PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A 16-year-old boy was lured by his new girlfriend into a field where three of his friends robbed and bludgeoned him, police said.

Police allege that Justina Morley, promising sex, brought Jason Sweeney to a field behind some industrial buildings near his house last week.

As she undressed, three boys sneaked behind Sweeney and beat him in the head and face with a hatchet, a hammer and a brick, police said. The teen, who had just cashed his paycheck from the construction job he worked with his father, was beaten so severely that he was unrecognizable, police said.

His body was discovered May 31, and police believe he was killed sometime the night before.

Morley, 15, and the boys - Edward Batzig Jr., 16; Nicholas Coia, 16; and his brother Dominic Coia, 17 - were charged as adults with murder and related offenses. The boys had grown up together, police said.

Sweeney's mother said her son seemed happy with his girlfriend of two weeks.

``He thought she was a nice girl,'' Dawn Sweeney said. ``He wanted me to meet her.''

Jeanette Batzig said her son has confessed to Sweeney's killing.

``How could anybody do it? How could my son do it?'' she asked, calling the victim ``the most decent kid that Eddie knew.''

``The Sweeney family don't know how horrible I feel,'' she told The Philadelphia Inquirer. ``(Jason) slept here. He ate here.''

No one answered the door at Sweeney's and Batzig's homes on Friday, and a message left at the Coia home was not immediately returned. A phone listing for the Morley family could not be found
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0001/20030606/191060757.htm

:eek:

I wouldn't follow my girlfriend to a field to watch her undress just after knowing her for two weeks.. would never have believed it anyway. But yeah, this is scary.

That is a horrible story. I wonder how many years the kids will get?

Originally posted by sanjiv
I wouldn't follow my girlfriend to a field to watch her undress just after knowing her for two weeks . . . :eek: With the raging hormones of a sixteen year old? :confused:

Surely you are not human. :eek2:



Sad story anywho.

What's the world coming to...that's sad.

I guess he was thinking with his "other brain" ;)

Yes, a very sad story, especially as they were all friends :bawling:

Originally posted by Rob_AcuNett
That is a horrible story. I wonder how many years the kids will get?

Life... They were tried as adults, for murder and other felonys... If not life, 80+ years.

Friends? How could they be called friends? Why did he call them friends?

It took 16 years to build that life, with all the tears, joy and hard work. It then took just seconds to destroy that life. Sad, very sad. :eek3:

In Houston about 7 years ago a 17-year-old girl lured a young twenty-something man up to her apartment under the pretense that they would have sex. Then her brother and her boyfriend jumped out of a closet and beat him with bats/clubs. While the boys were disposing of the body, the girl goes down to sun herself at the pool and tells another girl how cool it was and how there was blood splattered everywhere. They dropped the guy's body in a lake. The coroner ruled the man was unconcious but still alive at the time and he died from drowning.

There was another similar case in Houston where a "friend" was beaten to death by schoolmates and his body was left in the woods of a large local park. It became well known in the school his body was there and for months students would take other students to see it. Finally one of them told the authorities.

Another Houston case involving a park and teenagers (warning, graphic details):

Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena were 14 and 16 years old, respectively...

...they left a friend's apartment to head home, to beat summer curfew at 11:30. They knew they would be late if they took the normal path home, down W. 34th Street to T.C. Jester, both busy streets. They also knew they would have to pass a sexually-oriented business on that route and so decided to take a well-known shortcut down a railroad track and through a city park to Elizabeth's neighborhood.

...The gang members ran and grabbed Elizabeth and pulled her down the incline, off of the tracks. Testimony showed that Jenny had gotten free and could have run away but returned to Elizabeth when she cried out for Jenny to help her.

For the next hour or so, these beautiful, innocent young girls were subjected to the most brutal gang rapes that most of the investigating officers had ever encountered. The confessions of the gang members that were used at trial indicated that there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any one time and that the girls were repeatedly raped orally, anally and vaginally for the entire hour. One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy." One of the boys boasted of having 'virgin blood' on him.

