Here's another update on the 16 year old boy in Illinois who allegedly used a
HAMMER to massacre FIVE people, a 35 year old woman named Debra Smith, all
three of her children, aged 12, 10, and 8, and his own 17 year old half
brother, who was the live-in lover of 35 year old Debra. He made his first
court appearance earlier today.
Yes indeed, at the tender age of 16, this boy, managed to savagely beat all
five people to death inside of the house where they all lived, armed only with
a hammer. Hey, a hammer can make a nicely effective weapon, if wielded
properly. It might have been designed to pound nails into wood, but it can
break open human skulls just as readily as it can drive in nails.
We learn that Christopher did have a reputation of being a bit of a
troublemaker. Last summer a criminal complaint was filed by a family friend
against Christopher, after Christopher threw a rock at the mother of the family
friend's girlfriend, hitting her in the eye. Police refuse to confirm or give
details on what type of criminal history or record, if any, Christopher may
have had, prior to this massacre. A family friend says that he thinks
Christopher was under "house arrest" at some point in time, but there is
absolutely no confirmation that this is true, from anyone in a position of
authority.
16 year old Christopher was a high school dropout. He was not enrolled in
school at the time of the massacre. Former schoolmates describe him as a bit of
a troublemaker. As you might expect from an enraged hater, he was and is a
loner, and did not socialize with his peers. He probably recognized his
superiority over them. He was not shy though, and did get into a few fights
with fellow students, before dropping out of high school.
The coroner is confirming that these 5 murders were committed from a deep
epicenter of RAGE, demonstrated by the fact that Christopher based in the heads
of all five victims, some of them being killed as they slept, with brutal power
and ruthlessness, as he swung the hammer down upon all of their heads, one at a
time.
Guess what? We learn below that just as I had predicted, the 16 year old boy
WILL be treated as an adult by your deranged society's judicial system. He is
NOT an adult, but your society is giving itself permission to TREAT him as an
adult, for the purpose of inflicting as PUNITIVE a punishment as possible. How
pathetic it is, the way you humans manage to rationalize such BLATANT
violations of TRUTH and JUSTICE!
The best bit of new news in this news report is that police are FINALLY
giving us the name of our mass murdering 16 year old. He is: Christopher
Churchill. I like that name, it's very elegant sounding. I GOTTA memorize the
name, any 16 year old who manages to successfully slaughter 5 human beings,
using a HAMMER no less, is worthy of having their name committed to memory, in
my vast mental reservoir of True Crime knowledge.
Looks like your society does NOT want Christopher out on the streets while
awaiting trial. A judge agreed to impose a 10 MILLION dollar bond upon him, and
prosecutors are asking that the possibility of bail be outright denied to
Christopher. The judge has scheduled a continuation of today's hearing, for
Friday.
Another little bit of good news concerns the death penalty. Illinois does
have a DP law on the books. But it can only be imposed upon people who are over
18 years of age when they commit their crimes. So, Christopher can feel
confident that even if he is convicted of all 5 murders, the stiffest sentence
he can receive will be Life in prison with no chance for parole. I hope that
whatever happens, Christopher will have many decades of happy and healthy and
peaceful life, and will be able to revel in his murderous acccomplishments, if
his True Reality so allows. The FIRST news story below implies that Christopher
might be eligible for the death penalty, but that implication is incorrect, as
the second news article below confirms.
I will remain vigilant in trying to find and post additional updated
information on this most fascinating case and most intriguing youthful mass
murderer, 16 year old Christopher Churchill.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of the 2/17/98 online edition of The Chicago
Tribune newspaper:
TOWN GETS DOSE OF '90S REALITY: 5 BRUTAL KILLINGS
By Teresa Puente
Tribune Staff Writer
February 17, 1998
NOBLE, Ill. -- Set amid cornfields and oil wells, this southern Illinois
village of 800 residents with one grocery, one diner and one liquor store looks
like classic small-town America.
Until a few days ago, residents here lived secure in the belief that they knew
their town and their neighbors.
But that has all changed.
The brutal slayings of a woman, her three children and her teenage boyfriend
have left residents questioning their notion of community and the assumption
that everybody knows everybody else's business. Charged with first-degree
murder -- and being held in a juvenile detention center in Vincennes, Ind. --
is the teenage victim's 16-year-old half-brother.
For more than five days, nobody knew that the victims were dead -- until their
bodies were discovered Friday in a white frame house on one of the village's
main streets.
No one had reported anything unusual to police, despite the fact that the three
children had missed a week of elementary school.
Residents say that this is the kind of town where neighbors keep the doors
unlocked in case another neighbor visits. But most here knew little about the
victims.
"There's people in town that you don't even know,'' said Deb Buerster, 39, as
she and her friend watched their children race kites over an open cornfield.
"We didn't even know them to know what was right or wrong over there,'' added
Marla Royse, 27, lifelong resident of the village.
The opening of a Wal-Mart distribution center in the area and plans to build a
prison across the county line have also brought outsiders to the town,
residents said.
"You don't know every neighbor like you used to,'' said Gene Richardson, 49,
who was sipping a cola in the town's 1950s-style diner.
"We used to be a town of an older generation, of people who lived here and
stayed here,'' said Norma Borne, 69, who has lived in the town for five
decades, four of them in the same house. "Now there are so many people moving
in and out.''
