February 2021 | Page 33 of 54

John Silva Teen Killer Murders 12 Year Old

John Silva was fifteen years old when he murdered his twelve year old playmate. According to court documents John Silva planned on killing the twelve year old in advance and made a list of items he had to do including stripping the victim, covering his eyes and gag. When John Silva had isolated the victim he strangled the twelve year old boy then dropped his body into an empty septic tank.

Police and volunteers searched the area where the boy was reported missing. A citizen called police to notify them about an abandoned car and when police came out to investigate a woman came forward saying she had a dream where the victims body could be found. The volunteer firefighter at the scene investigated where the woman had indicated and underneath a wooden pallet found the body of the victim at the bottom of the septic tank. John Silva came up as a person of interest and soon after being interrogated he admitted to killing the twelve year old boy. This teen killer was found guilty at trial and sentenced to life without parole

John Silva 2023 Information

DC Number:	V12511
Name:	SILVA, JOHN A
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	04/04/1985
Initial Receipt Date:	03/16/2001
Current Facility:	EVERGLADES C.I.
Current Custody:	CLOSE
Current Release Date:	SENTENCED TO LIFE

John Silva Other News

A 15-year-old boy was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for strangling a younger playmate and dumping his body into a dry septic tank. John Silva, who showed no reaction to the sentence, was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder. The body of his victim, 12-year-old Jerry Lee Alley Jr., was found hog-tied at the bottom of the tank last May. A note found with the body included the lines, “strip to underware,” “tie up hands,” “gag” and “cover eyes.” Investigators said it was written by Silva, who was a neighbor and schoolmate of Alley in a rural neighborhood of Interlachen, about 15 miles west of Palatka in northeast Florida. “Jerry was a special boy,” said his grandmother, Anne Alley. “Our lives have changed forever. If you kill somebody there is a consequence.” Jerry Alley, whose parents were divorced, lived with his grandparents, who had adopted him. Assistant State Attorney Garry Wood said he thought Silva would kill again if he were freed from prison. “John Silva is getting what he deserved,” he said after sentence was passed. Last week, a 14-year-old Miami boy, Lionel Tate, was ordered to serve the rest of his life in prison without parole for killing a 6-year-old girl his mother was babysitting. At his trial, defense attorneys argued that Tate accidentally killed Tiffany Eunick in July 1999 while imitating pro wrestling moves he had seen on television. Public backlash over that life sentence led to Tate’s speedy transfer from an adult prison to a maximum-security juvenile facility north of Lake Okeechobee, and to pressure for Gov. Jeb Bush to consider commuting his sentence. Amnesty International voiced concern about the case. No such public campaign has come together over Silva’s sentencing. Only Silva’s mother, Cynthia Silva, has asked that her son be sent to a juvenile facility, and Circuit Judge A.W. Nichols agreed to ask the state to do that. “I still do not feel he did this crime,” Silva said. “He is immature. He is book smart, but he is not street smart. He does not understand most of the process and what is going on.” Nichols denied motions for a new trial and for a judgment of acquittal. He also rejected Assistant Public Defender John Stephenson’s argument that sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole is unconstitutional. Alley’s grandfather, Marvin Alley, has been hospitalized with post-traumatic stress syndrome and is still having trouble dealing with the slaying. “I’ve got such a hollow pit in my life,” he said. The Alley and Silva families, who embraced after the verdict last month, were not as warm Thursday. “I have no animosity toward the Silva family,” Anne Alley said. “Hatred and animosity are wasted emotions.” Jurors in the trials of both Tate and Silva had the option of considering second-degree murder or manslaughter convictions.

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John Silva is currently incarcerated at the Everglades Correctional Institute

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John Silva is serving life without parole

Jamie Silvonek Teen Killer Murders Mother

Jamie Silvonek was fourteen when she helped murder her mother. According to court documents fourteen year old Jamie Silvonek began dating twenty one year old Caleb Barnes and when her mother found out she threatened to phone the police. The young couple were returning from a concert when they brutally attacked the mother, stabbing her in the neck. This teen killer would be convicted and sentenced to thirty five years to life and Caleb Barnes received a life sentence

Jamie Silvonek 2023 Information

Parole Number:OX8508
Age: 18
Date of Birth: 02/24/2001
Race: WHITE
Height: 5′ 04″
Gender: FEMALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: FAIR
Current Location: MUNCY
Permanent Location: MUNCY
Committing County: LEHIGH

Jamie Silvonek Other News

Attorneys for a teenager convicted in the murder of her mother in eastern Pennsylvania four years ago are seeking a new trial, calling the outcome of her case “shocking.”

