Columbus, OH -- Deputy sheriffs arrested a teen-ager and charged him with killing Sharif Ali in a apparent car-jacking. 

Greg Netter, 16, was arrested on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. He is being held in the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center. 

Netter is accused of shooting Ali, a senior at Centennial High School in Columbus, who had moved to Ohio from Somalia four months before and had just finished his second day of school. 

On Sept. 14, 1999, the day Ali died, he had left his home to go to his job but never arrived. 

Lake Charles, LA -- Aug. 19, 1994 -- The second-degree murder trial of a 15-year-old Shreveport girl charged in connection with the shooting deaths of two Robeline residents will be conducted in Calcasieu Parish beginning Oct. 24.

Judge John Whitaker of the 10th Judicial District Court in Natchitoches has ordered the trial of Brandy Wiley moved here. Wiley's co-defendant, Jason Pilcher, also 15 and of Shreveport, was convicted last April after his trial was moved to Columbia due to extensive publicity and community outrage about the murders.

The teen-agers are accused of killing Phyllis Allbritton and her 11-year-old son on Aug. 17, 1993. Since the trial of Pilcher, the alleged triggerman, received heavy media coverage across north and central Louisiana, Judge Whitaker ordered Wiley's trial moved to southwest Louisiana.

Wiley, who has blamed Pilcher for everything and maintains her innocence in the murders, testified against Pilcher without receiving any deals or promises from Natchitoches Parish District Attorney Mike Henry.

However, Henry still plans to try Wiley as a principal to murder on the grounds that she was an active participant in the crime. The prosecutor has acknowledged in earlier reports, however, that Wiley helped herself by testifying against Pilcher.

The victims were shot allegedly by Pilcher after he and Wiley came to the Allbritton home and asked for a telephone and some water. Wiley testified she had no idea what Pilcher was about to do until he said, ''I'm going to kill them. I'm going to do it.''

She testified she didn't think Pilcher was serious and told him, ''No,'' but he whipped out a pistol he had hidden under his shirt and shot Mrs. Allbritton before she could shut the front door.

Wiley testified she then stood on the front porch in shock as Pilcher went into the house and shot Justin Allbritton, then chased Justin's sister, Amanda Allbritton, across a pasture.

Amanda, now 14, escaped uninjured despite Pilcher's firing three shots at her.

Since the trial involves a charge of second-degree murder, jurors will not have to be sequestered. Jury management specialist Cris Hinton said jurors will be selected from the regular pool summoned for all cases Oct. 24. A special panel will not be subpoenaed for this trial, Hinton said.

However, 350 jurors, rather than the 125-300 usually summoned will be requested to report, Hinton said.

Judge Whitaker is expected to preside at the trial and will bring all of his own court personnel. That procedure is similar to one used recently by Judge Fred R. Godwin who traveled to Baton Rouge to provide over the 15-day first-degree murder trial of Ricky Joseph Langley after Langley's trial was moved to the 19th Judicial District.

Oct. 26, 1994 -- Some 200 miles away, young Amanda Allbritton exhibited her entry in the Shreveport state fair 4-H beef cattle division Tuesday. In Lake Charles, attorneys picked a jury to try a 16-year-old accused of killing Amanda's mother and brother last year.

Eleven-year-old Justin Allbritton would have been with his sister showing his animals at the fair. But he was gunned down shortly after his mother during a double murder which outraged residents of the rural Natchitoches town of Robeline where the Allbrittons lived.

Two defendants, only two years older than Amanda at the time her mother and brother were killed, were charged in the slayings. Jason Pilcher, now 16, was convicted in April in Columbia. He was sentenced to back-to-back life terms.

Pilcher's co-defendant, Brandy Wiley, also 16, faces trial here this week on two counts of second-degree murder. Both trials were moved out of Natchitoches Parish due to pre-trial publicity and strong community feelings about the case.

Opening statements in Wiley's trial are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. today, Oct. 26, with 10th Judicial District Court Judge John Whitaker presiding. Natchitoches District Attorney Mike Henry and defense attorney Mike Bonnette completed jury selection Tuesday afternoon. A panel of eight men and four women was chosen during the two-day selection process.

Henry is prosecuting Wiley as a principal to the murders. He must show that Wiley ''aided or abetted'' Pilcher in the commission of the crimes. Pilcher has already been identified as the triggerman.

Bonnette claims Wiley did not take part in the shootings. He said she was drinking a glass of water on the Allbritton's front porch when Pilcher pulled out a gun and fired one shot into 33-year-old Phyllis Allbritton's forehead.

She stayed on the porch while Pilcher went inside and shot Justin once in the neck. Pilcher then chased Amanda through a pasture, but she managed to escape despite the fact Pilcher fired at her three times.

Henry cannot seek a death penalty because of a Supreme Court ruling banning execution of juvenile defendants as cruel and unusual punishment. Therefore, the teens have been charged with second-degree murder.

The Aug. 17, 1993, shootings occurred after Pilcher allegedly convinced Wiley to leave her home in Shreveport. According to preliminary trial remarks given by Henry, the young couple was headed for Baton Rouge when they wrecked the stolen car they were driving.

Pilcher and Wiley walked to the first house they found and asked Phyllis Allbritton for a glass of water and use of the telephone. Sometime later, Pilcher reportedly told Wiley, ''I'm going to kill them. I'm going to do it.''

As Wiley reportedly told him, ''No,'' Pilcher pulled out a .38 pistol he had hidden under his shirt and shot Mrs. Allbritton. He then shot Justin and chased Amanda before the young couple left in the Allbritton's vehicle.

Nathan Allbritton, the victims' husband and father, was working at the time of the murders on the family's ''dream home'' located about two miles away. He and a large contingent of family members have been attending the trial.

Some of Wiley's family members have also been present including her mother who reportedly refused to approve a plea bargain offered this summer by Henry. In exchange for a 25-year sentence, Wiley would have entered a guilty plea to an amended charge of manslaughter.

That offer came several months after Wiley testified as a prosecution witness in Pilcher's trial. Pilcher is not expected to testify this week. Bonnette has indicated he will call Wiley to the witness stand.

Also expected to testify is Amanda Allbritton.

TRIAL

Oct. 27, 1994 -- Natchitoches District Attorney Mike Henry told jurors Wednesday they can infer from the evidence that events were discussed prior to a double homicide which left a Robeline family without a mother and son.

The remark was part of Henry's opening statements in the trial of Brandy Wiley, now 16. The Shreveport teen-ager is the second of two defendants to be tried on second-degree murder charges stemming from the deaths of Phyllis Allbritton, 33, and her son, Justin, 11.

The trial was moved here due to pre-trial publicity and strong feelings in the rural area around Natchitoches where the slayings occurred.

Defense attorney Mike Bonnette told jurors Henry must prove Wiley aided or abetted Jason Pilcher in the commission of the crimes before they can find her guilty as a principal to second-degree murder.

He implied the state will only be able to prove Wiley assisted Pilcher in leaving the crime scene and evading capture. That may make her guilty of accessory after the fact to murder, Bonnette said, but not guilty as a principal to murder. Accessory after the fact is not a lesser verdict jurors may return.

Henry is apparently relying heavily on a remark Wiley made in a written statement to police. The young defendant told sheriff's deputies that immediately prior to the murders Pilcher turned to her and said, ''I'm going to do it.''

She said she told him, ''No,'' but he pulled a .38 pistol from under his shirt and fired once into Mrs. Allbritton's head.

Bonnette claims Wiley did not know Pilcher planned to kill anyone. The couple had only met three days before.

Henry, however, feels jurors can imply from Wiley's remark and other factors that such plans were discussed earlier by the young couple.

Henry told jurors there is an overriding principle in the case. ''That is, if Jason Pilcher had not gotten involved with Brandy Wiley some three days prior to Aug. 17, 1993, the Allbrittons would still be alive today.''

He contended the killings were due to the actions of Pilcher and Wiley.

Pilcher was previously convicted following a three-week trial in Columbia. He was sentenced to consecutive life terms.

Henry acknowledged Wiley testified for the state at Pilcher's trial and helped convict him, but said that doesn't absolve her of criminal responsibility.

To be a principal to murder, Bonnette told the jurors, Wiley would have had to have aided Pilcher up to the time of the killings. He claimed there is no evidence she did.

Bonnette is expected to begin calling defense witnesses when the trial resumes at 9 a.m. today, Oct. 27. Henry called 15 witnesses Wednesday and is expected to rest his case today.

The trial became extremely emotional Wednesday when Amanda and Nathan Allbritton took the witness stand. Amanda is the daughter and sister of the victims, and Nathan is the husband and father.

Besides describing what they knew about the facts in the case, the father and daughter talked about the family's former relationship, the activities in which the victims were involved and a little about their life since the killings. Many family members including Sue Wiley, the defendant's mother openly wept. Some jurors wiped tears welling up in their eyes.

Phyllis Allbritton's father, Raymond Floyd, also choked back tears on the stand as he spoke about the active life his daughter had lived.

Later, when Henry played a video tape recording of the crime scene with the victims in place where they were shot, some family members including Mrs. Wiley rushed from the courtroom in tears.

Testimony revealed the following sequence of events:

Wiley and Pilcher met three days before in Shreveport. They ran away in an attempt to travel to Baton Rouge where Wiley had previously lived.

The couple burglarized some homes in the Keithville suburb of Shreveport and took a Mercury Marquis car from one residence. Pilcher reportedly obtained two guns during the break-ins, a .38 and a .22. The .38 was used in the killings, while the unloaded .22 was said to be inside Wiley's waistband at that time. The weapons were never recovered.

