February 2021 | Page 39 of 54

TJ Tremble Teen Killer Murders 2 During Robbery

TJ Tremble was fourteen years old when he murdered a couple in their home. According to court documents TJ Tremble would ride his bike over to the couple’s home where he would break in and fatally shoot both of the residents. TJ would then steal the couples car before leaving. Tremble would be arrested a short time later. At trial this teen killer would be sentenced to two life terms with no chance of parole however this sentence would be later overturned but at his retrial he was re-sentenced to life in prison

TJ Tremble 2023 Information

MDOC Number:260818

SID Number:1919868P

Name:TJ JAMES TREMBLE

Racial Identification:White

Gender:Male

Hair:Brown

Eyes:Brown

Height:5′ 10″

Weight:162 lbs.

Date of Birth:05/18/1982

TJ Tremble Other News

Former AuGres resident TJ Tremble, convicted of a double-murder when he was 14, saw his life-without-parole sentence overturned in a U.S. District Court decision in 2010. Now two different court cases could see his sentence reduced, or a new trial.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette argued March 8 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District, located in Cincinnati, to have the 2010 decision reversed, and is awaiting a decision.

TJ Tremble, now 28, was convicted of shooting and killing Peter and Ruth Stanley of AuGres while they slept in 1997, before stealing their car and some cash. According to Arenac County Sheriff James Mosciski, Tremble confessed to the crime, and evidence pointed to him committing the acts.

“My opinion on it is, if you commit the crime, you pay the time,” Mosciscki said. “He killed two innocent people, stole a car, the evidence showed he stole the car, he stole some money from the house, and confessed to the crime.”

Tremble’s lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, argued at the U.S. District Court in Detroit that Tremble’s request for counsel was not honored, so his confession, obtained after six hours of being handcuffed, could not be valid. This was the argument that U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman accepted in 2010, overturning Tremble’s conviction and ordering a new trial.

The Stanleys’ son, Dennis, said he wants to see the sentence reinstated by the appeals court.

“He had plenty of time to change his mind that night,” Dennis said. “He rode his bike for three miles, carrying a .22-caliber rifle in the dark… he knew what he wanted to do.”

Dennis added that TJ Tremble had been in trouble with the law before, and was on probation when the incident occurred. He believes Tremble lied to his lawyer to get representation by giving a biased account of the police and trial proceedings.

A broader decision is being discussed in Washington, D.C., however, as the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on March 20 on two different cases that could affect Tremble’s life sentence.

The two cases before the Supreme Court, Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs, saw Tremble’s lawyer Stevenson argue that it is unconstitutional to try juveniles as adults, let alone sentence them as adults.

Stevenson argued before the Supreme Court justices over where to draw a line for trying a minor as an adult, and whether or not a minor should be sentenced to life without parole, as Tremble was.

Mosciski said he did not believe former Arenac County Prosecutor Jack Scully would have tried Tremble as an adult if he did not believe it was constitutional.

Dennis Stanley said he has no sympathy for young people who commit crimes.

The Supreme Court should have a decision by the end of June on whether or not it is constitutional to try and sentence minors as adults, which, if overturned, could force a new trial for Tremble. Schuette’s office did not have a time frame for the Court of Appeal’s decision.

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TJ Tremble is currently incarcerated in the Michigan Department Of Corrections

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TJ Tremble Update

He wanted to be paroled soon, but an Arenac County man will spend another 15 years in prison after being re-sentenced this afternoon.

T.J. Tremble was 14-years-old when he shot and killed an elderly Au Gres couple while they were sleeping.

Today, he would learn if might be paroled soon, or spend more time behind bars.

Judge David Riffel could have re-sentenced Tremble to at least 25 years in prison, meaning parole could come soon, or at least 40 years. His decision will keep Tremble behind bars for at least another 15 years.

“The family is holding together, we are strong family, we always have been and that’s because of our parents, and we will continue to stick together,” says Dennis Stanley.

If there ever has been a family that’s needed to stay strong, it’s the Stanley family of Au Gres.

It was in April of 1997 when the four children’s parents, Peter and Ruth Stanley were shot to death in their home. Tremble admitted to the killings and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

He was just 14 years old. In 2010, the murder convictions were overturned, but then reinstated.

The U.S. Supreme Court then ruled sentencing people under the age of 17 unconstitutional, so the state had to re-sentence Tremble, who is now 39.

