Waitone
Member
Yep, surely did happen. 25-July-2004 my grandson was murdered by my daughter’s former boyfriend. No accident, not a fit of rage, just a clear cut murder for motives I could not begin to understand. Regardless of the reason Caleb is dead and will never return to my daughter’s arms or my pickup truck. Oh, did I say Caleb was 3 years, 1 month, and 24 days of age before his untimely death?
The investigation took 8 months involving multiple jurisdictions, forensic assistance from other states, and an extradition from California. The perp was taken into custody and charged with capital murder. Shortly thereafter the Mecklenburg County, NC (code for Charlotte) DA’s office reduced charges to first-degree murder, something in NC that carries a life imprisonment penalty. So now we have the killer in the lockup. Bail was set for $500,000 secured which he was unable to raise. By all measures the man was considered and treated as a bad dude.
As these things are destined to happen a plea was offered and the DA took it. The decision was made with my daughter kicking and screaming the whole way. She was neither consulted nor was her opinion solicited. She was simply informed of what would happen in less than 24 hours. On Thursday, 1-June-2006 the perp appeared in court for his plea slot. At that time he plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He was not required to state he killed Caleb; he was required to merely admit to killing a child. In exchange for a guilty plea he received a prison term of not less than 24 and not more than 29 months. Yes, you read correctly, months. And my personally favorite provision of the agreement is he will receive credit for 10 months time served. Bottom line, the perp who murdered my grandson will be out on the street between 14 and 19 months from now. It is entirely possible he will be out on the streets enjoying life by the end of next year. Oh, one other fact. Had Caleb not been murdered, he would have celebrated his 5th birthday that same day.
My daughter was something less than appreciative of the agreement. I’m not impressed either. Her attitude is just exactly what yours would be.
Now we come to the documentation. Hopefully all the web addresses are still live.
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/9307998/detail.html video
http://www.wbtv.com/home/2915116.html
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-ad-6_1_06-caleb.442f76bb.html video
What is the backstory? A lot is moving around in the background. Events like this just don’t happen. There are logical reasons for what happened. In Caleb’s case the reason the perp got off is simply because the DA’s office is grossly underfunded. I consider it to be criminally under funded but I’ll go with grossly. Here are a few little factoids that demonstrate the situation.
Consider the comments of Tara Servatius, a journalist writing for Creative Loafing September 14, 2005 “Life Is Cheap Here: Where's the justice for Zachary Montognese?”
Need more evidence of insufficient funding?
And my personal favorite:
So you see, the reason Caleb’s murderer got a butt-slap is because Mecklenburg County has no desire to go to trial. Defense attorneys merely threaten to go to trial if they don’t like the plea offer. The system is designed to drive plea agreements to the lowest possible time in prison. Defense attorneys are in the dominant position and the prosecutors in essence get to agree to the demands of defense attorneys. And that is exactly what happened in Caleb’s case. Defense attorney dictated the terms of the plea agreement simply because the DA’s office has no leverage once it says it cannot afford a trial. A classic example of inmates running the asylum if ever there was one.
Now why is the DA’s office criminally underfunded? Simple. NC is one of very few states which majority funding of local DA’s is out of state coffers. Every political dust up in Raleigh has an impact at the local level. The city and county do not want to increase their share of funding for fear of the state cutting off all local funding.
A contributing factor is the local attitude of Charlotte’s glitterati. Charlotte has spent considerable effort and money in creating and maintaining an image of a bright, shiny, modern city in the south that combines the best of a “World Class City” (whatever the hell that is) and Mayberry RFD. Why, in Charlotte, Barney has no need of his bullet. Reality is Charlotte glitterati do not want a fully funded DA’s office because that would say the city has a dark underbelly. Well, Caleb found the dark underbelly and the system treated him just like countless other victims.
A third factor is the political momentum in Charlotte is to build things that are bright and shiny and add to the city’s hip-ness. The city would rather spend money on things like light rail (hundreds of millions of dollars from the state, feds, and local). A basketball palace is of high priority funded with local tax money, even though the taxpayers voted against. And my personal favorite is a taxpayer-funded museum dedicated to NASCAR. A billionaire owns NASCAR yet Charlotte agreed to fund, own, and operate the physical facilities using local taxes and bonds. Charlotte is more than willing to throw money at anything bright and shiny but for some reason can’t find the chump change to fund simple justice.
What will happen?
Caleb’s fate is settled. The system acted in its best interests. Caleb is safely in a file folder in the DA’s closed cases file. My mission is clear. Caleb’s death was an unspeakable evil. Perhaps something good can come out of it. At a minimum maybe Caleb’s death can head off the next Caleb. My mission is to exert as much pressure on the system as I can to hopefully correct it. I may well be wasting my time. There will come a time when Caleb and I will meet up again. I have no intentions of explaining to him why I didn’t do everything possible to fix the system that failed to deliver to him simple justice.
