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Voices, Stories, and Letters of Victims of Juvenile Life Killers

Of the 103 convicted killers serving Life Without Parole for horrific and aggravated mostly multiple murders before their 18th birthdays, there are hundreds and hundreds' of victims family members. As they speak out on their concern about HB 4384 that would not only potentially free killers, found by the entirety of the criminal justice system to be those few, rare, "worst of the worst", and sentenced to life without parole, we will post their comments and empower their voices.  This is especially necessary since the advocates at the John Howard Society who pressed for the bill, and the members of the "Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children", and Representative Robert Molaro, the bill's sponsor have for over a year refused to do what is RIGHT - to find and notify the victims families of their intention to undo retroactively a life without parole sentence, as well as sentence them to a lifetime of regular parole reviews where they have to devote a significant amount of their life energies to keeping the killer in prison. The courts found them guilty and they lost their appeals. Judges and juries duly sentenced them to these life sentences (only one case has been documented where the judge stated that he wished he could sentence one of these young hardened killers to less). Victims who have been able to at least move on somewhat, knowing the offender was safely and permanently behind bars, deserve better than to be treated this way by advocates who say they care about human rights, but obviously only those of the killers.

Here is a letter from one victim's family member to the sponsor of HB 4384.

February 17, 2008
Representative Robert S. Molaro
21st District
Re: House Bill 4384
Rep. Molaro,

My name is ( P.P), and I am a constituent of yours. I live in your district, as do many of my family and friends. I write you today as the voice for some one who no longer has one. I speak for my brother 13 year old RDP who is now buried in St.Marys Cemetery in Evergreen Park, IL. I also speak on behalf of ML a 12 year old boy who was also cold heartedly murdered with my brother. You see Rep. Molaro, things were not supposed to end up this way. Writing you this letter, pleading with you to change House Bill 4384 was not supposed to be a part of my destiny. No, my brother R and M should still be alive, with our family, enjoying a college education, living the life granted to them by God.

My parents were blessed with three children. I am the eldest of the three, followed by my sister M, and my only brother R.  I will never forget December 17, 1986 the night my brother was born. It was such a special night, after nine long months of waiting for my mom to have him we could finally welcome R home! He was such a good happy boy. R enjoyed making every one laugh with his funny jokes. He got his sense of humor from my father. They were best of friends, and a splitting image of each other. I remember helping little R with his homework, and getting big “bear hugs” from him before bed. He had big beautiful eyes like a baby doe. My little brother wanted to be an architect when he grew up. He loved to draw, and even enjoyed singing. The last song he sang with me was a song by Billy Holiday “At Last”. Our life was full of song, but that was so long ago. I could go on and on about how wonderful my brother was because these days all I have are memories.
 
Instead I’m going to fast forward to a date you and my brother R have in common. Mr.Molaro for you June 29th is a day of celebration because it’s your birthday! For my family every year on 29th we relive a nightmare. For R and M June 29, 2000 was their last day on earth. It was the day two cold hearted fully aware, competent “Juveniles” decided to end their life with a spray of bullets.

The killers: RH was 16 going on 17 and JC 18. I don’t consider them children, I call them what they are: Murderers. They both came from big families that loved them; one of the boys RH even has a Police man for an uncle, in the C Police department, the same town which the lives of R and M were taken. These murderers knew right from wrong. JC was already a father himself to many children yet he decided to murder some one else’s children. They were held accountable by the Court of Law as adults, and rightfully so.

The killers aren't the children in this case, my brother and M were.

The killers were old enough to drive, old enough to have sex and have children of their own. They were old enough to make a conscious decision to ride around on bikes the night of June 29th 2000, to retaliate against gang members they had dealings with earlier. They couldn’t find who they were looking for, but decided to ride down one more block. They came across a home with kids who had just finished a basket ball game, and where resting on the front porch. Enjoying the summer night, laughing, school was out, 4th of July was around the corner and excitement was in the air! You can read the court transcripts to get the details of how this all took place. It’s hard enough reliving part of it through this letter. The bottom line is these murderers shot round after round directly at all of the children on the front porch. My brother ran for his life into the house, but he was hit in the back. The bullet shattered and ripped his once beating heart apart. 12 year old M never had a chance to run because he was shot right on the step he sat on. He died faced down on the very step he had been relaxing on a few minutes earlier.

