Teen glues monitoring device to cat, escapes

[JayS]

July 7, 2004, 1:00PM
Teen glues monitoring device to cat, escapes
Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2667367



PRINCETON, W.Va. -- A "cunning" 14-year-old girl charged with murdering her father escaped from home confinement by removing an electronic monitoring device from her ankle and gluing it to a cat, authorities said.

*SNIP*

LaSala faces trial Sept. 7 as an adult on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the Feb. 23 stabbing of her father, Stephen LaSala.

*SNIP*



Kayla apparently managed to cut the monitor from her ankle, said Steven Collins, director of the home confinement program and the Day Report Center in Princeton. "It's not something you can just snatch off or take off," he said.

Removing the device set off an alarm, but Kayla was gone by the time police arrived.

"My officer informed me he thought it (the monitoring device) was super-glued on a cat," Collins said. The cat was not hurt, he said.

[Massacure]

1. Poor Cat :(

[Jack_DeLeon]

2. Important part...

The cat was not hurt, he said.

Tis good to know.

[NorthernSpy]

5. fortunately for the kitty, superglue is easily dissolved

Acetone or nail polish remover works great. Glad the cat's okay.

Me, I foresee trial in adult court for little Kayla once they catch her. "Displays of cunning" would generally work against a juvenile who tries to beat a murder rap, I guess.


Mary

[JayS]

8. I'm just glad that the cat was not arrested. Helping someone...

...escape is a feliney. The police have a hissy fit over that sort of thing. :)

[Jack_DeLeon]

3. Why the fuck...

was this girl only under house arrest instead of in jail?

She was charged with murdering someone? WTF?

I'm guessing this girl was white, and the judge thought she looked all nice and innocent. :eyes:

[iverglas]

11. other guesses

I'm guessing this girl was white, and the judge thought she looked all nice and innocent.

I can think of another possibility, off the top of my head, why a 14-yr-old girl might kill her father. I can also imagine the circumstances in question making it entirely reasonable to release the girl pending trial. I'm also aware that girls who endure what I'm thinking of often tend to be a little unruly, and to engage in defiant and self-destructive behaviour.

I'm not saying, of course. Just guessing, as long as that's what we're all doing.

[MrSandman]

24. Probably some of the "motivation" was considered...

Also, where do you put a juvenile indicted as an adult. WV doesn't have experience in that dept.

If the Judge's decision was racially biased, why was she being tried as an adult?

BTW, still on the lam.

ed fer spellin

[Liberal Classic]

4. I have a cunning plan!

With apologies to Baldrick!

[Spinzonner]

6. What a hare-brained scheme to escape

[slackmaster]

7. It's hard to argue with success

She DID escape.

[gatlingforme]

9. The girl should have been behind bars to begin with. Charged

with murdering her father is enough to warrant a high bond. They are going to charge her as an adult. very odd she was in home confinement.

[iverglas]

10. don't youse guys watch teevee?

Looks like the person in question did.

That was a cunning trick used by a character in a Law&Order episode, I believe one of this past season's SVUs.

Law&Order is usually art imitating life ("tales ripped from the headlines"), so maybe the escaper here was imitating the real life tale rather than the artful telling of it. Or maybe she thought it up herself.

(typo fixed)

[FatSlob]

12. Brilliant. WTF wasn't she in jail.

[happyslug]

13. Some more on her case, she sabbed her father??/

Teen appears in court on murder charges

Written by Alicia Suka

The fourteen year old girl accused of killing her father appeared in court Friday.....

The teenager is accused of fatally stabbing her father, forty eight year old Steven Michael Lasala in late February.....

The incident occurred at the family's residence on Country Girl Road in Bluefield, West Virginia.

....
Sergeant Beasley tells NewsChannel Six it will be determined in the next few weeks whether or not Lasala's case will be tried on adult status.
http://www.wvva.com/MarchArchive.html

[happyslug]

14. Stabed her father over 100 times????

This sounds like a crime of passion OR she has some severe mental problem:

http://www.bdtonline.com/articles/2004/07/08/news/03lasala.txt

http://www.bdtonline.com/articles/2004/07/07/news/01escape.txt

[slackmaster]

15. At least she didn't shoot him with a GUN

:eyes:

[MrBenchley]

16. Yeah, if she had, our "pro gun democrats" would be rending their garments

and gnashing their teeth that she was treated so harshly...