Defense attorneys were hoping he would get 25 to 40 years while Arenac County Prosecutor Curt Broughton argued it should be 40 to 60.

After listening to testimony on both sides, Judge David Riffel went for the harsher sentence, meaning TJ Tremble will have to spend at least another 15 years behind bars.

“What this means to us is we are relieved, we knew in the beginning he was supposed to be in for the rest of his life,” he says.

His family has been through so much over the past two and a half decades after his parents were killed, and as the laws have changed, their quest for justice has not.

“We wish is would be life without parole, but we have to respect the law, and we will live with it,” Stanley says.

We could not reach TJ Tremble’s attorneys for comment.

https://www.abc12.com/news/arenac-county-teen-killer-to-remain-in-prison-for-at-least-15-more-years/article_d99ba5ee-8087-11ec-87ab-df5e5596238a.html

Tiffany VanAlstyne Teen Killer Murders 5 Year Old Boy

Tiffany VanAlstyne was nineteen years old when she murdered her five year old cousin. According to court documents Tiffany VanAlstyne would beat than strangle the five year old boy causing his death. Tiffany would hide the child’s body and would tell police that he had been abducted. Eventually police figured it out and the child’s body was found. This teen killer would plead guilty and would be sentenced to eighteen years to life in prison

Tiffany VanAlstyne Other News

An Albany hilltowns woman who fatally injured her 5-year-old cousin and hid him in a snowbank while he was still alive has been sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.

Tiffany VanAlstyne was sentenced Thursday morning in Albany County Court.

The 20-year-old admitted beating and choking Kenneth White while caring for him in December 2014. She pleaded guilty in November to depraved indifference murder of a child.

VanAlstyne initially told authorities White had been kidnapped by masked intruders, who had burst through the door of the family’s trailer at 994 Thacher Park Road in East Berne, prompting issuance of a statewide Amber Alert. She later admitted she covered his body with snow after tossing it into a culvert near their home, then called 911 with the abduction story.

White was found dead later that night.

Tiffany VanAlstyne More News

Tiffany VanAlstyne was a “time bomb waiting to go off” before she choked her 5-year-old cousin Kenneth White and dumped him in the snow, a judge said Thursday in sentencing the 20-year-old Knox woman to 18 years to life in prison for murder.

“It is a tragedy because this never should have happened,” Judge Stephen Herrick told VanAlstyne in Albany County Court as he sentenced the crying Knox woman to 18 years to life in state prison for the murder.

On Dec. 18, 2014, VanAlstyne choked her “little buddy” in their mobile home on Thacher Park Road after she became “a little frustrated” with the kindergartner, she said. Police discovered Kenneth lifeless in a snowbank across the street from the home, but only after VanAlstyne delayed their investigation by concocting a lie that kidnappers abducted the boy.

“There were tell-tale signs that you were at risk. From what I’ve read, this was a time bomb waiting to go off,” the judge told VanAlstyne, 20, noting she had stopped taking medication for her mental illness. “The tell-tale signs were there and not addressed.”

Asked if she wished to speak, VanAlstyne, sobbing, read from a piece of paper: “I want to say that those kids meant the world to me and I loved them very much. I loved Kenneth with all my heart and the girls too. He was my little buddy and will always be in my heart. I’m so, so sorry for what I did … I just wish I could take it back but I can’t.”

VanAlstyne lived with her mother, Brenda VanAlstyne, who had custody of Kenneth and his two sisters, aged 4 and 5. A family friend, Brandon Rios, 18, lived in the trailer as did 10 cats and five dogs. Christine and Jayson White, the estranged parents of Kenneth and his sisters, had lost custody of the children.

On the day of the murder, Tiffany VanAlstyne, her mother, Rios and the three children went to a doctor’s office and Price Chopper to fill a prescription. At 12:45 p.m., they arrived home. Tiffany VanAlstyne and the children went inside. Brenda VanAlstyne and Rios left to drop off gifts at a school. Tiffany VanAlstyne has said she showed Kenneth flash cards to help him with schoolwork but became frustrated when he kept giving wrong answers. She blacked out and awoke with her hands on Kenneth’s neck with the child unresponsive. She locked the girls in a room and took Kenneth outside where she fell twice and the child bumped his head. She walked across the street and threw Kenneth over a guardrail into a drainage ditch, covering him with snow.

