14-year old she-ape caged for killing grandmammy

[elfatvis]

A 30-year sentence for murder handed down last week to a 14-year-old
Marion girl is reigniting debate over how Indiana deals with violent
children.

Grant County Judge Randall Johnson last week sentenced Talia Riddle, 14,
to 30 years in prison for the January 2003 stabbing death of her
grandmother, Karen Sue Toy.

With credit for time served and good behavior, Riddle could go free in
15 years.

Riddle, one of the youngest people ever sent to prison in Indiana, paid
a friend to kill Toy because she was upset with discipline her
grandmother tried to impose, prosecutors said. They allege Riddle's
friends Amanda Clark and Craig Cain, both 19, helped her carry out the
slaying.

Cain stabbed Toy because he was offered the money in her purse, police
say. He faces a Sept. 27 trial. Clark is serving a 10-year prison term
for the murder.

Thirty-two teenagers from ages 14 to 18 are in Indiana adult prisons,
where, youth advocates claim, they are vulnerable to physical and sexual
abuse from other inmates.

Their incarceration has fueled a fight within the criminal justice
system that pits public safety against child welfare.

"This is very complex," said Bill Stanczykiewicz, president of the
Indiana Youth Institute, a research and lobbying organization for
Indiana youth organizations. "Justice requires a penalty, but you have
to balance that against the hope for rehabilitation."

In Indiana, children can be tried as adults for a range of serious
offenses, including murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, criminal gang
activity and repeated drug offenses.

More and more teens are being tried as adults in court, officials said,
although at first glance the numbers don't reflect it.

The number of youths whose cases are transferred by a judge from
juvenile court to the adult system has dropped from a peak of 12,067 in
1994 to fewer than 6,000 in recent years.

That's only because Indiana and many other states have created laws
making it automatic for youths who commit certain crimes to be tried as
adults, said Malcolm Young, executive director of the Sentencing
Project, based in Washington, D.C.

The result is that tens of thousands of juveniles actually are tried as
adults each year in the United States, Young said.

It was not clear how often it happens in Indiana because the state does
not keep such statistics.

There were 131 juvenile cases in Marion County that were transferred to
adult court in 2003, county officials said.

The state "has made it easier for prosecutors to try kids as adults,"
said David Cook, chief public defender for Marion County.

The sentence for Riddle has divided the criminal justice community.

"She is still a child," said Susan Boatright, a juvenile court attorney
for the Marion County Public Defender's Office. "Anyone who goes into
the prison system is going to be subject to abuse. That's part of the
(prison) culture.

"This is absurd. It shows how far our criminal justice system has
fallen."

Others like Stephen Johnson, executive director of the Indiana
Prosecuting Attorneys Council, maintain that the legal system must
protect the public from young killers.

"It's rare that juveniles would get a sentence like that, but it is also
rare that someone hires a hit man to kill their grandmother," Johnson
said.

Even the prosecutor in the case expressed mixed feelings about the
outcome.

"I understand she is not at an age where she would fully understand the
consequences of her actions," said James Luttrull Jr., Grant County
prosecutor. "The justice system doesn't leave many options."

Luttrull said he tried Riddle as an adult because under Indiana's
juvenile justice system there are no assurances how long offenders will
be incarcerated.

"She could have been out by age 15," he said. "There are no guarantees."

The state should begin to set determinant sentences for youths in the
juvenile justice system, Luttrull said.

The state Department of Correction can hold youthful offenders until
they turn 21. However, they usually go free at 18, state officials
acknowledge.

"A lot of prosecutors wonder if they look at prison crowding or their
budget" before making those decisions, Luttrull said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Correction defended the system.

A team of corrections administrators, teachers and counselors determine
when juvenile offenders are released, said Pam Pattison.

Juvenile offenders are released based on their behavior and the
likelihood that they will commit new crimes, she said.

Riddle will be housed at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis,
where she will be locked up in an area where two other teen offenders
are segregated from the general prison population. Sometime between her
18th and 21st birthday, she will likely be transferred into the general
prison population.

For now, the prison will have corrections officers supervise her
round-the-clock and offer schooling and an on-call counselor and
psychologist, Pattison said.

She along with the other teens will have only "minimal" contact with
adult inmates, Pattison said. They do not eat meals or have recreation
with the adult prisoners.

Luttrull visited the prison before deciding whether to try Riddle as an
adult and came away convinced she would be safe from physical and sexual
abuse.

"I have been in prisons before and everything there from the odor to the
grounds is different," he said.

Riddle's case has attracted attention in part because of her troubled
childhood.

Her father is in prison, and her mother died two years ago.

She also ran away from home multiple times, Luttrull said.

Although she had no other serious criminal history, her crime was so
horrific prison is appropriate for her, he said.

The juvenile justice system, where counselors and psychologist evaluate
why a child becomes involved in crime, is always the best place for
troubled children, said Young of the Sentencing Project.

