Of all of the episodes of this program, this one disturbed me the most.
“If this is not a heinous murder, then there will never be one,” is one of the opening quotes in this 8th episode. This week we meet Ronald, a 17 year old who participated in an 8-10 hour torture session. The body had lain for such a long time, all that was left were skeletal remains. They were able— miraculously, I’d say— to hydrate one of the fingers and get a print which they matched to a missing person.
Ronald’s girlfriend Crystal— a 16 year old who had been kicked out of her home— rented a room in the house of the victim and Ronald was a frequent visitor. Once identified, police went to his home and these two told the police that the victim moved out and they had no idea where he went. After doing a luminol test, the police found blood spatter on the wall and carpet. Renee, a friend of Crystal, was also living in the house and participated in the crime.
One of the jurors believed that Ronald and Crystal wanted the victim gone so they could have the apartment for themselves. According to Renee, the girls began seducing the victim and Ronald came up from behind and put the guy in a chokehold. He then told the girls to beat him with a baseball bat. When he was knocked out, they rolled him up in a carpet, took him to the woods, chained him to a tree and took turns hitting him with the bat. When it was Ronald’s turn, he said, “Look at me, I’m Babe Ruth,” and hit the victim in the head as hard as he could several times with the bat. He then beat him about the body breaking many bones. Crystal suggested that they burn him. The victim begged for his life and they burned him alive.
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I am only 7 minutes into the show at this point and weep for humanity. I don’t care what happens later, these monsters should be in jail for life. Even that is too good for them. What the HELL is wrong with people?! They’re kids! Where do they get it in their mind to beat and torture someone? Oh my God.
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Anyway, getting back to this horrific tale, after a quick trial, Crystal got life without parole, Renee pled to a lesser crime after agreeing to testify against the others and I did not hear them say what kind of time she got. The jury recommended the death penalty for Ronald but that was changed to life without parole later. then came this court ruling about juveniles and life without and here we are to see if Ronald gets a hearing.
The victim’s family declined to participate in this program. Ronald is now 36 and hopes this hearing results in his release. He is interviewed with the low tech, horrible quality of a cheap camera being trained on him while he talks on a prison telephone. He goes on a bit about how hard it is in prison and that he was young when he arrived. They transferred him to the county jail SEVEN years ago to await this hearing. We’re then told that he only is allowed out of his cell once a week for an hour. His lawyers say his brain was not developed when he did this. A psychologist has been evaluating him.
Oh my God!
We’re then told that the next day, the victim, beaten to a pulp and burned was still alive! He was trying to call for help. Unfortunately, Crystal and Ron heard him as they walked by so Ron decided to finish him off by breaking his neck. Since he was so burned and bloody, he could not get a grip on him so they drove to a department store and bought a meat cleaver. The prosecutor said something that will say with me for a very long time. He said he just kept thinking how horrible it must have been for the victim to see that the people returning to respond to his pleas for help were these two. Once Ron cut his throat with the cleaver and walked way, the victim was still calling out so Ron went back with the cleaver and finished him off.
The investigator that worked this case is still traumatized by this crime. That comes across very clearly. They give a lot of info on the victim: was in the military, church going, nice guy, divorced…
Back to Ronald in prison. I had to rewind a few times to make sure i heard this right. Ronald says, “I’m not a monster. If people went back to see who I was and what I was doing, to say that I’m a monster, that doesn’t fit. That doesn’t make any sense.” I have no words for that statement.
I am losing my mind here watching this. And it’s only 23 minutes in!
A “mitigation specialist” tells us that Ron was very polite, respectful and easy to work with and she was surprised when she read about what he had done. She thinks that the person he is now and that person he supposedly was back then just don’t jibe well. Um, excuse me ma’am, with all due respect, WTF does being polite to you in a meeting have to do with anything? Who cares if it does not fit with what you know of him. He tortured someone FFS.
Back to Ron on the cheap phone. “I’m not a monster. I’m not evil. I went to the YMCA and coached kids.” Oh and lest we forget, every Thursday he’d go back to his old elementary school and read to the third graders and was very active in his local church youth group. I just can’t.
Ron has a nice family, says a friend of his. He says Ron was a nice guy and really liked Crystal a lot and would go really into his feelings when they talked about girls? Sounds like he was coached to say that because it sounded weird. They were trying to make him sound like a kind hearted soul or something.
Then we get his defense attorney telling us that since his father was a pastor, he had that morality thing going on. Right, morality is torturing another human being and pretending you're Babe Ruth with someone’s head and body. “He was a good kid.” No priors for Ron or Crystal.
