| No parent should
ever have to bury their child. God
took Michael's pain and suffering
away and put it on Jerry, Daniel,
and myself to endure. We are more
than devastated and broken forever.
We are also very angry. We demand
justice for Michael and we will have
it for him.
Michael's killer
was serving a 15 year sentence for
killing his father and was let out
on parole after having served only
5 or so years and then he did this
to Michael.
We encourage the
District Attorney's Office to seek
the full penalty of years allowed
in each charge with NO possibility
of parole.
The charges are:
(click links to view the court
documents)
1. Vehicular
Homicide
2. Leaving
the Scene of an Accident
3. Murder
in the 2nd degree
UPDATE: Our case had been postponed for two years. Finally, we got word in early spring of 2008 that there was a plea bargin on the table for us to consider. Apparently we had a lot to learn about the justice system in this country. The DA advised us that in some cases, the jury can be very unpredictable and could in fact let Michael's killer go free because it happens all the time. He said he has seen "worse" cases be set free that should hever have happened, and began to site case after case when this has occured before. It just depends on the "mood" of the jury that day. With that in mind, we felt like we were backed into a corner and we opted to accept the plea of 6 years. I know this sounds incredible, and surely not enough but the thought that any jury could set this animal loose was even more sickening. The court however did promise to contact us whenever parole time came around so that we as a family could go in front of the parole board and speak our minds and convince them not to grant it. There are other charges still pending with this "animal" as I call him in regards to other cases of car theft, felonys, and drug related things so I am sure he will be remaining in prison for a very long time. I suppose that what bothers me the most is that the animal has never shown or displayed any kind of remorse to anyone for what he has done to my family. May he burn in hell.
Here we are now two years later. Contrary to what most people say, no, time does not heal at all. We are very sad and we cry every day for Michael. Every single day we shed tears. Sometimes I just stand outside and scream out his name, "MICHAEL!" Other days I expect him to come bouncing in the house hollering "Mom, I'm home." I have dreams about it. We miss him so much. We have tried counselling and prayers and we still can't seem to heal our hearts. We have no sense of peace in our lives anymore no matter what we do to try and carry on. We went from a noisy fun loving family to a broken one in the blink of an eye. We are all very changed people now and we will never be the same family we once were. Not without Michael. All because of drugs and alcohol and a justice system that fails miserably. Where is God?
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