Random Kids Whose Crimes Were So Brutal (16 items)

• 

  (#16) 13-Year-Old Jaheim Holley Shot And Robbed His Friend For Cash

  Seminole County initially charged 13-year-old Jaheim Holley with attempted murder and armed robbery after he shot 19-year-old acquaintance Justin McKnight. On March 28, 2016, according to the Orlando Sentinel, Holley pleaded with McKnight to give him a ride. While they were driving, Holley pulled out a gun. After a brief physical altercation, Holley shot McKnight in the stomach and made off with McKnight’s cash. Earlier that day, McKnight posted a picture of himself holding money, which is how investigators believed Holley knew he had it on him.

  Authorities revealed Holley already had an arrest record, and the teen had been on probation at the time of the shooting. Holley, tried as an adult, accepted a 5-year plea bargain. 
• 

  (#13) Eric Smith Strangled And Beat A Four-Year-Old

  On August 2, 1993, 13-year-old Eric Smith led four-year-old Derrick Robbie into Steuben County woods as Robbie walked to a nearby summer camp. Smith strangled and sodomized the child with a tree limb before fatally dropping two large rocks on his head. Smith also arranged the body peculiarly, removing a shoe and pouring Kool-Aid from Robbie's lunch all over him.

  The state of New York tried Smith as an adult. Smith’s defense attorney presented  Smith’s diagnosis of intermittent explosive disorder (IED), which according to Psychology Today causes "individuals to act out violently and unpredictably." Despite this, the courts sentenced Eric nine years to life in prison. As of 2020, he's been denied parole ten times.
   
• 

  (#10) Brenda Spencer Opened Fire At An Elementary School

  San Diego teen Brenda Spencer lived across the street from Grover Cleveland Elementary School. On January 29, 1979, the 16-year-old sat in her window with a .22 rifle and opened fire. She lethally shot the principal and custodian as well as wounded eight children and an officer. Spencer cited her reason for the shooting spree as “I don’t like Mondays.” She later claimed to be under the influence of PCP and alcohol and insisted her attorney conspired to hide her drug test results.

  Spencer's incident was the first high-profile school shooting. California courts tried Spencer as an adult, and she pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. She received a sentence of 25 years to life. The courts denied her parole four times, and her next eligibility is in 2019.
   
• 

  (#2) Denver Jarvis, Michael Bent, And Jesus Mendez Set Friend On Fire Over $40

  In 2009, authorities arrested five Florida teenagers for setting 15-year-old Michael Brewer on fire over a $40 video game-related debt. When Brewer couldn't pay up, Michael Bent took Brewer's father's bicycle and orchestrated an attack. The group held down Brewer while Denver Jarvis poured rubbing alcohol on him. Jesus Mendez pulled out a lighter and ignited the teen. The fire was so severe Brewer's clothes burned off his body as he desperately tried to stop, drop, and roll in the front yard. He eventually jumped into a pool to extinguish the flames but over 65 percent of his body was burned.

  Three of the five teens involved - Denver Jarvis and Michael Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16 - were charged with attempted second-degree murder and tried as adults. Courts sentenced both Bent and Mendez to 11 years in prison for battery. Mendez also got 19 years of probation. Jarvis received a sentence of eight years in prison with 10 years of supervised community probation.
   
• 

  (#4) Curtis And Catherine Jones Fatally Shot Their Father's Girlfriend

  On January 1999, Curtis and Catherine Jones were 12 and 13 years old, respectively, when they took their father's gun and fatally shot his 29-year-old girlfriend, Sonya Speights. Those close to the siblings originally alleged they did it out of jealousy. However, reports from Florida’s Department of Children and Families uncovered that a different male relative who was living in the Cocoa Beach household sexually assaulted the children. Allegedly, neither their father nor Speights did anything about the allegations, so the siblings conspired to eliminate the relative who was harming them, their father, and Speights.

  Both of the siblings pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, were tried as adults, and received 18 years in prison with life-long probation. Even after the trial, Catherine Jones maintained she regretted hurting someone but had to get away. In 2015, they were released from prison.
   
• 

  (#1) Anissa Weier And Morgan Geyser Impaled A Classmate 19 Times To Impress A Fictional Demon 

  In 2014, Wisconsin 12-year-olds Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured their classmate Payton Leutner into the woods where they stabbed her 19 times. The girls claimed they did it to please the fictional Creepypasta boogeyman “Slender Man” and save their families from his wrath. Leutner miraculously survived after crawling to the sidewalk, where a cyclist spotted her. 

  Courts tried both Weier and Geyser as adults and charged them with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Geyser pleaded guilty to the charge in October 2017 but claimed she was not criminally responsible because of her mental state. During her sentencing, doctors reported she heard voices from someone named "Maggie." She received a 40-year sentence in a psychiatric institution.

  Weier pleaded guilty in August 2017 - but to second-degree attempted intentional homicide. Prosecutors claimed she too was mentally ill and not criminally responsible, so she received a sentence of 25 years in a psychiatric institution.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking