Five years after 65 Chicago-area children were slain in an epidemic of violence, more than one-third of the killers walk free of their crime.
They are free because of bad police work and bad judgment; because assessing the value of the shortest of lives was an erratic and ambiguous pursuit.
They are free because juries were reluctant to believe that a parent or caretaker would deliberately harm a child; because jurors sometimes saw in the defendants an exaggerated version of their darkest selves.
They are free because of hopelessly unreliable witnesses; because a parent whose perverse love for an abuser undermined her ability to testify against her child’s killer.
They are free because a judge and prosecutor allowed a convicted killer to walk out of a courtroom and escape to Mexico. And they are free because some of the killers were children themselves, tried in a court whose primary mission is to grant second chances.
In 1993, the Chicago Tribune published “Killing our children,” a yearlong report that chronicled the slaying of every child under the age of 15 in the Chicago metropolitan area.
“A society can be fairly judged by how it treats its children,” the series began. “By this measure, something has gone terribly wrong in our own community.” By year’s end, 65 children were dead–shot, beaten, shaken, strangled, stabbed, burned, drowned, hanged, scalded and starved.
With this story, the Tribune begins an exploration of another element of this bitter legacy. Over the past five years, almost all of the people accused of killing those children have made their way through the criminal justice system.
In “Killing our children: The search for justice,” the Tribune examines what happened as these cases passed through the hands of the people who, literally, measured the worth of a child’s life.
From a distance, justice appeared largely effective. Police filed charges in more than 90 percent of the cases–better than the national average–and 41 of the 68 defendants were convicted of first-degree murder.
But a closer examination shows how superficial that success was, and how easily justice was diluted. While nearly every defendant was charged with first-degree murder, which carries the most severe sanctions, 20 were found guilty of significantly lesser charges, including 11 convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Three defendants were acquitted; a fourth was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
The outcome of these cases, and the penalties imposed, often hinged on unrelated and unpredictable factors, mirroring the inexact work of rendering justice. And they affected not only the cases at hand, but rippled outward for years to come, sometimes ensnaring a whole new set of victims.
The price is life
A child’s life was worth the very least when it was either beaten or shaken out of him.
Twenty-one of the 65 children died of child abuse. While virtually all of their killers were charged with first-degree murder, 11 were convicted of involuntary manslaughter–a lesser verdict that, in 1993, carried a maximum sentence of five years, one-fourth the minimum 20-year sentence for murder.
Only when a judge found aggravating factors, such as the heinous nature of the crime, could the sentence be increased to as much as 10 years in prison.
But that rarely happened. Several of the child killers who were convicted of involuntary manslaughter spent less than two years in prison. In fact, only two of them are still behind bars.
A troubling phenomenon is behind the short sentences. Judges and juries often are reluctant to believe that a parent or guardian would intentionally kill a young child in their care, a factor upon which a first-degree murder conviction often hinges.
“People just can’t conceive of anybody doing this kind of crime, so they think there must be some other explanation,” said Daniel Armagh, the director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse, which trains prosecutors. “That translates into involuntary manslaughter.”
Jurors–especially those who hit their children to discipline them–see something of themselves in the defendants, working a subtle change in the chemistry of deliberations.
So it was with the jury that decided the fate of Lawrence Mars, who was accused of killing 3-year-old Jeravious Billups.
Sitting on the table before jurors was the belt with the thick metal buckle that Mars admitted he used to beat Jeravious, simply because the boy wet his pants. The autopsy report detailed three pages of injuries, from broken ribs to bruises and cigarette burns.
Still, jurors said they were unpersuaded that Mars intended to kill the child. Some of them talked about how they had disciplined their children with belts. They were troubled that Jeravious’ mother had admitted beating the boy. They feared Mars could get the death penalty if they convicted him.
After deliberating for five tense hours, the jury found Mars guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
When she sentenced Mars, Judge Deborah Dooling cited aggravating factors, including the brutal nature of the killing and Jeravious’ age, and sent him to prison for 10 years.
But with “good time” cutting the length of his term, Mars spent less than five years behind bars.