...When the rapes finally ended, the horror was not over. The gang members took Jenny and Elizabeth from the clearing into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little to watch". Jenny was strangled with the belt of Sean O'Brien, with two murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. Part of the belt was left at the murder scene, the rest was found in O'Brien's home. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish their job. Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn't die" and that it would have been "easier with a gun". Elizabeth was also strangled with her shoelaces, after crying and begging the gang members not to kill them; bargaining, offering to give them her phone number so they could get together again.

The medical examiner testified that Elizabeth's two front teeth were knocked out of her brutalized mouth before she died and that two of Jennifer's ribs were broken after she had died. Testimony showed that the girls' bodies were kicked and their necks were stomped on after the strangulations in order to "make sure that they were really dead." http://www.murdervictims.com/voices/jeneliz.html

These "gang members" were teenagers. When arrested they were kicking and spitting at the cameras, acting like tough guys. When they appeared before the judge the next day, they were chastened. You could tell they had been physically assaulted, presumably by the other inmates.

It is in cases like this that Texas applies the death penalty.

Yes, sometimes sex blinds EVERYTHING ELSE..

It's a sad end indeed..

Forgive me for saying this - but what kind of idiot would kill someone over a few hundred dollars (at most)?! The risk of getting caught is like 95% - and bail - IF even set - would be atleast 1,000 times more than what you stole...

Temptations of youth - a few hundred dollars looks like nothing to us, but to the younger ones, it can seem quite a sum, really.

Originally posted by Deposeni
Forgive me for saying this - but what kind of idiot would kill someone over a few hundred dollars (at most)?!
Maybe they needed a drug "fix" :eek: Usually when people do this sort of stuff, they don't think of the consequences, and figure nobody would know they did it. Maybe if one boy hadn't 'fessed up, it would have slowed the inquiry down a bit.

I used to think $100 was alot.

$1k still is, heheh... but nowhere near enough to cause anyone physical harm... except for a punch on a shoulder :)


But how can people do this? It makes me sick... and then they go and brag...

I don't get why people would kill annother person for money, and I doubt those 3 idiots got any money. I just don't understand today's youth.

Even when I was >8 years old, I knew breaking the law was not worth a few hundred dollars (And then... $10 was a lot to me! :( )

Killing someone for money is wrong, even if its for $1,000,000,000....

*tsk tsk tsk* stupid kids.... I swear every week, theres a group of teenagers that kills someone... Then a year later, HBO makes a movie about it.

I read these stories and can only come to one conclusion, we as a human race are very cruel indeed. :bawling:

Just the thought that i *might* go to hell (if it's real) is enough to put me off, besides if not, then there's the other end of the spectrum, you meet these people on the other side :eek:

As the mother of 3 teenage boys and an 8 year old daughter. I wonder everytime I read stories like this. Where do these kids come from that do these horrible things? I'm sorry but IMO their parents have to take some kind of blame. So many kids today are forced to grow up with out any guidence at all. Kids that are taught morals and have loving, caring parents who take an active part in their lives are less likely to do these kinds of things. I'm not saying that the best of families can't have disturbing things happen. But statistics show that kids who's parent's aren't as involved in their lives in a positive manner do more of these hidious acts. This is not only a sad story but one that makes me angry at the way our world is heading.

Originally posted by bonnmac
As the mother of 3 teenage boys and an 8 year old daughter. I wonder everytime I read stories like this. Where do these kids come from that do these horrible things? I'm sorry but IMO their parents have to take some kind of blame. So many kids today are forced to grow up with out any guidence at all. Kids that are taught morals and have loving, caring parents who take an active part in their lives are less likely to do these kinds of things. I'm not saying that the best of families can't have disturbing things happen. But statistics show that kids who's parent's aren't as involved in their lives in a positive manner do more of these hidious acts. This is not only a sad story but one that makes me angry at the way our world is heading.