After Pilcher ran into a ditch while trying to make a curve in a rural Natchitoches dirt road, the young couple began walking. They reportedly approached a woman at one home, but she told them to leave. They then found the Allbritton home and knocked on the door.

Phyllis, Amanda and Justin had just eaten dinner. Pilcher asked Mrs. Allbritton to use the phone, while Wiley asked for a drink of water.

Justin brought his mother a portable phone which she handed to Pilcher. Amanda retrieved glasses of water for the teens who were never allowed to enter the home. Amanda said when she returned to the kitchen, she heard her mother say, ''Oh, God,'' heard a noise and heard her mother fall.

When she went to investigate, she saw her mother lying in the doorway with a bullet wound to the forehead. Amanda immediately ran through the house, out the back door, through a pasture and crossed the highway to her grandparent's home.

She turned several times and saw Pilcher chasing her. He fired at least three or four times, she said. She fell several times while running.

Meanwhile, Justin apparently attempted to retrieve a BB gun from a gun rack located on the wall behind his bed. Pilcher fired one shot into the boy's neck. An autopsy showed the bullet traveled in a downward path cutting a hole in Justin's heart and exiting out his back.

After his unsuccessful attempt to shoot Amanda, Pilcher returned and told Wiley to find the keys to a truck parked in the garage. She refused, so Pilcher found them himself, and the couple drove off.

Amanda found her grandparents were not home. She entered through an unlocked back door and called 911. Nathan Allbritton learned of the deaths of his wife and son when he returned from working in a hay field a few miles from his home.

He and Amanda said they never spent another night in their old home. They stayed with family members until Nathan completed a 4,000-square-foot house his wife had designed and they were building at the time of her death.

Nathan said he moved all of his wife's and son's possessions into the new home and set them up as if they were still there. ''It's all I have left of them,'' he testified, choking back tears.

Wiley and Pilcher drove the Allbritton's truck into north Rapides Parish and were captured the next day following a massive manhunt.

Deputies said Wiley cooperated with them and, after her mother arrived, gave both an oral and written statement. Her mother had to be present because the defendant is a juvenile.

Deputies testified that during the questioning, Wiley showed no emotion just as she has done thus far during the trial.

Oct. 28, 1994 -- During more than three hours on the witness stand Wednesday, 16-year-old Brandy Wiley told jurors she and Jason Pilcher never discussed harming anyone prior to a fatal chance encounter with a Robeline family.

Wiley is being tried here on two counts of second-degree murder stemming from the Aug. 17, 1993, shooting deaths of Phyllis Allbritton, 33, and Jason Allbritton, 11. Pilcher, 16, was convicted in April following a three-week trial conducted in Columbia.

Wiley's trial was moved here due to pretrial publicity about the case in the Natchitoches area where the slayings occurred. Closing arguments are scheduled today, Oct. 28.

The teens, both of whom were 15 at the time, ran away from home and stopped by the Allbritton home to use the telephone and get a drink of water.

While standing on the front porch where Mrs. Allbritton had brought them a portable phone and two glasses of water, Pilcher pulled out a .38 pistol from under his shirt. He shot Mrs. Allbritton in the head, then went inside and shot Justin once in the neck as the boy was attempting to arm himself with a BB gun.

Pilcher chased 13-year-old Amanda Allbritton out the back door and through a pasture, shooting at least three or four times. Amanda managed to escape uninjured and notified authorities.

Wiley is being prosecuted as a principal to the homicides. Natchitoches District Attorney Mike Henry must show that Wiley was ''concerned in the commission of the offense'' and aided and abetted Pilcher in the killings.

Her attorney, Mike Bonnette, claims the evidence may show Wiley assisted Pilcher in leaving the scene and evading capture. But those actions would make her guilty of accessory after the fact to murder which is not a lesser verdict jurors may return, Bonnette said.

Wiley was the last witness to testify for Bonnette. Preceding her on the witness stand were her parents, Barry Wiley of Pensacola, Fla., and Sue Wiley of Shreveport.

The couple told jurors about their divorce after 10 years of marriage and how it affected Brandy, the last of their four children. The children were shuffled between the parents as the couple fought over legal custody.

Brandy and her mother moved in with Mrs. Wiley's father in Shreveport only about two months before the Allbrittons were killed. Brandy met Pilcher only three days prior to the shootings.

She said within 30 minutes after they met, they had sexual intercourse. Brandy said she became sexually active shortly after she was molested by an uncle at age 11.

Brandy and Pilcher continued to see each other and to have sexual relations over the next three days.

On Aug. 16, Pilcher suggested they run away together. He was upset because his parents had grounded him for stealing his brother's car. Wiley was upset because her grandfather refused to allow her to have friends over at their home.

Their parents stopped the attempted runaway, but then left the couple alone to say good-bye. The teens sneaked out a back door and ran off.

Brandy said Pilcher broke into a house later because he was hungry. He took some beer and a .38 caliber pistol. She said he told her he took the gun to protect her from wild animals they might encounter.

Later, Pilcher broke into another house and took some Cokes and car keys. They stole a Mercury Marquis which Pilcher later wrecked.

He apparently had taken another pistol because he showed it to her later, Wiley said.

The defendant said she believed that gun was a BB pistol. After Pilcher unsuccessfully tried to fire it and determined it wasn't loaded, Wiley carried it in the waistband of her pants, she told the jury.

They walked quite a distance to one house after the car was wrecked. But a woman there told them to leave. They then walked to the Allbritton home.

Brandy insisted the first time Pilcher told her of his plans to kill anyone was while they were drinking the water they had requested.

''I'm going to kill them,'' she quoted him as saying. ''I'm going to do it.''

When she told him, ''No,'' he pulled out a gun and fired.

Henry has emphasized that Wiley's written statement to Natchitoches sheriff's deputies mentions only the second line ''I'm going to do it' indicating the young defendant knew from prior discussions what the ''it'' referred to. Deputies testified Wednesday Wiley never mentioned in either an oral or written statement that Pilcher made the statement, ''I'm going to kill them.''

Wiley said she never noticed the sentence was not included in her written statement because she was still in shock.

Wiley and Pilcher left Robeline in the Allbritton's truck. They were captured the following day in northern Rapides Parish following a massive manhunt.

Although she claimed she was scared of Pilcher after the killings, Wiley remained with him until they were captured. Henry pointed out several occasions when Wiley had the opportunity to flee from Pilcher but didn't.

For example, immediately before being captured, the teens were lying in a field where Pilcher had fallen asleep. Wiley admitted she saw police cars setting up road blocks on the highway but never ran for help. She claimed she was afraid of some cattle in the field.

''Were you more afraid of the cattle than of Mr. Pilcher?'' Henry asked.

''Jason was sleeping,'' she replied. ''The cows weren't.''

Henry also attempted to show Wiley still had strong feelings for Pilcher even after they were jailed. He introduced a Christmas card she sent to Pilcher while the two were incarcerated in Natchitoches Parish last year. The girl's mother testified she told Brandy it might be nice for her to send him a card.

When Henry pointed out Wiley had signed the card, ''Love always, Brandy,'' Wiley said, ''You can't hate someone just because they did wrong. Even God says that.''

She also refuted Henry's claim that if it had not been for Pilcher's encounter with her, the Allbrittons would still be alive.

''I can't say that,'' Wiley said. ''Jason could have done it on his own or could have done it with someone else or could have run away by himself.''

She remained unemotional during most of her tenure on the witness stand. She only cried during her mother's description of her past relationship with her father and the close ties they used to have.

In contrast, her mother wept openly during much of Wiley's testimony.

VERDICT

Oct. 29, 1994 -- Jurors compromised Friday by returning two manslaughter verdicts against Brandy Wiley.

The 16-year-old Shreveport girl now faces as much as 80 years in prison, 40 on each count. She would have received mandatory life sentences had jurors found her guilty as charged on two counts of second-degree murder.

Tenth Judicial District Court Judge John Whitaker did not set a sentencing date. He said later he may transfer the case back to Natchitoches Parish for sentencing if the attorneys agree.

Whitaker had ordered the trial moved here due to pre-trial publicity in the rural north Louisiana parish where the crimes occurred.

Both defense attorney Mike Bonnette and Natchitoches Parish District Attorney Mike Henry said they were pleased with the verdict. Bonnette said his job was to keep Wiley from being convicted of second-degree murder. Henry said he felt a compromise verdict of manslaughter was always a possibility.

Wiley and Jason Pilcher, both then 15, were charged in connection with the shooting deaths of Phyllis Allbritton, 33, and her 11-year-old son, Justin. The teenagers ran away the previous day and stopped at the Allbritton's Robeline home on Aug. 17, 1993.

After using a portable telephone and drinking water he had requested, Pilcher pulled out a .38 pistol and fired one shot into Mrs. Allbritton's head.

He then went into the home and shot Justin as the boy attempted to arm himself with a BB gun. Pilcher chased 13-year-old Amanda Allbritton out the back door and through a pasture, firing several shots at her. She escaped uninjured and notified authorities.

Pilcher was convicted in April following a three-week trial in Columbia. Whitaker sentenced him to back-to-back life terms.

Wiley testified against Pilcher and took the stand in her own defense Thursday. She claimed the couple had never discussed harming anyone. The first she knew of Pilcher's plans to shoot Mrs. Allbritton, she claimed, was when Pilcher had finished drinking his glass of water.

Wiley insisted she told police Pilcher said, ''I'm going to kill them. I'm going to do it.'' But the written statement introduced as evidence contained only the second sentence.

