Posted on 07/29/2005 10:24:10 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Judge: Harris knew 'exactly what he was doing' when he struck fatal blows
LANCASTER - In a packed but eerily quiet courtroom, Lancaster juvenile court judge Richard E. Naranjo sentenced 13-year-old Greg Harris to a possible maximum 12-year term Thursday for the second-degree murder of 15-year-old Jeremy Rourke. The judge looked directly at the defendant, who appeared small in the courtroom chair, with chains around his ankles.
The judge, his voice at times cracking with emotion, referred to the swing with an aluminum bat that Harris landed on Rourke's skull following what prosecutors referred to as innocent ribbing.
"I still keep asking 'Why?' " the judge said. "Jeremy Rourke didn't deserve to die for teasing."
He added, "I hope you will remember this incident every day of your life."
The sentence, and the institution where it will be served out - the California Youth Authority - was the worst possible scenario for the family of the boy who wielded the death blow with an aluminum baseball bat April 12 at a Pony League field in Palmdale.
Harris attorney William McKinney argued against punishment in favor of rehabilitation. He requested his client be placed in "long-term (one year) camp to be followed by evaluation in a local treatment center."
For the family of the boy who died, however, "still deeply missing and mourning" their son, their brother and their nephew, it was the only acceptable and just outcome.
"I want the maximum," - until age 25 - said Jeremy's mother, Angela Rourke, during her victim impact statement. "This is not OK, this is not OK. This wasn't an accident."
Echoing a similar sentiment when rendering his decision, Judge Naranjo said, "This was not a case of negligence, of someone speeding and someone dying as a result. … That would be manslaughter."
"This is a case of Greg being angry over losing a game, and not wanting to be teased," Naranjo said.
"He (Harris) knew exactly what he was doing," said Naranjo, when he delivered the bat blows, first to Jeremy Rourke's knee, then to his head while standing at the snack bar after a game which he'd lost to the worst-ranked team in the league.
Openly sobbing and stopping often to catch her breath and contain her emotions, Jeremy's mother, Angela Rourke, described the horror of the event witnessed by three of her family members.
"My daughter saw her brother's eyes rolled back in his head," she said. "And my son and husband were forced to watch as people tried to revive him."
After Jeremy Rourke was transported to Antelope Valley Hospital, Angela said, "We begged them to stop working on him because he would have been like Terry Schiavo."
"Watching my son die in front of my eyes was devastating," said Jeremy's father, Brian Rourke. "And then to sit by while (Harris) showed no remorse, no emotions, even on the stand, it upset us as if it's no big deal."
Throughout all of the day's testimony, including victim impact statements from five of Rourke's family members, including both his parents, his sister and his aunts, the defendant rarely lifted his eyes from the table at which he was sitting.
As people stood at a podium, just to his right and behind him, the 13-year-old did not turn his head to see who was speaking.
Harris' mother did show emotion, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue when one of three defense witnesses took to the stand to testify to Harris' "good and kind character."
Choking up himself so that he had to stop speaking for a minute, Allen McBroom said that while coaching Harris, he "never saw any violence, nothing negative."
Harris, McBroom said, "was a super kid, a great kid," who was "very polite and never used curse words."
Clive Kennedy, a clinical psychologist hired by the court to evaluate the assailant, told the judge that his personality "seemed to be out of character with the crime," and argued against placing the boy with the California Youth Authority, noting that minors there "tend to have more of an anti-social personality style."
In attempting to sway Naranjo toward psychiatric treatment rather than punishment, McKinney, who plans to appeal Thursday's disposition, referred to Harris' clean record preceding the incident.
"He has a great background, with no discipline problems," the attorney said. "This is a kid who made a terrible mistake."
"He didn't mean to kill that child," Harris family spokesman Devon McNairy said. "He was in fear of his safety, a (comparatively smaller) child defending himself."
McNairy reiterated a defense theme, that Harris feared Rourke and acted in a kind of self-defense. The judge utterly rejected that line of argument, saying that even if Harris were teased, or even if he were afraid, he could have left the area rather than setting on the other youth with a baseball bat.
The slain boy's father, Brian Rourke, said his son "was killed for teasing another kid, and teasing happens every day to someone on some ball field" in America.
"Greg killed (my son) because he was trying to show he was a man" who wouldn't put up with it. "Well, now," said Brian Rourke, "he has to face the consequences of his actions like a man."
Since when is it illegal to kill bats?
If I remember an earlier article on this correctly, 50 some people including adults, stood around and watched this happen.
What a tragedy.
My interest in "eye for an eye" type justice keeps growing.
"...McKinney, who plans to appeal Thursday's disposition, referred to Harris' clean record preceding the incident."
This was not an "incident", it was a murder.
The bat to the knee would've stopped the bigger kid. The bat to the head was with malice aforethought. A sentence of 12 years sounds light.
Twelve years is not nearly long enough for this murdering little bas*ard. Just what the hell is it with people, kids and adults that m,make them think it's ok to kill or cripple another because they made you angry? And then to have the family of the murderer testify to what a kind good and gentle boy he is makes me want to puke.
In the face of an obviously planned takedown, ie first the knee, then the head, why do I have so much trouble buying the krap from experts and character witnesses who "never saw a thing?" There is just too much distance between the obvious act and the testimony to give any of them any credibility----and that just makes my BS detector go BEZERK.
Check your friendly endangered species list.
I think you get like 25 yrs for killing one...more than this kid is getting for killing another human.
[just cynicly throwing that out...snide sarcasm]
that was my first thought, too. LOL. Wish it had been that.
My thoughts, exactly. After the first blow to the knees why didn't some adult grab boy or bat? Maybe the blows happened too fast in succession?
Our 14 year old grandson plays ball and the dead kid's dad is on the money when he says on a ball field (I would say all fields) every day, there is some teasing going on--rubbing it in if mistakes are made, etc. Our grandson is 6'3, so not too many people pick on him, but they all take the game pretty seriously.
Teenage tempers are easily ignited. This was indeed a useless tragedy.
vaudine
LOL! The title is misleading -- but it may actually be illegal to kill bats in some places.
Carolyn
I think the Mom was saying it was obvious the kid's wounds were fatal and she just didn't want him patched up, vegetabalized, and suffering.
I remember when Marichal went after Roseboro... never understood that one either.
are you saying that people should get 12 years for killing bats?
"---grab boy or bat" ----in the original stories the Dad of the victim was indeed nearby but just too far to help.
For Greg Harris to have such a disconnect to do such a deed, this kid is most likely a sociopath and needs to be watched close for their whole life.
When I was a kid and tempers flared we got into a fist fight. Yeah, we didn't like to be teased if we lost but we didn't want to kill the teaser! We just wanted to black his eye! Hitting someone with an aluminum bat(or even a wooden one) is proof you want to do permanant damage to the person being stuck.
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