Yes, the spoiled defense is bullshit, and yes this kid obviously is a giant fuckhead. That being said, I would sentence him to juvie until he was old enough to get out, not put him away for twenty years. I don’t think all hope is lost with him, and there still is a chance we can make a reformed, tax-paying citizen out of him. But his punishment was way too light.
The fact that he was spoiled means that he needs to get much more than the slap on the wrist he got. He still has a really poor grasp of how his dumbass actions effect others, so the court should have stepped in where his parents failed.
Maybe, if there’s the slightest bit of justice in the universe, he’ll die horribly as a result of his substance abuse, thereby freeing up a spot for someone who actually works for a living.
Nah, just fucking with you. If the family is really as rich and privileged and the story makes out, Dipshit Jr is set for life.
Based on extensive personal experience with their kind, in DFW, I’ll wager that he will be somebody’s boss by the time he’s 25, at Daddy’s company (or one of Daddy’s friends companies). He’ll marry a good looking, grasping, and kind of miserable and stupid woman. In a few years, when she isn’t “fun-size” like she used to be, and she realizes that the Neiman Marcus card gets paid whether or not she puts out, he’ll start banging someone younger. He’ll have a couple of worthless kids and he’ll bitch and moan incessantly about what lazy, selfish ingrates they are.
And he will always be better off than you or me, because that is the way the world works.
Legal query for those in the know about such things: The guy was found guilty and the judge issued a sentence, evidently (sorry about the pun) a light sentence for the crime at issue. Can the state appeal the sentence to a higher court?
Do we know that it was a light sentence? What I mean is that while I personally agree that his punishment should have been much more severe, is what he was given within the range of what others that go through the juvenile justice system receive or not?
When it comes up, I tell my clients Bush had one DWI; Cheney had two. Therefore one one DWI means you get to be president. Two means you’re limited to vice.
Seriously, though, lots of people have gotten DWIs. Lots of others could have gotten DWIs, but just didn’t get stopped. Anytime you’re DWI you can get in an accident and kill somebody. Fuck, anytime you’re NOT DWI you can get in an accident and kill somebody.
Seems like a lot of holier than thou bullshit in this thread.
The kid was 16. You really think ten years in prison is the answer?
Sounds like this kid should have been sentenced to 30 days general population. That would be enough to cure his affluenza especially week 3 as he gets passed around as currency.
Well, I had hoped that the most disgusting part of prison-related discussions wouldn’t happen again, but there it is again. Good job, Saint Cad! :rolleyes:
Geez, tone it down a bit. I will take the controversial stand that I would support a harsher sentence for someone who murdered the family of a judge whose verdict he didn’t like than i would for some stupid rich kid who drove drunk and accidentally killed some people. But I suppose you may disagree.
I am really not following your reasoning here. You think his impairment due to alcohol cunsumption was not a factor? .24, the kid was plowed. When you drive plowed, it is less ‘accidental’ and more ‘inevitable’. That’s why we have laws against it. When you choose to drive impaired, it is not an accident.
He committed a crime when he stole beer. He committed a crime when drank the beer. He committed a crime when drove while seriously impaired. And 4 people died as a direct and foreseeable result. The *magnitude *of his crime is being lost on some people
So no, 10 years in prison is not out of line. He should be held responsible for what he did.
Sometimes it’s necessary. I was not making a gratuitous point rather I was pointing out that even a short stint in prison would do a lot to combat the entitlement issue the judge feels this kid has. A month of getting up/showering/eating/going to bed when someone tells you to, taking a dump with no privacy, fight or become property is a small price to pay for killing 4 people and just might put this kid on the right path if he really does have a problem knowing right from wrong.
Many places (can’t find if Texas is one right now) don’t make consumption illegal, and indeed many more allow it with parental permission (which I doubt he had).
How this defense worked is beyond me. Since this kid is so affluent, he’s won’t be one of those who gets out in ten years and start his own drug gang. And ten years is nothing for murdering four people. I’d consider myself lucky as shit if I got only ten for four murders. Juvie till 18, prison till 26, and he never gets a driver’s license again. Shit, that’s still lenient.
Uh, it’s not inevitable at all. Tons of people get arrested with blood alcohol higher than that, and don’t hurt anybody at all. Even more make it home without getting stopped by the police. Others take their eyes off the road for a minute, when they’re stone cold sober, and kill a family of four in a minivan.
Again, he was 16. A sixteen year old is not an adult.
As quick Google search does not produce any juvenile sentencing guidelines for Texas (but a lot of references to an emphasis on probabtion), but, apparently, in Washington, if I’m reading it correctly, there would be a 15-36 week guideline sentence (a B+ offense, assuming 1 or fewer previous convictions). I may be reading that wrong, it’s displaying oddly on my screen. The fact that, from what I can tell from the article, his claim was really alcohol dependency from an even younger age. And one of the conditions was rehab.
Now, I’m assuming that the prosecutors who wanted 20 years know more than I do about texas juvenile law (I don’t know anything at all; but in most places you don’t lock up juvenile offenders past their 21st birthday, so I’m curious about that). So I suspect that their request was based on something (although that’s the statutory maximum under Texas law, I believe).
It seems light to me, but most states have a deliberate practice of giving juvenile’s sentences that would be substantially less than what an adult would expect (although, it sounds like this kid was in adult court - otherwise wouldn’t this all be sealed? - so I don’t know).