Henry used that fact in arguing that if the couple had not discussed the killings beforehand, Wiley would not have known what ''it'' meant.

''I'm relieved the verdict was not second-degree murder,'' Bonnette said. ''We don't know what the sentence will be, but a manslaughter verdict means she will be coming home sometime ... Anything less than second-degree murder is a victory.''

Asked if he felt Wiley would get more time than the 25 years Henry had offered in a pre-trial plea bargain, Bonnette said the decision to reject that offer was not his. Wiley's mother reportedly refused to allow her daughter to plead guilty to the amended charge. The mother had to approve any deal because the defendant is a juvenile even though she was being prosecuted as an adult.

Bonnette said he felt the jury returned a manslaughter verdict because they determined Henry did not prove Wiley formed the specific intent to harm anyone.

As applicable in this case, manslaughter is a homicide committed without any intent to cause death or great bodily harm when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of certain felonies or any intentional misdemeanor directly affecting another person.

Jurors after the trial told Henry they did not question any of the evidence presented. ''It was a question of culpability'' or degrees of guilt, the prosecutor said.

''They did not feel Brandy Wiley was as culpable as Jason Pilcher,'' he said. ''He has to spend the rest of his life in prison, and they did not feel like she should. They did not feel like (a life sentence) was appropriate for her.''

Henry said he feels if Wiley had not given a statement or had not testified voluntarily in Pilcher's trial, ''I'm convinced she would have been convicted of second-degree murder. Her testimony was very important in the trial of Jason Pilcher and, I think this very intelligent jury picked up on that.''

He said it was a ''win-win'' verdict. ''This is not a case in which a manslaughter verdict was a disappointment.''

Nathan Allbritton, who was left without a wife and son due to the killings, said he and his extended family members who accompanied him to court every day were satisfied with the verdict.

''We wanted a jury to try it and they tried it,'' Albirtton said. ''They made a decision, and we're going to live by that decision. It will be a long time before she is free again and that's going to help.''

He said up until today ''we were the losers, but today we're the winners.

Asked he if had begun to put the pieces of his life back together, Allbritton said, ''Yes, a little bit. You take one day a a time and go from there...''

Asked if the verdict helped, Albritton replied, ''Not really. Justin and Phyliss are gone and ... .'' He couldn't complete the sentence.

In order for Wiley to be guilty as a principal to second degree murder, Henry had to prove she was ''concerned in the commission of the homicides'' and aided and abetted Pilcher in carrying them out. He acknowledged from the outset that Pilcher was the triggerman.

Bonnette claimed the state may have enough evidence to show Wiley assisted Pilcher in leaving the scene and evading capture. But those actions would make her guilty of accessory after the fact, he argued, which was not a lesser verdict the jurors could return.

Foreman Randy Soileau, a mail carrier, said later the jurors kept asking themselves, ''Did Wiley want this (the murders) to happen?''

Soileau said they believed the state had not shown she had specific intent to kill anyone.

''There was not enough factual evidence to show she wanted to use the guns (the teens had) for killing or even holding up anyone,'' Soileau said.

He said many jurors felt Wiley's remarks to Pilcher about wanting to go home prior to encountering the Allbrittons and then telling him, ''No'' when Pilcher indicated he was going to shoot someone showed she had no intent.

But Henry, in his closing arguments Friday, said the ''complicity'' of Wiley with Pilcher in the series of events leading up to the slayings established her guilt.

Bonnette urged jurors to find Wiley not guilty. He said Pilcher's actions had already destroyed the Allbritton family and threatened to destroy Wiley's.

He argued that none of the actions of the defendant up to the point of the murders indicated she knew Pilcher was going to harm anyone. He claimed Henry had not met his burden of proving Wiley had specific intent to aid and abet Pilcher in the commission of the murders.

''She may be an accessory after the fact, but she was not a principal,'' he said. ''She can't be both.''

UPDATE

March 23, 1996 -- The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal has overturned two Calcasieu Parish manslaughter convictions against a Shreveport teen-ager after determining the prosecutor failed to prove the defendant intended the murders.

Natchitoches Parish District Attorney Mike Henry is expected to ask for a re-hearing before the appeals court. If that fails, Henry will ask the Louisiana Supreme Court to review the decision.

The 3rd Circuit ruling does not order a new trial for Brandy Wiley, who was 16 when convicted here in connection with a double murder in Robeline. The trial was moved to Lake Charles due to pre-trial publicity and community outrage about the murders.

If Henry is not successful in having decision overturned, Wiley will walk free. She is presently serving back-to-back 25-year terms imposed on each charge.

Wiley and Jason Pilcher, both 15 at the time, ran away from their Shreveport homes and engaged in a crime spree. After wrecking a stolen car, they wandered up to the Robeline home of Phyllis Allbritton, 33, and asked for water and use of the telephone.

When Mrs. Allbritton provided both, Pilcher pulled out a pistol and told Wiley, ''I'm going to do it. I'm going to kill them.''

Wiley claimed she did not know Pilcher planned to kill Mrs. Allbritton and then chase down her 11-year-old son, Jason, and 13-year-old daughter, Amanda. Jason was shot in the heart as he tried to arm himself with a BB gun. Amanda ran out the back door and through a pasture as Pilcher fired at her. She escaped uninjured and called police.

The teens were originally charged with first-degree murder, but that charge was amended to second-degree murder because the U.S. Supreme Court has said murderers who commit crimes as juveniles cannot be executed.

Pilcher's trial was moved to Columbia where he was convicted on both murder counts in April 1994. He was sentenced to back-to-back life terms. Wiley testified as a prosecution witness.

Later her mother rejected a plea bargain which recommended sentences totaling 25 years if Wiley pleaded guilty to two manslaughter charges.

Henry then tried Wiley on the murder counts. But a Calcasieu Parish jury, on Oct. 28, 1994, returned verdicts on two counts of manslaughter. As applied to this case, manslaughter is a ''homicide committed without any intent to cause death or great bodily harm when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of certain felonies or any intentional misdemeanor directly affecting another person.''

Wiley's attorney, Mike Bonnette, appealed, claiming the evidence did not support the convictions. The 3rd Circuit agreed.

In an opinion written by Judge Gene Thibodeaux, the appeals court said the state did not prove Wiley knew she was going to be involved in the commission or attempted commission of a felony such as theft or robbery.

Also the court said, ''The evidence fails to disclose any facts which directly link Wiley to the planning or commission of these murders ... No evidence was presented to demonstrate a prior discussion with Pilcher ... The record is insufficient to support such an inference (that a discussion was held).''

The court found the actions of the defendant before and after the shootings ''may form the basis for a valid accessory after the fact charge (as Bonnette had argued at trial) but are insufficient as a matter of law to support a conviction for a specific intent homicide, such as manslaughter, under the circumstances of this case.''

Accessory after the fact was not an optional verdict for jurors.

Henry prosecuted Wiley as a principal. But the appeals court said, ''Only those persons who knowingly participate in the planning or execution of a crime are principals....the state had to show more than Wiley's direct or indirect involvement in the murder of Phyllis and Justin Allbritton. It had to show that Wiley specifically intended the deaths of these two individuals.''

''Wiley cannot be convicted because of guilt by association. it is not enough to find merely that (Pilcher) had the necessary mental state, since this intent cannot be inferred to the accused. It must be shown that (Wiley) also had the specific intent to kill,'' the appeals court said.

Oct. 5, 1996 -- A Shreveport teen-ager who was convicted here of manslaughter nearly two years ago after a trial involving a double homicide was moved to Calcasieu Parish will walk free after the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to overturn an appeals court ruling.

The state's highest court refused to review an earlier decision in which the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal threw out Brandy Wiley's two manslaughter convictions. The high court gave no reasons for its 4-3 ruling.

Voting to review the case were Justices Pascal Calogero, Joe Bleich and Jack Watson. Watson and Bleich were recently defeated for re-election.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal overturned the convictions last March after determining the prosecutor failed to prove the defendant intended the murders.

Natchitoches Parish District Attorney Mike Henry, who claimed no specific intent is required in the case, asked the high court to review the 3rd Circuit's findings.

Since the appeals court ruling, and subsequent action by the Supreme Court, did not mention a new trial for Wiley, she will now walk free. The defendant, who was 16 years old when convicted, had been serving back-to-back 25-year terms imposed on each charge.

Wiley and Jason Pilcher, both 15 at the time, ran away from their Shreveport homes and engaged in a crime spree. After wrecking a stolen car, the young couple wandered up to the Robeline home of Phyllis All-britton, 33, and asked for water and use of the telephone.

When Mrs. Allbritton provided both to the teens, Pilcher pulled out a pistol and told Wiley, ''I'm going to do it. I'm going to kill them.''

Wiley claimed she did not know Pilcher planned to kill Mrs. Allbritton and then chase down her 11-year-old son, Jason, and 13-year-old daughter, Amanda. Jason was shot in the heart as he tried to arm himself with a BB gun. Amanda ran out the back door and through a pasture as Pilcher fired at her. She escaped and called police.

The teens were originally charged with first-degree or capital murder, but that was amended to second-degree murder because the U.S. Supreme Court has said murderers who commit crimes as juveniles cannot be executed.

Pilcher's trial was moved to the Caldwell Parish town of Columbia where he was convicted on both murder counts in April of 1994. He was sentenced to back-to-back life terms. Wiley testified as a prosecution witness.

Henry then tried Wiley on the murder counts. The trial was moved to Lake Charles due to pre-trial publicity and community outrage about the murders.

