13 y.o. girl who killed her grandma, abuse info

[Jen1orbit]

Hello,

Here is a very interesting updated news report on the 13 year old girl,
Wendy Gardner, who told and covinced her 15 year old boyfriend to kill her
grandma, which is what he did. Boyfriend James was convicted of second
degree murder and is serving 9 years to life, While Wendy is going to be
sentenced this coming Wenesday, and the sentence is expected to be at
least 5 years.

In this article we learn many new details about the relationship between
Wendy and James, as well as details on exactly how the killing was carried
out, and most importantly, we learn about the ABUSE that this grandmother
inflicted on Wendy. And the abuse that her parents inflicted on her.

And now your pathetic society will imprison Wendy. You tried your
darndest to murder her soul, by giving possession of her as a helpless
baby to a prostitute and drug addicted mother and a drug addicted &
violent father, followed by an abusive and insanely religious grandmother.
And after all that, you pathetic moralistic hypocrites are about to lock
her up in a cage for at least the next five years, even though she killed
nobody, she merely asked her boyfriend, when she was 13 years old, to
please kill her grandma for her.

Your culture is deranged, and I hope that Wendy feeds and nurtures her
rage all through her incarceration, and is ready to hurt and kill people
when she finally gets her freedom. She deserves to hurt and punish your
pathetic society, and you pathetic society deserves to be hurt and
punished. So there you go, a perfect match. And don't worry, if she
decides to spare your society, there will always be new and more outgoing
victims of child abuse who will be eager to claim their justifiable status
as serial and mass killers, assassins, torturers, and abusers, thus
continuing the cycle of derangement that BEGINS and is MAINTAINED by YOUR
pathetic society.

Take care, JOE

This report is from today's Associated Press news wire:

KINGSTON, N.Y. (AP) - When her grandmother died, 13-year-old Wendy Gardner
was supposed to have the last word.

Wendy had planned to say, ``You beat me ... now it's your turn to get
beaten.'' But she confessed that even before her boyfriend pulled the kite
string around Betty Gardner's neck, plans had gone astray.

``Just do it,'' she said. Then she fled upstairs and lay down; she sang
``Jingle Bells'' to blot out the carnage below.

Wendy Gardner is polite and pretty with a round face and long brown hair.
In school, she earned A's and B's. She plays the flute - pretty, sweet
melodies - and keeps a diary.

In it, she has fantasized about ripping an old boyfriend's flesh to
pieces.

The contrasts - darkness and innocence - are typical of this child of drug
users: A prostitute mother who died after contracting the AIDS virus. A
father who boasted of how his own father dropped dead during an argument
between them, according to testimony at Wendy's trial.

Betty Gardner took both Wendy and her sister Kathy into her home in the
Hudson Valley town of Saugerties. Wendy was 5, Kathy was 3; their
grandmother was a widow who fervently believed in God and discipline, and
sometimes the girls were slapped or paddled.

The prosecutor, Michael Miranda, said this was merely old-school
discipline. But defense attorney Lisa Beth Older said there was actual
abuse, much of it psychological.

Betty Gardner, 67, would tell Wendy she was going to turn out just like
her mother. Once, Wendy was made to watch as her grandmother kneeled in
prayer and cursed God for leaving the girl with her, Older said.

Then, in October 1994, Wendy met James Evans. James was older - 15 - and
he stole bikes and tortured cats, prosecutors said. Trial psychiatrists
diagnosed him as a sociopath.

Before long, Wendy began skipping school. Her grades dropped. Wendy,
according to Older, was becoming like James.

Dr. Kevin Smith, a psychiatrist who testified in Wendy's trial, said there
was a logic to the relationship. James received affirmation for his
behavior; Wendy - operating on the emotional level of an 8-year-old - had
a rebel boyfriend to complement her own angry and rebellious feelings.

``They were truly a perfect match,'' he said. ``It's like a lock and key
system.''

By Christmas 1994, Wendy had essentially lived with James and his mother
for two weeks. Betty Gardner ordered her granddaughter home.

According to a confession Wendy gave days after the killing, the young
lovers had other plans. They talked about marrying - on a boat, five miles
offshore so it would be legal. They talked about killing Betty Gardner.

``If I kill her, will you love me?'' James asked, according to Wendy's
confession. ``And I said `Yeah, but I don't think you'll do it.'''

``Want to bet?'' he asked.

Wendy said James considered using a gun (they didn't have one); chopping
her to death (too bloody); stabbing her (ditto).

They decided to snap her neck.

The night of Dec. 28, 1994, James went with Wendy to her grandmother's
house.

According to Wendy, Betty demanded that James leave. James lunged at
Betty, and put her in a choke hold. He took out a kite string and pulled
it with his foot at the base of her neck.

When he told Wendy to say her lines, she was too upset. So James said,
``Remember this, bitch, you're never going to be able to hit her again.''

Wendy and Kathy hid upstairs.