Violent backgrounds
The majority of the slain children were born into circumstances that bred volatility and violence. Nearly three-fourths of their mothers were pregnant for the first time by the age of 19. Many ran their families with a transient male figure, often a boyfriend who proved a dangerous addition. So dangerous, in fact, that 10 children were killed by these men.
The same explosive mixture of drugs and irresponsibility that wrecked these families also undermined the efforts to bring the killers to justice. Too often the women who had failed to protect their children at home also failed them in the courts.
The slaying of Jasmine Bolden, the 43rd child killed in 1993, is a frightening case in point. The 22-month-old girl was beaten so viciously that her liver ruptured. Mardell Traylor, the man who had moved in with Jasmine’s mother and who often watched the girl, was also the man prosecutors said killed her.
But he went free in large part because of a dilemma that arose in six other child-abuse cases when the only witness was the abused child’s mother. Having to admit in court that she, too, had beaten Jasmine, the mother’s credibility was so compromised that the case against Traylor unraveled.
In the words of one veteran prosecutor, it was using “scum to get scum.” The strategy often failed miserably, leading to lesser verdicts and sentences.
Three years later, in a crime disturbingly reminiscent of Jasmine’s slaying, Traylor pleaded guilty to severely beating another child, a 23-month-old boy. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Danger in the streets and at home
There were, in fact, only 61 slayings reported at the end of 1993. But, in the intervening years, four cases have been added to the final tally.
The most recent case broke just two weeks ago, when authorities said Maria Rivera, 31, confessed that she set a fire in August 1993 in her Calumet City home that killed her 23-month-old daughter, Sarah.
Although that slaying was another case of violence within a family, the majority of slayings of children in 1993 were the result of street violence.
Thirty, or almost half, the children were shot to death, and nearly two dozen of the offenders were thought by police to be in gangs.
Prosecutors fared better with these cases, winning first-degree murder convictions in almost every shooting death that went to court. The crimes often left a trail of incriminating evidence, and did not present the kinds of emotional complications for juries as the abuse cases.
Sometimes, however, justice derailed long before a case went to a jury or a judge.
Although police solved most of the slayings detailed in “Killing our children,” the impressive clearance rate masks a number of troubling failures.
In the case of Michael James Marshall III, the 58th victim in 1993, the missteps began even before he died.
Two suspects emerged while he lay in a coma with massive head trauma: the mother’s boyfriend and his 14-year-old sister, a runaway who days before had moved in with the couple and was going to babysit the 23-month-old Michael to earn spending money for Christmas.
Both had agreed to take lie-detector tests, according to police reports and interviews. But moments before he was to be tested, the boyfriend, Michael Smith, told detectives that his younger sister had killed Michael.
That Smith backed out of the polygraph should have made detectives suspicious. But apparently it did not. Police had already waited two days to search the couple’s apartment. Later, court testimony would show that evidence of a previous beating was ignored, and that police failed to interview witnesses who said they had seen Smith abuse the child and heard him confess to the killing.
Instead, they relied on a confession the girl recanted within hours of her arrest. She told her attorney that her brother had instructed her to admit to the slaying because she was a juvenile and would face less punishment.
When Juvenile Court Judge Daniel E. Jordan delivered his verdict at the girl’s trial, setting her free after nearly a year in custody, he was so incensed by the investigation that he castigated detectives from the bench.
“I’ve seen more physical evidence in garage burglaries,” he told them.
Even now Jordan remains angry about the case.
“Her brother, in my opinion, was the person who should have been looked at,” he said in an interview. “It was my opinion that he was the best suspect from the start.”
Smith has never been charged with the toddler’s murder, but last year he was convicted of one of four sexual assaults in the Lakeview neighborhood that the police attributed to the “stun-gun rapist.”
He was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Other cases broke down along more subtle fault lines.
The prosecution of Kevin Willing, who fatally beat 4-year-old Samantha Jo Haight because she wet her bed, was hurt by a police officer who failed to note Willing’s explanation that the death was an accident, according to prosecutors and defense attorneys. After Willing’s attorney attacked the credibility of police for presenting a one-sided account, Willing was convicted of the lesser involuntary manslaughter charge, and was sentenced to six years.