A Calcasieu Parish jury, on Oct. 28, 1994, returned compromise verdicts on two counts of manslaughter. As applied to this case, manslaughter is a ''homicide committed without any intent to cause death or great bodily harm when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of certain felonies or any intentional misdemeanor directly affecting another person.''

Wiley's attorney, Mike Bonnette, appealed, claiming the evidence did not support the convictions. The 3rd Circuit agreed.

In an opinion written by Judge Gene Thibodeaux, the appeals court said the state did not prove Wiley knew she was going to be involved in the commission or attempted commission of a felony such as theft or robbery.

The court said, ''The evidence fails to disclose any facts which directly links Wiley to the planning or commission of these murders ... No evidence was presented to demonstrate a prior discussion with Pilcher ... The record is insufficient to support such an inference (that a discussion was held).''

The court found the actions of the defendant before and after the shootings ''may form the basis for a valid accessory after the fact charge (as Bonnette had argued at trial) but are insufficient as a matter of law to support a conviction for a specific intent homicide, such as man-slaughter, under the circumstances of this case.''

Accessory after the fact was not an optional verdict for jurors.

Henry prosecuted Wiley as a principal. But the appeals court said, ''Only those persons who knowingly participate in the planning or execution of a crime are principals. ... the state had to show more than Wiley's direct or indirect involvement in the murder of Phyllis and Justin Allbritton. It had to show that Wiley specifically intended the deaths of these two individuals.''

''Wiley cannot be convicted because of guilt by association,'' the 3rd Circuit said. ''...it is not enough to find merely that (Pilcher) had the necessary mental state, since this intent cannot be inferred to the accused. It must be shown that (Wiley) also had the specific intent to kill,'' the court said.

Jan. 2, 1999 -- In Maine, people who kill children often serve less time in jail than what it would have taken for their victims to graduate from kindergarten. 

Cases in point:

• On Sept. 12, 1991, Lewiston resident Sherrie Cotton, 17, stuffed a sock into her two-month-old’s mouth to stop him from crying. The baby suffocated. Cotton was convicted of manslaughter, went to jail in the summer of 1992 and was released on probation three years later.

• On Sept. 21, 1992, Pam Elliot, a 29-year-old Westbrook resident, wrapped her newborn in a plastic bag and put the baby in an attic. Elliot pleaded guilty to manslaughter, went to jail in July 1994 and was released on probation less than three years later.

• On April 5, 1993, Jeffrey Allen, 32, shook his eight-month-old son to death. The Waterville resident pleaded guilty to manslaughter and went to jail in Sept. 1994. His projected release date is in June.

The list goes on, says Old Orchard Beach resident Pam Belisle, who’s been campaigning to increase prison sentences for people who kill children ever since her own son died last April.

Jake Belisle, (Story on page 25.) at age four months, died of a head injury that police say he suffered while in the care of babysitter Virginia Stanley. Stanley was charged with manslaughter and awaits trial. Belisle said she would consider herself lucky if Stanley serves four years behind bars.

At Belisle’s request, state Sen. Peggy Pendleton, D-Scarborough, drafted a bill that would require state prosecutors to charge suspects in child (under age five) homicide cases with murder, a crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison. The bill is scheduled for public hearing Thursday. 

Currently, most child homicides result in manslaughter charges, a lesser crime that carries penalties ranging from zero to 40 years in prison. While that sounds like a lot, Belisle said, the average time served as a result of the 30 child homicides investigated in Maine since 1989 has been 3 years and seven months.

“Something needs to change,” said Belisle. “The killers of our future are getting less than if they murdered an adult. It’s time for true justice.”

But will true justice come from locking a mother or father away for 25 years for shaking a baby to death in an instant of fury? 

“If you kill a child, you should get 25 years,” Pendleton said somberly.

Pendleton is joined by child-abuse advocates, victims’ relatives, police and others who say those responsible for the lives of children should be held to higher standards, not lower ones. Leniency in sentencing for people who have killed children becomes even more abominable, they say, when compared to the longer sentences handed out in cases where the homicide victim is an adult.

On the other hand, judges and others who work within the state’s criminal justice system say justice will not be served by charging parents with murder for killing their children. 

Although they understand the emotion behind the effort to extend prison sentences, they say LD 474 — Jake’s Law, as Belisle would like it to be known — is misguided. By requiring the state to charge all people who’ve killed children with murder, the bill’s drafters are blurring the legal distinction between murder and manslaughter, they say.

Murder, mainly, is the charge that results when a person intentionally or knowingly kills someone, while manslaughter is applied when a death results from recklessness or what’s considered criminal negligence. In other words, manslaughter is charged when there’s no proof of intent to kill.

“Manslaughter is distinguished from murder because it penalizes the action in the absence of premeditation,” said Jack Simmons, a well-known Lewiston defense lawyer. “I don’t see how the age of the victim changes that social distinction.”

Since child homicides, more often than not, involve parents or other caregivers, rarely does a death result from premeditation, explained Paul Gauvreau, deputy attorney general in charge of the state’s criminal division. So the crime usually results in charges of manslaughter, Gauvreau said. And in manslaughter cases, prison sentences are up to judges, who must consider criminal history and whether the crime is likely to happen again when making their decisions.

“Our law is adequate,” Gauvreau said. However, if the goal of the drafters of LD 474 is to increase prison sentences, they could instead write a law that would create a mandatory minimum sentence for people convicted of killing children, regardless of whether they’re charged with murder or manslaughter, he said. If state legislators support this goal, the legal details could be worked out later on, Gauvreau said. 

The real question before state lawmakers is a policy issue and one that Gauvreau predicts will not move forward without a public outcry. Until now, Gauvreau said, shaken baby cases have not been considered “so heinous or so notoriously antisocial as to result in long sentences.” 

Maine State Police Lt. Timothy Doyle agreed, and said he believes it’s time for a change. 

“We seem to be handing out low-end sentences for what I feel are high-end crimes,” said Doyle, who investigates homicides. There seems to be a double standard when it comes to victims, he said. When adults are killed, judges often mete out sentences of 15 to 20 years, Doyle said. But when it comes to child victims, the sentences are considerably less, he said. 

State records bear Doyle out. Of 21 manslaughter convictions since 1990 in cases where victims were adults, two resulted in prison terms of five years or less, according to Attorney General’s Office records. Of the eight cases in which victims were young children, five resulted in prison terms of five years or less.

The Attorney General’s records are not complete since their statistics are kept for internal record-keeping purposes only. Indeed, one glaring omission is the case of Robert Bean, who was convicted in 1997 of manslaughter in the death of 21-month-old Kelsie Marie Glenn of Auburn. 

Prosecutors argued that Bean, the boyfriend of Glenn’s mother, bound the toddler’s arms with a belt, sexually molested and then suffocated her while trying to keep her from screaming. Bean claimed that he bound the girl to keep her from sleepwalking and then later found her face down on her bed.

A jury found Bean guilty on the charge of manslaughter. Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice Thomas Delahanty sentenced Bean to five years in jail. With time off for good behavior, Bean will wind up serving three years, four months and 17 days in jail, said Glenn’s aunt, Linda Scott. His projected release date is in August 2000. 

Scott has joined Belisle’s campaign to increase prison sentences for people convicted of killing children. 

“I’m trying to make it so that other people don’t have to go through the same anguish that I did when it came down to sentencing,” Scott said. “It was almost like hearing that (Kelsie Marie) was dying again when the sentence came down.” 

Jake's and Kelsie's angels can be found on page 25: 

Justice Delahanty sees the issue differently. There are procedures judges must follow when it comes to sentencing, Delahanty said. In determining the sentence of a convicted killer, the severity of the crime is taken into consideration, along with past sentencing practices for that crime. Then a judge must take mitigating factors, like a lack of criminal history, into consideration, he said.

The same goes when there are aggravating factors, Delahanty said.

A manslaughter conviction in a case where a defendant has been involved with firearms or drug-related crime is vastly different from a father who had difficulty with a child and shook that child to death, Delahanty said. “He wasn’t engaged in any other illegal activity,” Delahanty said. “He loves the child. The likelihood of something like that happening again is very slim.”

In Bean’s case, Delahanty pointed out at the time of sentencing that Bean cooperated with investigators. He had no criminal record and had maintained employment all of his adult life.

“I think there is little, if any, possibility the defendant will be involved in this type of behavior again,” Delahanty said before sentencing Bean to 10 years in prison with all but five years suspended. Six years of probation was added to the sentence as well.

If the Legislature decides that sentences in these cases should be longer, that’s their “prerogative,” Delahanty said. But for now, he believes the justice meted out in child homicide cases is fair given the parameters judges must follow.

Elinor Goldberg, who heads the Maine Children’s Alliance, sharply disagrees. She finds sentencing practices when it comes to child victims an outrage.

“When you kill a baby, you get off rather lightly,” Goldberg said. “If you went up and killed an adult with the same lack of premeditation, you get a stiffer sentence… A child’s life does not seem to be as valuable.”

Paula Baker, one of the state’s two victim advocates, says the issue of fairness when it comes to sentencing in child homicide cases is a tough one.

“I guess the law was written in a way that was appropriate,” said Baker, who worked with Pam Belisle and her husband after their child, Jake, was killed. Intellectually, “I agree with it,” Baker said. “But emotionally I don’t. When we go to court, even though everything works out as it should, it sometimes doesn’t feel right inside. When a child is so innocent, it never seems fair,” and the sentences, Baker added, “never seem to be enough.”

Fort Payne, AL -- Sept. 9, 1998 -- Darrell died of blunt cranial cerebral trauma and Sierra died from shaken baby syndrome. 

