My goodness! I just went to look at News, and look what I ran across in the headlines!


Updated: 10:44 PM EST
12-Year-Old Faces Murder, Rape Charges

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (Jan. 11) - A 12-year-old boy has been charged with murdering and raping a male preschooler, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The 12-year-old is not being identified because of his age. He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in juvenile court.

District Attorney William Bennett said 3-year-old Jeremy Rosario Milan died on Dec. 19, two days after being hospitalized with bruises and a head injury.

An autopsy found the younger boy died from blunt-force trauma to the brain. Bennett said Jeremy had been raped at least twice and beaten several times between Dec. 11 and Dec. 17, while he was left in the care of individuals outside his immediate family.

Earlier, the 12-year-old was charged with assaulting the little boy and pleaded innocent in juvenile court. He has been held in state custody since then on $10,000 bail.

Alan Black, the 12-year-old's lawyer, declined to comment.

Under state law, juveniles convicted of murder can be held in state custody only until age 21.


01/11/05 21:01 EST



Miranda

makes one think doesnt it??? who is to blame here then? what would YOU say? is it the 12-yr old's family background? is it his friends? is it the television programmes he has been watching? is it a chemical imbalance in his brain? is it.... what do YOU think?? personal opinion??

Wow! That is a tale that defies any kind of logic. In one sense, if he had merely beaten and killed a three year old, you could accept that he had been exposed to a cruel upbringing. But, the sexual abuse points to a much deeper problem than that, especially in a 12 year old. I think that there needs to be an investigation into the boy's family life. That kind of behavior is coming from somewhere, and I don't think it's the TV.

__________________
Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly.

Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy.

yeah, xray, i would tend to agree with you. so again, i ask in a semi light-hearted but at the same time very deep way, the question... who was the victim here? they obviously both were to an extent really werent they? you have to wonder why ppl would bring a child up in the way this young boy was 'obviously' brought up and why the authorities werent allerted. but there are many ways of looking at a case like this...

I think you are right, gobbi. The 12 year old is just as much a victim as the 3 year old. You ask how anyone could raise a boy like that, and sadly there are many who know how to make babies but don't know how to teach them right from wrong, or perhaps they just don't care. I suppose that this is a problem as old as mankind itself. Maybe the authorities will learn something from this incident and be more alert in the future. Who knows what the answer is?

__________________
Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly.

Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy.

xray, i dont think that the authorities anywhere in the world learn from something even as tragic as this - look at the Jamie Bulger murder in the UK, and things like that go on every day here in SA, with the black people believing that black children's body parts can b a healing aid in voodoo or 'medicine.' It is terrible that people have to go thru this and that there is really, nothing that one can do to 'stop it..' sure when people are caught doing it, they are sent to prison and some of them 'repent' and realise that what they have done is wrong and come out better ppl, but others arent as 'lucky' - they never realise that they did something as terrible as we know it is, and they get more and more bitter in some cases. i feel terribly sorry for ppl like this - but more so sorry because of the upbringings they had and in some cases they dont even know how 'bad' they have been.. do you understand what i am trying to say?

It is my feeling that this twelve year old is a victim of incest and probably has a learning disability. Many families lack boundaries and these are passed on to their children. This is particularly true in families where incest occurs. This child was acting out what he had experienced and went too far. He is definitely a victim too.

I agree, this 12 year old must have been exposed to and the victom of some pretty horrific stuff to be capable of what he did at such a young age. I don't believe peole are just born bad, people can be born with a predisposition towards violence etc but its their upbringing and life experience that really dictate how they will turn out. And as a 12 year would not have had as many life experiences as say a grown man I would say it was probably because his upbringing and home life that he turned out the way he has. That is just my opinion anyway.

I don't believe he should be punished for his crime, even though it is atrocious beyond comprehension, he is only 12 and so cannot be held fully acountable for his actions. I think rehabilitation would be the best action and hopefully it would work and one day he could become a productive member of society.

Don't get me wrong I feel for the murdered boy and his family, I can only begin to imagine what they must be go through but I don't think that punishing the 12 year old will solve anything. And by punishing him I mean locking him away for the rest of his life in a prison where we all know he will be traumaised even further.

Yesterday, when I ran across this, I was horrified. I had no idea what to think, and was basically left speechless.

I agree with all of you; I think that the problem lies DEEP in this rape/murder. I think basically, that some (if not most) of the blame could be put on the parents of the 12 year old. Some could be put on " the system", so to speak, in America. I am sure that somewhere this child ran into a doctor, a counselor, a school nurse or official... someone who saw that this child had a severe mental or emotional problem.

It's hard for me to believe that a 12 year old child would just do this "out of the blue" without SOME type of warning signs. He had to be mentally or physically, or even sexually abused somewhere in the 12 years of his life. Quite possibly, all of the above. This wouldn't just be something that popped into his head one day.

This is a crime where there are victims on both sides. The 12 year old is definitely a victim, but of what, we just don't know.
The family of the 3 yr old child are victims from the loss of their loved one. It's saddening...

I am going to try to follow-up on this story in the future. Since this is dealing with a juvenile manner, it will be hard to find much information. Please, anyone who runs across any new information on this, please post it. I would like to keep up with how the investigation goes in this crime.

Leaving the post: still baffled...

Miranda

I'm speechless.

First on hearing about this innocent 3 year old and then on reading most of the replies here. My opinion isn't going to be very popular, apparently, but I have to say it or pop. I *do* think this 12 year old 'child' should be punished and much more severely than he will be. After all, he raped and beat the 3 year old not once, but repeatedly.

As for his being a 'child', yes, chronologically that's true, but emotionally and physically he chose a destructive path over and over that only a sociopath could feel was normal or ok.

Don't worry about his home environment, he is going into the harshest punishment available - a structured environment - but only until he is 21 when he will be a free man with no criminal record.

Did the irony escape anyone that the 3 year old raped and murdered victim's name was used, but the 12 year old's name was not?

Like everyone here, I have a loved one in prison, too, and can certainly see both sides of a situation. Still, I pray the parents of the murdered 3 year old never run across this site.

As for his upbringing, it may have been dreadful and it may have been overly permissive, or, it may have been perfectly normal by most standards. We'll probably never know. HIS name was omitted to protect him and his family.