Dad who stabbed alleged molester gets prison

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13415435/ ^ | 8/31/07 | ALPHA-8-25-02

[alpha-8-25-02]

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - A lawyer who stabbed his neighbor to death because he thought the man had molested his 2-year-old daughter was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter. “It’s a Shakespearean tragedy brought into the real world,” Judge Richard Comerford said at the sentencing. “Something was set into motion in this man’s mind — real or perceived. It was very real to him.” Jonathon Edington, 29, attacked neighbor Barry James in the man’s bedroom last year after his wife told him she thought James had molested their daughter. Officers said they found Edington washing the victim’s blood off in a kitchen sink.

[alpha-8-25-02]

did a search and did not see it posted.

[MeanWestTexan]

Manslaughter is appropriate.

[kinoxi]

This was a weird one.

[3AngelaD]

Wow. Sounds like the wife might be loopy, and he was nuts to act on anything she said.

[alpha-8-25-02]

i’m searching for the original news now,but it was his wife who made the accusation to him.

[misterrob]

The wife should have been named as a conspirator and tossed in the clink as well since it was her allegations that fueled the whole thing.

[alisasny]

Article also says she did not cooperate during the investigations....

Her childs father freedom is on the line and she did not cooperate?

Clearly not a stable woman. I only hope she does not have custody of that poor child.

[laconic]

He and his wife particularly got off light. Their poor victim had done nothing, other than to be a bit eccentric and now he’s tarred with something (a particularly heinous accusation) he did not do.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Fairfield police also investigated the molestation allegation and said they found no evidence to back it up.

What difference does that make?

With child molestation, you are guilty until proven innocent. That's why some states put people on their registered sex offender list if they have merely been accused of child molestation. No conviction required.

If we can just save one child, it will be worth it, right?

[Southack]

12 years in state time equals 12 months of actual time behind bars...a fair price to pay for taking out your daughter’s child molestor.

Gives him some cooling off time.

Hope for his conscience that he was right about the molestation, though.

[Greg F]

There are reasons to go to the police rather than just shoot the bastards . . . even when your child is the victim.

[alpha-8-25-02]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14801081/

original article states wife said 2 year old daughter told her.

[PAR35]

Manslaughter is appropriate.

You do know that the evidence shows that the accusation is false, don't you?

[Verloona Ti]

Here are the long, contentious articles on this tragedy from earlier in the saga:

Told His Daughter Was Molested, a Lawyer Kills His Neighbor, Police Say

Police: Girl Wasn't Molested by Neighbor

[Verloona Ti]

If you’re looking for the earlier articles, see my reply #14.

[misterrob]

And two year olds are credible because? Such a charge is serious business and needs to be treated with extreme caution. We want to protect kids and get predators off the street but not at the cost of running with hunts that tar (or kill) innocent people.

[PAR35]

12 years in state time equals 12 months of actual time behind bars...a fair price to pay for taking out your daughter’s child molestor.

Is it a fair price for the privilege of killing an apparently innocent man?

[Southack]

Nope.

[Fishtalk]

This is a very strange case I've been following.

I have a couple of posts on this on my Blog....I'll provide links:

September 2006

October 2006

In short, the 3 year old child and her mother went away to visit a maternal reletive. Came time to go home and the child cried and said she didn't want to go home. When pressured for a reason, the toddler said that "Mr. Smith" or the neighbor's name, would come to her room in the middle of the night and "rain on her face".

Scuttlebutt is that the Edingtons had been complaining about this guy and a couple of times he was found exposing himself to nearby playing children. The Edingtons found him hanging around their house a time or two and they didn't like it a bit.

The father, Jonathan Edington, went nuts once his wife called him and told him about their daughter's fear of returning home and that bit about the "rain". Edington immediately went over to the man's house, climbed into his bedroom window, and viciously stabbed him to death.

Edington never denied he did it and he went along peacably when the cops came for him.

And that's all I basically know and this news story doesn't tell much more. First, the biggest obstacle is that to believe it all one has to take the word of a 3 year old little girl. Still, it's hard to believe the child lied and the dead guy, well it's not evident in the story at the link but there was something really hinky about him.

I wondered what the prosecution was going to do about Edington. So he got what?....twelve years? For cold-blooded murder?

See, I think the prosecution made a deal. I think there's way more to this story than meets the eye. I don't understand that bit about the wife not cooperating but I'm betting some lawyer advised her not to.

whether or not the neighbor molested the little girl, we can't have citizens just going around willy-nilly stabbing men suspected of something. Edington was going to have to serve SOME time.

And I'm betting it was just easier to give Edington a twelve year sentence (EIGHT years reduced? you don't think that's odd?), with time off for good behavior possibly...than to try and prosecute him for murder. Plus there's some concern by the alleged molester's family. While they were out and about and declaring their loved one the epitome of chastity, they are obviously going along with this sentence rather than have what I think must be a questionable family member be put on trial himself, after death.

It sure is curious.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

"12 years in state time equals 12 months of actual time behind bars"

In Conn. violent convicted criminals serve 85 percent of their sentences before they can be considered for parole - he's in for 10 years, two months, minimum.