Posted on 05/08/2005 11:32:03 PM PDT by beaversmom
GUFFEY, Colo. (AP) - A teenager in prison for slitting his best friend's throat has told the victims' family to drop their lawsuit against him or risk losing their souls.
"You're in a perilous position spiritually," Isaac Grimes, 19, wrote to Charles Dutcher in a letter postmarked March 22. "I just don't want you to continue hurting yourself and shutting yourself out of the kingdom of heaven."
Dutcher filed a wrongful death lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial June 6, against Grimes and two former Palmer High School classmates who were convicted in the New Year's Day 2001 killings of Dutcher's son and parents.
Tony Dutcher, 15, and his grandparents, Carl and JoAnna Dutcher, were found slain at the grandparents' home, Dutcher's throat cut, and his grandparents shot with a high-powered rifle.
Grimes, who was sentenced to 50 years, wrote in his letter that Charles Dutcher should read Bible verses about forgiveness. Grimes said Dutcher is "talking the talk" of Christianity, but not "walking the walk."
Dutcher was enraged by the letter.
"It upsets me tremendously for him to try to preach at me and scold me," Dutcher said. "I'm not the one who killed three people. He killed my son and he set up my parents. None of this would have happened without Isaac."
Dutcher, who still lives on the property where his son and parents were killed, said Grimes' still doesn't understand the pain he caused.
"I'm sitting here in my dad's chair, looking at bullet holes in the wall," he said. "I'm the one who buried them up here. I'm the one who cleaned up the bloody crime scene. I walk the walk. I walk it everyday, and I sleep it every night."
In his letter to Dutcher, Grimes wrote: "I will value your forgiveness greatly should you choose to give it. If you don't, however, it won't bother me in terms of how I feel about me -- but it is painful to see you and your brothers harboring unforgiveness because of how much you hurt yourselves by doing so. (God has forgiven me, and if someone's opinion of me differs from His, whose should I value more?)"
"Let's start with the topic of the civil suit. Whether I 'win' or 'lose' is quite irrelevant to me. I have no assets and no income -- but rest assured that your attorney fees will be paid, quite likely by you in the event that you can't find someone with assets to sue."
I think the questioning by the plaintiffs' attorney during the civil trial could prove interesting. The defense attorney will have a very difficult time keeping his client from digging his hole even deeper.
Young Isaac seems to have missed a few Sunday Schools. Before forgiveness is granted, first there must be repentance. His claim that God has already forgiven him is a bit boastful. None know for sure if you have been forgiven until you are standing before God.
God Himself laid out standards, if you will, for forgiveness. Even He doesn't forgive any and everything freely.
Isaac shows me he doesn't have a clue about forgiveness.
DAMN that's just evil.
In the future, however, any judgment would not simply vanish. Book deal? Movie deal? Early release, and a job? Jail house marriage to someone with assets? Future inheritance? All benefits from any of these would become nullified by such a judgment. Most of them are not too likely, but it is still an effective preemptive strike, and may not cost too much as suits go. Then, there IS simple satisfaction.
" One of their victims is 15-year-old Tony Dutcher, who was a schoolmate of theirs in Colorado Springs. On previous occasions, Tony had invited his classmate Isaac Grimes to the rural home of his grandparents. During one of these visits, Grimes had decided that the grandfather, 60-year-old Carl Dutcher, was a White racist, and he reported this back to Sue and the other members of OARA. Sue decided that Carl Dutcher should be killed because of his racial beliefs. During the New Year's school vacation at the beginning of this year, Grimes visited Tony at his grandparents' rural home. The two boys camped out in a lean-to behind the Dutcher home. During the night, Grimes crept up behind Tony with a knife and cut his throat as he lay in his sleeping bag. Police said that Tony's throat had been cut all the way to the spinal column, and he bled to death."
" Grimes then went into the Dutchers' house and awaited the arrival of another member of the anti-racist gang, Jonathan Matheny. When Matheny arrived, he shot Carl Dutcher with a rifle. Dutcher's wife, 58-year-old JoAnna, barricaded herself in a bathroom, but Matheny shot her through the bathroom door. Grimes finished them off by slitting their throats."
"Sue sentenced
Will serve 53 years for conspiring in Guffey murders"
"ACCUSED GUNMAN MATHENY GETS 68-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE IN GUFFEY TRIPLE MURDER."
Stories like this make me feel less bad about not having kids in this wonderful world we live in today...
I wonder if any of the perps' parents are named in the suit?
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