The children's father, Michael Vincent Allen 28, served three years in prison for killing Sierra seven years before Darrell's death after pleading guilty and receiving a 15-year sentence with 12 years suspended.

Sierra's mother divorced him and he remarried while still in prison. 

An autopsy report shows that Darrell, sustained multiple bruises to his head and face, after his mother left home for work. Police believe Allen tried to quiet Darrell by striking him with his fist or some other object. Allen is charged with capital murder and violation of probation. 

  UPDATE

Michael Allen entered a guilty plea to a charge of murder in the death of his infant son.

Allen received a sentence of 99 years in prison, which will be served consecutively with a 15-year sentence for manslaughter he is currently serving in another county in the earlier death of Sierra.

District Attorney Mike O'Dell said that Allen apparently decided at the last minute to investigate the prospects of a guilty plea in the case.

"We are pleased with the outcome of this case," said O'Dell. "It demonstrates the commitment to children in this community."

O'Dell said his office would not have been satisfied with a lesser sentence. His fear, he said, is that some people seem to view cases involving babies as being less serious than crimes with older children as victims.

"It is very important to get these sentences for this kind of crime," he said.

The two showed up at Kathy's home under the pretense of wanting to look at a pickup truck for sale. They robbed and terrorized Kathy's parents, Donald and Janet Allen, raped Kathy's 17-year-old sister who was six months pregnant and slit Janet Allen's throat before kidnapping Kathy. All three of them survived the attacks, Janet, with a scar on her neck from the wound that required more then 60 stitches to close.

The men left the home with Kathy and Six in the back seat with Petary driving the car that had a bumper sticker on it that read, "I'm the person your mother warned you about." Kathy's body was later found in a ditch. She had bled to death after her throat was slashed.

Six and Petary were convicted of federal kidnapping charges and sentenced to 200 years in prison with no possibility of parole for 66 years. Six has also been sentenced to death in the gas chamber for first-degree murder. Petary is still awaiting trial on the murder charge.

UPDATE

Aug. 20, 1997 -- A man convicted along with his uncle in the slaying of a 12-year-old mentally handicapped girl was executed by lethal injection early Wednesday morning.

Andrew Six, 32, a high school dropout from Pershing, Iowa, turned to prison officials for his last words and said: "they can take my body, but they can't take the love of the one person I've found."

Six did not specify who he was talking about.

According to court records, Six and his uncle, Donald Petary, showed up at the trailer home of Janet and Donald Allen in Ottumwa, Iowa, in April 1987, claiming they wanted to look at a pickup truck the Allens were selling.

Six admitted that the men robbed and terrorized the family; authorities said Six raped the Allens' pregnant 17-year-old daughter and later slit Janet Allen's throat with a butcher knife. Both women survived, but Six denied the assaults.

The men then abducted the Allens' mentally handicapped daughter, Kathy.

With Petary and Kathy in the back seat, Six drove to Missouri in his car, which had a bumper sticker that read: "I'm the person your mother warned you about." Kathy Allen's body was found in a ditch about 20 miles south of the Iowa state line. She bled to death after her throat was slashed.

Six claimed he did not kill the girl; Petary said he drank a case of beer that night and blacked out.

Petary, 60, is also on death row, but his execution date has not yet been set.

The Allen family made the 7-hour drive to witness the execution. Janet Allen stated that "it is awful hard for me to relive. He tried to kill me. They're both guilty."

Linda Jacoby, the forewoman of the jury that convicted Six, believes Petary was the killer. She wrote to Governor Mel Carnahan last week asking him to spare Six's life, but the governor refused to grant clemency.

May 12, 1998 -- A man awaiting execution for the 1987 murder of a 13-year-old Iowa girl died in the infirmary of the Potosi Correctional Center.

The Missouri Department of Corrections says Donald Petary was pronounced dead at 3:15 a.m. of what appeared to be natural causes. An autopsy was
scheduled for later this week.

Corrections spokesman Tim Kniest gave no apparent cause of death and said he did not know how long Petary had been ill.

Tulsa, OK -- April 30, 1999 -- During a preliminary hearing, Special Judge Sarah Smith found sufficient evidence to support a first-degree murder charge against 17-year-old Virginia Joy Allen. 

According to authorities, Elexxus Allen-Sherrod was pronounced dead at St. Francis Hospital Jan. 27, one day after she was taken there by ambulance after her mother reported that she stopped breathing. 

In his testimony, Detective Chris Witt said that when he questioned her, Allen said she suffocated Elexxus by wrapping a blanket around the toddler's face and holding her own hand "firmly over the child's mouth for about five minutes." 

Allen, who also has a 7-month old daughter, said that at some point Elexxus "quit moving" but that she did not think the girl was dead. She said she took a shower before going to a neighbor's apartment to summon help, Witt testified. 

According to Witt's testimony, Allen indicated that she was in a "rage" and angry with the child. 

In questioning, Allen told Witt that earlier she gave Elexxus some "nasty" iron supplement medication that had been prescribed for the younger child. 

Witt also stated in his testimony that the teen-ager indicated she wanted to see her own mother and knew that Elexxus would be taken to the hospital where Allen's mother worked. 

Assistant Public Defender Robert Ridenour requested that Allen be certified as a child or youthful offender. Ridenour contended that Witt's testimony showed no premeditated intent to kill by Allen but was indicative of a "tragic, tragic call for attention" by a teen-ager who has been diagnosed as suffering from chronic depression. 

Despite Ridenour's statement, Judge Smith rejected the defense request for court purposes. Over the strenuous objection of Assistant District Attorney Paul Wilkening, Smith set bail at $35,000. 

According to Smith, if Allen manages to post bond, she must have no unsupervised contact with any child, including her other daughter, who is now in foster care.

Dr. Herman Jones, a psychologist who interviewed Allen testified that she reported that a male relative had molested her at a very young age. 

Jones said Allen made "suicide gestures" at age 14 and again in late 1998. 

Although she didn't have the skills to be the "primary parent" for one infant, Allen, while unmarried, has had two children, said Jones. 

Tests show that Allen has above average intelligence. Jones said, "If she applied herself" it could still require five years to treat her depression and to instill independent living skills and vocational training via facilities available through the Youthful Offender Act.

Wilkening, however, contended that because of her age there "is clearly not time" to treat her as a youthful offender, because with that status she could not be kept in custody at a juvenile facility beyond her 19th birthday. Allen turns 18 on May 24. 

Taking into consideration that Jones had "high hopes" regarding Allen's amenability to rehabilitation, Smith expressed concern about the amount of time available by law to treat Allen if the Youthful Offender Act was applied to her case. 

A defendant sentenced as a youthful offender receives a treatment plan from the Office of Juvenile Affairs, and a 10-year term is the maximum punishment for any offense. An offender can be "bridged" into the adult system if they do not comply with the treatment plan.

The minimum punishment for an adult convicted of first-degree murder is life in prison with the possibility of parole. 

Feb. 17, 2000 -- A Tulsa County judge who was directed by a higher court to reconsider a prior ruling reached the same decision and again ordered a Tulsa teen-ager to face trial as an adult on a charge of murdering her daughter.

Special Judge Sarah Smith rejected defense requests to certify Virginia Joy Allen as either a juvenile or as a youthful offender. 

Smith indicated that the prospects for adequate protection of the public were "questionable" and that the likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation of the defendant was "poor" if Allen was not treated as an adult on the first-degree murder charge. 

In accordance with a Dec. 30 order from the State Court of Criminal Appeals, Smith said she was denying Allen's bid to be handled as a youthful offender without considering how close Allen is to the age where no youthful offender treatment is now furnished in Oklahoma. 

The appeals court said Smith should re-evaluate Allen's status "without regard" to the present policy of the Office of Juvenile Affairs "that it will not retain youthful offenders past the age of 19." 

At a preliminary hearing in April, Smith also ordered Allen -- then a month shy of her 18th birthday -- to face an adult trial. 

Defense attorney Robert Ridenour challenged that decision before the appeals court, which noted that Smith had mentioned that a psychologist expressed "high hopes" for Allen's rehabilitation if categorized as a youthful offender. 

However, Smith also mentioned in her decision that testimony indicated that there was insufficient time for Allen to complete recommended programs that were projected to require five years. 

Smith said that in her new review of the case, she considered evidence presented by Assistant District Attorney Paul Wilkening that Allen had not complied with court orders to have no unsupervised contact with children. 

Allen is in the Tulsa Jail. If she is convicted as an adult of first-degree murder, she faces a life sentence, either with or without the possibility of parole. 

UPDATE

Feb. 13, 2001 -- A Tulsa woman who said she "did love my child dearly" pleaded guilty Monday to murdering her young daughter.

A prosecutor recommended a 30-year prison sentence for 19-year-old Virginia Joy Allen.

SENTENCE

April 10, 2001 -- A judge sentenced a Tulsa woman on Monday to 30 years in prison for what the judge called the inexcusable murder of her toddler.

Tulsa County District Judge Linda Morrissey rejected a defense lawyer's request that Virginia Joy Allen be allowed to serve part of her sentence on probation.

Collinsville, VA -- Jan. 20, 1999 -- Brooke Alley was stabbed to death with a butcher knife on Mother's Day 1998, by her mother, Sharon Denise Alley.

Alley had previously been charged with child abuse seven months before the stabbing for throwing Brooke to the floor and breaking her skull and was awaiting trial on that charge when she stabbed Brooke in the heart. 

