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Where were the parents? Children accused in deadly beating
| Saturday, Jul 12 2008 12:00 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Jul 14 2008 2:21 PM
When five children — some as young as 13 — were accused of viciously, and fatally, beating an 81-year-old man in an alley at 5 a.m., many residents voiced the same question: Where were the parents?
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THE CHARGES
The following list includes some of the charges brought against the parents of the five juveniles charged with beating an 81-year-old man to death:
William Ellis Wandick III
Father:
WILLIAM ELLIS WANDICK JR.
At least three felony convictions, including drug possession, selling drugs and second-degree burglary. The longest he was sentenced to prison was six years for burglary plus enhancements in 1996. Killed in what is believed to have been a gang-related shooting.
Mother:
BERNICE LAWINN JACKSON
One felony conviction for cocaine possession in 2001.
Robert Curtis Smith III
Father: ROBERT CURTIS SMITH
No felony arrests or convictions. Only two misdemeanor arrests.
Mother:
SAMIKA LACHELLE ENGLISH
One felony conviction on drug charges. She then failed a drug program and spent time in custody.
Demitris King
Father: EDWARD KING
Temporarily released from a drug rehabilitation center and never returned. He was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison after pleading no contest to escaping from the center.
Mother:
LILLIE ESTHER RANDLE
Pleaded no contest to second-degree burglary after she and another woman were arrested for burglaries at a Radio Shack and Mor Furniture. She was sentenced to two years in prison.
Christopher Jones
Father: LACEY (last name could not be found)
Mother: MARILYN DENISE JONES
Sentenced to two years in prison in 1993 after pleading no contest to drug possession.
Nathaniel Maurice Johnson Jr.
Father: NATHANIEL MAURICE JOHNSON
Pleaded no contest to robbery and was sentenced to a total of six years in prison in 1997. He was accused, along with another suspect, of wearing ski masks and robbing a woman at gunpoint in her residence.
Mother: ANGELA LEE MOSLEY
Sentenced to two years in prison for selling cocaine in 1990 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison in 1995 for stealing items including a TV and remote-controlled car from a neighbor’s residence.
Photos:
William Wandick III, 13, plead guilty Thursday to the beating death of Ezequiel Jimenez Perez.
Robert Smith III, 13 one of five suspects in the beating death of Ezequiel Jimenez Perez. He was in juvenile court Wednesday.
Demitris King, convicted in the beating death of Ezequiel Jimenez, got a good laugh out of his friend's antics on the first day of his two-day trial.
Marilyn Jones is the mother of Christopher Jones, 14, who is one of five suspects in the beating death of Ezequiel Jimenez Perez. He was in juvenile court Wednesday.
Nathaniel Johnson Jr., 14, pictured in this file photo, testified against Demetris King Wednesday.
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If their criminal records are any indication, the parents may have been frequently absent from their children’s lives. Most of the parents have felony criminal records.
There’s no clear-cut explanation as to why the juveniles allegedly killed Ezequiel Jimenez Perez on June 14. But it’s possible the behavior of their parents gradually led them down the wrong path.
Their parents have more than a dozen felony convictions on their criminal records and most have spent at least a year in prison. Most of the convictions involved using or selling drugs, but there are also indications that some of them were either gang members or were connected to gangs.
Perhaps the most glaring example is William Wandick Jr., the father of William Wandick III. He alone has several felony convictions listed in Superior Court records.
Wandick Jr. was fatally shot in June 2006 in the 1600 block of Quincy Street. Deputies believe the shooting was gang-related.
That kind of criminal background can have a profound impact on children, according to a 2000 state report.
Dr. Charlene Wear Simmons of the California Research Bureau suggests in the report that children whose parents have been behind bars may suffer from multiple psychological problems and react through truancy, drug and alcohol abuse and aggression.
PROBLEMS LOCALLY
Elizabeth B. Gong, Kern County’s probation division director of juvenile services, has a job that puts her in regular contact with teens with unstable home lives, including parents in prison.
Gong says she’s seen multiple generations come through her door. Not surprisingly, she says children raised in those kinds of families are likely to visit the probation department again and again. “In some cases there’s not a lot of positive feedback for (juveniles) to act good,” Gong said.
There are about 6,000 children currently on probation right now. The probation department has programs to help both teens and parents.
Susan D. Lerude, probation division director of juvenile programs, said parents need to be willing to make an effort to help their children. In one of their programs, families with at-risk children ended up becoming friends and making plans to help each other through the tough times.
Providing services to children at an early age is the best chance of stopping the cycle of crime seen in many families, Lerude said.
GANG INFLUENCE
Each of the juveniles charged with the beating death are alleged to have gang ties.
Of the children currently on juvenile probation, about 2,000 are involved in gangs, Gong said.
It’s not uncommon to find that juveniles in gangs also have parents with gang ties.
Supervising Deputy District Attorney Michael J. Vendrasco estimated he’s seen that situation in about 75 percent of the gang cases he’s handled.
Sometimes it takes some time in custody to get a teen to change his ways, Vendrasco said. Some teens don’t change and go on to be criminals as adults.
“When there’s a stiff sentence handed down in juvenile court, that sometimes wakes the kids up, so to speak,” Vendrasco said.
“Parents often make excuses for their children’s behavior when they should be cracking down on them and instilling moral value,” he added.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Maniord, who works in the gang unit, often comes across juvenile gangsters with parents who are also in gangs. He said that, typically, the children are raised in that environment and it becomes their lifestyle as they grow older.
“Is it common? Yes,” he said.
Maniord has seen pictures where fathers are teaching their toddlers how to flash gang signs. The sheriff’s gang unit is even investigating a case where a father and son, both gangsters, were shot by rival gang members.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The behavior of parents certainly has an impact on children, but it doesn’t necessarily determine that the child is going to be a criminal, police Sgt. Greg Terry said.
He’s seen children of parents with criminal records get arrested themselves, but he’s also seen children who went in the opposite direction and didn’t get in trouble.
“Parents have an impact both for the good and the bad, but ultimately people need to take responsibility for themselves,” Terry said.
Maniord also said there’s no common set of factors that will make a child become a criminal. There have been cases where parents who have done serious prison time have children who grow up to live a completely different crime-free life.
Three of the juveniles charged with the fatal beating of Perez could possibly face adult charges and a life sentence. The two 13-year-olds can’t be charged as adults under law and could only be held until they’re 25 if convicted.
A hearing for Jones was scheduled for July 15 and hearings for the others were scheduled for July 22.
Both Gong and Lerude said the case was among the worst they’ve come across.
“It’s just a sad day,” Lerude said. “There are no winners.”