Charlotte’s power structure has two poles. One pole is the Mecklenburg County Commission. DA funding is sourced out of the county coffers. The other pole is City Council which is responsible for maintaining the city’s image. The city also has to authorize spending on bright and shiny stuff. The attach text file contains names and email addresses of local politicians. In your spare time would you drop a polite email to the politician of your choice explaining your view of Caleb’s case? Charlotte is very sensitive to public opinion and perhaps a little pressure will change attitudes about funding the DA’s office.
The public official of particular note is one Wilhelmenia Rembert, Vice-Chairman Mecklenburg County Commission. She is on public record as saying the DA’s office has no need for increased funding. She claimed there is no outcry by the population for increased spending. She favors constantly increasing funding for the children. Spend more money on the part of government to help the downtrodden, providing a safety net blah blah blah blah blah blah. Spending money on revenge just doesn’t satisfy the needs of the poor and dispossessed. A classic bliss ninny if ever there was one.
The entire county commission is responsible for the sorry state of affairs not just one person but that one person is notable in her attitude and influence. Mayor Pat McCrory has run repeatedly on providing additional funding but has yet to force the issue with county officials. Commissioner Bill James stood up and demanded additional funding but was met with strong opposition.
Bottom line is Mecklenburg County government is dysfunctional and Caleb was caught right in the middle of it. I could go on but I need to shut up
Caleb will not be forgotten.
The investigation took 8 months involving multiple jurisdictions, forensic assistance from other states, and an extradition from California. The perp was taken into custody and charged with capital murder. Shortly thereafter the Mecklenburg County, NC (code for Charlotte) DA’s office reduced charges to first-degree murder, something in NC that carries a life imprisonment penalty. So now we have the killer in the lockup. Bail was set for $500,000 secured which he was unable to raise. By all measures the man was considered and treated as a bad dude.
As these things are destined to happen a plea was offered and the DA took it. The decision was made with my daughter kicking and screaming the whole way. She was neither consulted nor was her opinion solicited. She was simply informed of what would happen in less than 24 hours. On Thursday, 1-June-2006 the perp appeared in court for his plea slot. At that time he plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He was not required to state he killed Caleb; he was required to merely admit to killing a child. In exchange for a guilty plea he received a prison term of not less than 24 and not more than 29 months. Yes, you read correctly, months. And my personally favorite provision of the agreement is he will receive credit for 10 months time served. Bottom line, the perp who murdered my grandson will be out on the street between 14 and 19 months from now. It is entirely possible he will be out on the streets enjoying life by the end of next year. Oh, one other fact. Had Caleb not been murdered, he would have celebrated his 5th birthday that same day.
My daughter was something less than appreciative of the agreement. I’m not impressed either. Her attitude is just exactly what yours would be.
Now we come to the documentation. Hopefully all the web addresses are still live.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/14721645.htm?source=rss&channel=charlotte_breaking_news
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/9307998/detail.html video
http://www.wbtv.com/home/2915116.html
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-ad-6_1_06-caleb.442f76bb.html video
What is the backstory? A lot is moving around in the background. Events like this just don’t happen. There are logical reasons for what happened. In Caleb’s case the reason the perp got off is simply because the DA’s office is grossly underfunded. I consider it to be criminally under funded but I’ll go with grossly. Here are a few little factoids that demonstrate the situation.
Consider the comments of Tara Servatius, a journalist writing for Creative Loafing September 14, 2005 “Life Is Cheap Here: Where's the justice for Zachary Montognese?”
“According to data from the NC Admistrative Office of the Courts, 42 percent of the murder cases in Mecklenburg County were pleaded down to a lesser charge last year and another 33 percent were dismissed, almost twice the state average. A study by Creative Loafing showed that this county's court system very rarely sends anyone to prison on first-degree murder charges. Virtually everyone who is arrested for killing someone here pleads guilty to second-degree murder or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, saving the courts the time and cost of a trial. Of the 152 cases we looked at between 2001 and 2003 in which a defendant was sentenced, only three were sent to prison on first-degree murder charges. In all three cases, the defendants - two of whom were in their teens - opted for trials, pleaded not guilty and got life sentences.”
And “NC Conference of District Attorneys Director Peg Dorer said the problem is pretty simple. The courts across the state, and in Mecklenburg County in particular, are so underfunded they no longer have the resources to try cases. When CL called her last week, she'd just finished crunching trial percentages and found they'd slipped once again. Two years ago, the courts statewide managed to try 2.2 percent of all felony cases. Last year, that number slipped to 1.89 percent.”