Not to mention all their screams of horror that the story was being posted at all....

[LibLabUK]

17. Questions

How does the prosecutor decide who should be tried as a child and who should be tried as an adult?

What is the desired effect of trying some children as adults?

Why aren't all children tried as adults?

[iverglas]

18. it's a right-wing fetish

The right wing in Canada is fixated on it, and recent changes in young offender legislation have made it easier to try children as adults, although it's nowhere near what goes on in the US. I don't even know of it happening much.

This, despite the fact that Quebec's education/rehabilitation approach, in particular, has been shown to be the most effective way of dealing with young offenders, in terms of actually preventing recidivism.

It's just another manifestation of finger-pointing and blame. If they couldn't point the finger at a 14-year-old (or anybody else) and blame him/her for all the ills of the world, they might have to look at what some of the real causes are and consider what might be done to actually solve the problems they cry crocodile tears over.

Why do something to address the sexual abuse of girls (I speak hypothetically here) when you can try the abused girls who kill their abusers as adults, dust your hands off, pat yourself on the back and get a rush of self-satisfied pleasure from it? Beats paying taxes to address poverty, child abuse, substance abuse, unemployment ... or dealing with tough issues like the messages that children receive from their society about the appropriateness of using violence against others. Dawg, somebody's liberty might end up being reduced a molecule or two.

The idea that trying children as adults does anything to deter/rehabilitate the child, or to deter other children, is of course abject nonsense. Children's brains are different; they aren't miniature adults, they're children. The big difference is their inability to assess and appreciate the risks of their actions and predict and appreciate the consequences. Trying (i.e. punishing) children as adults just makes a bunch of people feel superior. And hey, it probably lets some of them have closure.

[LibLabUK]

19. A follow-up..

Does Canada (or the US, if you happen to know) have an age below which one is not criminally liable for one's actions?

I believe the age here in the UK is 10.

[iverglas]

20. yup

Here's the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which replaced the Young Offenders Act in 2002, precisely to incorporate some of the right-wing notions in question: http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/y-1.5/

http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/y-1.5/sec2.html

"child" means a person who is or, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, appears to be less than twelve years old.

"young person" means a person who is or, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, appears to be twelve years old or older, but less than eighteen years old and, if the context requires, includes any person who is charged under this Act with having committed an offence while he or she was a young person or who is found guilty of an offence under this Act.

Under 12, no criminal liability; under 18, young offender.

The new Act is just full of statements of policy and principle, e.g. right at the beginning:
Policy: http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/y-1.5/sec3.html
Principles: http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/y-1.5/sec4.html
Objectives: http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/y-1.5/sec5.html
They're presumably more useful than a preamble, but not exactly enforceable. There are more "purpose and principles" under Sentencing. You'll find a whole lot of "holding accountable" in there.

[happyslug]

23. State specific

Remember each US State is viewed as "Sovereign" except for those power granted to the Federal Government. Criminal matters is generally a state matter so what is the age limit is state law dependent.

[Jack_DeLeon]

21. Some answers

How does the prosecutor decide who should be tried as a child and who should be tried as an adult?

Dont know, but its usually tied to the severity of the crime.

What is the desired effect of trying some children as adults?

Harsher punishments, longer jail time.

Usually juvenilles are released when they turn 18 (or maybe its 21), also thier records become sealed. So if that person goes on to later commit another crime the prosecutor cant show the jury thier past crimes.

Also you cant sentance someone to life or death if they are tried as a juvenille.

Why aren't all children tried as adults?

Not all of them should face harsher punishments.

I dont really have a problem with older kids who murder or violently rape someone getting punished as an adult.

However kids who shoplift or other similar stupid shit shouldnt be going to prison.

[happyslug]

22. Pictures of fugitive

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=27396

[happyslug]

25. They Caught her....in Florida with a man she meet over the net...

http://www.bdtonline.com/articles/2004/07/15/news/01trapped.txt

[Endangered Specie]

26. That was one very wanted pussy.

i could imagine the looks on cops faces when they realize what theyd been chasing :)