Now-18-year-old Jamie Silvonek was sentenced to 35 years to life after pleading guilty in the Lehigh County killing of 54-year-old Cheryl Silvonek in 2015, when the teen was 14. Co-defendant Caleb Barnes of El Paso, Texas, a soldier at Fort Meade, Maryland, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Authorities said Barnes stabbed the victim in her car after Barnes, Cheryl Silvonek and Jamie Silvonek returned home from a concert. Prosecutors said the woman had threatened to report Barnes, then 21, to police for having sex with her underage daughter

Silvonek testified at Barnes’ trial that she plotted the murder and urged her boyfriend, in a series of texts, to carry it out. Jurors rejected Barnes’ argument at trial that the girl killed her mother and he only helped dispose of the body later because she said she was pregnant.

Silvonek’s new attorneys argue that not enough evidence was presented by her previous defense about her background and mental health, leading to what they called “an inaccurate, myopic view of Jamie as lying, manipulative and savvy beyond her years,” The (Allentown) Morning Call reported.

Her previous attorney, John Waldron, defended his representation Tuesday and said he “wouldn’t have done anything differently.” He said he called three expert witnesses seeking to have her tried as a juvenile, but once the judge ruled against that his options were limited. Prosecutors wouldn’t drop the first-degree murder charge and the judge warned that she wouldn’t accept a plea deal for a sentence less than 35 years, he said.

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Jamie Silvonek is incarcerated at the Muncy Facility in Pennsylvania

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Jamie Silvonek is not eligible for parole until 2050

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Christopher Simmons Teen Killer Sentenced To Death

Christopher Simmons was seventeen years old when he would murder a woman in Missouri. According to court documents Christopher Simmons and two younger friends Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer would plan a robbery and a murder. John Tessmer would drop out of the plan however Christopher Simmons and Charles Benjamin would kidnap the woman after breaking into her home and then throwing her off a bridge with her hands bound where she would drown. Christopher Simmons and John Tessmer would both be arrested and charged with the murder.

This teen killer was initially sentenced to death however after bringing his case to the Supreme Court stating it was unconstitutional to execute a juvenile the Supreme Court would agree and juveniles in the United States were no longer eligible for the death penalty.

Christopher Simmons 2019 Information

DOC ID	990111
Offender Name	Christopher L Simmons
Race	White
Sex	Male
Date of Birth	04/26/1976
Height/Weight	5’11” / 176
Hair/Eyes	Blonde/Strawberry / Blue
Assigned Location	Southeast Correctional Center
Address	300 East Pedro Simmons Drive, Charleston, MO 63834
Assigned Officer		Phone Number	(573) 683-4409
Sentence Summary	Life W/O Parole
Active Offenses	MURDER 1ST DEGREE
Completed Offenses	MURDER 1ST DEGREE
Aliases	Christopher L Simmons

Christopher Simmons Other News

This case, which originated in Missouri, involved Christopher Simmons, who in 1993 at the age of 17 concocted a plan to murder Shirley Crook, bringing two younger friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, into the plot.

The plan was to commit burglary and murder by breaking and entering, tying up a victim, and tossing the victim off a bridge. The three met in the middle of the night; however, Tessmer then dropped out of the plot. Simmons and Benjamin broke into Mrs. Crook’s home, bound her hands and covered her eyes. They drove her to a state park and threw her off a bridge.

Once the case went to trial, the evidence was overwhelming. Simmons had confessed to the murder, performed a videotaped reenactment at the crime scene, and there was testimony from Tessmer against him that showed premeditation (he discussed the plot in advance and later bragged about the crime). The jury returned a guilty verdict.

Even considering mitigating factors (no criminal history, sympathy from Simmons’ family, and most significantly for the later appeal, his age), the jury nonetheless recommended a death sentence, which the trial court imposed.

Simmons first moved for the trial court to set aside the conviction and sentence, citing, in part, ineffective assistance of counsel. His age, and thus impulsiveness, along with a troubled background were brought up as issues that Simmons claimed should have been raised at the sentencing phase. The trial court rejected the motion, and Simmons appealed.