On Thursday, the judge told VanAlstyne she “tossed him over the guardrail like a garbage bag.”

The judge noted VanAlstyne heard signs of life from the boy but instead of helping Kenneth made up the story about the kidnapping.

“Perhaps, just perhaps, if you had come to your senses Kenneth might still be alive,” Herrick said.

Outside court, Christine White said Kenneth’s killer was “like a second mom” to him.

“I love my son more than anything in this world but I also love my niece and I know the kind of girl she was,” Christine White said. “People need to realize the kind of girl that (Tiffany) really was with my children — because she was good with them. This is a tragedy and it hurts that nobody understands truly the person she really was.”

Christine White and the children’s father have admitted to neglect in Albany County Family Court. Family Court Judge Gerard Maney also ruled Brenda VanAlstyne abused and neglected the children. The girls’ great-aunt, Michelle Sweet of Westerlo, asked to be granted “kinship foster care” custody of the girls, now 5 and 6. Such arrangements allow relatives of children to become their foster parents; it contains a more stringent certification process than in typical foster care cases.

Tiffany VanAlstyne, who turns 21 on Saturday, risked 25 years to life in prison if she were convicted at trial. Facing evidence that included her confession on videotape to Chief Deputy Michael Monteleone of the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, she pleaded guilty Nov. 24 in a plea agreement to second-degree depraved indifference murder of a child.

Assistant District Attorney Shannon Sarfoh told the judge Thursday that the crime was “unimaginable and unthinkable.”

VanAlstyne’s lawyer, Albany County Public Defender James Milstein, told the judge VanAlstyne cannot comprehend how she could have committed such a horrific crime.

The judge told VanAlstyne the case was a tragedy from every respect and every perspective, first and foremost because Kenneth White had his life taken from him.

“He’s gone because you violently killed and disposed of his body,” Herrick told the defendant, “and, I have to say, it’s a tragedy because your young life is now realistically gone as you will spend the majority of the rest of your life in state prison. And what comes out of state prison — if you come out of state prison — will be a shell of what you might have been. You have destroyed your future as well as Kenneth’s.”

“Kenneth in his death has received more love and respect than he ever had during his lifetime” due to the outpouring of support the child has received from residents of the Hilltowns, which includes a support group called Kenneth’s Army, several of whose members were in court.

“He will never be forgotten,” the judge said.

https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Troy-faces-burst-pipe-on-busy-street-6758246.php

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Tiffany VanAlstyne is currently incarcerated out of state due to the nature of her charges

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Tiffany VanAlstyne is not eligible for parole until 2034

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Ruthann Veal Teen Killer Murders Elderly Woman

Ruthann Veal was fourteen when she stabbed a woman to death. According to court documents Ruthann Veal had run away from the group home she was in and during an attempted robbery would stab the victim twenty three times causing her death. Initially Ruthann Veal was sentenced to life in prison without parole however it was later reduced to give her a shot at parole. However due to multiple discipline actions behind prison walls this teen killer has yet to be released

Ruthann Veal 2023 Information

Name	Ruthann Lidvina Veal
Offender Number	1060781
Sex	F
Birth Date	07/20/1978
Location	Fifth Judicial District
Offense	MURDER 1ST DEGREE
TDD/SDD *	LIFE
Commitment Date	06/04/2021
Recall Date

Ruthann Veal Other News

The US Supreme Court issued a decision Monday about sentencing handed down to juvenile offenders. It ruled that mandatory life-without-parole sentences are unconstitutional for children 17 and under, because it violates the 8th amendment as “cruel and unusual” punishment.

The decision could impact a couple of major cases, including one tried in Waterloo almost 20 years ago.

Ruthann Veal was convicted of the 1993 murder of Catherine Haynes and sentenced to life-without-parole. While the Supreme Court ruling is no guarantee Veal could be eligible for release, it is possible.

And for those who vividly remember Veal’s brutal crime, it’s a tough thought to bear.

The 100 block of Lovejoy in Waterloo is now your typical quiet neighborhood. But nearly two decades ago, it was the site of a brutal crime.

66-year-old Catherine Haynes was stabbed 23 times in her Lovejoy Street home. Chris Murphy lived across the street from Haynes at the time and vividly recalls the ordeal.