This isn't 100% true, peer pressure plays a huge role in this, so even if the parents are #1 parents in the world, if they hang out with kids who's parents beat them every day, it may rub off on them...

Originally posted by Deposeni
This isn't 100% true, peer pressure plays a huge role in this, so even if the parents are #1 parents in the world, if they hang out with kids who's parents beat them every day, it may rub off on them...

Yes but... as a mother I don't allow my kids to hang around with the wrong kids whose bad influence can rub off on them. My sons are 13,15,17 and I know where they are, who they are with and what they are doing every minute of the day. They get mad at me for this saying they aren't babies, but this way I know that they won't be influenced by the wrong people. Sure in school they can meet kids who don't have a nice life. But if we teach our kids how to handle themselves in bad situations they will know what to do. My personal opinion is peer pressure is a bunch of balony.

Originally posted by bonnmac
Yes but... as a mother I don't allow my kids to hang around with the wrong kids whose bad influence can rub off on them. My sons are 13,15,17 and I know where they are, who they are with and what they are doing every minute of the day. They get mad at me for this saying they aren't babies, but this way I know that they won't be influenced by the wrong people. Sure in school they can meet kids who don't have a nice life. But if we teach our kids how to handle themselves in bad situations they will know what to do. My personal opinion is peer pressure is a bunch of balony.

Since you put it that way - yeah its partly the parent's fault...

And peer pressure is hard to resist... For most kids, that is... Even for adults, or in the work place, anywhere... Even "Wanna go get a beer?" - is a form of peer pressure.

really sad, when teenager did that,and i for sure their parent must really disappoint what they have done

Originally posted by adland
These "gang members" were teenagers. When arrested they were kicking and spitting at the cameras, acting like tough guys. When they appeared before the judge the next day, they were chastened. You could tell they had been physically assaulted, presumably by the other inmates.

It is in cases like this that Texas applies the death penalty.

It is cases like this which make the rest of the world question the US human rights record. Death sentences are morally questionable; torture sentences are indisputably wrong.

The US government may avoid using torture directly (except in Guantanamo Bay), but by deliberately placing prisioners in situations where they will be subject to torture the US government is just as responsible for it.

Originally posted by cperciva
It is cases like this which make the rest of the world question the US human rights record. Death sentences are morally questionable; torture sentences are indisputably wrong.

The US government may avoid using torture directly (except in Guantanamo Bay), but by deliberately placing prisioners in situations where they will be subject to torture the US government is just as responsible for it.

Any person, who does this to children, and they admit it, or it can be proven beyond any doubt, should have this and much worse done to them. Rights? They forfeited them when they took a childs life. If they are old enough to know right from wrong, they then know the consequences of those actions. ANYONE who harms my children, better pray the police find them before I do....

Originally posted by RH Robert
Any person, who does this to children, and they admit it, or it can be proven beyond any doubt, should have this and much worse done to them.

No. Torture is not justifiable, regardless of what the target may have done. (Also, note that this took place before the targets' first court appearance; whatever happened to the idea of "innocent until proven guilty"?)

Sorry, I disagree. They admitted it, they bragged about it, they deserved it. They probably bragged about it while they were awaiting their hearings, hoping to make themselves look tough. Baby rapers and child molesters are looked down upon by even some of the worst murderers...... placing them in situations where they would be subject to torture? You're kidding right? This would happen anywhere, the only way to avoid it would be to place them in solitary for the duration of their sentence, isn't that torture too? IMHO there isn't anything too bad to happen to them.

In most of the civilized world, prisioners who are at danger from the rest of the prison population -- child molesters, police informants, police officers, members of certain ethnic groups -- are kept isolated for their safety.

If the court sentences someone to 20 years in prison, they should serve 20 years in prison; not 20 years of torture.

Pretty sad.....

If someone takes one's life, there life should be made hell so they suffer as much as the victim did...