The case worked its way up the court system, with the courts continuing to uphold the death sentence. However, in light of a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), that overturned the death penalty for the mentally retarded, Simmons filed a new petition for state post conviction relief, and the Missouri Supreme Court concluded that “a national consensus has developed against the execution of juvenile offenders” and sentenced Simmons to life imprisonment without parole.

The State of Missouri appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. (Donald P. Roper, the Superintendent of the correctional facility where Simmons was held, was a party to the action because it was brought as a petition for a writ of Habeas corpus.)

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Christopher Simmons is serving life without parole

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3/1/2005 – US Supreme Court prohibits death penalty for juvinile killer. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a Missouri Supreme Court case involving death penalty eligibility for minors. At issue was the case of Christopher Simmons, who was 17-years-old when he kidnapped neighbor Shirley Crook in 1993, tied her, and threw her off a bridge in St. Louis County. Prosecutors claimed Simmons had boasted that because of his age he could get away with killing the woman. Initially, Christopher Simmons was sentenced to death, but his attorneys argued he should not be executed because of his age at the time of the killing. The State Supreme Court agreed. It set aside Simmons’ death sentence and resentenced him to life in prison with no chance for probation or parole. The US Supeme Court has ruled the Missouri Supreme Court took the appropriate action. In making its ruling, the court has barred the death penalty for all killers throughout the country who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes.

8/26/03 Missouri Supreme Court resentences Christopher Simmons to life without parole. A habeas corpus proceeding from Jefferson County involving the constitutionality of the death penalty for a juvenile who committed murder in St. Louis County. It was argued Wednesday, March 5, 2003. In a 4-3 decision written by Judge Stith, the Court set aside Simmons’ death sentence and resentenced him to life imprisonment without eligibility for probation, parole or release except by act of the governor

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Tia Skinner Teen Killer Orchestrated Parents Murder

Tia Skinner was seventeen when she orchestrated the murder of her father and attempted murder of her mother in Michigan. According to court documents Tia Skinner was upset that her parents did not approve of her boyfriend so she planned their murders. On the night of the attack Tia Skinner would convince her boyfriend and another man to attack her parents and they would stab her father to death and her mother was stabbed numerous times but would survive the brutal assault. Tia Skinner would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole, the two attackers would receive the same sentence. This teen killer has been up for resentencing three times however her sentence has not changed.

Tia Skinner 2023 Information

MDOC Number:814780

SID Number:4111210L

Name:TIA MARIEMITCHELL SKINNER

Racial Identification:Black

Gender:Female

Hair:Black

Eyes:Brown

Height:5′ 6″

Weight:205 lbs.

Date of Birth:12/08/1992

Tia Skinner Other News

A former honors student who was convicted of plotting to have her father stabbed to death when she was 17 years old was sentenced Thursday to life in a Michigan prison without parole — the same punishment she first received in 2011.

Tia Skinner returned to court after a U.S. Supreme Court decision barred mandatory no-parole sentences for youths under 18 convicted of first-degree murder. A St. Clair County judge was free to give Skinner a shot at parole but settled again on a sentence that means she’ll never leave prison.

“Justice demands that you serve not one day less,” Judge Daniel Kelly said.

Skinner was just a month shy of her 18th birthday in late 2010 when two young men attacked her parents in their bed in Yale, 85 miles northeast of Detroit. Paul Skinner was stabbed to death, while Mara Skinner survived 26 stab wounds.

The evidence showed that Tia Skinner orchestrated the attack because she was upset at her parents’ disapproval of her boyfriend, a 19-year-old man who was also convicted in the killing. She left a window open and a ladder outside the house. She drew a map of the neighborhood, used text messages to communicate with the killers and chose knives.

“Tia was the architect of the plan,” the judge said.

Tia Skinner, now 20, said she was sorry for what happened and acknowledged she could have stopped the attack.

“I am the coward that everyone says I am,” she told Kelly.

Mara Skinner was in court but did not speak. Three relatives, however, urged the judge to show no mercy during emotional statements that seemed to be aimed more at Tia Skinner than the judge.

“How did that knife feel — foot-long and an inch-and-a half wide? You didn’t just bring a paring knife,” said an uncle, Ken Skinner.

“We’re together. You’re not. You’re out,” he said of the family. “You shouldn’t see no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Kelly said the Supreme Court struck down automatic no-parole sentences for teenagers because it felt that vulnerable, immature young people deserved a thorough hearing and shouldn’t be treated the same as adults. But the nation’s top court still didn’t remove the possibility of life without parole.