“My husband and I were the last ones to see Catherine alive, except for Veal. It was just so shocking to hear such an innocent lady to be attacked so brutal,” said Murphy.

Just days after the murder, 14-year-old runaway Ruthann Veal was arrested, and then later convicted of killing Haynes. She was sentenced to life-without-parole.

In 2002, KWWL interviewed a then 23-year-old Veal at the Mitchellville Correctional Institute for Women.

“You’ve got to forgive yourself everyday you wake up,” said Veal in 2002.

At the time, Ruthann Veal also said she felt a life-without-parole sentence was too harsh for a teenager. But with the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday, Veal’s continuing legal fight could have new hope for parole release.

But Black Hawk County Attorney Tom Ferguson, who prosecuted the Vcase, says the high court’s ruling doesn’t guarantee anything. It only says states can’t mandate life-without-parole sentences for juveniles.

“It’s going to be some time before we sort this all out. It’s going to be sorted out through the courts. And, ultimately, I think will be sorted out somewhat through the legislature when we get some guidance from the courts on this decision’s impact on juveniles as well as our own Supreme Court’s decision on the impact of life without parole on juveniles,” Ferguson said.

For Chris Murphy, it’s unfathomable that Veal could ever be released after what happened on her old street all those years ago.

“I think she’ll kill again. So I would hope if she does come up for parole, she would not get it. But every time she’s eligible, we’d just be holding our breaths, ‘Is she going to get it? Is someone going to give it to her?’ Oh my gosh,” Murphy said.

Attorneys with the Equal Justice Initiative representing Ruth Ann Veal did not return our call.

Veal has a status hearing on her case on July 19th. County Attorney Tom Ferguson expects many of the issues brought forward with the Supreme Court’s ruling will take center stage at that hearing.

In addition to the Veal case, the Supreme Court’s ruling could also impact another Iowa teen convicted of murder.

Edgar Concepcion, Jr. was handed two life-sentences in the 2009 death of his three-year-old cousin. He was 14 when he killed the girl. In multiple appeals, his attorney’s argued that life without parole for a juvenile was “cruel and unusual” punishment.

Ruthann Veal More News

A three-member panel of the Iowa Board of Parole on Wednesday again denied parole to Ruthann Veal, who in 1993 was convicted of first-degree murder as a teenager.

The Iowa Department of Corrections had recommended that she not be released. Warden Sheryl Dahm of the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville said Veal’s skills and behavior haven’t prepared her for life outside prison.

“We have to see something in her where she’s not trying to navigate people, including staff, to help her get out of here,” said Dahm, who outlined a plan including changing Veal’s counselor and living arrangement, which she said would help better acclimate Veal to social and societal norms.

Veal, 40, was 14 when she stabbed to death and robbed Catherine Haynes of Waterloo, a 66-year-old retired University of Northern Iowa librarian. Veal was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, becoming Iowa’s youngest female convict serving an adult sentence.

But in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court barred automatic life sentences without parole for juvenile murderers. The Iowa Supreme Court later called the sentences cruel and unusual punishment.

The decision to deny Veal parole came with a condition that if the Department of Corrections changes its recommendation to support parole for Veal within the next year, the board would agree to hold another hearing.

Jeff Wright, chair of the parole board, warned Veal that she must fully convince the department that she’s ready to be paroled before such a hearing could happen.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2019/02/06/convicted-1993-killing-iowa-woman-sentenced-teen-denied-parole-ruthann-veal/2787542002/

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Aza Vidinhar Teen Killer Murders 2 Brothers

Aza Vidinhar was fifteen years old when he stabbed his two younger brothers to death in Utah. According to court documents Aza Vidinhar became upset when his younger brothers refused to turn the television down and then he did the unthinkable. Aza would stab his ten year old brother eighty eight times and would stab his four year old brother over twenty times.

The children’s mother would find the two dead bodies and called police. This teen killer was given a massive break when he was allowed to plead guilty to both murders in juvenile court under the condition he would behave while in custody. However an assault on another juvenile would see this teen killer would be sentenced to five years in prison for the assault and a fifteen year to life sentence for the double murder.

Ava Vidinhar would be charged with attempted murder after attempting to kill a fellow inmate in 2021

Aza Vidinhar 2023 Information

Offender Number: 222129
Offender Name: AZA RAY VIDINHAR
DOB: Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Height: 5 Feet 9 Inches
Weight: 160
Sex: M
Location: UTAH STATE PRISON
Housing Facility: OLYMPUS
Parole Date: N/A

Aza Vidinhar Other News

A 17-year-old Davis County boy who murdered his two younger brothers was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life in prison.

