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Thread: Jamarion Lawhorn, 12, Sentenced to 8 Years Probation for Fatal Stabbing in 2014 MI Murder of 9-year-old Conner Verkerke

  1. #31
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    Jamarion told doctor: ‘I got a problem with anger’

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The defense took its turn to convince the jury that 13-year-old Jamarion Lawhorn should be found not guilty by reason of insanity as his trial continued on Wednesday.

    Jamarion was 12 years old when he fatally stabbed 9-year-old Connor Verkerke on a Kentwood playground in August 2014. That the now-13-year-old boy killed Connor is not in question. What a jury will have to decide is whether he was legally sane at the time.

    An expert in pediatric child abuse who interviewed Jamarion was the first witness for the defense. She said Jamarion told her, “I got a problem with anger.”

    She went on to describe how he had started fires in his home, got in trouble for taking a fake knife into school and was torturing small animals.

    Reports from Child Protective Services show Jamarion had been beaten by his mom with belt, his stepdad with a cord and his grandmother used a scandal.Jamarion also told her his stepdad beat him with an extension cord for not cleaning and not filling the ice treat and was treated like a slave.

    Sarah Benjamin, a social worker at the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center, said Jamarion talked of dying and who would “give him the shot to end his life.” After that he was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

    Benjamin said in the months after he returned to detention, Jamarion tried several times to kill himself. But in the last six months, Jamarion has stopped the suicide attempts.

    The lead Kentwood Police detective in the case described the home where Jamarion lived with his mom, stepdad and three siblings as “deplorable.” He talked about beer cans found all over the home and flies, as well as mouse droppings, electrical issues and drywall falling from the bathroom.

    The detective also found other knives in Jamarion’s bedroom during a search after the stabbing.

    In court on Tuesday
    , attorneys laid out their cases in opening statements. Prosecutors say Jamarion had planned the attack for some time and knew what he did was wrong. The defense says Jamarion was driven to the stabbing as the result of a life made miserable by abuse from his parents and that he was suicidal at the time.

    Jamarion is the youngest person ever charged with murder in Kent County. He is being tried as an adult in juvenile court. The trial is expected to last at least through Thursday.

    http://woodtv.com/2015/09/02/jamario...r-trial-day-2/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #32
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    Psychologist: Jamarion wanted death penalty

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Defense and prosecution experts agree Jamarion Lawhorn was mentally ill when he killed 9-year-old Connor Verkerke, but they disagree on whether that means he was legally insane.

    Clinical psychologist Dr. Priya Rao, who examined Jamarion for the defense, told a jury that he meets the criteria for being deemed legally insane.

    She said he told her he had been beaten all his life and that the beatings got worse when he returned from living with his dad’s family in New York in June 2014. Wednesday, Jamarion’s parents testified they had not beat him since he returned to Kentwood.

    He told her his stepdad got angry with him the day of the killing and beat him while they were building a wooden bench, Rao testified. He threatened during a phone call to beat him later that day, she said.

    It was that threat that pushed him to kill 9-year-old Connor Verkerke on Aug. 4, 2014while on a playground, Rao testified.

    Jamarion, who was 12 at the time, had picked Connor at random.

    “Something changed in him,” Rao said. “He was feeling like he would flip out.”

    She said she asked Jamarion what he was thinking when he grabbed a knife from home.

    “He said he didn’t think of anything much,” she said. “He thought he would hurt himself, but realized that would hurt too much. He thought he would poke another kid so he would be arrested so he could be put in electric chair or given a lethal injection.”

    She said he didn’t want anybody to die.

    “He prayed to God he wouldn’t die,” Rao said. “All he wanted to do was end his own misery.”

    Rao said Jamarion had the maturity of a 9-year-old. He was 5 feet tall and weighed 83 pounds.

    She said he told her of sometimes running into the woods to cry after being abused, that he had cut himself once, had tried to kill himself with pills and had thought about jumping off a building.

    Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Bramble suggested Jamarion was lying to the defense expert and questioned how she could reach any conclusions after talking to him once.

    Dr. Susan Tremonti, the prosecution expert who questioned Jamarion three times after the killing, said he told her nothing about recent beatings, including any that had happened that day.

    She said he had other options, including calling Children’s Protective Services. He told her he had thought of calling CPS, “but that didn’t work the last time,” Tremonti said.

    She said it was apparent Jamarion knew what he was doing was wrong based on his actions: hiding the knife under his shirt, burying it in the sand, taking off his shirt so it wouldn’t get bloody and then calling 911 after the stabbing.