My mother was upstairs with my sister when they heard the sound of shots fired and kids screaming. For a brief moment they thought it was fire crackers because of how the shots where fired one after another. Then they heard the dreadful screams of real children. My sister M ran down to the front porch and was frantic, looking for my brother R. She saw M dead on the stairs. The other kids that survived told her my brother was alright; that he had ran inside the first floor apartment and was just in shock. My sister ran inside the house, and found my brother lying on the kitchen floor. She searched his body for wounds but couldn’t immediately find any. She said his big beautiful eyes where open, and he was just looking at her. She finally checked his back, and found only a tiny wound where the .22 caliber bullet when in. She heard air bubbles in his chest, and knew. M knew in her heart my brother was dying. She held him in her arms and prayed with him. She kissed him and just kept praying until the ambulance arrived.

My mother was trying to get into the ambulance to ride with her only son, but they would not allow it. Just a few minutes earlier my brother was upstairs talking to her, asking for permission to stay on the front porch with the other kids – “please mom just five more minutes”. After all he was right on the front porch. Nothing was supposed to happen to him.
My father was at work because he works nights at the United States Post Office. Before he left to work that night, as he did every night, my brother gave him a kiss and a hug. He said “I’ll see you in the morning, I Love You Dad”. Those where the last words he spoke to my father. This was a normal thing because they had such love for each other. They had plans do lots of fun things together that weekend. Earlier that day my dad even picked up my little 12 year old cousin E G to sleep over because he was going to join them in the weekend fun. We never thought we’d be planning a funeral. I just thank God that my little cousin wasn’t killed too. But he too has to relive the horror of that night when he tries to fall asleep.

Rep. Molaro this nightmare came out of nowhere. This is one of those things that “can never happen to you”. Never in a million years would I have thought we would have lost my brother to murder. He was a child, a baby boy innocent in every way. God fearing, respectful, loving, honored my mother and father, and had deep respect for his older sisters. He was kept away from the very gang-banging juvenile delinquents that killed him, and M for no better reason than a thrill.
The two murderers admitted they had never seen R or M before this night; they described how they made the decision to ride around on bikes instead of take a car because they feared being pulled over by the C police. They didn’t want a car to be impounded, or identified. One of them even proudly reenacted how the murders took place in a video tapped confession. They knew they were out to kill that night; they weren’t going home until they got satisfaction. They didn’t want to waste their bullets. The honorable Judge T said when sentencing these murderers to Life Without Parole, he wouldn’t have given them a lesser sentence for what they had done. Judge T said R and M made a conscious decision not to involve themselves with gangs and their two murderers made conscious decision to do the opposite. Preying on the lives of innocent children unaware of what was about to happen!
Mr. Molaro, if it was up to R H and J C all of the kids on the porch that night would be dead. Sometimes I think to my self if my little brother had only been street smart he would have never turned his back to run, he would have ducked, or maybe if he wasn’t so tall for his age the bullet would have missed his back, and would have never gone through his precious heart. I even think to my self, if only these murderers would have used a bigger gun maybe the bullet would have went in and out his shoulder instead of the .22 caliber used, which ultimately shattered inside of him.

But why Mr. Molaro should I have to think of these things? Why should any Mother, Father, Sister, Brother grieve the loss of a loved one taken by the hands of a murderer? I know we do not live in a perfect world. I’m already passed that, and rely on the strength from God and his son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to help us move forward. Knowing this world we live in is not what God intended it to be, but through his son Jesus Christ we will be together with R and M.
 