Defense attorney John Livesay called the attack “egregious” and “incomprehensible” but said Tia Skinner otherwise had a spotless life and deserved a chance at freedom.

The judge, however, said she didn’t suffer from the disadvantages experienced by other kids who don’t comprehend the consequences of committing crimes.

At the time, Tia Skinner was a high school senior soon to be accepted to Western Michigan University. She was active in her church and performed in the school band. Paul and Mara Skinner adopted her after her birth by a prison inmate.

“She was not affected by peer pressure. She was not a follower,” the judge said.

The two young men also convicted of first-degree murder weren’t under 18 and aren’t entitled to a new sentence.

https://www.mlive.com/news/2013/07/tia_skinner_again_sentenced_to.html

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Tia Skinner’s case was again in front of court of appeals judges, but this time to weigh in on the trial judge’s discretion in sentencing the teen killer.

Previously, the appeals court and state supreme court ruled on whether it should be the judge or a jury that can hand out a life sentence without parole to an offender who was a juvenile at the time of the crime. Ultimately, the state supreme court ruled a judge does have the ability to do so.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly has sentenced Skinner to life in prison without parole three times, each hearing following decisions regarding youth lifers in the higher courts.

Hilary Georgia, St. Clair County assistant prosecutor, said the latest ruling was encouraging, as it upheld the sentence and affirmed a greater reach of victim-impact statements and didn’t require prosecution to meet a burden of proof.

Tia Skinner was found guilty by a jury of first-degree premeditated murder and attempted murder in August 2011.

Officials have said she was the architect of an attack on her parents as they slept in their Yale home in Nov. 12, 2010. Paul Skinner died after chasing two men with knives from his home. His wife, Mara, survived.

Jonathan Kurtz and James Preston, who were both over 18 at the time, were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

During their three separate trials, jurors were shown a map of the house and neighborhood made for the men by Skinner, as well as a list of tips. They were also presented with evidence that Skinner had left the knives to be used in the attack on her bed, had cut the screen in her window for their entry and even left a step-ladder for easy entry.

“The evidence showed that defendant was intricately involved in the plot to kill her parents. She formulated the idea and took steps to facilitate the killings. She drew a map to help direct her co-defendants to her parents and she took action to prevent her brother Jeffrey, a trauma nurse, from rendering aid,” the appeals court opinion states. “She sent text messages to the co-defendants leading up to the attack. Defendant agreed that she had an opportunity to stop the attacks before they happened, but she did not do so.”

Georgia said a highlight in the opinion was the court allowing for victim statements from individuals who are not technically victims under the Crime Victims Rights Act.

“I think that’s good news for victims,” she said, adding so much focus is being put on the defendants in the youth lifer cases.

Many of those cases are waiting on the Skinner case to play out, as it is setting precedence for future cases.

Georgia said the prosecutor’s office has not scheduled re-sentencing in any of the other St. Clair County juvenile lifer cases.

“There hasn’t been any push from the defense to get those on the docket,” she said.

Jimmy Porter was 16 when he killed Bette Giuliani and her four children in Brockway Township in 1982.

Raymond Carp was 15 at the time he helped his brother kill a Casco Township woman in 2006.

Mike Hills was 17 and one of six men charged with killing Ryan Rich in 2005

https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/local/2018/11/15/michigan-appeals-court-upholds-tia-skinners-sentence/2002430002/

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Eric Smith Teen Killer Murders 4 Year Old Boy

Eric Smith was thirteen years old when he murdered a four year old child. According to court documents Smith was tired of being bullied and decided to focus his anger on the four year old child who he lured to a forest area and struck the boy repeatedly with a rock. Smith would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to nine years to life in prison. This teen killer has been denied parole repeatedly since 2002. Eric Smith was granted parole in 2021 and released from prison in February 2022

Eric Smith 2022 Information

DIN (Department Identification Number)	01A0430
Inmate Name	SMITH, ERIC M
Sex	MALE
Date of Birth	01/22/1980
Race / Ethnicity	WHITE
Custody Status	IN CUSTODY
Housing / Releasing Facility	WOODBOURNE
Date Received (Original)	01/22/2001
Date Received (Current)	01/22/2001
Admission Type	NEW COMMITMENT
County of Commitment	STEUBEN
Latest Release Date / Type (Released Inmates Only)

Aggregate Minimum Sentence	0009 Years, 00 Months, 00 Days
Aggregate Maximum Sentence	LIFE Years, 99 Months, 99 Days
Earliest Release Date	10/2021
Earliest Release Type	PAROLE HEARING DATE
Parole Hearing Date	10/2021
Parole Hearing Type	REAPPEARANCE
Parole Eligibility Date	08/06/2002
Conditional Release Date	NONE
Maximum Expiration Date	LIFE

Eric Smith Other News

For the ninth straight time, child killer Eric Smith was denied parole.