Alley and her husband had the children returned to them five months later when they told a judge they were reconciling and going to attend parenting classes.

Brooke was killed two months after she was returned. 

Alley pleaded guilty to charges of child abuse and second-degree murder. Prosecutors were asking for a 50-year sentence saying that Alley was capable of unspeakable evil, however a judge sentenced her to 36 years. 

Alley's 9-year-old son told the court he wanted his mother sentenced "as high as it goes."

Alley's defense attorney said medical and mental problems that arose during Alley's pregnancy lingered after the birth. He told the court that the only thing she wants is some understanding of her condition. 

Her defense psychologist said that Alley suffered from postpartum depression at the time of the killing. But the prosecution expert said Alley appeared mentally stable when he evaluated her 10 days after the killing.

Interlachen, FL -- May 31, 2000 -- A 15-year-old boy was arrested late Tuesday and charged in the death of a 12-year-old boy whose bound body was found in an empty septic tank three days after he disappeared, investigators said.

Jerry Lee Alley Jr., whose body was found late Monday at an abandoned house two miles from his home, had an elastic bandage around his neck and his hands bound behind his back, said Dr. Terrence Steiner.

John Anthony Silva, 15, of Interlachen, was arrested at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in the younger boy's strangulation death, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office announced.

"Silva's home was the last place Jerry was seen alive," according to a sheriff's office statement. "Several people at the house told of Silva leaving the residence after Jerry, and of Silva making remarks about the way Jerry died."

Silva "admitted to causing Jerry Alley's death. He also admitted to placing Jerry inside the abandoned septic tank and tying him up ..." the sheriff's statement said. "Silva did not offer any motive for his actions."

The boy was reported missing Friday evening. He was last seen riding his bicycle near Interlachen, a town about 50 miles southwest of Jacksonville. Steiner believes the boy was slain sometime that night.

A volunteer firefighter who was part of a search team found the boy's body and his bicycle in a septic tank 6 feet deep, said Putnam County Sheriff's Capt. Dick Shauland.

The FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the sheriff's office all took part in investigating the death.

Helicopters, tracking dogs and volunteers searched the sparsely populated area over the weekend for the boy. The FBI joined the search Sunday because authorities feared he had been kidnapped.

June 1, 2000 -- The grandmother and guardian of Jerry Lee Alley Jr., found murdered Monday night, broke her media silence Wednesday to help make the coming days a "celebration" of her grandson's life.

Anne Alley said she and her husband, Marvin, have grieved together in private since learning her son's fate after he disappeared Friday touching off an intensive search involving dozens of local volunteers.

She said Putnam County Sheriff Taylor Douglas personally delivered the news of finding her grandson dead in an empty septic tank only two miles from home.

Then she learned the next day that a 15-year-old classmate at Price Middle School had been arrested and charged with her grandson's death, but she and her husband didn't recognize the accused boy's name.

Marvin Alley recognized the boy's picture on television and then came a flood of memories of encounters with Silva and Jerry that had occurred during this school year.

"Jerry trusted him. He was older. They rode the same school bus they were casual friends," Anne said. "The school bus didn't go to this boy's house and there were occasions when no one would pick up this boy, but my husband would stop in his pickup truck and give him a ride to his house."On at least one occasion, she said, Silva came to the Alley home and spent time with Jerry.

"I think they played Jerry's Nintendo games for awhile and then the boy went home," Anne said. "On three other occasions, Jerry requested permission to go to this boy's house and he would ride his bike. This was farther than we would normally let him go, but he always came home on time."

Anne recalled a chilling account of her husband encountering Silva Friday night while searchers were looking for their grandson.

"When he didn't come home when we expected him, my husband got in his pickup truck thinking he may have gone to this boy's home and on the way back his chain came off and he's walking home so he went to that boy's house," Anne said. "That boy told my husband he had not seen him and Jerry was already dead. My husband went back to the same house for a second time about 8 o'clock and asked him a second time if he had seen Jerry since he had gotten off the bus and the boy said 'no.' He looked my husband straight in the eyes and never batted on eye."

Anne said Jerry had three loves: He loved riding his bicycle, playing the flute and watching the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Anne said many of Jerry's schoolmates had come by their home offering expressions of sympathy.

"It's sad enough a friend was murdered so horribly. Then to find out a fellow student had done it that had ridden on the same bus and had the same classes with them," Anne said. "We have had many of the students come by really deeply broken up. I want them to know we are available to talk to all during the summer if it will help them."

Meanwhile, Anne expressed much gratitude toward the three law enforcement agencies working the case since Friday night, the community support and the personal attention of Sheriff Douglas.

"The sheriff has been wonderful. They took it serious from the start and they continued to be serious about it," said Anne. "He came out and stayed with us Monday night talking it out with us and helping us through it When the autopsy was over he called and let us know right away. He wanted to make sure we heard it first from him. He's been in constant contact with us."

"We are going to put up all of the posters and cards that the children in the schools have made. We want the children to feel they are participating in the program," Anne said. "We are hoping it will be a celebration of Jerry's life. My husband and I are asking for anyone that wants to give flowers we would much prefer that they give a donation in Jerry's name to the C.H. Price Middle School's Beginning Band. He so enjoyed the band near the end he was really getting good on the flute. He would sit out on the front porch and serenade the entire neighborhood."

Anne spoke openly about her grandson and the beginning of his thinking about becoming an adult.

"He loved people. He really enjoyed helping people," she said. "I told him at 12 years old you'll be an adult in six more years, you need to start thinking about what you want to be. A few days later he came out grinning and said he wanted to be a truck driver. I starting laughing. Some friend of his must have told him some romantic stories about life on the open road. I told him it wasn't all glamour."

Jerry, she said, was the type of boy to attempt to save injured animals found in the neighborhood.

"Jerry likes to pick up wounded birds and take them under his wing. He always did this," Anne said. "If he saw someone sitting by themselves in the cafeteria and look like they were upset or lonely he would always make a point of going over to them and talk. He was just that kind of kid."

Reflecting on the series of events since Friday, Anne said, "I had hoped our community would be spared some of this teen-age killing of each other. Hopefully this will be the last one."

June 5, 2000 -- Price Middle School Principal Sandra Gilyard was not certain if she had spoken to Jerry Lee Alley Jr. on the day he died.

But she later recalled he had worn a Relay for Life T-shirt, and she had asked if he had participated in the event.

Gilyard said the 12-year-old sixth-grader responded no, but said his mother had walked in the annual American Cancer Society fund-raiser.

"So that brought me consolation," said the principal, who knew Alley and frequently had conversations with the student about "just the common everyday things you would talk about with everyday people."

Gilyard said many people are running a race, but for Jerry the race was only 12 years.

"Twelve years to some may not seem long enough, but in God's sight, Jerry finished his work here," she said.

Gilyard urged the approximately 500 people, including 28 family members, who gathered for Alley's memorial service in the school gym on Saturday morning not to take anyone for granted.

"He saw everyone as someone special," she said, referring to Alley.

"Thank you for sharing a fine young man with us, we salute him. . ." Gilyard said to Alley's family members.

Alley, described as helpful and a lot of fun, was slain at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend. His body was found three days later, last Monday, in a dry septic tank about two miles from the home in Interlachen Lake Estates where he lived with his grandparents Marvin and Anne Alley.

John Silva, a 15-year-old classmate, was arrested last Tuesday and charged with his murder and kidnapping.

Alley's great-uncle, the Rev. Lloyd McClelland, also gave a tribute to the youth. McClelland said when Anne Alley asked him to speak at the service he thought "it would be too hard" because he was "close to him."

McClelland quoted scripture from Genesis 39:20 when Joseph was sold into slavery, adding "Somehow God makes it come out right."

He also quoted II Corinthians 5:1, and told the audience he believed his grand nephew is in Heaven.

"And I know as well as I stand here, Jerry is standing in Heaven in a glorious kingdom rejoicing with God," McClelland said.

"I know that God never left the side of our boy, and now Jerry will never have to leave His side again," he said to Alley's grandparents.

Students and friends also sent several of their own tributes, which were read by the Rev. Scott Morrison, a youth pastor at the First Baptist Church of Interlachen.

"I'm thankful for Jerry because he's a great friend and he would always be there when I was sad and in pain," Morrison read.

"I'm thankful for Jerry because he never gave up. he was kind and sweet," read another.

The Rev. Gene Maddox, who spoke on "The Power of a Christ-centered Choice," told the attendees "this week you and many others have experienced a wounding of darkness in our lives."

"We have seen it this week. We can call it the ripple effect, the power of a bad choice," said Maddox, who is pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Interlachen.

Maddox encouraged the crowd to: "Live close enough to Christ to be able to recognize the darkness even if it causes great pain."

Tribute music was provided by the Price Middle School band. Alley, who played flute, was a member of the band.

A praise team comprised of Opal Albert, Bethany Maddox and Carol Taylor, also led songs. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Alley's favorite football team, sent a written tribute, which was read by the Rev. Chris Kozlowski of the Bethel Assembly of God of Interlachen.

Dothea Smith, chairwoman of the Putnam County School Board, said she never knew Alley personally.

"But I feel by attending this service I've come to know him as the student that he really was, as a loving and caring student who cared for us more than himself. My heart and prayers go out to the family," Smith said.

School Superintendent David Buckles, who also attended the service, said: "I thought it was a beautiful ceremony in honor of such a fine young man that was so tragically taken from us."

July 20, 2000 -- When investigators discovered the body of a missing Interlachen boy in May, they also found a handwritten note apparently detailing what to do with Jerry Lee Alley Jr., investigative reports show.