Mr. Molaro I beg of you to CHANGE House Bill 4384. Do not impose on victims’ families the periodic reviews for release. Instead work with me, and other victims’ families to find a way to make reforms that may (or may not) be needed without parole being brought back in retroactively for life without parole sentences. Please meet with me before going forward with this. Do not subject the victim’s families to this trauma. Murderers took the lives of my brother R and M. Who is the voice for the real victims?

When I first heard news of this Bill, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it, how could anyone call someone who committed cold blooded murder a child after reading what I just wrote you? With all the money and staff that went into the Juvenile Life Study, why weren't the victims’ families notified? "If almost all of the inmates where interviewed why not all 103 of the families they’ve torn apart? We had to find out through the media and for lack of a better word that was cruel.

When our case went to trial I knew the justice system would prevail. We had to go through three separate trials. I don’t ask for the death penalty, but I ask for what we were promised. I beg of anyone with the power to keep the sentences given to these murderers Life in Prison Without Parole. House Bill 4384 as it is will make us suffer over and over again. Mr. Molaro I read in an article you said families should want to be a part of these hearings. Believe me when I say we will be a part of every hearing if it came down to that. But, why should our hearts be ripped out and stomped on over and over again?
The two sentenced for the deaths of R and M can still breathe. They may be behind bars, but they deserve to be there for the rest of their life. Yes, they still live. There families can still talk to them, visit them, kiss, hug, and hear their voices. To me, that alone is a wonderful gift they should be content with. My mother and father can only look at pictures and talk to a gravestone because of what they did.

A person can be forgiven on a spiritual level, but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t serve their original sentence. If these researchers feel some reform is possible, fine. Let them reform them selves in prison serving their life sentences. Maybe these researchers can come up with a program especially for the 103 while serving out their life sentence, to counsel those newly sentenced who haven’t murdered on how not to murder when they get released. If all 103 of these “juveniles”, had mental issues or lack of brain development, it would have been brought out in trial by their defense attorneys. They would have been sent to a mental institution instead.

In our case, the murderers knew exactly what they were doing. As I stated earlier they were already living adult lives. My brother who was 13 years old new it was wrong to commit murder so why wouldn’t a 16 and 18 year old know? They do know! Of course now years have passed and they have had time to think of how they can now convince others they didn’t mean it, or they where little children, with an underdeveloped brain who didn’t know pulling a trigger would kill. I don’t buy it, and neither should you.  They knew full well what they were doing because they talked about it.

Mr.Molaro you have five children of your own, could you imagine if this was happening to you? To lose a loved one by natural causes of death is bad enough. Imagine that one of your children or loved ones had been murdered in cold blood, by a “juvenile”. The only closure you had was a promise they would never walk the streets again, and never be able to kill again. Just to find out the very promise given to you by your protector, the Justice system was now potentially being taken away. Why? To benefit the murderer that took your child or loved one in the first place! This is now our reality. Where is the Justice for the real victims in this? Please do not take away the tiny bit of closure we have.
 
Can you imagine how crime could sky rocket if House Bill 4384 is passed? Murder will increase as never seen before. Juveniles will know they will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist for committing murder. How will you feel when that happens? Gang bangers over 18 will simply get a “juvenile” to commit the killings. Senseless, cold-blooded murder will take place all over the streets of Chicago and Illinois. Instead, time should be invested in real children who are not in prison, so we can keep them out of prison. The only solution is to be proactive not retroactive. I know you sponsor this Bill and are the originator of it, because you feel your doing something for the greater good. But Sir, with all do respect, House Bill 4384 retroactively is not good. Again, I ask you to please meet with me and other victims’ families. Give us the opportunity to work with you regarding this matter. You can make changes, and I pray something will open your heart and mind to our reality. I look forward to a meeting with you.

Also, I would like to extend my deepest sympathy’s to you for the passing of your mother. I realize this is a difficult time, my thoughts and prayers are with your family.

Sincerely,
P.P