The newcomers included the victims: Debra Smith, 35; her boyfriend, Jonathan
Lloyd, 17; and her three children, Jennifer, 12, Korey, 10, and Kenneth, 6.
Smith was separated from her husband. And in October, she had moved from the
nearby town of Olney to Noble, in far southern Illinois near the Indiana
border.
Lloyd had moved here from Texas last summer and had been living with his foster
parents. He settled in Noble to reunite with his biological mother and his
half-brother, according to the teens' cousin, Brian Boatner, 19.
Now the half-brother is accused of beating the five victims to death.
When Smith moved to Noble, she and her children shared a home with a former
co-worker: a woman who is the mother of Lloyd and the suspect.
The women had both worked for a VCR packaging company in Olney, but Smith was
laid off in September, said Curt Smith, Debra's estranged husband.
About two months ago, Smith, her children and Lloyd moved into another house
around the corner from the old place.
Lloyd and Debra Smith were planning to marry, according to Curt Smith, 32, who
lives about 10 miles outside Noble. "He bought her an engagement ring,'' he
said.
Smith and his wife were in the process of filing divorce papers, but he said
they were still on good terms.
The night of Feb. 7, a day before police believe the murders were committed,
Curt Smith and his girlfriend, along with Debra Smith, Lloyd and the three
children went shopping at a Wal-Mart.
Curt Smith bought his son Korey a bicycle. Lloyd bought Debra Smith an
engagement ring, Curt Smith said.
Smith said he had no problem with his wife's plans to remarry. He did not know
the suspect very well except that he had a reputation as a troublemaker.
Last summer, Smith said, the teen threw a rock at his girlfriend's mother,
striking her in the eye. The teen reportedly bragged about it in front of
Smith's daughter, Jennifer. Upset, Smith took Jennifer to the Wayne County
Sheriff's Department to file a complaint.
"Maybe he was mad because my daughter told on him,'' said Smith, searching for
possible motives in a telephone interview from his father's house in Ottawa,
southwest of Chicago.
Because he is a minor, police would not say whether the teen suspect had a
criminal record, but he had broken the law before, according to one of his
victims. Curt Smith said the teen was under house arrest but did not know why.
Transfer to adult court is automatic for 16-year-olds, though a juvenile judge
must clear the way.
The suspect had attended high school in Noble but was transferred to an
alternative high school in Olney only to drop out, said West Richland School
Supt. Dale Murbarger.
"He was a troublemaker,'' said Toby Geier, 15, who had gym and English classes
with the suspect their freshman year.
Students said the teen suspect, whom they described as a loner, would smoke in
the hallways and pick fights with other students.
Though police have offered no motive, the details of the crime reflect a
violent act of rage. All of the victims died of blunt force trauma to their
heads; some of them bludgeoned to death in their sleep, said Richland County
Coroner Randy Kistler.
Police would not describe the weapon used in the attack, though they said it
has been recovered.
The suspect's grandmother said police told her it was a hammer.
Autopsies showed the victims were killed late on Feb. 8 or early Feb. 9. Their
bodies were severely decomposed when found late Friday night.
There have been murders in other towns in nearby counties, but the residents of
Noble never expected such violence to touch them.
The village of Noble is a good, quiet community, said Richland County Sheriff
Gary Dowty.
"We don't expect things like this to happen in our community,'' he said.
Dowty, who has worked in local law enforcement for 33 years, said he could not
recall any homicides in Noble, and neither could Richland County State's Atty.
Kim Harrell, who has worked in the area for 15 years. Harrell said she is
making plans to charge the 16-year-old as an adult and will not rule out the
death penalty.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of today's United Press International news
wire:
Tuesday February 17, 1998
Teen murder suspect charged as adult
OLNEY, Ill. Feb. 17 (UPI) A 16-year-old boy accused of beating five people to
death with a hammer at a house in Southern Illinois will be tried as an adult.
Christopher Churchill was ordered held in lieu of $10 million bond. State's
Attorney Kim Harrell has asked Judge Larry Dunn to deny bail and a decision
could come at a continuance hearing Friday.
During a court appearance today, Churchill was charged as an adult with four
additional counts of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning deaths of Debra
Smith, 35, her three children, Jennifer, 12, Korey, 10 and Kenneth, 8, and the
suspect's half brother 17-year-old Jonathan Lloyd at their Nobel home.
They all died Feb. 9 of severe blows apparently from a hammer, but their bodies
weren't found until Friday night after neighbors became concerned about lack of
activity at the single-family house.
Nobel is about 110 miles east of St. Louis.
Under Illinois law, Churchill can be tried as an adult but he is ineligible for
the death penalty because he is under 18. If convicted, he could be sentenced
to life in prison without parole.
Churchill was taken into custody Saturday and held at a juvenile facility in
Vincennes, Ind. He reportedly told a family member he killed the five because
he was ``just angry.''
A preliminary hearing is scheduled March 9.
I had been wondering if perhaps his name was Maxwell?
~SL
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Joe1orbit wrote:
> Here's another update on the 16 year old boy in Illinois who allegedly used a
> HAMMER to massacre FIVE people, a 35 year old woman named Debra Smith, all