Boy Is Slain by Friends for Money After Girlfriend Lures Him Into Field for Sex, Police Say (Philly)

ABC News Website ^ | 6/7/2003 | AP

[BagCamAddict]

A 16-year-old boy was lured by his new girlfriend into a field where three of his friends robbed and bludgeoned him, police said.

Police allege that Justina Morley, promising sex, brought Jason Sweeney to a field behind some industrial buildings near his house last week.

As she undressed, three boys sneaked behind Sweeney and beat him in the head and face with a hatchet, a hammer and a brick, police said. The teen, who had just cashed his paycheck from the construction job he worked with his father, was beaten so severely that he was unrecognizable, police said.

[BagCamAddict]

Utterly disgusting.

[MEG33]

Depraved.No value for a friend's life..just money.

[libertylover]

This is awful.

[DainBramage]

She's gonna make somebody a good ex wife.

[ricpic]

Could the three who beat him have been on a drug at the time?

[connectthedots]

Wonder if the Coia boys are any relation to the head of the Laborers Union that is/was a friend of Bill and Hillary?

[tdadams]

Sounds like they've seen the movie Bully. This is the exact description of a scene from that movie.

[doosee]

Odd but this same type of scheme was used to murder a young Hewlett Packard employee back in the 80's. The girl lured him out of PA down into Virginia where she had 2 other punks waiting to kill him for a few bucks. All were caught within days if not hours. I guess this has happened since the caveman days on this planet. How stupid...

[whereasandsoforth]

Senseless. Even the victim had no morals. Lord help the whole lot.

[Cacique]

Here's a picture of a real animal

another sotry here http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/6026179.htm

[calvin sun]

Here's another story:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/6024339.htm

In it, the mother of Jason (the victim) said that her son couldn't wait to introduce this girl to her, because he considered her his "girlfriend."

[AppyPappy]

The Devil herself.

[csvset]

Teen Beating Victim Laid To Rest

Jun 6, 2003 10:50 pm US/Eastern
PHILADELPHIA (KYW) A 16-year-old boy was lured by his new girlfriend into a field where three of his friends robbed and bludgeoned him, police said, in a beating investigators called one of the most vicious they had ever seen.

Jason Sweeney was killed as the result of a scheme the girl and three boys concocted to rob Sweeney of $500 in cash to buy drugs, police Sgt. Kathleen McGowan said.

Justina Morley, 15, and the boys -- Edward Batzig Jr., 16; Nicholas Coia, 16; and his brother Dominic Coia, 17 -- were charged as adults with murder and related offenses. The boys had grown up together, police said.

Sweeney's mother said her son seemed happy with his girlfriend of two weeks.

"He thought she was a nice girl," Dawn Sweeney said. "He wanted me to meet her."

Police contend that Morley, promising sex, brought Sweeney to a field behind some industrial buildings near his house last week in a well-kept neighborhood in the city's blue-collar Fishtown section.

"She lured him to his death," said Dawn Sweeney, 38.

As she undressed, three boys sneaked behind Sweeney and struck him in the head and face with a hatchet, a hammer and a brick, police said. The teen, who had just cashed his paycheck from the construction job he worked with his father, was beaten so severely that he was unrecognizable, police said.

"He's going to have a closed casket for what they did to my son," the victim's father, Paul Sweeney, 42, said Thursday. Funeral services were held Friday morning.

Dawn Sweeney said her son "was the sweetest person you'd ever want to meet.

"When he was in third grade, his jacket disappeared," she recalled. "I said, 'Jason, where's your jacket?' He said a little boy was cold, so he gave him his jacket."

When he grew up, his mother said, "he stayed that way."

Sweeney decided he wanted to enlist in the Navy when he turned 17 because he wanted to become a Navy SEAL, his mother said.

Jeanette Batzig, 46, said her son has confessed to Sweeney's killing.

"How could anybody do it? How could my son do it?" she asked, calling the victim "the most decent kid that Eddie knew."

"The Sweeney family don't know how horrible I feel," she said. "(Jason) slept here. He ate here."

Batzig's mother said her son told her that Morley had a relationship with all the boys and was not Sweeney's girlfriend.

Batzig said her son started having problems when he befriended the Coia brothers in the last year or two. Sweeney's mother called the brothers "evil."

"I didn't like either one of them," Batzig said. "I didn't want him hanging around them."

Edward Batzig and Nicholas Coia were arrested this year for breaking into a car, Jeanette Batzig said. Because of that, Sweeney was prohibited from spending time with Batzig, his friend since fourth grade, both mothers said.

No one answered the door at Sweeney's and Batzig's homes on Friday afternoon, and a telephone message left at the Coia home was not immediately returned. There was no telephone listing under the name Morley on the block where police said that Justina Morley lived, and the family could not be reached for comment.

(MMIII, Viacom Internet Services Inc. , All Rights Reserved)

[Cacique]

The victim

another version of the story

More

[csvset]

Re the possible drug angle.

Three Teens Under Arrest In Fishtown Murder

(Murder suspect) Batzig's father did not want to speak on camera, but told NBC 10 News that he wanted people to know how sorry he is about his son's action. He said that the three suspects got hooked on heroin and that he thinks the teens killed Sweeney for his money.

[johniegrad]

How long before the WOD list shows up to "logically demonstrate" how this unnecessary death ws the result of the evil WOD and how simple legalization of narcotic analgesics will remove the profit motive and save lives? Oh, wait a minute, they're probably still asleep.

[independentmind]

I was wondering exactly where this happened. Fishtown is a pretty rough neighborhood, isn't?

[csvset]

I'm not from the Philly area, not sure about the neighborhood. It doesn't sound like it's a nice place though, with teenaged herion addicts running around bashing a guy to death.

[tdadams]

You're preemptively criticizing people who would politicize this, yet you're the first one to do so. That's rich.

[HitmanLV]

It's that rap music I tell you!