The psychologist says he had no history of violence. People described him as helpful to a fault. The investigator tells us that Crystal was a huge influence on Ron and the implication there is that this innocent boy with great grades, from a religious home, and who got a job to pay for Crystal’s rented room after being thrown out of her house was influenced by this troubled girl. If that is the angle that they wanted to portray, fine, however, they just spent 30 minutes feeding us the ingredients that made up a depraved, violent, disgusting waste product of a person and now we’re supposed to spin and say, “Oh wait, he was just swell. It was all her fault!” Not happening.
The “mitigation” person tells us that going to school, dealing with his family (wait, I thought they were wonderful? they told us everything was great at home), having a job and spending on his girlfriend were so much to handle. Show of hands, how many others out there worked in high school like I did and kept up with schoolwork, friends, and a boyfriend/girlfriend? Not sure how those things would turn someone into a powder keg.
Back to the victim: his friend says he was nuts to allow two underage girls to move into his house. I totally agree. Word-- from Crystal the convicted-- was that he was approaching her sexually and showed her his privates. When she rebuffed him, he threw her up against the wall. This could definitely have happened. An adult male allowing underage girls to live with him in his home is just asking for all kinds of trouble.
Crystal is heard on recording sound like she is fake crying saying he walked around in briefs, asked her to have sex with him and pushed her when she said no. She said she thought it was disgusting. The psychologist says Ron was protecting her. the “mitigation” person tells us that his brain was overloaded and he did not know how to handle this situation. So essentially he exploded.
The prosecutor tells us that Ron went to the apartment carrying the rope and chain. Doesn’t sound like a sudden explosive act to me. After the torture and killing, they tossed the bat off a bridge and returned the cleaver to the department store. They are shown on video waiting for a refund, and the girls are petting and stroking the cleaver “in a sexual way” on the counter and laughing. Then they went home and slept in the victim’s bed all giddy because the month’s rent had been paid. They took his checks, forged his signature and cashed them. Crystal showed off the body to her younger sister. The investigator insists that this was a cold, calculated, premeditated murder. And I believe him.
A new psych comes on to tell us that it’s not helpful to just look at the crime 20 years later. That people mature as they grow up. I say to that that being sent to prison is punishment for a crime you committed. I don’t care if you grow up to be a super nice person after you mature in jail. If you savagely murdered another human being in the manner that this guy did, all bets are off and your ass belongs in prison for good.
Ron says he’d make a different decision today. That he was impulsive then. All teens are impulsive. This was something else entirely, IMO. The victim’s friend wrote a letter to the newspaper about this new re-sentencing law asking who is going to speak for his friend. The friend breaks down at this point with hands shaking. He attended the hearing, as did the victim’s parents, ex-wife and daughter.
There was now just a commercial that says “Next week, [the season finale] three will be re-sentenced.” I remember last week said To Be Continued, and it looks like this week, we won’t learn what happens to Ronald, but who is the other one? There was a woman saying “I’m sorry” in court. Did we see an episode with a woman defendant? I don’t remember that and wondered as the season went on why there were no female prisoners profiled. Maybe the finale is that gal’s story followed by updates on the others? I guess we’ll see.
UPDATE: At the end of the program we see that the woman was Crystal and she will have her hearing first followed by Ron. The other is the continued case from last week.
These “continued” episodes were a bad idea. Most of the episodes of this program were closed in the hour which is how it should be. The victim’s daughter and ex-wife testified at the hearing. His parents were a mess. The defense attorney says the judge needs to hear about the human side of Ron. Oh, but we won’t be hearing that from Ron because he’s not going to testify. Uh-huh. The warden says he only had three disciplinary issues and has been a model inmate. His pastor father testifies. His lawyer once again says that a teenager does not view things with an adult mindset. We’re brought back to the whole teenage impulse, girlfriend excuse. If he's such a model inmate and has changed to much, why did he not testify? What could he possibly do to damage his chances here if he has nothing to hide and is truly remorseful? Something is rotten in Denmark.
The prosecutor says essentially that an impulse killing does not drag on for ten hours and over two days Ron kept choosing to do one thing and another. “It’s not like he just took a gun and shot him. Or beat him with the bat. He made choice after choice, after choice.” (paraphrased).
The judge tells us that he will set a date for sentencing. The show closes with the investigator saying he was looking for some type of change or remorse from Ron but he didn’t see it. He had a cold stare, did not look at the victim’s family and does not think he should be released. I don’t either. Crystal can rot in jail too.
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