Child Molester Killed By Victim’s Father, But What They Did To The Dad Is Way Worse

4-27-17 Alabama:

Most parents would do anything to protect their children from pain, including literally laying down their lives.

Fortunately, most parents never find their resolve tested by being put in that position, but Jay Maynor did. By saving his daughter from a traumatic ordeal, Maynor literally gave up forty years of his life, and the world thinks that this is too high of a price to pay for his actions.

Was what Jay Maynor did irresponsible and inexcusable vigilante justice? Or did he do what any other parent might do if they were in his shoes, actions for which the punishment should be significantly less?

Read on and decide for yourself. ...Continued.. by Editorial Board

Sex offender, Vernon Beam, dies of cancer in prison

4-26-17 Illinois:

INA — A Galesburg man who couldn’t meet the conditions of his release died in prison last week.

Vernon Beam, who had been suffering from cancer in recent months, died at 64 within the Illinois Department of Corrections late last week. His case was featured in a Feb. 7, 2016, Register-Mail story.

He had been ordered to be released from IDOC custody in May 2013 after then-Circuit Judge James Stewart found that he was no longer a sexually dangerous person. But Beam, a sex offender, couldn’t meet the conditions of his release and was stuck in prison until his death.

Beam was arrested in late October 1991 and charged with five offenses after he allegedly lured three boys, all under the age of 13, to a Galesburg motel, rented a VCR and showed them X-rated movies.

His charges were child abduction, providing harmful material to children and three counts of aggravated kidnapping. Beam remained in custody from the time of his arrest to his death.

After Beam rejected a 12-year plea deal, the Knox County State’s Attorney’s office changed direction. Rather than trying to convict Beam of those charges, then-State’s Attorney Ray Kimball pushed to classify Beam to be a sexually dangerous person, according to Register-Mail archives.

Two juries found Beam to be a sexually dangerous person and he was civilly confined to the state prison. His felony case never proceeded after he was indicted by a Knox County grand jury on all five counts.

A person suffering from a mental disorder for at least a year and who has shown a criminal propensity to commit sex offenses against children is eligible to be designated a sexually dangerous person.

Beam had two prior sex-related offenses involving minors in Henry County in the 1980s. Register-Mail archives said Beam was diagnosed as a pedophile with a mild learning disability and antisocial personality disorder before his confinement.

Court documents listed other disorders, such as organic brain syndrome due to serious head injuries and alcohol dependency.

Beam, in a letter seeking answers about his conditional release in 2013, wrote to Judge Stewart, “I really don’t want to be stuck here forever.”

Knox County Chief Public Defender David Hansen declined comment on Beam’s death.

“I really don’t want to spend the rest of my life here,” Beam wrote. ..Source.. by Robert Connelly

Man convicted of kidnapping, killing 6-year-old girl dies in prison

4-13-17 New Jersey:

A man serving two life sentences for the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Manalapan in a highly-publicized case that helped spur Megan's Law registries for sex offenders has died in a state prison. Kevin Aquino, 42, died on March 11, according to the state Department of Corrections website.

Aquino pleaded guilty in July 1995 to abducting and killing 6-year-old Amanda Wengert from her Manalapan home. Wengert's parents were at an anniversary party honoring Aquinos' parents when he broke into the Wengert home and kidnapped Amanda, who was sleeping on a couch.

As he carried her through the backyard, the 6-year-old awoke and began fighting with Aquino. He knocked her unconscious, then killed her and hid the body in a wooded area 200 yards behind his home. An autopsy determined she died of a skull fracture.

Aquino had previously been convicted as a juvenile for sexually assaulting three young children, but the Wengerts were unaware of his past.

The killing and the death of 7-year-old Megan Kanka several months later in 1994 led to the legislation that established the Megan's Law registry. The Wengerts joined Megan Kanka's family in pressing for the law to register sex offenders.

Aquino would have had to serve at least 55 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

According to an email from a Department of Corrections spokesman, Aquino was found unresponsive in his cell and there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances around his death.

The Asbury Park Press reported that he was found about 20 minutes after he was last seen taking a shower. ..Source.. by Rajeev Dhir

Not guilty verdict given in inmate death

7-29-17 Missouri:

A Cole County jury has found a man not guilty of charges in connection with the killing of an inmate at the Algoa Correctional Center in December 2015.

David Young, 43, had been charged with second-degree murder and violence against a Department of Corrections offender.

His defense had argued he was an accomplice and not the person who killed Harley Holt, 35, who had been serving a four-year sentence for two counts of failure to register as a sex offender in Greene and Howell counties at the time of his death.

Young was serving a sentence for drug possession at the time Holt was killed.

Teen killer of child molester to be resentenced 22 years later

July 2017 Florida:

U.S. Supreme Court rulings that juveniles can't be sentenced to life without parole has given a Florida man in prison for a 1995 murder of a suspected child molester a chance at freedom, WFTV in Orlando reports.

Mark Berrios was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for shooting Olen Hepler, 47, a suspected pedophile, when he was 14. He stole Hepler's truck and $800.

Margaret Loring told Action News Jax that her son met Hepler when he ran away from a juvenile program in Daytona Beach, becoming the victim of abuse. "My son grabbed the molester's gun and shot him," she said.

Loring said Hepler was a pedophile who preyed on troubled boys. She said her son felt there was no way out.