Just look at those countries that have "harsh" punishment for even small crime such as "stealing" where your finger is chopped off....

They are the country were crime is almost in-existence..


I’m not saying we should all adopt this, but stricter laws are necessary and longer term punishments.


-Shazad

Normally, I would agree. However, when it comes to children being the victims of these types of crimes, I see it differently. I always have, and I always will.
That statement "In most of the civilized world, prisioners who are at danger from the rest of the prison population -- child molesters, police informants, police officers, members of certain ethnic groups -- are kept isolated for their safety."
For their safety? Nope, don't buy it..... there should be no safety for them, as there was none for their victims. Let them take their chances with others like themselves, who prey on the weak and helpless.
I understand some instances, where they are in for non violent crimes, but "you rolls the dice, and you takes your chances." That's life.

yep... I'm still a virgin... I believe I will stay away from girls for a year or two.

and no, i'm not going gay.

Originally posted by RH Robert
Normally, I would agree. However, when it comes to children being the victims of these types of crimes, I see it differently. I always have, and I always will.
That statement "In most of the civilized world, prisioners who are at danger from the rest of the prison population -- child molesters, police informants, police officers, members of certain ethnic groups -- are kept isolated for their safety."
For their safety? Nope, don't buy it..... there should be no safety for them, as there was none for their victims. Let them take their chances with others like themselves, who prey on the weak and helpless.
I understand some instances, where they are in for non violent crimes, but "you rolls the dice, and you takes your chances." That's life.


Jeffery Dalmer was allowed to be in the prison population and justice was served.

Blue27, you are absolutely correct. Justice was served.

Is justice also served when people are wrongly accused?

Originally posted by cperciva
Is justice also served when people are wrongly accused?

Of course not but there is a difference between questionable evidence and police tactics to have someone wrongly accused, and a bunch of young punks commiting murder and then bragging about it.
You can't overlook the fact that one of the boys confessed.

False confessions happen, you know. Quite commonly.

Originally posted by cperciva
False confessions happen, you know. Quite commonly.


The boy confessed to his mother. Do you think she beat it out of him?

Virtually all voluntary false confessions are made directly to the police and are just a misguided way to get attention.

Originally posted by cperciva
Is justice also served when people are wrongly accused?

Obviously you missed what i said "Any person, who does this to children, and they admit it, or it can be proven beyond any doubt, should have this and much worse done to them."

I should have said "and" instead of "or".....

oh if I where there judge I would of sentenced them all to death the next week, you can't save people who think and act like that.

I might get flamed for this but, oh well. I would show no remorse for them as they did not show any for there victims.

Originally posted by Mike343
oh if I where there judge I would of sentenced them all to death the next week, you can't save people who think and act like that.

I might get flamed for this but, oh well. I would show no remorse for them as they did not show any for there victims.

Although i understand your emotions, sentencing them to death is an easy way for them to get away with it..

Life prision with punishment is much better :D

-Shazad

Thats True, Life in Prison sounds better. That way they can stare at brick all day for the rest of there lifes.

(Also, note that this took place before the targets' first court appearance; whatever happened to the idea of "innocent until proven guilty"?)

Well typically, until you are booked anyway, you are initially held in a holding cell with other inmates. And to separate them would presume they were guilty of the crimes, no?

They probably bragged about it while they were awaiting their hearings, hoping to make themselves look tough. Baby rapers and child molesters are looked down upon by even some of the worst murderers......

Precisely. And they weren't exactly out to make friends. When I say they were kicking at the cameras I mean they were kickiing chest/head high. This wasn't at the time of their initial arrest either, it was as they were being escorted into a building in downtown.

As for the American justice system, this is the only time I can recall seeing a defendent in such a state. I think his attitude had as much to do with as the crime. And even then it wasn't as though he had been beaten unconscious by other inmates. Presumably it could take a few minutes for the authorities to respond to and quell any altercation.

BTW, it's my hypothesis that some inmates respond so violently to child abusers because they were themselves abused as children.

