NeoConMan Posted May 29, 2009 Posted May 29, 2009 This story from my local paper is a heartbreaker. I'm not directly involved in any way, but it hit all around me and the wife. A little too close for comfort. We sat up late many nights talking about this in the last 7 months. What would we have done differently? Suspect in slaying found mentally incompetent Mental-health issues have clouded the prosecution of one of two Buckeye teenagers accused in the carjack slaying of an off-duty Arizona corrections officer. No trial date has been set, but prosecutors are moving forward in their case against one of the two suspects, Benjamin Bruce Cannon, 16. (His father works with me - on my crew) However, the second suspect, Felix Dennis Vasquez, 17, has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial. (A couple months before, my wife had a little "road rage" incident with this kid - his little brother was in the car with him. I shoulda...) Earlier this year, a judge ordered that Vasquez be subjected to involuntary treatment to restore him to competency. "The defendant is unable to understand the nature of the proceedings," the judge ruled in a decision handed down Jan. 29 after two experts evaluated Vasquez. (Sorry, this is widely regarded as a malingering defense by all the parents around here who know him - he's fine.) Records in Maricopa County Superior Court do not indicate how long, if ever, if may take to restore him to competency. Cannon and Vasquez are being prosecuted as adults in the Oct. 18, 2008, slaying of Bradley Jay Gerrard, 28, who had been an officer for four years with the Arizona Department of Corrections. The suspects are charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery, auto theft and arson. Each is being held in a detention facility on $2 million bail. The murder victim, a Buckeye resident, was shot at close range on Tartesso Boulevard during an apparent carjacking just blocks from his Tartesso home. The two suspects, according to court records, planned a carjacking to get transportation to a party. One lay down in the roadway at the intersection of Tartesso Boulevard and Bruner Road and the other hid with a shotgun waiting for a passing motorist. When Gerrard, who was on his way home from a store, saw the person in the roadway, he stopped and got out of his car to offer assistance, the records show. Investigators believe that's when one of the two teens came out of hiding and shot him once in the chest. The suspects then stole his car and drove off to the party, according to police reports. Several hours later, police found Gerrard's car burned and abandoned in the desert a few miles away. Vasquez and Cannon were arrested Oct. 23. Authorities said they offered conflicting statements identifying the other as the actual triggerman but, under the law, each can be held equally guilty. Gerrard has small children. He had gone to a Wal-Mart 15 miles away to buy an air mattress because it was the only thing open at 11:00 PM. He had relatives come to his house, and was off duty from a prison 20 miles south of here. They threw the mattress (still in the box) into the road and left him to die on the pavement. I met the couple who found his body, they had just reported an unrelated burning vehicle to the police and were headed home when they first saw the mattress, then saw Gerrard laying in the road. At first, they thought he was a pedestrian who had been hit by a car until the wife got out and took a closer look.... They called 911, knowing there's a fire station half a mile away - but the paramedics were at the scene of the burning truck, and had to hotfoot it to scene of the murder from several miles away in the open desert. Gerrard's car was later found burning nearby - still likely a coincidence since this area is common for thefts and dumping. This ALL happened less than a mile from my house. Cannon and Vasquez, Gerrard, and the couple who found his body all live within a mile of me. I often ride my motorcycle around the area at night just to keep an eye out for any random ugliness, I know most of the cops that patrol the area, and on this night I decided to stay home and work on the computer. I heard the sirens, wondered what was up, but was unaware until a Sheriff's helicopter landed on the road 1/4 mile from my house the next morning. They found the murder weapon behind my neighbor's fence, and with the help of a bloodhound they tracked right to the front door of one of the boy's home. There's wide-spread suspicion that these same kids robbed a salesman in a model home just a few months earlier. They used a shotgun in an attempt to kill him as he fled, then they stole his truck. The building superintendent showed me the surveillance video, they were all dressed in black and masked. The crime occurred one block - literally a couple hundred feet - from the later murder. The salesman's truck was recovered in the same area as Gerrard's car. We have a 19 year old who's out on his own, blazing his own trail and finding a little trouble here and there. Pretty rude awakening to realize these parents probably knew no more about their kid's actions that we do ours. Pay attention to your kids, okay?
Corrosion of conformity Posted May 30, 2009 Posted May 30, 2009 So was there a reason for this senseless killing? As they are being charged with first-degree murder, I'm assuming it was premeditated? Were they caught red-handed, without a shadow of a doubt? (I'm not being sarcastic, I'd just like to better understand the situation)
bluzhammer Posted May 30, 2009 Posted May 30, 2009 Truly, the cunning that was displayed in laying the trap, shows not only premeditation but the ability to reason a probable outcome, i.e. a car stopping. These lads are running a scam on the mental evaluators pure and simple. It's stories like these, that lead me to wonder if a posse and the end of a rope are appropriate for certain types of " criminal justice ".
bol316 Posted May 30, 2009 Posted May 30, 2009 Killing is killing. If you have intentionally killed that means you are capable of killing and might do it again. I say you go to jail. If they want to put him in a seperate one from the other inmates because they think he is "mentally incompetent", whatever. But you belong in jail. Period. Anyone who disagrees is simply wrong.
NeoConMan Posted May 30, 2009 Author Posted May 30, 2009 So was there a reason for this senseless killing? They needed a car to get to a party in Goodyear 20 miles away.
myspace.com/jessenoah Posted May 30, 2009 Posted May 30, 2009 I'm assuming it was premeditated? sounds like they laid a trap for this guy, not only are they capable of thought and reason, they are creative. normally i dont believe that the death penelty serves any sort of moral purpose or teaches criminals a lesson but these guys should fry and the people @ the party they went to show feel ashamed to have been socially interacting with thoose monsters
Corrosion of conformity Posted May 30, 2009 Posted May 30, 2009 They needed a car to get to a party in Goodyear 20 miles away. That's terrible. And I agree with bol316, the kids should at least be kept in jail until they are ready to face trial.
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