    “He did understand the wrongfulness of his behavior, despite being depressed and feeling helpless,” Tremonti, a forensic examiner for the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ann Arbor, said.

    “If he didn’t know it was wrong, he would not have called 911,” she said.

    Closing arguments were expected later Thursday afternoon. The case is expected to reach the jury on Friday.

    http://woodtv.com/2015/09/03/jamario...r-trial-day-3/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #33
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    Jury in western Michigan hears closing arguments, different portrayals of teen who killed boy

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A prosecutor on Thursday urged a jury in western Michigan to convict a 13-year-old boy of murder in the fatal stabbing of a younger boy at a playground, saying a childhood of neglect and abuse is not a "free pass to kill."

    The teen was 12 when he killed 9-year-old Michael Connor Verkerke last summer in Kentwood, near Grand Rapids. The last day of the trial centered on the defendant's mental health and whether he should be criminally responsible for what happened.

    Defense attorney Charles Boekeloo said the boy stabbed Michael because he was desperate.

    "He was in a heightened state of fear caused by months and years of abuse," Boekeloo told jurors during closing arguments.

    Defense psychiatrist Priya Roa said abuse had harmed the teen's mental health and put him in a "trance-like" state of fear and rage. But Susan Tremonti, a psychiatrist testifying for prosecutors, said he knew what he was doing, even hiding the knife in sand before the attack.

    "He could apply rational choice," she said.

    The Associated Press isn't naming the boy who's on trial because of his age. If convicted, he would be sentenced as a juvenile, then resentenced as an adult when he turns 21.

    Prosecutor Kevin Bramble told jurors that the killing was planned for months and the boy knew what he did was wrong because he called 911. Bramble said many victims of abuse don't kill people.

    "They do not get a free pass to kill someone to draw attention to their plight," he said.

    The jury will begin deliberations Friday.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/03...yals-teen-who/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #34
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    Jamarion Lawhorn, 13, guilty of 1st-degree murder

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A jury has found 13-year-old Jamarion Lawhorn guilty of first-degree murder in the August 2014 stabbing death of 9-year-old Connor Verkerke.

    Jurors deliberated for a little more than four hours before reaching their verdict of guilty and not mentally ill, which made Jamarion the youngest person ever convicted of murder in Kent County.

    Jamarion was stoic as the verdict was read. Anita Lawhorn, who sat behind her son, also did not show any obvious emotion. Dani Verkerke, Connor’s mother, began to cry and a woman sitting next to her hugged her.

    http://woodtv.com/2015/09/04/jury-de...-murder-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #35
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    Jury: Anita Lawhorn guilty of 3rd-degree child abuse


    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A jury took four hours to convict Jamarion Lawhorn’s mom of abusing him when he was 11 — more than 15 months before he became Kent County’s youngest convicted killer.

    Outside the courtroom, a juror said she believed the abuse she heard about all week long is what led Jamarion to kill 9-year-old Connor Verkerke.

    “If a child is beat down and beat down and beat down, it’s going to result in a bad action, there’s going to be a result from it,” said the juror, who identified herself only as Cheryl.

    Anita Lawhorn faces up to two years in prison after the jury convicted her of third-degree child abuse, a felony.

    She refused to comment after the trial.

    Her attorney, Jeffery Crampton, tried to convince the jury that it was Jamarion’s stepdad, Bernard Harrold, who left scars on the boy’s legs in May 2013.

    “Frankly, I’m dumbfounded about that,” Crampton said of the verdict.

    Closing arguments in the child abuse trial of Jamarion Lawhorn’s mom focused not only on whether she beat him with a belt, but also on mistakes made by Children’s Protective Services.

    “Make no doubt about it, the state failed Jamarion Lawhorn and Connor Verkerke and the Verkerke family, but it cannot use Anita Lawhorn as a scapegoat,” defense attorney Crampton argued.

    Two Children’s Protective Services workers were suspended for five days for mishandling the case.

    CPS worker Kirsten Harder didn’t call police to report the original abuse in May 2013 — 15 months before Jamarion fatally stabbed 9-year-old Connor Verkerke on a Kentwood playground. Harder also lost the original photographs of Jamarion’s injuries.

    The state reopened the abuse case only after the murder.

    Even the prosecutor acknowledged CPS’s mistakes.

    “Why would they want this brought up?” Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Richardson said. “They did not bring this to law enforcement, they have had incredible backlash over that, they did not make sure he got counseling. This is an embarrassment to them.”

