[Aptorian]

I consider myself a pretty indefferent person, who's been desensitised by too much television and the darker parts of the net, yet somehow this case REALLY pisses me off. Child abuse is nothing new but for some reason the way this prosecutor formulated the events has me some place between tears and helpless rage.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_...Ct924JtKD8DW7oF

Quote

GALVESTON, Texas – A slain toddler tried to stop her mother and stepfather from beating her to death by reaching out to her mother and saying, "I love you," a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday. The pleas from 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers didn't stop her mother, Kimberly Trenor, from continuing to brutalize her, assistant district attorney Kayla Allen said in her opening statement at Trenor's murder trial.

But defense attorney Tommy Stickler Jr. told the jury that Trenor, 20, never intended to kill her daughter in 2007 and that things just "spun out of control."

The toddler was dubbed "Baby Grace" by investigators who worked to identify her decomposed remains after the body was found in a plastic container in October 2007 on a tiny island in Galveston Bay.

Trenor's 25-year-old husband, Royce Zeigler II, is to be tried separately on murder charges. His attorney points the finger at Trenor.

Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty because they didn't think they could prove that either one would be a future danger, as required.

During her opening statement, Allen detailed for jurors the day that she said Riley Ann died for forgetting to say "please" and "yes, sir."

Allen said that on July 25, 2007, Trenor and Zeigler disciplined Riley by whipping her with a belt, pushing her head against a pillow and holding her head under water. She said Zeigler grabbed Riley and tossed her across the room, fracturing her skull. An autopsy concluded the skull fractures caused her death.

"To the very end, Riley said, 'I love you' to her mom. She's reaching out," Allen said. "That's her lifeline, to her mother. What does Kim do after hearing her say I love you? She starts beating her."

Allen said the adults did nothing to help even as Riley lay dying.

She said the pair bought a plastic container, stuffed Riley's body inside and stored it in a shed for a month or two before setting it out to sea, prosecutors said.

Stickler portrayed Trenor as a scared 19-year-old girl who had moved to Texas from Ohio to marry a man she met while playing an online game. She said Riley's father, her former boyfriend, had assaulted her and Zeigler was her "knight in shining armor, her Texas cowboy."

"I don't want to use the word accident, but this wasn't something that was intentional," Stickler said.

Trenor could receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of capital murder. The jury could also convict her of a lesser charge.

Riley's remains were unidentified for weeks until an Ohio woman, Sheryl Sawyers, saw an artist's sketch and told authorities she believed the girl was her granddaughter. Sawyers' son is Trenor's ex-boyfriend.

[Cold Iron]

How does one accidentally throw one's child across a room, fracturing it's skull.

Apt don't post this shit please.

[teholbeddict]

OMG this makes me feel absolutely sick! What a heart breaking story! People like this should not be allowed to have children. No one should hit a child, let alone for not saying please or yes sir! These people are fucking monsters! She was two years old, what the hell were they expecting from her! I hope they are thrown in prison to rot and that someone beats the shit out of them everyday for the rest of their lives! Death is too good for these people! They are inhumane and there is no excuse for what they have done. I don't even know how they've managaged to find a lawyer to defend them! Completely and utterly disgusting!

[HoosierDaddy]

teholbeddict, on Jan 27 2009, 05:09 PM, said:

OMG this makes me feel absolutely sick! What a heart breaking story! People like this should not be allowed to have children. No one should hit a child, let alone for not saying please or yes sir! These people are fucking monsters! She was two years old, what the hell were they expecting from her! I hope they are thrown in prison to rot and that someone beats the shit out of them everyday for the rest of their lives! Death is too good for these people! They are inhumane and there is no excuse for what they have done. I don't even know how they've managaged to find a lawyer to defend them! Completely and utterly disgusting!

Part of that whole Bill of Rights thing. 6th Amendment.

[Mezla PigDog]

I am actually approaching desensitisation to stories like this! There have been 2 recently in the UK press (both worse than this) that were so overdone by the media, it virtually becomes child abuse pornography for the mass public. I don't believe that anyone is born evil so the fact that people can become twisted enough to do these things is as sad as the deaths themselves.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

The depths of human depravity. I hope they go to jail and then hell. God, I wish i knew what went on in these people's heads. As if there isn't enough violence already, they have to go make some more. Demonic savages.

[beru]

apt... im speachless..... ... ...

