Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog
Hyannis, Massachusetts, is a land one does not often associate with gang wars and murder. However, today’s daily Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog examines one of its more tragic stories…one that sounds like it came out of a bad novel… or the Civil War. It is about two brothers who were brought up in a family business too often found these days…the Massachusetts drug trade.
Now, one brother is dead. His younger brother is charged with killing him.
Mykel M., 13, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is now accused of masterminding the slaying of his 16-year-old half-brother Jordon (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) so he could take over the drug operation – one police say they inherited from their father, who is in prison for running one of the biggest cocaine rings on Cape Cod.
The Deceased was found shot, stabbed 27 times and dumped into a pit, where his body was torched. Another 13-year-old friend and a 20-year-old cousin also are charged with murder.
The killing has shaken the normal quiet of winter on Cape Cod, the summer tourist destination known for its beautiful beaches, salt water taffy and famous residents. In fact, the Deceased lived just a few miles from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port.
The Defendant’s lawyer has publically dismissed the claims by authorities that his client planned his brother’s death to take over his drug business, saying, “He loved his brother…He’s not the 13-year-old Al Capone.”
The Commonwealth claims that the boys’ father ran a drug ring that brought large quantities of cocaine to the Cape from New York and Boston. The Deceased was 8 and the Defendant just 5 when he was arrested and sent to prison to serve eight to 10 years. Two years later, in 2002, authorities caught him running the drug business from behind bars. That time, he was sentenced to 35 years on federal drug trafficking charges.
Authorities say that the Deceased took over where his father left off, selling OxyContin and cocaine. District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said he was a “significant drug dealer.”
The Defendant, according to authorities, was jealous of the money Jordan was making and wanted to take over.
Over the period of two days in December, police say the Defendant, his alleged cohorts stole $10,000 in cash from the Deceased, killed him, poured gasoline on his body and set him on fire.
The three then walked into a car dealership, pulled the $10,000 out of their pockets and bought a used silver BMW, O’Keefe said.
The Defendant, who has a different mother, did not grow up in the same house as the Deceased. But after the Defendant moved to the Cape with his mother, the boys became inseparable, according to family members and friends.
Barnstable police Det. Lt. Sean Balcom remembers the Deceased showing a tough exterior when a dozen police officers stormed his grandmother’s house to arrest his father in 2000.
“I can remember him staring down some of the SWAT team members, saying we’d better not mess up his room,” Balcom said. “He was standing right up to us.”
It was a different exterior that was found this past December. When the Deceased did not come home from school on the 15th, family members went out to look for him. The next day, they found his body – still burning – in an 8-by-10-foot pit in woods less than a mile from his mother’s home.
The Defendant and his 13-year-old helper are now in the custody of the state Department of Youth Services. Because of their age, they cannot be tried as adults for the Massachusetts murder. If convicted, the teens would remain in state custody until they reach 18. The third cohort, however, is being held without bail on charges of robbery and first-degree murder
Samuel’s take:
The Defendant, who is alleged to be the most culpable in the murder has dodged the proverbial “bullet”. He just missed the cut-off for which he could be tried as an adult for murder.
Many people do not know that juveniles can be charged and prosecuted as adults in certain violent felonies.
The days in which kids committing crimes and let off with a “slap on the wrist” are over as a rule. Juvenile offenses are treated tougher in juvenile court; adult court is even tougher when a kid faces adult prosecution.
I have mentioned in earlier blogs that I still come in contact with parents whose child faces prosecution for a crime and they think, because of the child’s age, that no harm can come to him at the hands of the Criminal Justice System.
Wrong.
While it is true that sometimes “tough love” is necessary when trying to turn a youth onto the right path, you do not have the control to choose what that means when the System becomes involved. You may not want your child to get the message that he or she can get away with a life of crime…but you do not necessarily want that lesson to ruin his life or cause him what you consider to be undue harm.
Do yourself and your child a favor. If your little bundle of joy is suddenly in a bundle of trouble and looking at a bundle of criminal charges…take it seriously. As seriously as if it were you facing the finger of accusation and consequence. Consult an experienced attorney to help guide you and your child through what is going to be a bumpy and very scary ride.
The full article of this story can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29469147/