    Lawhorn’s defense claims Jamarion’s stepfather, Bernard Harrold, beat him and scarred his legs.

    On Friday, Harrold was the defense’s only witness. He has pleaded guilty to third-degree child abuse for beating Jamarion in May 2013.

    “I pled guilty because I did it and she’s over there in that (defendant’s) chair for something that I did,” Harrold testified. “She worked, she came home, she went to sleep. I had the kids. I took care of the kids, I did it, I admit it, I did it.”

    Bernard Harrold and Anita Lawhorn both were charged with abusing Jamarion when he was just 11.

    Anita Lawhorn says she didn’t do it.

    “She’s over there fighting for her life for soemthing that I had did, and that’s not right, and it’s not fair,” Harrold said.

    Harrold said he whupped Jamarion with a belt — “like a cowboy belt, you know like a cowboy has with the buckle.”

    He said he was angry that Jamarion had forged his name on school papers.

    Harrold at first denied leaving scars on Jamarion, but changed his story. “I was scared they were going to take my kids,” he testified.

    “While you may not agree with her, while you may not even like her, you may think her parenting skills are horrible, you might even blame her for Jamarion’s troubles, but you still can’t convict Anita Lawhorn,” her attorney argued.

    But prosecutors say both parents beat Jamarion.

    “In 2013, he was a little 11-year-old boy, a little 11-year-old boy who got abused by both his parents, and we’re supposed to overlook that? We’re supposed to sweep it under the rug?”

    “This case isn’t about what he did in 2014,” she said, referring to the murder committed by Jamarion, “You can’t disregard him as a victim because of what he did in 2014.”

    http://woodtv.com/2015/09/18/anita-l...innocence-cps/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #36
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    Mom who abused child killer jailed for drinking


    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The mother of Jamarion Lawhorn, Kent County’s youngest killer, was ordered locked up Wednesday after tests show she had been drinking, including on the first day of her child abuse trial.

    Anita Lawhorn had been free on bond since a jury last month convicted her of abusing Jamarion. The alcohol violated a condition of her bond.

    Her probation officer said she has tested positive for alcohol three times — first in April, then again on Sept. 16, the first day of her trial.

    “I apologized for the last time. I’m so sorry for that. It was a stupid decision,” Lawhorn told Kent County Circuit Judge Paul Sullivan on Wednesday. “But as of today I have not used any alcohol.”

    Lawhorn said she drank before her trial because she was scared.

    Her probation officer said a test that day showed a small amount of alcohol.

    “She did admit that she was using,” the probation officer said. “She was nervous about trial and that’s why, to calm her nerves.”

    The jury later found her guilty of abusing Jamarion, who was 12 when he fatally stabbed 9-year-old Connor Verkerke on a Kentwood playground last year.

    She was released on bond pending her Nov. 24 sentencing.

    But on Oct. 14, she tested positive again for alcohol, though she denied drinking.

    “I have really too much to lose,” she said. “I have too much to lose when I admitted the last incident. I’m not trying to lose my kids. I’m not trying to revoke my bond.”

    Her attorney, Jeffrey Crampton, argued the last test was a false positive after she took prescription cough syrup for bronchitis.

    Crampton said he doesn’t know what will happen to Lawhorn’s three other children, who range in age from 4 to 15. They were taken away after Jamarion’s arrest, then later returned to her and Jamarion’s stepfather, Bernard Harrold.

    Records show the state wants to keep the family together.

    Harrold also is awaiting sentencing on Nov. 24 for abusing Jamarion.

    Jamarion is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 4 after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder.

    http://woodtv.com/2015/10/21/mom-who...view_id=160953
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #37
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    Judge: Verdict stands in Jamarion murder case

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A judge has denied a request from Jamarion Lawhorn’s attorney to overturn the first-degree murder verdict for killing 9-year-old Connor Verkerke.

    Charles Boekeloo, the defense attorney for 13-year-old Jamarion, wanted the judge to dismiss the jury’s verdict, saying he should have been found guilty but mentally ill; however, the judge denied the request.

    Boekeloo also argued in court Friday morning that the judge made mistakes during the boy’s trial saying he should have given the jury a chance to consider a manslaughter charge. The attorney went as far as to ask for a new trial.

    However, that same judge ruled against Jamarion saying the law is clear that even if the court should have given a manslaughter option, the fact it did not is “harmless error.” The judge went on to say that Jamarion did not act on “passion and impulse,” but had thought a year about killing someone.