Later, Wendy and James had sex in the same room where Betty was killed.
She helped James stuff the body into the trunk of Betty's 1984 Mercury.

The body stayed in the trunk for the next three days as James - who had no
license - drove Wendy to buy video games, sneakers, candy and lingerie
with some $880 stolen from the dead woman. With the body in the trunk, and
a teddy bear in the front seat, they went for fast food. They went
bowling, twice.

Kathy was made to sit in the back seat sometimes. She did as she was told
and stayed quiet. But three days later, she snuck out to a neighbor's
house.

The neighbors called 911, but the operator wouldn't take the call - it
wasn't an emergency because Betty Gardner was already dead. Then they
called Saugerties police, who found the young couple in the Gardner house
and the corpse in the trunk.

James Evans was convicted in July of second-degree murder and is serving a
nine-years-to-life sentence.

Wendy's subsequent trial in February presented more nuanced questions: Was
she under the influence of James at the time of the killing, or did she
manipulate him?

Two years after the killing, a poised Wendy Gardner told jurors she loved
her grandmother, the woman who tucked her in and kissed her good night.
When she confessed, she said, she was merely telling police what they
wanted to hear.

``I never literally meant I wanted my grandmother to die,'' she testified.

Smith, the psychiatrist, testified that Wendy was emotionally stunted and
saw the murder plan as just the game. And the demand to ``Just do it''?
Wendy told Smith it referred to showing some Christmas presents.

But the image of this defendant as a victim was undercut by the
matter-of-fact tone in which Wendy discussed the crime on a tape played to
the jury, and by testimony from her sister.

On Feb. 21, after nine hours of deliberations, jurors rejected the lesser
count of manslaughter and found her guilty of second-degree murder.

Wendy cried and was led from court with a jacket over her head.

Ulster County District Attorney Michael Kavanagh has said he will not seek
the maximum sentence of nine years to life when Wendy is sentenced
Wednesday. She may serve as little as five years.

But barring a successful appeal, she will grow to adulthood in state
custody, and it seems she's trying to make the best of it.

She's doing well in school again.

AP-NY-04-06-97

[Agent@large]

<cut and pasted from below - quotes added>
>..."Two years after the killing, a poised Wendy Gardner told jurors she loved

>her grandmother, the woman who tucked her in and kissed her good night.
>When she confessed, she said, she was merely telling police what they

>wanted to hear. ..."

Wendy was not abused by her grandmother.
Had she been, don't you think she would have said so to the jury?

Indeed, this girl's parents weren't Ozzie and Harriet, but I don't
accept there was any reason except pure fun as the motive to have her
grandmother killed - she even said it was a "game." Many children have
had worse upbringing than Wendy (she was sometimes slapped and
paddled) and MOST do not become criminals, let alone become involved
in a killing. Have we heard of any deviant behavior acted out by
Wendy's sister, Katjy? No. In fact Kathy had the social conscience to
notify someone for help. Kathy had the same grandmother and lived in
the same house.

The defense attorney said Wendy was influenced by her boyfriend.
Disregarding the argument that Wendy was an A and B student (i.e., not
unintelligent) and the boyfriend wasn't quite Einstein, the fact of
the matter is that Wendy sought out, with her own free will, such a
boyfriend who had the same attitudes as her own.

Wendy is where she deserves to be. I doubt she will get the treatment
necessary to help her change her sociopathic attitudes before she is
released - I doubt even more that she'll change without it. Most
likely she will be released someday, and continue her criminal
behavior.

[welshwytch]

Agent@large wrote:
>
> <cut and pasted from below - quotes added>
> >..."Two years after the killing, a poised Wendy Gardner told jurors she loved
> >her grandmother, the woman who tucked her in and kissed her good night.
> >When she confessed, she said, she was merely telling police what they
> >wanted to hear. ..."
>
> Wendy was not abused by her grandmother.
> Had she been, don't you think she would have said so to the jury?

I know absolutely nothing about this case, but I was severely
abused by my father and I lied many times and told people
my family life was fine and I had no problems. This was
for many reasons, sometimes out of fear of being disbelieved but
also I was severely dissociated many times from my own
reality. Police records show that my father was extremely
violent, he almost killed my mother a number of times, but
I remember that many times I did deny all of these recorded
facts to social welfare people and insisted my family
life was wonderful and that I loved my father.

I can now see the difference between what I said at the
time and what the facts really were, but in my case it helps
that there are police and hospital records to help
me recall how violent and sadistic my father was in
reality.

Many others are not so lucky. There is a lot of pressure
nowadays to deny abuse and it's hard not to be affected
by it. Confessing abuse only causes MORE trouble because
then everyone who has a stake in denying that child
abuse is a problem in America feels obligated to crawl
out of the woodwork and attack the abuse survivor's words.

That doesn't mean Gardner was abused or wasn't, but there
are more motives for hiding abuse than there are for revealing
it, you can be sure of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!