Aza Ray Vidinhar pleaded guilty in June, admitting that he fatally stabbed 10-year-old Alexander Vidinhar and 4-year-old Benjie Vidinhar in May 2013.

In an unusual plea deal, the teen was allowed to plead guilty to Alex’s murder in juvenile court, and a similar plea was entered in adult court for Benjie’s death. Attorneys agreed that he would not be sentenced for the murder in adult court until he was released from the juvenile system — either at age 21 or until juvenile authorities determined they no longer could help him.

But the deal unraveled in late March, after Vidinhar was sentenced to the Utah State Prison for up to five years for assaulting a fellow inmate at an Ogden juvenile-detention facility.

Because he is now in adult prison and no longer in the care of Juvenile Justice Services, he was sentenced in adult court on the murder case.

Second District Judge David Hamilton ordered the conviction for the murder case to run consecutively to the assault case.

Deputy Davis County Attorney Brandon Poll had asked for consecutive terms, saying he believes Vidinhar has “a callous indifference toward life.”

Poll said Vidinhar had stabbed Alex 88 times, while the younger brother was stabbed 22 times. Poll said the teen has told interviewers that he planned to kill his brothers once before because they were being too noisy, but didn’t do it after the boys became more quiet and he felt “weird” about murdering them.

Throughout his pre-sentence interview with Adult Probation and Parole, the teen said he didn’t care how the murders affected his parents and showed a lack of empathy, the prosecutor argued.

“Over and over again, he indicates that he doesn’t really care how his crimes affected others,” Poll told the judge.

Defense attorney Todd Utzinger had asked for concurrent prison terms, saying his client had a “long road ahead of him.” Utzinger said that while Vidinhar did make statements that he didn’t care how his crimes affected others, he also has made remarks showing some remorse.

“One of the difficult things about offenders this young is you really don’t know where they are emotionally,” Utzinger said after the sentencing. “All we know now is we have an immature kid who has some problems.

“… He’s a young person who, at a very young age, needed significant treatment that he hasn’t received, and unfortunately, now, is less likely to receive in the prison,” he continued. “I think he’s a kid who has a lot of serious mental health issues that we don’t understand at this point.”

When the judge gave Vidinhar a chance to speak Wednesday, the teen responded, “There’s nothing.”

Vidinhar’s father and grandfather attended the sentencing hearing, but did not speak in court.

Vidinhar, then 15, was arrested May 22, 2013, after his mother called 911 to report finding Benjie dead on the floor of her West Point home. Alex was later found dead in another part of the house; both boys had been stabbed to death.

A motive for the killings has never been publicly revealed.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/courts/2015/05/14/utah-teen-who-murdered-his-2-brothers-sentenced-to-15-years-to-life/

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A Utah man who is serving time in prison for allegedly killing his brothers is facing a new criminal charge.

Aza Ray Vidinhar, 22, was charged in the Third District Court with assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony, court documents state.

Vidinhar is accused of punching and kicking a fellow inmate during an altercation on Jan. 12.

According to charging documents, the inmate had been arguing with people and Vindinhar told him to come to his cell. When the inmate refused, Vidinhar reportedly became upset and hit the man’s head against a wall.

Aza Vidinhar was sentenced in 2015 to 15 years to life in prison for murdering his younger brothers.

Aza Vidinhar, who was 15 at the time, was babysitting his brothers, ages four and 10, when they were stabbed and killed.

He was in the juvenile court system until he pleaded guilty to assaulting another boy. He was sentenced to up to five years in prison for the crime.

A judge ruled that the sentences must be served one after the other.

Aza Vidinhar New Charges

A young man serving a potential life sentence in the Utah State Prison for the high-profile killings of his two younger brothers is now accused of trying to kill an older inmate.

Aza Ray Vidinhar, 23, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with attempted murder and aggravated kidnapping, both first-degree felonies.

Vidinhar is already serving a term of 15 years to life in prison for murdering his two brothers, Alex and Benjie, ages 10 and 4, inside their West Point home on May 22, 2013 — stabbing one of them 88 times and the other 28 times. Vidinhar was only 15 at the time.

