Lewisville siblings face hearings in brother's killing
Posted on 04/27/2002 4:06:09 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Lewisville siblings face hearings in brother's killing
04/27/2002
The court-appointed attorney for a 15-year-old Lewisville girl who's charged with killing her 6-year-old brother said Friday that the teen is a loving child whose behavioral problems over the years were never adequately addressed.
Kimberly McCary said she doesn't know whether the fault rests with parents, counselors, school officials or state and local agencies. But she said she intends to find out as she builds her client's case.
"It's hard to know who to blame in this," she said. "There are red flags to be acted on, and it's very tragic that it took this situation to figure that out. Had those red flags been acted on, she would have benefited greatly."
The teen and her brother, 10, are being held in the Denton County Juvenile Detention Center on juvenile murder charges. Police have said the siblings confessed to killing their brother, Jackson, who was stabbed and suffocated on April 15. Detention hearings are scheduled for both youths next week. The teen could be tried as an adult and, if convicted, sentenced to life in prison. The 10-year-old, who is at the minimum age to be prosecuted, could serve up to 40 years in prison if convicted.
Ms. McCary of Lewisville said people should not forget that her client is a child.
"There is a loving little girl in there, and all the media has is this monster," she said. "She's young and she's a girl and she doesn't need to be treated as an adult in this system."
The parents, Michael and Rita Carr, feel torn, said their attorney, Dan Hagood of Dallas.
They buried their youngest son April 19 and are now involved in the criminal defenses of their remaining children.
"A parent's love just doesn't stop. It doesn't," Mr. Hagood said. "But you know, parents still know when they [kids] need punishment. That's part of being a parent. I can't imagine it."
Mr. Hagood said his clients will not volunteer information about their children but will respond to requests by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Mr. Hagood said he was hired by the parents to help them with complexities of the case.
The 15-year-old girl is in the seventh grade, and the boy has Tourette's syndrome and attention-deficit disorder, a neighbor has said.
The 10-year-old is represented by Daniel Kossmann, a court-appointed lawyer from Denton.
"As far as I know, he's doing OK," Mr. Kossman said of his client. He declined to comment further.
Child welfare advocates have raised concerns about how much intervention occurred with both children as they were growing up.
The girl admitted trying to set fire to a Garland elementary school when she was 11 years old, according to public records.
A classmate in the girl's sixth-grade geography class said she saw the girl corner another classmate and hold a pair of scissors to his face last year. And a neighbor has said the defendants shot out one of his windows, apparently with a BB gun, about a year ago.
The girl was repeatedly teased at school, classmates have said.
Garland and Lewisville school officials have declined to comment.
"There were some big signs here, with the acting out," said Dr. Gail Gross, one of the state's leading experts in child development and behavior. "The question I have is, where was the bridge between the schools, social services and the parents?"
Texas law requires adults to report suspected child neglect or abuse to state authorities.
On at least three occasions, someone did call Child Protective Services.
In one case, the agency stopped its investigation because the family moved.
Another case was closed as "undetermined," without evidence to support or refute an allegation that the girl had been physically abused. A third case last month ruled out abuse of the 10-year-old.
The girl's parents whom neighbors have described as strict took her to counseling and had her enrolled in an alternative education program.
"Little children are not made and not born monsters," said Ms. McCary. "She is not one."
Prior article posted includes other links regarding this story......
Girl's maturity weighed in killing - Hundreds
mourn slain 6-year-old Lewisville boy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/669599/posts
Some people do not show up in photos and their reflection can't be seen in a mirror. Maybe she is one of them
On the contrary, Ms. McCary, she is!
Normal children don't commit cold-blooded murder of their six-year old sibling. Only "monsters" do that.
Whether the monster she is was "made" or "born" is immaterial. Because, now, she is what she is: a murderer.
A life sentence is in perfectly good order.
Heres a novel idea...........how about the 15 yr old who murdered her brother.
If the school district bears any blame, it is way down the line. The parents are at home with those kids every day and should be legally responsible.
If the parents put their child through the mental abuse that the school can put the child through the child would be removed from the home. That people give so much benefit of the doubt to public schools is amazing.
Yep, it's true.............
joking ;)
I'm not saying I know what happened here, I'm just suggesting that the public school should be a high profile suspect as to causing emotion harm to the kid.
I doubt other kids teased her based on her having bad behavior but even so that is still the schools negligence to allow it in an ongoing situation. Teasing or bullying are not usually done out of justice.
Well, of course that came from the defense attorney...I can tell you who to blame. You blame the 15 year old sister and the ten year old brother.
Our philosophies on this are as different as the sun and the moon. I'm amazed that these boys' fathers are actually permitting you to turn their sons into cowards.
We just finished the Yates case in which, to read the newspaper editorials and letters to the editor here in Houston, Yates was a "martyr" to the cause of women's rights.
Well, leaving that notion aside for a moment, whatever may have been her motivation Yates was an adult.
This girl is a CHILD, and has never been wholely responsible for her actions.
I think some punishment is warranted, but this is obviously a girl who is ill, and probably has been for some time.
In the Yates case, many here on FR wanted to hold her husband responsible in some way. I thought that was bizarre, because husbands and wives are PEERS. A husband is not "the responsible one" in a marriage.
But in this case the girl is NOT responsible for what she has done, at least not legally (and I have to defer to God to determine what degree of moral responsibility she must accept). In this case the parents are wholely responsible for their children's behavior, including whether they are receiving adequate care. From the looks of things, instead, the parents were concerned about "launching their home-based business," and too preoccupied with self-indulgence to pay attention to the obvious disarray their family was in.
That's just inexcusable to me.
So, whatever is decided about the girl, to my mind she cannot bear a great deal of responsibility for her actions as a fifteen year old child. She had parents, and those parents should have been minding the store. It seems to me that they were remiss.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.