The note, a sheet of lined, white loose-leaf paper marked with blue ink, had a list on it with numerous words misspelled, documents from the Putnam County Sheriff's Office report.

"LIST TO PREPAIR JAREY," the first line of the note read. That was followed by "STRIP TO UNDERWARE + RAP IN TOWER," "TIE HANDS," "GAG," and, finally, on line five, "COVER EYES."

It could not be determined what "rap in tower" means or if it might mean "wrap in towel."

When the Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyzed the handwriting, it matched samples from John Anthony Silva, a 15-year-old Interlachen boy arrested in the murder and kidnapping of Alley, 12, his friend. Silva's fingerprints also were found on the note.

These details about Alley's murder were among about 600 pages of investigative and court records released by the State Attorney's Office for the 7th Judicial Circuit on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said Silva admitted to causing Alley's death and hiding the body of the C.H. Price Middle School sixth-grader inside an abandoned septic tank on a vacant lot at the corner of Evans Avenue and Carr Street.

An autopsy report showed that Alley died of strangulation. Dr. Terrence Steiner of the Medical Examiner's Office in St. Augustine estimated Alley died only hours after he left his home on his bicycle.

On May 26, Alley failed to return home for supper on time after playing on his bike in his rural neighborhood. The search ended May 29 when Alley's body was found inside a dried-up septic tank used by area children as a fort.

On May 28, an officer with the Department of Corrections, Rex Ziegler, had walked through the same vacant lot with his dog, Peanut, tracking two sets of bicycle tracks from Silva's home. He spotted a concrete slab and smelled an odor. But Ziegler said the slab didn't look like it was covering an opening.

The next day, however, Interlachen resident Dawn Marie Bachman reported a dream she had in which she saw Alley sitting in a septic tank on the same piece of property her brother-in-law once considered buying. At that time, Bachman explained, her husband saw children playing in a septic tank under the slab.

The dream bothered Bachman so much that she decided to go to the lot, reports show. When she got there, she found volunteer firefighters checking an abandoned car. One of the firefighters, Chris Pellicer, went with her to the slab, where they found some wood over one end.

Looking inside, they found the boy and his red and black bicycle.

Investigators were led to Silva by friends who overheard him make remarks about Alley's death. At the time, no one knew whether Alley was dead or alive.

The documents, provided by prosecutors this week, don't offer a clear motive for Alley's death. State law exempts records revealing "the substance of a confession."

But handwritten notes from investigators do mention Alley's involvement in a Pokémon card club at his school and a girlfriend.

"A lot of people are saying it was over Pokémon," the notes read. "It might have been over girlfriend . . . If he was out of the way, she would go out with him."

The records also show that investigators looked at listed sex offenders who live in the area as possible suspects. They also talked to Alley's friends, questioning them about his activities at school and reports that he had been picked on by students.

Silva, an eighth-grader, will be tried as an adult. He could face life in prison without parole if convicted.

UPDATE

Feb. 6, 2001-- No one understands why the life of a well-liked 12-year-old remembered for his smile and love of the flute had to end so brutally.

Eight months ago, Jerry Lee Alley Jr. did what is part of many a child's after-school routine -- he rode his bike to a friend's house. On Friday, May 26, 2000, he rode off to visit John Silva, a friend who lived a few blocks away.

Jerry, who was always expected to be home by 6 p.m., never came home that night. Neighbors and police with bloodhounds searched throughout Interlachen Lakes Estates, a sparsely populated area of dirt roads and manufactured aluminum-siding homes where one can drive stretches of road without seeing a sign of life. 

Three days later, Jerry was found strangled in a dried underground septic tank. Fifteen-year-old Silva was charged as an adult with first-degree murder.

This morning, lawyers will begin selecting the jury that will decide whether Silva should spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for the slaying of his schoolmate and friend.

Learning why someone would kill him will not bring Jerry back. It could, however, give his family, teachers and neighbors some understanding of why his life ended the way it did.

Yet to this day, no motive has been determined, said Putnam County Sheriff Taylor Douglas. As with many heinous crimes, rumors about why Jerry died circulated throughout Interlachen: He was killed out of revenge. He was killed over a girlfriend. He was killed for Pokemon cards.

During a search of Silva's home, police seized an assortment of Pokemon items, including two three-ring binders containing cards, a trading card game board and a black and gray backpack. 

"We all want a 'Why'," said Cheryl Heymann, Jerry's reading and language arts teacher at C. H. Price Middle School. "We are looking for a why, trying to understand it."

Kids tend to tattle on each other, said Sandra Gilyard, principal of the middle school. When kids fight, they will typically tell who started it, who hit the other first, who made the mean remark that sparked the argument. Usually, Gilyard said, kids will say, "I know why this happened, I know why they did it."

But regarding Jerry's disappearance and death, no motive was mentioned by any of the schoolchildren.

Tire tracks in front of a weather-beaten memorial on the corner of Evans Avenue and Carr Street hint that the desolate site is still visited, that people sometimes stop for a moment to guess at their own reasons why a local teen is about to be tried for one of the worst crimes Interlachen, if not all Putnam County, has ever known.

Dried bouquets wrapped in green cellophane, a teddy bear with matted white fur, plastic flowers and a pocket-sized New Testament Bible sitting atop a block of sandstone at the edge of the abandoned lot carry on the memory of what police reports say may have taken place there that afternoon.

What happened?

Silva was Jerry's newest friend, Jerry's grandfather Marvin Alley told detectives, according to police files. Silva was an eighth-grader, Jerry in seventh. They began trading Pokemon cards, Alley said. Marvin Alley and his wife, Anne, Jerry's grandparents, had been his legal guardians since 1995. The boy's father lives out of state. Jerry didn't know his mother.

His grandfather, who had been raising Jerry for 10 years, said prosecutors asked him not to comment on the case because of the effect of pretrial publicity. Silva lived with his grandparents, mother and sister, who could not be reached for comment.

When Jerry didn't come home on time that Friday night, his grandfather started his own search. Alley checked the Silva house to see if his grandson was there and was told no one had seen Jerry, according to reports.

A little after 9 p.m., Alley reported Jerry missing to police. Douglas remembers the response of the community, how even though it was Memorial Day weekend, neighbors gave up their full weekend to help find Jerry.

It was an Interlachen woman's dream that brought the search to a sad close on Monday night. Dawn Bachman said she dreamt she saw Jerry playing inside the tank, which local children use as a fort when they play. She recognized the boy's face in the fliers and recognized the child in her dream.

Someone should check that tank, Bachman said she thought that day. But, uneasy about what she might find inside, she asked a fireman to accompany her. After removing plywood and a wood pallet covering the tank, fireman Chris Pellicer found Jerry's body inside, according to reports.

Jerry's body was found partially clothed, his neck, hands and legs bound with cord and elastic bandages. His red "Magna" bicycle, his green University of North Florida backpack, unzipped and empty, a pair of yellow scissors and a Pokemon trading card were also found inside the tank.

With these items, police also found a note written on loose-leaf paper reading "a list to prepair Jarey," "strip to underware + rap in tower," "tie up hands," "gag," and "cover eyes" next to Jerry's body.

Investigators identified Silva's fingerprint on the note and determined the handwriting was also likely his.

On the day Jerry disappeared, Stephany Taylor, a friend of Silva's sister, saw Silva leave his home with a plastic grocery bag on the handlebars of the bicycle, she told police the day after Jerry was found. She could not tell what was inside the bag. When Silva returned, Taylor said, he was dirty and sweaty, according to reports.

She also told police that after Jerry's grandfather came to the Silva home looking for his grandson, she and Silva's sister talked about where Jerry could have gone.

Silva interrupted their conversation, saying, "All I can say is that's a terrible way to die," according to reports.

Looking for reasons

Some residents, like Debra Spires, can't understand how a child could contemplate killing another child.

"I can't see a child having those kind of thoughts," said Spires, owner of Levi's bar in Palatka, who held an auction and a cookout to raise money for the middle school in Jerry's honor. She has lived in Interlachen for 20 years. "This is the worst I've ever seen. Everyone wants to see how the law handles this in Putnam."

But the trial, which prosecutor Garry Wood of the State Attorney's Office in Putnam County said is expected to last a week, may not reveal any reason at all. The prosecution cannot comment on how it will present the case to the jury, Woodm said.

Silva's lawyer, Douglas R. Withee, assistant public defender of the capital division of St. Johns and Putnam counties, said he cannot discuss the defense, but added that until Silva is proven guilty, he is presumed innocent.

Shortly after Silva's arrest, a judge granted the teen's lawyer's request that Silva be transported to Community Behavioral Services in Gainesville for a neurological evaluation, according to court records. 

The court also granted Withee's request to appoint a confidential expert from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida to conduct a sodium amytal interview to assist in Silva's defense. Sodium amytal is commonly known as "truth serum."

The results of those tests were unavailable.

Changed community

Little has been said by students at C. H. Price Middle School about Jerry's death and the trial, said Gilyard. School let out for the summer a few days after Silva was arrested, giving students and parents time to come to terms with the death of their schoolmate, she said.

Gilyard carries a picture of Jerry in her wallet. Not the photo of a younger Jerry shown on television and in the newspapers, but the class picture taken that spring, showing an older Jerry with longer hair, the Jerry she knew. The boy who used to come up to her and tell her about the school band while she stood outside the cafeteria.

The middle school has done what it could to begin healing after the death of one of its own.

A new euphonium and trombone were purchased with the $2,000 raised at Spires' fund-raiser. Two student awards will be established in Jerry's honor: an award for a member of the band and the Jerry Alley Citizenship Award.