Saul Aguado, who pleaded guilty to murder for the beating death of his son Diego, hasn’t served a day of a 60-year prison sentence. Aguado fled the country after a judge and prosecutor let him stay out on bond. Law-enforcement officials say they have no idea where he is, although a Tribune reporter located him in Mexico.
Six of the slayings remain unsolved. Most of these cases were quickly shelved by detectives once early leads dried up and it became evident that the killings defied easy solution.
Sentence fragments
The last opportunity to exact justice for killing a child is at sentencing. Sometimes judges fared no better as arbiters than the people who preceded them. Sometimes they had little latitude.
Phillip Haley claimed he was trying to burp his girlfriend’s 4-month-old son, Gabriel Padilla, when the infant died from head and neck injuries. While out on bond and awaiting trial for murder, he raped his former girlfriend.
The jury at his trial heard two very different versions of how Gabriel died. Haley admitted that he hit Gabriel 50 times on the back to burp him. The medical examiner, though, said the trauma Gabriel suffered was caused by shaken baby syndrome.
The jury deliberated for three hours before convicting Haley of the downgraded charge of involuntary manslaughter. When Haley also pleaded guilty to the rape, the judge could only give the maximum 5 years for killing Gabriel but 6 years for rape.
No one paid the ultimate price–death–for killing a child in 1993. Even when Amanda Wallace requested it, following her conviction for hanging her 3-year-old son Joseph, a judge turned her down, saying that while it might be merciful to end her tortured life, it would serve no purpose.
Only two people, including Wallace, got life in prison.
Today, because of a change in state law, a conviction for murdering a child 12 and under carries an automatic life sentence when the killing involved “exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty.” And a truth-in-sentencing law that took effect this year mandates that people convicted of first-degree murder serve their entire sentence, rather than just half of it.
Of the 41 offenders who were convicted or pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, all but three of the 34 defendants tried as adults remain in prison. Eddie Blackmon, who was convicted of the stabbing death of Kijuan Ross, died of natural causes this spring. Amanda Wallace killed herself in 1997.
So far, 24 offenders convicted or held responsible in the “Killing our children” slayings–both adults and juveniles–have been released from prison or probation. But more than a third of them have been returned to the penal system for other crimes, ranging from drug and weapons charges to assaulting another child. In the next five years, another eight convicted killers will be released.
The children who killed children were tried in the nation’s oldest juvenile court, a place where second chances were handed out haphazardly and rehabilitation was hard to achieve, even by the most promising children.
Of the 10 children tried for murder in juvenile court, nine were convicted. But there was seemingly no consistency to how they were sentenced. Some juveniles who might have benefited from probation were dispatched to prison, while others, who could have been jailed for the viciousness of their crimes, were set free.
Good from bad
The dead children’s families and friends still grieve for them.
After her son Craig, 13, was shot to death, Alice Rogers no longer wanted to live, even though police quickly arrested a rival gang member for the slaying.
She became a heroin addict and sold drugs, and was sent to prison in July for a narcotics conviction.
“It’s been five years,” she said, her voice weary as she talked and wept in a tiny interview room at Dwight Correctional Center. “And I haven’t made any progress on getting better.”
But a few drew strength from their tragedy.
Nilda Vazquez was one of them. She lost her only child, 7-year-old Michael Montoya, when a man named Julio Robles fired his gun in a traffic dispute. The bullet hit Michael in the back as he played outside their Humboldt Park apartment and he died cradled in his mother’s arms.
But instead of being swallowed by her grief, Vazquez made finding Robles, who had fled to Mexico, her passion.
Today, Robles, who was sentenced to 56 years in prison, is behind bars at the maximum security Menard Correctional Center. In October, Vazquez spoke at a memorial for murder victims. Instead of recounting the pain of Michael’s death, she told the story of how his life had touched people who had never met him.
She said, “I wanted to bring a hopeful message.”
THE PRICE FOR TAKING A CHILD’S LIFE
Few of the 63 people convicted or held accountable in the deaths of the children killed in the Chicago area in 1993 are likely to serve more than 20 years for their crimes. More than a third have already been released, and because of sentencing laws (which have been toughened), prisoners could cut their time in half.
