paulinaaa
07-11-2006, 04:58 PM
Boy gets 26 years for murdering playmate (http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/10/boy.sentenced.ap/index.html)
Evan Savoie was 12 when he stabbed disabled 13-year-old
EPHRATA, Washington (AP) -- A boy convicted as an adult of stabbing a playmate to death when he was 12 years old was sentenced Monday to the maximum 26 years in prison.
A jury convicted Evan Savoie, now 15, of first-degree murder for the 2003 stabbing death of 13-year-old Craig Sorger, who was developmentally disabled.
Savoie's attorneys have said they will appeal the verdict.
Savoie has repeatedly proclaimed he is innocent. He said Craig fell from a tree while they were playing and that he left him injured -- without a pulse -- on a trail but didn't kill him.
The prosecution said the victim had been beaten and had 34 stab wounds.
Prosecutors alleged Savoie had planned the killing. They told jurors he had blood on his clothes, access to knives, and lied to investigators, at one point deliberately leading searchers away from Sorger's body but later admitting that.
Savoie showed no reaction as the sentence was read, but he smiled when he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.
"Somebody is going to have to figure out how a 12-year-old can be so violent so young," Grant County Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen said as he imposed the maximum sentence.
The Sorger family had pushed for the maximum sentence.
"In your worst nightmare, you never believe this could happen to you," the victim's mother, Lisa Sorger, wrote in a letter read to the court.
The key to the prosecution's case was the testimony of Jake Eakin, another playmate who pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder by complicity. He is serving 14 years in prison.
Eakin led investigators to the murder weapon and identified Savoie as the killer. On the witness stand, he described the brief attack in wrenching detail, saying Sorger repeatedly cried out: "Why are you doing this to me?"
This is unquestionably, undeniably a horrible crime. My heart goes out to the Sorger family, who now have to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on.
But at the same time... this kid, Evan Savoie, was 12 years old when the murder occured. Twelve years old. Even with a crime this heinous, this violent, how can we possibly say we're going to try him as an adult? Under what bizarre, unimaginable circumstance would you say that a twelve year old child should be considered an adult? If this kid had gone out and had "concentual" sex with an adult, we would call that pedophilia. If he had tried to get married or join the Army or buy a drink at a bar, he would have been laughed at and shown the door. And yet somehow, because of the horrific nature of the crime, we change all of the rules and say, "oh, wait, he's not a child... this 12 year old should be considered an adult"???
As the judge said, "Somebody is going to have to figure out how a 12-year-old can be so violent so young." But in this case, who is this "somebody"? Prison officials? Legal aid? His family? Certainly not the judicial system. Certainly not the district attorney's office. Certainly not Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen.
This kid is mentally ill, but he's still a kid. He needs treatment and professional help, not incarceration in an adult prison. What he did was terribly wrong, but trying to pretend he's an adult doesn't make it right.
Evan Savoie was 12 when he stabbed disabled 13-year-old
EPHRATA, Washington (AP) -- A boy convicted as an adult of stabbing a playmate to death when he was 12 years old was sentenced Monday to the maximum 26 years in prison.
A jury convicted Evan Savoie, now 15, of first-degree murder for the 2003 stabbing death of 13-year-old Craig Sorger, who was developmentally disabled.
Savoie's attorneys have said they will appeal the verdict.
Savoie has repeatedly proclaimed he is innocent. He said Craig fell from a tree while they were playing and that he left him injured -- without a pulse -- on a trail but didn't kill him.
The prosecution said the victim had been beaten and had 34 stab wounds.
Prosecutors alleged Savoie had planned the killing. They told jurors he had blood on his clothes, access to knives, and lied to investigators, at one point deliberately leading searchers away from Sorger's body but later admitting that.
Savoie showed no reaction as the sentence was read, but he smiled when he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.
"Somebody is going to have to figure out how a 12-year-old can be so violent so young," Grant County Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen said as he imposed the maximum sentence.
The Sorger family had pushed for the maximum sentence.
"In your worst nightmare, you never believe this could happen to you," the victim's mother, Lisa Sorger, wrote in a letter read to the court.
The key to the prosecution's case was the testimony of Jake Eakin, another playmate who pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder by complicity. He is serving 14 years in prison.
Eakin led investigators to the murder weapon and identified Savoie as the killer. On the witness stand, he described the brief attack in wrenching detail, saying Sorger repeatedly cried out: "Why are you doing this to me?"
This is unquestionably, undeniably a horrible crime. My heart goes out to the Sorger family, who now have to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on.
But at the same time... this kid, Evan Savoie, was 12 years old when the murder occured. Twelve years old. Even with a crime this heinous, this violent, how can we possibly say we're going to try him as an adult? Under what bizarre, unimaginable circumstance would you say that a twelve year old child should be considered an adult? If this kid had gone out and had "concentual" sex with an adult, we would call that pedophilia. If he had tried to get married or join the Army or buy a drink at a bar, he would have been laughed at and shown the door. And yet somehow, because of the horrific nature of the crime, we change all of the rules and say, "oh, wait, he's not a child... this 12 year old should be considered an adult"???
As the judge said, "Somebody is going to have to figure out how a 12-year-old can be so violent so young." But in this case, who is this "somebody"? Prison officials? Legal aid? His family? Certainly not the judicial system. Certainly not the district attorney's office. Certainly not Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen.
This kid is mentally ill, but he's still a kid. He needs treatment and professional help, not incarceration in an adult prison. What he did was terribly wrong, but trying to pretend he's an adult doesn't make it right.