St. Louis — Tears tumbled down a 13-year-old's face moments after a judge declared him guilty Monday of murdering a girl who lived down the block.

Judge finds boy, 13, guilty of second-degree murder
By Heather Ratcliffe
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/18/2007

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...A?OpenDocument


St. Louis — Tears tumbled down a 13-year-old's face moments after a
judge declared him guilty Monday of murdering a girl who lived down the
block.

"A lot of people failed these children," said St. Louis Circuit Court
Judge Jimmie Edwards. "Police failed them. Parents failed them. One
young lady is dead. And another young fellow's life is changed forever."

Nonetheless, Edwards told the boy that his choice to pick up a knife and
stab 13-year-old Alexus Purtty on July 5 was inexcusable.

"I don't want you to leave here today thinking that what you did was
right," Edwards told the small-framed boy, who was cuddled in his
father's arms.


"Yes, sir," the boy answered through his sobs.

Edwards committed the child to the Missouri Division of Youth Services
until age 18, after finding him guilty of second-degree murder.

The killing happened while Alexus and her family fought with the boy and
his friends outside their homes in the 3800 block of St. Louis Avenue.

The boy, 12 at the time, lived with his elderly, ill father. He was
placed there after spending three years in foster care. His mother was
accused of abusing and neglecting the boy, the judge said.

"I understand you had a tough life. I know you've been raising yourself
for a long time," Edwards said. "But now you are going to grow up.
You're going to go to school and get a second chance at life."

Just six hours earlier, Edwards had decided not to send the boy to adult
court for trial. The juvenile had no prior criminal history, and can be
rehabilitated, Edwards said.

To provide faster remedies for juveniles, the family court is making a
concerted effort to adjudicate cases quickly, holding trials within
months on charges that might wait a year or more in adult court.

Prosecutor Carolyn Whitehorn said the boy, who had initially fled a
brawl in the street, retrieved a knife from his house and stabbed Alexus.

"He purposefully swung that knife," she said.

Paul Sims, attorney for the juvenile, argued self-defense, saying the
boy was frightened because the victim's family had threatened him and
hit his friend with a baseball bat.

"My client may have chosen to do the wrong thing by picking up the
knife, but he was surrounded by people intent on doing him harm," Sims
said. "This is a tragedy that could have been prevented if the adults
there had acted like adults."

The boy did not testify.

Witnesses in the bench trial said the incident started as the boy was
returning home from a gas station, where he bought Gatorade for his father.

The boy asked two adults at the store to escort him, his sister and
friend back home because he was afraid of the Purtty family, according
to testimony.

Alecia Kimble, the dead girl's mother, has said she called police
several times earlier that day when the boy walked past, because she
believed he had burglarized her home a week earlier. Police have said
they responded twice to her calls but left because the boy was not there.

As the boy and his friends passed Purtty's house about 10:30 p.m., the
two groups shouted at each another, according to testimony. The argument
spilled into the street and turned violent.

Several witnesses said Kimble swung a baseball bat, hitting one of the
children. Kimble also urged her daughter to fight the boys, said Taisha
Bermudez, 22, who witnessed the stabbing.

Bermudez told the court that one of Alexus' relatives took a knife from
a car and joined the melee. When the woman dropped the knife, the boy
picked it up.

Alexus and her 16-year-old aunt, Crystal Kimble, took several swings at
the boy. He swung back, stabbing Alexus just below the breast, Crystal
testified. The girl died shortly thereafter, at a hospital.

Alecia Kimble, who did not testify, said the guilty verdict did not make
her happy because she still lost her beautiful daughter.

Kimble read aloud for the court from Alexus' diary just after the boy
was sentenced.

"Our neighborhood is not a good place to be," the girl had written.
"There are police, murders, snitches and killers. But nothing has
happened to us, thank God. It's alright in God's hands."

Later Monday at Alexus' home, family members largely blamed her death on
failure by police to stop the boy earlier on the day of the killing.
"When we called for justice, it never came," said June Purtty, an aunt.

Relatives pointed first east and then west down the street and rattled
off a list of violent crimes in recent months.

"You hear gunshots and you just hope it's not a child shot," said Lori
Strong, a cousin.

Neighbor Leon Ramsey, 62, has lived on the block more than 30 years. He
and his wife raised two children and are now raising a great-nephew,
keeping him busy with athletics, academics and activities.

Many children don't seem to have that family structure for support, he
said. "These kids belong to somebody," he said. "They need to be
supervised. The young men need male supervision."

Neighbors need to become more involved, too, Ramsey said.

"For a while, I wouldn't call police about anything," he said. "I didn't
want anyone to see that I called them. But I got fed up. I got to the
point where somebody needs to do something, so now I talk to them. I do
what I can."

Greg Jonsson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...