He won’t be, because he’s only 16
But he should be, if he is indeed guilty. Cops have a confession, but I’ve seen a boatload of cases where someone has given a detailed confession (and sometimes there’s even “eye witnesses” or jail house informants to help bolster the story) and then lo and behold they’re not actually guilty. Since he wasn’t caught red-handed in the middle of the crime and since so far I’m not hearing about any forensic evidence to support the case, I’ll reserve judgment for now.
On Tuesday, a 16-year old Virginia boy was charged with having beaten his 22-year old sister, Betsy Smith, with a sledgehammer, after which he then stabbed and raped her. When his two year old niece (the child of another sister) began crying, she was struck in the head with the sledgehammer. A one year old boy was also in the room but was unharmed. When the alleged assailant, Walter Smith, Jr. was done, he locked the children in the room with his dead sister and presumably went about his business.
But wait! That’s not all!
Here’s the part where everything gets real hokey sounding … rather than summarize, I’m going to cut and paste it word for word. Am I alone in saying something is Really Not Right™ here?
Sheriff Smith said a detective went to the house Monday night after a hospital worker called to report a suspected case of child abuse after [Andrea] Costello [the 2-year old] was brought in for treatment. The toddler was later flown to a hospital in Richmond and listed in serious but stable condition with a fractured skull and nose.
A detective found family members of the child, including Walter Smith, in the house, the sheriff said. The detective found the dead body of Betsy Smith inside the padlocked room.
The sheriff said the children were not found until one of them began crying on Monday afternoon and Betsy and Walter Smith’s mother, Mary Smith, told Walter to go check on them.
“Her face was messed up,” Mary Smith said of Costello, who was the child of another one of Mary Smith’s daughters. “I asked Andrea after I cleaned her face up what happened to her. She said she fell and bumped her head against the fuse box.”
Mary Smith said she does not believe Walter Smith killed his sister.
“He don’t remember nothing he did,” she said. “He was out of it or something like that. It was an accident. He don’t remember that stuff.”
Mary Smith said her son had no history of violence, but said he was on medication for depression.
The two year old told her grandma she fell against the fuse box and banged her head. Uh huh. And Walter conveniently doesn’t remember “nothing he did” but if he did it, it was an accident. Or he was out of it. Or something like that. Uh huh. And if the three of them were locked inside the room … and one of the babies started crying and Mom sent Walter in … and he brought the baby out for her to be taken to the hospital … didn’t anyone think to ask where Betsy was? Did anyone wonder why the two kids were locked in the room alone? (He would’ve had to have told them they were alone, since he clearly didn’t tell them about Betsy, right?) And doesn’t it strike mom/grandma as just a teeny bit odd that Walter didn’t bother to mention the dead body of his sister in the bedroom when he went to get the crying kid but now suddenly there she is? WTF?!
FOXNews.com – Virginia Teen Charged With Raping, Killing Sister, Beating Toddler Niece With Sledgehammer
