Killer's Mother Holds System Responsible:
Reason to Blow Up the World...
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A man who claimed he killed a 13-year-old neighbor because the boy's family had put a curse on him pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser crime -- and the killer's mother said the boy's tragic death could have been prevented.
Maurice Ashmore stabbed Raul Torres to death in January 2006. The boy's body was found on Berea Forest Circle, not far from his home by children who had gotten off a school bus. Torres was stabbed in the head, neck, chest and back.
Greenville sheriff's deputies found Ashmore, who was 20 at the time, behind a nearby home. Deputies said that Ashmore had self-inflicted, superficial wounds to his neck and the knife in his possession.
Ashmore's mother said that her son was schizophrenic and had refused to take his medication, but that she had tried desperately to get him help to prevent just such a tragedy.
Dr. Richard Frierson, who helped evaluate Ashmore, said, "At that time, he was noted to be experiencing auditory hallucinations -- hearing voices. He also had delusions about people who lived in his neighborhood -- they put a curse on him … causing things to happen to his body that was of great concern to him."
Ashmore's mother, Beverly Williams, said she was able to get her son into Carolina Behavioral Center for 10 days. She said they put him on medication, but then released him without warning her. She said the day after he was released, he had an episode.
Williams said, "On the sixth, we got him at the emergency room. The counselor talked to him for five minutes and said,' We can't force him to stay. We can't force him to take his medicine.'"
That's the problem right there. As a society we're more concerned with the feelings of the dangerously insane than the welfare of the public.
One point for the murder and one point for the hospital letting him out.
