Posted on 03/04/2005 6:51:32 AM PST by AnOldCowhand
The two boys arrested after the slaying of an elderly San Luis Obispo man this week have fathers who are convicted felons and mothers who struggled with little money to raise them.
Both dads have been in and out of County Jail and state prison for the past 15 years, according to court records. They also repeatedly failed to pay child support after the divorces, records showed -- forcing one of the mothers to go on welfare.
The 13-year-old boy accused of using a skateboard to bludgeon to death 87-year-old Gerald "Jerry" O'Malley has been charged with four felonies: murder, elder abuse, burglary and auto theft. His 12-year-old friend is charged with felony auto theft for allegedly stealing O'Malley's Ford Explorer after the killing, but authorities said they don't believe he was involved in the murder.
Both boys made their first appearances in juvenile court on Thursday.
The Tribune is choosing not to name the youths because they are minors being tried in juvenile court. The newspaper is also withholding other identifying information, including the parents' names.
While it is unclear when O'Malley was killed, police found his body Monday night in his residence in the Village Mobile Home Park in San Luis Obispo, across from the Greyhound bus depot. The boys were arrested several hours later near the Amtrak station.
13-year-old's family
The 13-year-old was born and raised in San Luis Obispo. The boy is the second oldest in a family of six children. He has five sisters.
Court records show that the parents are divorced, but their date of separation is not clear. In 1995, the District Attorney's Office sued the father, who is now 49, for failing to pay child support. A judge later ordered him to pay $639 a month to the mother, who reported in court records that she had no other income.
Starting in 1986, the father pleaded no contest four times to drunken driving in San Luis Obispo County. On two occasions, he had a blood-alcohol concentration nearly three times the legal limit, according to court records.
He was convicted of two felonies -- possessing a controlled substance and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse -- in San Bernardino County in 2002, according to the state Department of Corrections. Those crimes landed him in prison for a year with an additional year of supervised parole until June 2004.
The father served time at Avenal State Prison and Chuckawalla Valley State Prison near the California border with Arizona.
The 12-year-old boy's father also was incarcerated at both of those prisons. It isn't known whether the men knew each other.
The younger boy's family
The 12-year-old boy, who has a younger brother and teen sister, was born near San Jose in 1992. Throughout his life, according to court records, he's lived with his mother -- and sometimes his father -- in Templeton, Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo.
His parents divorced in 2001, around the same time his father went back to prison for at least the third time, according to court documents and prison data.
Because the father had established a pattern of returning to prison, the mother asked a judge to quickly finalize their divorce.
"I would like to move forward with my life and put this behind me, for the sake of my children and myself," she said in a written statement to the court.
With the father away at prison in 2002 and failing to pay child support, the District Attorney's Office pursued him, gaining a judgment that forced him to pay. In those court papers, the mother said she made a $790 monthly income and was trying to support three children while still paying her $340 rent. She had to rely on welfare assistance for help.
The father has been convicted of six felonies and two misdemeanors in San Luis Obispo County. Most of the crimes were felony drug possession and receiving stolen property.
Most recently in 2003 -- as the parents were divorced -- the father pleaded no contest to battery for striking the mother. That misdemeanor led to a six-month County Jail sentence.
The father first went to prison in 1996 -- when his son was 4 -- for receiving stolen property, according to Department of Corrections data. He repeatedly violated his parole, bouncing back and forth between living in San Luis Obispo County and serving time at prisons in Avenal, Wasco and elsewhere around the state.
The father, 34, is on parole after being released Feb. 16, according to the CDC.
A father's influence
The behavior of the 12-year-old's father has left an impression on the boy, according to a former housemate of the youth and his father.
"We are adults. They mimic us," said Daniel Reynolds, who allowed the father to move in with him in Paso Robles in 2003.
"We're the biggest impression a child will have. Now it's transferred to his child," Reynolds said. "He loves his dad to death. He adores him. He doesn't understand why he does what he does. He wants to be like his dad, just like everybody else.
"He needed good guidance to have people teach him what's right -- (his father) doesn't know."
Both boys attended Haw-thorne Elementary School in San Luis Obispo as recently as two years ago, but were no longer enrolled there. They appear to have most recently been associated with the Templeton Unified School District home-school program, according to a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Court hearings Thursday
The boys, in separate hearings, made their first appearances in a tiny juvenile courtroom Thursday morning.
The 13-year-old, wearing an orange jumpsuit and sitting with his arms crossed, did not speak or enter a plea. The slender 5-foot-2 boy has brown hair with bleached-blond tips. He wore a serious expression during the quick proceeding.
His hearing was continued until Wednesday, when a judge will decide whether he needs to remain in custody at the Juvenile Services Center throughout his court hearings.
The boy's sister and 40-year-old mother sat behind him, sobbing through much of the hearing as Judge Teresa Estrada-Mullaney spoke about court procedures.
As the boy left the courtroom, his mother hugged him, kissed him twice on the cheek and said, "I love you, son."
The boy wrapped his arms around his mother but did not say anything. The mother buried her head in a green scarf as she left the courtroom, flanked by sheriff's bailiffs.
The murder suspect's public defender, Jennifer Fehlman, said the family did not want to speak to reporters and they asked her not to do so, either.
It was not clear what happened at the 12-year-old's hearing because he isn't charged with a major felony and his session was closed to the public.
no chld support = welfare when you are a leftist reporter tying to blame fathers for not paying and not enough government intervention to be a father.
This is pure spin, I hope states rewrite their laws to automatically emancipate this little wonders back to be subject to the death penalty.
I can't wait until the lawyers start suing the rap thugs and MTV like they go after gun manufacturers.
I'm sure you all know that the children of single-parent families statistically have a much higher crime rate that children raised by a father and a mother.
And that the government itself promotes single parent families through its immigration and tax policies.
It's like a business development plan for government employment.
But! But! But! It's her right! You heartless right-wing extremist monster! Now just buck-up and support them for her....Unless you need to go on welfare too.
< /sarcasm>
then, GWB could nominate another judge, after Kennedy could no longer "sit on the bench". :^/
...Six Months, Maximum...it'll serve him right.
AND COLLECTED, so obviously, jailed or not, the rotten SOB felon had attachable assets, as well as a legitimate obligation to support his by-blows cheeeeldren.
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