Alright...


anyone who does something like that to two girls in my opinion should be stoned to death.. Jail is easy, you live and can still have a life.. and dying wow, they inject needles in you and posion you.. sounds painful. I say toture them, and give them some pain... an eye for an eye.. i strongly beleive that.

p.s. that is nice that imates beat those guys who do that... it really is nice. i think those guys deserve it.... guys who hurt females are not guys.. they are a bitch. the second you lay a hand on a female you are no longer a guy.. you are a coward spinless bitch who deserves to die!

The males beat up another male...........

I was refering to the one story about those 2 girls.

Gotchya. :D

An eye for an eye? Aren't you dragging yourself down to their level by doing that? I say let them sit in jail for life - make them stew in their guilt. And oh - no visitors and no contact with the other prisoners.

Madness - it'll take hold of them sooner or later. Much cleaner that way.

Alpharo,

Sitting in jail... wow what a punishment... Think about it. Free housing, free food (so what if it may not the best food), plus you can have friends... They can lift weights, play basketball, smoke, talk to other inmates, how is that punishing? You say let them strew in guilt... They brag about it... I don’t think they feel guilt, and if they do it’s because the other inmates are abusing them now.

Those girls deserver justice, and I just cannot see placing people in a jail, or poisoning them to death an okay or suitable punishment...

I don’t see it as dragging myself down to there level just trying to stop these things from happening... No other country has these problems as much as we do, because they are striker then we are. I think if we get tougher on the criminals, and make punishments harder and more painful we will reduce the level of crimes

I mentioned not letting them have contact with other prisoners at all, didn't I? Imagine not having a single human to talk to for the rest of your life, and the guards being under strict order to not speak to you as well.

Just the thought of it should be enough to drive most people crazy, let alone experience it.

And who says that their accomodations and living conditions have to be 'humane'? Not when they don't even act like humans, hmm? ;)

This is terrible,i hope they catch the bastages responsible!!!!

The Dude :)

Torture, prisons, and death sentence will not help stop murders. If someone wants to kill someone they will do it. Why spend all this money on torturing them? Put them to jail and that's all. You accomplished your goal, separate the murders from the non-murderers. If you do torture them it's definetly going even below their level. The only way you can stop murders/violence is by bringing up kids with values from early on. Technology might help. I bet next generation of kids will be sitting next to their computers instead of walking on street and getting into trouble.

Shyne...

lets say stone them to death.. that would be cheeper then to have them live in Jail all there life. All you need is a pile of stones, but to have them live in jail you pay for food, light, roof... and in the end who is paying for that... the tax payers. So stonning them to death would be cheeper... and I think it could stop some of the murders.. if you knew what would happen if you were found gulti of murder you would think twice..

I dont mean to sound cruel or cold hearted.. but if they dont want to play by the rules, why should we? They want to totoure some one, make them be in pain like there victim was. an eye for an eye all the way I beleive.. if you pour gasoline on some one then light them up and they die.. I think we should pour gasoline on you then light you up.. let you know how it feels.


but really.. I dont want you guys to think I am cold hearted, it just makes my stomach turn thinking about what happened to those two girls

Originally posted by Alpharo
An eye for an eye? Aren't you dragging yourself down to their level by doing that? I say let them sit in jail for life - make them stew in their guilt. And oh - no visitors and no contact with the other prisoners.

Madness - it'll take hold of them sooner or later. Much cleaner that way.

I agree, eye for an eye is no better than them, but punishment has been put into our minds from day 1, if you do this you'll get punished.

Even the bible (old test) has punishment in it.

Now the bible (new test) says we should turn the other cheeck, hmmm I don't like to be kicked twice so that sorta don't sit right.

What do we do, if we do nothing it gets worse, if we do something it gets worse(anarchy) unless we start to train ourselves differently we are in big trouble as a race. :(

WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT CHICK!!!!!!!! THIS STORY PISSES ME OFF!!!!!!!

