakoe's sentence sends the wrong message to men.

"What message does the guy get if he can just essentially just not face any punitive avenue, because he took advantage of a woman that was so totally blacked out she didn't know what was going on?" Haché told CBC News.

While Haché agreed that jail is not the best answer for some offenders, she added that a lenient legal system encourages men to re-offend and leaves women vulnerable as a result. "Still, there's nothing to replace it [jail] yet. So I'm more concerned about girls and women not being protected at this point, than I am right now about the recovery of boys and men," she said.

She pointed to another case, in which a woman in Dettah, N.W.T., is thinking of leaving town because her accused attacker is now out on bail. Haché said she is helping to design a treatment program for men who have used violence in their relationships.

17 year old sentenced to 16 years for burglary, attempted rape

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Kubicki Jr. sentenced 17 year old Deonte Leary to 16 years for two burglaries and the attempted rape of a Madisonville, OH teacher yesterday. The sentence was part of a plea deal reached where Leary plead guilty to burglary, aggravated burglary, attempted rape and aggravated robbery. Two other charges were dropped against him.

Leary broke into a Madisonville home April 12, looking for money, but finding none. He accessed porn on the victim's computer instead. Two days later, he broke into the home of a Madisonville teacher, looking for more money. This time, Leary tried to rape the teacher, but she fought back, ripping off his mask while he ripped off her Ipod. All of the 16 year sentence must be served. 

15 year old Muskegon boy sentenced to 20-57 years for rape of 19 year old woman

15 year old Teddius Patterson, of Muskegon, MI, was sentenced to a term of 20 to 57 years today for the burglary and rape of a 19 year old woman last summer. Patterson, who had an extensive juvenile criminal record, was 14 at the time of the rape and burglary. He was found guilty by a judge in a bench trial earlier this month.

Patterson's sentence breaks down as follows - 18 to 55 years for 1st degree criminal sexual conduct; 8 to 20 years for 1st degree home invasion; 2 to 5 years for firearm theft, and a year each for two firearm posession counts. All sentences except the firearm posession counts will be served concurrently.

The attack happened the night of June 22 in the Margaret Street apartment of a 19-year-old woman. Patterson was 14 at the time, out on bond facing juvenile charges for an earlier break-in of an elderly woman’s home while she slept. He already had a record of juvenile convictions for arson and possession of cocaine with intent to deliver.

In testimony at Patterson’s trial and at an earlier probable-cause hearing, the victim told of being sexually groped by a young stranger she confronted in her apartment — then trying to shoot him dead with her husband’s loaded handgun, only to have the invader wrest the gun away and point it at her, repeating the sexual assault with his hand.

Patterson’s 48-year-old mother, who has spent much of her son’s life in prison for drug offenses and felonious assault and was most recently released in March 2008, wrote a letter to the judge pleading for mercy for Teddius and taking the blame on herself for his bad conduct. The boy was raised by his grandparents.

Senior Assistant Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson asked for a long sentence for Patterson, citing the lack of remorse and that Patterson believed his confession was a lie. The attack, according to Hilson, was “an extremely traumatic event (for the victim). ... Every sound that happens in her home (now) causes her concern. Not only was the security of her home violated, but her own personal body was violated. It is only by the grace of God that she is not dead today."

14th Circuit Judge William C. Marietti said about the attack, “(This) is probably every woman’s nightmare...It leaves a very, very bad taste in this community’s mouth, a very bad taste in my mouth. This is devastating to this community, and particularly devastating to the victim." Because of previous felony convictions, "at some point I have to shift my focus from rehabilitating you ... to protecting the community."

Darien, CT probationary firefighter convicted of sex assault at headquarters

(Original Post 6-24-08)
Marcus Velez, 18, of Darien, CT, pleaded guilty to 3rd degree sexual assault after admitting raping a 18 year old woman at the Stamford, CT fire department headquarters Thursday, June 19. He will serve 15 days in jail and spared himself a jury trial with a possible 1st degree sexual assault charge.

Velez was accused of forcing the 18-year-old victim to perform oral sex in January 2007, and admitted to the details in court. He was 17 at the time of the incident.
Assistant State's Attorney Maureen Ornousky said the victim and her mother wanted to avoid a trial and believe the outcome was fair. Velez and the victim previously had been friends, she said.

"She felt it was important that he get some punishment and that he take responsibility," Ornousky said.

Velez will formally be sentenced to a 5 year suspended prison sentence followed by 10 years of probation on August 21.

(Update 8-27-08) The sentencing was as expected, except for the date being postponed to Monday, August 25.

A victim's advocate read aloud letters from the woman and her mother.

"The whole thing changed my life to the point where I wished it all went away," the victim wrote.

She also wrote that because of the drawn-out case and news reports about it, people figured out she was the victim, but she feels some did not believe her.

The victim's mother wrote that she felt that Velez should get the maximum possible sentence, but she supports her daughter, who wants the matter resolved.

Velez has to obey a lifetime restrainging order, undergo SO treatment and listing, and is facing charges for inpersonationg a police officer.

17 year old Twin Cities rapist sentenced to 15 1/2 years in prison

Ramsey County District Judge Michael T. DeCourcy sentenced an 18 year old suburban Twin Cities rapist to 15 ½ years in prison yesterday for an attack which took place August 18, 2007. Tarrance Jamal Peaches of Brooklyn Park, MN beat and raped a 17 year old girl from Fridley, MN in an alley early that morning.