In his latest case, Vidinhar went into another inmate’s cell on March 12 and told the man “that he had already killed two young people with his hands and now wants to fulfill his dream of killing someone old with his hands,” according to charging documents.

Vidinhar entered the 66-year-old inmate’s cell with a cord in his hand, shut the cell door behind him, and told the man “that he was going to kill an old man and to make it easy on him,” the charges state.

“Stop fighting it and just let me kill you,” Vidinhar told the man after wrapping the cord around his neck, according to the charges.

Another inmate who was walking by heard the victim yell, “Help me, this guy is going to kill me,” and went to notify a corrections officer, investigators say.

When the inmate and officer returned to the cell, they could still hear the victim’s pleas for help “but they were faint,” the charging documents say. When the deputy unlocked the cell door, the second inmate helped pull Vidinhar off the man he was allegedly attacking.

This is not the first time Vidinhar has been accused of attacking another inmate. In February, he was charged with assault by a prisoner for punching another inmate. He was convicted of the crime in March and sentenced to a term of zero to five years in prison to be served concurrently with his 15-years-to-life sentence, court records state.

He was also convicted of assault by a prisoner in 2015.

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/7/15/22579251/man-who-murdered-2-brothers-tries-dream-of-killing-someone-old-charges-say

Aidan von Grabow Teen Killer Murders Woman

Aidan von Grabow was fifteen years old when he fatally stabbed a woman to death. According to court documents Aidan von Grabow when to the victims home and would fatally stab the woman soon after she opened the door. Police believe the intended victim was the victim’s younger sister. Along with the murder charge Aidan von Grabow was convicted of two counts of attempted murder, attempted arson, two counts of stalking among others. This teen killer was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for forty years

Aidan von Grabow Other News

Aidan von Grabow today pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing Longmont resident Makayla Grote at her home in 2017 and was sentenced to life in prison, but he will be able to apply for parole after 40 years.

Aidan Von Grabow, 17, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Boulder District Court Friday morning. The first-degree murder charge typically carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole, but because Aidan von Grabow was a juvenile at the time of the murder, he will be eligible to apply for parole after 40 years.

If he is released from prison, von Grabow will spend the rest of his life on parole.

Aidan von Grabow also pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder, two counts of stalking, menacing, criminal extortion, attempted arson and harassment. He was sentenced to 24 years on the attempted murder counts, six years on the attempted arson and extortion counts, three years on the menacing and stalking counts, and time served on the harassment charge. The sentences for those remaining charges will be served concurrently with the life sentence.

He also pleaded guilty as a juvenile to attempted murder and one count of aggravated juvenile offender.

Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges of assault, menacing and criminal mischief.

Aidan von Grabow will serve his sentence at the Division of Youth Services until he is 21, when he will be transferred to the Colorado Department of Corrections to serve the remainder of his sentence.

He will be eligible for up to 10 years of earned time for good behavior toward his parole date, but will not start accruing that time until he is transferred to the Department of Corrections.

Von Grabow stabbed Grote, 20, at her Longmont apartment on Nov. 18, 2017, when he was 15. Police believe he intended to kill Grote’s younger sister, who went to high school with von Grabow.

Grote answered the door instead of her sister, and von Grabow stabbed and killed her while her sister was able to lock herself in another room.

“This was a beautiful life cut tragically short defending herself, her home, and her family from an unspeakable act of violence,” Hartman said. “As a father of a son and a daughter, I can’t imagine the unspeakable loss of Makayla’s family.”

Grote’s sister addressed the court before leaving the room in tears, while Grote’s father wrote a letter and her mother spoke to the court, calling von Grabow a “monster.”

“You have changed all of our lives forever and took an important girl from us forever,” Dennette Grote, the victim’s mother, told von Grabow. “There never will be forgiveness. You took away a piece of my forever happiness.”

Aidan Von Grabow did not address the court during his sentencing.

Grote’s sister was just one of several people and families on von Grabow’s “death list,” which prosecutors said he was stockpiling materials for and was attempting to carry out even after killing Grote.

“If it wasn’t for the swift intervention of Longmont police, many more innocent people could have been killed,” said prosecutor Michael Petrash, who said the serious nature of the crime was the reason prosecutors tried von Grabow as an adult and insisted on the plea to first-degree murder.

