In Rare Move, Boy, 8, Charged In Slaying (of 7 month old girl)

[flvegan]

TAMPA - Hillsborough County prosectors on Tuesday filed a felony aggravated manslaughter charge against an 8- year-old boy accused of fatally bludgeoning a 7-month-old girl in May.
The boy, who lives with his mother in Lakeland, is the youngest child to be charged with such a violent crime in Hillsborough County, Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said. Authorities have not identified him because of his age.

``No one can remember anything close to this,'' Bondi said. ``Hopefully, we'll never have to look at a case like this again.''

The infant, Jayza Simms, died May 23 after suffering a cracked skull, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver, according to a criminal report affidavit released Tuesday. She had been punched, kicked and clubbed in the head with a 2- by-4, Tampa police said.

more:
http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBZLZN1DBE.html

another article from today, here:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/20/Hillsborough/Boy__8__charged_in_ba.shtml

This child needs some serious, long-term counseling. The second article states that during questioning, he showed little remorse.

[DemBones DemBones]

1. What an awful thing. I agree on the counseling but

wonder if a child who'd do something like that can be reclaimed. An 8 year-old should have a conscience and know right from wrong, feel remorse if he hurt someone. This boy didn't just hit another kid on the playground, he bludgeoned a baby to death, and shows mo remorse. A sad story.

[Gman]

2. Agreed, but

that's still no reason to put the kid in jail. Nothing good whatsoever can come from putting the kid in jail.

[ooglymoogly]

8. except maybe another baby or two and when he gets older

probably a few other people...he should be institutionalised...not jailed, he is homicidal

[Bluzmann57]

3. Not to sound too "bleeding heart"

But I think this kid's mom and/or dad should have their collective asses kicked. It is up to parents and others who allegedly know better to steer these kids in the right direction. The parent(s) should have explained a long time ago to the 8 year old that he is to never ever harm other humans, except in extreme cases, such as self defense. And there is no possible way a seven month old baby posed a threat to anyone. And I agree, this kid needs serious long term counseling, which he won't get in a jail atmosphere. However he probably should not be allowed in the general population just yet. Not until he (hopefully) gets straightened out.

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. It is unlikely that he was born this way.

My guess is that he has had some serious trauma in his life. So, what do we do with him? Obviously, his previous living situation was not appropriate for him. But, likely neither is long-term commitment in a prison.

We as a society struggle with the balance between community protection and rehabilitation. He showed no remorse. Yikes. Scary kid. So, what do we do with him? Can empathy be re-learned once taken away? Are we to let him go home with counseling once a week (and risk other babies lives?) Or is there something in-between that can meet the balance we seek?

Perhaps he should be commmitted to a facility that includes counseling as well as full-time monitoring. Restrictions could be lifted as he improves. Also: CPS should be monitoring the family.

[DBoon]

5. "CPS should be monitoring the family"????

You mean Jeb Bush's CPS?

That would make them part of the problem.

[reprobate]

6. Jethro Bush will lower the age for execution to eight.

See? Every bush has the answer.

[Evergreen Emerald]

9. LOL

What was I thinking? You are right of course in this thru-the-looking-glass era of Bush, CPS would not likely help.

[Sugarbleus]

10. Beg to differ here...

I've been spending an enormous amount of time on mental health boards lately. There are definitely "brain/personality disorders" that can happen simply because of genetic factors. That's not to say that kids CAN'T learn this behavior but more often than not, the kids are born with "crossed wiring", if you will.

There are tests that can be done to determine if the child is a potential sociopath..borderline personality...or any number of countless psychological disorders. Hell, my adult D has adult ADHD, anti-social traits, mild BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER and has serious addiction problems. She never set pets on fire or killed anyone but she has had a long history with the criminal justice system because she simply CANNOT get it together, emotionally, in order to "do life" like everyone else.

A lot of times people will adopt a child not knowing their family history/tree where lurking mental disorders might be discovered. Those families go through SHEER HELL trying to get the child diagnosed and "recovered". Stuff like this TEARS families apart, literally and emotionally and financially. Some perfectly wonderful families have had to put their own teen children into foster care or other facilities to keep them from disrupting the household. There are specialty clinics to help some kids through CBT or DBT.

These cases should be treated as A HEALTH CARE MATTER when perps are so YOUNG.

Certainly this little boy has some serious mental health problems. Don't be so quick to BLAME THE PARENTS.

Check out the stats on these kinds of troubled kids/people first.

My $.25 SB

[zalinda]

7. There are absolutely too many reasons why

this could happen. First, reading an article in O magazine about violent kids, opened my eyes about an issue that gets little attention. A huge number of these violent kids have mental problems, most being bi-polar, but never diagnosed. Kids also don't think about consequences in the long term. I know that as parents, we think that we can teach them, but we can all site something that our kids did that was really stupid, but they didn't think twice about doing it. This is one of the reasons why teens can be such bad drivers, they never think that anything bad could happen to them.

At 8 years old, this kid probably has no idea what he did. Life and death is not something that is in his reality. It usually takes a good deal of time and patience for some kids to realize that hitting can hurt, or that death is something that is permanent. Many parents have had young kids kill a small pet, and the child not realize that he could actually kill the pet.

Then we have fetal alcohol syndrome, where the child doesn't connect with anyone. He could also have a form of autism or another undiagnosed disorder. My concern is that why are we having more and more kids being violent. When we were growing up, we had cartoons that were very violent. How many times did Popeye get into a fight, or Bugs smash Elmer, but we didn't have the same problems as we do now.

I think the problem may lie in the chemical soup that we are living in. I also think that until we can fix this soup, more and more kids are going to become killers, for what ever reason.

No, we can not know for sure what went wrong with this kid, but you can be sure, that it probably wasn't that the kid didn't know right from wrong.

zalinda