Need more evidence of insufficient funding?
“A recent study by UNC-Charlotte professor Paul Friday of similar-sized areas' justice systems found that Mecklenburg County has 51 prosecutors while Portland has 86 and Austin, 76. The county lags even farther behind in support staff, with Mecklenburg at 38, Portland at 132 and Austin at 108. Mecklenburg employs only four judicial assistants, while Portland's court system has 38 and Austin's system, 36.”
And“Compared to other cities and counties, prosecutors are also seriously outgunned. Mecklenburg needs an additional 25 district attorneys and more staff to make it comparable to other similar-sized metropolitan areas around the country, said Dorer.”
And my personal favorite:
“Last year, at $4.2 million, the budget for the city animal shelter was bigger than the $3.4 million budget for the prosecutor's office.”
So you see, the reason Caleb’s murderer got a butt-slap is because Mecklenburg County has no desire to go to trial. Defense attorneys merely threaten to go to trial if they don’t like the plea offer. The system is designed to drive plea agreements to the lowest possible time in prison. Defense attorneys are in the dominant position and the prosecutors in essence get to agree to the demands of defense attorneys. And that is exactly what happened in Caleb’s case. Defense attorney dictated the terms of the plea agreement simply because the DA’s office has no leverage once it says it cannot afford a trial. A classic example of inmates running the asylum if ever there was one.
Now why is the DA’s office criminally underfunded? Simple. NC is one of very few states which majority funding of local DA’s is out of state coffers. Every political dust up in Raleigh has an impact at the local level. The city and county do not want to increase their share of funding for fear of the state cutting off all local funding.
A contributing factor is the local attitude of Charlotte’s glitterati. Charlotte has spent considerable effort and money in creating and maintaining an image of a bright, shiny, modern city in the south that combines the best of a “World Class City” (whatever the hell that is) and Mayberry RFD. Why, in Charlotte, Barney has no need of his bullet. Reality is Charlotte glitterati do not want a fully funded DA’s office because that would say the city has a dark underbelly. Well, Caleb found the dark underbelly and the system treated him just like countless other victims.
A third factor is the political momentum in Charlotte is to build things that are bright and shiny and add to the city’s hip-ness. The city would rather spend money on things like light rail (hundreds of millions of dollars from the state, feds, and local). A basketball palace is of high priority funded with local tax money, even though the taxpayers voted against. And my personal favorite is a taxpayer-funded museum dedicated to NASCAR. A billionaire owns NASCAR yet Charlotte agreed to fund, own, and operate the physical facilities using local taxes and bonds. Charlotte is more than willing to throw money at anything bright and shiny but for some reason can’t find the chump change to fund simple justice.
What will happen?
Caleb’s fate is settled. The system acted in its best interests. Caleb is safely in a file folder in the DA’s closed cases file. My mission is clear. Caleb’s death was an unspeakable evil. Perhaps something good can come out of it. At a minimum maybe Caleb’s death can head off the next Caleb. My mission is to exert as much pressure on the system as I can to hopefully correct it. I may well be wasting my time. There will come a time when Caleb and I will meet up again. I have no intentions of explaining to him why I didn’t do everything possible to fix the system that failed to deliver to him simple justice.
Charlotte’s power structure has two poles. One pole is the Mecklenburg County Commission. DA funding is sourced out of the county coffers. The other pole is City Council which is responsible for maintaining the city’s image. The city also has to authorize spending on bright and shiny stuff. The attach text file contains names and email addresses of local politicians. In your spare time would you drop a polite email to the politician of your choice explaining your view of Caleb’s case? Charlotte is very sensitive to public opinion and perhaps a little pressure will change attitudes about funding the DA’s office.
The public official of particular note is one Wilhelmenia Rembert, Vice-Chairman Mecklenburg County Commission. She is on public record as saying the DA’s office has no need for increased funding. She claimed there is no outcry by the population for increased spending. She favors constantly increasing funding for the children. Spend more money on the part of government to help the downtrodden, providing a safety net blah blah blah blah blah blah. Spending money on revenge just doesn’t satisfy the needs of the poor and dispossessed. A classic bliss ninny if ever there was one.
The entire county commission is responsible for the sorry state of affairs not just one person but that one person is notable in her attitude and influence. Mayor Pat McCrory has run repeatedly on providing additional funding but has yet to force the issue with county officials. Commissioner Bill James stood up and demanded additional funding but was met with strong opposition.
Bottom line is Mecklenburg County government is dysfunctional and Caleb was caught right in the middle of it. I could go on but I need to shut up
Caleb will not be forgotten.