Dennette Grote said she felt relief that the sentencing was over and that they got a life sentence without having to go through a trial. While von Grabow did not speak, she said he hoped he was listening.

“I hope he has heard what I had to say,” she said.

Hartman said he granted some expanded media coverage for this hearing so people would understand the impacts and prevalence of teenage violence, and encouraged anyone dealing with their own cases to use the state’s Safe2Tell line.

“This sentence is particularly poignant because of the events surrounding the 20th anniversary of Columbine,” Hartman said, referencing the recent school shutdowns due to an armed woman. “We see these events being replayed again and again with tragic results. I granted expanded media coverage not because of any prurient interest people may have in this case, but mainly to demo this occurs in our community and all communities.”

While Aidan von Grabow did not addres the court, his mother Veronica von Grabow spoke to the judge and Grote’s family, some of whom blamed her in their statements.

“I very much respect the pain that the Grote family is experiencing,” she said. “I can’t fathom it, I can’t fathom losing my daughter the way that you did … She didn’t deserve to die.”

She said she doesn’t condone her son’s actions, and does not know what led to them.

“He was a sweet and gentle child,” she said. “Something broke, what that something was I can’t say, but my God it broke, and in such a hurtful way, causing so much pain and suffering and loss that I can’t even wrap my head around it.”

Von Grabow’s attorneys at one point indicated they believed the effects of an acne medication were to blame for von Grabow’s sudden behavioral changes.

“There were no warning signs beyond typical teenage behavior,” von Grabow’s attorney Mike Rafik said. “He went from a quiet and introverted musician, athlete and student with no criminal history to rageful and homicidal. This homicidal ideation was sudden and nonsensical.”

But prosecutor Adrian Van Nice said the medication was just the latest in a long line of excuses von Grabow presented since his arrest, including teachers, friends and doctors.

“Everybody but himself,” Van Nice said. “Then this specatularized boogeyman in the form of big pharma. ‘It wasn’t me, the drugs made me do it.’”

Van Nice added that the stipulation in the sentence for the youth center before prison was not an admission that his age was a mitigating factor in anyway, but a safeguard should he ever make parole.

“There is a possibility the defendant will be returned to the community,” Van Nice said. “It is our hope that by giving him a few additional years in juvenile system with a focus on rehabilitation, we can in some way mitigate the risk he may pose if and when he is ever released.”

Hartman said he hopes Aidan von Grabow takes advantage of the opportunity.

“The book of life is long for the defendant, and largely unwritten,” Hartman said. “I hope he can come to right the scales of justice in some fashion.”

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A teen accused in the stabbing death of a 20-year-old woman is expected to enter a plea in the case on May 3, according to Shannon Carbone with the Boulder District Attorney’s Office.

Aiden Von Grabow, 15, at the time of the killing, is accused of stabbing Longmont resident Makayla Grote to death in November 2017.

Von Grabow also had a “kill list,” according to court testimony. It was a list of names, including some of his friends, and descriptions of how he’d murder them. Von Grabow even threatened Grote’s younger sister.

“Torture till she begs for mercy,” the note read, according to testimony from Longmont Police Detective Brian Dean. “Make her fight, then take hostage.”

Court testimony from a police officer said Von Grabow’s mother called police days before the attack on Grote saying he’d kicked in a door and came at her with a knife.

She also allegedly told investigators her son had a bunch of weapons, including Molotov cocktails and a machete. That was just a day before the teen allegedly killed Grote.

A judge decided Von Grabow would be tried in district court as an adult early last month

He was charged with:

Count One – First Degree Murder (F1)
Count Two – Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder in the First Degree (F2)
Count Three – Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder in the First Degree (F2)
Count Four – Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder in the First Degree (F2)
Count Five – Criminal Attempt to Commit First Degree Arson (F4)
Count Six – Criminal Extortion (F4)
Count Seven – Menacing (F5)
Count Eight – Menacing (F5)
Count Nine – Stalking (F5)
Count Ten – Stalking (F5)
Count Eleven – Stalking (F5)
Count Twelve – Third Degree Assault – At-Risk Person (F6)
Count Thirteen – Criminal Mischief (M2)
Count Fourteen – Harassment (M3)
Counts Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen – Crime of Violence (SE)

https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/teen-who-stabbed-woman-to-death-had-a-kill-list-expected-to-enter-plea/73-05fdd582-e929-4f24-ad8e-65c0fe0828ad