Heymann said she wants to watch the trial to be sure she's prepared for questions from the kids.

"I wouldn't make it a class discussion," she said. "I wouldn't let it be. There's going to be plenty of speculation out there. I want to keep the speculation down and stick with the facts." 

While the trial will most likely attract the attention of those who knew Silva and Jerry, Gilyard said that she'd "rather not" follow it.

"It will never bring an end to it," Gilyard said of the trial. "There are two families here that suffered a loss. Either way, two families have been disrupted. It may bring justice, but not closure."

The jury that will decide whether 15-year-old John Anthony Silva should spend the rest of his life in prison in the slaying of his schoolmate was selected  after one day of questioning. 

Under Florida law, Silva cannot face the death penalty because of his age. 

Clean cut in a black suit and white dress shirt, Silva sat beside his attorney as the court questioned 42 potential jurors and narrowed them down to 14 by 5 p.m. The 12 jurors and two alternates, 10 women and four men, were selected. 

The victim's grandparents, Marvin and Anne Alley, attended the jury selection. No members of Silva's family attended, court officials said, but his mother was there before jury selection began to bring him clothes. 

Potential jurors were asked questioned whether they felt that Silva's age would be a factor in their decision and whether they felt that 15-year-olds are capable of committing adult crimes. 

Prosecutor Garry Wood expects to call 20 or fewer witnesses, including the victim's grandparents, Silva's mother, several officials from the Putnam County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. 

Silva's attorney Douglas R. Withee, an assistant public defender, did not present a witness list during the selection. It is not known whether Silva will testify. 

Feb. 8, 2001 -- Two hours into a police interview that began as a matter-of-fact, almost lighthearted talk about what could have happened to Jerry Lee Alley Jr., John Silva had a message for Marvin and Anne Alley about the slaying of their 12-year-old grandson: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."

The 3 1/2-hour interview taped on May 30 recounted a story of how the two boys rode off on their bikes looking for a friend, then instead, stopped to wrestle at the septic tank where Jerry Alley's body was found on May 29.

As the prosecution played the interview to the court over loudspeakers, Silva's posture reflected his taped voice. He sat back, chin in hand, one knee up, relaxed, then, as his voice broke into sobs and sniffles on the tape recorder, he covered his face with his hand. Silva, 15, is on trial for first-degree murder, accused of killing his friend, then hiding the body in a dry septic tank. The boy had been missing for three days.

At one point while they were wrestling with each other, Jerry was hurt while they were playing, Silva told Putnam County police detective John Merchant and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent Jeanine Williams. 

So Silva took him down into the tank to "cool off." The underground septic tank was a place where Silva used to go to "get away, to cool off" when he was mad, he told them. On his way into the tank, Jerry fell and hit his head, Silva said as he sniffled and cried. 

He tried to stop his friend's head from bleeding profusely with an Ace bandage. Silva said he carried the bandage with him because his own leg was injured a few weeks ago. 

He tried to keep Jerry awake so he wouldn't go to sleep. He was afraid that Jerry would hurt himself, so he tied Jerry's hands in front of him. When Jerry's body was found, his hands were tied behind his back.

And then, Silva said, he left him alone in the tank. He threw Jerry's book bag and his bicycle into the tank.

He left because he panicked. He covered up the tank, with his friend inside, with sheets of plywood and rode away. At home, he watched television. He said he tried to act as if nothing happened because he was scared.

That was all he could remember.

Still, the smooth, encouraging voices of Merchant and Williams asked for more details. 

"It's time to come man to man," Merchant said. "There's more to this. I know what happened and I wasn't even there."

Williams said: "We're lifting a burden off you right now." 

They questioned him over and over, repeating the same questions: Why didn't you call for him if he was hurt? Why did you hurt him? Why did this happen?

Silva repeatedly sobbed the same answers: "I don't know. I don't remember." 

Merchant told Silva he planned out Jerry's murder. Silva said he didn't remember planning anything. A handwritten note titled "list to prepair Jarey," found in the septic tank along with Jerry's body, was never mentioned during the interview. 

Williams asked Silva to spell Jerry's name. He spelled it properly, though it was misspelled in the note, which officials said was likely written by Silva. 

An investigator testified that both boys' fingerprints were on the note. Three came from Silva and one from the victim, according to Joseph Dorsey of the FDLE.

A medical examiner testified later in the trial that the boy died of strangulation after having a bandage and electrical cord tied around his neck. He found no sign of a head injury as described by Silva. 

VERDICT

Feb. 9, 2001 -- A 15-year-old was convicted of first degree murder Thursday for strangling a 12-year-old whose body was found in a dry septic tank pit two days after he disappeared.

The jury deliberated less than two hours before finding John Silva guilty. The 12 jurors had the option of considering a second-degree murder or manslaughter conviction.

The verdict, met with tears from both families, guarantees the Putnam County teen a mandatory life sentence, with no chance of parole. 

The victim's grandparents, Marvin and Anne Alley, embraced Silva's mother, Cynthia, immediately following the verdict. 

"We're all in pain over this," Anne Alley said outside the courtroom, holding her grandson's picture over her heart. "In one way it was what we hoped for, but in another it is not victory. We still don't have our son and now another mother has lost her son." 

She and her husband hugged Silva's mother because, Anne Alley said, they're both in pain and Cynthia Silva "hasn't had the outpouring of love that we received from the community." 

The Silva family did not want to comment on the ruling, said a court officer, who added they were waiting for someone to drive them home because they were too distraught. 

Silva's attorney, Douglas Withee, was unavailable for comment. At the end of the trial, he requested that one of his associates at the Public Defender's Office stand in for him at Silva's sentencing on March 15. Judge Arthur W. Nichols III requested that Withee be present with his client. 

Silva, who sat crying with his hands cupped over his face after the verdict was announced following two hours of deliberations, had to be supported by court officers as he was fingerprinted. 

"It's a sentence that will keep John Silva off the street so he won't be able to harm anyone again," prosecutor Garry Wood said. "He'll die in prison." 

The most damning evidence against Silva was the note left in the septic tank where the victim was found after being missing for two days, Wood said. "The note's inescapable." 

The note was written by Silva, according to witnesses including Cynthia Silva, who said her son dismissed it as a practical joke a few days before his friend's death. 

In his closing arguments, Wood said the note "sticks to him [Silva] like glue he won't shake off his body."

"He fulfilled every wish listed in the note," Wood said, running through each item in the "list to prepair Jarey" left in the tank -- "strip to underware + rap in tower," "tie up hands," "gag," and "cover eyes." 

Holding up the two soiled Ace bandages to the jury, the murder weapons wrapped around Jerry Alley's neck and ankles, and the electric cord, Wood said, "These are the instruments of death that tell you what the defendant did to Jerry Alley." 

Withee asked jurors to find Silva either not guilty or to consider lesser charges. 

He told them to consider the short amount of time a prosecution witness said Silva was gone the day Jerry went missing from his Interlachen home and whether he could have committed the murder during that span of time by himself. 

"Please consider, was someone else involved? Could this young man have completed these horrible acts in no time?" Withee said of the 30- to 35-minute time span testified to by a witness. "There are significant, significant questions about who was involved in this. 

That is a very short time to do the apparent awful work that was done on this young man."

Referring to statements and questions made by law enforcement officials on a 3-hour taped interview with Silva that neighbors had seen Silva and Jerry with two other boys, Withee said, "There is another voice, two perhaps, to be heard here." 

At the end of his closing statement, Wood read aloud from a class assignment Silva wrote at C.H. Price Middle School, where both he and Jerry went. In the assignment, Silva was asked to agree or disagree with the statement, "kids [should be] charged as adults." 

He wrote "Yes."

Silva then wrote, as if in response to why kids should be charged as adults when they commit crimes, "Kids will think twice about crimes, teaches lessons," then the adage, "you do the crime, you do the time."

SENTENCE

March 16, 2001 -- Fifteen-year-old John Silva sat quietly in handcuffs as a Putnam County judge sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for killing his schoolmate and friend, Jerry Lee Alley Jr. 

The sentencing went quickly, lasting less than an hour, with brief statements from the Alley family and friends asking Judge Arthur W. Nichols III to set an example for other children and send Silva to prison for life. Silva wasn't old enough to be considered for the death penalty. 

"It goes without saying that Jerry was a special boy," said Anne Alley, the 12-year-old's grandmother and adoptive parent with her husband, Marvin. "It goes without saying that our lives are changed forever, with children killing children. We need to make a statement that this is the real world, that if you kill somebody, there are real consequences." 

Only Silva's mother, Cynthia Silva, spoke on his behalf. 

"I still do not believe that he did this crime," she said. "There was definitely someone else involved. He is extremely immature for his age. He doesn't do things that normal teenagers do. He hasn't even understood most of the process of what is going on here." 

Silva, who cried during his trial and conviction last month, showed no emotion. 

His attorney, Putnam County Assistant Public Defender John Stephenson, said he told him that he needed to realize he will most likely go to prison for life. 

"That may explain his lack of reaction," Stephenson said. 

Although the life sentence was the judge's only option, Cynthia Silva asked that her son be sent to a juvenile facility instead of an adult prison. 

Nichols agreed to recommend that Silva be housed in a juvenile facility until he is 21, when he would be transferred to an adult prison. Silva will be taken to a prison reception center in Lake Butler where his final placement will be determined. 

Outside the courthouse, Marvin Alley said the ruling was the only outcome that he thought was right. Anne Alley added that she has no animosity toward the Silva family.