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OFFENDER/RELATIONSHIP TO VICTIM VICTIM SENTENCE RELEASE DATE
FIRST DEGREE MURDER
Roosevelt Bryan Bell, father Bryan Bell, 5 mos. 20 yrs. 2002
Susan Eken, mother Tommy Eken, 3 mos. 20 yrs. 2003
Booker Hardwell, none Arthur Williams, Jr 20 yrs. 2003
Marcie Harris, mother Ariel Hill, 5 mos. 20 yrs. 2003
Bryant Henderson, acquaintance Randolf Scott, 14 20 yrs. 2004
Sandra Porter, mother Victoria Eubanks, 3 mos. 20yrs. 2004
Tommie Turner, acquaintance Randolf Scott, 14 20 yrs. 2003
Lyndon Washington, none Taisha Harrington, 14 24 yrs. 2006
Eddie Blackmon, neighbor Kijuan Ross, 12 25 yrs. Died after
3 yrs, 5 mos.
Corey Clark, none Shaun Carey, 14 27 yrs. 2007
Kari Frey, mother Tinya Heddins, 2 mos. 27 yrs. 2007
Thomas Eken, father Tommy Eken, 3 mos. 28 yrs. 2007
Helder Vazquez, mother’s boyfriend Francisco Lopez, 2 27 yrs. 2007
David Lightsey, mother’s boyfriend Tiffany Hughes, 9 mos. 30 yrs. 2010
Jose Ramirez, rival gang member Duy Dang, 13 30 yrs. 2008
Traymon Sanford, none Joseph Johnson, 14 30 yrs. 2008
Jorge Herrera, none Silbina Villa, 14 38 yrs. 2016
Charles Arens, father Jeremy Arens, 3 mos. 40 yrs. 2013
LeDonna Watson, mother Richard Spells, 4 mos. 40 yrs. 2014
Ronald Jones, mother`s boyfriend Tatyana Wardell, 3 mos.45 yrs. 2015
DeWayne Mitchell,
mother’s boyfriend Levarcheray Johnson, 3 wks. 45 yrs. 2015
Terrance Pickens, none La’chaya Brooks, 14 50 yrs. 2020
Julio Robles, none Michael Montoya, 7 56 yrs. 2024
Saul Aguado, father Diego Aguado, 11 mos. 60 yrs. Fugitive
Maurice Bowen, none James Nance, 13 60 yrs. 2023
Gordon Dimwiddle, none Shaun Carey, 14 60 yrs. 2023
Darnell Gray, none Alisha Essex, 2 60 yrs. 2023
Melvin Presswood, neighbor James Williams, 14 60 yrs. 2023
Tyrone Watson, father Latoya Watson, 9 80 yrs. 2073
Angela Bowers, mother Tiarah Bowers, 23 mos. 85 yrs. 2073
Adrian Thomas, none Denzell Gist, 14 mos. 90 yrs. 2052
Steven Pfiel, friend Hillary Norskog, 13 100 yrs. No release
expected
Amanda Wallace, mother Joseph Wallace, 3 Life Suicide after
1 yr., 1 mo.
J.T. Sparkman, rival gang member Shawn Knowles, 14 Life No release
expected
SECOND-DEGREE MURDER
Antuan Winsley, friend Frederick Alston, 14 5 yrs. RELEASED
after 2 yrs, 6 mos. *
Michael Boston, friend Frederick Alston, 14 10 yrs. RELEASED
after 3 yrs., 1 mo.
Timothy T. Williams, friend Frederick Alston, 14 12 yrs. RELEASED
after 3 yrs., 4 mos.
Rickey Hall, none Lazerrick Eggleson, 8 15 yrs. 2000
INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER
Cleven Warfield, father Lanaundra Warfield, 3 Probation RELEASED *
Joel Valez, friend, boyfriend Yasmine Gomez, 14 3 yrs. RELEASED
after 2 mos.