Smith, who was convicted of killing 4-year-old Derrick Robie in Steuben County in August 1993, went before the parole board last week. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision on Friday announced that the board again denied Smith’s parole.

Smith, now 38, is in the medium-security Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County, about 25 miles south of Buffalo where he is serving nine years to life in prison. He has been incarcerated for two dozen years.

Eric Smith was 13 when he lured Robie into a wooded area near the boy’s Savona home. Derrick was walking alone to a summer camp at a nearby park. Smith strangled Derrick, smashed his head with a rock and sodomized him with a stick.

During the April 10 interview with a parole board, Smith said he had, for years, held in a lot of anger due to years of being bullied, according to the parole documents.

“The panel is gravely concerned with the fact that you released your anger on an innocent, vulnerable 4-year-old boy who was cared for by his loving family,” wrote state parole board commissioner Carol Shapiro. “He was simply walking to his summer camp that he enjoyed and looked forward to playing kickball games.”

While Eric Smith has participated in “positive programming” while incarcerated, volunteers with the chaplain and has repeatedly apologized for his actions, “it does not outweigh the severity of your brutal crime,” Shapiro said.

Smith was housed in a juvenile facility until 2001, when he was transferred to state prison. His lawyer at the time of his trial tried to persuade a jury that Smith suffered from a mental disorder, but Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to nine years to life in prison.

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Eric Smith was paroled from prison in February 2022

Eric Smith Parole 2021

Eric M. Smith, who was 13 when he killed a 4-year-old boy with a rock in western New York, has been granted parole, corrections officials said on Saturday.

Smith, now 41, appeared for the 11th time before the Board of Parole on October 5 and was granted release as early as Nov. 17, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in an emailed statement.

Transcripts of the hearing were not immediately released

Smith was convicted of second-degree murder in 1994 for luring Derrick Robie into woods near the younger boy’s home and striking his head with a rock. Derrick was walking alone to summer camp at a park in the Steuben County village of Savona in August 1993.

The case got wide publicity because of the tender age of the victim and suspect, along with a widely circulated photo of the adolescent Smith in court, wearing a Bugs Bunny sweatshirt and a mop of red hair.

Smith’s lawyer unsuccessfully argued that he was mentally ill. Smith was sentenced to nine years to life in prison.

Derrick’s parents, Dale and Doreen Robie, opposed Smith’s release each time it was previously considered and have lobbied for parole reforms that include extending the time between hearings for violent offenders from the current two years to five.

Dale Robie told local media the family did not want to comment on the latest decision.

Smith is housed at the medium-security Woodbourne Correctional Facility in the Catskills.

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/eric-smith-41-granted-parole-after-killing-4-year-old-when-he-was-13

Eric Smith Released From Prison

A New York man who killed a 4-year-old boy with a rock in 1993 when he was 13 years old has been released from prison after being granted parole last October, authorities said Tuesday.

Eric M. Smith, 42, was released from the Woodbourne Correctional Facility on Tuesday after serving 28 years for the murder of Derrick Robie, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s website.

Authorities said Smith lured the younger boy into a wooded area near the victim’s home in Savona in western New York and beat him to death with a rock.

Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to nine years to life in prison. The case attracted wide attention because the defendant and victim were so young. Smith was granted parole last fall after 10 previous requests were denied.

At his Oct. 5 parole hearing, Smith blamed the attack on pent-up anger from being bullied by other children who targeted him for being short with red hair and glasses.

“After years of reflection, looking at who I was then and what was going on, I essentially became the bully that I disliked in everything else in my life,” Smith said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Derrick’s parents, Dale and Doreen Robie, opposed Smith’s release each time it was previously considered. A phone number listed for Dale Robie was not in service Tuesday.

Eric Smith told parole officials he hoped to live with his mother initially and then move in with his fiancee. Neither his mother’s address nor his fiancee’s identity was disclosed.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ny-man-who-killed-4-year-old-when-he-was-13-freed-from-prison-after-28-years/3528875/