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/
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