Phillip Haley, mother’s boyfriend Gabriel Padilla, 4 mos. 5 yrs. 1999
Ernest Lane, mother’s boyfriend Myowsha Holeman, 13 mos. 5 yrs. RELEASED
after 6 mos.
Aturo Rivera, mother’s boyfriend Kevin Kreith, 3 5 yrs. RELEASED
after 1 yr., 9 mos.
Darryl Williams, mother’s boyfriend Deon King, 3 5 yrs. RELEASED
after 2 1/2 yrs. *
James Brooks, father Tavanisha Brooks, 4 mos. 6 yrs. RELEASED
after 1 yr., 1 mo.
Katrina Vincent, mother Tavanisha Brooks, 4 mos. 6 yrs. RELEASED
after 1 yr., 7 mos.
Kevin Willing, mother’s boyfriend Samantha Jo Haight, 4 6 yrs. RELEASED
after 1 yr.
Lawrence Mars, mother’s boyfriend Jeravious Billups, 3 10 yrs. RELEASED
after 2 yrs. *
Gail Savage+, mother Cynthia Savage, 5 mos. 10 yrs. 2003
OTHER ADULT CONVICTIONS, CASES
Aaron Hill, father Ariel Hill, 5 mos. 2 yrs. RELEASED
after 1 yr.
Lorena Contreras, mother Francisco Lopez, 2 8 yrs. RELEASED
after 3 yrs.
Chris Chanthaboury, family friend William Inthavong, 8 23 yrs. 2005
Arnold Riggs, acquaintance Randolph Scott, 14 20 yrs. RELEASED,
awaiting new trial
Lorenzo Shelton, family friend Tatiana Redmond, 14
Committed suicide before trial
NOT GUILTY
Jacqueline Milner++, mother Danielle Milner Daniels, 4 Not guilty by
reason of insanity
Tangray Pinson, aunt Jasmine Kent, 2 Not guilty
Minor girl, 14 years old Michael Marshall III, 23 mos. Not guilty
Mardell Traylor, mother’s boyfriend Jasmine Bolden, 22 m os. Not guilty
JUVENILE CONVICTIONS
Ethel Lewis, babysitter Marcellus Harris, 20 mos. Probation RELEASED
Sergio Wray, best friend Charles Colman, 14 Probation RELEASED *
Chris Jackson, uncle’s
acquaintance Terry Holloway Jr., 9 Youth prison RELEASED
Aaron Bloodsaw, none Denzel Castle, 2 Probation RELEASED *
Minor boy, 10 years old Lauren O’Neal, 11 mos. Probation RELEASED
Tamika Adams, best friend Shannon Herrod, 10 Treatment center/
probation RELEASED
Odis Matthews, rival gang member Carl Rogers, 13 Youth prison RELEASED *
Sanchez Watson, acqaintance Jonathan Macon, 14 Treatment center/
probation RELEASED
Timothy Johnson Randolph Scott, 14 Youth prison RELEASED *
RECENTLY CHARGED
Maria Rivera was charges on Oct. 30 with themurder of her 23-month-old daughter, Sarah, who died in a house fire in 1993. The death was ruled accidental until Rivera allegedly set a similar fire Oct. 23 that injured her 4-year-old son.
UNSOLVED CASES
Bridget Cannady, 8 (partially solved; one suspect remains free)
Michael Lowery, 12
Rolanda Marshall, 14
Charles Mays, 13
Efrain Alverado, 12
Julius Graham, 14
Safarina Johnson, 5 mos.
* Has returned to the court system on other charges
+ Gail Savage is also serving time for the murders of two of her other children killed in 1990 and 1992.
++ Jacqueline Milner was sentenced to the Department of Mental Health but has been released.
Chicago Tribune/Lara Weber and Charles Apple.
———-
An ongoing commitment.
Killing our children: The search for justice, is the fourth major series published by the Tribune in the past 5 years examining the violence against children, its root causes and possible solutions.
In 1993, Killing our children detailed the murder of every child under the age of 15 in the Chicago area.
The following year, Saving our children looked at the conditions that place children at risk and what could be done to save lives.
In 1996, Gambling with life probed the reasons parents had children they were ill-equipped to raise. %%