[dktorode]

"Yes sir, I would like you stop beating me...PLEASE!!"

Very rough...very rough indeed.

[Shinrei]

Cold Iron, on Jan 27 2009, 11:03 PM, said:

Apt don't post this shit please.

+1

This started my day off in a rather dark mood, which pretty much lasted all day.

Plus, I don't really perceive anything to "discuss".

[Satan]

Here's a topic of discussion for you; as teholbeddict lamented, people like these shouldn't be allowed to have children. So, first question, should they or should they not be allowed to be in charge of children. If not, then by what standards are we (society) to judge who may or may not have children, how are we supposed to test them, and how should we go about refusing them? Inure yourself of the blatant failure of evolution and discuss the fuck out of this thing!

[Shinrei]

No matter how deplorable these acts are, and no matter if "licensing" of would-be parents might prevent some of these incidents, under no circumstances in any allegedly free society should there be some sort of regulation of who can be a parent and who cannot.

Discussion OVAH!

[Menandore]

That's already been done to death in this thread.

[Aptorian]

Shinrei no Shintai, on Jan 28 2009, 02:51 PM, said:

Cold Iron, on Jan 27 2009, 11:03 PM, said:

Apt don't post this shit please.

+1

This started my day off in a rather dark mood, which pretty much lasted all day.

Plus, I don't really perceive anything to "discuss".

I was just so outraged that I had to share it with someone- For some reason I didn't figure I would get the same response from 4chan, which is where I found it-

[Cougar]

Whilst I agree there is nothing necessarily to discuss there is no prohibition on posting serious or disturbing topics so long as they do not exceed the bounds of taste or decency. Nobody has gloried in this and it is not within the bounds of moderation to decide whether a topic is worthy of discussion, I think it's rather poor form to criticise Apt for posting this, if you dislike it don't read it or reply.

[Moody]

I suppose you could fine any parents that didn't pass a parenting test.

[Illuyankas]

Except the practical.

[Shinrei]

Cougar, on Jan 28 2009, 04:15 PM, said:

Whilst I agree there is nothing necessarily to discuss there is no prohibition on posting serious or disturbing topics so long as they do not exceed the bounds of taste or decency. Nobody has gloried in this and it is not within the bounds of moderation to decide whether a topic is worthy of discussion, I think it's rather poor form to criticise Apt for posting this, if you dislike it don't read it or reply.

Perhaps on many other boards, your analysis would be correct. However, since we tend to be pretty friendly around here, I wasn't 'criticising' Apt, but rather letting him know that I'd rather not see this sort of thing. And since when, if I dislike something, am I not allowed to reply???

[Illuyankas]

Perhaps we should have a 'THIS IS AN OUTRAGE' thread in the Inn for links like this, since there's nothing really to discuss here and no one is going to be on the side of the baby murderers anyway.

I mean, people steal, assault, rape, murder, and buy Mika albums all the time. It's terrible, yes, but we don't really need constant reminders of it here, especially ones we can't say anything about beyond, "Well, shit."

[Mezla PigDog]

I would be interested to discuss the media's role in reporting this kind of thing though. If it's in the mainstream media, then I guess it is justifiable to post here.

The recent cases in the UK were reported in a very sensationalist manner. Lots of diagrams showing the injuries, photographs of blood stained clothes and such. I thought it was all in extremely poor taste but of course the media insist that these things need to be reported (not that anyone complained, the country was lapping up the gruesome details). Well, there is the valid reason that they make communities more aware of the issue and so more cases of abuse may be reported. However, it has lead to a serious desensitisation towards these kind of stories for me, and I am not easily desensitised! People were lapping it up, more and more graphic images were in the papers every day. Then when pictures emerged showing that the kid was blonde and blue eyed, they went even more for it. It was THE topic around the countries water coolers (considerably more so than when a little black immigrant girl was equally hideously abused a few years earlier). The abusers are ridiculously vilified as well which means any form of rehabilitation and release are seriously compromised (regardless of peoples opinions on future release for people like this, the law is what it is and all the abusers were shown to have learning difficulties).

So, I suppose opinion will be equally universal here on the mass media. But some newspaper editors and share holders are lining their pockets with the profit from this kind of OTT reporting. They make me sick too!

/purposeless rant.....

[Mushroom]

Do yout think Mezla the Media would show pictures of said atrocities?