The girl has also been charged with murder:

Justina Morley, 15, and the boys - Edward Batzig Jr., 16; Nicholas Coia, 16; and his brother Dominic Coia, 17 - were charged as adults with murder and related offenses.

And she was expelled:

Before her arrest Wednesday on murder charges, she had been scheduled to graduate the eighth grade at Holy Name of Jesus School. Yesterday, the school officially expelled her.

Her graduation date was next Wednesday. Now it is the date of her preliminary hearing in the murder of Jason Sweeney, along with Nicholas and Dominic Coia, and Ed Batzig Jr.



Some new details here:

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/6026179.htm

Originally posted by adland
And she was expelled

no choice there, she in jail.

This happend in Fish-Town Philadelphia, which is quite a bit of crazy white folks.

Originally posted by il denaro
and I think it could stop some of the murders.. if you knew what would happen if you were found gulti of murder you would think twice..

Firstly there is no deterrent for murder, people commit murder in the full knowledge, that (depending on where they commit the crime) they will be executed or spend most or all of their life in prison, yet they still commit murder.

Secondly the problem with capital punishment (other than the fact it is no deterrent) is that innocent people sometimes get convicted of a crime, if someone is sentenced to life and is later found to be innocent at least they can get out, get some sort of compensation and carry on their life, not really an option if they are dead.

But don't forget there are also crimes where there is no question as to the guilt of the offender. And for the truly bad people, the ones who have a long history of violence, continuing to kill is not really an option if they are dead. Somewhere on the web there is a report I've seen where over a brief period of a few years nearly 30 murderers escaped from the Oklahoma prison system. Three of them killed again before they were captured.

Then there's Texas' most famost paroled murderer:

In October of 1989, in a twist of history that many in Rosebud, indeed, in all of Texas and throughout the nation, still cannot believe, the State of Texas set Kenneth Allen McDuff, the Broomstick Murderer, free. It was not just some incredible ruling by an activist bleeding-heart judge. No trial error dismissed his case. No suspicious California or New York conspiracy set him free. He was paroled – by Texans!

...The spasm of prison construction and parole reforms collectively called the "McDuff Rules," resulted from an enormous display of anger vented towards a system that had broken down. "This guy beat the system," said Austin Police Department Detective Sonya Urubek. "If I have to spend every day at the Capitol, if I have to scream, [I’ll do] whatever I have to do," promised Lori Bible, the sister of one of McDuff’s victims. They were typical comments in a flood of outrage. It turns out that from 1965 to 1992, McDuff had been arrested for burglary, sent to prison, paroled, arrested for three brutal murders while on parole, sent back to prison and placed on death row, taken off of death row, convicted of a felony while in prison, paroled, arrested for making terroristic threats while on parole, sent back to prison, paroled again, arrested for driving while intoxicated while on parole, put in jail, released from jail, placed on probation, arrested for public intoxication while on parole and probation, arrested for murder while on parole and probation again, and finally, put back on death row. Texans will no longer take chances.

...For many, McDuff removed the doubts and discomforts good and thoughtful people have of supporting the death penalty, even in a case like that of Karla Faye Tucker. Indeed, he has become the poster boy of capital punishment.

Why is he the poster boy? How did he gain such notoriety? Because in his case, the advocates of the death penalty are right: Had Kenneth McDuff been executed after the Broomstick Murders of 1966, the young women he murdered from 1989 to 1992 would be alive today. McDuff tragically illustrated that even a death sentence is not a certainty. As long as pardons and clemency exist, and as long as there is a possibility that one day the Supreme Court can rule that capital punishment, whether de facto or in its application, is cruel and unusual, there is no such thing as a guaranteed execution much less a true "life without parole" sentence. http://www.garylavergne.com/badboyprologue.htm


Some detailed background: http://www.thecriminologist.com/new_criminologist/volume1/portrait_serial/portrait_serial.asp