    Boekeloo expects the judge’s decision on Friday to be appealed.

    Jamarion was 12 years old when he stabbed Connor
    a half dozen times on a Kentwood playground on Aug. 4, 2014, after picking him out at random.

    A Kent County jury took less than five hours to find Jamarion guilty of first-degree murder, making him the youngest person ever convicted of murder in Kent County.

    He is expected to be sentenced on Nov. 4. Jamarion is expected to be sent to a juvenile program for rehabilitation. Prosecutors have left open the possibility he could get life without parole once he becomes an adult.

    Jamarion was not in court for Friday’s hearing, but Connor’s parents were there.

    “We plan on being here every time, any time he’s brought into court, we’ll be there, as a constant reminder of the victims in this, for our son and for Kameron and our other boys,” said Jared Verkerke.

    http://woodtv.com/2015/10/23/judge-v...n-murder-case/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #38
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    Abused child killer Jamarion: ‘I made a terrible mistake’

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In a Kent County courtroom on Wednesday, a judge heard from two boys: one who watched his big brother die, and the 13-year-old boy who killed him.

    Both Kameron Verkerke, now 8, and Jamarion Lawhorn, Kent County’s youngest convicted killer, read from written statements, like kids in a classroom.

    Jamarion then was ordered by Kent County Family Court Judge Paul Denenfeld to a blended sentence for the August 2014 stabbing death of 9-year-old Connor Verkerke.

    Jamarion, 12 at the time of the killing, will first go to the Muskegon River Youth Home, a locked-down juvenile facility, then could face the possibility of decades in adult prison.

    “If I could go back, I would stop myself and not realize the nightmare that you and I have to live through,” Jamarion read in a statement written for Connor’s parents. “I don’t show any emotion, because if I do, I would not stop crying.”

    Connor’s little brother, Kameron, who witnessed the stabbing on a Kentwood playground, addressed the court before Jamarion. He told the judge about waking up in the morning without his brother.

    “I miss Connor…how he was funny,” he said. “He is the funniest kid I ever. I loved how he would spend time with me.”

    He hesitated, then asked for help from his mom, who stood behind him at the courtroom podium.

    “What does that say?” he asked, pointing to his statement, then continued to read. “Connor was my first best friend, and … I will miss him forever.”

    As Kameron spoke, the young killer who took his brother forever mostly stared forward. Jamarion’s mom, Anita Lawhorn, who was convicted of abusing Jamarion, was in shackles in the courtroom. She wiped away tears.

    Then Jamarion got his turn.

    “I know what I did was wrong. I just do not understand why I did it,” Jamarion said. “I made a terrible mistake. I just want you to know that I’m sorry for all the pain you have been going through.”

    His attorney, Charles Boekeloo, argued for a juvenile sentence only, meaning Jamarion would have been set free at age 21. He has blamed the killing on years of abuse Jamarion suffered.

    “I was afraid of my stepfather,” Jamarion said in his statement, referring to Bernard Harrold, who admitted to abusing him. “I wanted to die because I thought there was no way out.”

    Before Jamarion was sentenced, he also heard from Connor’s parents.

    “I firmly believe in the saying that grieving the loss of a child is a process and it begins on the day that your child passes and it ends the day their parent joins them,” Connor’s mom, Danielle Verkerke, told the judge.

    “There are no words to explain holding my dying son in my arms,” Connor’s dad, Jared Verkerke, said. “No way to account for the trauma of his brother watching him die. These are the last living memories I have of my son.”

    Also during the sentencing, Jamarion’s court-appointed Guardian ad Litem blamed both Jamarion’s parents, who abused and neglected him, and Michigan Children’s Protective Services, who ignored his pleas for help.

    “I read about countless Child Protective Services referrals where nothing was done,” Guardian ad Litem Judith Raskiewicz said. “The government’s answer was not to open a case and remove Jamarion, but to send him to New York where he was further abused by his father and his grandmother,” she said.

    Jamarion is headed to a locked-down juvenile facility in Muskegon. He could face prison time as an adult or be set free.

    Connor’s parents agreed with the sentence.

    “It doesn’t matter how long he’s locked up, it doesn’t matter. Connor’s not coming back,” his mom said. “I’m happy with the verdict he received and aside from that it’s up to him as to how his future’s going to go, and I’m OK with that.”

    http://woodtv.com/2015/11/04/jamario...rder-of-boy-9/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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