According to court documents, the girl told police she had left a party and was walking near White Bear Avenue when a male grabbed her, threw her to the ground and forced her to give him oral sex. He then shoved her onto the bed of a truck, where he threatened to kill her and raped her two more times.

The victim was able to escape when two witnesses drove up in a truck and interrupted the assault. The defendant stole the girl's purse but left his cell phone at the scene. His DNA also was found during a sex assault exam on the victim and on a condom that was left at the scene.

According to Assistant State’s Attorney Heidi Westby, the girl missed a lot of school and is “emotionally distraught” and “unable to speak about the offense.”

The girl, now 17, and her mother sat red-eyed and huddled together in the courtroom Wednesday for the sentencing of Tarrance Jamal Peaches, but they did not give victim-impact statements.

Peaches plead guilty in June to 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a mandatory minimum 12 year prison sentence. Judge DeCourcy sentenced him to the 15 ½ years after calling the attack particulary heinous, saying, "We're all diminished by this."

17 year old Milwaukeean charged with serial rapes

Michael Tarrell McThune, 17, is charged with the serial rapes of five women in and around his north Milwaukee neighborhood. The targets were women walking alone between 10:30 PM and 2 AM, according to police. McThune became a suspect after 2 attacks on August 2, where the victims told police that the attacker came up to them in a bike, and raped them at gunpoint.

According to the criminal complaint, McThune attacked a 17-year-old girl June 22 in the 2500 block of W. Center St. He also threatened and raped a 21-year-old woman July 12 and a 27-year-old woman July 16, each about four blocks apart on N. 24th Place, the complaint says.

McThune is charged with committing two separate attacks on 18-year-old women Aug. 2, which prompted police to search for a possible serial rapist.

According to the criminal complaint, McThune admitted the assaults to police but said they were prostitution-related.

The rape charges are not the only charges McThune faces. He is also charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a dangerous weapon under age 18, resisting or obstructing an officer and possession of THC. McThune was released on bond in those cases, but is being held on $500,000 bond for 5 counts of 1st degree armed sexual assault, a crime which carries a maximum 60 sentence in a Wisconsin prison.

17 year old Bloomington, IL rapist gets 92 years for attack, burglaries

A 17 year old who was convicted of raping a 20 year old woman, describing it as “a one night stand” was sentenced to 92 years in prison. Yarii Massey was convicted of several burglaries in Spring 2007, culminating in the rape of a Bloomington, IL woman in May 2007.

Before the sentencing, Massey said that the sex with the victim was consensual, and occurred after she gave him a ride home. He also said that his mother took him to Bloomington so he could escape gangs, and prison “will be a gang-related place. I’m either gonna be a violent person or a dead person.”

Defense lawyer Larry Spears asked for Massey to be sentenced to the minimum of 80 years behind bars, and that “anything else would be overkill.” First Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Campbell said that the maximum sentence of 104 years is needed because “he doesn’t deserve to ever see the light of day in society again.” Judge Charles Reynard split the difference, sentencing Massey to 92 years.

A written statement submitted by the victim referred to May 25, 2007, as “awful beyond words.”

“I was hurt so bad and the pain dug so deep, I did not even know how to handle it at times,” said the woman who was not in court.

In imposing the sentence, Reynard told Massey the teen possessed “a dangerousness that ought to be reflected in the court’s sentence.”

Reynard said sexual assault is a crime that leaves behind victims who must repair physical and emotional damage. That damage is the reason lawmakers have approved prison terms for sexual offenses that extend beyond the punishment for murder, said Reynard.

Sexual assault “is an offense that keeps on giving its offense again and again and again,” the judge said.

Massey received 72 years for 4 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, 16 years for 2 counts of criminal sexual assault, and 4 years for the burglary. All sentences will be served consecutively, and the sexual assault sentences must be served at 85%, while the burglary sentence can be served at 50%. This gives a total of 76.8 years to serve, assuming all of Massey’s available good time is earned. He plans to appeal the sentence.

First Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Campbell said after the hearing that the sentence will protect other potential crime victims.

“We’re pleased to get justice for the victim and that he’s not going to be committing any crimes against people in the future,” said Campbell.

KC man convicted of rape he committed while still teenage - 18 year DNA storage cracks case

Harry McNeal, now 33, will spend more time in prison because of rape due to DNA evidence kept for the last 18 years. Jackson County jurors convicted him of an attack on a then 29 year old woman in 1990 as she slept with her then 6 year old son. The then 15 year old assailant pointed a handgun at her, raped her in front of her son, then stole $75 from her. Jurors acquitted McNeal of an armed robbery charge because it was unclear if the gun was out when he stole the money.

After the verdict, the victim, now 47, and her son, now 24, discussed the case in the courthouse hallway. Science closed the case, they said, and protected others from McNeal.

Police matched semen from the 1990 rape to McNeal last year and charged him as he was about to finish a 17-year sentence for another rape. He went to prison for that crime in 1991 as part of a plea deal.

The trial this week also demonstrated how sure DNA is compared to eyewitness evidence, which is a leading cause of false convictions.

Police matched semen from the rape to McNeal last year and charged him just before he would have finished a 17 year sentence for another rape. In 1991, the victim pointed to another man as part of a lineup, not McNeal. At trial, defense attorney Molly Hastings noted than and tried to blame the other man for the rape, but prosecutors countered with the evidence that there was a 1 in 7.3 quadrillion (1 with 15 zeros after it) that anyone but McNeal was the rapist.