"We are going to pay a price for burying kids like this," he said,
"because we are also burying the reason they did it."

http://www.indystar.com/articles/9/152909-2429-009.html

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[kyla...@gmail.com]

I love my grandma and I miss her and sometimes I wonder why me why my family and why my grandma had to be murdered she was one of the best grandmas I had until one day everything got tore to pieces my grandmothers no longer with us and my family's fell apart I don't remember the last time I saw or talked to my grandfather Kenneth riddle or my mom twila toys brothers and sisters and I recently lost my uncle for overdos and now we've falling apart and can't get that fixed what's done is done and you can't take it back but if I could I want my grandma back I miss her I miss both of them nan and Karen they were my grandmas

[dann...@gmail.com]

What the fuck is this shit! You let your 13 not 14 year old sister and 2 of her worthless coward friends stab someone you love and was an amazing woman. You know what, the coroner has to stop counting stab wounds after 90 some am I was the one heard her confession if anyone thinks she’s anything less than a socialpath thank your an idiot. She admitted to trying to kill me twice before I let her go to my grandmas and my grandma loved that girl more than life itself so for her that to her it makes it worse. Every one can speculate but I heard sec by sec what happened I had to! It screwed me up an I stil have night mares but I did it for my grandma. I wish it would’ve been me cause I told every one she was putting toilet bowl cleaner in my ice xarsw I was pregnant I likes the smell of them an I was the only who ate a lot of ice. Oh then I woke up one night with her crawling on the floor of the side of my bed with a brand new big knife I just bought. I asked what the he’ll she was doing and she said she was getting toilet paper yeah with a big ass knife. In her confession she told them she was gonna slit my throat cause I had ate that ice for months. My two young kids were in bed with me! Can you just imagine if I woiisny Janet woken up and she actually accomplished what she wanted and my two kids wake up to that. So anyone who feels bad or sorry for her cause she was 13 think on that. I was there I heard all of her confession not to mention in count the vicitm get dragged threw the mudd just cause someone trying to get off on what they known they done. My mom and grandma weren’t very here to defend themselves now me I don’t given a shit I told I didn’t beat her but now I wish if of beat the f$&k out of he if it of saved me grandma life. Oh and she’s let my mom disabled English bulldog hang off the porch. I got another one and she slept in her room
Guess what the puppy comes up dead. So you need to be informed for you go feeling sorry for any of them when I assure you justice for her was not done all the way. Hell you can brutally murder some one when you 13 and be out in enough time to do it again smdh and Amanda Clark
Getting 2 f$&kn years! Really? They all deserved life for what they’d done to her. You take someone’s life you need to give yours for it in prison. I can’t even believe google would put such dumb shit I don’t care who thinking what have respect for her and the ones she loved. The detectives did An amazing job! Dorsey, Chet Johnson an another one. It’s been. 14 years let this it go get it off of here

[dann...@gmail.com]

I left out some key details like her confession! Iv never told anyone these things but if people are gonna defend and decide a 13 year old isn’t capable of understanding their actions then let me tell you. She said they waited in the closet waiting for my uncle to leave. Craig Cain was getting tired of waiting and the motive still is not clear I think it was about money but always Talia had told them my grandma was abusing her from the accounts Iv heard. In her confession she said they all stabbed her! My grandma fought with every thing she had and Craig Cain him self said she almost had him at one time! He first cut her vocal cords so there was no screaming for help. He broke 2 knifes stabbing her and grabbed 2 more. He was calling her a bitch an
Other names I wont say. He stabbed her in her eyes multiple times so she’d stop looking at him. Yeah this is not easy for me to do! Tears run down my face as I type this but it’s important for people who believe kids need rehabilitates or can be. Keep in mind the whole 3 hours an over she was laughing in between. I had to set and listen to every thing they did to her and then right before they walked out the door she reached her hand up for talias help even after knowing she had to of known Talia was in on it cause Talia stabbed her. Which Talia tried hiding in the closest like a coward. Talia walked right out the doo. They were going to chop her body up and dispose of it but they said she was too heavy. It took her 56 mins to die! Can you imagine 56 mins. She was all I had left! And she never deserves that. Talia also admitted to trying to kill me twice but I already knew that tried poisning me while I was 7 months pregnant. She was putting it my ice then I found her crawling on my floor around the bed on my side with a big knife I asked her what she was doing she said getting toilet paper. I took the knife told her to go to bed! She murdered my moms English bill dog hanged him off the porch and the female English bulldog I bought not long after. My grandma always took yo for Talia so of course when I kept tellimg every one she’s dangerous no one listened they thought I was crazy. Sad part is the last time I got to talk to my grandma was the day I let Talia leave. I blame myself an always will! I don’t why she hated me so much but it should’ve been me back then my mom passed from cancer 8 months earlier an I tried but the heart ache was just too much for me to bare. At the funeral every one was telling me how sorry they were for not listening I didn’t give a shit abt their apologies!
I told them to go to the casket and apologize to grandma cause she is the one who paid the ultimate price an it never should of happened. You should also know Craig cane left a msg on her answering machine 3 days earlier telling her he was gonna kill her and the cops did nothing but talk to him. I’m not saying anything bad bout the dectectives who worked her murder cause they went above and beyond for my family but that cop
Dropped the ball! I won’t say who he is cause he honestly was a good cop just dropped that it might An I know he has to live with that. So now for you go thinking kids are just kids think again. Now my families left here broken and left to live with what happened to her.
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